NZ212983A - Pipe guide allows longitudinal movement of pipe - Google Patents

Description

212983 NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT, 1953 212983 No.: Date: 5 August 1985 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION £ N ^ Improvements in or relating to Pipe Guides ■ ^2 4 JUL 1986 j ye GTE NEW ZEALAND LIMITED a company incorporated under the laws of new Zealand of 347 Church Street, Onehunga, Auckland, New Zealand hereby declare the invention for which ?/ we pray that a patent may be granted to asu./us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- 2-lZy 83 The present invention relates to pipe guides and more particularly to pipe guides which support pipes allowing limited movement of the pipe along its longitudinal direction of extension.

Traditionally, pipe guides of the abovementioned form consist of a base which is fixed to a supporting structure. The base has generally parallel L-shaped flanges which engage co-operating flanges fixed to a pipe clamp. The L-shaped flanges are welded to the base and the co-operating flanges of the pipe clamp are in turn welded to the pipe clamp. The pipe clamp consists of semi-circular clamp portions secured together by threaded fasteners. The pipe is allowed to move along its axis via sliding relative movement between the L-shaped flanges and the flanges secured to the pipe clamp.

The above-discussed pipe guides have several disadvantages which are as follows. Firstly, the guides are expensive to manufacture due to the amount of material required and the labour intensive method of construction. Still further, they present problems in respect of storage since they are in an assembled state which further adds to the problems of transportation as they cannot be disassembled for transport purposes.

It is the object of the present invention to overcome or substantially ameliorate the above disadvantages.

There is disclosed herein a pipe guide comprising a mounting member, a pipe support member extending from said mounting member, said support member being of U-shaped configuration so -} o w as to have two upwardly projecting arms and a base extending therebetween and from which the arms project with the mounting member and support member co-operating to define a space through which a pipe to be guided by the pipe guide passes, means securing the upper extremities of the two arms to said mounting member, and rotatable bearing means mounted on each of the arms and base, positioned to engage the pipe to facilitate movement of the pipe along its longitudinal axis relative to the pipe guide while being supported thereby.

A preferred form of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein there is schematically depicted in side elevation a pipe guide and pipe passing therethrough.

In the accompanying drawing there is schematically depicted a pipe guide 10 to guidably support a pipe 11 to enable movement of the pipe 11 along its longitudinal axis relative to the pipe guide 10.

The pipe guide 10 comprises a mounting plate 12 having a pair of mounting holes 13 through which bolts would pass to enable fixing of the mounting plate 12 to a support. Preferably the support would be of a channel section enabling adjustment of the pipe guide 10 in a direction transverse of the longitudinal axis of the pipe 11. The pipe guide 10 further includes a support member 14 which is a rod of generally U-shaped configuration so as to have two arms 15 joined by a base 16 with the support member being located generally in a plane transverse of the pipe 11. 3 o Each of the arms 15 has a threaded extremity which is engaged by nuts 17 to adjustably attach the support member 14 to the mounting plate 12.

Rotatably supported on the support member 14 are rotatable bearing elements 18 which engage the peripheral surface of the pipe 11 to facilitate movement of the pipe 11 along its longitudinal axis relative to the pipe guide 10. There is further provided a further bearing element 19 which is fixed stationary relative to the mounting plate 12.

Supporting two of the bearing elements 18 in position are nuts 20 which threadably engage the arms 15 to enable adjustment of the positions of the bearing elements 18 supported thereby.

The above-described preferred embodiment of the present invention has advantages, relative to previous pipe guides, which advantages are as follows. Firstly, the guide 10 is simple to manufacture and assemble and employs readily available components, which all add to the reduction of the cost of manufacture. Still further, the pipe guides are relatively light and can be dismantled for storage and transport purposes. c G 212983

Claims (5)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A pipe guide comprising a mounting member, a pipe support member extending from said mounting member, said support member being of O-shaped configuration so as to have two upwardly projecting arms and a base extending therebetween and from which the arms project, with the mounting member and support member co-operating to define a space through which a pipe to be guided by the pipe guide passes, means securing the upper extremities of the two arms to said mounting member, and rotatable bearing means mounted on each of the arms and base, positioned to engage the pipe to facilitate movement of the pipe along its longitudinal axis relative to the pipe guide while being supported thereby.

2. The pipe guide of claim 1, wherein said support member is adjustably attached to said mounting member by means of threaded fasteners engaging said support member.

3. The pipe guide of claim 1 or 2, further including means to adjustably retain the bearing means mounted on the arms.

4. The pipe guide of claim 1, 2 or 3 further including a bearing element fixed to the mounting member and positioned to engage the pipe.

5. A pipe guide substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing. DATED THDAY OF.%^ l<t AGENTS FOR TH£ APPLICANT^ v"V 6 JUN19&*.,