US20160130824A1

US20160130824A1 - Safe scaffold structure with guardrails

Info

Publication number: US20160130824A1
Application number: US14/996,204
Authority: US
Inventors: Teng-Wei Chang
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2016-01-14
Filing date: 2016-01-14
Publication date: 2016-05-12

Abstract

A safe scaffold includes door type frames, crossbars, and toe boards. The door type frame has a ledger, located in the lower end, connected to standards that are parallel to each other and are installed with combined pins thereon individually. The crossbar includes joint bar members having engaging holes engaged with the combined pins of the door type frame, and connects one door type frame to another door type frame in a cross link method, or connected to other joint bar members through the engaging couplers. The toe board is provided on the ledgers of every two adjacent door type frames. The invention creates an available space for setting guardrails by lowering the position of the toe board of the scaffold, adjusts the position and combination of the crossbars to form guardrails, and reduces the gaps of side rails.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to scaffolds and more particularly to a safe scaffold structure with guardrails.
2. Description of Related Art
Currently, the scaffold available in the market usually has a main structure comprising door type frames, crossbars and a toe board. The door type frame consists of the part of vertical standards and the part of ledger that is connected to two standards. The crossbar is a connecting element having combined pin holes on both ends. The part of vertical standard of the door type frame has combined pins that can be jointed to pin holes of the crossbars. Therefore, when the pin holes on both ends of the crossbar are joint with the combined pins of two door type frames separately, the function of connecting two door type frames is achieved. Once the toe board is added on, the structure elements of a scaffold is completed.
The scaffold commonly used currently has the ledgers set on the upper part of the standards mostly. Besides, the ledgers of the door type frame are usually used for the toe board to rest thereon. Therefore, when the scaffold is constructed, the toe board is placed on the upper part of the scaffold. When a worker stands on the toe board, if one additional layer of scaffold is not constructed on top of the existing one, the worker then has no guardrail to hold on to and the setting becomes dangerous.
Therefore, according to the current regulations on “the scaffold advancing guardrail method”, to construct a scaffold that reaches a height of over 2 meters above the ground, it is required to first install fall protection equipments. In other words, a rack and an advancing guardrail frame are installed on the upper part of the door type frame as the protection rail of composing the third layer of scaffold before the construction of scaffolds is allowed to continue, making the procedure of constructing a scaffold very complicated.
Please refer to FIG. 1 for the scaffold of prior art. According to the figure, the scaffold 1′ of prior art, the toe board 13 is provided at the position above the center of the structure of the door type frame 11′ of prior art. In addition, the crossbars of prior art 12′ is beneath the toe board 13. When the construction worker steps on the toe board, there are no fall protection equipments on the side rails and it is very risky and dangerous.
Therefore, in the construction process of prior art, in order to comply with the safety regulations of “the scaffold advancing guardrail method”, the scaffold 1′ of prior art is first installed with the fall protection equipment onto the upper layer of the structure thereof.
Please refer to FIG. 2A to FIG. 2F for detail information. The process of constructing the fall protection equipment of the scaffold is discussed below:
Install the top layer of the door type frames: In FIG. 2A, the installation position of the door type frame 11′ of prior art is provided on the door type frame 11′ of prior art of the lower layer of the scaffold.
Install the rack of the fall protection equipment: According to FIG. 2B, the installation location of the rack 2 is located in between two adjacent layers of scaffolds.
Install the protective guardrail of the fall protection equipment: According to FIG. 2C, the advancing guardrail frame 3 is provided on the rack outer side the scaffold 1′ of prior art.
Install the toe board on the scaffold of the top layer: According to FIG. 2D, with the protective guardrail of the top layer in place, install the toe board 13 on the scaffold of the top layer.
Install the crossbar of the scaffold of the top layer: According to FIG. 2E, the crossbar 2′ of prior art is installed on the inner side of the advancing guardrail frame 3.
Remove the protective guardrail: According to FIG. 2D, when the scaffold 1′ of prior art of the top layer is constructed completely, the advancing guardrail frame 3 will be removed first (as illustrated in FIG. 2E); the steps of constructing another top layer of scaffold, as shown in FIG. 2A, is repeated again.
The aforementioned construction of the scaffold is performed in compliance with “the advancing guardrail method” to increase the safety of the high altitude scaffold. However, since there are too many parts to assemble and the steps are is tedious and time consuming, the time for the high altitude operation is prolonged, resulting in higher risk of danger.
When the scaffold is completed, to ensure the safety of construction and to prevent construction workers from falling due to sudden impairment of function, every country is working hard to include safety related components to reduce the risk that a worker may fall, as shown in FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C.
With reference to FIG. 3A to FIG. 3C, the diagrams illustrate the safety measure applied to scaffold 1′ of prior art during the construction. As shown in FIG. 3A, an additional horizontal bar 4 is installed as a method to reduce the gap of side rails G′; in FIG. 3B, an additional kick board 5 is installed as a method to reduce the gap of side rails G′; in FIG. 3C, an additional horizontal bar 4 and an additional kick board 5 are installed as a method to reduce the gap of side rails G′.
Please refer to FIG. 4A and FIG. 4B, first lower the ledger 111 of the door type frame 11′ of prior art: The center of gravity of the door type frame 11 descends accordingly. In addition, the toe board 13 (as illustrated in FIG. 1) installed on the ledger 111 descends to the position below the center of the door type frame 11 so that the section of the standard 112 of the door type frame 11 above the position of the ledger increases, serving the effect of a handrail.
Adjust the location of combined pin 113: The combined pin 113 in the lower part is provided below the location of the ledger 111.
With reference to the scaffold 1′ of prior art shown in FIG. 4B, a schematic diagram of the door type frames 11′ of prior art used to build the upper layer of the scaffold 1′ of prior art is shown. From the diagram, the center of gravity of the door type frame 11′ of prior art is located above the center point. Therefore, when the construction worker lifts the door type frame during the construction, the moment arm X′ from the location, where the construction worker holds, to the center of gravity of the door type frame 11′ of prior art increases.
However, these methods of installing additional safety components have the same shortcoming as the other aforementioned method that adopts the fall protection equipments during construction, that is, much more assembly steps due to the additional components to be installed during construction, longer time for high altitude operation and, as a result, a higher risk of danger.
However, the objective of the so-called “the advancing guardrail” is to improve the safety of the construction workers. Nevertheless, in order to install the equipment of fall prevention, the duration of high altitude operation lengthens and the procedure becomes complicated, as a result, causing the risk of danger to increase unexpectedly.
Thus, the need for improvement still exists.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore one object of the invention to provide a scaffold comprising door type frames; crossbars; and toe boards; wherein the door type frames use ledgers to connect a plurality of standards that are parallel to each other and are installed with combined pins thereon individually; wherein each of the crossbar include a plurality of joint bar members having engaging holes thereon, which can be engaged with the combined pins of the door type frames, and connect one door type frame to another door type frame in a cross link or be connected to other joint bar members through the engaging couplers; and wherein the toe boards are provided on the ledgers of every two adjacent door type frames.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective schematic diagram of a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 2C is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 2D is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 2E is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 2F is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 3A is a schematic diagram of safety implementation method of a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 3B is a schematic diagram of safety implementation method of a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 3C is a schematic diagram of safety implementation method of a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 4A is a schematic diagram of a door type frame of prior art;

FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a door type frame of a scaffold of prior art;

FIG. 5A is a schematic diagram of an improved door type frame of the invention;

FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a door type frame of a safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention;

FIG. 6A is a schematic diagram of a crossbar;

FIG. 6B is a schematic diagram of two crossbars joined;

FIG. 6C is a schematic diagram of the joined crossbars being further extended;

FIG. 7A is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention;

FIG. 7B is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention;

FIG. 7C is a schematic diagram of steps of constructing a safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention; and

FIG. 8 is a perspective schematic diagram of a safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention is to improve the complex procedure and construction duration due to the need of adding additional safety equipment, in order to effectively reduce the time required for high altitude operation, to lower the risk of danger, and to increase the safety during the construction.
Referring to FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B together, a door type frame 11 of the invention is shown. The center of gravity of the door type frame 11 descends so that the safety on constructing the door type frame 11 increases. A toe board 13 installed on the ledger 111 descends to the position below the center of the door type frame 11 so that the section of the standard 112 of the door type frame 11 above the position of the ledger 111 increases, serving the effect of as a handrail.
Adjustment of the location of combined pin 113: The combined pin 113 in the lower part is provided below the location of the ledger 111. In this embodiment, for example, the combined pin 113 is located between the ledger support structure 1111 and the ledger 111. It can effectively reduce the scale of the gap of side rail of the conventional scaffold and increase safety.
For increasing safety, it is preferred to move the center of gravity of the door type frame 11 downward. In comparison with the prior art, the torque of the door type frame of prior art is greater than the torque M of the door type frame 11. Thus, using the door type frame 11, the steps of constructing the door type frame 11 is much safer.
Referring to FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C, in this embodiment, a crossbar 12 includes a joint bar member 121 having three sections. The joint bar member 121 is used to couple the combined pin 113 of the door type frame 11, resulting in a joint between a door type frame 11 and another door type frame 11. The joint bar member 121 has engaging holes 122 for the combined pin 113 to mount through, and is joined another joint bar member 121 through an engaging coupler 123.
The construction process of the safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention can achieves goal of preventing accidental fall while eliminating the installation of the fall protection equipment.
Referring to FIG. 7A to FIG. 7C, in FIG. 7A, door type frames 11 of the top layer is installed: As described in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B, as the center of gravity of the improved door type frame 11 descends, the moment bar X from center of gravity of the door type frame 11 to the position where the construction worker holds is shortened. Therefore, when another top layer of door type frame 11 is disposed again, the construction worker can control the process more easily and comparatively safer.
In FIG. 7B, the crossbars 12 of the top layer is installed: Adjusting the location where the door type frame 11 is joined the combined pin 113 allows the construction worker to join the engaging hole of the crossbar 12 to the combined pin 113 of the door type frame 11 while standing on the structure of the lower layer and, as a result, creates the effect of a protection rail.
In FIG. 7C, the toe board 13 of the top layer is installed: The toe board 13 is installed last. According to the figure, the gap of side rail G between the toe board 13 and the crossbars 12 is smaller than the gap of side rail G′ of the scaffold 1′ of prior art shown in FIG. 3A to FIG. 3B.
Referring to FIG. 8, it is a perspective schematic diagram of a safe scaffold structure with guardrails of the invention. The crossbars 12 are disposed between the door type frame 11 and the adjacent door type frame 11 to cross link and fix together. The toe board 13 is placed on the ledgers 111 of the door type frames 11. The gap of side rail G formed between the toe board 13 and the crossbars 12, compared to the gap of side rail G′ of the scaffold 1′ of prior art, it is significantly decreased so as to greatly increase safety.
While the invention has been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention can be practiced with modifications within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A scaffold, comprising:

door type frames;

crossbars; and

toe boards;

wherein the door type frames use ledgers to connect a plurality of standards that are parallel to each other and are installed with combined pins thereon individually;

wherein each of the crossbar include a plurality of joint bar members having engaging holes thereon, which can be engaged with the combined pins of the door type frames, and connect one door type frame to another door type frame in a cross link or be connected to other joint bar members through the engaging couplers; and

wherein the toe boards are provided on the ledgers of every two adjacent door type frames.

2. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the joint method between the ledger and the standard of the door type frame is a soldering joint.

3. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the joint method between the ledger and the standard of the door type frame is a pin mount.

4. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein a ledger support structure is installed below the ledger.

5. The scaffold as claimed in claim 4, wherein the ledger support structure is a circular arc shaped support structure.

6. The scaffold as claimed in claim 4, wherein the ledger support structure is an inverted V shaped support structure.

7. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the door shape frame is a heavy-duty support frame.

8. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the door shape frame is a steel tube construction support frame.

9. The safe scaffold structure with guardrails as claimed in claim 1, wherein the door shape frame is a mobile scaffold.

10. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the crossbar includes three sections of joint bar members.

11. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the crossbar includes two sections of joint bar members.

12. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the engaging coupler is a fixed engaging coupler.

13. The scaffold as claimed in claim 1, wherein the engaging coupler is a detachable engaging coupler.