US3420013A

US3420013A - Post construction

Info

Publication number: US3420013A
Application number: US562345A
Authority: US
Inventors: William T Alvarado
Original assignee: Alvarado Manufacturing Co Inc
Current assignee: Alvarado Manufacturing Co Inc
Priority date: 1966-07-01
Filing date: 1966-07-01
Publication date: 1969-01-07
Anticipated expiration: 1986-01-07

Description

Jan. 7, 19 69 W.T.ALVARADO POST CONSTRUCTION I Filed July 1, 1966 fvvzzvrae. mum 7. flu/nenoo Wm, 4. fm {5% United States Patent 3,420,013 POST CONSTRUCTION William T. Alvarado, El Monte, Calif., assignor to Alvarado Manufacturing Company, Inc., El Monte, Calif, a corporation of California Filed July 1, 1966, Ser. No. 562,345 U.S. Cl. 52-161 Int. Cl. E02d /74 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE This invention relates to a post or standard construction and more particularly to a novel means and method for installing and anchoring in a supporting means, such as a floor, a post or standard utilized with or without horizontally extending rails for forming gateways, aisles, barriers, entrances, and the like, for controlling movement of persons and carts, such as in super-markets and other merchandising stores.

Prior proposed post and rail constructions have included a base member provided with an upstanding collar and a laterally extending flange. An upstanding post has been secured to the base collar by welding or by threading. Such upstanding posts are often provided with side fittings for reception of ends of horizontal rails, the other end of which must be aligned with a similar fitting on an adjacent post. Such prior proposed constructio'ns usually anchored the base flange to a floor by means of four anchor bolts which were passed through the flange and were connected to the floor by suitable means such as threading. To avoid strains on the base member it was necessary that the floor area and the bottom face of the base properly meet in a common plane. The use of four anchor bolts spaced at 90 often made it difiicult to firmly and non-yieldably fix the base flange to the floor. Moreover, such a prior proposed base flange had relatively great width to accommodate the setting of the anchor bolts. Such width when the post is used as a gate post often presented an obstruction to the wheels of carts which were passed through the gate or to the feet of persons walking through the gate who might thereover. When posts were welded to such a base flange and the post included a sidewardly directed fitting for a rail the "ice viates many of the disadvantages of the above mentioned prior post constructions.

The primary object of the present invention, therefore, is to disclose and provide a novel post construction and means for anchoring such a post construction in an eflicient and effective manner.

An object of the invention is to disclose and provide a post construction for supermarket use in which only a narrow base flange is required while maintaining the necessary standards of strength and non-yieldability of such a post.

Another object of the invention is to disclose and provide a post construction in which a segment of an annular base flange may be omitted without loss of strength or rigidity of the post mounting and whereby passage of wheels of carts close to the posts is not interfered with.

Still another object of the invention is to disclose and provide a novel post construction wherein alignment of side openings carried by such a post is facilitated and not restricted by the anchoring of the post to a supporting floor structure.

A still further object of the invention is to disclose and provide a novel post construction and means for mounting the same on a supporting structure wherein maximum utilization of space between posts is afforded, alignment and realignment of such posts are facilitated, and effective savings are achieved by reduction in costs of the post construction and in the time and labor for installation thereof.

The invention contemplates a post construction which utilizes only a single anchoring means.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following description of the drawings in which an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is shown.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a post and side rail construction embodying this invention.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged vertical sectional view of a post construction shown in FIG. 1 taken in a plane passing through the axis of the post.

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of a modified base member for the post construction shown in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of another modification of the base member.

In FIG. 1 there is fragmentarily shown a rail construction which may be installed in a supermarket for directing and guiding store traffic including persons and carts utilized in stores such as supermarkets for collecting items to be purchased. In FIG. 1 a post means or standard 10 embodying the present invention may be connected by a side rail 11 to a similar post 12. Each of the

posts

10 and 12 may be anchored to a floor structure 14 illustrated in this example as concrete. It will be understood that the post means of the present invention may be employed with other types of floor structures.

In detail the post means 10 may comprise a base member 20 made of suitable metal material such as steel and having an upstanding cylindrical collar 21 integral with an annular outwardly extending flange 22 and an inwardly extending flange 23 which defines an axial opening 24 of selected diameter. The bottom face 25 of the base member 20 may seat on the surface 26 of the floor structure 14, the axial opening 24 being aligned with a bore 27 having a diameter somewhat greater than the diameter of opening 24 and having a suitable selected depth for purposes hereafter described.

The post means also includes the hollow cylindrical post member 28 made of suitable metal material such as a 16 gauge chome-plated steel or an unplated tubing which may be covered with a decorative sleeve of suitable plastic or other material. The bottom open end 29 of cylindrical member 28 may be sleeved over the upstanding collar 21 on the base member and the bottom edge of the end 29 may seat as at 30 on the exterior flange 22 adjacent the collar 21. The cylindrical member 28 is rotatable with respect to the collar 21 and any side fittings such as 31 (FIG. 1) may be readily aligned with an opposed side fitting by simply turning the cylindrical member 28 to the proper direction.

The top and open end 33 of cylindrical member 28 may receive therewithin a cup shaped insert member 34 having a downwardly facing annular shoulder 35 for seating on the top edge of open end 33. The insert member 34 may be made of any suitable ductile metal. The insert member 34 is provided with an axial opening 36 at the bottom of an upwardly facing recess 37.

A mounting shaft 38 made of suitable steel rod material extends through aligned

openings

36 and 24 and at its top end may be provided with a threaded portion 39 of preselected length such as /2 for threaded engagement with a nut 40 which may be received within recess 37 for such threaded engagement. The bottom end of shaft 38 may be provided with a threaded portion 41 of greater threaded length such as 2". The bottom threaded end 41 threadedly engages an anchor means 42 which is expandable to tightly frictionally engage the concrete side walls of the bore 27. Depending upon the depth of bore 27 and the desired depth of location of anchor means 42 any space between the top edge face of the anchor means 42 and the bottom surface 25 of the base member may be filled by a spacer member 44 of selected length and of metal material. In the event that the upper edge of a selected anchor means 42 does not abut interior flange 23 when anchor means 42 is fully threaded upward upon threads 41 of shaft 38, it will be necessary to use the spacer 44 to radially expand anchor means 42 in bore 27.

Anchor means 42 may be of well known form and may comprise side elements 45 having wedge surfaces 46 engaged by wedge shoes 47 movable along the wedge faces 46 as the shaft 38 is turned so that the lower wedge shoes 47 are forced upwardly and the top wedge shoes 48 are forced downwardly by turning of the shaft.

A suitable cap 50 may be placed over the top end 33 of post member 28 and insert member 34. Cap 50 includes a downturned annular flange 51 which may be frictionally engaged with annularly spaced engagement ribs 52 extending outwardly from the insert member 34. The frictional engagement permits convenient installation and removal of cap 50.

Base member 20 may also be provided with a base cover 54 which may include a downturned cylindrical wall 55 for seating on the floor surface 26. Cover 54 includes an opening 56 which snugly and slidably fits over the cylindrical member 28.

In installation after the bore 27 has been drilled in the concrete floor by suitable means, anchor means 42 in collapsed non-expanded position may be placed in bore 27, space member 44 if required also placed therein, base member 20 placed on the floor surface 26 with opening 24 in alignment with the bore, shaft 38 inserted through opening 24 and threaded slightly to engage anchor means 42, cylindrical member 28 sleeved over the shaft 38 and upstanding collar 21, the insert member 34 placed over the top end of shaft 38 and seated on the top end of the cylindrical member 28, and then the nut 40 threaded on the top threaded end 39 of shaft 38. Upon tightening of nut 40 the nut will turn relative to the shaft 38 until the short or /2" portion of the threads are fully engaged so that further turning of the nut 40 will cause turning of the shaft 38. When this occurs shaft 38 will further threadedly engage the anchor means 42 and draw the anchor means upwardly to remove any slack between the anchor means, spacer member, and base member and then cause sideward expansion of the anchor means to rigidly, solidly, frictionally engage the anchor means with the concrete floor. As the anchor means is expanded, turning of the shaft 38 by the drive nut 40 places some compression on the cylindrical member 28 which is transmitted through the insert member to the base member and thence to the concrete floor. Upward compressive forces act on the spacer member 44 between the anchor means and the interior flange 23 of the base member. It will thus be apparent that the shaft 38 may be placed under some tension and the cylindrical member 28 placed under some compression.

It will thus be apparent that as the nut and shaft are further turned the post construction becomes solidly and rigidly fixed to the floor 14 because as the anchor becomes fixed in the bore 27 the base member is pressed even more tightly against the floor surface 26. In the event, the post is not perpendicular to the floor, suitable shims may be readily placed beneath the exterior flange 22.

In FIG. 3 a modification of the base member 20 is shown in which the exterior flange 22 is provided with a flat edge 60 which may be approximately tangential to the cylindrical collar 21. When the post construction is used as a gate post, the fiat edge 68 may be placed parallel to the passageway provided by the gate so that even a minimum of obstruction at floor level is avoided.

In FIG. 4 is illustrated a further modification of the post construction in which the base member may comprise a circular plate 62 welded as at 63 to the bottom end portion 29 of a tubular post member 28. The circular plate 62 provides internal flanges as in the prior embodiment. External flanges, however, may be quite narrow in width so as to avoid obstruction at floor level and obviate cutting of a segment therefrom as in FIG. 3.

It will be apparent that in the construction shown in FIG. 4 the base member 62, tubular member 28, and the other components of the construction as shown in FIG. 2 which includes insert member 34, shaft 38, anchor 42, spacer member 44 and the nut 40, may be assembled loosely as a unit so that when the assembled post construction is installed the anchor means 42 on the lower end of the shaft 38 may be simply positioned in bore 27 in the floor and the nut 40 tightened as in the prior embodiment to firmly secure the post construction. Installation time is reduced to a minimum.

Various modifications and changes may be made in the post construction described above which come within the spirit of the invention, in all such modifications and changes coming within the scope of the appended claim are embraced thereby.

I claim:

.1. In a post construction for rapid installation in preassembled condition, the combination of:

a base means having an opening and adapted to rest upon an associated supporting structure also having an opening, said base opening aligned with said associated supporting structure opening;

an elongated open-ended hollow means aligned with said base opening and supported at one end by said base means;

an insert means carried by the other end of the hollow means and having an opening aligned with said base and associated supporting structure openings;

tension shaft means extending through said openings and having a shaft end portion extending beyond said base means and received in said associated supporting structure opening;

said shaft portion being provided with means for anchoring said post construction received in said associated supporting structure opening in a radially 5 6 contracted condition so as to be free to slidably move portion may extend further beyond said base means into said associated supporting structure opening; for securing said hollow means under compression by stop means supported by said base means and extending placing said shaft means under tension.

partially over said structure opening for initially preventing slidable movement of said radially contracted 5 References Cited anchoring means and engageable with said anchor UNITED STATES PATENTS means for holding the post construction in pre-instal- 1,746,672 1 30 Nylund et 1 52 7 4 latlon assembly; and 2,529,780 11/1950 Miller 248-459 said shaft means including securement and actuating means at said insert means for slidably moving said 10 FRANK ABBOTT Prmary Exammerradially contracted anchor means within said associs, D BURKE, Assistant E i ated supporting structure opening until said anchor means abuts said stop means and thereafter radially expanding said anchor means so that said shaft end 52 3 1 704