WO1991016498A1

WO1991016498A1 - A delineator post

Info

Publication number: WO1991016498A1
Application number: PCT/SE1990/000266
Authority: WO
Inventors: John BJÖRLUND
Original assignee: Bjoerlund John
Priority date: 1990-04-20
Filing date: 1990-04-20
Publication date: 1991-10-31

Abstract

A delineator post for marking road borderlines, and comprising a stackable profile rod (1) having a mainly V- or U-shaped cross-section, the open side of which is turned away from the road when the post is in mounted position, whereby the delineator post has at least one flange (4) in the area of each shank end of the profile rod (1), which flange extends in the longitudinal direction of the delineator post and serves as retainer and/or as spacing member at stacking and/or as fitting member, and where the lower end of the post (1) is shaped to a tip (5), which is arranged to extend away from the intermediate portion of the V- or U-profile, which thereby forms the top of the tip, and to each shank edge (2, 3), thereby forming an acute angle (α) with said intermediate portion, and wherein the outwardly projecting, longitudinally extending flange (4), which is known per se, and is provided on the outer side of the end portion of each shank (2, 3), has a guiding fonction on the tip (5) of the post when the post is driven down.

Description

A DELINEATOR POST Background of the invention

The present invention refers to a delineator post for mar¬ king road borderlines, and comprising a stackable profile rod having a mainly V- or U-shaped cross-section, the open side of which is turned away from the road when the post is in mounted position, whereby the delineator post has at least one flange in the area of each shank end of the pro¬ file rod, which flange extends in the longitudinal direction of the delineator post and serves as retainer and/or as spacing member at stacking and/or as fitting member.

Delineator posts are used for improving the visual guidance in darkness on road sections having no stationary road illumination and they thereby participate in an important manner for increasing road safety. When driving in the dark the driver not seldome will experience the unpleasant fee¬ ling of not surely knowing the positions of the roadside borderlines. It is obvious that optical guidance with deli- neator posts will give a substantially increased traffic safety and investigations have shown, that a reduction of road accidents of about 20% can be obtained when using delineator post having reflective portions. Use of delinear posts therefore has increased steadily during the latest years.

Authorities in different countries have set up rules regar¬ ding how a delineator post of this type shall be designed and recommendations have been outlined as to the setting out of the posts, e.g. the interspaces between them etcetera. According to these rules each post shall be equipped with double reflex devices, the one positioned in the direction of travel being a rectangular area, whereas the rear side thereof shall have two circular reflectors with accurately specified dimensions in each case. The reflectors further¬ more must be fitted to the post in such a manner that their lowermost border is situated at a specified level above the roadway when the post is mounted. This requires a high accuracy at manufacture of such delineator posts, which results in high manufacturing costs and not least high costs for an exact setting up of the posts.

Due to collisions and vandalism a continuous elimination of delinator posts occur, which means that the road authorities at several localities must have a large stock of posts for replacement of damaged posts. Earlier common tubular de- lineator posts, of the type described e.g. in DE-A1-2 426 427 and DE-A1-1 534 498, require a large storing space and therefore also rather high transport costs.

A further desideratum at a delinator post of this type is that it shall have the ability of being bent away at a collision or the like and preferably also to flex back to the vertical when the collision force ceases.

In EP-A1-0105853 is described a delinator post for marking road borderlines, and comprising a stackable profile rod having a mainly V- or U-shaped cross-section, the open side of which is turned away from the road when the post is in its mounted position, whereby the delineator post has at least one flange in the area of each shank end of the pro- file rod, which flange extends in the longitudinal direction of the delineator post and serves as retainer and/or as spacing member at stacking and/or as fitting member. With this delineator post it has been created a solution of most of these problems, and it has been obtained a light, fully stackable delineator post, which can easily be mounted e.g. to bumper rails and the like, as it is possible to reach the interior of the post and easily fit bolt connections or the like therefrom.

The most simple and thereby least expensive soultion is of course, where the nature of the road side allows so, to mount the delineator posts by driving it down into the soil, and for this purpose the lower end of the post, according to this patent is cut obliquely with a cut, which starts at the intermediate portion of the profile rod and extends in the longitudinal direction of the delineator post symmetrically obliquely outwards towards the shank edges of the profile, but it has proven itself, that the post, which is manufac¬ tured from plastic material, is very difficult to drive down into the soil, without the tip thereby having a tendency of deviating in unwanted directions. In other words it is difficult to obtain a uniform result when driving down the posts, and this means that the setting up of such delineator posts by driving them down into the soil is made difficult and it is thereby made more expensive.

Purpose and most important features of the invention

The purpose of the invention is to provide a delineator post of the type mentioned in the introduction, which is not marred with the above mentioned difficulty regarding driving the post down into the soil, and this has been achieved in that the lower end of the post is shaped to a tip, which is arranged to extend away from the intermediate portion of the V- or U-profile, which thereby forms the top of the tip, and to each shank edge, thereby forming an acute angle with said intermediate portion, and that the outwardly projecting, longitudinally extending flange, which is known per se, and is provided on the outer side of the end portion of each shank, has a guiding function on the tip of the post when the post is driven down.

By this seemingly simple alteration of the shape and geomet¬ ry of the delineator post, it has unexpectedly proven it¬ self, that the delineator post without problems and quite reproduceable allows itself to be driven down into the soil in desired direction and without unwanted deviations. For ascertaining that the post will have the above described bending ability and that it can flex back to the vertical after the bending force has terminated, and that it still can be driven down into the soil by impacts or by being subjected to a pressure without thereby being bent, the choice of material in the post is important and for this purpose the post may preferably be manufactured from materi¬ al defined in the subclaims.

Description of the drawings

Hereinafter the invention will be described with reference to an embodiment shown in the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a delineator post according to the invention as seen from its rear side and after having been driven down into the soil.

Fig. 2 is a corresponding view of the delineator post accor¬ ding to Fig. 1 as seen from the front side, i.e. in the direction of travel.

Fig. 3 is a cross-section along line III-III in Fig. 2. Fig. 4 illustrates in an end view the stackability of the delineator post according to the invention.

Description of embodiment

In Fig. 1 and 2 is shown a delineator post 1 according to the invention, where Fig. 1 shows the post from its rear side and Fig. 2 shows the same from the front side, i.e. from the direction of travel and where it in both cases has been driven down into the soil to a position of use. The delineator post 1 has the shape of an open profile rod with mainly V- or U-shaped cross-section, whereby the profile has two shanks 2 and 3 resp. The open side of the profile in mounted position is facing away from the roadway. The open profile gives the advantage that the post at a possible collision can bend away without the yield limit of the material thereby being exceeded, whereby after appropriate choice of material the post can again flex back to vertical after the bending force has terminated. Adjacent the end of each shank turned away from the intermediate portion of the profile rod each shank is provided with an outwardly projec¬ ting, longitudinal flange 4. These flanges 4 serve as retai¬ ner and/or as spacing member at stacking and/or as fitting member.

In Fig. 3 is shown a cross-section of the delineator post along line III-III in Fig. 2 and in Fig. 4 in an end view how ten delineator posts according to the invention can be stacked into each other thus that they take up the same volume as three not stackable, but otherwise similar posts.

As can be seen from Fig. 1 and 2 the lower end of the deli¬ neator post has a tip 5, which is formed in that the lower end of the post has an obliquely cut edge 6, adapted to extend in a direction away from the intermediate portion situated between the shanks 2, 3 of the V- or U-profile, which intermediate portion thus forms the top of the tip, and to each shank end edge under forming with the inter¬ mediate portion an acute angle α.

It unexpectedly has proven itself that the location of the cut 6 thus that the tip 5 of the post end will be situated at the intermediate portion of the profile rod will provide that the post, under guidance of the flanges 4 at both shank ends, can be driven down into a suitable soil by impacts or by pressure otherwise applied thereto, without tendencies of the post tip to deviate from the desired driving direc¬ tion, which frequently occured when driving down earlier posts of similar type, where the lower part of the post was cut thus that the tip of the post formed an obtuse angle to the intermediate portion of the post. The profile rod 1 is further equipped with a carrier 7 for the reflective members 8, and this carrier 7 can be attached or attachable to the delineator post at desired level.

By manufacturing the post from a polyolefine thermoplastic, an extrudable material of high impact strenght and low melt index is obtained and in order further to increase the bending property and the ability to flex back to the verti¬ cal it is possible to give the material additives of, or making the post entirely from thermoplastic elastomeric compound (TPE), preferably a composition of polypropylene and ethylene-propylene rubber (EPDM).

Claims

1. A delineator post for marking road borderlines, and comp¬ rising a stackable profile rod (1) having a mainly V- or U- shaped cross-section, the open side of which is turned away from the road when the post is in mounted position, whereby the delineator post has at least one flange (4) in the area of each shank end of the profile rod (1), which flange extends in the longitudinal direction of the delineator post and serves as retainer and/or as spacing member at stacking and/or as fitting member, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e i , that the lower end of the post (1) is shaped to a tip (5), which is arranged to extend away from the intermediate portion of the V- or U-profile, which thereby forms the top of the tip, and to each shank edge (2, 3), thereby forming an acute angle (α) with said intermediate portion, and that the outwardly projecting, longitudinally extending flange (4), which is known per se, and is provided on the outer side of the end portion of each shank (2, 3), has a guiding function on the tip (5) of the post when the post is driven down.

2. The delineator post as claimed in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e i n, that the delineator post (1) is manufactured from a polyole¬ fine thermoplastic.

3. The delineator post as claimed in claim 2, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e i n, that the poleolefine thermoplastic has additives of a thermoplastic elastomere.

4. The delineator post as claimed in claim 1, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e i n, that the delineator post (1) is manufactured from a thermo¬ plastic elastomere.

5. The delineator post as claimed in claim 3 or 4, c h a r a c t e r i z e d t h e r e i , that the thermoplastic elastomere is a combination of poly¬ propylene and ethylene-propylene rubber.