Attached pin for poured concrete wall form panels

Details Attached pin for poured concrete wall form panels Attached pin for poured concrete wall form panels

2001-06-26

2004-02-17

Safavi, Michael (Department: 3673)

Static molds

Mold element

In situ construction engineering or building type

C249S196000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06691976

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to poured concrete wall forms and, more particularly, to connecting hardware for panels coupled together and used to construct the concrete wall form.
It is well known in the art to use prefabricated reusable panels to construct a wall form for a poured concrete wall. Typically, two spaced opposed parallel sets of forms are erected in order to pour concrete therebetween and form a wall. Each form is constructed of a number of adjacent interconnected panels. Tie rods are used to maintain the spacing between the opposed forms constructed of the panels.
Typically, each panel has a marginal frame projecting rearwardly from a back face of the panel to include a flange along the spaced side edges of the panel. The flanges are adapted to be positioned in an abutting relationship with the flange of an adjacent panel to construct the concrete wall form. Holes in the flanges of the adjacent panels can be aligned to receive there through the shank of a pin or a bolt. The pin or bolt may pass through the ends of the ties and commonly are held in position by wedges which are driven through a slot in the shank of the pin or bolt. As the wedges are driven into the slot, the abutting flanges of the adjacent panels are drawn together. The pins and wedges offer a simple mechanism for effectively coupling the panels together.
After the concrete has been poured and the wall has set, the pins and wedges are removed from the panels during the dismantling of the wall form by dislodging the wedges from the slots and sliding the pins from the holes to release the adjacent panels.
In the construction of a concrete wall form, a large quantity of hardware is necessary to connect the adjacent panels together. Typically, the workers performing the construction of the wall form carry a large bucket of the pins and wedges with them to join the adjacent panels together. During such operations, the loss of the attachment hardware is appreciable, especially during inclement weather as it is difficult for a worker wearing gloves to handle the pins and wedges. Furthermore, the wall forms are commonly constructed in excavated areas, such as ditches and trenches, for a poured concrete wall in a residential basement or below ground floor of a commercial building. The workers commonly move around on scaffolding when constructing the concrete wall forms. As such, the work space for constructing a wall form and for the workers to maneuver and manipulate the associated hardware is extremely tight and limited. Therefore, the installation of the pins and wedges is even more difficult and retrieval of any lost hardware is very problematic. As such, the cost of labor and materials has increased accordingly due to these problems.
One prior art solution aimed at some of these problems has been to permanently connect at least some of the hardware to the panels. Each panel has numerous sets of such devices. Problems frequently arise because one or more sets of the hardware permanently affixed to the panels breaks or requires repair thereby taking that particular panel out of service until it is repaired. Furthermore, the addition of the attachment hardware commonly adds significant weight to each panel thereby placing a greater burden on the workers for transporting, installing and manipulating the panels in constructing and disassembling the wall form.
Moreover, a particular contractor may have an inventory of panels which are not compatible with the panels having permanently affixed hardware thereby requiring the contractor to entirely discard the current supply of panels and associated hardware in favor of the panels having a specific attachment hardware design. While such systems may minimize the occurrence of lost pins and/or wedges, they include other drawbacks. Very often, specialized tooling is required for the installation, repair and/or use of known attached systems thereby minimizing the universal application and use of such systems.
When the concrete is poured between the spaced forms and assembled panels, the hydrostatic forces generated by the poured concrete tend to spread the opposed forms apart, but these outward or spreading forces are held in check by the form tie rods. In addition, the concrete expands as it sets creating greater spreading forces on the panels. The pin joining the adjacent panels together is subject to significant pulling forces by the tie rod and an opposed force by the frame or rail on the panel. These forces can make removing the pins from the panels and the tie rods very difficult often requiring a number of repeated blows from a sturdy sledge hammer or the like to dislodge the pin and/or wedge from the panels. The hammering can damage known attachment hardware and/or mushroom the point of the pin causing interference with its operation. The workers frequently damage or destroy the pins during disassembly of a form which significantly shortens the life of the attached hardware and associated panel.
Another problem common with attached hardware is that liquid from the poured concrete frequently splashes onto the rear sides of the forms and the associated hardware. When the concrete spills or splashes onto the attachment hardware, it naturally sticks to the attachment hardware as it sets up and makes disengaging the pin and wedge more difficult. The spilled concrete also fouls the associated hardware thereby minimizing its usefulness.
Therefore, there is a need for attachment hardware for concrete wall form panels that is durable, easy to engage between the adjacent form panels, easy to remove after the concrete has set, that is easily and conveniently installed and disassembled by the workers in the field and does not significantly increase the weight of the panel and is compatible with standard pin and wedge systems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objectives of the invention have been attained by a system for releasably coupling adjacent panels to construct a wall form for a poured concrete wall. The system includes a pin assembly which can be selectively attached to a mount on each of the walls near the holes in the marginal frame of the panels.
The system, according to a presently preferred embodiment of this invention, includes a pin which is movably mounted to one of the panels approximate each hole. The pin is movable between an engaged position in which the pin projects through each of the aligned holes in the adjacent panels, a stowed position in which the pin is withdrawn from each of the holes and a retracted position in which the pin is spaced from the frame to provide access for the standard pin and wedge attachment hardware when the pin of this system is not in use. The pin has a stem and a shank which are threadably coupled together as a two piece unit. The stem has an enlarged head on one end thereof and the shank has a slot which extends there through transverse to the longitudinal axis of the pin and a tapered region which is adapted to project through the holes in the frames of the panels. The tapered region on the pin is longer than known pin designs to assist in the removal of the pin from the tie rod during disassembly of the wall forms.
The pin assembly includes the two-piece pin and a carrier. The pin is housed within a throughbore of the carrier. The throughbore is in a casing of the carrier which is situated between a generally rectangular or oval lower slide and an upwardly projecting impact mast. The bore in the casing has an enlarged seat which is adapted to receive the head of the stem of the pin when the pin is housed in the casing with the shank projecting forwardly from the carrier. In one embodiment, the pin is free to rotate relative to the carrier in the bore of the casing. The upwardly projecting impact mast provides access for a worker to strike the carrier with a hammer to dislodge the pin from the tie rods and holes in the panels when disassembling the concrete wall forms.
The mount in one embodiment includes a base and a retainer. The slide of the carrier is captured between spa

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