Road structure – process – or apparatus – Traffic steering device or barrier
Reexamination Certificate
2001-11-26
2004-03-16
Shackelford, Heather (Department: 3673)
Road structure, process, or apparatus
Traffic steering device or barrier
C116S06300T, C040S610000, C256S001000, C256S064000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06705796
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to barricades and more particularly to barricades usable to warn drivers and pedestrians of dangers at construction sites and the like. The barricades of the invention are rugged, reliable and have a long service life. They include component parts that can serve a number of functions and be assembled in a many different ways to provide a variety of configurations including configurations that permit folding for compact storage and transport. Constructions and methods are provided by which the barricades can be economically manufactured and low in cost.
2. Background of the Prior Art
One type of barricade structure is a saw-horse structure in which two units are pivotally connected for movement between a folded condition against each other and an operative condition in inverted V-relation. In an early type of saw-horse structure, many of which are still in current use, each unit is in the form of a subassembly with wood panels secured to a pair of metal legs with bolts connecting the legs to form the pivotal connection.
Many saw-horse structures have been used or proposed using components molded from plastic. The Stehle et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,880,406 issued Apr. 29, 1975 discloses a plastic barricade in which units are pivotally connected by bolts after being formed with integral panels and legs. The units are formed by rotational casting to be hollow and to be filled with sand or other ballast to resist tipping over.
The Sawyer U.S. Pat. No. 3,971,331 issued Jul. 27, 1976 discloses use of panels formed by plastic and secured to legs that are connected by bolts.
The Glass U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,186 issued Nov. 3, 1981 discloses a barricade including a pair of identical members of hollow plastic that provide integral panels and legs. The members have hinge sections located at upper corners thereof and configured to be connected together by bolts. At the lower ends, hollow sand bars are provided for receiving sand bags.
The Glass U.S. Pat. No. 4,624,210 issued Nov. 25, 1986 discloses a barricade similar to that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,186 but having a special detent for locking the structure in an operative condition.
The Kulp U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,983 issued Aug. 22, 1989 discloses a barricade which is similar to the saw-horse structures of the Glass and other prior patents in having a pair of members of plastic that have hinge portions connected by hinge pins and that provide integral panels and legs. The barricade is described as being of the A-frame type but is unlike the A-frame structures described herein which include beams or rails supported between two A-shaped members.
The Glass U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,815 issued Dec. 4, 1990 discloses a barricade including a pair of members of plastic that provide integral panels and legs. The members are connected by a hinge pin which extends through a handle member.
The Thurston U.S. Pat. No. 5,003,912 issued Apr. 2, 1991 discloses a plastic barricade which includes two identical integrally molded plastic panels connected by hinge pins. Each panel has protrusions and indentations which can interlock with those of adjacent panels when stacking the panels.
The Thurston U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,541 issued Apr. 23, 1991 discloses plastic barricade having hinges formed by a cylindrical male boss that can mate with on open C-type clamp of sufficient flexibility as to form a female socket that can be snapped onto the male boss. As described, different cross-sections may be used and all that is necessary is that no unwanted forces are applied to the relatively fragile plastic hinge.
The Thurston U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,885 issued Sep. 10, 1991 discloses a hinged barricade similar to that of his U.S. Pat. No. 5,009,541 but differing in that the C-shaped female socket is formed by compression molding an in that the male boss has diametrically opposed flattened sides for insertion into the socket. After insertion into the socket, a limiting bolt is installed to limit the relative angular displacement to 40 degrees.
The Bent et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,434 issued Oct. 17, 1995 discloses a plastic barricade formed from identical panels and hinged together by bolts The panels include handles at the top and a bottom-most cross-member formed with a stacking lug that can fit into an opening of a handle of an adjacent folded barricade.
The Cushman U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,614 issued Aug. 13, 1996 discloses a barricade assembly including a plurality of panel units which can be secured together, one above another, to provide an adjustable height. The uppermost panels are connected by hinge bolts or pins.
The Glass et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,570,972 issued Nov. 5, 1996 discloses a plastic traffic barricade formed by two panel units connected by hinge bolts, each panel having an integral handle arranged for mounting of a flasher light thereon.
The Glass et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,101,967 issued Aug. 15, 2000 discloses a barricade formed by two units each including a pair of legs and a plurality of panels formed by blow-molding. The upper ends of the legs of each unit are connected by hinge bolts to the upper ends of the legs of the other unit. Each leg has an I-beamed shaped cross-section recesses with depressions in one flange thereof. Channels are formed in an inner face of each panel adjacent the opposite ends thereof to receive leg members while being seated in the depressions of the leg members.
The foregoing patents related to saw-horse structures. Another barricade structure, referred to herein as an A-frame structure, includes rails or beams which have ends supported by members which are A-shaped. The Parker U.S. Pat. No. 3,089,682 issued May 14, 1963 discloses a barricade including a one-piece top member which forms a rail or beam and which is supported by a pair of oppositely disposed A-shaped legs. The top member and legs are disclosed as being formed of resilient hard rubber.
The Thomson et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,035 issued Jul. 24, 1990 discloses a barricade with A-shaped members supporting the ends of an elongated hollow crossbar which includes elongated hollow inter-connecting sections.
The Giannelli U.S. Pat. No. 5,762,444 issued Jun. 9, 1998 discloses an A-frame barricade capable of being adjusted to a desired length. A pair of A-frames are connected by a transverse beam assembly which includes a pair of members arranged for relative slidable movement to be of adjustable length. Each A-frame includes an opening for receiving an end of the beam assembly and also includes a cross brace portion with an integral bracket providing a second opening which can receive the end of an auxiliary cross-beam. The auxiliary cross-beam is not shown but can be used to support one of more sand bags.
The Bartlett U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,923 issued Aug. 18, 1998 discloses a dressage arena fence with brackets that are A-shaped with a pair of leg portions that extend downwardly and outwardly from an apex portion but with no cross brace. Slots are provided in the brackets for interlocking engagement with ends of rails. As shown, one slot is provided in one leg of a bracket while two slots are provided in the opposite leg of the bracket.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention was evolved with the general object of making barricades that will better serve the requirements of users, that will be rugged and reliable and have a long life and that can be economically manufactured.
Important aspects of the invention relate to the recognition of problems with prior art barricades and analyses of how to deal with those problem. One problem is that although the barricade configurations known in the art are suitable for many applications, there are many applications where different configurations would be desirable. One way to deal with this problem might be to simply modify known configurations to produce a number of configurations each suitable for a particular application. However, it is desirable that barricades be of plastic and providing the tooling required to produce a number of configurations could be prohibitively expen
Cortina Tool & Molding Co.
Lund Van Metre
Shackelford Heather
Singh Sunil
LandOfFree
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