Fire escape – ladder – or scaffold – Stackable
Reexamination Certificate
1999-11-24
2001-05-01
Chin-Shue, Alvin (Department: 3634)
Fire escape, ladder, or scaffold
Stackable
C182S222000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06223856
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a dismantlable scaffold and in particular to a facade scaffold in.
In a known scaffold of this lind (DE196 33 091 A1), latching catches are provided at the end fittings of the individual floor panels and ensure latching of the end fittings on placement of a floor panel on the associated rail section, so that a lifting of the end fittings from the associated rail section is only possible after pivoting of the latching catch into a release position. A design of this kind admittedly ensures that a floor panel is securely held against lifting on the rail section, even without a transverse strut which contacts against its end fittings from above; it is, however, disadvantageous that for this purpose a movable element in the form of a latching catch must be present which has to be actuated by suitable measures by the operator for the lifting and which can be damaged with rough operation on a building site and thereby made partly or wholly inactive.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a scaffold of the initially named kind in which, on the one hand, the floor panels can be installed on the rail sections and removed from them without problem without the use of movable elements on the rail section and end fitting, and, on the other hand, in the installed position undesired lifting, for example by winding or other lifting forces acting from below, is however avoided, without the end fittings having to be secured by transverse struts of the scaffold lying above them.
The concept underlying the invention is thus to be seen in the fact that simply by a sequence of suitable shifts of a floor panel in the horizontal and vertical direction, a simple installation and removal of the floor panels is, on the one hand, possible with respect to the associated rail sections, and, on the other hand, the floor panels are secured against lifting up-wardly by wind or other forces in the installed state. The lifting of the floor panel required to cancel the security against shifting preferably takes place at one side and indeed in particular at the front.
The security against lifting and/or the security against shifting are preferably formed by abutments.
The depth of insertion of each floor panel is advantageously restricted with the insertion restriction when using a plurality of floor panels arranged behind one another preferably being ensured for the last floor panel by the vertical supports and for the floor panels lying in front of it by the respective rearwardly disposed floor panel.
The security against lifting is expediently realized with a linearly operating bayonet connection between the end fitting and the associated rail section.
An abutment serving for the positioning is also provided in the pull-out direction, at least for the frontmost floor panel, so that on pulling out the floor panel, the position in which the lifting security is cancelled is found without particular attention on behalf of the operator. This abutment is preferably formed by the forwardly disposed vertical supports.
An embodiment of the invention brings the shifting security abutments out of engagement while the lifting security abutments are still active.
Even though it is fundamentally possible for the different abutments to be provided on the same side of the rail section, it is, however, preferred when these abutments are arranged so that the shifting security abutments can be comfortably executed between the rail sections as plates which preferably consist of sheet metal.
Even though a single floor panel can basically be provided between two vertical supports and designed in accordance with the invention, it is, nevertheless, advantageous, to preferably provide two or more floor panels of like design behind one another, because in this way an easier manipulation is possible at greater heights because of the lower weight of the individual floor panel.
Insofar as a plurality of floor panels are provided behind one another, the shifting security abutments of the rear floor panels can be expediently designed differently from those of the front floor panel.
Thus, whereas the shifting security abutments of the front floor panel are so positioned relative to one another that a lifting of the front floor panel is still not possible when they come into engagement, the abutment plates of the rail sections which lie further to the rear are so arranged that on entry into engagement with the positioning abutments of the end fittings, the security against lifting has already been cancelled. This design is possible and expedient because, as long as the front floor panel has not yet been removed, the floor panels lying further to the rear are secured by the same measures as the front floor panel against shifting towards the insertion side into a position which makes lifting possible.
A particularly advantageous further embodiment signals to the operator on inserting the floor panels particularly forcefully, whether these are already latched in place or not. So long as the shifting security abutments are located on the shifting security abutment plates between the rail sections, the floor panel tilts during handling to the front and to the rear so that the operator gets a feeling for the fact that the relevant panel is not yet in its desired position. Only when the shifting security abutment of the end fitting of the abutment plate drops rearwardly into the lowered position does the tilting cease and signal to the user that the floor panel is now located in its final desired position. With a plurality of floor panels arranged behind one another, it is sufficient if only the frontmost shifting security abutment plate is correspondingly designed.
Another embodiment of the invention ensures that the floor panels can also extend up to the region adjacent the vertical supports, so that broad walking surface is present. The design of the invention proves to be particularly expedient here, because it results in a certain overhang of the floor panels beyond the support surfaces on the rail sections, which, when walked on, exert a tilting moment on the floor panels about their longitudinal axis in the sense that they attempt to lift from the rail sections. This is, however, effectively avoided by the security against lifting provided in accordance with the invention so that the over-hang of the floor panels to the front and rear beyond the rail sections does not represent any deterioration of the security in use.
A further embodiment of the invention provide that the opening in the region of the end cutouts, which is present with two floor panels contacting one another, is secured downwardly by the positioning plate, which has the advantage that articles falling through this opening are stopped by the abutment plate.
Another embodiment of the invention makes it possible for the security against lifting to be cancelled by pivoting the floor panel downwardly about one of the rail sections, whereby the relevant floor panel can be lifted off without shifting in the direction of the rail section but rather by simple downward pivoting. In the inverse sense the placement of a floor panel on the rail section is also possible. The pivoting downwardly or upwardly of the floor panels can be made possible by elastic pressing apart of two adjacent vertical support pairs.
A further feature of the invention provides a situation in which a maximum support surface is made available between the end fittings and the associated rail sections.
The present inventor facilitates the placement of a floor panel obliquely from below onto a transverse strut in that the shifting security abutment forms a stop with the rail section, which is to be correspondingly dimensioned, and prevents a shifting of the end fitting beyond the transverse strut and thus prevents a dropping down of the relevant end of the floor panel.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4372424 (1983-02-01), Langer
patent: 3020389A1 (1981-12-01), None
patent: 3923815A1 (1991-01-01), None
patent: 4 91 634 (1992-06-
'Peri GmbH
Chin-Shue Alvin
Townsend and Townsend / and Crew LLP
LandOfFree
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