Fences – Rail
Patent
1998-05-11
2000-04-25
Browne, Lynne H.
Fences
Rail
256 65, 256 22, E04H 1714
Patent
active
06053480&
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a fence or guardrail, and more particularly to a prefabricated kit for constructing a fence or guardrail.
BACKGROUND ART
There is considerable advantage in prefabricating the railings and balusters for a fence or guardrail, whereby these elements can be erected on site with a minimum of tools and fasteners and the like.
There have been many examples of guardrail kits designed to avoid separate fasteners. An early version of such a kit is described in my U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,671 issued Jun. 15, 1982. Other such guardrails are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,164 Cokelekoglu, issued Jun. 28, 1983; U.S. Pat. No. 4,451,025 Spera, issued May 29, 1984; U.S. Pat. No. 4,586,697 Tornya, issued May 6, 1986 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,805,879 Spera. All of these patents describe clip-on type kits, having a plurality of balusters to which the top and bottom railings can be snapped on.
However many of the kits referred to above have require special tools to erect the guardrails. Other available kits require several parts, making assembly complicated and generally requiring experts.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
It is an aim of the present invention to provide a kit for erecting a fence or guardrail that is devoid of separate fasteners.
It is a further aim of the present invention to provide a guardrail kit that uses conventional tools and includes few parts.
A construction in accordance with the present invention comprises a kit for a fence or guardrail which includes at least one railing and a plurality of identical balusters to be engaged in the railing. The railing includes a bottom wall and a pair of side walls forming a channel, and at least a pair of inwardly extending flanges projecting from the side walls and parallel to the bottom wall. Each baluster has at least a portion engageable by the railing which has a circular cylindrical cross section, and at least one rib projecting on the outer surface of the circular cylindrical portion, parallel to the axis thereof. The rib is provided with a notch at a predetermined location thereon. The bottom wall of the railing is provided with a circular opening having a diameter slightly greater than the diameter of the circular cylindrical portion of the baluster, but less than the combined diameter of the circular cylindrical portion and the thickness of the rib. The bottom wall of the railing has a notch, opening into the circular opening, for receiving the rib when the baluster is aligned with the opening and the rib is aligned with the notch, such that the baluster can be inserted through the opening in the bottom wall with the rib aligned with the notch in the bottom wall and when the notch in the rib of the baluster is in the same plane as the bottom wall, the baluster can be rotated and locked with the railing.
In a more specific embodiment of the present invention the distance between the flanges extending inwardly from the side walls of the railing is the same as the diameter of the baluster and at least a notch is provided on one of the flanges adapted to receive the continuation of the rib on the circular cylindrical portion of the baluster in order to engage the rib and to prevent the baluster from being rotated about its axis when the baluster is engaged in the railing.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Having thus generally described the nature of the invention, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, showing by way of illustration, preferred embodiments thereof, and in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a guardrail in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a fragmentary exploded view showing a detail of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary enlarged perspective view taken from the bottom showing certain elements of FIG. 2;
FIG. 4 is a top plan view of the embodiment shown in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary cross section taken along lines 5--5 of FIG. 4;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of an element of the present invention;
FIG. 7 is an enlarged exploded view of the embodiment shown in F
REFERENCES:
patent: 3955799 (1976-05-01), Lauzier
patent: 3973756 (1976-08-01), Lauzier
patent: 4027855 (1977-06-01), Lauzier
patent: 4373310 (1983-02-01), Dean
patent: 4390164 (1983-06-01), Cokelekoglu
patent: 4600179 (1986-07-01), Willetts
patent: 4883256 (1989-11-01), Hebda
patent: 5382001 (1995-01-01), Lichti
Bochna David E.
Browne Lynne H.
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