Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an anchor
for mounting a temporary safety fence to the floor of a
building under construction.
BACKGRO~ND OF THE INVENTION
Safety fences or barriers are used in
connection with the construction of buildings and are
adapted for temporary installation adjacent the outer
perimeters of building floors to provide for the
personal safety of the workers and also to prevent
items lying on the floor from being accidentally
displaced over the edges.
Such fences are usually made up of individual
sections, each section including longitudinally
extending spaced rails which are secured in their
spaced relationship by uprights positioned at intervals
along each section. These uprights often consist of
cylindrical rods which have their lower ends received
in cylindrical recesses drilled or otherwise provided
in the building floor at predetermined intervals.
Other anchoring systems for these uprights
consist of clamps mounted along the edges of the
exposed floors.
These fences do not offer adequate anchoring
support where extensive force is urged against them as
may occur if a worker falls against the interior of the
guard rail, leans heavily against it or heavy
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construction materials are forced against the rails or
supports. These safety fences being temporary, i-t is
usually required that they be so constructed that they
may be quickly assembled and disassembled.
On most buildings under construction, means
must be provided to allow the connection of a safety
line or cable attached to the worker so as -to permit
him to perform his work in all safety. Hence, many
hooking connections must be provided at various
locations on a floorO
OBJECTS AND STATEMENT OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to
provide an anchor for a temporary safety fence which
overcomes the above described disadvantages of prior
fence assemblies.
This is achieved by providing an anchor which
comprises: a base plate adapted to be fixedly mounted
to the floor of a building under construction; a short
vertically-extending upright support member having a
lower portion fixedly secured cen-trally of the base
plate and an upper end portion having a shape and
dimension to slidably and axially receive a
correspondingly-shaped upright forming part of the
safety fence; and a line fastener fixedly secured to
the base plate for connecting thereto a safety line
used by construction workers during construction.
The present invention is also concerned with
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the combination of such an anchor described above with
a fence upright which is engaged with the support
member of the anchor and also with a foot board collar
which is mounted to the upright.
The upright is tubular in shape and has a
lower end which telescopically engages the support
member while the foot board collar consists of a hollow
tubular member which, in turn, slidably fits over the
upright and of an inverted L-shaped board retainer that
has a first end fixedly secured to the hollow tubular
member and an opposite free end distantly spaced from
the lower end of the tubular member.
Other objects and further scope of
applicability of the present invention will become
apparent from the detailed description given herein
after. It should be understood, however, that this
detailed desription, while indicating preferred
embodiments of the invention, is given by way of
illustration only, since various changes and
modifications within the spirit and scope of the
invention will become apparent to those skilled in the
art.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Fig. 1 is an exploded perspective view
showing a safety fence assembly incorporating an anchor
made in accordance with the present invention;
Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing a first
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embodiment of an anchor made in accordance with the
present invention;
Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing an other
embodiment of an anchor made in accordance with the
present invention;
Fig. 4 is an elevation, partly cross-
sectional, showing the anchor and the board retainer
mounted to an upright of a safety fence; and
Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing an
inverted L-shaped retainer board used in combination
with the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a series
of components which make up the assembly of a safety
fence of the type which is temporarily installed
adjacent the outer perimeter of a wooden, metallic or
concrete f]oor of a building under construction for the
personal safety of the workers.
The fence shown is made up of a series of
sections 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Each section is formed
of horizontally extending upper and lower rails 20 and
22 and of vertically extending members 24 and 26 (see
section 10). In the fence illustrated, each section
has a fixed hinge 28 and a movable hinge 30, both
including vertical pegs which are adapted to be
respectively received in the opened upper end of
vertical tubular posts 32 and 34. The lower end of
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these posts is vertically supported in an anchor device
36 made in accordance with the present invention.
Referring to Fig. 2, a first embodiment of an
anchor device 36 is shown; it comprises a flat
rectangular metallic base plate 40 which is provided
with a centrally located hole 42 to receive a fastening
bolt 43 (see figure 4) whenever the floor 44 to which
the anchor device must be secured is concrete. It also
includes a series of holes 46 approximately located in
the plate to receive nails whenever the anchor device
is to be secured to a wooden floor.
Upwardly extending from the top face of the
base plate 40, a short tubular support member 48 has an
upper end free and a lower end welded to the base plate
40 in the central symmetrical axis thereof.
Opposite to the support member 48 with
respect to the center hole 42, a ring 50 is fixed to
the base plate. In the present embodiment, the ring
has the shape of a D with its straight straight portion
longitudinally welded to the top face of the base
plate. This ring serves to attach a safety cable which
is frequently used by workers in buildings under
construction.
Referring to Fig. 3, there is shown another
embodiment of the present invention; the anchor device
52 shown is mounted to the vertical side wall of the
outer perimeter of a floor 54. This anchor device 52
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is formed of a base plate 56, a support member 58 and a
D-shaped ring 60. The base plate 56 is provided with a
series of holes 62 similar to holes 46 of base plate 40
of the embodiment of Eig. 2. The support member 58
lies tangently to the base plate 56 and has a side wall
of its lower portion 64 welded to the top face of the
base plate 56 while the upper free end extends
vertically above the floor 54. The lower portion 64 of
the support member 58 has a pair of openings (one of
which is shown as 66) on two opposite side walls to
allow a fastening bolt to secure the anchor device to
the side edge of the floor. The holes 66 are in
registry with one another, but also with a hole (not
shown) in the base plate.
Referring to Figs 4 and 5, the anchored base
plate 40 is shown fixed to a concrete floor by means of
bolt 43. Its support member 48 is received within the
fence upright 32 which, in turn, receives thereover a
foot board retainer 70 which has a tubular collar 72
and an inverted L-shaped member 74. The latter is
reinforcingly secured to the side wall of the tubular
collar by means of an angle plate 76. The downwardly
extending portion 78 of member 74 has a hole 80 which
serves to receive a nail for securing one or more foot
boards 82 thereto. This board serves to prevent items
lying on the floor from being accidentally displaced
over the edges.
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As it can be noted, once a series of base
plates 40 are approximately located on and secured to
the floor of a building under construction, the
assembly of a safety fence, together with foot boards
whenever required, may be quickly mounted in place.
Once construction is over, the disassembly of theses
fences, as well as of their anchor devices, may also be
carried out quickly.
Although the invention has been described
above in relation to two specific forms, it will be
evident to person skilled in the art that it may be
refined and modified in various ways. For example, the
line fastener may be used for attaching tarpaulins or
sheets which are of-ten used in buildings under
construction for protecting workmen from the weather.
Also, the location of the lower end of the support
member may vary from one anchor to the other. It is
therefore wished to have it understood that the present
invention should not be limited in interpretation,
except by the terms of the following claims.
