U.S. patent number 3,561,563 [Application Number 04/850,213] was granted by the patent office on 1971-02-09 for portable post step.
Invention is credited to Ralph Harsh.
United States Patent |
3,561,563 |
Harsh |
February 9, 1971 |
PORTABLE POST STEP
Abstract
An integral rigid catwalk metal sheet bent along a transverse
fold line to provide a post engaging portion and a step portion,
the post engaging portion having a laterally inwardly extending
notch for engaging the post. The post is engaged by opposing edges
of the notch wherein one of the edges is the inner edge portion of
the step portion. The step is placed on the post from the side and
the weight of the step portion will cause the unit to pivot
downwardly bringing the opposing edges of the notch into engagement
with the post thereby locking it in place. The post engaging
portion forms an obtuse angle with the step portion and the step
portion is normally positioned in a horizontal plane. A series of
vertically spaced apart steps may be placed on a post and extend
alternately from the post at angles of 90.degree. to each other.
Oppositely facing concave portions may be formed in the opposing
edge portions for matingly engaging the rounded peripheral edge of
a round post.
Inventors: |
Harsh; Ralph (Adel, IA) |
Family
ID: |
25307566 |
Appl.
No.: |
04/850,213 |
Filed: |
August 14, 1969 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
182/92;
D30/158 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E06C
9/04 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
E06C
9/00 (20060101); E06C 9/04 (20060101); E06c
007/08 () |
Field of
Search: |
;182/134,135,136,133,92,189 ;248/216,221,246,247 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Machado; Reinaldo P.
Claims
I claim:
1. A post step comprising:
a sheet of rigid integral metal having inner and outer end
portions;
said inner and outer end portions meet along a fold line and said
outer portion is adapted to extend in a horizontal plane while said
inner portion extends at an obtuse angle relative thereto;
said inner portion including a laterally inwardly extending notch
from one side whereby said step may be placed on and removed from a
post by moving it in a horizontal plane such that said notch moves
into and out of engagement with a post, said notch being formed by
three sides, two of which have opposing edges parallel to said fold
line for biting engagement with said post, one of said opposing
edges being the inner end of said outer portion and said one
opposing edge being in a transverse plane including said fold line,
said outer portion having a substantially greater length than said
inner portion, and is adapted to provide space for the 2 feet of a
workman and said sheet being rectangular in shape, said notch being
substantially rectangular in shape and the distance between said
opposing edges being slightly greater than the corresponding
dimension of the post on which said step is to be positioned, said
opposing edges including opposing concave inwardly facing portions
for engagement with a round post;
said notch has a uniform width between said opposing edges at the
mouth and the base of said notch;
said top surface of said outer portion being roughened to provide
frictional means for engagement by a person's fast;
said post step is one of a plurality of similar post steps mounted
on a post and said adjacent post steps alternately extend in
directions approximately 90.degree. apart outwardly from said post;
and
said rigid integral metal being formed from catwalk metal and
thereby having inherent strength to support a person's weight.
Description
The maintenance work along streets and highways concerned with
conventional sign structures requires using some sort of ladder
device to reach the top portions of the signs since most of them
are taller than the ordinary workman. The use of a stepladder or
the like is terribly time consuming and unsatisfactory for among
other reasons the reason that a suitable support for the ladder
cannot be found. It is desired to utilize a minimum number of work
pieces in working on the sign structures since the structures may
be some distance apart and the work pieces will have to be carried
from one structure to the next.
The portable post step of this invention is simple in design and is
self supporting on the sign post being worked upon and thereby
requires no external support surface or ladder structure to reach
any part of the ordinary sign post.
The portable sign post of this invention also may be placed
directly on the post at any height and does not have to fit down
over the top of the post which in many cases would be impossible
anyway since a sign board would prevent the step from moving along
the length of the post. An open notch is provided in the step which
extends inwardly from one side thereof permitting the step to be
placed directly on the post. The step comprises a post engaging
portion which forms an obtuse angle with the step portion which is
substantially longer and due to its own weight causes the opposing
edges of the notch to bite into the opposite sides of the post to
hold the step in place when first installed on the post. As
additional weight is applied to the step portion the opposing edges
of the notch bite deeper into the post, usually made of wood, and
consequently provide even a more positive locking engagement
between the post and the step unit.
Preferably, relatively heavy catwalk metal material is used which
is inherently strong enough to support the ordinary person without
additional strengthening means being employed. The catwalk material
also has the roughened top surface to provide gripping means for
the workmen's feet.
If desired, several step units may be placed in vertically spaced
apart relationship on the post preferably at 90.degree. relative to
each other such that the workmen may walk up the post.
These and other features and advantages of this invention will
become readily apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference
to the following description when taken into consideration with the
accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a post having both
right and left hand engaging portable step units positioned thereon
in vertically spaced apart relationship with a 90.degree. angle
between adjacent steps;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a right hand engaging step
unit;
FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the step unit on a post structure;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 4-4 in FIG.
3;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view similar to FIG. 1 but showing a round
post in cross section and the step units having opposing concave
portions formed in the opposing edges of the notch for mating
engagement with the rounded peripheral edge of the round post;
and
FIG. 6 is a top plan view of the step unit seen in FIG. 5.
The step unit of this invention is referred to generally in FIG. 2
by the reference numeral 10 and includes a rigid integral sheet of
catwalk metal folded along a line 12 to form a post engaging
portion 14 and a step portion 16.
As seen in FIG. 4, an obtuse angle is formed between the step
portion 16 and the post engaging portion 14 and the step being
rectangular in shape includes a rectangular notch 20 in the post
engaging portion only. The inner end portion 22 of the step portion
16 is on a line in a plane extending through the fold line 12 and
cooperates with a side edge 24 and an opposite transverse edge 26
from the edge 22 to form the notch opening 20.
It is seen that the edges 22 and 26 are roughened at 33 by means
such as torch cutting to provide additional gripping means for
engagement with the sides 28 and 30 of a wooden post 32.
It is seen that the post engaging portion 14 with the notch 20
formed therein is basically L-shaped with one end of one of the
legs being integrally connected at the fold line 12 to the step
portion 16. Depending on which side the notch 20 is cut into the
post engaging portion 14 will determine whether the step unit 10 is
a right-or left-hand unit such as is seen in FIG. 1 wherein the two
top units are left handed as indicated by the reference numeral 10A
and the bottom step unit is right handed similar to the unit of
FIG. 2. It is further seen in FIG. 1 that the step unit 10 may be
placed on the post at any height by movement in a horizontal plane
and that on a rectangular in cross section post the notch will
appropriately engage any side of the post such that the adjacent
step units may extend at an angle of 90.degree. to each other which
makes for ease in walking up the post. Otherwise, it would be
difficult to move from the lower post 10 to the intermediate post
10A if they were directly above each other. It is however seen that
the top post 10A is superimposed over the bottom post 10 but this
will present no problem since while standing on the intermediate
post 10A the workmen can easily move on upwardly to the top step
10A which is turned 90.degree. in superimposed relationship with
the bottom step 10.
The workmen will have a sure footing on the step portion 16 because
of the raised teethlike portions 40 uniformly covering the top
surface of the catwalk sheet metal.
The step unit of this invention may also be used on cylindrical
posts circular in cross section and as seen in FIGS. 5 and 6, the
opposing edges 22A and 26A forming the notch 20A have additionally
inwardly facing concave portions 42 and 44 cut therein to matingly
engage the peripheral rounded surface of the round post 46.
In use a single step unit 10 may be employed or a series of them as
seen in FIG. 1. In any event the step unit is placed at the desired
height along the post and moved into engagement therewith by the
notch 20 or 20A receiving the post and the inherent weight of the
step portion 16 will cause the opposing edges of the notch to
automatically bite into the post as seen in FIG. 4 for example and
lock the step unit 10 rigidly in place such that a workman may
immediately step onto the step portion 16 and perform the normal
maintenance work on the post and/or sign structure. When the job is
completed the step unit 10 may be easily removed from the post by
simply raising the outer end of the step portion 16 to disengage
the opposing edges of the notch 20 from the post and then moving
the step unit laterally away from the post. THe step unit may then
be moved onto the next post and the same procedure repeated.
* * * * *