Guard Rail Support For Scaffold

Abstract

A guard rail support for scaffolds comprises an upright post having a bracket at one end thereof pivotably mounting an elongated crossbar. The crossbar includes a second bracket. The two brackets include rigid protruding lips that face one another and serve to engage a scaffolding platform in an operative position along upwardly facing surfaces adjacent opposed side walls. The crossbar, when the lips are thus engaged, extends across the platform against a downwardly facing surface thereof. The post and crossbar may be selectively locked in this position to secure the support to the platform. The support also includes fixed and movable brackets for receiving and securing guard rails thereon.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates broadly to the field of safety equipment for scaffolding utilized in the construction industry and, more particularly, to such equipment utilized to support guard rails on suspended platforms for scaffolding.

Many industrial and government safety codes specifically require the use of a guard rail on suspended platforms, including single portable scaffolding planks. While it is relatively simple to construct a guard rail and support system for a large suspended platform, the construction and attachment of guard rails to portable planks or platforms is a rather difficult procedure and often results in unsafely constructed guard rails and supports. It is also desirable to utilize removable guard rails and supports for such portable platforms to enable their disassembly for transportation and reuse.

The difficulty experienced in currently available guard rail supports is their usual bulk and complex nature. The relative complexity of these supports not only makes them expensive to purchase, but also potentially dangerous to use.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,084,759 and 1,934,000 granted to R. K. Squire and B. J. Piccirilli respectively both disclose a removable guard rail stanchion comprising an upright guard rail support post having clamps at a lower end thereof. The clamps allow the posts to be secured to the walking surface of a platform.

Another U.S. Pat. No. 2,706,662 granted to D. N. Brown discloses a detachable staging stanchion for suspended platforms in which an upright guard rail support is held against the walking surface of a platform by a supporting clamp assembly extending part way across the bottom of the platform.

The apparatus of the present invention includes an upright post, held outward of the walking surface of a supporting scaffold. It utilizes an easily adaptable mounting bracket assembly extending over the scaffold to fix the post to the scaffold and allow a maximum amount of usable surface area along the walkway.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A removable guard rail support for an elongated scaffolding platform is disclosed herein comprising an upright post with a first bracket means fixed to one end thereof. The first bracket means pivotably mounts a crossbar for pivotal movement about a pivot axis. The crossbar includes a second bracket means and is freely pivotable about the axis to an operative position wherein the crossbar engages a downwardly facing surface of the scaffolding platform. The first bracket means is utilized to engage the platform along a first upwardly facing surface area and the second bracket means is utilized to engage the platform along a second upwardly facing surface area with the crossbar in an operative position. Locking means is provided between the crossbar and first bracket means to enable selective locking of the crossbar to the first bracket to prevent pivotal movement of the crossbar about the pivot axis. Guard rail mounting means is provided on the upright post for releasably receiving and supporting horizontal guard rails.

It is a first object of my invention to provide a removable guard rail support for scaffolds that enables maximum utilization of the walking surface area of the supporting scaffold.

It is a further object of my invention to provide such a guard rail support that is simple in construction and thereby inexpensive to manufacture and easy to use.

An additional object is to provide such a guard rail support that is of sturdy construction and provides maximum safety to the user.

It is a yet further object of my invention to provide such a guard rail support that is easily adjustable to fit scaffolding platforms of varying sizes and configurations.

These and other objects and advantages will become evident upon reading the following disclosure which, taken with the accompanying drawings, describe a preferred form of my invention.

A BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A preferred form of the present invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view showing the guard rail support mounted to a scaffolding plank;

FIG. 2 is a cross-section view taken along line 2--2 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary section view taken along line 3--3 in FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is an enlarged fragmentary view illustrating details of a portion of the guard rail support.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The guard rail support of the present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 mounted to a scaffolding platform generally designated by the reference numeral 10. Platform 10 is of conventional construction embodying a transversely spaced pair of upright sidewalls 12, a lower surface 13 and an upper horizontal surface 11. The upper surface 11 is utilized as a walkway 15 to enable a user or users to move freely along the platform while it is suspended above the ground.

The guard rails are designated by the numeral 14 and are removably supported by the apparatus of the present invention. Such guard rails 14 are normally utilized as safety precautions to prevent persons or equipment from accidentally falling from a scaffold platform 10 that is normally narrow in configuration.

Looking now in greater detail to FIG. 2, the guard rail support comprises an upright post 17 having a first bracket 18 rigidly fixed to the lower end thereof. The bracket 18 pivotably carries a crossbar 20 by means of a pivot bolt 21. The crossbar 20 is pivotable about the axis of the pivot bolt 21 to an operative position wherein a protruding lip 23 of the bracket 18 and the upper surface 25 on crossbar 20 are substantially parallel as shown in FIG. 2.

The crossbar includes a second bracket 22 mounted at the other end thereof. The second bracket 22 also includes a protruding lip 24 that extends from the second bracket 22 toward the first bracket 18. The lip 24 is spaced from the upper surface 25 of crossbar 20 a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the downwardly facing support surface 13.

The crossbar 20 may be selectively locked in the operative position described above by aligning a pair of apertures 28 formed through the first bracket 18 and a complementary aperture 29 formed through the crossbar 20. A locking member comprising a bolt and wing nut assembly 32 may be secured through the aligned apertures 28 and 29 to securely lock the crossbar 20 to the bracket 18 to prevent pivotal movement of the crossbar 20 about the pivot axis of the pivot bolt 21.

The guard rail support may be mounted to the scaffold platform 10 simply by positioning the second bracket over the surface 13 adjacent one side wall 12 so that a portion of the surface is included between the lip 24 and the top surface 25 of crossbar 20. The remainder of the support is then pivoted about the axis of pivot bolt 21 to bring the crossbar to the operative position with the lip 23 covering a portion of the support surface 13 adjacent the remaining side wall 12. The bolt may then be inserted through the aligned apertures 28 and 29 and the wing nut secured to the end of the bolt. In this position, the lips 22 and 23 rest on upwardly facing surfaces of the support surface 13 and the crossbar 20 extends across the downwardly facing surface. The guard rail support is thereby securely attached to the platform with none of the supporting structure being exposed on the walkway 15.

Adjusting means is provided to enable the guard rail support to be mounted to scaffolding platforms of different widths. The adjusting means is comprised of a number of apertures 35 formed through the crossbar 20 adjacent the end supporting the second bracket 22. The bracket 22 is mounted to the crossbar 20 by a spaced pair of bolts 34. By removing the bolts 34 and sliding the bracket 22 along the crossbar 20 until a different set of apertures 35 is aligned with the holes (not shown) formed through bracket 22 for receiving bolts 34. Bolts 34 are then inserted through apertures 35 to secure second bracket 22 in a different position along crossbar 20.

Upright post 17 includes means for mounting guard rails which comprises a first support bracket 37 slidably mounted on upright post 17 adjacent first bracket 18. First support bracket 37 is C-shaped in configuration, with its ends mounted to semi-circular clips 40. Clips 40 are complimentary to the cross sectional periphery of post 17 to allow bracket 37 to be freely moved up and down post 17. The adjustability of first bracket 37 is an important feature of this invention in that it enables the guard rail support to be mounted to platforms of varying thickness. It also enables the lowermost guard rail 14a to be elevationally positioned with respect to walkway 15. The lowermost guard rail or "toe board" 14a is provided to prevent tools from inadvertantly being kicked off the platform 10 and as a safety measure to further aid in preventing a worker from falling from the platform. Guard rails or toe boards 14a are received within a passageway defined by the bracket 37 and a portion of upright post 17 as seen in FIG. 2. The rails 14a are selectively secured to the bracket 37 by fastening means comprising a clamp screw 41 that threadably extends through post 17 toward the bracket 37. Once guard rail 14a has been inserted through bracket 37 and clamp screw 41 is tightened, bracket 37 will no longer freely slide along post 17.

To further facilitate adjustment of first bracket 37 along the length of upright post 17, two threaded clamp screw receiving apertures 42 are provided through post 17. Apertures 42 enable clamp screw 41 to be selectively moved between two positions along upright post 17 to further enable positioning of bracket 37 thereon.

A second bracket 38 is provided approximately midway along upright post 17. A second clamp screw 43 is provided to securely clamp guard rails within bracket 38 which is rigidly fixed to the post 17.

The upward end of upright post 17 includes a guard rail support channel 45 that is rigidly fixed thereto for receiving an upper guard rail therethrough.

As shown in FIG. 1, several guard rail support assemblies can be utilized to support a continued progression of several elongated support rails along an elongated scaffold platform 10. When several guard rails are to be utilized end to end to span a substantially long distance, the ends may be arranged as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 in overlapping engagement within the second support bracket 38. In this manner both guard rails are securely held together and to the scaffold platform 10.

It may become evident from the above description and the attached drawings that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the scope of this invention. It is therefore intended that only the following claims be taken as definitions of this invention.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. A removable guard rail support for an elongated scaffolding platform having horizontal first and second upwardly facing surface areas adjacent transversely opposed sides and a downwardly facing area spaced elevationally below said first and second upwardly facing surfaces, said guard rail support comprising:

an upright post;

first bracket means fixed to one end of the post for engaging said platform along a portion of the first upwardly facing surface area;

a crossbar having one end thereof mounted to the first bracket means for pivotal movement about a pivot axis to an operative position wherein said crossbar engages the downwardly facing surface;

second bracket means provided at the remaining end of the crossbar for engaging said platform along a portion of the second upwardly facing surface area with said crossbar in said operative position;

locking means interconnecting the first bracket and the crossbar for selectively locking the crossbar in the operative position against relative angular movement about the pivot axis; and

guard rail mounting means on said upright post for releasably receiving and supporting a horizontal guard rail.

2. The invention set out in claim 1 wherein said first bracket means includes a horizontal protruding lip fixed to the upright post and elevationally spaced from the crossbar when in said operative position, by a distance substantially equal to the distance between the first upwardly facing surface area and the downwardly facing surface area; and

wherein said second bracket means includes a horizontal protruding lip fixed to said second bracket means and spaced from the crossbar a distance substantially equal to the distance between the second upwardly facing surface area and the downwardly facing surface area.

3. The invention set out in claim 2 further comprising adjusting means for enabling the second bracket means to be selectively positioned along the length of the crossbar.

4. The invention set out in claim 1 wherein the locking means comprises:

complementary apertures formed through said first bracket means and said crossbar at equal radial distances from the pivot axis, said complementary apertures being positioned so that they align with one another in the operative position of the crossbar; and

a rigid locking member slidably receivable through the aligned complementary apertures.

5. The invention set out in claim 1 wherein the guard rail mounting means comprises:

a guard rail support bracket slidably receiving a guard rail, said first support bracket being mounted to the upright post for movement along the post;

fastening means connected to the post for urging the guard rail against the first guard rail support bracket; and

a guard rail support channel mounted to the other end of the upright post for receiving a second guard rail therethrough.