U.S. patent number 3,685,866 [Application Number 05/028,681] was granted by the patent office on 1972-08-22 for connector for structural steel.
Invention is credited to Wilfrid J. Patenaude.
United States Patent |
3,685,866 |
Patenaude |
August 22, 1972 |
CONNECTOR FOR STRUCTURAL STEEL
Abstract
A connector assembly for joining structural steel members
together to form a structure. The features of the invention are: A.
a support piece for rigid connection of a rear surface thereof to a
vertical face of a first structural steel member, said support
piece having a pair of outwardly projecting side walls defining
first surfaces that converge outwardly to form a frontal slot
therebetween and also converge downwardly to cause said slot to
become a retaining socket, said support piece also having a first
face inclined downwardly and outwardly; and B. a wedge piece for
rigid connection of a rear surface thereof to an end of a second
structural steel member and for interlocking engagement with said
socket, said wedge piece having a pair of side walls defining
second surfaces that diverge outwardly and converge downwardly to
mate with said first surfaces in a wedging action preventing
relative lateral movement between said pieces, said wedge piece
also including a second face inclined downwardly and inwardly to
mate with said first face whereby to hold the wedge piece firmly in
said support piece against relative longitudinal movement.
Inventors: |
Patenaude; Wilfrid J.
(Lorraine, Quebec, CA) |
Family
ID: |
21844855 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/028,681 |
Filed: |
April 15, 1970 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
403/189;
52/655.1 |
Current CPC
Class: |
F16B
9/09 (20180801); E04B 1/2403 (20130101); F16B
7/22 (20130101); F16B 2200/10 (20180801); E04B
2001/2409 (20130101); E04B 2001/2448 (20130101); F16B
2200/30 (20180801) |
Current International
Class: |
E04B
1/24 (20060101); F16B 7/22 (20060101); F16B
7/00 (20060101); F16b 007/04 () |
Field of
Search: |
;287/189.36R,189.36C,189.36D,189.36F,189.36H,2.92C,2.92G,189.35,23,56
;52/721 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Williamowsky; David J.
Assistant Examiner: Shedd; Wayne L.
Claims
The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or
privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
1. A connector for structural steel members comprising in
combination:
a. a support member having a rear surface for rigid connection to a
vertical face of a first structural steel member, said support
member comprising first and second outwardly projecting side walls
including portions defining first surfaces which extend outwardly
and converge to form a frontal slot therebetween, downwardly
extending portions of said surfaces forming said slot converging to
form a retaining socket, said support member further including a
first face inclined downwardly and outwardly;
b. a wedge member for interlocking with said support member and
including a rear surface for rigid connection to an end of a second
structural steel member, said wedge member further comprising first
and second side walls defining surfaces which diverge outwardly for
mating with said first surfaces of said support member, said side
walls being wedgingly received in said frontal slot to prevent
lateral movement between said members, said wedge member further
including a second face which is inclined inwardly and downwardly
to mate with said first face of said support member to maintain the
wedge member firmly in engagement with said support member and
thereby prevent relative longitudinal motion between said
members;
the front edge faces of the side walls of the support member being
inclined downwardly and outwardly, and the side walls of said wedge
member including laterally extending flanges, said flanges having
downwardly and inwardly inclined frontal faces for mating with the
front edge faces of the support member, the side walls of said
support member further including further portions intermediate said
surface defining portions and the rear surface of the support
member for providing an erection clearance at the rear of the said
socket for accommodating the portion of the wedge member extending
beyond the flanges when the wedge member is initially inserted into
the socket.
2. An assembly according to claim 1, wherein the outwardly
projecting side walls of the support member are joined at their
rear edges by a connecting wall.
3. An assembly according to claim 2, wherein the connecting wall
has a downwardly and outwardly inclined front face and said wedge
member has a downwardly and inwardly inclined front face to mate
with the connecting wall of the support member.
4. An assembly according to claim 1 wherein the wedge member
includes a slot to receive the end of a beam web.
5. An assembly according to claim 1 wherein the side walls of the
support member are joined at the bottom.
6. An assembly as claimed in claim 1 wherein said support member is
integral with the vertical face of said first structural steel
member and said wedge member is integral with the end of said
second structural steel member.
Description
This invention relates to a connector assembly for structural steel
members, particularly for joining various structural steel members
together to form a building or similar structure.
At the present time when a building is fabricated with a steel
framework, each of the individual structural steel members is shown
on drawings and the joints between each of these members are
detailed. In addition, calculations are made to determine the loads
to be carried at each of these joints and the joints are
constructed to carry these loads. This requires a tremendous amount
of work in the drafting office of the structural steel company.
Even after the calculations have been done, a considerable amount
of work is involved in determining how many bolts or rivets are
required to make the connection and then the drawing must show the
exact location of each of the holes so that the bolts or rivets can
be placed in the structure easily during erection.
These finished drawings are then sent to the shop where the various
structural steel members are cut to length and the location of the
holes marked and drilled. On the site, when the members are being
erected a considerable amount of time and skill is required in
positioning the members and holding them in this position long
enough so that the bolts or rivets can be inserted to complete the
connection.
It will be readily evident that this is a very long, tedious and
expensive operation, yet this is the manner in which most steel
buildings are constructed today.
Attempts have been made in the past to overcome this difficulty and
provide a simpler means for connecting structural members together.
One such attempt is described in Stromberg, U.S. Pat. No.
2,008,087, issued July 16, 1935. In this old patent an assembly is
described consisting of a tapered plate welded to the end of a
small structural member and this plate is designed to be inserted
into a supporting socket having converging sides which mate with
the tapered sides of the plate. It will be seen that the tapered
plate is held between the converging sides of the socket so that
there is little or no relative movement between the two members
being joined in a vertical or lateral direction. However, since the
tapered plate must fit into the socket, there must be some play
with the result that the member to which the tapered plate is
connected can move longitudinally and it will be readily evident
that if this play is permitted in all of the members making up the
structure, the resulting structure is not rigid.
Another serious disadvantage of the prior art connector assembly is
that no erection clearance has been provided for inserting the
tapered plate into the socket and this can be a very serious
problem when large structural members are being positioned in a
highrise structure.
It is therefore, an object of the present invention to overcome the
deficiencies in the prior art connector assembly and provide an
assembly which can be easily assembled while providing a rigid
structural steel framework.
The connector assembly of this invention includes a support piece
which can be rigidly connected by a rear surface thereof to a
vertical face of a structural steel member. This support piece has
a pair of outwardly projecting side walls defining surfaces that
converge outwardly to form a frontal slot therebetween. These
converging surfaces also converge downwardly to cause the slot to
become a retaining socket. The support piece is also provided with
a face which is inclined downwardly and outwardly.
The second component of the invention is a wedge piece which can be
rigidly connected via a rear surface thereof to an end of a second
structural steel member and is adapted for interlocking engagement
with the above mentioned socket. This wedge piece has a pair of
walls defining surfaces that diverge outwardly and converge
downwardly to mate with the above mentioned converging surfaces of
the support piece in a wedging action so as to prevent lateral
movement between the support piece and the wedge piece. This wedge
piece also includes a face which is inclined downwardly and
inwardly to mate with the above mentioned downwardly and outwardly
inclined face of the support piece, thereby holding the wedge piece
firmly in the support piece against relative longitudinal
movement.
The support piece can be fabricated with a rear wall joining the
two outwardly projecting side walls or this rear wall can be
eliminated and the two side walls can be joined at the bottom by
means of a bottom wall. This bottom wall can be square or rounded
and it is, of course, possible to provide both a bottom wall and
rear wall for the support piece.
The downwardly and outwardly inclined face of the support piece can
either be the front face of the piece or the outer face of the rear
wall.
The wedge piece is preferably provided with a slot extending from
the rear surface thereof, into which the web of a structural steel
beam fits and it can also have laterally extending flanges forming
extensions of its rear surface. The frontal faces of these
laterally extending flanges can be inclined downwardly to mate with
the inclined frontal face of the support piece. When the support
piece is provided with an inclined face on the rear wall, a
corresponding incline can be provided on the front face of the
wedge piece.
The following is a description by way of example of certain
embodiments of the present invention, reference being had to the
accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a typical structural steel
connection employing the connector assembly of the present
invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of one embodiment of a support piece
of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a corresponding wedge piece
according to the invention;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view through the support and wedge of FIGS. 2
and 3 in the assembled position;
FIG. 5 is a front elevation of another embodiment of the invention
showing a support piece and wedge piece in assembled position;
FIG. 6 is a side elevation of FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 is a sectional view through line 7--7 of FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a front elevation of yet another embodiment of the
invention showing a support piece and wedge piece in assembled
position;
FIG. 9 is a sectional view through line IX--IX of FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is a sectional view through line X --X of FIG. 8;
FIG. 11 is a front elevation of an assembly showing the use of the
connectors of the invention; and
FIG. 12 is an end elevation of the view according to FIG. 11.
FIG. 1 shows a column 10 having a flange face 11 and a support
piece A is welded to this face 11. An I-beam 12 with a web 13
having a wedged piece B according to this invention welded thereto
is shown connected to the column 10.
FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a support piece according to this
invention. From this it will be seen that the support piece 20
includes a back wall 21 and short side wall portions 22
perpendicular to the back wall 21, these perpendicular portions 22
merging into outwardly converging wall portions 23. The outwardly
converging wall portions 23 have outwardly converging inner faces
26 and outwardly converging outer faces 24, as well as inner edge
faces 27 perpendicular to back wall 21 and defining a frontal
opening. The inner faces 26 and edge faces 27 also converge
downwardly to form a retaining socket therebetween and are joined
at the bottom by curved portions to form a U-shaped socket. The
wall portions 23 also have front edge faces 29 which are inclined
downwardly and outwardly.
Short inner faces 25 perpendicular to back wall 21 provide an
erection clearance to simplify insertion of the wedge piece.
The wedge piece 30 shown in FIG. 3 mates with the support piece 20
of FIG. 2 as illustrated in FIG. 4. This wedge piece 30 includes a
front face 31, a rear face 32 and side walls having faces 33 which
diverge outwardly towards front face 31. The side walls also
include parallel faces 34 and these faces 33 and 34 all converge
downwardly to mate with faces 26 and 27 of the support piece 20 in
assembled position. Laterally extending flanges 35 are provided
adjacent rear face 32 and the frontal faces 36 of these flanges
taper downwardly towards the rear of wedge piece 30 to mate with
the tapering faces 29 of support piece 20. The wedge piece 30 is
also provided with a slot 37 extending therethrough to receive a
web of a structural steel beam. The particular slot shown in this
Figure does not extend all the way to the bottom of the wedge piece
and this means that a small recess must be cut out of a beam flange
to accommodate the wedge piece.
Because of this arrangement of tapering faces, it will be seen that
the wedge piece 30 connected to the end of a beam can easily be set
into the socket of support piece 20 fixed to a column face and
allowed to drop down into position. Then, when the structural
members are properly aligned the wedge can be driven down into the
socket so that the two structural components are rigidly joined
together by contacting metal faces in both lateral and longitudinal
directions.
FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 show a similar embodiment to that described in
FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 but with the rear wall 21 of support piece 20
eliminated. This means that the rear faces 40 of the side walls are
welded directly onto the face of a column. FIG. 5 also quite
clearly illustrates the gradual convergence of the mating side
walls of the support piece and wedge piece while FIG. 6 clearly
illustrates the gradual incline of the mating faces between flange
35 and frontal faces 29 of the support piece 20. The angle of these
converging and inclined faces is normally quite small, eg. about
1/2.degree. with respect to a vertical plane.
Another embodiment of the invention is illustrated in FIGS. 8, 9
and 10 and in this arrangement the support piece 50 has a rear wall
portion 51 for attachment to a structural steel column and
projecting side walls 52. A socket is formed consisting of rear
face 53, parallel side faces 54 and outwardly converging faces 55.
It will be seen from FIG. 8 that faces 54 and 55 converge
downwardly and it will also be seen from FIG. 9 that the rear face
53 is inclined downwardly and outwardly.
The wedge piece 60 is formed with a front face 61, parallel side
faces 62 and rearwardly converging side faces 63. The front face 61
is inclined to mate with inclined face 53 of support piece 50 while
side faces 62 and 63 converge downwardly to mate with faces 54 and
55 of support piece 50. The wedgepiece also includes a slot 65 to
receive the web of a structural steel beam.
In this particular arrangement it will be seen that no bottom
closure has been provided for either the support piece 50 or the
wedgepiece 60, the side walls of the support piece being joined
only by the rear wall 51 and the portions of the wedge piece 60
joined by the narrow portions 66. Since the slot 65 is open at both
top and bottom in this arrangement, it can be fitted at any
location along the end of a beam web and no special cut-outs in the
web or flange are necessary.
A typical detail of a beam to column connection is shown in FIGS.
11 and 12. The column 70 has a support piece 71 welded to a flange
face and a beam 72 is connected to support piece 71 via wedge piece
73. A recess 74 is cut in the bottom corner of beam 72 to
accommodate the wedge piece 73.
A second beam 75 is shown connected to a web face 77 of column 70.
For this connection a support piece 76 is welded to web face 77 and
a corresponding wedge piece 78 is attached to the end of beam
75.
* * * * *