Clamping System

Abstract

A system for clamping a first member to a second member -- to be preferably used in the building art -- by means of a rod passing at least through one of the members, comprising a resilient sealing member to be fit on the rod to insulate said rod from said at least one of said members, a multiclamp fastener consisting of superimposed plate member to be pressfitted on said rod above said resilient sealing member to press said resilient sealing member into sealing engagement with said one member and to retain said rod in proper position to which end said fastener has a plurality of resilient tongue members entering in clamping contact with said rod.

Description

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a system for clamping corrugated sheet members to define a roof and the like structure, to a roof supporting beam structure and said system includes more particularly a multiclamp fastener for rods and a resilient sealing member for each rod and which are the linking means which link together the different structural members, such as for instance a roof supporting beam structure which is to support the corrugated sheet members, with said members.

In the past a good number of systems have been suggested which permit to achieve a fast assembling of different members, particularly plate-like members to produce roofs for store houses, hangars and the like. These systems are either expensive or not reliable. A clamping system to be useful in the type of structure hereinabove mentioned, should provide the necessary means to avoid leakages of rain water passing along the tie rods and should at the same time be easily adjustable and replaceable.

Accordingly, the present invention provides for a system for clamping corrugated sheet members to define a roof and the like structure, to a roof supporting beam structure, comprising rods, each rod including a hook end portion to be linked to said beam structure, said corrugated sheet members having perforations, said rods being adapted to project through said perforations, and said corrugated sheet members being adapted to rest on said roof supporting beam structure, resilient sealing members, one to be mounted on each of said rods, each resilient sealing member comprising a tubular body portion including a bore, said tubular body portion having a substantially cylindrical lower end portion with a constant cross sectional area bore portion and a frustoconical upper end portion with decreasing cross sectional area bore portions, decreasing towards the free end of said frustoconical upper end portion, a wing member integral with said tubular body portion surrounding said tubular body portion at the zone of confluence of said cylindrical lower end portion and said frustoconical upper end portion, said wing member having a peripheral edge defining an extremely resilient portion thereof, said substantially cylindrical lower end portion being adapted to enter said perforation of said sheet member to insulate the rod projecting through said sheet member, from said sheet member, a plurality of multiclamp fasteners, one for each rod, and to be mounted on each rod over said frustoconical upper end portion of said resilient sealing member to press said extremely resilient peripheral edge of said wing member into sealing contact with said corrugated sheet member, each multiclamp fastener comprising a plurality of superimposed plate members, each plate member defining a general plane and having a peripheral edge, a central bore and radially projecting, spaced apart recesses beginning at said bore and being directed towards said peripheral edge but spaced apart therefrom, each recess increasing in area from said central bore towards its outer end portion, forming in-between adjacent recesses, tongue members the area of which is complementary to the shape of said recesses, but the area of each tongue member is smaller than that of each of said recesses, each tongue member being bent out of the general plane of said plate member at an angle of approximately 45.degree., an outardly projecting ear member emerging from said peripheral edge, and an ear member receiving recess in said peripheral edge spaced apart from said ear member in a distance equal to the distance between a recess and its adjacent tongue member, thus the ear member receiving recess of one plate member is adapted to house the ear member of the next superimposed plate member, thereby assuring that the central bores are coaxial and the tongue members of one plate member becomes housed in the pertinent recesses of the next superimposed plate member, said tongue members have free clamping end portions located above said frustoconical upper end portion of said resilient sealing member and are adapted to enter in clamping contact with said rod.

Actually, the hereinabove defined system includes two important means, of which the first one is the multiclamp fastener for rods and the second one is the resilient sealing member. In certain cases the multiclamp fastener may be used in combination with rods, without requiring the resilient sealing member, such as for instance for connecting together two wood beams.

In view of the foregoing, it is apparent that another object of the present invention is to provide a multiclamp fastener for rods, comprising a plurality of superimposed plate members, each plate member defining a general plane and having a peripheral edge, a central bore and radially projecting, spaced apart recesses beginning at said bore and being directed towards said peripheral edge but spaced apart therefrom, each recess increasing in area from said central bore towards its outer end portion, forming in-between adjacent recesses tongue members the area of which is complementary to the shape of said recesses, but the area of each tongue member is smaller than that of each of said recesses, each tongue member being bent out of the general plane of said plate member at an angle of approximately 45.degree., an outwardly projecting ear member emerging from said peripheral edge, and an ear member receiving recess in said peripheral edge spaced apart from said ear member in a distance equal to the distance between a recess and its adjacent tongue member, thus the ear member receiving recess of one plate member is adapted to house the ear member of the next superimposed plate member, thereby assuring that the central bores are coaxial and the tongue members one one plate member become housed in the pertinent recesses of the next superimposed plate member.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a resilient sealing member for a rod to be used in combination with the hereinabove defined multiclamp fastener said sealing member comprising a tubular body portion including a bore, said tubular body portion having a substantially cylindrical lower end portion with a constant crossed sectional area bore portion and a frustoconical upper end portion with decreasing cross sectional area bore portions, decreasing towards the free end of said frustoconical upper end portion and a wing member integral with said tubular body portion surrounding said tubular body portion at the zone of confluence of said cylindrical lower end portion and said frustoconical upper end portion, said wing member having a peripheral edge defining an extremely resilient portion thereof.

In order to facilitate the comprehension of the present invention, reference will now be made to specific structural embodiments by way of example:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematical sectional view of the system for clamping a corrugated sheet member, to define a roof structure, to a roof supporting beam structure.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of a plate member to form part of the multiclamp fastener.

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the plate member of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a detail in perspective view of an ear member and associated peripheral edge of the plate member.

FIG. 5 is a detail in perspective view of the ear member receiving recess in said peripheral edge of said plate member.

FIG. 6 is a side elevation of a pair of clamped together beam members by means of a pair of rods and associated multiclamp fasteners mounted on said rods.

FIG. 7 is a top plan view of the embodiment of FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a longitudinal section through a resilient sealing member.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In order to facilitate the comprehension of the present invention, reference will first be made to the multiclamp fastener in connection with FIGS. 2 to 7. The multiclamp fastener 1 (FIG. 6) comprises a plurality preferably two superimposed plate members 2 (FIGS. 2 and 3) which are of identical shape and structure. Each plate member 2 defines a general plane 3 (FIG. 3) and the plate member as such is circular in shape and has a peripheral edge 4 (FIG. 2). There is a central bore 5 and a plurality of radially projecting spaced apart recesses 6, beginning at said bore 5 and being directed towards said peripheral edge 4, but being sufficiently spaced apart therefrom, so that the outer portion of said plate member 2 is an annular substantially uninterrupted portion 7, which is the one to absorb the stresses the tongue members, as will be later apparent and also to enter into pressing and abutting contact with the members 18, 19 FIG. 6; 20, 21 FIG. 1 to be fastened. Each recess 6 increases in area from said central bore 5 towards its outer end portion 8. More particularly, the outer end portion 8 could be identified as the bottom wall of the recess 6 and integral with converging side walls 9, which converge towards the central bore 5. Thus, each recess 6 increases in area from said central bore 5 towards its outer end portion 8. In between each pair of adjacent recesses 6 a tongue member 10 is formed, the area of which is complementary to the shape of said recesses 6, but the area of each tongue member 10 is smaller than the area of each of said recesses 6. Thus, each tongue member 10 of one plate member 2 can be housed in a recess 6 of a superimposed plate member (see FIGS. 1 and 6) without entering in contact with the side walls 9 of said recess 6, so that each tongue member can freely operate. Each tongue member 10 is bent out of the general plane 3 at an angle of approximately 45.degree.as clearly shown in FIG. 3. The area of the central bore 5 is defined by the free end portions 11 of the tongue members 10. The cross-sectional area of bore 5 should be slightly less than that of a rod 12 (FIG. 6) to which the multiclamp fastener 1 is to be clamped. It will be readily understood that the tongue members 10 must have a certain resiliency and elasticity to enable the fitting over a rod 12.

Each plate member 2 has at the peripheral edge 4 (see also FIG. 4) an outwardly and more particularly downwardly projecting ear member 13. This ear member is produced by making two cuts 14 and bending the middle portion 13 downwardly. Conveniently the ear member 13 is symmetricallly located with regard to the radius 15 (FIG. 2) passing through the middle of the bottom wall 8. The peripheral edge 4 (see also FIG. 5) has furthermore an ear member receiving recess 16 which is spaced apart from said ear member 13 in a distance equal to the distances existing between a recess 6 and its adjacent tongue member 10, or in other words, the recess 16 is formed in the portion corresponding to the radius 17 (FIG. 2) passing through the middle of the free end portion 11 of the tongue member 10. It is not necessary, as shown in FIG. 2, that the recess 16 is directly adjacently arranged the ear member 13, it could be a multiple of the distance existing between a recess 6 and its adjacent tongue member 10.

From FIG. 2 it is apparent that all tongue members 10 and all recesses 6 are of the same length. It will now be understood that upon superimposing two or more plate members 2, one above the other in such a way that the ear member 13 of an upper plate fits into the ear member receiving recess 16 of an immediate lower plate, that the tongue members 10 of the lower plate become centrally housed in the recess 6 of the upper plate, as clearly shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

If for instance two beam members, such as beam members 18, 19 (FIG. 6) have to be linked together by means of a pair of rods 12, it will be sufficient to fit over each outwardly projecting rod end portion, a pair or more of these superimposed plate members 2, until the annular portion 7 of each lowermost plate member becomes seated on the outer face of the beam members 18, 19 respectively. Since the ear member 13 automatically aligns its plate member with the next plate member, upon becoming inserted in the ear member receving recess 16, each tongue member 10 operates freely within its proper position and clamps the pertinent rod 12, the cross-sectional area of which is slightly larger than that of central bore 5, whereby the tongues become slightly outwardly flectioned. Such a multiclamp fastener may be easily moved downwardly along the rod but any effort in the oposite direction will be successfully resisted by the tongue members 10. From the foregoing it is also apparent that each ear member 13 projects in the opposite direction with regard to the tongue member 10.

If the multiclamp fastener 1 is to be used in connection with metal structures, specially with roof structures, such as shown in FIG. 1, it is advisable to provide for additional sealing means which assure that there is no metal to metal contact between the roof structure and the tie rod at the same time as no rain may leak along such tie rod. In FIG. 1 a structure is shown consisting of a schematically indicated roof supporting beam structure 20, which supports one or several corrugated sheet member 21, to define a roof. To this end, the corrugated sheet member 21 has spaced apart perforations 22 (only one shown) to anchor the corrugated sheet member 21 to the roof supporting beam structure 20. A tie rod 23, which is the equivalent of rod 12 in the previously explained embodiment, is provided, having a hook end portion 24 which may be hooked to the roof supporting beam structure 20. Tie rod 23 projects through perforation 22. The multiclamp fastener 1 is mounted on the outwardly projecting free end portion of tie rod 23, and between the corrugated sheet member 21 and the multiclamp fastener 1, a resilient sealing member 25 is arranged. This sealing member 25 has been so conceived that it assures that there is no metal contact between the tie rod 23 and the corrugated sheet member 21 at the same time as it provides a good sealing, so that no water (rain) may leak along the tie rod 23 or through the perforation 22. To achieve this purpose, the resilient sealing member must provide a number of features which will now be explained in connection with FIG. 8. The resilient sealing member comprises a tubular body portion 26 including bore 27. The tubular body portion 26 is divided into a substantially cylindrical lower end portion 28 with a constant cross-sectional area bore portion 29 which may be easily fit over the rod 23 and a frustoconical upper end portion 30 with decreasing cross-sectional area bore portions, which is actually the tapered bore portion 31. This tapered bore portion 31 requires that the resilient sealing member 25 is force fitted onto the rod 12, because the cross-sectional area of the rod 12 is larger that at least the smallest cross-sectional areas of bore 31, thereby providing a good sealing between the rod 23 and the sealing member 25. At the same time, the upper end portion 30 which is frustoconical, provides for a rain deflector, so that the water which runs along the outwardly projecting end of the tie rod 23 is deviated along the outer surface of the frustoconical end portion 30. In order to provide a good seal between the perforation 22 of the sheet member 21 and the outside and bearing in mind that the outer surface of the corrugated sheet member 21 is rather not uniform, a wing member 32 integral with said tubular body portion 26 surrounds the latter at the zone of confluence of said cylindrical lower end portion 28 and said frustoconical upper end portion 30. The lower face 33 of the wing member 32 is concavely shaped, if the sealing member is intended for corrugated sheet members. In addition the peripheral edge 34 defines an extremely resilient ridge 35, which is preferably a downwardly projecting tapered ridge, so that, as best seen in FIG. 1, a perfect sealing engagement is established between the wing 32 and the corrugated sheet member 21, upon the multiclamp fastener 1 entering in press fitting engagement with the resilient sealing member 25.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described in detail, it is to be expressly understood that the invention is not limited thereto. Various changes can be made in the design and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, as the same will now be understood by those skilled in the art.

In this connection it will be appreciated that the plate members 2, although designed for use together, exhibit their inventive characteristics when considered independently and may be sold and/or used individually; that the plate members 2 may be adapted by adjustment of tongue and recess sizes and shapes and orientation means for use in pluralities exceeding two (e.g., in threes superimposed and oriented relatively so that no tongue is superimposed on any other tongue) or for use on rods not of circular cross-section; and that for the ear and ear receiving recess there may be substituted alternative orientation defining means within the realm of any competent person to devise in the light of the disclosure of this Application.

Claims

I claim:

1. A fastener for engaging the periphery of a rod comprising, a substantially planar peripheral portion, a plurality of circumferentially spaced tongues defining a central bore and all extending at an angle to the plane of the peripheral portion inwardly from the peripheral portion radially toward and in the same direction along the axis of said bore, the tongues being spaced by, and with the peripheral portion defining, recesses, each recess being larger in area than and of a shape to encompass said tongue, and orientation means consisting of an ear member extending from the peripheral portion normal to said plane and an ear receiving recess in the peripheral portion, the ear member and the ear receiving recess being equally spaced from said axis and angularly spaced apart about said axis by an angle equal to the angular spacing, about said axis, of the center of a said recess and a said tongue.

2. A fastener according to claim 1, wherein the peripheral portion is annular and the ear member and receiving recess are positioned at the outer edge of the peripheral portion.

3. A fastener according to claim 1, wherein the tongues are all identical, the recesses spacing the tongues are all identical and increase in width from said bore toward said peripheral portion, and the angle of the tongues to said plane is approximately 45.degree..

4. A fastener according to claim 1, wherein each tongue increases in width from its free end to the peripheral portion.

5. A fastener according to claim 1, wherein the angular spacing of the ear member and the ear receiving recess is a multiple of the angular spacing of the center of adjacent recesses and tongues.

6. A fastener as claimed in claim 1, wherein the ear member and the tongues extend respectively from opposite sides of said plane.

7. A multiclamp fastener for rods comprising at least two fasteners, each fastener comprising a substantially planar peripheral portion, a plurality of circumferentially spaced tongues defining a central bore and all extending at an angle to the plane of the peripheral portion inwardly from the peripheral portion radially toward and in the same direction along the axis of said bore, the tongues being spaced by, and with the peripheral portion defining, recesses, each recess being larger in area than and of a shape to encompass said tongue, and orientation means having complimentary parts equally spaced from said axis and angularly spaced apart about said axis by a desired angle, wherein the desired angle equals the angular spacing, about said axis, of the center of a said recess and a said tongue, and the complimentary parts comprise an ear member extending from the peripheral portion and an ear receiving recess in the peripheral portion, the fasteners in use being superimposed in coaxial relationship with the ear member of one engaging the ear receiving recess of the other thereby ensuring that the tongues of one fastener are superimposed on the recess of the other.

8. A multiclamp fastener according to claim 7, further comprising a resilient sealing member, including a tubular body portion having a bore, said tubular body portion having a substantially cylindrical lower end portion with a constant cross sectional area bore portion and a frustoconical upper end portion with decreasing cross sectional area bore portion, decreasing towards the free end of said frustoconical upper end portion, and a wing member integral with said tubular body portion surrounding said tubular body portion at the zone of confluence of said cylindrical lower end portion and said frustoconical upper end portion, said wing member having a peripheral edge defining an extremely resilient portion thereof.

9. A multiclamp fastener as claimed in claim 8, wherein said peripheral edge of the resilient sealing member includes an endless downwardly projecting tapered ridge.

10. A multiclamp fastener as claimed in claim 9, wherein said ridge continues in a concavely shaped face forming the lower face of said wing member.

11. A fastener for engaging the periphery of a rod comprising a substantially planar peripheral portion, a plurality of circumferentially spaced tongues defining a central bore and all extending at an angle to the plane of the peripheral protion inwardly from the peripheral portion radially toward and in the same direction along the axis of said bore, the tongues being spaced by, and with the peripheral portion defining, recesses, each recess being larger in area than and of a shape to encompass said tongue, and orientation means having complementary parts equally spaced from said axis and angularly spaced apart about said axis by a desired angle wherein the complementary parts comprise an ear member extending from the peripheral portion and an ear receiving recess in the peripheral portion and wherein the desired angle equals the angular spacing, about said axis, of the center of a said recess and a said tongue.

12. A multiclamp fastener for rods comprising at least two fasteners, each fastener comprising a substantially planar peripheral portion, a plurality of circumferentially spaced tongues defining a central bore and all extending at an angle to the plane of the peripheral portion inwardly from the peripheral portion radially toward and in the same direction along the axis of said bore, the tongues being spaced by, and with the peripheral portion defining, recesses, each recess being larger in area than and of a shape to encompass said tongue, and orientation means having complimentary parts equally spaced from said axis and angularly spaced apart about said axis by an angle which ensures that when the fasteners are superimposed in coaxial relationship with a said complementary part of one engaging a said complimentary part of another, the tongues of that one fastener are superimposed on the recesses of the other.

13. A multiclamp fastener according to claim 12 wherein the complimentary parts comprise an ear member extending from the peripheral portion and an ear receiving recess in the peripheral portion.

14. A multiclamp fastener according to claim 13 wherein the ear member extends normal to said plane.

15. A multiclamp fastener according to claim 12 wherein each fastener is a homogeneous structure.