U.S. patent number 3,910,054 [Application Number 05/464,459] was granted by the patent office on 1975-10-07 for sheeting arrangement for sheeting of a ditch.
Invention is credited to Josef Krings.
United States Patent |
3,910,054 |
Krings |
October 7, 1975 |
Sheeting arrangement for sheeting of a ditch
Abstract
This disclosure relates to a sheeting arrangement for the
sheeting or shoring of a ditch or trench wherein vertical supports
are driven into the ground and thereafter sheeting walls are placed
between the vertical supports with the sheeting walls having
relative vertical movement with respect to the supports during the
positioning and pulling thereof. In order to facilitate the
movement of the sheeting walls relative to the supports without
undue binding or frictional resistance, it has been proposed to
provide the connections between the sheeting wall and the support
with bearing like elements.
Inventors: |
Krings; Josef (D-5138
Heinsberg, DT) |
Family
ID: |
5880374 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/464,459 |
Filed: |
April 26, 1974 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
Current U.S.
Class: |
405/282 |
Current CPC
Class: |
E02D
17/08 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
E02D
17/06 (20060101); E02D 17/08 (20060101); E21D
005/00 () |
Field of
Search: |
;61/39,41A ;160/201
;49/409 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Gilliam; Paul R.
Assistant Examiner: Corbin; David H.
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Diller, Brown, Ramik &
Wight
Claims
I claim:
1. An apparatus comprising sheeting means for the shoring of
ditches, said sheeting means including vertical posts of a hollow
box-like profile, sheeting walls, and guide heads carried by each
of said sheeting walls in vertically spaced relation and guided in
said posts, each post having at least one leg disposed normal to
the plane of an adjacent one of said sheeting walls and inner and
outer legs disposed parallel to the plane of adjacent ones of said
sheeting walls, said guide head having a plurality of rollers, some
of said rollers being mounted for rotation on axes disposed normal
to the plane of a respective sheeting wall in engagement with said
one leg and others of said rollers being mounted for rotation on
axes extending within the plane of the respective sheeting wall
between side surfaces thereof and perpendicular to an adjacent
post, said other rollers being offset relative to the respective
sheeting wall such that they run only on said inner leg of the
respective post which inner leg will be adjacent to the center of a
ditch being shored.
2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein there are means resiliently
mounting said rollers.
3. The apparatus of claim 2 wherein those rollers which are mounted
for rotation on axes disposed normal to the plane of the respective
sheeting wall are mounted in pairs with the rollers of each pair
being mounted for rotation about a single axis and said rollers are
part spherical.
4. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein those rollers which are mounted
for rotation on axes disposed normal to the plane of the respective
sheeting wall are mounted in pairs with the rollers of each pair
being mounted for rotation about a single axis and said rollers are
part spherical.
Description
This invention relates to a sheeting arrangement for the sheeting
or shoring of ditches which includes vertical supports of a
slotted, hollow box profile and sheeting walls which are guidingly
positioned in the supports.
In the sheeting or shoring of ditches in accordance with recently
developed sheeting arrangements, the sheeting walls are of a
prefabricated construction having flange-like guide elements which
are guided in vertical supports, the vertical supports at the same
time serving as connecting members for the sheeting walls and
having connected thereto the usual spreaders or clamping bases. The
supports in the sheeting walls can be forced into the soil
independently of one another or may be independently pulled out of
the soil. It has been found that in many cases the frictional
contact between the supports and the sheeting walls is relatively
great, particularly when the cooperating parts are not finished to
fit precisely and/or to be fitted into one another.
In view of the foregoing, this invention is directed to a sheeting
arrangement which is so constructed wherein it avoids the foregoing
shortcomings while at the same time having the required
stability.
The difficulties of the prior sheeting and support arrangements
have been solved by providing means for decreasing the frictional
resistance between the sheeting wall and its associated support.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the inside surfaces
of the support and/or the sliding parts of the sheeting walls which
are guided in the supports have a coating made of a material which
has a low riding friction coefficient, for example, a suitable
plastic material.
In accordance with a further development of the invention, on the
front side of the sheeting wall there have been mounted projecting
rollers, at least a certain of which are mounted for rotating about
axles disposed generally perpendicular to the plane of the sheeting
walls while other rollers rotate about axles which lie in the plane
of the sheeting wall and extend perpendicular with respect to the
associated support. In this embodiment of the invention, the
sheeting wall, because of the lateral soil pressure exerted thereon
in use, is supported by one leg of the support while the sheeting
wall can support itself against longitudinal forces relative to the
support by means of the other rolls.
A still further development of the invention provides for the
mounting of the rolls which have the axles thereof lying in the
plane of the sheeting wall and perpendicular to the support, as
fitting against only one leg of the support.
Yet another feature of the invention is to resiliently mount the
rolls.
In a still further embodiment of the invention, there is mounted on
the front side of the sheeting wall several bearings which are
spaced from one another and in which pairs of rolls are mounted for
rotation about an axle arranged perpendicular with respect to the
plane of the sheeting wall. Advantageously, the rolls of the pair
of rolls are at least part spherical rolls.
With the above and other objects in view that will hereinafter
appear, the nature of the invention will be more clearly understood
by reference to the following detailed description, the appended
claims and the several views illustrated in the accompanying
drawings:
IN THE DRAWINGS:
FIG. 1 is a horizontal sectional view through a support and a part
of a sheeting wall taken generally along the line I -- I of FIG. 3
with the sheeting wall being shown in elevation for purposes of
clarity.
FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view similar to FIG. 1, but taken
along the line II -- II of FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 is a vertical sectional view taken through the support
generally in the plane of the sheeting wall with intermediate
portions of both the support and sheeting wall being broken
away.
FIG. 4 is a horizontal sectional view similar to FIG. 1, but taken
along the line IV -- IV of FIG. 5 and shows the modified form of
guidance.
FIG. 5 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view taken along the
line V -- V of FIG. 4 and shows more specifically the details of
the mounting of the guidance structure of FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 is another horizontal sectional view similar to FIG. 1 and
shows still another embodiment of the guidance arrangement in
accordance with this invention.
With reference to FIGS. 1 - 3, there is illustrated a first
embodiment of a sheeting arrangement formed in accordance with this
invention. The sheeting arrangement includes a support 1 and
sheeting wall 2. The support 1 is essentially in the form of a
double-T which is provided at the ends of its legs or cross bars
with terminal flange elements 3,4 which extend generally parallel
to the stem or bridge 5 of the support 1. The flange elements 3 are
in the form of strips whereas the flange elements 4 are in the form
of angle members. The flange 3 cooperates with the flange 4 at each
side of the support to define the generally U-shaped channel while
the angle flanges 4 cooperate at one side of the support 1 to
define a further generally U-shaped channel.
It is also to be noted that the stem or bridge 5 of the support is
reinforced by two walls 6 which are parallel to the bridge 5 and
are disposed on opposite sides thereof inwardly of the flanges 3,4.
This reinforcement is effective to make the support 1 structurally
rigid.
The sheeting wall 2 is provided with an edge wall or front wall 7
on which bearing type supports 8 are mounted in pairs. The bearing
type supports 8 are disposed perpendicular to the wall 7 and have
disposed therebetween a roller 9 which is mounted on an axle 10
carried by the bearing type supports 8. The axle 10 is disposed
perpendicular to the plane of the sheeting wall 2 and generally
perpendicular to the planes of the cross bars of the support 1. The
roller 9 projects sufficiently from the sheeting wall 2 so as to
extend within the confines of the support 1 and rollingly engage
the adjacent reinforcing wall 6.
A further bearing type support 11 is attached to the sheeting wall
7 at a suitable distance above or below an associated roller 9.
Each bearing type support 11 carries a disc-shaped roll 12 which is
mounted on an axle 13 carried by the support 11 with the axle 13
being disposed transversely to the support 1 and generally within
the plane of the sheeting wall 2. Each roller 12 is disposed
perpendicular to the axis of its axle 13 and is arranged somewhat
eccentrically within the associated space between the two legs of
the support 1 so that it engages against the inner side of one leg
of the support. As is shown in FIG. 2, the roller 12 engages
against the side or leg of the support 1 which is disposed away
from the ditch which is being shored by the sheeting wall 2, the
ditch not being shown. It is this leg of the support 1 which
absorbs the greatest forces from the sheeting wall.
During the positioning or pulling of the sheeting walls 2, the
rollers 9 and 12 provide for a relatively free guiding of the
sheeting walls 2 within the supports 1 and thus greatly facilitate
the positioning or pulling action. On the other hand, since
sufficient free space will remain inside of the supports 1, any
possible fouling of the rollers 9 and 12 is prevented and thus
their functioning is assured. The rollers advantageously can be
attached to the sheeting wall subsequent to the construction
thereof.
In FIGS. 4 and 5 of the drawings, there is illustrated another
embodiment of the invention. In accordance with this embodiment of
the invention, the wall 7 of the sheeting wall is provided at
vertically spaced intervals with bearing-type supports 14, each of
which includes a tubular housing 15 in which an axle 16 is
journalled. At the ends of each axle 16 there are mounted rollers
which are disposed between the reinforcement wall 6 and the
supporting flanges 3 and 4. The rollers are preferably at least
part spherical so that when the sheeting wall 2 is being positioned
or being pulled and the same shifts to an offset position with
respect to the support 1, one of the rollers 17 will engage the
corresponding leg of the support 1 and provide an anti-friction
bearing so as to minimize the frictional contact between the
sheeting wall 2 and the adjacent support 1.
It will be readily apparent that the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5
offer the same advantages as those of FIGS. 1 - 3. It is also to be
understood that adjacent ones of the bearing-type supports 14 may
be disposed eccentrically with respect to the general plane of the
sheeting wall 2 so that they will combine to generally center the
sheeting wall 2 with respect to the support 1, as is shown in FIG.
4.
It is also to be understood that in the two embodiments of FIGS. 1
through 5 to make the bearing-type supports of a resilient
construction would be advantageous. This would provide for the
resilient mounting of the rollers 9, 12 and 17.
In FIG. 6 there is illustrated still another embodiment of the
invention. In lieu of the anti-friction type rollers of the
embodiments of FIGS. 1 through 5, the front wall 7 of the sheeting
wall 2 is provided with a guide strip 18 which is rigidly connected
to the front wall 7. In FIG. 6 the two legs of the support 1 are
identified by the numerals 19 and 20 and the insides of these legs
19,20, as well as the insides of the flanges 3,4 which oppose the
reinforcings walls 6 are coated with a material having a very low
friction coefficient. For example, certain plastic materials will
suffice. These coatings have been generally designated by the
numeral 21. If desired, the guide strip 18 may also have a like
coating 21' thereon in opposing relation to the reinforcement wall
6. Obviously, the coating 21' could be applied to the reinforcement
wall 6 instead of on the guide strip 18.
It is also pointed out here that suitable coatings could
advantageously be utilized in the embodiment of FIGS. 4 and 5 with
these coatings being supplied to the same areas of the support 1 in
those Figures.
Although only several preferred embodiments of the invention have
been specifically illustrated and described herein, it is to be
understood that minor variations may be made in the sheeting
arrangement without departing from the spirit and scope of the
invention, as defined by the appended claims.
* * * * *