The invention generally relates to structures to protect building occupants from earthquake effects.
More particularly the invention relates to protective structures fitting under an office desk or similar furniture and allowing an office occupant to enter the protective structure which is resistant to overhead impact.
Articles such as earthquake or tornado protection pods or protection structures are known.
Such a structure is known, for instance, from U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,132 entitled “Structural Protective Shelter” and granted on Sep. 2, 1997 which describes a tubular steel structure designed to be used around a bed, chair or desk. The structure is comparatively large and not easily assembled or moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,508 describes a high strength case with openings to allow a person to enter and remain within for some time, however the case is comparatively large and an integral whole and again is not easily moved.
Such structures fail to solve all the known problems of earthquake protection pods since they do not readily allow placement where an office worker can seek shelter and are not amenable to assembly on site.
Therefore a need exists for a solution to the problem of ease of access, ease of placement and ease of construction.
The present invention provides a solution to this and other problems which offers advantages over the prior art or which will at least provide the public with a useful choice.
All references, including any patents or patent applications cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference. No admission is made that any reference constitutes prior art. The discussion of the references states what their authors assert, and the applicants reserve the right to challenge the accuracy and pertinency of the cited documents. It will be clearly understood that, although a number of prior art publications are referred to herein, this reference does not constitute an admission that any of these documents form part of the common general knowledge in the art, in New Zealand or in any other country.
The invention consists in a protection pod having at least three compression resistant elongate legs capable of resting substantially vertically on a floor, each leg having at the upmost end a socket capable of receiving laterally within itself at least one portion of a bracing frame extending between the upmost ends of all the legs, each socket and received portion of bracing frame being retainable together by a fastening means such that the bracing frame is retained substantially at right angles to the legs and has a spacing between socket and bracing frame which will crush under loading on the upmost end of the socket.
Wherein the protection pod has at least one brace extending between the lower portion of a first leg and a second leg.
Wherein the braces are lateral.
Wherein the braces are at an angle and in the plane between the first leg and the second leg.
Wherein the pod has a floor plate, the floor plate being affixed to the lowermost end of each leg of the protection pod.
wherein the floor plate has a stub fitting within each leg of the pod.
Wherein the socket at the upmost end of a leg has a lower crush resistance to vertical forces than the remainder of the substantially vertical leg of which it forms a part.
Wherein the pod is dismantleable and relocatable.
These and other features of as well as advantages which characterise the present invention will be apparent upon reading of the following detailed description and review of the associated drawings.
Referring now to
Legs 102 may be stabilised at set distances by linking bars 106, 107 which may be secured to the legs by internal nuts, by devises, by pins, or by any other fixing method holding legs 102 a fixed distance apart at floor level. There is no linking bar along one edge to allow unimpeded access for a potential occupant. As shown there are four leg posts 102 but the pod may have three legs or more than four, provided that it provides a stable enclosure not collapsing under the unusual loads placed on it by loose furniture and parts of a building falling on it during an earthquake or tornado.
The crushing inwards of the walls of the frame sockets 103 and frame ends 301 may be aided if packing washers (not shown) are inserted to take up the side gap between the side walls of the two tubes, and if bolt 105 and nut 302 are initially tensioned to stress the side wall of frame sockets 103 inwards.
The entire protection pod is of parts which can be assembled on site, allowing the parts to be easily carried to the desired location.
While the drawings show horizontal linking bars these may be replaced by linking bars at 45 degrees to the vertical to provide more resistance to shearing forces, or by transverse welded beams. Any linking bars may be secured by devises, by locking pins, by nuts or by some locking configuration which receives the bars during assembly to retain them once assembled.
While the pod displayed has four supporting legs a viable pod may have three or more, depending on the number of persons to be sheltered and the space available.
It is to be understood that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the various embodiments of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and functioning of various embodiments of the invention, this disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail so long as the functioning of the invention is not adversely affected. For example the particular elements of the protection pod may vary dependent on the particular application for which it is used without variation in the spirit and scope of the present invention.
In addition, although the preferred embodiments described herein are directed to protection pods for use in an earthquake situation, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that variations and modifications are possible within the scope of the appended claims, for instance the pod could be used in a tornado area if grid walls are provided on the version shown in
The protection pod may also be stored and transported in the form of a flatpack, the flackpack comprising all of the components ready to be assembled into the end product.
The protection pod of the invention is usable in the protection of life in locations in which objects damaging to a person may fall, such as buildings likely to be involved in earthquakes or tornados, mines or quarries. The present invention is therefore industrially applicable.