Patent Application
20140140764
Under 35 USC 119, this application claims the benefit of the priority date of U.K. Application No. 1220541.5, filed on Nov. 15, 2012, the content of which is herein incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to a bollard and to a method of fixing the bollard to the ground.
In supermarkets and retail stores, objects such as freezers refrigerators, shelving and product displays are susceptible to damage due to collisions with items such as shopping trolleys, floor scrubbers and pallet jacks. For example, freezer and refrigerator cases typically include a glass or transparent plastic door for viewing the products inside without opening the door. The glass can be shattered or the plastic scratched, upon impact with shopping trolleys. Since the body of many of these floor fixtures is constructed of lightweight metals or hardened plastic it can be easily dented or cracked by such impacts. Likewise, in industrial locations such as warehouses and manufacturing facilities, both internally and externally, product storage, doorways and equipment are susceptible to damage due to collisions with heavy equipment, such as delivery vehicles and forklifts.
A bollard protects objects and fixtures from collisions with all types of vehicles. Bollards are commonly employed inside a store to protect store fixtures and outside a store to protect outdoor structures from collisions, to indicate parking areas, to block vehicle and heavy equipment access to a particular area, and to direct flow of traffic. Bollards can also be used to block vehicular access for security reasons.
There are two primary types of bollards; plate-mounted bollards and core-drilled bollards. Plate-mounted bollards conventionally involve a steel plate having three or four bolt holes and a bollard extending perpendicularly from one face of the plate. The plate sits on the floor and bolts are used to fasten the plate, and therefore the bollard, to the floor through the bolt holes. There is no significant disruption to the ground or floor, other than the bolt holes, which are in some instances pre-drilled. On the other hand, core-drilled bollards conventionally require a major disruption to the ground or floor with the creation of a hole two to four feet deep and having a larger diameter than the bollard itself, for example eight inches to two feet, or larger. Concrete is poured into the hole and the bollard is placed in the concrete and held vertically while the concrete cures. In some instances, concrete is also poured into the hollow bollard itself. Installation of a core-drilled bollard is significantly more expensive than with a plate-mounted bollard, and takes significantly more time to complete. However, there are locations where the core-drilled bollard is required due to its ability to absorb larger impacts than the plate-mounted bollard.
Plate-mounted bollards are conventionally utilised in areas where impacts are more likely to be less severe, and involve lighter objects, or where no significant impacts are likely and the bollard serves more as a marker. For example, inside a grocery store in front of a freezer case any impact would likely be from a shopping trolley or floor polisher. Such an impact would be considered to be low-energy, or relatively minor Accordingly, a plate-mounted bollard would be appropriate for this type of installation. However, in a warehouse with heavy equipment, such as delivery vehicles and forklifts, impacts are more likely to be more severe, or high-energy. A vehicle backing up may accidentally collide with a bollard. Accordingly, a core-drilled bollard would be more appropriate in these types of settings.
There are a substantial number of installations where a conventional plate-mounted bollard does not provide quite enough impact protection; however, a core-drilled bollard is significantly over-sized for the application. Yet, a core-drilled bollard is installed because the conventional plate-mounted bollard falls short of providing the required protection. Likewise, there are installations where a core-drilled bollard is necessary to provide protection against likely impacts, yet a plate-mounted bollard is installed because they are less expensive or there are logistical problems with drilling four foot deep holes for the core-drilled bollard installation. Other factors may influence the selection of a plate-mounted bollard or a core-drilled bollard.
To address this issue, a bollard having an impact absorption mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,901,156 B2. This Patent discloses a plate-mounted bollard which includes an internal impact absorption mechanism that enables the bollard to absorb impact forces greater than conventional plate-mounted bollards. The bollard makes use of a force transfer process that shifts impact forces to areas better able to resiliently absorb the impact without causing damage to the bollard, the impact absorption mechanism, or the ground in which the bollard is installed. The impact absorption mechanism consists of an internal resilient core rod mounted at its proximal end to a base plate which is fixed to the ground. Impact forces are then transferred through an outer shell to the distal or upper end of the internal resilient core. With energy from the impact force being distributed along the maximum length of the resilient core rod, the rod flexes and the full length of the rod is utilized to absorb the impact energy.
Although the bollard of this Patent is an effective solution to the provision of a plate-mounted bollard in situation where a core-drilled bollard would normally have been preferred, this bollard is relatively complex and expensive to manufacture and maintain and is not an ideal solution in all circumstances.
It is therefore an object of the invention to improve upon the known art.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a bollard comprising an elongate outer tubular cover, an elongate inner tubular core located within the outer tubular cover, a damper located at a lower end of the inner tubular core, and a washer arranged to locate the damper against the inner tubular core, wherein the outer tubular cover and the inner tubular core are both substantially circular in horizontal cross-section and the outer tubular cover is able to rotate relative to the inner tubular core.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of fixing a bollard to the ground comprising receiving an elongate outer tubular cover, an elongate inner tubular core, a damper, a washer and one or more bolts, passing the or each bolt through the washer, damper and inner tubular core and into the ground, and placing the outer tubular cover over the inner tubular core such that the outer tubular cover is able to rotate relative to the inner tubular core.
Owing to the invention, it is possible to provide a bollard that can be used as a plate-mounted bollard that will provide effective collision protection and will also disperse the energy from a low level collision, without any damage to the bollard. The outer cover and the inner core transfer collision energy to the damper within the bollard, which absorbs and disperses the energy of a collision. The bollard is relatively simple to manufacture and install and comprises a small number of relatively straightforward components. The outer tubular cover and the inner tubular core are both substantially circular in horizontal cross-section and the outer tubular cover and the inner tubular core are preferably not connected together. This form of construction of the bollard allows the outer cover to rotate relative to the inner core and this further helps to disperse the energy from a collision, as the rotation of the outer cover will absorb energy prior to any further energy being transmitted to other components within the bollard.
Advantageously, the outer tubular cover and the inner tubular core are both ground-contacting, with the inner tubular core being closed at the lower end, wherein the washer directly contacts the damper and the damper directly contacts the closed lower end of the inner tubular core. This provides the most effective arrangement of the components, with the outer cover and the inner core both grounded. The inner core is closed at the ground-contacting end with a flat plate which has the washer clamping the damper against the flat plate of the inner core.
Ideally, the inner tubular core comprises one or more spacing elements on the external surface thereof. In the preferred embodiment, each spacing element comprises a substantially horizontal ring around the inner tubular core and the inner tubular core comprises two spacing elements on the external surface thereof. The spacing elements provide two main functions, firstly in that they support the rotation of the outer cover around the inner core, during any collision, and secondly they can provide their own shock-absorbing function during a collision. The outer tubular cover can comprise one or more holes, each hole locating a fixing lug. At least one hole is located below a spacing element and the respective fixing lug extends inside the outer tubular cover in a position below the spacing element. The provision of the holes and lugs relative to the spacing elements provides a simple way of retaining the outer cover in position relative to the inner core, without there being any direct connection between these two components.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
The washer 18 directly contacts the damper 16. The inner core 14 is closed at the lower end and the damper 16 directly contacts the closed lower end of the inner core 14. The inner core 14 also comprises two spacing elements 20 on its external surface. Each spacing element 20 comprises a substantially horizontal ring around the inner core 14. The outer cover 12 has two holes 22, each hole 22 locating a fixing lug 24. Each hole 22 is located below a respective spacing element 20 and the respective fixing lug 24 extends inside the outer cover 12 towards the inner core 14 in a position below the respective spacing element 20.
The bollard further comprises three bolts 26, each bolt 26 passing through the washer 18, damper 16 and inner core 14 and into the ground 28. The bolts push together the washer 18, damper 16 and inner core 14 so that any collision energy is ultimately transferred to the damper 16 which disperses the energy from any collision. The bolts 26 anchor the bollard 10 to the ground 28 and keep the bollard 10 in position. Should any object strike the bollard 10 in a collision then the energy of that collision is directed to the damper 16 through the outer cover 12 and the inner core 14 and the energy is dispersed in this way.
This collision protection is assisted by the spacing elements 20 that are fixed to the outside of the inner core 14. The bollard 10 is provided with two spacing elements 20 that are each formed as a ring around the inner core 14. The spacing elements 20 form part of the inner core 14 and are not fixed to the outer cover 12. The spacing elements 20 have a horizontal thickness that is slightly smaller than the gap between the outer cover 12 and the inner core 14. The spacing elements 20 are made from steel and are designed to reduce the surface contact between the outer cover 12 and the inner core 14, thus reducing the friction between the two parts thereby allowing the outer cover 12 to rotate.
The outer cover 12 is provided with two holes 22, vertically one above the other. These holes 22 receive lugs 24 that can be screwed into position. As can be seen in
A vertical section through the inner core 14 is shown in
As discussed above, the inner core 14 of the bollard 10 is ground-contacting, with the lower end 30 lying horizontally on the ground 28, with the elongate tubular part of the inner core 14 extending upwards in a vertical direction, as shown in
The outer cover 12 is shown in a perspective view from above in
As can be seen in this Figure, the outer cover 12 is provided with holes 22 that lie on the same vertical line. These holes 22 are located so that they are underneath respective spacing elements 20 on the exterior of the inner core 14, when the bollard 10 is assembled in position. The lugs 24 fit into the holes 22 and can be screwed in so that they are flush with the outer surface of the outer cover 12 and will be so positioned that they extend under the respective spacing element 20. This will prevent unauthorised removal of the outer cover 12 as the lugs 24 will retain the outer cover 12 under the spacing elements 20.
The essential form of the outer cover 12 is a circular cross-section elongate tube that is closed at one end. It is constructed of robust plastics material that will not dent or easily be deformed. The outer cover 12 is a moulding which can be coloured to ensure that is visually stands out as much as possible. At the upper end of the outer cover 12 is a grooved section 34.
The damper 16 is shown in
The washer 18 is shown in perspective view from above in
The bollard 10 has a very simple construction and is very easy to assemble. The damper 16 and the washer 18 both have a circumference that matches the interior shape of the inner core 14 and are placed in the bottom of the inner core 14. The inner core 14 can be placed onto the ground 28 and retained in place using the bolts 26. The outer cover 12 is then placed over the inner core 14 and the lugs 24 are screwed into the holes 22 as far as possible in order to prevent the unauthorised removal of the outer cover 12. In this way, the bollard 10 is assembled in position.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1220541.5 | Nov 2012 | GB | national |
