Patent Application
20110315298
This invention relates to door and wall protection structures, and, more particularly, to a corner guard for accommodating a number of different corner configurations.
It is often desirable to provide wall and door mounted structures for protecting the door and wall from general wear and tear often associated with high traffic areas. For instance, such structures are commonly used in school, hospital, nursing home, and other such settings where there is a large amount of pedestrian traffic such that the walls and doors experience a relatively high amount of wear and tear as compared to less trafficked areas. Further, such locations commonly involve the movement of relatively large equipment in and out of hallways and doors such that the doors and walls experience further wear and tear in connection with the movement of such equipment. For example, in hospitals, patient beds, gurneys, wheel chairs, mobile imaging equipment and the like are often moved from one place to another and in doing so often unintentionally impacts the walls and doors by which they travel. Accordingly, these locations often employ wall and door guards and other such protection structures to guard against the wear and tear often associated with these uses.
One such type of wall guard is a corner guard. Corner guards are employed around the corners of walls to absorb the impact from traffic around the corners. Corners are particularly susceptible to damage from traffic traveling therearound because it is often difficult to navigate corners with large equipment and the like. Accordingly, it is increasingly common for facilities to employ the use of corner guards around corners in high traffic errors to protect the corners of the walls as well as those areas immediately adjacent. One disadvantage of known corner guards is that they are not readily adjustable to accommodate a number of different corner configurations. Thus, makers of such corner guards often have to custom make corner guards to accommodate the particular needs of the facility in which the guards are to be installed. This increases the cost associated with the production and installation of the costs and requires. The process of custom making the corner guards can take several weeks to complete and thus it is impractical to simply produce the corner guards on an as-needed basis. Thus, the makers of the corner guards must store a large number of differently configured corner guards to accommodate the needs of various customers.
It is therefore desired to provide a corner guard that does not suffer from the foregoing disadvantages. It is further desired to provide a corner guard that is relatively durable and inexpensive to manufacture.
According to one aspect of the invention, a two-piece corner guard is provided. The corner guard of the invention includes a pair of retainer wings coupled to one another by way of a durable tape or other such adhesive or fastener. The tape is provided on the back of each of the retainer wings and is relatively flexible such that the wings may be folded out to accommodate a plurality of different corner angles. A cover is configured to receive the retainers in channels defined along edges thereof to provide a relatively impact absorbent surface about the corner of the wall. In this way, the corner and surrounding wall portions are protected from impacts caused by traffic travelling around the corner.
The retainer wings preferably include a distally formed flange portion configured to cooperate with the edges of the cover and to be received in the channel thereof. In this manner, the retainer wings are selectively slidably insertable into the cover.
The retainer wings are preferably constructed from a relatively durable material adapted for coupling to a wall surface such as aluminum or another such similar material. The cover is preferably constructed from an impact resistance material such as a plastic or the like. In an embodiment of the invention, the plastic material is vinyl.
The retainer wings are preferably adjustable with respect to one another by bending the retainer wings with respect to one another. In this manner, the retainer wings are capable of selective adjustment between approximately 67 and 158 degrees. Accordingly, in construction of the corner guard of the invention, only one size retainer wing need be made to accommodate corners having a variety of configurations. Instead, after construction thereof, the retainer wings are simply bent to accommodate the desired corner angle thereby saving on manufacturing costs and providing a highly configurable corner guard capable of use in a wide number of locations.
Numerous other aspects, features and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description.
In the drawings:
Referring now to the Drawings,
Wings 16 and 18 are coupled to one another by way of an adhesive 36 applied to each of the back surfaces of the wings 16 and 18. Adhesive 36 is a relatively thin layer of tape adapted to flexible couple wings 16 and 18 to one another. Adhesive 36 may comprise MP-20 pressure sensitive adhesive or a similar such adhesive. Preferably, the adhesive 36 is MACTAC Tape, and in particular, BP2003 MACTAC Tape as is generally known in the art. Adhesive 36 extends from one of wings 16 and 18 to the other of wings 16 and 18 and adheres to the adhesive 36 disposed on the other of the wings 16 and 18. In this manner, wings 16 and 18 are flexibly coupled to one another 100 such that they may be folded to accommodate a plurality of different angles. Preferably, the wings 16 and 18 are capable of being folded with respect to one another to accommodate wall angles of between 67.5 degrees and 157.5 degrees as demonstrated by arrow 38. Accordingly, corner guard 10 of the invention is able to accommodate a large number of different corner configurations with little adjustment thereto. In this manner, the cost of production and installation are substantially 105 decreased as compared to prior designs in which the corner guards are custom formed to accommodate a given corner angle.
Cover 26 is constructed from vinyl or a similar such material that is substantially durable and is capable of withstanding a significant amount of impact from traffic passing around corner 12. Corner 26 comprises a unitary structure that is includes a pair of elongate segments 40 and a central segment 42 positioned between the two elongate segments 40. Central segment 42 is rounded so as to conform to the corner 12 of wall 14 as is readily understood. Each of segments 40 includes a hooked end 44 for coupling to flange 24 of wings 16 and 18. In this manner, cover 26 is easily secured to wings 16 and 18 for the purpose of creating a substantially durable corner guard 10 according to the invention.
A top member 46 is coupled to an upper edge of the retainer wings 16, 18 by way of a pair of screws 48. Top member 46 includes a pair of corresponding holes 50 through which the screws 48 are received to thereby couple the top member 46 to a pair of corresponding retainer holes 52. Top member cooperates with cover 26 to overhand cover 26 by a predetermined amount to thereby provide a flush appearance between the corner guard 10 and wall 14. In this manner, the 120 internal structure of corner guard 10 is not visible from the outside thereof, thereby providing an aesthetically pleasing structure while preventing the internal structure from being tampered with or otherwise affected. Top member 46 may include a pair of downwardly extending tabs 54, which carry holes 50 thereon to facilitate coupling of the top member 46 to the retainers 16, 18. Tabs 54 are sized and shaped to be received between the front sides of the retainers 16, 18 and the back side 125 of cover 26 such that the retainers 16, 18 are slidingly received within the hooks 44 of the covers as is readily understood.
Various alternatives are contemplated as being within the scope of the following claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter regarded as the invention.
