The present invention relates to bollards such as are used to alert traffic of an obstacle to be avoided and, more particularly, to an improved impact-resistant and energy-absorbing bollard system over that of U.S. Pat. No. 9,938,677B2 (the '677 Patent), the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes.
The bollard of the '677 patent comprised only a post, a base plate, and an energy-absorbing element, wherein the post and base plate were shaped in such a manner that when the post was loaded by an external force just above the base plate, an obliquely, downwardly directing sliding movement of the post relative to the base plate was obtained, which was dampened by the energy-absorbing element, not only in the lengthwise direction of the bollard, but also in the direction perpendicular to that lengthwise direction.
The present improvement invention relates to the base plate of such a bollard. The improved base plate utilizes an outer arcuate wall structure which eliminates hard edges and allows for dispersion of energy into a uniform arcuate wall. The base plate further has inwardly projecting foundation mounting fastener notches to provide a more efficient and improved operation of the bollard upon impact, including avoiding a trip-hazard with outward extending mounting feet.
In the improved bollard a post collar member is affixed to the bottom portion of the main impact post by set screw fasteners and provides reinforced strength to the system as the impact post moves from a normal position to deflected position.
The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of this improvement invention will become more readily appreciated as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, where:
The present disclosure will be described with respect to particular embodiments and with references to certain drawings, but the disclosure is not limited thereto. Since the present invention is an improvement to the bollard disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,938,677B2 that disclosure is incorporated herein for all purposes and may be referred to for additional understanding of the present invention.
The drawings are only schematic and are non-limiting. In the drawings, size of some of the elements may be exaggerated for illustrative purposes and not drawn on scale. Specific and relative dimensions do not necessarily correspond to actual reductions to practice of the disclosure. The various embodiments are solely examples and are not limiting the scope of the invention.
It will be understood that the base plate 16 is intended to be fastened to a base or ground, wall or supporting structure G (
The base plate 16 consists of an arcuated outer wall 18 which encloses a hollow space 17 (
In this improvement the wall 18, including the inner wall portion 18a, of the base plate 16 wall is arcuate, rather than cylindrical or rectangular, thereby providing increased strength to the base 16 with the hollow space 17 arranged centrally to bollard 10. The outer wall 18 and inner wall 18a terminate in the opening 26 of the hollow space 17 at upper collar 24. The opening 26 is so small that practically all points of the post collar 14 may be an active point of application for the external forces which act on the main bollard post 12, and not the base plate 16.
The post 12 and reinforcing post collar 14, in
The dimensions of these interacting flanges 11 and collars 24 sliding into one another and creating a first direct contact between the reinforcing post collar 14 and the base plate 16 are not only such that there is sufficient lateral clearance between the two parts on the one hand and respectively the wall 18 and the post collar 14 on the other hand, to make possible a deflective movement between the post collar 14 and the base plate 16 inside the hollow space 17. After a defined limit value for the position of the post 12 and collar 14 relative to the base plate 16 is reached, after a relative movement (e.g., a predetermined relative movement) of the post 12, the collar 14 and the base plate 16 relative to one another, the post collar 14 comes in contact with the inner edge 29 of the upper collar 24 of the base plate 16, thereby creating a second direct contact between the post collar 14 and the base plate 16 as shown in
Upon the application of an external force on the post 12, the post 12 and the reinforcing collar 14 are forced to move in an obliquely, downwardly directed sliding movement (direction E, see
The direction of the damped, obliquely, downwardly directed sliding movement is preferably predetermined to be a sharp angle (a) to the normal (n) (the normal n being the direction perpendicular to the plane representative of the ground or support surface G plane). Preferably, the sharp angle A is within the range of 10° to 80°.
An energy-absorbing element 40 is provided in the hollow space 17 and is arranged in this hollow space so that, when assembled (See
The energy-absorbing element 40 is positioned between post collar 14 on the one hand and the ground or floor surface G to which the base plate 16 is secured on the other. Alternatively, the base plate 16 may be provided with a bottom plate 42 which seals the hollow space 17 in the base plate 16 at the bottom (See
The energy-absorbing element 40 may be assembled in different ways and may have different kinds of shapes. It is clear that many designs are possible where the damping and resilient properties of the energy-absorbing element 40 may be adapted as a function of the behaviour of the bollard to be achieved upon impact.
The operation of the bollard 10 according to the invention is simple and shall be described hereinafter. In
Having now described the invention in conjunction with particularly illustrated embodiments thereof, variations and modifications may now naturally occur from time to time to those persons normally skilled in the art without departing from the essential scope or spirit of the invention, and accordingly it is intended to claim the same broadly as well as specifically as indicated by the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62808372 | Feb 2019 | US |