Patent Application
20160069368
A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material, which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates generally to apparatus and method of installing a hallow wall anchor.
A hallow wall, or cavity wall, is a wall formed of two thicknesses of masonry with a space between them. A hallow wall is commonly used in a building interior for permanent room partitions and ceilings. Such indoor hallow walls are often built of plasterboards or drywalls. Hallow walls made of plasterboards are relatively inexpensive and could provide excellent insulation when installed with insulation materials in their cavities. However, to hang something on a hallow wall, the use of specially designed hallow wall anchors are preferable as conventional nails, hooks, and studs could easily damage it.
There are numerous commercially available hallow wall anchors in the market. However, to the knowledge of the inventor, all of them are devised with screw fastening structures, which require substantial amount of labor and time in their installation.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a rapid mounting hallow wall anchor that can be installed in as short time as a few seconds and with minimal effort. It is a further objective of the present invention to provide such a rapid mounting hallow wall anchor having a structural rigidity and strength that are at least the same as, if not higher than, those of screw fastening type anchors.
In accordance to various embodiments of the present invention, the rapid mounting hallow wall anchor is primarily made of polyamide 6/6, e.g. Nylon 6/6, of tensile strength of 2,500 Newton per square mini-meter (362,500 PSI). As such, this material is stronger than mild steel.
In accordance to one embodiment, the rapid mounting hallow wall anchor comprises a cleat with latching tooth and hanging flange, and a T-shaped anchor structure with latching cogs on its stem. The cleat comprises a tube with a flange near or at one end of the tube. There are one or more latching teeth inside of the tube. The tube flange can be made to have a groove or hook on where objects can be hung. The flange of the cleat can adopt various shapes according to the user's needs; for instance, a rope pulley and a disk with a hook. The tube of the cleat is structured to have passage to allow the stem of the T-shaped anchor structure to pass through there within. Inside of the passage of the tube is a lever with elastic deformable allowance. One or more latching teeth are made from the lever to engage the latching cogs on stem of the anchor structure when inserted into the passage of the tube.
The anchor structure has a long flexible stem with a solid cross bar at one end. The cross bar joins the one end of the stem with a cross bar hinge. At its normal un-bended position, the cross bar is perpendicular to the stem. The cross bar hinge allows the cross bar to be bended at least 90 degree from its normal position. When bended 90 degree, the cross bar becomes approximately parallel to the stem, making the anchor structure a strait bar for insertion into a drilled hole in a plasterboard of a hallow wall.
To install the rapid mounting hallow wall anchor, first bend the cross bar for insertion into a drilled hole in a plasterboard of a hallow wall. The cross bar is to be inserted first. Once the cross bar is fully inserted into the drill hole and that the cross bar resumes its normal position in the cavity of the hallow wall and behind the back of the plasterboard, pull the stem away from the wall until cross bar catches the rear surface of the plasterboard. Secondly, insert the stem through the passage of the tube of the cleat from the end distal from the flange, along the stem and push the tube into the drilled hole until the flange of the cleat is pressed firmly against the surface of the plasterboard. Again strongly pull the stem away from the wall while holding the cleat in place until the stem is stretched and that the latching cogs on the stem and the latching teeth in the tube of cleat are firmly engaged. Finally, cut the portion of the stem that is extending out from the cleat.
Embodiments of the invention are described in more detail hereinafter with reference to the drawings, in which:
In the following description, apparatuses and methods of installing a hallow wall anchor and the likes are set forth as preferred examples. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that modifications, including additions and/or substitutions may be made without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. Specific details may be omitted so as not to obscure the invention; however, the disclosure is written to enable one skilled in the art to practice the teachings herein without undue experimentation.
Referring to
Referring to
To install the rapid mounting hallow wall anchor, first drill a hole (20) in a plasterboard (21) of a hallow wall. The hole (20) should be having a diameter of approximately the same as the outer diameter of the tube (10) of the cleat. Bend the cross bar (02) for insertion into the drilled hole (20) as shown in
Referring to
To complete the installation, cut the portion of the stem body (01) that is extending out from the cleat as shown in
Still referring to
The rapid mounting hallow wall anchor could be removed by unlocking the latching cogs (05) on the anchor stem body (01) from the latching teeth (15) of the cleat using a sharp pointed tool such as awl to push the latching teeth (15) sideway away from the latching cogs (05). Unlocking the latching cogs (05) from the latching teeth (15) releases the anchor structure from the cleat. The anchor structure could be pushed in to drop into the hollow space behind the plasterboard (21), and the cleat can be pulled out from the drilled hole (20).
In accordance to another embodiment, the tube (10) of the cleat has a plurality of ridges on its exterior surface. The ridges are spaced by unit length for measurement to aid the cutting of the tube (10) for matching the length of the tube (10) to the thickness of the plasterboard.
The foregoing description of the present invention has been provided for the purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms disclosed. Many modifications and variations will be apparent to the practitioner skilled in the art.
The embodiments were chosen and described in order to best explain the principles of the invention and its practical application, thereby enabling others skilled in the art to understand the invention for various embodiments and with various modifications that are suited to the particular use contemplated. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the following claims and their equivalence.
