Claims
- 1. a reinforced pole, comprising:a metal pole; a hard-facing applied in strips to a surface of the pole, said hard-facing having a hardness greater than that of the pole itself, and said hard-facing containing metallic elements; a base plate resting on a ground surface, said base plate having an upper surface on which the pole is retained; and a plurality of anchoring members that are retained on a lower surface of the base plate.
- 2. The reinforced pole according to claim 1, wherein:the base plate and the anchoring members are made of metal; and the pole and anchoring members are welded to the base plate.
- 3. The reinforced pole according to claim 2, wherein the ground surface is concrete, holes are drilled into the concrete, and the anchoring members are inserted into the holes.
- 4. The reinforced pole according to claim 3, wherein the anchoring members are retained in the holes by epoxy.
- 5. The reinforced pole according to claim 4, wherein the anchoring members are tubes with hollow interiors.
- 6. The reinforced pole according to claim 5 wherein there are holes in sides of the anchoring members, said holes passing from an exterior surface of the anchoring member to its hollow interior.
- 7. A method of permanently securing a structure to a hollow pole, comprising the steps of:attaching expander jaws to an expander nut by means of projections on the expander nut that fit into notches in the expander jaws; inserting a bolt through a hole in a structure; bringing the bolt into contact with the expander nut, and turning the bolt so that male threads on the bolt engage female threads in the expander nut, thereby retaining the expander nut on the bolt; placing the structure, with the bolt, expander nut and expander jaws, on an open end of the pole; turning the bolt again, thereby pulling the expander nut and the expander jaws attached to it towards the structure, thus bringing the expander jaws into contact with outwardly sloping surfaces of the structure, so that the expander jaws are pushed outward until they contact an interior surface of the pole; and welding at least one expander jaw to the interior surface of the pole.
- 8. A method of permanently securing a structure to a hollow pole according to claim 7, wherein, before an expander jaw is welded to the interior surface of the pole, at least one transverse hole is made in the pole adjacent to the expander jaw, whereby the welding may be performed using welding equipment that is exterior to the pole.
- 9. A method of permanently securing a structure to a hollow pole according to claim 8, wherein the structure is part of a parking meter head.
- 10. A method of permanently securing a structure to a hollow pole according to claim 9, wherein the transverse hole is made using a plasma-arc cutter.
- 11. A method of permanently securing a structure to a hollow pole according to claim 10, wherein a transverse hole is made adjacent to each expander jaw, and each expander jaw is welded to an interior surface of the parking meter.
- 12. A parking meter, comprising:a pole with a hollow interior; a head with a lower portion having outwardly sloping surfaces; expander jaws wedged between the outwardly sloping surfaces of the lower portion of the head and an interior surface of the pole; wherein at least one expander jaw is welded to the interior surface of the pole.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application is a Continuation-In-Part of Utility patent application Ser. No. 09/317,830, filed May 25, 1999.
US Referenced Citations (13)
Foreign Referenced Citations (2)
Number |
Date |
Country |
885158 |
Nov 1971 |
CA |
2624903 |
Jun 1989 |
FR |
Continuation in Parts (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/317830 |
May 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/404579 |
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US |