This invention, the Anchor Bolt Setter (“ABS”), relates to concrete construction, and more particularly to the setting of anchor bolts for concrete foundations requiring the placement of anchor bolts. The ABS is an apparatus, mechanism, or assembly that sets anchor bolts prior to the pouring of concrete into foundation forms.
During the process of building a home or various other types of buildings, a footing is created with concrete, after this footing is created foundation forms are place on to the footing in order to create foundation walls which extrude upwards from the footings. Concrete is then poured into these foundation forms creating a foundation, once the concrete hardens, or cures, the foundation forms are then removed leaving behind the foundation walls. Prior to the concrete hardening anchor bolts must be placed so that they set on top of the foundation walls allowing the threaded part of the anchor bolt to protrude from the top of the foundation while the rest of the anchor bolt sets inside the concrete foundation. It's the placement of the anchor bolt before the concrete is poured is where the Anchor Bolt Setter comes into play. The Anchor Bolt Setter allows anchor bolts to be properly set before the concrete is poured, and once the concrete is dry or is cured the Anchor Bolt Setter is then easily removed at the same time that the foundation forms are removed leaving behind a foundation with protruding anchor bolts.
Various mechanisms have been devised in one way or another for wet setting anchor bolts (wet setting anchor bolts is the method of pushing anchor bolts into wet cement and allowing it to dry that way, wet setting anchor bolts is a practice this is commonly used but discouraged by The Structural Engineer's Association of Utah (“SEAU”) who published a letter in this regard against wet setting anchor bolts pursuant to the IBC (International Building Code) Sections 1912, 1704.4, 1704.13, 109.3.1, 109.3.2. (As of Dec. 12, 2024 said published letter has since been removed.) An example of supporting mechanisms for wet setting anchor bolts can be found in the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,984 to Kasberg; No. 5,060,436 to Delgado; No. 7,225,589 to Smith and also the published continuation in part US Pre-Grant Publication No. 2006/0016140. It appears that all of these methods fail to address the setting of anchor bolts before the concrete is poured, also they are designed only for one type of concrete foundation forms, and they have no application when the concrete is not poured to the top of the concrete foundation forms, and they do not address setting the anchor bolt to accommodate concrete slabs. U.S. Pt. No. 7,891,110 along with No. 7,487,597 and No. 8,544,814 as to Diaz appears to attend to the setting of anchor bolts prior to the pouring of concrete, but it does not address nor does it have an application to address when the concrete is not poured to the top of any foundation form, it also has no application when steel concrete foundation forms are used, nor does it address any application for setting anchor bolts that will accommodate concrete slabs. Prior to the pouring of concrete, the ABS is designed with a locking system and suspension system that can be applied to all the known concrete foundation forms regardless of whether or not the concrete is poured to the top of any foundation form, and it accommodates concrete slabs. The ABS succeeds way beyond where each of the other inventions fail.
The embodiments of the ABS each comprise bolt holder, a top plate, a lock slider, several different sizes of compression nuts, several different sizes of bushings, and a wall plate. The new improvements found herein are the double sided single bolt holder and the double sided triple bolt holder. The type of forms used to make foundations and the manner in which a worker wishes to place the anchor bolt will determine which embodiments are used to suspend the anchor bolt before the concrete is poured.
The embodiments of the single double sided bolt holder and the triple double sided bolt holder each comprise a rectangular, elongate segment planar surface of a specified length. The triple double sided bolt holder reaches a length long enough to hold an anchor bolt 6″ from the inside form wall. It is designed to hold an anchor bolt at any of 2″ or 4″ or 6″ from the inside of the form wall. The triple double sided bolt holder has six circular cylindrical extended tubes that protrude upwards and are two inches from each other from center hole to center hole all in a straight line running from the form wall. One row of these cylindrical tubes is designed to hold a ¼ inch anchor bolt while the other adjacent row is designed to hold a ⅝ inch anchor bolt. Each of these cylindrical tubes have two slits long each side, and they each have small notches protruding around the sides of these cylindrical tubes. A pressure protruding pole is found along the side of each cylindrical tube, this pole along with the said notches is used to hold a worm key in place. The single double sided bolt holder is designed to hold an anchor bolt 2″ from the form wall is not any longer beyond that purpose, otherwise it is identical to the triple double sided bolt holder.
When concrete is poured to the top or close to the of a foundation form, and depending on where a worker wishes to place an anchor bolt, either one of the bolt holders engages into a mechanism known as the ABS top plate (as explained in application Ser. No. 18/665,450) which holds the bolt holder into place and is placed where the worker wishes it to be. However, when the concrete is not poured to the top of a form wall, the ABS wall plate (as explained in application Ser. No. 18/665,450) is used to hold either of the bolt holders into place.
The top plate works in conjunction with either the triple double sided bolt holder (“TBH”) or the single double sided bolt holder (“SBH”). The bolt holders also work in conjunction with the other embodiments presenting the anchor bolt downward into the foundation form, and concrete is poured into the foundation form, enveloping the anchor bolt.
In most any setting, all the ABS embodiments before mentioned are designed to suspend the anchor bolt before the concrete is poured and is designed to release the anchor bolt after the concrete has cured and can be reused.
The various illustrated accompanying figures described herein are merely exemplary of the various embodiments and are not meant to be limiting in scope of the ABS's purpose and functions. It is to be appreciated that numerous variations of the invention have been contemplated as would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure. Rather, the scope and breadth afforded this document should not be limited by the claims provided herein while applying either the plain meaning found in the claims or the meaning clearly and unambiguously provided in this specification and drawings.
The following descriptions in some cases are given in an instruction style on setting up the ABS along with a description of each of the ABS mechanisms. In this manner the reader, or one whom is skilled in the art, may be given a better understanding of the invention, its purposes and functions. A limited illustration of the anchor bolt is also given to show how it installs into the ABS bolt holders. With these descriptions and illustrations, a person who has a basic understanding of the art will understand how the ABS sets and suspends the anchor bolt prior to the concrete being poured into foundation forms and or slabs.
Concrete foundation forms are used for the creation of concrete foundations for homes and various buildings. There are different types of foundation forms found in the industry. The different types include a steel framed foundation form, which is described as a steel frame wrapped around wood walls that come in different sizes. There are wood foundation forms formulated to a certain size which also come in different sizes. There are also developed wood foundation forms, and custom-made wood foundation forms usually built by private builders for their own buildings. When these forms are set and ready for concrete, concrete is then poured into these forms to create the foundation, it might be noted that not always is the concrete poured to the top of these forms. Nonetheless, just before the pouring of the concrete is to take place the ABS is a mechanism or assembly used to set the required anchor bolts in its proper position before the concrete is poured, this eliminates the practice of wet setting anchor bolts that the International Building Code frowns upon. The ABS mechanism fits the different sizes of anchor bolts and the different types of commonly used concrete foundation forms and slab forms found in the industry, and the ABS is also formulated to be used when the concrete is not poured to the top of any foundation forms.
The ABS consists of several different parts that work in conjunction with each other in order to suspend an anchor bolt and there is no specific systematic way in which they must be used.
The worm key rests against several notches 6 that sit around the outside side of each of the protruding tubes. These notches help the worm key to stay in place before it's tightened, however, the notches also work in conjunction with the stem tab 7 in order to assist the worm key from moving, or to keep it in place until it is tightened. The notches 6 along with the stem tab 7 work in concert with each in order to hold the worm key in place before it's tightened.
Each of the protruding tubes 4 & 5 has two slits 13 & 19 along the side. The inner slit 19 does not run the full length from top to bottom of the protruding tubes while the outside slit 19 does. These slits 13 & 19 allow the worm key to compress the protruding tubes against the anchor bolt without breaking the protruding tubes. Each protruding tube is designed to handle a specific width of an anchor bolt. A ⅝″ wide anchor bolt fits into one side of the protruding tubes 5, and a ¼″ wide anchor bolt fits into the other protruding tube 4. The ⅝″ protruding tubes 5 are set two inches from each other from center hole to center hole, and the paralleled protruding tubes 4 also are set two inches from each other from center hole to center hole. At one end of both the TBH and the SBH is the end plate sleeve 17 which connects to the top plate of the ABS System.
In the inventor's prior art taken from his U.S. application Ser. No. 18/665,450 (as stated above), the top plate embodiment named in that application connects to said end plate sleeve 17.
The end plate sleeve 17 at the end of the TBH 12 and the SBH 18 have two groves 10 and two slits 16, a tongue 20, and on the tongue there is a curved notch 8. When the end plate sleeve slides on to the top plate it locks into place by the curved notch 8. To release the end plate sleeve from the top plat the worker would push the tongue 20 in the opposite direction away from the top plate which releases the end plate sleeve 17, and then the worker pushes upwards on the two sided protruding stubs 9, found on both the TBH 12 and the SBH 18, in order to disconnect the TBH or the SBH from the top plate.
The embodiment of the TBH 12 is designed to hold an ¼″ or ⅝″ wide anchor bolt either 2″ or 4″ or 6″ from the inside of the concrete foundation form wall. The embodiment of the SBH 18 is designed to hold an anchor bolt only 2″ from the inside of the concrete foundation form wall used to create the outside foundation wall.
Both of the TBH and the SBH have ribs 11, 15 & 3 along the running flat surface 14 that all give strength and support to the TBH 12 and the SBH 18.
A person of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the figures and discussion represent examples of practice of the invention and are not limiting to the scope of the invention.
This application is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/665,450, filing date May 15, 2024, which is a continuation in part of 16/840,324 now U.S. Pat. No. 11,346,069 B2 issued May 31, 2022, which is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/678,487, now abandoned, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. All of these applications and patent were have the same same inventor, Deron G Brunson. These applications incorporate non-obvious features of improvements that add layers of innovation compared to the original invention and its first improvement.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 18665450 | May 2024 | US |
Child | 19002710 | US | |
Parent | 16840324 | Apr 2020 | US |
Child | 18665450 | US | |
Parent | 16678487 | Dec 2019 | US |
Child | 16840324 | US |