Safety covering for rotary gating in articulated buses

To securely avoid any gap formation between a ring mount barrier and adjoining parts of the floor of an articulated vehicle such as a bus, a safety cover construction is carried by a turntable coupling for supporting the ring mount barrier. The safety cover construction has a U-shaped transverse cross-section defining a receiving space for receiving a lower end of the ring mount barrier with upper free ends of legs of the U-shaped cross-section in engagement therewith. The safety cover construction is formed of an elastic material, such as rubber or synthetic plastic, and thus is able to remain in engagement with the ring mount barrier despite changes in pitch and bending angles between portions of the vehicle articulated by the turntable coupling. To further assist in retaining the upper ends of the legs in engagement with the ring mount barrier, according to a preferred embodiment, a spring steel reinforcement may be embedded within the legs.

The invention relates to a safety cover for a ring mount barrier in an 
articulated bus. 
All of the conventional covers constituted by sheet-metal constructions or 
rubber lips fail to permit the desired, large bending and pitching angles 
between the front car and the trailer. 
Therefore, the invention is based on the problem of providing a cover for a 
ring mount barrier in an articulated bus which safely prevents, even in 
case of large angular motions between the front car and the trailer, the 
occurrence of open, uncovered gaps, which gaps could lead to the danger of 
pinching body parts or articles. 
This problem has been solved according to the invention by providing that 
the lower zone of the ring mount barrier is guided in a safety cover, 
which is approximately U-shaped in cross section, consists of an elastic 
material, such as rubber or a synthetic resin, and is directly or 
indirectly attached to the turntable, in such a manner that in case of all 
possible bending angles and pitching angles there occurs no gap between 
the free ends of the U-legs and the ring mount barrier. 
An especially safe covering action during all driving conditions is 
attained if the free ends of the U-legs converge and if the U-legs are 
optionally additionally provided with a preferably incorporated 
reinforcement of spring steel. 
To securely avoid any gap formation between the ring mount barrier and 
adjoining parts of the floor of the bus, it is advantageous to provide 
that at least one lip projects approximately horizontally from one of the 
U-legs, this lip bridging the gap to the neighboring vehicle floor. 
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention, the provision 
is made that the lip rests on the vehicle floor. 
An advantageous constructional design is finally attained by attaching the 
safety cover to a multipartite slip ring, which latter is connected to the 
turntable.

FIG. 1 shows a ring mount barrier 1 consisting of two parts, this ring 
mount barrier being connected to an extensible center support 4 forming a 
closed frame by way of cross members 2 and 3, the latter of which extends 
over the entire width of the vehicle and is supported in the zone of the 
pivot bearing, not shown, of the ring mount. The floor region of the 
passage above the ring mount, not shown, is covered by a turn-table 5 
consisting of two parts 5a, 5b, which can be swung upwardly, and a central 
bridge 5c, fixedly joined to the cross member 3. The lower region of the 
ring mount barrier 1 is covered by a safety cover 6 of a U-shaped cross 
section (FIG. 2). In the illustrated embodiment, this safety cover is 
fashioned to be bipartite for each side of the ring mount barrier 1, but 
it could basically also be made of one piece. Each of the two parts 6a, 6b 
of the safety cover is joined indirectly via a multipartite slip ring 13 
to one of the foldable parts 5a, 5 b of the turntable and thus follows the 
motions of the latter so that, during driving, relative motions are 
produced between the safety covers and the ring mount barriers, shown in 
FIGS. 3-5 of the drawing. As can be seen, in particular, from FIGS. 2-5 of 
the drawing, the free ends of the U-legs of the safety cover 6 converge, 
so that they are in firm contact with the lower zone of the ring mount 
barrier 1. This effect can be further enhanced by an insert 7 of spring 
steel, as indicated in FIG. 3. 
To cover the gap between the ring mount barrier 1 and the adjoining floor 
region--here pedestal 8--a lip 9 projects respectively approximately in 
the horizontal direction from parts 6a of the safety cover, this lip 
resting on the topside of the pedestal 8. A further lip 10--FIGS. 
3-5--serves for covering a lower floor portion 11. 
FIG. 3 of the drawing illustrates the arrangement of this invention in the 
engineering design, while FIGS. 4 and 5 show various driving conditions. 
Finally, FIG. 3 furthermore shows a reinforcement 12 of spring steel, 
incorporated into the safety cover 6 and increasing the contact force of 
the free ends of the U-legs against the ring mount barrier 1.