Composite metal and plastic fence and bracket

A fencing material composed of plastic-ensheathed metal wires and cooperating bracket elements; the fence material has a cross-sectional design including raised bead positions spaced apart by flat web sections; when the fence material is extruded, the bead or rib portions each ensheath a high tensile wire with the surface of the wire being roughened to enhance adhesion with the plastic; the fence material is mounted between fence posts by means of specially designed brackets that enclose the width of the fence material with the interior of the brackets having raised portions to conform to the cross sectional variations in dimensions of the fence material whereby slippage of the fence material whereby slippage of the fence material is prevented while spanning of substantially greater distances between posts and over varying terrain contours is made possible; the brackets have interlocking portions to prevent loss of complimentary bracket pieces in the event the bracket is loosened from a fence post during use.

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
This invention relates to fencing material and brackets or similar 
structures, particularly those which are used to confine livestock. 
In the past, wooden planks or barbed wire have been widely used to confine 
livestock such as common farm animals, steers and even thoroughbred race 
horses. 
The fencing material that has been most widely used due to its low cost of 
installation and upkeep in barbed wire. However, barbed wire suffers from 
the disadvantage that it can cause painful and unsightly injury to 
valuable livestock, particularly when the stock becomes agitated or 
disturbed which frequently happens as during a summer storm or in the 
event predators penetrate the area in which the live stock are confined. 
All too frequently, animals in an agitated state are unable to detect the 
presence of the barbed wire, particularly in poor light conditions and 
this has often resulted in severe injury to valuable livestock. In 
addition barbed wire lacks the aesthetic appeal of other types of fence. 
While other types of fencing material have been employed such as cyclone 
wire fencing, this is substantially more expensive to install and maintain 
and can over a period of time result in the same difficulties with respect 
to damage to livestock as is the case with barbed wire. 
In maintaining certain types of livestock, such as thoroughbred race 
horses, or animals of similar value, entirely wooden fences have been 
employed which, while pleasing to the eye and relatively safe to the 
animal, are expensive to install and maintain. 
In confronting the foregoing difficulties, the prior art has resorted to 
the use of metals and plastic to form fencing material such as that 
disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,877,140 and such fencing material would 
appear to satisfy many needs for the livestock industry where no 
particular strength or great spans of area need to be enclosed. 
The present invention is an improvement on the fencing construction and 
bracket of U.S. application Ser. No. 443,885, filed Nov. 23, 1982, now 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,263 the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by 
reference. That application discloses an improved fencing material and 
bracket which has been very successful in reducing installation and 
maintenance costs as well as preventing injury to livestock in corrals 
enclosed by such fencing material. 
The present invention relates to an improvement in the bracket structure 
and cross-sectional shape of the fencing material which enable 
installation of the fencing material to be effected more rapidly where the 
bracket of the present invention is employed and also loss of the bracket 
elements will be prevented in the event that an individual bracket or 
brackets become separated from a fence post on which they were initially 
installed. 
In addition, the fence bracket of the present invention is formed with 
recess surfaces having raised portions which are rounded in shape, both 
transversely and longitudinally of the bracket to minimize wear on the 
fencing material such as will occur when animals repeatedly come into 
contact with the fencing material and which will also permit suspending 
the fencing material over uneven terrain without imposing undue strains on 
the fencing material or the brackets themselves while maintaining the 
pleasing and orderly appearance of the plastic fencing material. 
In a preferred embodiment, the bracket of the present invention will 
comprise two members which, at either end, are provided with interlocking 
means so that when the bracket is installed on a fence post with the fence 
material disposed between the two bracket elements as in the aforesaid 
application, the bracket elements will be interlocked so that in the event 
the bracket becomes loose or dislodged from a fence after a period of use, 
the individual bracket elements will remain secured together on the 
plastic fence material. Thus, a worker need merely periodically inspect 
the fence and where a bracket has become displaced or loosened, he need 
merely renail or screw the interlocked brackets again to the fence post. 
Thus, the necessity of replacing a lost bracket element will be eliminated 
which can be very troublesome in a livestock environment or in a grassy 
environment such as for horses where mowers periodically are employed to 
cut the grass. 
In addition, a new form of roller bracket for corner installations is 
provided which, as in the previous application, mentioned above, will 
eliminate the necessity of using fasteners directly through the plastic 
fencing material and which will accurately guide a length of fencing 
material around a corner of a fenced enclosure without distorting the 
plastic fencing material and thus detracting from the overall appearance 
of the fencing.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
Referring now to the drawings wherein like numerals designate corresponding 
parts throughout the several views, there is shown in FIG. 1 one form of 
the fence bracket 10 of the present invention. The bracket 10 is formed 
with two identical bracket elements 12 and 14, each of which has at each 
end an opening 16 for receiving a fastening nail to secure the elements to 
a fence post. On the inner face of each of the ends of the bracket 
elements 12 and 14, a dove-tailed joint is provided in the form of a 
sloped wall channel 20 at one end and a complimentary tongue 22 at the 
opposite end. Thus, the tongue 22 of one of the bracket elements will fit 
into the channel 20 of the other bracket element, as illustrated. With 
this arrangement, separation of the bracket elements 12 and 24 will be 
prevented in the event the bracket 10 becomes separated from the fence 
post 18. 
Each of the bracket elements 12 and 14 are formed with an elongated recess 
24, which will be described in more detail below. With one of the brackets 
such as 14 manually held against the fence post 18, a worker places the 
fencing material 26 in the recess 24 of the bracket element 14 and then 
slides the dove tailed sections of bracket element 12 onto the 
corresponding elements of bracket 14 and then inserts a nail or other 
fastening element 28 through the apertures 16 to secure the bracket to the 
fence post 10. With this arrangement, as described in the above identified 
U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,263 the fence material 26 will be maintained in a 
vertical orientation and will serve as a protective barrier for livestock. 
Obviously, several lengths of material with corresponding brackets may be 
disposed vertically spaced along a set of posts. If desired, a low voltage 
conductive wire 30 may be passed through an aperture 32 or 34 provided in 
each of the bracket elements to discourage undue contact by livestock with 
the fencing material. If the bracket were made of metal an insulator would 
be needed to isolate the bracket from the current carried by the wire. 
Turning now to FIGS. 2A and 2B, it will be seen that the interior surface 
25 of each recess 24 is provided with a plurality of raised surface 
portions 34. 
The raised surface portions 34 extend above the flat surface 25 of each 
recess 24 to a heighth such that the space between a facing raised surface 
34 on the opposite bracket element 14 will be only slightly larger than 
the thickness of the web portion 36 of the fencing material 26. Similarly, 
the brackets are formed so that the flat surfaces 25 above and below each 
raised surface 34 is of a dimension only slightly larger than the enlarged 
beads 38 formed on the fencing material 26. With this arrangement, any 
slippage of the fencing material, in the event a vertical load is imparted 
to the fence will be ineffective to cause buckling of the fence within a 
bracket even if a bracket becomes loose from its post due to the use of 
the interlocking means. In other words, the clearances between the 
elements in the recesses 24 are critically determined to prevent any 
slippage in the event weight is imparted to the plastic fencing. As is 
apparent, however, the spacing of the bracket elements enables the fencing 
material to slide sideways through the bracket in response to longitudinal 
forces. 
With reference to FIG. 2B, the raised surfaces 34 will be seen to have 
rounded or smooth sloping edges or walls 40 on their upper and lower 
surfaces so that the fencing material and particularly the beads will not 
come into contact with any sharp corners when installed in the bracket 10. 
Since any movement of the fence material will be parallel to the surface 
25, it is important for walls 40 curve in the manner of an arch from side 
41 to side 43 of each bracket element. Thus, undue abrasion or tearing of 
the plastic material of the fencing 26 is eliminated. Similarly, the upper 
and lower surfaces 42 of the raised end portions 44 of each bracket 
element are also smoothly curved for the same reason. 
As shown in FIG. 3, the flat surfaces 25 are also provided with rounded 
edges 44 to forestall any undue wear on the plastic fencing material 26. 
Also shown in FIG. 3, the outside surface 46 of the bracket elements 12 
and 14 are formed with a shallow radius to facilitate mounting of the back 
surface 46 of each bracket element on a circular fence post. The inner 
faces of the enlarged ends 44 are formed either with a partially conical 
raised projection 48 or a complimentary partially conical recess 49 to 
assist in maintaining the fastener member hole 16 in alignment as a nail 
is driven through the respective bracket elements. 
As shown in FIG. 4, the raised surfaces 34 need only slightly protrude 
above the flat web accomodating surfaces 25 of each bracket element. 
With reference now to FIG. 5, there is shown a corner roller bracket of the 
present invention. According to the present invention, either bracket 
element 12 or 14 of FIGS. 1 through 4 may be employed as the outer bracket 
element in the roller bracket assembly of FIG. 5, thus resulting in a 
significant manufacturing cost saving due to the interchangeability of 
these elements. The inner roller bracket member is very similar to the 
function of the corresponding element disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,263 
and only the differences will be described below. In FIG. 5, the inner 
roller bracket assembly includes upper head member 50 and an similarity 
formed lower head member 52. The head members may be formed with the 
dove-tail joint as at 55. As shown in the upper portion of FIG. 5, the 
upper head member 50 has a central cylindrical recess 54 which houses a 
bearing assembly 56 which receives one end of a roller shaft 60. The 
roller shaft 60 is integrally formed from end to end and includes a series 
of alternately raised portion 62 and recesses 64 so as to conform 
tangentially to the cross-sectional configuration of the fencing material 
26, as shown. Each of the head members 50 and 52 has a slight radius on 
its rear face 66 to enable a user to securely mount these faces on a fence 
post indicated in broken lines at 20. Also, as shown in FIG. 9, the rear 
face 66 is greatly enlarged as indicated at 68 relative to the front face 
70 to thus impart great stability to the roller bracket assembly. The 
close tolerances in terms of the clearances between the raised surfaces 36 
and enlarged radius roller 62 ensure accurate positioning and maintaining 
of the fencing material 26 in a stable condition in the roller bracket 
assembly. As mentioned in the above-noted application, the roller bracket 
assemblies permit a user to wrap the fencing material about a corner by 
using several posts as opposed to a single post with the rotatable shaft 
60 enabling the user to feed the fencing material 26 about the roller 
brackets in installing the fencing material. Further, when a weight is 
imparted to another portion of the fence at a distance from a corner of a 
fenced in enclosure, the roller brackets will facilitate moving or sliding 
of the fencing material 26 around the corners to forestall loosening of 
the posts or damage to the roller brackets. A typical installation for 
such roller brackets is illustrated in the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 
4,465,263, the disclosure of which is in corporated herein by reference 
and relied upon. 
Referring now to FIG. 6, there is illustrated an alternate embodiment of 
the fence bracket of the present invention. The embodiment illustrated in 
FIG. 6 differs from the embodiment of FIGS. 1-4 in that the bracket 72 
employs two U-shaped clamp members 74, located at each end of the bracket 
72 to retain the bracket elements 76 and 78 in the illustrated assembled 
position. Each of the ends 80 and 82 of the bracket elements 76 and 78 are 
provided with through bores for receiving a fastening member such as a 
nail 84. It will be understood, of course, that the through bores at the 
end of the bracket elements may be threaded and that the fastening element 
84 may be in the form of a threaded screw to hold the bracket elements in 
the assembled condition on a fence post. 
Referring now to FIG. 7, there is shown a perspective view of the plastic 
fencing material 26 of the present invention which is specifically shaped 
to cooperate with the brackets 10, 62 and 72 of the present invention. As 
shown, the outer parallel edges are formed with enlarged beads or ribs 38 
and a central portion 88 is also in the form of an identically shaped 
enlarged bead. Each of the beads 38 and 88 ensheath a high tensile wire 92 
in the same manner as in the above mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,465,263. The 
wires 92 in each of the ribs 38 and 88 differs in that its exterior 
surface is roughened as illustrated in FIG. 8. As shown, the surface of 
the wire 92 has a series of notches formed therein which will improve 
adhesion between the plastic material of the fence and the embedded wires. 
The wire has a galvanized coating to resist corrosion. 
Between the ribs 88 and 86, in the illustrated embodiment of FIG. 7, 
additional beads 90 are located spaced by the flat webs 36 from the 
adjacent wire carrying ribs 86 and 88. It will be noted that the surfaces 
of each of the beads 38, 88 and 90 are all smoothly shaped to closely 
interfit with the recess between the bracket elements are indicated in 
FIG. 5. 
It will be appreciated that the surfaces provided on the brackets which 
come into contact with the fence are contoured to eliminate or at least 
minimize abrasion to the fence as it is allowed to float through the 
brackets during installation and tensioning and as a result of movement 
due to changes in temperature or in the event of contact by livestock. In 
addition, incorporation of the unreinforced beads 90 minimizes the 
possibility of wrinkling of the fence transverse to its longitudinal axis 
under all types of weather, temperature and terrain conditions. 
The fence may be extruded from polyvinyl chloride with presently available 
extruding techniques. The resulting product should be constituted to have 
a durometer range of between 90-94 Shore A although other materials and 
hardnesses may be employed. The brackets themselves may be coated with 
paint to resist corrosion and improve lubricity and appearance. 
Turning now to FIGS. 10-14, in FIG. 10 there is shown another embodiment 
where the bracket means of the present invention is in the form of a 
single piece 94 having the slot-like opening 96 for the fence material. 
The bracket 94 may be cast in a mold which will form the opening 96. 
In FIG. 11, another embodiment of the bracket is shown at 98 which differs 
from the embodiment of FIGS. 1-8 in that the bracket members are formed 
with rivet openings 100 in which rivets 102 are secured to permanently 
hold the bracket elements in the assembled relation. In FIG. 12, one of 
the bracket elements 104 is provided with an apertured tongue 106 at one 
end thereof and a through bore 108 at the other end with the bracket 
having a bore 110 formed therein. The corresponding elements are provided 
in the opposing bracket element 112 so that when the two bracket elements 
are assembled, a threaded screw or rivet may be inserted through the bores 
114 and 116 at the upper end of the bracket and 110 and 111 at the lower 
end thereof to hold the bracket in its assembled relation. In FIG. 13, the 
upper end of the bracket 118 is provided with a bifurcated head having 
apertured tongues 120 which are more clearly shown in FIG. 14. The 
corresponding end of the cooperating bracket element 122 is provided with 
an extension 124 having an alignable bore 126. At the opposite end of the 
respective bracket elements 118, 122, these features are reversed to 
simply the manufacturing involved. As with the previous embodiments, 
threaded screws or rivets may be inserted through the aligned bores in the 
head 120 and extension 124. 
Having described the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in 
this art that various modifications may be made thereto without departing 
from the spirit and scope of this invention as defined in the appended 
claims.