SUPPORT FOR THE HANDRAIL OF A DETACHABLE HANDRAIL UNIT

Abstract: Support (10a, 100) for the handrail (6, 8, 56, 114, 116) of a detachable handrail assembly, with a base (14, 62, 102) kept in place by a weight (30, 62; 104) and a post (12, 50, 106) which is connected thereto and to which the handrail (6, 8; 56; 114, 116) can be fixed, in which the bottom end of the post (12, 50, 106) lies a distance above the bearing face of the base (14, 60, 102), base and post are intercon­ nected by means of a horizontal hinge (16, 66, 112) situated at a distance above said bearing face, and means are provi­ ded for locking the base and post relative to each other when in the folded-out position.

Description: The invention relates to a detachable handrail assembly of the type described in the preamble of claim 1. Such a handrail assembly is known in practice and is marketed by Robo Safety Products Ltd., Thornsett Works, London. Although the use of this known asembly already means a considerably improvement over the old situation in which when work - such as renewing the roof covering - is being carried out on a roof no safety handrail at all is used, this known assembly still has disadvantages and shortcomings which could in practice lead to its not being used, when compulsory regulations fail. When the assembly is used, its presence on the edge of the roof is found to be a nuisance, since it makes the carrying out of work on that edge more difficult. This is because in the known unit the base is provided at one end with an upright socket into which the post is pushed and then secured with a locking screw, while the base itself is made up of two parts, a first, flat, socket-bearing part having at the end facing away from the socket a flat insert opening for the end of a second part extending from a housing intended to take the weight. The temporary removal of parts of the system, which is necessary when work such as renewal of the roof covering has to be carried out on the edge of the roof, is consequently laborious and time-consuming. It is then necessary first to detach the second base part from the first base part and to remove it, and the locking screw must then be loosened to release the socket from the post, following which the socket with the first base part fixed thereto must be slid upwards along the post now hanging on the handrail. Only then is the space underneath the first base part accessible. Erecting and dismantling the unit made up of many parts is also laborious and time-consuming. The objet of the invention is to eliminate these shortcomings, and this object is achieved according to the invention by means of the measures described in the main claim. The folding up of the base after removal of the weight means that the space underneath the base and the post is instantly free from obstacles, so that work can be carried out there unimpeded. When the base is folded up towards the post, the post remains hanging on the rail, of course still connected to the adjacent posts. Preferred embodiments are described in the subclaims, it being pointed out in particular with regard to the measure according to claims 2 that it gives the possibility, in a design which is very simple, of increasing the free space produced underneath the post when the base is folded up, since said space is determined by the length of the first leg of the corner piece. The measures according to claims 3 and 4 result in the advantage of an increased free space under the post which can thus be placed directly above the, higher, roof egde while furthermore the roofing material at that place is optimally accessible. The measure according to claim 6 makes it possible in a simple manner to set up the corner connection between the handrail parts, so that it is not necessary to use separate corner connecting pieces. It is observed that DE-U-8 614 596 describes a handrail assembly with handrails, carried by supports in which each support is hingedly connected to a weight-loaded base which lies at a distance above the roof surface and is carried by at least three detachable feet. This publication describes how to obtain working space under the base, the feet are lifted one at a time, the remaining feet supporting the base. The invention will be explained with reference to the drawing, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective drawing of part of a safety handrail assembly made up of supports according to the invention, and fitted on the edge of a roof; Figure 2 is a side view of the combinations of base and post according to the invention, opened out; Figure 3 is a side view of said support, folded up; Figure 4 is a front view of the post used in the support according to the invention; Figure 5 is a schematic view of a modified embodiment according to the invention; Figure 6 shows schematically a handrail corner connection formed with a special embodiment of the support according to the invention; Figure 7 shows in perspective a third embodiment according to the invention; Figure 8 shows a support, used in this embodiment in the folded state. In figure 1 the reference number 2 indicates part of a roof with the end edge 4. In order to ensure the safety of persons having to carry out work such as renovation or repair of the roof covering on this roof, a handrail assembly is fitted at the roof edge 4, said handrail assembly being made up of the handrails 6, 8, support by a number of handrail supports which are positioned at intervals along the roof edge 4, and three of which are shown in Figure 1 by reference numbers 10a, 10b, 10c. Each handrail support consists of a post 12 and a base 14, connected to each other by means of a hinge 16; a double hinge arm system is fitted between post 12 and base 14 and has the hinge arms 18 and 20, which are connected to each other by means of a horizontal hinge 22. Each arm 18 is connected by means of a hinge 24 to the post 12, and each arm 20 is connected by means of a hinge 26 to the base 14. Buckling is prevented in the manner known for hinge arms by a stop 28, and the whole unit is kept stable by the arms being forced slightly through the dead center, as known per se for hinge arms. Each base 14 is held in place by a weight 30, only one of which, for the sake of clarity, is shown in Figure 1. The handrails 6 and 8 rest in handrail carrier 32, 34 respectively, and after placing therein are held in place by spring-loaded retaining pins 36, 38 respectively. The front face of the post 12 has formed in it a guide groove 40, into which fit suitable sliding pieces 42 which are connected to the respective handrail carrier and which can be fixed by means of tensioning bolts 44, so that each handrail carrier can be fixed at a desired height. As can be seen in detail in Figures 2 and 3, the hinge point 16 is at certain distance, indicated by h , above the surface 2a of the roof 2. The result of this is that when a handrail support is folded up - which is possible without further ado on removal of the weight 30 and folding up of the base 14 to the post 12 - see Figure 2 - there is a free space with a height h underneath the handrail support. This means that the edge zone of the roof 2 is directly accessible near the edge 4, so that work such as fitting new roofing, which has to be carried out in this edge zone, is possible without problems and loss of time resulting from the time-consuming dismantling of handrail supports. When the base 14 is folded up, the handrail support remains in place, due to the fact that the post 12 remains hanging on the handrails 6, 8 by means of the retaining pins 36 and 38 respectively. Figure 1 shows schematically how already two lengths of roofing material, indicated by 48 and 50, are fitted on the roof 2; the handrail support 10c is folded up and the length of roofing material which is indicated by the reference number 52 can be taken without further ado close to the roof edge 4. The unit described has not only the advantage that a free space can be created particularly quickly underneath the respective handrail supports for the purpose of carrying out the desired work, but also that the fitting and removal takes place particularly quickly. There are no loose parts which have to be inserted into each other and tightened relative to each other: the handrail supports are put in the desired place, opened out and loaded with a weight; when a number of handrail supports have been placed, the handrail parts 6 and 8 can be fitted. In the embodiment according to Figures 1 to 4 the height h of the free space 46 which can be created underneath the post 12 is determined by the height of the base part 14. Figure 5 shows an embodiment in which this free space is greater than the height of the base part, which can be advantageous either when one wishes to create a higher free space using a base part with the configuration shown in Figures 1 to 4, or when a flat base part is to be used. As Figure 5 shows, in the said embodiment the post 50 bearing the handrail part 56 via the carrier 52 is connected by means of a corner piece 58 to the, here flat, base part 60, which, loaded by the weight 62, rests on the top face 64 of the roof; the corner piece 58 is connected by means of the horizontal hinge 66 to the post 50. As can be seen from the figure, the height of the free space 68 obtained underneath the handrail support when the base 60 is folded up to the position 60a shown by dotted lines is considerably greater; the height h being determined by the height of the leg 58a of the corner piece 58. According to the state of the art, when constructing a handrail assembly, separate corner pieces are used for joining together the handrail parts at the corners. In a preferred embodiment according to the invention, which hardly increases the cost of the handrail unit, the use of such connecting pieces is not necessary. This embodiment is shown in Figure 6. Figure 6 shows the two handrail parts 70 and 72, the ends 70a, 72a of which lie close to each other at the corner 74. Not only is the post 82 of the support 76 with base 78, loaded by the weight 80, provided on its front face 82a with a guide groove 84 for the handrail carrier 86, in the manner already described above but the side faces 82b and 82c are also provided with such a guide groove, indicated by 84b and 84c respectively. The guide groove 84b contains the handrail carrier 88 bearing the handrail part 72. The handrail carriers are fixed in the manner described above with reference to Figure 2 by means of sliding pieces and tensioning bolts which, for the sake of clarity, are not shown. In this way the handrail parts 70 and 72 are joined together at the corner 74 without extra parts. Figure 7 shows an embodiment of the handrail assembly which has the advantage that the space available under the post is increased still further so that the roofing material at the roof edge is optimally accessible. This figure shows how in this embodiment each support, indicated as a whole with reference numeral 100, comprises a base 102 connected to the weight 104, and a post 106; the base 102 and the post 106 are interconnected by means of two hinge arms 108a, 108b, which are connected to the base 102 by a first horizontal pivot axis 110 and connected to the post 106 by a second horizontal pivot axis 112. The post 106 supports the handrails 114, 116. The base 102 and the post 106 are interconnected by the hinge arms 118, 120 which are interconnected by a hinge 122. As Figure 7 shows how the distance between the lower end of the post 106 and the level of the roof, the latter indicated by reference numeral 124 is, as a result of these measures, much greater than in the other embodiments so that the assembly can be placed much closer to the roof edge 126. When the base 102 is folded upwardly, there is much more free space under the post 106 and the roofing material 128 can easily be taken up towards the outer roof edge.

Claims: 1. Detachable handrail assembly, in particular for protecting an open roof, comprising a number of handrails (6, 8, 56, 114, 116) and a number of supports (10a, 100) therefore, each such a support comprising a base (14, 62, 102) resting directly on the roof surface and kept in place by a weight (30, 62; 104) and a post (12, 50, 106) which is connected thereto and to which the handrails (6, 8; 56; 114, 116) are fixed, each handrail being fixed to a number of support posts, characterized in that the bottom end of the post (12, 50, 106) of each support lies a distance above the bearing face of the base (14, 60, 102), base and post are interconnected by means of a horizontal hinge (16, 66, 112) situated at a distance above said bearing face, and mean (18, 20, 28) are provided for locking the base and post relative to each other when in the folded-out position. 2. Detachable handrail assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that of each support thereof the hinge (66) is connected to the free end of the first leg (58a) of a corner piece (58), the second leg (58b) of which is connected to the base (60). 3. Detachable handrail assembly according to claim 1, characterized in that of each support thereof the base (102) is interconnected by means of a first hinge (110) near the free end thereof to the one end of at least one hinge arm (108a) of which the other end is connected through a second hinge (112), parallel to the first one (110), to the lower end of the post (106). 4. Detachable handrail assembly accordirg to claim 3, characterized in that each support thereof comprises two mutually parallel hinge arms (108a, 108b), enclosing with their respective end the base (108) and the post (106) respectively. 5. Detachable handrail assembly according to claim 1-4, characterized in that base and post of each support are interconnected by at least one hinge arm system (18, 20, 22; 118, 120, 122) with toggle joint 6. Detachable handrail assembly according to claim 1-5, characterized in that the post (12, 50) of each support bears at least one handrail carrier (32, 34) which is open at the top and is provided with a securing element (38).

Inventors: VAN HERPEN, FREDERIK CORNELIS
Applicants: ALPROKON PROMOTIE EN ONTWIKKELING B.V.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: E04G21
IPC codes: E04G21