Multifunctional conduit

Abstract: A multifunctional conduit which can act as a structural member, an attaching member, and a conduit duct. A base of the conduit has the strength and rigidity required as the structural member, has on its bottom surface at least one fitting groove for interconnection with other members and on its top surface standerdized rails to which various devices can be attached, and has outside each wall of the rail an attachment section to which a cover is attached. Said cover has on each of its right and left sidewalls first engagement section which is engaged with the attachment section of the base and second engagement section which is engaged with the wall of the rail.

Description: The present invention relates to a multifunctional conduit, and in particular, to a multifunctional conduit acting as a structural member constituting a structure, an attaching member to which various fluid and electrical devices can be attached, and a conduit duct in which pipes and wires are accommodated. When connected to a fluid-pressure device or its controller mounted on a working structure, pipes and wires are conventionally accommodated and protected in a conduit. Conventional conduits, however, only have the function of accommodating pipes and wires to protect them, and so cannot be incorporated into a structure or used to connect the above devices together. They can only be attached to the structure as simple accessories for piping and wiring. Consequently, such conduits are cumbersome to handle, and their attachment and removal operations are complicated. EP-A-0200927 describes a cable duct having a U-shaped duct element and a cover which is fastened to the duct element walls. The walls of the duct element are detachable from the base to allow variation of the cross-section of the duct. An objective of this invention is to provide a multifunctional conduit that acts as a structural member constituting a structure, as an attaching member to which various fluid and electrical devices can be attached, and as a conduit duct in which pipes and wires are accommodated. Another objective of this invention is to provide an easy-to-handle multifunctional conduit comprising a base and a cover that can be reliably and quickly attached to and removed from the base using simple operations. In accordance with the invention, there is provided a multifunctional conduit comprising a base and a cover detachably mounted on the top surface of the base, a space being defined between the base and the cover for accommodation of pipes and wires wherein the base has at least one fitting groove on its bottom surface for interconnection with other members, a pair of upwardly extending walls on its top surface and an attachment section outboard of the walls to which the cover is attached, and wherein the cover has engagement sections that engage with the attachment sections of the base characterised in that the base has sufficient strength and rigidity to act as a structural member; in that the pair of walls form a rail for attachment of fluid and/or electrical devices and in that the cover has a substantially U-shaped cross-section with an engagement section on each sidewall. In addition to its inherent function of accommodating pipes and wires, this conduit can function as a structural member by virtue of the fitting groove which can be used for connection to other members and also act as a device-attachment member through the rail which can be used to attach various devices to the conduit. Preferably, the cover has on its right and left sidewalls a first and second engagement section, which are engaged to the attachment section of the base and the walls of the rail, respectively. As the rails to which devices can be attached can also be used to attach the cover to the base, the conduit has a simple and reasonable design structure. In addition, due to the use of the first and second engagement sections, the cover can be reliably and firmly attached to the base. In the preferred embodiment, the cover is partitioned into right and left sidewalls and a roof, and the right and left sidewalls each include the first and second engagement sections. In a specific embodiment, the attachment section is a groove with an arcuate cross-section, and the first engagement section also has an arcuate cross-section. By fitting the arcuate engagement section in the arcuate groove, the right and left sidewalls can be attached to the base from the direction of its side. In addition, the second engagement section has a hook-like portion, and is engaged with the walls of the rail by installing the sidewalls. In another embodiment, the base of the conduit has an inner rail with a smaller gap between its opposite walls and an outer rail with a larger gap between its opposite walls, and has inner and outer attachment sections outside each wall of the inner and outer rails, respectively. The cover, however, has at least either right and left inner walls that can be engaged with and removed from the inner attachment section and the inner rail, or right and left outer walls that can be engaged with and removed from the outer attachment section and the outer rail. The or each rail preferably conforms to the DIN standard and includes on the top ends of the pair of its walls an edge that extends outward from the base in the direction of the width of the base. The invention will now be further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a cross-sectional view of the first embodiment of a disassembled multifunctional conduit according to this invention. Figure 2 is a cross-sectional view of the assembled conduit in Figure 1. Figure 3 is an enlarged view of the integral part of Figure 2. Figure 4 is a perspectival view showing a method for attaching devices to the conduit in Figure 1. Figure 5 is a cross-sectional view showing the second embodiment of this invention. Figure 6 is a cross-sectional view showing the third embodiment of this invention. Figure 7 is a cross-sectional view showing the fourth embodiment of this invention. Figure 8 is a perspectival view showing the conduit according to this invention in use. Figure 9 is a cross-sectional view showing the fifth embodiment of this invention. Figures 1 to 4 show a first embodiment of a multifunctional conduit. Conduit 1A comprises a base 2A and a cover 3A detachably mounted on the top surface of the base 2A with a space 4 between the base 2A and the cover 3A in which pipes and wires are accommodated. Base 2A comprises an extrusion-molded member with a specified cross section which is obtained by extrusion-molding a raw metallic material such as aluminum or its alloy which has the strength and rigidity required of a structural member. At least one fitting groove 5 is longitudinally formed on the bottom surface of the base 2A for interconnection with other members. The fitting groove 5 has a small width at its opening and also an approximately T-shaped cross section. For example, the fitting groove 5 is coupled to another member 41A or 41B by engaging an appropriate connecting fixture 43 with the fitting groove 5 and a similar fitting groove 42 in the member 41A, or by securing a fixture engaged with the fitting groove 5 to a bracket 44 mounted on the member 41B using its fitting groove 42, respectively, as shown in Figure 8. This allows the base 2A to act as a structural member that is incorporated into a structure 40. Figure 8 typically shows an example of the usage of the conduit according to this invention with reference to a conduit 1C according to a third embodiment shown in Figure 6. In this figure, 45 is a screw for fixing the bracket 44, 46 is a pressure fluid piping, and 47 is electrical wiring. A detailed example of a connection method using connecting fixture 43 is shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Application No. H 5-168235. On its top surface, the base 2A has a rail 6 that extends longitudinally, comprising a lateral pair of walls 7, 7 that extend upward, and to which various fluid and electrical devices such as solenoid valves and their controllers can be attached. The rail 6 includes at the top end of each of its walls 7 a portion 8 that extends outward and horizontally in the direction of the width of the base 2A, and conforms to the DIN standard. A device 30 can be attached to the rail 6 by engaging engagement grooves 31 formed in the device 30 with the rail 6, as shown in Figures 4 and 8. Methods for installing devices using rail 6 are well-known techniques as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid Open No. H 4-119601, Japanese Utility Model Laid Open No. H 4-119603, and Japanese Utility Model Laid Open No. H 4-128582, and will not be further referred to. Furthermore, on the base 2A, attachment sections 9, 9 to which the cover 3A is attached is formed outside each of the walls 7, 7 of the rail 6. The attachment section 9 is a groove that has an arcuate cross section bending inwardly in the direction of the width and which is cut down to a specified depth from the top surface of the base 2A. Cover 3A comprises right and left sidewalls 3a, 3a of rigid or semi-rigid synthetic resin and a roof 3b of rigid or semi-rigid synthetic resin which extends across the sidewalls 3a, 3a. When these components are connected together, the cover 3A has a groove-like cross section. The right and left sidewalls 3a, 3a have at their bottom end a first engagement section 12 that is engaged with the attachment section 9 of the base 2A and on its inner surface a second engagement section 14 that is engaged with the wall 7 of the rail 6. They also have at their top end a locking section 13 that is internally and elastically engaged with the locking section 17 of the roof 3b. The first engagement section 12 has a similar arcuate cross section to that of the attachment section 9, and fitting together the first engagement section 12 and the attachment section 9 enables the sidewalls 3a, 3a to be manually and simply installed from the direction of the side of the base 2A, as shown in Figure 3. The second engagement section 14 comprises a hook-like portion that bends downward from the end of a wall 14a extending transversely from the sidewall 3a. By attaching the sidewall 3a to the base 2A, the hook-like portion is elastically engaged with the top end of the wall 7 of the rail 6, as shown in Figure 3. Thus, the sidewalls 3a, 3a can be reliably and firmly attached to the base 2A using the first and second engagement sections 12 and 14. In addition, by installing the sidewalls 3a, 3a using the rail 6 to which the device 30 is attached, the conduit 1A can be given a simple and reasonable design structure. Reference numeral 15 in the figure designates an antislip section comprising a plurality of shallow grooves cut longitudinally in the outer surface of the sidewalls 3a, 3a, and 18 is an attachment hole in which a screw is inserted to connect the bases 2A or the covers 3A to each other. The hole wall around the attachment hole 18 formed in the roof 3b constitutes the locking section 17 that engages the engagement section 13 of the sidewall 3a. In the conduit 1A according to the above embodiment, when the cover 3A is installed on the base 2A, the first arcuate engagement section 12 at the bottom end of the sidewall 3a is first inserted from the side of the base 2A into the attachment section 9 that is an arcuate groove, as shown by the solid line in Figure 3, and the sidewall 3a is then allowed to stand, as shown by the broken line. Then, as also shown in Figure 2, the first engagement section 12 of the sidewall 3a is completely engaged with the attachment section 9, while the second engagement section 14 is engaged with the top end of the wall 7 of the rail 6, thereby allowing the sidewall 3a to be attached to the base 2A. Pipes and wires are then accommodated between the right and left sidewalls 3a, 3a. The roof 3b is then contacted with the top ends of both the sidewalls 3a, 3a and pressed downward to elastically engage the locking sections 13 and 17 together. The roof 3b is thus attached to the sidewalls to finish the installation of the cover 3A. When conduit 1A is opened for maintenance, the roof 3b can be removed by inwardly pressing the top ends of the right and left sidewalls 3a, 3a to release the engagement of the locking sections 13 and 17. When required, the sidewalls 3a, 3a can also be removed using an operation that reverses their installation. If the device 30 is attached to the base 2A, as shown in Figure 4, the cover 3A is cut into pieces of required lengths, which are then installed over areas other than the one to which the device 30 is attached. In this case, since the cover 3A is made of synthetic resin, it can be cut easily, and draw-out holes for drawing out pipes and wires can be drilled easily. Thus, in addition to a function as a conduit duct in which pipes and wires are accommodated, the conduit 1A acts as a structural member constituting a structure and as an attaching member to which various fluid and electrical devices can be attached. Figure 5 shows a second embodiment. A conduit 1B according to the second embodiment also has a base 2B and a cover 3B, which together have the following configuration. The base 2B has on its bottom surface two fitting grooves 5, 5 and on its top surface an inner rail 6a comprising a lateral pair of walls 7a, 7a and an outer rail 6b comprising a lateral pair of walls 7b, 7b with a larger gap between them than exists between the walls 7a. The base 2B also has outside each wall 7a of the inner rail 6a and each wall 7b of the outer rail 6b, inner and outer attachment sections 9a and 9b to which the cover 3B is attached, respectively. The inner rail 6a and the inner attachment section 9a are formed higher than the outer rail 6b and the outer attachment section 9b. The inner rail 6a is used to install the device 30, and includes at the top ends of the pair of its walls 7a, 7a edges 8a, 8a that extend outwardly and horizontally in the direction of the width of the base 2A and which conform to the DIN standard. The outer rail 6b includes similar extending edges 8b, 8b at the top ends of the pair of its walls 7b, 7b, but does not conform to the DIN standard and is mainly used to install the cover 3B. Of course, the outer rail 6b can be used to install the device. The cover 3B substantially has the same constitution as the cover 3A according to the first embodiment except for its large width corresponding to the base 2B of a larger width and the presence of two recessed portions 20 in the inner surface of the roof 3b. The same major components thus have the same reference numerals as in the cover 3A according to the first embodiment, and their description is omitted. The functions of the recessed portion 20 will be apparent in the following description of the third embodiment. Figure 6 shows the third embodiment that differs from the second embodiment in that in the conduit 1C according to the third embodiment, a cover 3C has both inner sidewalls 3a1, 3a1 and outer sidewalls 3a2, 3a2. The inner sidewalls 3a1, 3a1 include the first engagement section 12 engaged with the inner attachment section 9a of a base 2C, the second engagement section 14 engaged with the walls 7a, 7a of the inner rail 6a, and the locking section 13 at their top end which is engaged with a recessed portion 20 in the bottom surface of the roof 3b. The outer sidewalls 3a2, 3a2 include the first engagement section 12 engaged with the outer attachment section 9b of the base 2C, the second engagement section 14 engaged with the walls 7b, 7b of the outer rail 6b, and the locking section 13 at their top end which is engaged with the locking section 17 of the roof 3b. This constitution allows three partitioned spaces 4 to be formed between the base 2C and the sidewalls 3a1, 3a2, so that pipes and wires can be accommodated individually in the spaces 4. According to the third embodiment, since the difference in height between the inner attachment section 9a and inner rail 6a of the base 2C and the outer attachment section 9b and outer rail 6b thereof is equal to the difference in height between the locking section 17 and recessed portion 20 of the cover 3C, the inner sidewall 3a1 and the outer sidewall 3a2 may be the same. The roof 3b of the cover 3C is the same as the roof 3b of the cover 3C according to the second embodiment. The third embodiment substantially has the same configuration as the second embodiment except that the cover 3C includes the double sidewalls as described above. The same major components thus have the same reference numerals as in the second embodiment, and their description is omitted. Figure 7 is a fourth embodiment. A conduit 1D according to the fourth embodiment is the same as the second embodiment except that a cover 3D is installed using the inner attachment section 9a and the inner rail 6a. The same major components thus have the same reference numerals as in the second embodiment, and their description is omitted. Since in the fourth embodiment, the rail 6a conforms to the DIN standard, the cover 3A according to the first embodiment can be used as the cover 3D. In the conduits 1B, 1C, and 1D shown in the second, third, and fourth embodiments, the bases 2B, 2C, and 2D have the same constitution, and the covers 3B, 3C, and 3D have different constitutions. Consequently, all the covers 3B, 3C, and 3D according to these embodiments can be used for a single base depending upon the type and position of the device 30 to be attached to the base. Figure 9 shows a fifth embodiment. A conduit 1E according to the fifth embodiment is substantially the same as the second embodiment except that a base 2E does not have an inner attachment section, that the walls 7b, 7b of the outer rail 6b do not have an extending edge at their top end, that the roof 3b of a cover 3E does not have a recessed portion, and that the second engagement section 14 of the sidewalls 3a, 3a has a suitable shape for engagement with the walls 7b, 7b that do not have an extending edge. The same major components thus have the same reference numerals as in the second embodiment, and their description is omitted. Although in the above embodiments, the cover is partitioned into the roof and right and left sidewalls, they may be integrated.

Claims: A multifunctional conduit (1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 1E) comprising a base (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) and a cover (3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E) detachably mounted on the top surface of the base, a space (4) being defined between the base (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) and the cover (3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E) for accommodation of pipes and wires wherein the base (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) has at least one fitting groove (5) on its bottom surface for interconnection with other members (41A, 41B), a pair of upwardly extending walls (7, 7a, 7b) on its top surface and an attachment section (9, 9a, 9b) outboard of the walls (7, 7a, 7b) to which the cover (3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E) is attached, and wherein the cover has engagement sections (12, 14) that engage with the attachment sections (9, 9a, 9b) of the base characterised in that the base (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) has sufficient strength and rigidity to act as a structural member; in that the pair of walls (7, 7a, 7b) form a rail (6, 6a, 6b) for attachment of fluid and/or electrical devices (30) and in that the cover (3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E) has a substantially U-shaped cross-section with an engagement section (12, 14) on each sidewall (3a, 3a1, 3a2). A conduit as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the cover (3A, 3B, 3C, 3D, 3E) comprises right and left sidewalls (3a, 3a1, 3a2) which include the engagement sections (12, 14) and a separate roof (3b) extending across and attached to the sidewalls (3a, 3a1, 3a2). A conduit as claimed in either Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the rail (6, 6a, 6b) includes at the top ends of each wall (7, 7a, 7b) a flange (8, 8a, 8b) extending outwardly and conforming to the DIN standard. A conduit as claimed in any preceding Claim wherein the rail for attachment of fluid and/or electrical devices is an inner rail (6a) and the base also has an outer rail (6b) on its top surface comprising a pair of walls (7b) spaced further apart than the walls (7a) of the inner rail (6a). A conduit as claimed in Claim 4 as dependent on Claim 3 wherein an extending edge (8b) similar to that of the inner rail (6a) is provided at the top ends of the pair of walls (7b) of the outer rail (6b). A conduit as claimed in either Claim 4 or Claim 5 wherein the base (2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) has an inner and outer attachment section (9a, 9b) outboard of each wall (7a, 7b) of the inner and outer rails (6a, 6b) respectively and wherein the cover (3B, 3C, 3D, 3E) engagement sections (12, 14) engage with either an inner and/or an outer attachment section (9a, 9b) of the base. A conduit as claimed in Claim 6 wherein the cover (3C) comprises right and left inner and outer sidewalls (3a1, 3a2), each sidewall having an engagement section (12, 14) thereon. A conduit as claimed in any preceding Claim wherein the cover has both first engagement sections (12) which engage the base attachment sections (9, 9a, 9b) and second engagement sections (14) which engage the walls (7, 7a, 7b). A conduit as claimed in Claim 8 wherein each attachment section (9, 9a, 9b) is a groove with an arcuate cross-section and each first engagement section (12) has an arcuate cross-section, wherein the sidewalls (3a, 3a1, 3a2) can be installed sideways to the base (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) by fitting the arcuate groove and the arcuate section (12) together, and wherein each second engagement section comprises a hook-like portion (14) protruding from the side of the sidewall (3a, 3a1, 3a2) which is engaged with a wall (7, 7a, 7b) by installing the sidewalls (3a, 3a1, 3a2). A conduit as claimed in any preceding Claim wherein the base (2A, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E) is formed by extrusion moulding.

Inventors: NAGAI SHIGEKAZU, SUGANO KOJI, NAGAI, SHIGEKAZU, SUGANO, KOJI, Nagai, Shigekazu, SMC Corp. Tsukuba Tech. Cent., Sugano, Koji, SMC Corp. Tsukuba Tech. Cent.
Applicants: SMC CORP, SMC CORPORATION
Application year: 1996
Main classification: H02G3
IPC codes: H02G3, F16L3