Patent GB-788866-A (GB)
Title: Apparatus for use in pitching sheet steel piles
Inventor: SCOTT RICHARD
IPC: E02D5/04
Filed: 1955-04-21
Abstract: 788,866. Piles. McALPINE & SONS, Ltd., Sir. R. April 13, 1956 [April 21, 1955]. No. 11584/55. Class 68(2) Apparatus for use in pitching sheet steel piles of channel section having interlocking edges such that, when pitching the piles, one pile B must be raised into approximately end to end position with respect to the previously pitched pile A to enable locking engagement of adjacent edges of the two piles to be started after which the raised pile is permitted to slide down lengthwise of the previously pitched pile, comprises a clamping structure which is adapted to be rigidly connected to the lower end of the raised pile B. The clamping structure consists of a yoke 1 with convergent guide arms 2, 3 for a pair of wedge-shaped interior jaws 4, 5 which are movable by a hand screw 6 to clamp the lower end of the pile B to be raised. External vertical webs 7, 8 are welded respectively to the arms 2, 3 of the yoke 1, a gusset 9 welded to the web 8, pivotally supporting, at 11 and below the clamping yoke 1, a right angled bracket 10 provided with a rubbing bar 12 along its free end. The gusset 9 also carries a fixed vertical plate 13 and a support 14 for a number of vertically superposed spring loaded guides having balls 15 held in cylinders 16 secured to the support 14, the loading of springs 40 being adjustable by means of screw-threaded plugs 41. A vertical plate 22 is mounted on to. the interior, and parallel to, the hinged arm of the bracket 10 by means of a pair of spaced stabilizer pins 23 which are fixed to the plate 22, project through holes 24 in the bracket 10, and are fitted with compression springs 25. A screw-threaded rod 27, extending, through a hole 29 in the hinged arm of the bracket 10, is housed in a metal tube 26 extending normal to the bracket arm 10, and has flanged socket 28 at one end accommodating a ball 30 which seats in a hole 31 in the vertical plate 22. The screw-threaded rod 27 is surrounded by a compression spring 32 which is constrained between the flanged socket 28, and a closure plate 33 for the tube 26 which is centrally apertured and provided with a sleeve 34 on its outer side, a nut 35, with a handle 36, being mounted on the end of the rod 27. An arm 17 is pivoted about a vertical axis, to the web 7 of the arm 2 of the yoke 1, a strut 18, hinged to the arm 17 for vertical movement having a down-turned free end 19 for engagement, when horizontal, in a hole 20 in a lug 21 extending from the bracket 10. In use, with the pile B to be pitched suspended at a convenient height, the hand screw 6 is operated to clamp the jaws 4, 5 to the bottom of the web of the pile B so that the plate 13 engages the inner face of a side channel wall of the pile B, which is then located with its grooved and flanged edge 37 overlapping and in contact with the correspondingly formed edge 38 of the pile A already pitched as shown in Fig. 5. With the pivoted arm 18 swung upwards, the bracket 10 is swung about its pivot 11 to bring the rubbing bar 12 into engagement with the transverse end surface of the pile A already pitched, the screwed rod 27 having been previously operated, to compress the spring 32. The end 19 of the strut 18 is now engaged in the lug 21 to hold the bracket in position, the spring loaded balls 15 being located slightly spaced from the outer surface of the adjacent edge of the pile A. The nut 35 is now turned sufficient to reduce the compression of the spring 32 so that the plate preses against the end surface of the flange 39 of the pitched pile B, the latent force in the spring still being capable of urging the plate 22 forward if the reaction force of the surface 39 were removed. The pile B is now hoisted, the two flanges being held in sliding contact until the flange 37 passes above the flange of the pitched pile A whereupon the flange 37, under the thrust of the spring loaded plate 22, moves transversely to take up a position for interlocking engagement with the flange 38 so that the hoisted pile A can be lowered.