Patent Abstract:
Connectors for linear members of wall structure which allows a variety of guide rails, fences, and pipes to be assembled in a desired pattern conveniently are provided. The connector includes a central body of annular shape; at least one socket member  6 , the one end of the socket member being connected to the central body and the other end being connected to the linear member, such as pipe, wire or bar; and a rail means that connects the central body and the socket member such that the socket member can be moved along the circumferential surface of the central body.

Full Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims priority to Korean Application No. 10-2008-0089624, filed on Sep. 11, 2008; the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to a connector, more specifically, a connector for linear members of wall structure which allows a variety of guide rails, fences, and pipes to be conveniently assembled in a desired pattern. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Wall structures used for guard rails of stairs, guide rails for discriminating between a roadway and a footway, and fences for representing boundaries of land generally have posts that are vertically positioned at a distance and blocking members between the posts. Especially, lattices made by linear members, for example, bars and pipes, etc. are usually used. 
     Recently, many of self-governing bodies use wall structures which are designed to present a fine sight or to represent symbols of the bodies. Accordingly, there are continuous efforts to provide a variety of designs onto the wall structures. In addition, one must consider a functionality and an utility as well as a sense of beauty. 
     Guide rails of prior art generally includes vertical pipes anchored to the ground by anchor bolts, transverse pipes, and elongated pipes spanning between the vertical pipes and the transverse pipes. The pipes are connected, for example, by welding methods to construct the guide rails. In that case, the pipes are cut in a predetermined length and a predetermined cutting angle and then welded each other. This is a time-consuming work and limits the design of the guide rails. The inventor of the present invention had developed a improved pipe thread for guide rail to address the problems, which is pending as a Korean Patent Application no. 10-2004-0079751. 
     A front view of the guide rail  100  according to above Korean Patent Application is shown in  FIG. 1 . In the drawings, pipes P are connected radially to the Connectors  1 . One end of the pipe is connected to the connector  1  and the other end is connected to a frame, for example, a post. The present invention is to improve the connector  1  shown  FIG. 1 . 
     The object of the invention is thus to provide a improved connector for linear members of wall structure, which makes it possible to connect the linear members and then construct wall structures, such as guard rails, fences and guide rails, etc. in a simple manner. Another object of the invention is to provide a simple and slim connector for linear members. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     To achieve the above objects, the connector in accordance with the present invention includes: 
     a central body of annular shape; at least one socket member, one end of the socket member being connected to the central body and the other end being connected to a linear member, such as a pipe, a wire or a bar; and a rail means that connects the central body and the socket member such that the socket member can be moved along the circumferential surface of the central body. 
     According to one aspect of the invention, the central body comprises a cylinder member; the rail means comprises at least one annular, L-shape guide groove, and at least one latch to engage the guide groove and to prevent the socket member from disengaging therefrom. Cover members having a circular disc and a rim, respectively, are fitted onto the opposite sides of the cylinder member such that at least one guide groove is concealed 
     According to the present invention, wall structures are easily constructed by assembling a plurality of linear members including pipes and bars in various patterns. Also, the connector according to the present invention has a simple structure, and thus the present invention can achieve lower costs. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       So that the manner in which the above recited features of the present invention are attained and can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to the embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and therefore, are not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments. 
         FIG. 1  is a front view of a guide rail constructed by connectors of the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a exploded view of the connector shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIGS. 4A and 4B  are cross-sectional views of the connector taken from the line A-A in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIG. 5  is a front view of the connector shown in  FIG. 2 ; 
         FIGS. 6A and 6B  are cross-sectional views of a connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 7A ,  7 B,  8 A and  8 B are cross-section views of the connectors according to a third and a forth embodiments of the present invention; 
         FIG. 9  is a front view of the connector according to another embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIGS. 10A and 10  are cross-sectional views of a connector according to a fifth embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 11  is a cross-sectional view of a connector according to a sixth embodiment of the present invention; 
         FIG. 12  is a exploded view of the connector shown in  FIG. 11 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIG. 1  is a front view of a guide rail constructed by the connectors of the present invention.  FIG. 2  is a perspective view of a connector according to a first embodiment of the present invention.  FIG. 3  is an exploded view of the connector shown in  FIG. 2 .  FIGS. 4A and 4B  are cross-sectional views of the connector taken from the line A-A in  FIG. 2 .  FIG. 5  is a front view of the connector shown in  FIG. 2 .  FIGS. 6A and 6B  are cross-sectional views of a connector according to a second embodiment of the present invention.  FIGS. 7A ,  7 B,  8 A and  8 B are cross-section views of the connectors according to a third and a forth embodiments of the present inventions.  FIG. 9  is a front view of the connector according to another embodiment of the present invention. The connectors of the present invention are used in same applications as the connector  1  shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     A plurality of linear members are radially connected to the central body of annular shape. At least one socket member is located between the central body and the linear member. One end of the socket member is connected to the central body and extends out radially, and the other end of the socket member is connected to the linear members such as pipes, wires and bars. The rail means is located at the connection between the central body and the socket member so that the socket member moves along the circumferential surface of the central body with one end of the socket member being connected to the central body. The rail means may be installed in various ways. As noted, the central body and the rail means can be modified within the scope of the present invention. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 2 to 5 , one embodiment of the present invention is described. 
     In one embodiment, a cylinder member  2  is used as the central body. Two L-shaped guide grooves  4  and latches  10  engaging the guide grooves are used as the rail means. 
     The cylinder member  2  having a constant width includes two guide grooves  4  along the circumferential surface. The cylinder member  2  can be made as an unitary piece or made by two or more pieces. Referring to the  FIG. 2 , the cylinder member  2  has a ring shape with a thickness of 1 to 4 cm, and two L-shaped guide grooves  4  are symmetrically provided on the cylinder member  2 . 
     Provided at one end of the socket member  6  is a flange  8 . Latches  10  also are provided on the flange  8  such that the flange  8  can be moved along the guide grooves  4 . Once the latches  10  engage with the guide grooves  4 , the socket member  6  can not move away radially, but can rotate along the circumferential edges of the cylinder member  2 . The flange  8  of the socket member  6  has a curved shape that corresponds to the curvature of the cylinder member  2 . 
     According to one embodiment of the invention, a slot  12  for inserting the latch  10  is provided on the surface of the cylinder member  2 . The slot is preferably closed after the required numbers of the latches  10  are inserted. Alternatively, the slot  12  remains open, in this case, the socket member is preferably positioned at a distances from the slot. 
     Linear members are connected to the other end of the socket member  6 . For this, a thread  13  is provided on the other end of the socket member  6 . As described above, the linear member may comprise bar, wire, and pipe etc. In the drawings, linear members are shown as pipes P, and the linear members are referred to as pipes P below. 
     Similar to the conventional plumbing methods, the socket member  6  and the pipe P may be joined by threads. For this connection, there is provided, for example, a male thread on the other end of the socket member  6  and a female thread on the inside of the pipe P. In addition to the threads, other connecting means, such as rivets and welds can be employed. 
     One or more socket members  6  can be mounted onto the cylinder member  2  and all of the socket members  6  need not to have a same shape. As shown in  FIG. 9 , one of the socket members  6  can be connected to a post C of the wall structure. In this case, a bracket  11  can be provided at the other end of socket member  6 . 
     Cover members  14 ,  15  are fitted onto the opposite sides of the cylinder member  2 . As shown in the drawings, the cover members  14 ,  15  can be fitted on by hooks. Specifically, rims  14   a,    15   a  of the cover members  14 ,  15  are joined such that the the rims cover over the flanges  8  of the socket members  6  and conceal the guide grooves  4 . Recesses  16  are provided on the flange  8  of the socket members and protrusions  20  are provided on the underside of the cover members  14 ,  15 . The protrusions  20  engage with the recesses  16 . 
     Cover members  14 ,  15  are joined together by a center bolt  22  and a center nut  24  to prevent the cover members  14 ,  15  and the cylinder member  2  from disengaging. The center bolt  22  and the center nut  24  can be molded integrally with each of the cover members  14 ,  15 . Alternatively, the cover members  14 ,  15  can be joined by hooks other than the bolt-nut joining means. 
     According to another embodiment of the invention, as shown in  FIGS. 6A and 6B , the cover members  14 ,  15  may be engaged with the socket members  6  by threads. For this, for example, a male screw is provided on the top surface of the socket member  6  and a female screw is provided on the inside of the rims  14 a,  15 a of the cover members  14 ,  15 . According to this embodiment, components, for example, the center bolt  22  (see  FIG. 4 ) of above embodiment are not needed any more. 
     Connectors for linear members according to another embodiments are described below.  FIGS. 7A ,  7 B,  8 A and  8 B are cross-sectional views of the connectors according to the embodiments of the invention. In these embodiments, the central body is the cylinder member  2  and cover members  14 ,  15  with rims on the edges thereof are fitted onto the opposite sides of the cylinder member  2 . 
     The rail means are formed by the circumferential surface of the cylinder member  2  and the rims  14   a,    15   a  of the cover members. The circumferential surface is provided with two guide grooves  4  and two latches  10  formed at one end of the socket member  6  are engaged with the guide grooves  4 . 
     According to this embodiment, generally L-shaped guides are formed by assembling the cover members  14 ,  15  and the socket members  6 . The socket members  6  can not moved away radially by the L-shaped guides formed between the cover members  14 ,  15  and the socket members  6 . As a result, unlikely the above embodiments, the cover members  14 ,  15  may be essential constitutions of the rail means in this embodiment. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 8A and 8B , the cover members  14 ,  15  are engaged with each other by a center bolt  22  and a center nut  24 . Alternatively in the embodiment shown in  FIG. 7 , the cover members  14 ,  15  and the socket members  6  may be joined each other by threads. In this case, means for joining the cover members  14 ,  15  each other is not needed. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 8A and 8B , the cover members  14 ,  15  and the socket members  6  are snap-fitted by protrusions  20  and recesses  16  and the cover members  14 ,  15  are engaged with each other by a center bolt  22  and a center nut  24 . 
       FIGS. 10A and 10B  are cross-sectional views of a connector according to yet another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the cover members  14 ,  15  and the cylinder member  2  are joined together by threads. Guides formed by assembling the cover members  14 ,  15  and the socket members  6  are used as rail means. The guides prevent the socket members  6  from moving away from the cylinder member  2  radially. In this embodiment, like the above embodiments, the central body is embodied as the cylinder member  2  and the cover members  14 ,  15  and the rail means are embodied as the guides that are formed by joining the cylinder member  2  and the cover members  14 ,  15 . 
     In the embodiments, while the cylinder members  2  are described and shown as a cylindrical shape, the present invention is not limited to this shape. Instead, the cylinder members  2  can have any shapes including an oval shape, or a polygon shape with round edges. 
       FIG. 11  is a cross-sectional view of a connector according to yet another embodiment of the present invention and  FIG. 12  is a exploded view of the connector shown in  FIG. 11 . In this embodiment, unlikely the above embodiments, the cylinder members  2  (see  FIGS. 2 to 10 ) are omitted. In this embodiment, only cover members  14 ,  15  are used as central body. In addition, the rail means are formed by the rims  14   a,    15   a  of the cover members  14 ,  15  and a guide groove located around the socket member  6 . The cover members  14 ,  15  are joined together by the center bolt  22  and the center nut  24 . 
     Connectors for linear members are assembled to a frame for a plastic greenhouse or a glasshouse by mounting the socket members  6  to the cylinder members  2 , installing the cylinder members  2  to posts, screwing elongate pipes used as rafters to the socket members  6 , and positioning the cylinder members  2  at vertices of a triangle such that the elongate pipes are sides of the triangle.

Technology Classification (CPC): 4