Abstract:
Standard height wall form panels for poured concrete walls are extended with cap panels positioned on top thereof and secured thereto with cap clips which can be conveniently and easily installed and disassembled with the wall form panels. Furthermore, a spreader is used to maintain the spacing of the cap panels and provide a uniformly dimensioned concrete wall. Advantageously, the spreader in one embodiment allows a worker to pass a trowel there beneath to smooth out the top surface of the poured concrete wall.

Description:
This claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/071,743, filed Jan. 16, 1998 and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to poured concrete wall forms, and more particularly, to hardware for connecting and positioning the various opponents of poured concrete wall forms. 
     It is well known in the art to use prefabricated reusable panel units to construct a wall form for a poured concrete wall. Typically, a pair of spaced generally parallel wall forms are constructed from a plurality of individual panels. The individual panels are connected together with various attachment hardware to construct the wall form. After the spaced wall forms are constructed, concrete is poured between the wall forms and allowed to cure or harden at which time the wall forms, panels and associated hardware are disassembled, collected and transported to another site for reuse. Typically, a panel used in constructing a wall form is approximately 8′ high and 2′ to 3′ in width. The individual panels each include a marginal frame projecting rearwardly from a back face of the panel to include a flange along the spaced side edges and top and bottom edges of the panel. The side flanges are adapted to be positioned in a face-to-face relationship with the flange of an adjacent panel for connection therewith to construct a concrete wall form. Holes in the side flanges of the adjacent panels can be aligned to receive therethrough the shank of a pin or a bolt. The bolt or pin may pass through the ends of tie rods and are held in position commonly by wedges which project through a slot in the shank of the bolt or pin. The tie rods serve an important function by maintaining the spaced wall forms at a predetermined distance so that the resulting poured concrete wall is of a uniform thickness, shape and configuration. 
     Due to the wide variety of architectural plans and construction designs, individual wall form panels of various sizes are frequently used in combinations to construct an appropriately configured wall form. Typically, panels having a width of 12″ or less are called fillers and are often used with other “standard” size panels to construct a wall form. 
     Commonly, poured concrete walls are used to construct the foundation or basement of a residential house or other building. Typically, 8′ high panels have been used to construct the wall forms for such a basement or foundation. However, frequently a filler panel of typically 12″ in width is laid on its side atop the top edge of the wall form panels as a cap panel to provide a 9′ high wall form. The extended height wall form and resulting poured concrete wall are commonly required for an elevated ceiling in the basement or extra head room to conceal duct work, wiring, plumbing or the like without diminishing the 8′ high ceiling in the basement or foundation. 
     In the construction of a concrete wall form, a large quantity of hardware is necessary to connect the adjacent panels together. This situation is further complicated when a filler panel is positioned atop a standard 8′ wall form to provide an 9′ high wall. Furthermore, the wall forms are commonly constructed in excavated areas such as ditches and trenches with basement or below ground floor of a commercial building. As such, the work space for constructing the wall form and for the workers to maneuver and manipulate the associated hardware and panels is extremely tight and limited. 
     Therefore, the installation of the attachment hardware for the various panel configurations must be convenient, easily performed and require a minimal amount time and effort. The cost of labor and materials, therefore, has a significant impact upon the effectiveness of the wall form panel and attachment hardware designs. 
     The attachment hardware commonly used to secure adjacent panels in a side-by-side relationship cannot be used for securing an upper cap panel or filler panel atop the standard 8′ high panels because of the orientation and configuration of the holes, pins and the like. Nevertheless, off-the-shelf products are often used in an attempt to secure the upper cap panel, and these techniques and attachment schemes often prove to have limited success. As a result, the upper cap panel may waiver or become misaligned with respect to the lower panels or with respect to the opposing wall form. Commonly, a 2′×4′ or other member spanning the wall forms is clamped or secured to the upper flange of the cap member with a C-clamp or the like and the lower flange of the cap member and the upper flange of the panel are likewise clamped or otherwise secured together. However, this often proves to be a very time consuming and problematic operation for the workers. 
     Therefore, there exists a need in the industry for an attachment mechanism for coupling an upper cap panel onto a wall form and accurately and securely maintaining the cap panel in position relative to the opposite wall form, all of which is easily and conveniently installed and disassembled by the workers in the field. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     These and other objectives of the invention have been attained by a novel cap clip and a novel spreader for coupling a cap panel to a lower panel and maintaining the cap panel in position relative to the opposing wall form to construct a poured concrete wall. In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the cap clip can be conveniently used to connect the bottom flange of a cap panel to the top flange of a wall form panel. The cap clip has a generally I-beam shaped configuration with a lower generally planar flange connected to an upper flange via a central web. The upper flange has a pair of clip arms, one of which depends downwardly from each of the spaced outer edges of the upper flange. The cap clip can be conveniently installed onto the top flange of a wall form panel. Preferably a plurality of cap clips are used at a spacing of approximately 3′ or so for secure attachment of the cap panel to the wall form. The bottom flange of the cap panel is rotated into a receiving pocket of the cap clip formed between the upper and lower flanges. As a result, the upper cap panel is easily, conveniently and securely attached to the upper flange of a wall form. 
     Additionally, a spreader is conveniently used to maintain the spacing of the upper cap panels between the opposing wall forms. In a presently preferred embodiment, the spreader includes a central spreader section which spans the distance between the spaced wall forms. The spreader section includes a pair of spaced downwardly depending spreader tabs which are conveniently positioned along the inner planar front face of the upper cap panels of the spaced wall forms. Clip arms extend from the ends of the spreader section to conveniently couple to the upper flange of the cap panels. The rigid configuration of the spreader with a predefined spacing between the spreader tabs and associated clip arms maintains the cap panels in a specified spaced relationship while the concrete is poured therebetween and allowed to cure or harden. 
     In a second presently preferred embodiment, the spreader section is elevated relative to the top flanges of the spaced cap panels to provide access for a worker to smooth out the top edge of the poured concrete wall with a trowel or other appropriate tool. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     The objectives and features of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detawhich: 
     FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pair of spaced wall form panels, each of which have a cap panel secured thereto by a plurality of cap clips according to a presently preferred embodiment of this invention and the cap panels are maintained at a pre-determined spacing by a spreader according to one presently preferred embodiment of this invention; 
     FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the cap clip according to this invention; 
     FIG. 3 is an end view of the cap clip of FIG. 2; 
     FIG. 4 is an alternative embodiment of a spreader according to this invention; and 
     FIG. 5 is a view of the spreader of FIG.  1 . 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     Referring to FIG. 1, a presently preferred embodiment of a pair of spaced wall forms  10  for constructing a poured concrete wall  12  therebetween is shown. Each wall form includes a standard panel  14  which is customarily 8 40   in height and has an upper flange  16  projecting rearwardly from a back face  18  of the panel  14  and a generally planar front face  20  confronting and spaced from the  20  opposing wall form  10 . The wall panel  14  also includes a bottom flange  22  spaced from the top flange  16  and a pair of spaced side flanges (not shown). As is well known, the side flanges are used for adjoining the wall panel along the side edge to an adjacent similarly configured wall panel. The present invention is useful with a wide variety of known wall panel designs and a presently preferred embodiment of a wall panel is disclosed in U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/071,758, filed Jan. 16, 1998, assigned to the assignee of this invention and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. 
     Commonly, as shown in FIG. 1, a cap panel  24 , which may be constructed according to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/071,758, is added to the top of the standard wall panel  14  to form an extended height wall form  10 . Conventionally, the cap panel  24  is 12″ in width and extends from the wall form  10  to a height of 9′ to construct an 9′ high poured concrete wall  12 . The cap panel  24  includes a longitudinal bottom flange  26  and a longitudinal top flange  28  as well as marginal side flanges  29 . The marginal side flange  29  of the cap panel  24  may include a hole  31  for connecting the cap panel  24  to an adjacent cap panel  24  with a pin and wedge assembly  33 . Advantageously, according to a presently preferred embodiment of this invention, a plurality of cap clips  30 , as shown in FIGS.  1 - 3 , are used to attach the cap panel  24  to the top flange  16  of the wall form panels  14 . The cap clip  30  according to a presently preferred embodiment of this invention has a generally I-beam shaped configuration with a planar bottom flange  32  connected to an upper flange  34  by a web  36 . The upper flange  34  has spaced side edges, each of which have a downwardly depending clip arm  38 . Each portion of the bottom flange  32 , in cooperation with a side face of the web  36  and the corresponding portion of the top flange  34  and associated clip arm  38 , form a pocket  39  for receiving the top flange  16  of the panel  14  or the bottom flange  26  of the cap panel  24 . Preferably, the cap clip  30  is extruded from 6061T-6 aluminum. 
     Installation of the cap clip  30  and assembly of the cap panel  24  to the standard panels  14  is as follows. Once the standard wall form panels  14  are assembled in the side-by-side relationship as is well known by one of ordinary skill in the art, the cap clip  30  is attached to the top flange  16 . With the cap clip  30  in a generally horizontal attitude with the central web  36  generally horizontal, the bottom clip arm  38  of the cap clip  30  is snapped onto the rearwardly extending edge of the top flange  16  while the clip  30  is then rotated so that the web  36  is generally parallel to and in face-to-face juxtaposition with the top face of the top flange  16  of the panel  14 . A downwardly depending portion of the bottom flange  32  of the cap clip  30  is then juxtaposed in face-to-face relationship with the generally planar front face  20  of the panel  14 , as shown in FIG.  1 . Preferably, a plurality of cap clips  30  are installed in this matter on the top flange  16  of the panel  14  and are spaced generally 3′ apart. 
     The cap panel  24  is then attached by inserting the rearward most edge of the bottom flange  26  of the cap panel  24  into the exposed pocket  39  of each of the clips  30  in position on the top flange  16  of the panel  14 . The leading edge of the bottom flange  26  of the cap panel  24  is then rotated and slid along the web  36  until it is seated within the exposed pocket  39  of the cap clip  30  and mates with the clip arm  38 . The trailing edge of the bottom flange  26  of the cap panel  24  is then seated in the pocket  39  in conforming relationship at the juncture between the web  36  and the remaining portion of the bottom flange  32  of the cap clip  30  thereby securing the cap panel  24  to the wall form panels  14  with the cap clips  30 . The procedure is repeated with the opposing wall form  10  thereby securing the cap panels  24  and extending the height of the standard wall form configuration. 
     Referring to FIG. 4, a presently preferred embodiment of a spreader  40  according to this invention is shown. The spreader  40  includes a central spreader section  42  having a pair of generally L-shaped members projecting downwardly from the bottom surface of the spreader section  42 . Each L-shaped member includes a downwardly depending spreader tab  44  which projects perpendicular to the spreader section  42 . Preferably, the spreader tabs  44  are spaced approximately 7½″ apart. A clip arm  46  is provided on each end of the spreader section  42  and is spaced from the spreader tab  44  to form a flange receiving pocket  47  on each end of the spreader  40 . An alternative embodiment of the spreader  40  according to this invention is shown in FIGS. 1 and 5 and includes a pair of risers  48  which elevate the central spreader section  42  relative to the clip arms  46  and the spreader tabs  44 . Preferably, the spreader  40  is  10  gauge HRS steel with the clip arms  46  or spreader tabs  44  welded in place. 
     In use, the spreader  40  according to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 or  4  is installed onto the spaced wall forms  10  to maintain the spaced cap panels  24  a specified distance apart, typically 7½′. After the cap panels  24  are secured to the wall form panels  14  with the cap clips  30 , the spreaders  40  are snapped downwardly onto the top flanges  28  of the spaced cap panels  24 . The clip arms  46  will deflect outwardly around the top flanges  28  so that the top flange  28  is then received in the pocket  47  of the spreaders  40 . The spreader tabs  44  are positioned in face-to-face relationship with the front face of the cap panel  24 . The spreader tabs  44 , in combination with the clip arms  46 , solidify the top flanges  28  of the cap panel  24  in position relative to one another for pouring of the concrete between the wall forms  10 . 
     Advantageously, the spreader  40  of FIGS. 1 and 5 enables a worker to pass a trowel beneath the central spreader section  42  to smooth out the top surface of the poured concrete wall prior to curing. 
     From the above disclosure of the general principles of the present invention and the preceding detailed description of a preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will readily comprehend the various modifications to which this invention is susceptible. Therefore, I desire to be limited only by the scope of the following claims and equivalents thereof.