Patent ID: 7127863

Claim:
Beam-to-column attaching structure comprising an angular-modularity, substantially planar plate having a pair of spaced, parallel-planar faces, one of which is anchorable at the end of an elongate structural I-beam to the beam's substantially planar central web and upper and lower, substantially parallel-planar flanges, where said plate has elongate, lateral edges, and is configured to be joined through said edges to the comparable lateral edges in a pair of angularly adjacent, other, like plates, thus to form therewith a portion of a collar adapted to wrap around the outside of an elongate structural column at a defined location along the length of the column, with the other face in the plate being adapted to face the outside of such a column, and along each of said plate's said lateral edges, a row of angularly oriented through-passages, with each row lying along a line which will substantially parallel the plane of the central web in a beam having an end anchored to said one face in the plate, and with the through-passages in each row being non-uniformly spaced and organized into two, upper and lower groups which will lie clustered adjacent the upper and lower flanges, respectively, in an associated I-beam, with the spacings D 2 exiting between next-adjacent through-passages in each group being less than the spacing D 3 existing between the next-adjacent through-passages in the two groups, each through-passage accommodating the reception and utilization of a hex nut-and-bolt assembly which is defined by an elongate assembly axis, and which is designed to participate in the angular joining of the plate to a next-adjacent plate, with each through-passage having a chamber which opens to said one face in the plate, and which includes a pair of spaced, parallel-planar surfaces adapted, with respect to any nut residing in the chamber, to engage the nut, thus to prevent rotation of that nut about its associated assembly axis.