GB2224327A

GB2224327A - Connectors

Info

Publication number: GB2224327A
Application number: GB8821127A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Michael James Clark
Original assignee: FARR A E Ltd; FARR PLC
Current assignee: FARR A E Ltd; FARR PLC
Priority date: 1988-09-09
Filing date: 1988-09-09
Publication date: 1990-05-02
Also published as: GB8821127D0

Abstract

A two-part connector for connecting two articles together eg for connecting together fire resistant panels around a steel column comprises a first plate-like member 1 for attachment to one of the articles with rows of elastically resilient tongues 6 projecting from the plane of the plate-like member and a second plate-like member 7 which is formed with holes 11, depressions or indentations, the second plate-like member having two ends 8 secured to the other of the articles and a central region 9 spaced from the article to form a gap into which the first plate-like member can be introduced so that the tongues thereon engage in the manner of ratchets in the holes, depressions or indentations to lock the plate-like embers, and thus the articles, together. A tool may be inserted for disconnection. <IMAGE>

Description

IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO CONNECTORS This invention relates to a connector and is particularly concerned with a two-part connector.

In order to impart fire-resistance to a steel column or a beam, it has been proposed to enclose the column or beam in a fire-resistant material, such as cement bonded particle board. When using such fire-resistant material, it is necessary to ensure that the casing is not fixed rigidly either directly or indirectly to the steel column or beam, but is able to move freely as a unit but with the corners remaining tightly closed. Normally, particle board is rigidly fixed by means of screws engaging fillets or grounds themselves secured to the steel column or beam.

As cement bonded particle board shrinks appreciably under the influence of fire, a casing made of the board would, under the influence of fire, fail by cracking of the board or by the board being pulled off its fixings.

Furthermore, heat would be conducted through the fixings themselves, thus promoting the deterioration of the board around the fixing and weakening its grip.

Rigid L-shaped brackets fixed internally of the casing would service the desired purpose but, in practice, they cannot be fixed inside a fully enclosed casing. It would be aesthetically unacceptable to the user to fix such brackets outside the casing and would render them vulnerable to fire and heat thus reducing the efficiency of the fire protection properties of the casing as a whole.

It is an object of the invention to provide a twopart connector by means of which panels of cement bonded particle board can be acceptably fixed to impart fireresistance to a steel column or beam. However, the twopart connector devised for this purpose is of wider applicability and may be made of various materials and used in various situations to connect two articles together.

According to the present invention there is provided a two-part connector, wherein the first part of the connector comprises a plate-like member adapted to be secured to one of the articles to be connected and the second part comprises a member adapted to be secured to the other of the articles to be connected, the connection being intended to be established by relatively moving the two parts towards one another, and wherein the first member is formed with rows of elastically resilient tongues, each of which is secured to the member at the end which is nearer to the second part during such movement, and the other and free end of which lies above the level of the plate-like member, while the second member is formed with holes or like depressions in which at least some of said tongues can engage in the manner of ratchets to lock the two parts together.

The two parts of the connector may be made of metal or even of suitable plastics material and the two members can be adapted to the shape of the articles to be connected. Thus, for example, the first and plate-like member need not be horizontally or vertically planar but could follow a curved plane in which case the second member would be curved in a complementary manner.

However, for connecting panels of cement bonded particle board to form a casing used to enclose steel columns or beams, the two parts of the connector are brackets made of metal, preferably steel, and the brackets are fixed to the internal faces of the casing by screws, staples or the like and the individual panels are simply pushed together to complete the casing. The brackets of the connectors are then fully concealed within the casing and permanently locked.

The casing unit is maintained in position around the column or beam by steel or rubber springs, spacing and packing the casing off the column or beam in normal service. It is desirable to maintain this air gap as part of the fire protection system. In fire conditions, as the casing material of cement bonded particle board shrinks, the rubber or steel springs give, allowing controlled movement but without restraining the casing in a manner that would cause cracking of the board or failure of fixings.

The corners of the casing may have mitred joints and an intumescent mastic sealant may be contained within edge grooves of each panel. This is to protect the brackets in the event of any uneven distortion in a panel that may open up a joint such as to allow flame or heat through. The intumescent mastic, upon exposure to heat or flame, will char and expand to fill any opening or gap that may occur.

It will be appreciated that by minor modifications of the shapes of the brackets, they can also be used to form internal corners as well as external corners, or to make straight butt or mitre joints between flat sheets.

This enables the present connectors to be used as concealed joint fixings between individual panels in a continuous straight partition wall, as well as for fixing individual panels around protrusions from such partition walls. In either case, the fixings themselves can be secured back to studding of metal or timber, if required, to provide overall stability without detracting from the ability of the fixings to accommodate shrinkage movement in fire protection conditions.

In order to enable the invention to be more readily understood, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which illustrate diagrammatically and by way of example some embodiments thereof, and in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of two parts of a connector, Figure 2 is a cross-section on the line X-X in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2 but showing the two parts of the connector shown in Figure 1 in engagement with one another, Figure 4 is a perspective view from underneath of a modified part of the connector, Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 4 but showing the engagement of the modified part shown in Figure 2, Figures 6 and 7 are each a perspective view of a respective modified part of the connector, Figure 8 is a cross-section of a steel column with fire resistant cement bonded particle board, Figure 9 is a perspective view of yet another modified part of the connector, and, Figure 10 is a perspective view showing the mounting of partition board using connectors of the present invention.

Referring now to Figures 1 to 3 of the drawings, there are shown the two parts of a connector for connecting together two panels of cement bonded particle board. The first part of the connector is an L-shaped bracket 1, the foot 2 of which is formed with holes 3 to receive screws, staples or the like by which the bracket can be secured to a panel. The leg 4 of the bracket has been punched to produce a regular pattern of wedge-shaped holes 5, the metal punched out of the hole being lifted slightly above the plane of the leg 4 to form a tongue 6 of the same shape which is inclined at a small angle to the leg and which is secured to the bracket at that end lying nearer to the second part of the connector.

The second part of the connector is in the form of a plate 7 with ends 8 and a raised central portion 9 to receive beneath it the leg 4 of the first part of the connector with a reasonably close fit. The ends 8 of the plate 7 are formed with holes 10 to receive screws, staples or the like by which the plate can be secured to a panel.

The raised central portion 9 is also formed with holes 11 and tongues 12 substantially the sambas those formed on the leg 4.

The holes and tongues in the leg 4 of the bracket 1 are spaced regularly apart in lines running parallel to the length of the leg and the lines of holes and tongues are spaced regularly apart across the width of the leg 4.

However, the holes and tongues in each line are off-set slightly from those in the adjoining line such that across the leg of the bracket the holes and tongues in only two lines line up, the holes and tongues being in effect regularly staggered across the leg of the bracket.

It will be noticed that the free end of the leg 4 of the bracket is bluntly tapered to facilitate insertion below the raised central position 9 of the second part 7.

The holes and tongues in the second part 7 of the connector are spaced apart regularly both along and across the raised central portion 9 and are spaced along lines corresponding to those along which the holes and tongues in the leg part 4 are spaced.

When the two parts of the connector are fixed in their appropriate positions on two cement bonded particle board panels to be joined, the leg 4 of the bracket 1 fixed to one panel is slid into the gap provided between the raised central portion 9 of the plate 7 and the other panel, the height of this gap being slightly more than the thickness of the leg 4. As the bracket 4 is pushed into this gap in the direction of the arrow shown in Figure 3, the lines of holes and tongues on each part of the connector coincide, so that the tongues of the bracket, after being depressed on entering the gap, spring up to engage in various holes in the plate. Thus, as the bracket 4 is pushed into the gap, a tongue on the bracket will be depressed until a hole is reached, whereupon it will spring up to engage in the hole.Further movement of the bracket will cause the tongue to be depressed again so that it will come out of that hole and remain depressed until the next hole is reached, by progressive movement of the bracket. The layout of the holes and tongues is such that at any one time, two, four or may be more tongues 6 of the bracket 4 are latched into holes 11 of the plate 7, the remaining tongues being at various stages of disengagement.

Any attempt to withdraw the bracket from the plate will result in the engaged tongues 6 being pulled, due to their wedge shape, into tight engagement in the wedgeshaped holes 11 in the manner of ratchets. Furthermore, as the bracket is pulled harder from the plate, the tongues 6 will tend to distort by lifting and will bear against the tongue of the engaged hole in the plate which will provide additional stiffness against further distortion.

Because the holes and tongues in the bracket 4 are laid out in a staggered arrangement, a latching together of the bracket and plate at virtually any position of engagement is assured, whereas if the holes and tongues in the bracket were regularly spaced in both directions as on the plate, there would only be a stepwise latching together of the two parts.

Figure 4 shows a modified plate 14 which, instead of being formed with holes and tongues, is formed with ratchet-tooth shaped grooves 15 into which the tongues 6 of the bracket 4 can engage as shown in Figure 5, the grooves extending transverse to the intended direction of insertion of the bracket 4. As the bracket 4 is moved beneath the plate 14, the ends of the tongues 6 will progressively latch and unlatch from the grooves, until the final latching point is reached.

The bracket 4 shown in Figure 1 is of L-shaped configuration and can, if desired, be formed with stiffening ribs 13 stamped out of the metal of which the bracket is made. The bracket 4 enables two panels to be joined at right angles to each other (c.f. Figure 8).

However, it is to be appreciated that where two panels are to be connected in line or butted against one another the bracket 4 will be flat and not L-shaped.

Referring now to Figure 6, there is shown a modification of the part 7 of the connector shown in Figure 1 and which, in effect, is a hybrid between the plate 7 and the plate 14 shown in Figure 4. The connector plate 16 shown in Figure 6 is of the same external shape as the plate 7 but is formed with rows of rectangular plan ridges stamped into the plate and which, as shown, are in a staggered arrangement similar to that of the tongues on the part 1, so that, when viewed from underneath, there is a plurality of isolated, ratchet-tooth shaped indentations to receive the tongues. While the plate 14 shown in Figure 4 will normally be produced by casting, the plate 16 can be produced by stamping.

Figure 7 shows another modified connector part 18 which is similar to the part 7, but is formed with oval holes 19, which again are in a staggered arrangement.

It is to be appreciated that the part 7 could also be made by stamping out the tongues 12 completely so that the part is formed with wedge-shaped or other shaped holes only.

Furthermore, it will also be appreciated that for both parts of the connector the tongues and corresponding holes could be triangular in shape, but in this case the sharp points of the tongues could be dangerous to operating personnel. It is therefore preferred to make the tongues wedge-shaped as shown, or rounded or even rectangular.

Referring now to Figure 8, there is shown the use of the two-part connector shown in Figure 1 for securing together panels 20, 21, 22 and 23 of cement bonded particle board around a steel I-beam to provide the beam with fireresistance. The brackets 1 are secured to the panels 21 and 23 and the plates 7 are secured to the panels 20 and 22. In mounting the panels, the brackets on the panels 21 and 23 are offered up to the plates 7 on the panels 20 and 22 until the mitred edges of the panels engage, whereupon the panels are locked together by the engagement of the two parts of the connectors. In addition, springs 25 and 26 are mounted between the panels and the beam 24, and the mitred edges of the panels are formed with grooves which are filled with an intumescent mastic sealant 27.

Referring now to Figure 9, there is shown a connector part 28 which can replace the L-shaped bracket 1 when joining two panels or articles in line or butted against one another. The connector part 28 is in the form of a plate with fixing holes 29 for screws, staples or the like at one end and holes 30 and associated tongues 31 at the other. The holes 30 and tongues 31 are similar to the holes 5 or 11 and tongues 6 or 12 and are laid out in a staggered arrangement. In addition, the plate may be formed with stiffening projections 32 stamped into the plate.

Referring now to Figure 10, there is shown the use of the connectors of the present invention for securing partition boards to an upright and to one another, the view being taken on the inside of the partition. A metal stud partition upright 33 in the form of U-beam 33 has a plurality of the L-shaped brackets 1 screwed or riveted to it and a corresponding plurality connector plate 7 is screwed or stapled to a first partition board 34. Also screwed or stapled to the board 34 is a plurality of connector plates 28 (Figure 9) and a corresponding plurality of connector plates 7 is screwed or stapled to a second partition board 35 which is to be butted up against the board 34. As the board 35 is offered up to the board 34, the connector plates 7 are offered up to the connector plates 28 to ensure a good connection between the boards.

At the same time, any other plates 7 on the board 35 will be offered up to the brackets 1 of any adjacent upright 33 if appropriate. By this means the boards are fixed in place on the uprights and butting one another without any visible and unsightly connections on the outside of the boards.

In order to complete the partitioning with a closure boards at the end of the partition where there is a cross wall, door frame or the like, brackets 1 are fixed to the trailing edge of the board and corresponding connector plates 7 are fixed to the cross wall, door frame or the like. The leading edge of the closure board is fixed as just described by offering it up to the trailing edge of the last fixed panel, and then the trailing edge of the closure board is pushed to engage the brackets 1 at the trailing edge with their corresponding plates 7.

When using several connectors it is important that the two parts of the connectors are set out accurately on their respective panels or boards, so that they will latch accurately. If they do not coincide when closed together, they will not latch. In order to ensure correct positioning of the connectors, the two parts of the connector can be supplied to a user ready mounted on self adhesive tape at predetermined accurate spacings to facilitate speed of positioning and securement to the panels or boards to be fixed. From a fixed coincident point on each panel, the tapes to which the parts are attached can be laid out and temporarily self adhered.

Fixings to the panels or boards through the holes can then be quickly applied without further setting out being necessary.

While the parts of the connectors just described will preferably be made out of metal, preferably steel or an aluminium alloy, when used for securing panels for imparting fire-resistance, it will be appreciated that in a situation where the connector is not likely to be subjected to heat, the parts of the connector can be made of other materials such as plastics provided the plastics has sufficient rigidity and elasticity.

While the connection afforded by the present connector will in general be a permanent connection, it can be undone by inserting a thin flat plate between the bracket 1 and the plate 7 in a direction contrary to that in which the connection is made. Thus, considering Figure 3, the disconnecting plate would be inserted between the portion 9 and the leg 4 in a direction contrary to the arrow, thus depressing the tongues and permitting withdrawal of the bracket 1.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A two-part connector for connecting two articles together, wherein the first part of the connector comprises a first plate-like member formed with rows of elastically resilient tongues, each of which is secured to the member nearer one end thereof and each of which has a free end lying to one side of the plane of the plate-like member, and the second part of the connector comprises a second plate-like member formed with holes, depressions or like indentations, and wherein the first part of the connector is adapted to be secured to one of the articles and the second part of the connector is adapted to be secured to the other of the articles so as to leave between the second plate-like member and the other article a gap to receive the first plate-like member, and the connection is intended to be established by relatively moving the two articles and parts towards one another so that the first plate-like member enters said gap with its said one end leading so that the tongues on the first plate-like member can engage in the manner of ratchets in said holes, depressions or like indentations in the second plate-like member to lock the two parts together.

2. A connector as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the plate-like members are substantially planar.

3. A connector as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the plate-like members follow complementary curved planes.

4. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 3, wherein the tongues of the first plate-like member are arranged in regularly staggered rows across the first plate-like member.

5. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the second plate-like member is formed with tongues cut out from the plate-like member, the cut outs of said tongues forming said holes.

6. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 4, wherein the second plate-like member is formed with ratchet-tooth shaped grooves or indentations.

7. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 6, wherein the first part of the connector is in the form of an L-shaped bracket one leg of which constitutes the first plate-like member.

8. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 7, wherein the second part of the connector is in the form of a plate with ends and a raised central portion constituting the second plate-like member.

9. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 8, wherein the two-parts of the connector are made of metal.

10. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 8, wherein the two parts of the connector are made of plastics.

11. A connector as claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 10, and further comprising a thin flat plate for insertion between the first and second plate-like members in a direction contrary to that in which a connection is made and for undoing the connection.

12. A two-part connector for connecting two articles together substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figures 1 to 3 or Figures 1 to 3 as modified by Figures 4 and 5 or by any one of Figures 6, 7 and 9 of the accompanying drawings.

13. A plurality of the connectors claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the two parts of the connectors are mounted on self-adhesive tape at predetermined accurate spacings to facilitate speed of positioning and securement to said articles.

14. Panels of fire-resistant material secured around a steel beam to impart fire-resistance thereto, wherein the panels are secured to one another by the two-part connectors claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 12 to provide a fully enclosed casing, the connectors being located internally of the casing.

15. Panels as claimed in Claim 14, wherein the edges of the panels are mitred and the mitred edges are formed with grooves filled with an intumescent mastic sealant.

16. Panels as claimed in Claim 14 or 15, wherein springs are mounted between the panels and the beam.

17. Panels secured to an upright and butted to one another, wherein the panels are secured to the upright and the butted panels are secured to one another by the twopart connectors claimed in any one of Claims 1 to 13.

18. Panels as claimed in any one of Claims 14 to 17, wherein the panels are made of cement bonded particle board.

19. Panels secured substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 8 or Figure 10 of the accompanying drawings.