Clamp and container incorporating clamps

Abstract

 A dismantleable container in accordance with the invention intended to stand upright in use has walls 11 which, when the container is assembled, are joined to one another along their mutually adjacent edges by respective clamps 12. Each clamp is in accordance with the further aspect of the invention and comprises two elongate plates 13, 14 spaced apart by one or more bolts 17 or other tightening means located centrally of the clamp 12, the bolts 17 or other clamp tightening means, as they are slackened, enable the plates 13, 14 to be spaced progressively farther apart, in a parallel but still conjoined relationship. The plates 13, 14oncespaced apart being movable again towards one another without having to work the tightening means 17. Those faces of the plates 13,14 which define the jaws of the clamp 12 are either curved or angled and the clamps 12 when tightened hold the walls 11 adjacent one another without piercing the walls.

Description

[0001] The invention relates to clamps and also to dismantleable containers, i.e. containers which comprise an assembly of initially separate parts and which can be taken apart and re-assembled at will.

[0002] In its broadest aspect, the invention is embodied in a re-usable clamp which is designed to hold together two edge-adjacent planar walls and to be supported, in use, solely by those walls; the clamp comprising two elongate plates spaced apart by one or more bolts or other tightening means located centrally of the clamp; the bolts (or other clamp-tightening means), as they are slackened, enabling the plates to be spaced progressively farther apart, in a parallel but still conjoined relationship; the plates, once spaced apart, being movable again towards one another without having to work the tightening means; and wherein those faces of the plates which define the jaws of the clamp are either curved or angled.

[0003] According to an advantageous further aspect of the invention, a dismantleable container, intended to stand upright in use, has walls which, when the container is assembled, are joined to one another along their mutually adjacent edges by respective clamps each embodying the invention; and the clamps, when tightened, hold the walls adjacent one another without piercing the walls.

[0004] Where the tightening means comprise bolts, the bolts may span the plates, and span the thickness of the container walls, without piercing the walls, by holding the wall edges in adjacent but not abutting relationship and spanning the gap between those edges.

[0005] At least the outside plate of each clamp may deliberately be restricted so as to extend not to the full height of the walls held by that clamp in use.

[0006] Alternatively the outside or inside plate of each clamp may deliberately extend appreciably higher than the top edges of the wall regions held by that clamp in use.

[0007] The inside plate of one or more of the clamps could be constituted by the walls of a hollow tube or of a solid bar. For example, a circular or oval or otherwise curved section, triangular, square or hexagonal section tube or bar could be used to define the clamp member. Alternatively an "angle-iron" could be used.

[0008] The top edge of the inside or outside plate of one or more of the clamps may be flanged with a flange wide enough to mask the transition from one wall to the other held by the clamp in use.

[0009] One or more of the walls held, in use, by the clamp may support a screen which is lipped to fit over the top edge of that' wall and which masks the outside face of the wall.

[0010] The or each such screen may be patterned on its outward facing surface to blend in (or alternatively to contrast positively) with the respective outside face of each adjacent clamp and/or the surroundings in which the wall is intended to stand.

[0011] One or both opposite end regions of the or each screen may, when the clamp is tightened, be trapped between a face of the screened wall and a respective jaw of one or each of the clamps holding the end regions of that wall.

[0012] The screen lip may snap-fit or push-fit on to the top edge of its wall; or may overlie that top edge, when the wall is standing upright, without positively engaging it. For example, in the latter case, the lip could stand above the wall top edge and/or span more than the thickness of the wall.

[0013] Alternatively one or more of the walls presents, on its outward-facing surface, a decorative area in which the decor stands out in relief from a background area which is sufficiently deeply recessed into the said outward-facing surface that the highest point of the decor does not protrude appreciably, if at all, beyond the plane of the surrounding outward-facing surface.

[0014] Such a wall makes it possible to construct a clamped unit, for example a container, hose walls present an attractive outward-facing appearance, without the need to use screens.

[0015] The screens can still, however, be used to mask a decorative wall with the advantage that because the decor of the wall does not protrude beyond the plane of the outside face of the wall, a screen having a substantially flat inner face can fit snugly over the wall without having to be contoured to accommodate the decor.

[0016] Where the clamp tightening means- comprise bolts, which pierce one plate of the clamp and screw into holes or nuts respectively 'drilled and tapped into or located on the other plate, the holt heads preferably face outwards from the wall and may advantageously be domed.

[0017] Clamps and containers embodying the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings and will now be described with reference to those drawings. They are only examples of forms which the invention might take within its broadest aspect. In the drawings:

Figure 1 shows an assembled container in perspective;

Figure 2 shows in "exploded" perspective one of the clamps holding the walls of the container together;

Figure 3 shows in plan the clamp of Figure 2 in operation;

Figure 4 shows a modification to the outside plate of the clamp;

Figure 5 shows a lipped screen on one container wall;

Figures 6 to 9 are each views similar to Figure 3 showing other clamps in operation;

Figure 10 shows in "exploded" perspective yet another clamp; and

Figure 11 shows in perspective a modified wall for the container.

[0018] In Figure 1, an open-topped container comprises four upright walls 11 held together along their mutually adjacent edges by respective clamps 12. The container has no base but is intended to stand upright on a level surface with the bottom edges of its walls touching that surface so that fibrous or particulate matter can be held within the container without any appreciable spillage from the container bottom edges.

[0019] Each wall 11 is rectangular, substantially planar, and of appreciable thickness. All four walls have essentially the same dimensions and mutually adjacent walls are held at rightangles to one another to define a container which is square in plan.

[0020] As Figure 2 and 3 show, each clamp 12 consists of two elongate members referenced respectively 13, 14. The outside member (ie. the member which, when the container is assembled, faces outward from the container walls) is bent up from sheet steel and is three-sided. Its two extreme sides 13a, 13b run at rightangles to one another, and its middle side is pierced with three holes 15, which run in line along the length of that middle side.

[0021] The inside member 14 of each clamp is a triangular section steel tube. The tube defines an- isosceles triangle when viewed in plan, ie. as in Figure 3, and the 90° apex of that triangle is pierced with a succession of three holes 16 which align with the holes 15 and which, when so aligned, bring the two clamped halves, 13, 14 into overlieing relationship.

[0022] Headed bolts 17 pass through the holes 15, 16 to hold the clamp halves 13, 14 together in spaced-apart relationship. Each of the three bolts 17 of any one clamp screws into a respective nut which, when tightened, bears against the back face of the triangular tube as illustrated in Figure 3. In this way, as Figure 3 shows, the tightened clamps hold the walls of the container in adjacent upright relationship; but in order for the bolts 17 to span the clamp halves without piercing the walls there is deliberately a gap between each pair of adjacent walls.

[0023] In Figure 4 the top edge of an outside clamp 13 is flanged and the flange 18 is wide enough to span the thickness of the adjacent walls 11 and hence to mask the transition from one wall to the other. This looks neater than leaving the transition exposed. It also enables slight differences in height between adjacent walls to be masked satisfactorily. In the particular example illustrated in Figure 4, the middle side of the three-sided plate 13 is initially continued beyond the other two sides and is bent over to form the flange 18.

[0024] In Figure 5 a screen 19, of glassfibre reinforced plastics or other suitable material, has a lip 21 running along one edge. The screen 1'9 is rectangular to overlie and mask the outside face of a wall 11 of the container. The lip 21, in this particular example, fits closely over the top edge of the wall 11 and (although this is not specifically illustrated) the screen 19 is also trapped between the outside face of the wall and the inside face . of the clamp half 13 to secure the screen in position on the assembled container.

[0025] In Figures 6, 7 and 8B one or both of the clamp plates are arcuate, whilst in Figure 9 the clamp jaws each define a greater-than-90° angle; so that a many-sided container can be constructed.

[0026] In Figure 10 the container' walls this time are held in abutting relationship by. clamp halves 13, 14 which are again bent up from sheet steel and drawn together by headed bolts. In this embodiment, however, the bolts do not span the thickness of the walls but instead, they draw together two lugs 22, 23 each of which is upstanding from its respective clamp half 13, 14. The two clamp halves are identical and, in particular, are slotted at 24 along their respectie bases. When they co-operate, as Figure 10 shows, the lug 22 of one clamp half 13 slides in the slot 24 of the other clamp half 14 so that the two halves of the clamp move towards or away from one another as the bolt 17 is either tightened or untightened.

[0027] Although the clamp of Figure 10 is illustrated with right- angled walls it could, of course, be made with curved walls in just the same way as the clamp of Figures 1 - 3 has been modified as illustrated in Figures 6 - 9.

[0028] A modified wall for assembling a container in accordance with the invention is shown in Figure 11. The wall is rectangular, substantially planar, and of appreciable thickness. It can be comprised of any suitable material to take into account the surroundings in which it is intended, in use, to stand.

[0029] The outward-facing surface 25 of the .wall is deeply recessed, as indicated by reference numeral 26. A decorative area 27 stands out in relief from this recessed background area 26. Although the decorative pattern is not shown in any detail in the drawing, at no point does it protrude beyond the plane of the surrounding outward-facing surface 25.

[0030] The outward-facing surface 25 is so described because, as will be appreciated, it faces outwardly of the container or other clamped unit of which the wall, in use, forms part. The other face of the wall may be substantially flat and undecorated, or it could be configured to similar manner to the illustrated surface and exhibit a decorative relief which, like the illustrated surface, does not protrude beyond the plane of the surrounding area.

[0031] Although the illustrated container has no bottom, a bottom sheet could simply be dropped into place within the container walls once the container had been assembled and was standing on its intended surface.

[0032] Containers embodying the invention could with particular advantage take the form of open-topped garden troughs or tubs. The upright walls could be constituted by flagstones, and the resulting containers could be far bigger and yet far cheaper (and certainly far more easily moved, when dismantled) than conventional integrally cast concrete garden tubs or troughs. At the same time they would be far more robust than the plastics garden containers which are lighter than conventional concrete ones but which also withstand use less well than do concrete containers. Where the inner or outer clamp members of a container embodying the invention could extend appreciably above the height of the container walls, the extended members could form the corner posts of a net or translucent screen wrapping and so allow the container to function as a cloche.

[0033] A cast perforated flagstone, of the kind already well-known for trellis work, could be dropped into a garden tub embodying the invention if the tub needed a bottom section to allow drainage to the under surface on which the container stands whilst retaining the tub contents.

[0034] The clamp members could in general be fabricated from any suitably rigid material. For example they might, in appropriate circumstances, be moulded from plastics or reinforced-plastics (e.g. GRP) materials.

Claims

1. A dismantleable container, intended to stand upright in use, having walls which, when the container is assembled, are joined to one another along their mutually adjacent edges by respective clamps; each clamp comprising two elongate plates spaced apart by one or more bolts or other tightening means located centrally of the clamp; the bolts (or other clamp-tightening means), as they are slackened, enabling the plates to be spaced progressively farther apart, in a parallel but still conjoined relationship; the plates, once spaced apart, being movable again towards one another without having to work the tightening means; and wherein those faces of the plates which define the jaws of the clamp are either curved or angled; and the clamps, when tightened, holding the walls adjacent one another without piercing the walls.

2. A container according to Claim 1, in which the tightening means comprise bolts, which hold the wall edges in adjacent but not abutting relationship and span the gap between those edges.

3. A container according to Claim 1 or 2, in which the outside or inside plate of each clamp extends appreciably higher than the top edges of the wall regions held by that clamp in use.

4. A container according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the top edge of the inside or outside plate of one or more of the clamps is flanged with a flange wide enough to mask the transition from one wall to the other held by the clamp in use.

5. A containers according to any one of the preceding claims, in which one or more of the walls presents, on its outward-facing surface, a decorative area in which the decor stands out in relief from a background area which is sufficiently deeply recessed into the said outward-facing surface that the highest point of the decor does not protrude appreciably, if at all, beyond the plane of the surrounding outward-facing surface.

6. A container according to any one of the preceding claims in which one or more of the walls supports a screen which is lipped to fit over the top edge of that wall and which masks the outside face of the wall.

7. A container according to Claim 6, in which the or each screen is patterned on its outward-facing surface to blend in (or alternatively to contrast positively) with the respective outside face of each adjacent clamp and/or the surroundings in which the wall is intended to stand.

8. A container according to Claim 6 or 7, in which one or both opposite end regions of the or each screen, when the clamp is tightened, is trapped between a face of the screened wall and a respective jaw of one or each of the clamps holding the end regions of that wall.

9. A container according to any one of the preceding claims, in which the clamp tightening means comprise bolts, which pierce one plate of the clamp and screw into holes or nuts respectively drilled and tapped into or located on the other plate, and the bolt heads face outwards from the wall and are domed.

10. A re-usable clamp which is designed to hold together two edge-adjacent planar walls and to be supported, in use, solely by those walls; the clamp comprising two elongate plates spaced apart by one or more bolts or other tightening means located centrally of the clamp; the bolts (or other . clamp-tightening means), as they are slackened, enabling the plates to be spaced progressively farther apart, in a parallel but still conjoined relationship; the plates, once spaced apart being movable again towards one another without having to work the tightening means; and wherein those faces of the plates which define the jaws of the clamp are either curved or angled.

Drawing