Title

BARRIER ELEMENT WITH RETRACTABLE ANTI-ROLLOVER DEVICE

Technical field

The present invention belongs to the sector of fences and pedestrian separations for temporarily delimiting spaces, in particular to the sector of modular fences for containment of pedestrians.

More specifically, the invention concerns a modular barrier element, which can be joined to others of the same type to form a continuous barrier.

The innovative barrier element according to the present patent application is used to temporarily delimit areas, walkways, and escape routes, especially in highly crowded situations in the presence of many people.

The removable barrier element according to the present invention features specific safety and anti-rollover characteristics, joined to a high ease of transportation and comfortable garaging capabilities.

Present status of the art

The removable barrier elements used to delimit spaces generally comprise a base on which a parapet rises; the base is often limited down to a pair of supports directly secured to the lower edge of the parapet, such as feet or the like, in order to reduce weights and costs.

Removable barrier elements should be lightweight in order for them to be easily transported, consequently their anti rollover capability is not bound to their high weight, as it occurs for other types of barrier elements, but it basically depends on the transversal amplitude of the imprint of the supports on the ground.

The barrier elements being intrinsically lightweight implies that, under the action of a transversal thrust, they develop a force of friction with the ground rather poor, therefore they easily displace and trail on the ground and, if they encounter an obstacle during their displacement, the resistance offered by the latter combines with the transversal thrust and form a tilting couple which overturns the barrier element to the ground.

Different solutions have been developed over time, aiming at overcoming the above-described drawback, in particular GB2271584 (A) discloses a pedestrian barrier element having a vertical parapet, with each side of which there are associated a footboard for people and a platform for security staff respectively, the latter being at a higher level than the table. The footboard is an inclined rectangular plane, the short sides being orthogonal to the vertical parapet, and rests on the ground with the long side more distant from the vertical parapet.

WO 201268593 (A2) discloses a removable barrier element wherein the parapet is not perfectly vertical, but is inclined on the side opposite to the crowd.

DE 202016100217 (Ul) discloses a barrier element which integrates a footboard laying on the ground.

More recently, removable barrier elements have been developed to obviate the above drawbacks, specifically designed for rendering their overturning more difficult in the case of a strong lateral thrust exerted by the crowd; for example, a barrier element has been developed whose base comprises a footboard which transversally extends on the side facing the crowd, so that, when the latter crams therein and exerts a thrust against the parapet, it is the weight itself of the person resting on the footboard that counters overturning. Also and advantageously, this footboard offers limited resting areas on the ground and consequently it concentrates the loads in extremely narrow portions of the ground; this fosters concentration of loads and increments the effect of friction, thus rendering it more difficult to displace a barrier element by making it crawl on the ground.

However, in this type of barrier element the anti-rollover effect depends on the presence of people on the footboard and on the transversal amplitude of the support elements on that side of the barrier element which is opposed to that including the footboard; in practice, the maximum amplitude of said support element is limited by the need for keeping the overall dimensions of a barrier element moderate, mainly for transportability and storability reasons .

Objects and summary of the invention

A first object of the present invention is thus to provide a removable barrier element, suitable for implementing modular fences and particularly safe and such as not to be easily displaceable nor to overturn in the case that transversal forces are exerted against the parapet.

A second object of the present invention is to provide a removable barrier element that is lightweight and is simultaneously easy to position and little cumbersome to transport .

These objects and others are achieved by a barrier element comprising a horizontal footboard which rests on the ground and a vertical parapet which rises in correspondence with an edge of said footboard; slidingly coupled with the latter, according to a transversal axis, there are provided one or several anti-rollover elements, generally featuring an elongate shape, movable between a retracted transportation position and an extracted standing position, wherein they come out from the side opposite to the footboard one .

During transportation and storage, the anti-rollover elements are positioned below the footboard or are in any case adjacent to the barrier element, hence they do not constitute any additional encumbrance, whereas they are made slide up to an extracted position when the barrier element is in a rest position, so that they make the transversal dimension of the base increase on the side of the parapet opposed to the footboard one.

This one and the same inventive concept can be implemented by different embodiments which allow the anti-rollover elements to switch from a retracted transportation position to an extracted standing position and vice versa; for example, the anti-rollover elements might be hinged at the intrados of the parapet, according to a vertical or horizontal axis of rotation, so that they might switch from a retracted position to an extracted position by way of a rotation, rather than by way of a sliding movement.

Particularly complete embodiments are provided, which comprise reversible means for locking the anti-rollover elements in the different positions, namely the retracted and extracted positions.

On the vertical edges of the parapet there are present means for reversibly connecting the barrier element to other adjacent barrier elements, so as to form a continuous barrier .

In order to better take advantage of this capability, the footboard is preferably constructed in the form of an isosceles trapezium, its long side being adjacent to the intrados of the parapet, which means that the outer edge is shorter than the inner edge, so that more barrier elements can be connected to each other in such a way that their longitudinal axes of two consecutive footboards form an angle narrower than a straight angle between each other, while their respective footboards do not interfere with each other.

Further embodiments are possible in the frame of this one and the same inventive concept; in one of these, the distal portions of the anti-rollover elements comprise reversible reciprocal coupling means, for example male and female joints or other systems of known types, so as to make it possible to connect their respective anti-rollover elements of two opposed barrier elements to each other, in order to create a passage between two barrier elements or between two continuous barriers, each of which comprising a plurality of barrier elements adjacent to each other.

In this way the two barriers would form a more stable passage, in that every barrier element of one barrier would be connected to at least one barrier element of the opposed barrier .

According to a particularly strong constructive solution, a barrier element according to the present invention comprises one or more removable struts, each of which has a proximal end rotationally coupled with the extrados of the parapet and a distal end movable between a transport and storage position, wherein the strut is adjacent to the parapet or in any way close thereto, and a standing position, wherein said distal end of said strut engages the distal portion of a corresponding anti-rollover element. Whenever several barrier elements are joined together to form a continuous barrier, this latter configuration offers a further advantage of providing a plurality of inclined struts parallel to each other, which can be conveniently taken advantage of to support a covering or an advertising banner .

At least one fulcrum element projects from that side of the parapet which is opposed to the footboard and goes down to the ground. In order to make it easier to displace a barrier element, at least one wheel, whose axis is parallel to the longitudinal axis of the barrier element, is rotationally coupled with each projecting fulcrum; whenever the barrier element is in a standing position, this wheel is slightly raised off the ground and only touches the ground after inclining the barrier element on the side opposite to the footboard; in this way, it is possible to easily displace a barrier element, by making it slide on the ground.

In a particularly advantageous version of the barrier element, its structure, including both the parapet and the footboard, is constructed in the form of a lattice of bent metal tubes and the floor of the footboard is made up of a metal grating secured above the bent tubular structure.

Brief description of the drawings

Figure 1 shows an axonometric view of a particularly complete version of a barrier element according to the present patent application, the anti-rollover elements being shown in a retracted position; in the foreground there is shown a footboard (2), featuring a trapezoidal shape, and a parapet (1) is also visible, the latter comprising an upper cross member (11) and an intermediate cross member (12), besides four uprights (13, 14, 15 and

16) . The two side uprights (13, 16) are rectilinear; whereas the two intermediate uprights (14, 15) are only rectilinear in the upper portion that joins the intermediate cross member (11) to the upper cross member (12), and in the lower portion each of the two intermediate uprights (14, 15) defines a bend which projects from the plane of the parapet on the part opposite to the footboard (2); these bends make-up the fulcrum elements (4) and each of them includes a horizontal section which rests on ground whenever the barrier element is in the standing position; a wheel (5) featuring a horizontal axis is rotationally connected to each fulcrum element .

Adjacent to the horizontal section of each of the fulcrum elements (4) there are visible guides (31), which anti- rollover elements (32) are slidingly coupled with, according to a sliding axis transversal to the longitudinal axis of the barrier element; reversible locking means (33) are also shown.

In the embodiment shown in the figure, the inner edge (22) of the footboard (2) also makes up the lower cross member of the parapet (1) and is also connected to the intermediate cross member (12) of the latter via a half upright (17) .

The figure shows connection means for connecting to adjacent barrier elements, both of a male type (18) and of a female type (19), integrally connected to their respective side uprights (13, 16) .

Figure 2 shows a bottom view of a barrier element, the anti-rollover elements (32) being shown in a retracted position, in particular the figure shows the wheels (5), the lower cross member (22) of the parapet, the fixed guides (31), and the distal portion of the anti-rollover elements (32); the figure also shows the transversal rims (21) of the footboard (2), which the guides (31) are firmly connected to.

Figure 3 and Figure 4 show a barrier element in the same views as figures 1 and 2 respectively, the anti-rollover elements (32) being in an extracted standing position in this case.

Detailed description of an embodiment of the invention

In a preferred embodiment, a modular anti-rollover barrier element according to the present patent application comprises a parapet (1) which rises on the inner edge of a footboard (2), featuring a trapezoidal shape, anti-rollover elements (32), movable between a retracted transportation position and an extracted standing position, being connected thereto.

In the embodiment shown in the figures, the anti-rollover elements (32) are shaped in the form of elongate elements, slidingly coupled with guides (31) according to a horizontal axis transversal to the longitudinal axis of the barrier element; the guides (31) are firmly connected to the intrados of the footboard (2), for example they might be welded to the transversal rims (21) of the footboard (2); reversible locking means (33) are connected to the guides (31) to keep the anti-rollover elements (32) fixed whenever they are in either position, the retracted or the retracted one.

Other embodiments are possible, all falling within the same inventive concept, wherein the anti-rollover elements are hinged to the barrier element, typically according to vertical or horizontal axes, in such a way as to be possibly brought adjacent to a member of the barrier element during transportation and storage, and conversely be held extracted while the barrier element is standing; the reversible means used to lock the movement of the anti rollover elements can be variously configured depending on the type of the movement of the anti-rollover elements with respect to the fixed part of the barrier element.

In the embodiment here described, the main structural parts of the barrier element, such as the footboard and the parapet, comprise properly shaped and bent metal tubes, in particular the footboard (2) comprises a metal tubular frame to which there is firmly connected a decking formed of a sheet-like element, usually a sheet metal provided with a non-slip embossing, or a metal net with meshes sufficiently close and sturdy as to be rigid.

The parapet (1) comprises a metal tubular frame, and features a substantially rectangular shape wherein the top horizontal edge makes up an upper cross member (11); the inner edge (22) of the footboard (2) also makes up the lower horizontal edge of the parapet (1) . The frame of the parapet (1) is horizontally crossed by an intermediate cross member (12) and vertically crossed by two central uprights (14, 15); the side edges of the parapet form the two side uprights (13, 16) . In a particularly complete version, the intermediate cross member (12) is connected to the lower horizontal edge of the parapet by a vertical half-upright (17) .

In the embodiment shown in the figures for explanatory, non-limitative purposes only, the lower portion of each of the intermediate uprights (14, 15) of the parapet (1) forms a bend which projects outwards, its convexity facing the side opposite to that of the footboard (2) and its concavity facing the latter. A respective wheel (5) is rotationally connected to each of the two bends; it does not touch the ground whenever the barrier element is in position, whereas it only touches the ground following a slight tilt of the barrier element on the side opposed to that of the footboard (2) . The bends and the wheels are configured as a whole in such a way as to form two fulcrum elements (4) . Thanks to this arrangement, the operators in charge of positioning the barrier elements can easily displace them, without being obliged to lift or make them crawl on the ground, by making them slide on the wheels after slightly tilting them.

In a particularly complete embodiment, the barrier element comprises connection means for connecting them to other identical barrier elements, in order to form a modular barrier; in order to perform this function, respective male and female connection means, (18 and 19) respectively, are firmly connected to the two side uprights (13, 16) of said parapet (1) . The same connection function might be performed without using connection means of a fixed type, but using appropriate joints of a known type, which allow to reversibly connect the side edges of the parapets of two aligned barrier elements to form a fence.