A BARRIER POST FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a barrier post and, in particular, to a barrier post that provides a sturdy, upright support for extendably mounting a rope, cord or other means that can interconnect any two spaced apart such barrier posts. For the purposes of the present description and claims, all means that can interconnect any two spaced apart barrier posts of the invention will be referred to as a rope, although it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited to the use of rope as defined in a strict sense or to any particular interconnecting means, whether flexible or not.

BACKGROUND ART Small crowd control barriers or roped queue posts are commonly seen outside ticket sales offices and bank telling booths and are chiefly characterised by a plurality of barrier posts interconnected by rope which is fixed to the upper ends of each post in the barrier. On occasions, a person waiting in a queue may choose to sit on the rope, leading, in some cases, to the collapse of the interconnected posts or damage to the rope or its fixing means on the post.

Published European Patent Specification No. 685,602 discloses a partition pole system in which a biassing means, provided by a hanging weight, pulls a partition cord into a pole. However, that partition pole system does not have a retractable rope extension feature and there is no spring means present therein. Any placement of force downwardly on the partition cord of that partition pole system would not be countered by an opposite force or tendency for the cord to once again rise after the force has been released by virtue of the action of a spring means located internally of the pole.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a barrier post that will discourage or render it impossible for persons to sit on rope that interconnects any two spaced apart such barrier posts.

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION According to the invention, there is provided a barrier post comprising means for mounting a rope thereto and means for allowing the rope mounting means to retractably extend from the post in response to lengthwise pulling of the rope away from the post, wherein the retractable extending means comprises a spring means located internally of the post.

Preferably, the spring means comprises a coil spring.

The barrier post may include a stand member for enabling the post to stand alone upon a surface, or may include an anchor arrangement for enabling the post to be mounted to a socket or the like secured to a surface so as to form a barrier post assembly.

Preferably, the mounting means comprises an eyelet adapted to receive therein a hook or the like at an end of the rope, the eyelet being located externally of the post Preferably, the eyelet is connected by a second rope to a first end of the extending means and the other end of the extending means is anchored to the post.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In order that the invention may be readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig 1 is a side elevational view of a barrier post according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention mounted to a socket assembly anchored to a surface to form a barrier post assembly,

Fig 2 is a partly broken away, front sectional view of the barrier post in Fig 1 together with an Allen-head screwdriver, Fig 3 is a sectional view through 3-3 of the barrier post in Fig 2, Fig 4 is a top view of the socket assembly in Fig 1, Fig 5 is a front sectional view of the cap of the socket assembly of Fig 4, Fig 6 is a front sectional view of the housing of the socket assembly of Fig 4, the housing being anchored to a surface, Fig 7 is an enlarged, broken away, sectional view of the barrier post in Fig 1 after the head portion of the anchor arrangement is lowered into its pre-locked, first position in the cavity of the socket assembly, and Fig 8 is a view similar to that of Fig 7 but showing the head portion of the anchor arrangement after it has been rotated into its locked, second position in the cavity of the socket assembly.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The barrier post assembly 10 shown in Figs 1 to 8 consists of a barrier post 12 mounted to a socket assembly 14. The barrier post 12 is adapted to be interconnected to a pair of identical or functionally similar barrier posts by a respective pair of ropes 16,18 which are separately mounted to respective eyelets 20,22 oppositely located at the upper end and externally of the barrier post 10, so as to form a barrier. Each eyelet 20,22 is adapted to receive therein a hook 24,26 secured to an end of its respective rope 16,18.

The socket assembly 14 is secured into a floor 28 or other suitable surface, such as a pavement when the barrier post 12 is to be used outdoors.

A suitably sized hole is formed in the floor 28 by conventional methods so that the socket assembly 14 may be secured therewithin with suitable binding agent

applied in a manner that will allow the hardened binding agent to support the weight of the barrier post without any substantial displacement of the socket assembly 14.

The barrier post 12 is then located over the so secured socket assembly 14 for mounting thereto. It will be appreciated that, in some cases, the barrier post 12 may be mounted to the socket assembly 14 prior to securing the socket assembly 14 into the hole, although such cases will be rare.

The barrier post 12 includes a generally cylindrical post housing 30, a cover member 31 closing its upper end, and a base 54 at its lower end. The post housing 30 contains a pair of coil springs 32,34 serving as retractable extending means, a pair of internal ropes 36,38 serving as means for connecting their respective eyelet to a first end of their respective coil spring, and a major portion of an anchor arrangement 40 for anchoring the other end of the respective coil spring to the post 12. The anchor arrangement 40 consists of an upright disc or panel 42, a boss or anchor member 48 and an arrow tip piece 52. The panel member 42 has a pair of holes 44,46, each of which receive therethrough a hook end portion of their respective coil spring, the upright panel 42 being welded to the underlying, suitably sized and weighted anchor member 48 which, in turn, is integrally connected to (as shown in Figs 7 and 8) or welded to (as shown in Fig 2) a neck portion 50 of the arrow tip piece 52. The embodiment in Fig 2 shows the neck portion 50 welded to a base 54 for the post housing 30, the base 54 having a centrally located, circular opening 55 that enables a lower part of the neck portion 50 to fit therethrough so that a head portion 56 of the arrow tip piece 52 of the anchor arrangement 40 is located externally of the post housing 30 and the shoulder 57 of the head position is clear of the annular base 54 to an extent necessary for mounting the barrier post 12 to the socket assembly 14. The embodiment in Figs 7 and 8 is similar to that in Fig 2 except that it shows the

post housing 30 welded to the base 54, the base 54 extending radially outwardly from the housing 30 so as to create a circular opening equal to the diameter of the housing 30 for enabling the anchor member 48 to be press fitted into the post housing 30.

The socket assembly 14 consists of a generally cylindrical body member 58 and a cap member 60 adapted to be screwably assembled together to define an internal socket cavity 62. The outer surface of the body member 58 is adapted for binding with a binding agent that can also bind to the surface 64 of the securing hole. The inner surface 66 of the body member 58 is threaded to cooperate with a correspondingly threaded outer surface 68 of a lower, open stem portion 70 of the cap member 60. The cap member 60 also has an upper plate portion 72 having a cartouche shaped opening 73 into the stem portion 70, and a pair of stop pins 74,76 extending into the stem portion 70.

The upper end of the post housing 30 is closed by a cover member 31 which is pressed tightly thereon by an interference-type fit. Descending from the cover member 31 is an Allen screw 78, which may be fabricated integrally with the cover member 31 or secured independently of it, such that the female head 80 of the Allen screw 78 can receive a specially sized, male Allen-head screw driver 82 which can be utilized to simultaneously rotate the Allen screw 78, cover member 31 and remainder of the barrier post 12, including the contents of the post housing 30 and the head portion 56 of the arrow tip piece 52, relative to the socket assembly 14. The shaft of the Allen screw 78 is welded to a middle region of a chain link 84 having a guide portion at each of opposite ends thereof. Each of the ascending internal ropes 36,38 separately pass through and bear against a respective guide portion of the chain link 84, which enables each of the ropes 36,38 to turn perpendicularly as shown and then exit the post 12 through a respective side hole in the housing 30. The

ropes 36,38 are fixed at their upper ends to a respective eyelet 20,22 and at their lower ends to a respective coil spring 32,34, as mentioned earlier.

In order to mount the barrier post 12 to the socket assembly 14, the barrier post 12 is placed centrally over the cap 60 of the socket assembly 14, with the long axis of the head portion 56 of the arrow tip piece 52 vertically aligned with the long axis of the cartouche shaped opening 73, and then lowered so that the head portion 56 passes through the opening 73 in the cap member 60 of the socket assembly 14 and so that the base 54 of the barrier post 12 then rests upon the upper plate portion 72 of the cap member 60, whereby the head portion 56 is located in a pre-locked, first position within the socket cavity 62, as shown in Fig 7.

The Allen-head screw driver 82 is then utilized to rotate the barrier post 12, including the head portion 56 of the arrow tip piece 52, about 90° until the opposed sides of the head portion 56 contact against the stop pins 74,76, whereupon further rotation in the same direction is impeded by the stop pins.

The long axis of the head portion 56 is now in a direction perpendicular to the long axis of the opening 73, as shown in Fig 8, thus assuming a locked, second position, whereby upward movement of the head portion 56, and hence of the barrier post 12, is impeded by the immediately overhead, abutting proximity of the upper plate portion 72 to the shoulders 57 of the head portion 56. With the barrier post 12 in this position relative to the socket assembly 14, the Allen-head screw driver 82 is removed. The barrier post 12 cannot now be disengaged or dismounted from the socket assembly 14 by lifting or rotating unless, of course, the specially sized, male Allen-head screw driver 82 is utilized to reverse the mounting procedure mentioned above.

Various modifications may be made in details of design and construction without departing from the scope and ambit of the invention.