CLEVIS

The invention being the object of the present utility model relates to a device consisting of an indented tube and one or more clevises, suitable to quickly hook equipped accessories to heavy vehicles, such as for example plastic toolboxes, fenders, and any product to be constrained to the chassis of a vehicle to be mounted.

The accessories heavy vehicles are provided with are generally constrained to the chassis by metal brackets by means of bolted connections and such brackets are made in various formats and sizes, depending on the accessory to be constrained.

The metal brackets used to constrain the equipped accessories to the vehicle bodies, in addition to being heavy and accordingly increasing the load of vehicle sprung masses, involve installation procedures not always short and easy to perform.

A drawback of the metal brackets used to constrain the equipped accessories to the chassis of heavy vehicles is for example represented by their cost, due to their manufacturing cycle, notoriously longer and more expensive than moulding a plastic element, as in the case of the invention.

A further drawback of the known metal brackets suitable to constrain the equipped accessories is represented in that they are subjected to corrosion phenomena over time and in order to overcome such drawback, they are treated with methods that can avoid oxidation processes.

The invention being the object of the present utility model represents a performing evolution of the system for hooking accessories to the chassis of heavy vehicles, due to the reduction of the number of components required to hook to only one single plastic tubular element constrained to one or more clevises and the latter equipped with a pair of plastic screws and a pair of flanged nuts. An object of the invention is also to provide a device suitable to constrain equipped accessories to the chassis of a vehicle in a simple and quick manner, said objective being achieved in order to facilitate a general constructor in mounting, having to perform only simple holes on the accessory to be installed, in order to constrain thereto one or more clevises, already arranged to be constrained on an indented tube, made integral with the vehicle chassis by means of a single simple screw.

Another object of the invention is to provide a supporting element, for the equipped accessories, of a plastic type and suitable to support the same loads as the conventional heavier metal brackets, said objective being achieved by adopting structural ribs, radially disposed on the entire inner circumference of the indented tube.

An advantage of the invention is to have made an economic and eco-friendly product, with respect to the known metal elements used to constrain the equipped elements of heavy vehicles to the vehicle chassis, still for being made of a plastic material by moulding processes.

A further advantage of the invention is to have made a particularly lightweight supporting element, for the equipped accessories of heavy vehicles, in order not to increase the vehicle sprung masses as all the elements composing the invention are made of a high-resistance plastic material.

Another advantage of the invention is to use the indented tubular element and the respective clevises, in order to constrain different families of accessories to the chassis of heavy vehicles.

These and further objects are achieved by the device suitable to constrain accessories to the chassis of heavy vehicles by an indented tube and at least one clevis of the present utility model, described in a preferred non-limiting embodiment of further developments within the scope of the model, with the aid of the attached drawings illustrating the following figures: Fig. 1, an isometric view of the device applied on the surface of a general accessory;

Fig. 2, an exploded isometric view of the device;

Fig. 3, an exploded and partial isometric view of the device as seen from the base of the tubular element ready to be constrained on a body portion; Fig. 4a, 4b, an isometric view of a clevis, with the elements generating the condition of constraining to the indented tube.

In the attached figures, the device suitable to constrain accessories to the chassis of heavy vehicles by an indented tube and at least one clevis, for the sake of simplicity hereinafter identified as the device 1 and preferably made of a high-resistance plastic material, is depicted.

As illustrated in the attached figures, the device 1 consists of a tubular element 2, at least one clevis 3 equipped with a pair of stop screws 4 and corresponding flanged nuts 5, a simple screw 6, adapted to constrain the tubular element 2 to a body T portion and a cap 7.

As illustrated in figures 1 and 2, the tubular element 2 is composed by an almost bellshaped base 21, from which a tube 22 provided with a set of indented rows 221, the latter being equidistant and orderly disposed along the generatrices of the tube 22, of the tubular element 2 extends.

As illustrated in figures 2 and 3, the flat surface 23 of the base 21 is centrally provided with a threaded blind hole 231, adapted to accommodate a simple screw 6, suitable to reversibly constrain the tubular element 2 on a portion of a vehicle body T.

As illustrated in figures 4 a, b, the clevis 3 is geometrically composed by a board 31, surmounted by an annular element 32 and the latter being internally provided with a partially grooved profile 321. Said partially grooved profile ends on an end with an open cylindrical profile 3211. Said partially grooved profile 321 ends on an end with an open cylindrical profile 3211.

Said open cylindrical profile 3211 has a width suitable to engage the cracks generated between a tooth 2211 and the next one of the indented rows 221 of the tubular element 2.

A pair of prismatic chutes 311 of a merely quadrangular geometry and centrally provided with a through hole 3111 are performed at the side ends of the board 31 and on the side of the annular element 32. Said prismatic chutes 311 of the clevis 3 are suitable to accommodate the complementary geometry of the shaped heads 41 of the stop screws 4 in order to contribute, with said coupling, to form a constraint on the rotation for said stop screws 4.

Such stop screws 4 have threaded ends, protruding below the board 31 of the clevis 3, in order to constrain the latter, by flanged nuts 5, to the surface S of a general accessory as illustrated in figure 1.

Said board 31 is constructed such that there is a flat transverse cut 33 of a given thickness h and such to intercept a generatrix of the annular element 32 on only one side with respect to the annular element 32.

The flat transverse cut 33 has the function of giving an open geometry to the annular element 32, in order to give it an elastic behaviour as a function of the variation of the thickness h. In more detail, a reduction in thickness h, imposed by an external force, allows the partially grooved profile 321 to rigidly clamp the tubular element 2 inside the annular element 32 of the clevis 3.

From what has been discussed above, it should be noted that the condition of constraining between the tubular element 2 and the clevis 3 is ensured by three concomitant conditions, the first consisting of the geometric engagement of the indented rows 221 of the tubular element 2 inside the partially grooved profile 321 of the annular element 32, in order to avoid mutual rotation movements between the tubular element 2 and the clevis 3, the second condition is instead due to the elastic compression the annular element 32 performs on the tubular element 2, due to the clamping of one of the stop screws 4 with its corresponding flanged nut 5, the third condition occurs as a result of the engagement of the open cylindrical profile 3211 with the respective cracks between the teeth 2211 of the indented rows 221 of the tubular element 2. The second and the third conditions perform the axial block of the tubular element 2 with respect to the clevis 3. In more detail, the stop screw 4 placed at the flat transverse cut 33, which has the function of contributing, during the action of its clamping, to reduce the thickness h of the flat transverse cut 33, consequently allowing the annular element 32 to clamp the tubular element therein 2.

Both for aesthetic reasons and to avoid that the tubular element 2 accumulates undesired deposits of any kind therein, once assembling operations are completed, a quick-release type cap 7 is constrained at the free and hollow end 222 of the tubular element 2.