The present invention relates to a tool for providing access ramps.

Currently it is known to provide access ramps, for example to an underground garage, which are obtained by using concrete material. Such ramps may have a smooth upper surface, but this limits the slope that can be obtained, since it is necessary to achieve suitable grip for the tread of a vehicle and the walkability thereof, which is however still compromised if the ramp is wet or damp.

As a partial solution to these drawbacks, it is known to provide ramps in which, once the concrete and an optional layer of quartz have been spread and while it is still fresh, it is processed with a manual tool composed of a plate having in a lower region a series of mutually parallel tabs which, by partially penetrating the concrete, form a series of grooves adapted to increase the grip of the tread of a vehicle. A ramp is obtained which is also termed “herringbone ramp” since the grooves are arranged inclined with respect to the slope of the ramp in order to improve the grip of tires.

Even this solution has drawbacks: first of all a certain skill of the worker is required to avoid conspicuous imperfections in the provision of the grooves, and this makes it necessary to perform a second pass by hand on the grooves in order to try to erase the joint between two consecutive grooves.

Furthermore, if the grooves are too close or are too far apart with respect to each other, they make the walkable surface of the ramp substantially smooth, with the drawbacks already mentioned both for vehicles and for pedestrians.

Furthermore, herringbone ramps are not per se walkable and they are required to have one or two lateral bands, called also combed or knurled bands. This solution, however, in practice reduces the width of the region on which the tires can act and therefore the ramp must have larger dimensions and thus also greater provision costs.

Furthermore, in herringbone ramps there is a problem in case of snow, since snow tends to fill the grooves and, once the tires press the snow, one has once again a substantially smooth and therefore slippery surface.

In this case, cleaning is not achievable by using brooms or shovels but only by spreading salt, which however in turn has the drawback of being a corrosive agent which can lead, in relatively short times, to the corrosion of the quartz surface layer of the ramp.

The aim of the present invention is to solve the technical problems that have been highlighted, by removing the drawbacks of the cited background art and thus devising a tool that allows to provide ramps having a shape adapted to allow to obtain a suitable grip both for the treads of a vehicle and for the soles of shoes, and at the same time allows provision even by personnel that is not particularly trained, allowing to work rapidly and easily, obtaining an optimum finish.

Within this aim, an object of the invention is to provide a tool for providing a ramp, for example of the herringbone type, wherein the ramp is walkable even without an adapted lateral strip band, also known as combed or knurled band, maintaining a wide tire travel region.

A further object is to obtain a tool for providing a ramp that in addition to the previous characteristics allows to be safely traveled both with tires and with shoe soles even in the presence of snow, which does not need to be removed with corrosive agents.

Another object is to provide a tool for providing a ramp that is structurally simple, has low provision costs and can be manufactured with ordinary known equipment.

This aim and these and other objects that will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a tool for providing ramps, comprising a plate, shaped substantially like a parallelepiped, provided with a handle, characterized in that said plate is provided in a lower region with a plurality of longitudinal tabs which have equal or different width, depth and inclinations and, in an upper region, at least one series of rakes which are associated in an oscillating manner with said plate. Advantageously, the tool is used by making it slide along the transverse side of said ramp or along a side that is inclined with respect to the longitudinal axis thereof.

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the detailed description of a particular but not exclusive embodiment, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a first lateral perspective view of the tool according to the present invention;

Figure 2 is a second lateral perspective view of the tool; Figure 3 is an exploded view of the tool;

Figure 4 is a top view of the tool;

Figure 5 is a rear view of the tool;

Figure 6 is a sectional view of the tool, taken along the plane VI- VI of Figure 4; Figure 7 is a side view of the tool with the rakes raised;

Figure 8 is a view, similar to the previous one, of the tool with the rakes lowered;

Figure 9 shows how the tool is used to obtain the ramp.

In the exemplary embodiments that follow, individual characteristics, given in relation to specific examples, may actually be interchanged with other different characteristics that exist in other exemplary embodiments.

With reference to the figures, a tool for providing ramps 2 made by using concrete material is designated by the reference numeral 1.

The tool 1 comprises a plate 3, shaped substantially like a parallelepiped with a rectangular plan, provided with a handle 4, the plate 3 having, at the lower surface 5, a plurality of longitudinal tabs 6 which have equal or different width, depth and inclinations.

In the described embodiment a plurality of first tabs 6a, a plurality of second tabs 6b, a plurality of third tabs 6c, and at least one single fourth tab 6c have been shown.

The first tabs 6a are preferably two, are arranged adjacent to the longitudinal sides 7a, 7b of the plate 3 and have a substantially wedge-like shape.

The second tabs 6b are preferably six and are arranged preferably in pairs of three, adjacent and contiguous to the first tabs 6a, are preferably identical and equally mutually spaced, and have a substantially wedge-like shape with a height that is less than the height of the first tabs 6a.

The third tabs 6c are preferably two, are arranged preferably adjacent and contiguous to the second tabs 6b and have a shape that is inclined along mutually opposite planes.

The fourth tab 6d is interposed between the third tabs 6c so as to affect substantially the central region of the lower surface 5 of the plate 3 and is V-shaped with asymmetrical sides and with the vertex directed upward and therefore toward the handle 4.

At the upper surface 8 of the plate 3 there is at least one series of rakes 9 associated in an oscillating manner with the plate 3.

The rakes can be of the chosen number, of the chosen dimensions, spaced with the same pitch or a different pitch, of the same length or of a different length; they may also be arranged parallel to each other or appropriately offset on different planes.

The indicated solution shows, by way of example, a first series of rakes 9a and a second series of rakes 9b which have the same length and arrangement but differ in their number, which, in the particular embodiment shown, is larger in the second series of rakes 9b.

Each one of the rakes 9a, 9b is supported by a substantially parallelepiped footing 10a, 10b with which a bar 11a, lib is associated, on the opposite side with respect to the rakes 9a, 9b, and is rotatably associated at one end between a pair of shoulders 12a, 12b that protrude from a spacer 13a, 13b associated with the upper surface 8 proximate to a transverse edge 14.

The articulation of the plate 11a, lib to the pair of shoulders 12a, 12b occurs by means of a linkage 15a, 15b, which allows to arrange the rakes 9a, 9b in two fixed conditions, in which the rakes are either raised with respect to the surface 16 for resting on the concrete on which to provide the ramp 2 or lowered onto the surface 16.

In this last case, the terminal ends 9c of the rakes 9a, 9b lie on a plane that is lower than the plane of arrangement of the lower surface 5 of the plate 3.

Advantageously, the footings 10a, 10b are mutually connected by a rod 17, from which a grip protrusion 18 protrudes which is adapted to render the rotation of the rakes 9a, 9b synchronous.

Use of the tool is as follows: once the base concrete material layer has been spread so as to obtain a substantially planar surface, the user performs on it a first pass, along an axis which is for example transverse or inclined with respect to the axis of the ramp, by means of the tool with the raised rakes 9a, 9b.

Of course, the tool can be used also by arranging it at a chosen angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the ramp.

By doing so, one obtains on the initially substantially planar surface a series of hollows 19 and protrusions 20 which are shaped complementarily to the first tabs 6a, the second tabs 6b, the third tabs 6c and the fourth tab 6d.

Subsequently, the user passes the tool again after lowering the rakes 9a, 9b: by doing so one obtains, at the regions affected by the rakes, a knurled region 21 the dimensions of which correspond to the width and length of the teeth and therefore to the extent of penetration thereof into the concrete.

One this obtains, along for example the side that is transverse to the ramp 2, a sequence of hollows 19 and protrusions 20 and knurled regions 21 which provide, due to their shape and sequence, an optimum grip both for tires and for shoe soles.

It has thus been found that the invention has fully achieved the intended aim and objects, a tool having been obtained which allows to provide, rapidly and easily, ramps that have a sequence of variegated shapes such as to allow to obtain suitable, optimum and continuous grip both for the tread of a vehicle and for the soles of shoes.

At the same time, the tool can be used for providing the ramps even by personnel that is not particularly trained, allowing to perform the work rapidly and easily, obtaining an optimum finish. Furthermore, the tool allows to provide a ramp with an innovative shape that is walkable even without an adapted lateral band, maintaining an optimum travel region over the entire width of the ramp.

The tool thus allows to obtain a ramp that can be safely traveled both with tires and shoe soles and in case of snow such snow does not need to be removed with corrosive agents because of the sequence of hollows 19 and protrusions 20 and knurled regions 21 obtained, which facilitate its disposal.

The invention is of course susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims.

The materials used, as well as the dimensions that constitute the individual components of the invention, may of course be more pertinent according to the specific requirements.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. 102019000017804 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.