EP2610416A1

EP2610416A1 - Support stand for supporting an item at a distance from an underlying surface

Info

Publication number: EP2610416A1
Application number: EP11195747.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Olivier Dejans
Original assignee: Solidor Rubber & Products
Current assignee: Solidor Rubber & Products
Priority date: 2011-12-27
Filing date: 2011-12-27
Publication date: 2013-07-03
Also published as: WO2013098206A1; EP2812511A1

Abstract

Support stand for holding an item (11) at a distance from an underlying surface (10), said support being elongated extending from a proximal end to a distal end along a first axis (Z),
(a) the proximal end comprising a base portion (2) for holding in place on an underlying surface said support stand in upright position with said first axis (Z) substantially normal to said underlying surface, said base portion being coupled to,
(b) a mid portion (3) comprising coupling means (4a) for coupling to,
(c) a moveable coupling head (4), located at the distal end of the stand, and being suitable for contacting and carrying said item at a distance from said underlying surface, said moveable head being coupled to the mid portion (3) such as to have at least one degree of freedom in rotation about a first rotation axis transverse to said first axis (Z),
whereby said at least one degree of freedom in rotation of the moveable coupling head is provided by a hinge assembly defining said first rotation axis.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to upper deck surfaces. In particular, it concerns a support stand suitable for holding an element of a deck or similar at a distance from an underlying surface, such as the ground.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Many kinds and designs of pedestals, such as for example described in WO9301379 , are known for supporting elevated roof or garden terraces using flagstones, granite or concrete slabs or wooden timber boards or timber tiles, for supporting podia or elevated technical floors and decks, etc. In continuation, all kinds of such elevated surfaces are referred to as decks.
Elevated decks are usually meant to extend substantially horizontally, regardless of the topography of the underlying surface. For this reason, many support stands for holding such deck elements at a distance from said underlying surface are provided in different heights or are designed such that their height can be varied. In many outdoor applications, the underlying surface is not necessary horizontal, whilst the upper deck should be horizontal. This configuration can be advantageous because a sloping underlying surface allows to drain water (from rain or from mopping) which has dripped from the elevated deck which is thus preferably designed to be pervious to water. The drawback, however, is that since the support stands extend substantially normal to the area of underlying surface covered by the base thereof, any coupling fixture at the top end of such stands for coupling the support stand to a deck element, could be misaligned with a horizontally lying deck element if the underlying surface is not substantially horizontal too. To solve this problem, support stands provided with a moveable head were proposed on the market.
Generally speaking the foregoing problem was solved in the art by mounting the coupling fixture, or coupling head, to the rest of the support stand body by means of a spherical head, spherical cap, or spherical segment nested in a matching cup, such that the upper surface of the coupling head can be tilted in all directions with respect to the longitudinal axis of the support stand. Examples of such designs are disclosed e.g., in WO2008/105012 , GB2347152 , W02007/048204 . These solutions work well, but the spherical element and matching cup must be machined with some accuracy to the detriment of the production cost. Furthermore, they wear rather easily and cannot be used repeatedly for mounting e.g., roving stages.
In US6332292 , a support stand is disclosed which tilting angle of the coupling head can be varied by rotating with respect to one another two superimposed discs each having an inclined surface. This stand is composed of many different parts requiring several assembly steps which are detrimental to the production cost.
Considering the above drawbacks, it is an object of the present invention to provide a support stand for supporting an elevated surface allowing a variation of the tilting angle of the coupling head thereof which is simpler and cheaper to produce than existing solutions on the market. It is another object of the present invention to provide a support stand which is wear resistant and can be used several times. These and other objects of the present invention are presented in continuation.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is defined in the appended independent claims. Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. In particular, the present invention concerns a support stand for holding an item at a distance from an underlying surface, said support being elongated extending from a proximal end to a distal end along a first axis (Z),

(a) the proximal end comprising a base portion for holding in place on an underlying surface said support stand in upright position with said first axis (Z) substantially normal to said underlying surface, said base portion being coupled to,
(b) A mid portion (3) comprising coupling means for coupling to,
(c) a moveable coupling head, located at the distal end of the stand, and being suitable for contacting and carrying said item at a distance from said underlying surface, said moveable coupling head being coupled to the mid portion such as to have at least one degree of freedom in rotation about an axis transverse to said first axis (Z),
characterized in that, said at least one degree of freedom in rotation of the moveable head is provided by a hinge assembly extending transverse to said first axis (Z).

In a preferred embodiment, the coupling means of the mid portion comprise a support surface substantially normal to the first axis (Z), and first hinge means jutting from said support surface towards the distal end of the stand, suitable for receiving in a rotational relationship second, complementary hinge means provided in the coupling head. The support surface may be planar or, alternatively curved; in particular, it can be concave or convex in the top direction. The moveable head is thus provided with second, complementary hinge means mating the first hinge means of the mid portion, to form in combination a hinge assembly allowing the rotation about the hinge axis of the coupling head. In particular, the second, complementary hinge means comprise at least one pin, suitable for snap fitting into a mating recess provided in said first hinge means of the mid portion. Alternatively, the first hinge means of the mid portion comprise at least one pin, suitable for snap fitting into a mating recess provided in the second, complementary hinge means of the coupling head. It is preferred that the moveable coupling head further comprises at least one curved counter-surface suitable for lying and rocking on the support surface of the coupling means of the mid portion in order to increase the stability, robustness, and wear resistance of the hinge assembly. Depending on the geometry of the support surface, the curved counter-surface may be convex or concave.
Since the longitudinal axis (Z) of the stand cannot deviate from vertical from a given angle which is too large, lest the stability of the upper deck be insufficient, it is not necessary that the coupling head be allowed to tilt over 180°, and it is actually preferred that the hinge means comprise means for limiting the degree of freedom in rotation about the hinge axis to a given angle with respect to the first axis (Z). In yet a preferred embodiment, the hinge assembly comprises means for blocking the moveable coupling head in a desired inclination.
In a preferred embodiment, the moveable coupling head is coupled to the mid portion with a degree of rotation about the first axis (Z). In this embodiment, the coupling head is capable of taking any inclination without having to move the base from the underlying surface. The deck elements are laid onto or fixed to the top surface of the coupling moveable head. In the latter case, the moveable head may comprise fixing means for coupling the stand to said deck element.
In a preferred embodiment, the mid portion is coupled to the base portion such that the distance from the proximal end to the distal end of the stand can be varied. For example, the mid portion may be coupled to the base portion through a thread, and the distance between proximal and distal ends of the stand can be varied by rotating one of the base and mid portion with respect to the other. The relative rotation of the mid portion with respect to the base can be easily and accurately controlled with a gear system permitting to rotate one of the base and mid portions with respect to the other by means of a drill or crank. Alternatively, the rotation of one of the base and mid portion with respect to the other can be performed by rotation of means accessible by a drill or a crank by the proximal end of the base portion along the first axis (Z).
The support stand of the present invention is suitable for supporting any deck element such as a beam, a tile, a slab, and the like.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG 1: illustrates an upper deck element supported horizontally by two support stands according to the present invention, at a distance from a sloping underlying surface.
FIG 2: illustrates two side views of an embodiment of hinge assembly suitable for the present invention.
FIG 3: illustrates an embodiment of height regulation of a support stand suitable for the present invention.
FIG 4: illustrates an alternative embodiment of height regulation of a support stand suitable for the present invention.

DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In the context of the present invention, the elevated surface is understood as an elevated roof terrace, elevated garden terrace, elevated hotel room or apartment terrace, a podium, an elevated technical floor, or any upper deck. In continuation, the expression "upper deck" is meant to encompass any such elevated surface. If the upper deck is constituted of various elements assembled to form a continuous upper surface, such as beams or tiles, then such element is herein referred to as "deck element" or more generally as "item". In the context of the present invention, the underlying surface is understood as the soil, floor, ground, roof, or any other surface on which the elevated surface has to be installed.
As illustrated in Figure 1, a support stand according to the present invention extends from a proximal end to a distal end along a first axis (Z), wherein:

(a) the proximal end comprises a base portion (2) for holding in place on an underlying surface said support stand in upright position with said first axis (Z) substantially normal to said underlying surface. The base portion is coupled to,
(b) a mid portion (3) which forms the "body" of the support stand. The mid portion comprises coupling means (4a) for coupling to,
(c) a moveable coupling head (4), located at the distal end of the stand. Said coupling head (4) is suitable for contacting and carrying said item at a distance from said underlying surface. The coupling between the moveable head and the mid portion (3) is such that the coupling head has at least one degree of freedom in rotation about a first rotation axis transverse to said first axis (Z).

In a support stand according to the present invention, the rotation of the coupling head about an axis transverse to the first axis (Z) is ensured by a hinge assembly. It is preferred that the axis of rotation defined by the hinge assembly be normal to the first axis (Z). A hinge is an economical, reliable, and robust solution to giving the coupling head one degree of freedom in rotation about the hinge axis.
As illustrated in Figure 2(a) and 2(b) showing side views along two planes normal to each other, a hinge assembly for the coupling head (4) of a support stand according to the present invention may comprise two parts:

(a) coupling means (3a) of the mid portion (3) comprising a support surface substantially normal to the first axis (Z), and first hinge means jutting from said support surface towards the distal end of the stand, suitable for receiving in a rotational relationship.
(b) second, complementary hinge means (4a) provided on the moveable coupling head (4).

As represented in Figure 2, the second, complementary hinge means (4a) may comprise at least one pin (4b), suitable for snap fitting into a mating recess (3c) provided in a couple of brackets forming said first hinge means (3a) of the mid portion (3). The opposite design is of course possible (not represented in the Figures), wherein the first hinge means (3a) of the mid portion (3) comprise at least one pin (3b), suitable for snap fitting into a mating recess (4c) provided in a couple of brackets forming the second, complementary hinge means (4a). Such designs are very advantageous over a spherical joint as disclosed in the prior art in that the tolerances on the various components of the hinge assembly are not very tight, it is easy to assemble and disassemble, allowing coupling heads of different geometries to be mounted on a standard support stand mid portion (3), depending on the type of deck elements it is to be coupled to.
To further stabilize and strengthen the hinge assembly, the moveable coupling head (4) may further comprise at least one curved counter-surface suitable for lying and rocking on the support surface of the coupling means (3a) of the mid portion (3). Figures 1 and 2 show an embodiment comprising three such curved counter-surfaces located one in the middle and two at each end of the pin/recess assembly forming the hinge. Such support surfaces take the weight of the deck elements coupled thereto, transferring it to the mid-portion via the support surface thereof and down to the base and underlying surface. This permits to release the load from the pin/recess assembly. Figures 1 &2 show a planar support base with a convex counter-surface resting thereon. In practice, other geometries can be applied. For example, the support surface may be curved too. It can be concave, i.e., forming a cradle for mating a convex counter surface. Alternatively, the support surface may be convex, with a curved counter surface that can be either concave, to mate the curvature of the support surface, planar, or even convex too. In the latter embodiment, a crenelation may help stabilize the system, forming a kind of gear assembly. The terms "convex" and "concave" are used with respect to the mating surface. For example, a concave support surface exposes a cavity to the counter-surface and, similarly, a concave counter-surface exposes a cavity to the support surface.
In order to ensure the stability of the upper deck, the support stands should stand in an upright position without deviating too much from the verticality, lest they would tip over. In other words the angle between the support stand first axis (Z) should preferably not deviate from vertical by more than 15°, preferably not more than 10°, more preferably not more than 5°. It is of course preferred that they stand up vertically. The hinge assembly therefore does not need to allow a full rotation around the axis defined thereby, and it is preferred that the hinge means (3a, 4a) comprise means for limiting the degree of freedom in rotation about the hinge axis to a given angle with respect to the first axis (Z). As illustrated in Figure 2(a), this can be achieved by designing the mating recesses or slots (3c, 4c) for receiving a corresponding pin (3b, 4b) in the shape of an open, inverted keyhole, with tapering walls leading down to a circular blind end. The tapering angle of the keyhole walls defines the maximum tilting angle of the coupling head.
Once the optimal tilting angle of the coupling head has been set, it may be advantageous to block the head in such position. This can be achieved very easily by any means known to a person skilled in the art, such as for example by introducing a pin or a clamp into the hinge assembly to block it. The curved counter-surfaces may be crenelated to engage gearwise into a crenelated path moulded on the support surface of the mid portion, such that blocking of the head can more easily be achieved.
To allow greater freedom of orientation and inclination of the coupling head (4), it is preferably coupled to the mid section (4) such that it may rotate about the first axis (Z). With such configuration, the coupling head (4) of a support stand according to the present invention has the same degrees of freedom in rotation as a spherical coupling as disclosed in the prior art, without the inconveniences thereof (i.e., wear, unstability, high accuracy and smooth surface required, etc.).
Depending on the type of item the support stand is intended to support, the coupling head (4) may advantageously be provided with fixing means (4e) for coupling the stand to said item. For example, as illustrated in Figures 1 and 2, such fixing means (4e) can be in the shape of a slot provided in a pair of brackets. Alternatively, the fixing means can be a cruciform walls structure suitable for accommodating one corner of four tiles forming a portion of the upper deck. One wall only, can serve in case two deck elements must rest on one support stand. Other fixing means (4e) can be implemented depending on the applications. Snap fit fixing means can be advantageous in certain cases.
In order to compensate for a varying topography of the underlying surface, support stands of different heights may have to be used. Advantageously, and as illustrated in Figure 1 by comparing the two support stands represented, it is preferred that the mid portion (3) is coupled to the base portion (2) such that the distance from the proximal end to the distal end of the stand can be varied. In view of the load the stands must carry, it is important that once set, the height of a support stand does not vary under the effect of the weight of the upper deck. One solution is to use a threaded height varying system, wherein the height of the support stand can be controlled by rotating the mid portion (3) respective to the base portion (2). A finer thread step yields a more stable and accurate height control, but it also takes the operator longer to reach the desired height, especially if turning the elements by hand. It is therefore desirable to allow the variation of the support stand height using a drill or a crank.
In one embodiment represented in Figure 3, a perimeter of the mid portion (3) is crenelated. A smaller cog, rotatably fixed to the base portion (2) is engaged in said crenelated perimeter. The cog can be coupled to a drill or a crank to turn it rapidly, which transmits the rotation to the mid portion (3) via the crenelated perimeter thereof. The cog can be a separate part -the operator can carry one in its pocket-which can be engaged with the crenelated perimeter of the mid portion (3) by introducing an axis thereof in an appropriate holder located on the base portion (2) of the support stand. This system has the advantage that the height of a support stand can be controlled with the stand in its upright position, and even with some of the deck elements already coupled thereto (leaving room for the operator to reach the cog with a drill).
Alternatively to the cog system, the height of a support stand can be controlled, as illustrated in Figure 4, by a coupling element (6) extending along a longitudinal axis, one end of which can be coupled below the portion (2)of the support stand with its longitudinal axis on the support stand first axis (Z), and the other end of which can be coupled to a drill or a crank. The operator holds the mid portion (3) in one hand and operates the drill or crank with the other hand to rotate the base portion (2) with respect to the mid portion (3). Here again, the operator can carry one such coupling element in its pocket, to adjust the height of all the support stands.
Alternatively to a threaded system, the height of a support stand can be controlled using a rack and pinion system, wherein at least one toothed bar extends on a stem of the base portion (2) on which the mid portion engages with a one way clamp system.
A support stand according to the present invention may be made of metal, but it is preferably made of polymer. Preferably, the various components of the support stand are made by injection moulding a polymer, preferably a thermoplastic polymer, such as PP, PA, PET, PEN, and the like. For applications requiring higher mechanical resistance, a fibre reinforced composite may be used, preferably comprising glass fibres. In specific applications, a metal can be used instead, such as steel or aluminium.

Claims

A support stand for holding an item (11) at a distance from an underlying surface (10), said support being elongated extending from a proximal end to a distal end along a first axis (Z),
(a) the proximal end comprising a base portion (2) for holding in place on an underlying surface said support stand in upright position with said first axis (Z) substantially normal to said underlying surface, said base portion being coupled to,

(b) a mid portion (3) comprising coupling means (3a) for coupling to,

(c) a moveable coupling head (4), located at the distal end of the stand, and being suitable for contacting and carrying said item at a distance from said underlying surface, said moveable head being coupled to the mid portion (3) such as to have at least one degree of freedom in rotation about a first rotation axis transverse to said first axis (Z),
characterized in that, said at least one degree of freedom in rotation of the moveable coupling head is provided by a hinge assembly defining said first rotation axis.
A support stand according to claim 1, wherein,
(a) the coupling means (3a) of the mid portion (3) comprise a support surface substantially normal to the first axis (Z), and first hinge means jutting from said support surface towards the distal end of the stand, suitable for receiving in a rotational relationship.

(b) Second, complementary hinge means (4a) provided on the moveable coupling head (4).
A support stand according to the preceding claim, wherein the second, complementary hinge means (4a) comprise at least one pin (4b), suitable for snap fitting into a mating recess (3c) provided in a pair of brackets defining said first hinge means (3a) of the mid portion (3).
A support stand according to claim 2, wherein first hinge means (3a) of the mid portion (3) comprise at least one pin (3b), suitable for snap fitting into a mating recess (4c) provided in a pair of brackets defining the second, complementary hinge means (4a).
A support stand according to any of claims 2 to 4, wherein the moveable coupling head (4) further comprises at least one curved counter-surface suitable for lying and rocking on the support surface of the coupling means (3a) of the mid portion (3), wherein preferably:
(a) the support surface is planar and the curved counter-surface is convex;

(b) the support surface is convex and the curved counter-surface is either concave, mating the curvature of the counter-surface, planar, or convex; or

(c) the support surface is concave and the curved counter-surface is convex, mating the curvature of the counter-surface.
A support stand according to any of claims 2 to 5, wherein the hinge means (3a, 4a) comprise means for limiting the degree of freedom in rotation about the hinge axis to a given angle with respect to the first axis (Z).
A support stand according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the hinge assembly comprises means for blocking the tilting of the coupling head at a desired tilting angle.
A support stand according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the moveable coupling head (4) is coupled to the mid portion with a degree of freedom in rotation about the first axis (Z).
A support stand according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the moveable head (4) further comprises fixing means (4e) for coupling the stand to said item.
A support stand according to any of the preceding claims, wherein the mid portion (3) is coupled to the base portion (2) such that the distance from the proximal end to the distal end of the stand can be varied.
A support stand according to the preceding claim, wherein the mid portion (3) is coupled to the base portion (2) through a thread, and the distance between proximal and distal ends of the stand can be varied by rotating one of the base (2) and mid portion (3) with respect to the other.
A support stand according to the preceding claim, wherein a gear system permits to rotate one of the base (2) and mid portion (3) with respect to the other by means of a drill or crank.
A support stand according to claim 11, wherein the height thereof is controlled using a rack and pinion system, wherein at least one toothed bar extends on a stem of the base portion (2) on which the mid portion engages with a one way clamp system.
A support stand according to claim 11, wherein rotation of one of the base (2) and mid portion (3) with respect to the other can be performed by rotation of means accessible by a drill or a crank by the proximal end of the base portion along the first axis (Z).
A support stand according to any of the preceding claims, wherein said item is one or more of a beam, a surface such as a deck, a tile, or a slab.