GB2069032A - Guide marker devices - Google Patents

Abstract

A road marker post 10, includes an elongated upright member 13, formed of an impact resistant flexible plastic material such as a polycarbonate resin and having an undulate transverse cross-section including a forwardly concave medial section 17 joining forwardly convex side sections 18 terminating in rearwardly diverging flat side arms. A light-reflective tape 14 is adhered to the upper front face of the upright member and extends along the concave and convex sections of the face. A vertical metal anchoring member 16 is secured to the bottom of member 13, and is provided at its lower part with upwardly rearwardly inclined barbs to inhibit the vertical withdrawal of the marker from the ground in which it is inserted. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Marker devices The present invention relates generally to improvements in visual marker devices and it relates particularly to an improved self-erecting guide post for high-ways, roads and the like.

It is a common practice to position along the borders of a highway devices which delineate the highway visually, audibly or both in order to indicate to one travelling the highway its safe side limits both during times of daylight and darkness.

The highway guide markers heretofore widely employed possess many drawbacks among which are their low visibility under many conditions and the need for their frequency replacement. In U.S. patent no. 4,084,914 issued April 18, 1978, there is described a self-erecting highway guide post which seeks to overcome some of the drawbacks of the conventional guide marks.

However, the self-erecting highway guide post described in the aforesaid patent possesses some disadvantages. Under many conditions, particularly in the presence of winds, the night-time visibility of the device is unreliable and greatly reduced due to the excessive vibration of the reflector carrying guide post. Since the reflective surface is flat rotation of the post causes flickering or an "on-off" effect with respect to reflection, which besides the loss of reflection, creates a distraction which could cause a driver to take his or her eyes from the road. Further, the guide post visibility is highly subjected to impairment by damage to the reflector elements consequent to impacts to the guide post, the proper positioning of the guide posts is critical, the orientation of the reflective elements must be precise and little tolerance is permitted.

The present invention aims to provide an improved guide marker device, in particular an improved self-erecting highway guide post, which is highly visible both during daylight and night even under adverse conditions such as high winds and is capable of withstanding many impacts and deflections without significant impairment.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a device of the above nature characterized by its high reliability, ruggedness, low cost, ease of application and great versatility and adaptability.

A marker device in accordance with the present invention comprises a vertically extending post member formed of flexible material and having an undulate curved transverse cross-section including a forwardly concave medial section joined to opposite rearwardly concave side sections terminating in rearwardly directed side arms and a forwardly facing reflector member located on the post adjacent to its upper end.

In a preferred embodiment the device is a roadside guidepost, and the post member is of uniform thickness with the medial section having a greater radius of curvature than the side sections and the side arms being flat at an angle of between 10 degrees and 45 degrees to the medial longitudinal plane of the post and projecting rearwardly of the medial section. The post is advantageously formed of a polycarbonate resin composition or the like and the reflector member is a reflective tape having a pressure sensitive adhesive backing and is adhered to post medial section and the adjacent portions of the side sections. A metal anchoring member in the form of a channel, having its outer center face fastened to the concave face of the post, depends below the post and acts as a pilot portion for positioning the post.It facilitates the driving of the guidepost into the ground and upwardly directed barbs are self formed on the lower part of the post member and inhibit its separation from the ground.

The guide mark device according to the present invention is highly reliable, providing uniformly optimumly visual signal or indication even under high wind conditions, is rugged and capable of withstanding numerous impacts and deflections without impairment of its structure or function, is easy to apply and is of great versatility and adaptability. While the vibration of the improved device even when exposed to high winds is not sufficient to significantly impair visibility of the device, the device readily returnably deflects under impact.A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 is a plan view of a highway with guideposts according to the present invention located along its borders; Figure 2 is a perspective view of the guidepost shown deflected by an impacting vehicle and shown by broken line in its normal condition; Figure 3 is a front perspective view of the unmounted guidepost; Figure 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4-4 in Figure 3; Figure 5 is a sectional view of the post member taken along line 5-5 in Figure 3 and shown by broken line in a twisted condition; and Figure 6 is a sectional view taken along line 6-6 in Figure 3.

Referring now to the drawings, the reference numeral 10 generally designates the improved self-erecting highway guidepost which is illustrated in Figure 1 erected along the unpaved borders or shoulders 11 of a highway 12, the guideposts 10 being located at spaced intervals along the highway in accordance with the known practice.

The guidepost 10 includes, when in its installed or erected position, a substantially vertical post member 13, a reflective tape 14 and a drive or anchor member 1 6.

The post member 13 is formed of an impact and weather resistant flexible resilient thermoplastic polycarbonate resin which is advantageously pigmented white or other suitable colour and is produced in any conventional or suitable manner. The post member 1 3 is longitudinally elongated and of uniform thickness and of uniform undulate transverse cross-section including a forwardly concave medial section 1 7 integrally joined along its opposite edges to rearwardly concave side sections 1 8 which terminate at their parallel outer edges in rearwardly diverging flat arms or flanges 1 9 which advantageously project rearwardly beyond the rear convex face of medial section 1 7.In its normally installed position, the concave face of medial section 1 7 faces oncoming traffic and the post member is symmetrical to a medial longitudinal or vertical plane. The radius of curvature of medial section 1 7 is greater than that of side sections 1 8.

In order to prevent or inhibit the withdrawal of the guidepost from its ground installed positions, one or more vertically spaced upwardly rearwardly inclined rectangular barbs 20 are formed from medial section 1 7 and are integrally joined along their lower edges to medial section 1 7 and leave corresponding rectangular openings 21 therein.

In accordance with a specific example of the post member 13, by way of illustration, the thickness of the web forming post member 1 3 is 1/8 inch, the distance between the free ends of arms 1 9 is 3 3/4 inches, the radius of curvature of medial section 1 7 is 1/2 inch and of each side section 18 is 17/32 inch. Each arm 19 is at an angle of 20 degrees to the medial longitudinal vertical plane of symmetry of the post member 13 and the distance between the free end of each arm 19 and the line joining and tangent to the convex front faces of side sections 1 8 is 1 1/32 inch. The height of post member 1 9 is as desired.

The reflection member 14 is a reflective tape of conventional and well known construction and comprises a flexible fibrous substrate or pellicle having a pressure sensitive adhesive rear layer and carrying on its front face multifaceted or spherical highly reflective beads as is well known. Reflector member 4 is of rectangular outline and is located shortly below the top edge of post member 14 and extends along and adheres to the front faces of medial section 1 7 and the adjacent portions of side sections 1 8 and corresponds in contour thereto.

The anchor and drive member 1 6 is secured to and depends vertically from the front face of post member 13 and is formed of metal and as shown is of winged channel configuration including a front cross web 22 and rearwardly projecting and diverging side arms 23 terminating in opposite transverse coplanar flanges 24. Cross web 22 abuts the rear concave face of post member 13.

The anchor member 1 6 is secured to the post member 13 by self clinching rivets 26 or nut and screw fasteners engaging vertically spaced aligned openings formed in the post member and anchor member. Formed in the anchor member cross web 22 are vertically spaced openings 27.

Considering now the application and operation of the improved guidepost 10 described above, guideposts are erected along the road shoulders 11 at the desired location by driving each anchor member 1 6 secured to respective post member 13 into the ground until it is substantially fully driven into the ground with barbs 20 below ground level. The member 1 6 of guide post 10 acts as a pilot to position the post and get it started easily into the ground before the plastic starts into the ground, which could be rocky or hard. It also allows the driving force to be applied to its top edge and not to the plastic. Each guidepost is oriented so that the reflector member faces oncoming traffic so that it is brightly illuminated by the oncoming headlights and reflects the incident light to the oncoming vehicle.

By reason of the unique configuration of the post member 13 a minimum of turbulence is produced by ambient winds and vibrations and oscillation of the post member about its vertical axis and transverse axis is likewise minimized, and limited to deviations from the normal unstressed position of the post member, such as illustrated in Figure 5 which shows the maximum oscillation stroke about the vertical axis in contrast to the plus and minus 90 degrees strokes of earlier guideposts of similar type. The reflection of the headlights of an oncoming vehicle by the reflector member 1 4 toward the vehicle is uninterrupted by the torsional vibration of the post member 1 3 by reason of the curvature of reflector member so, that the drawbacks of a flickering or interrupted reflection is obviated.

When a travelling vehicle 28 wanders onto the shoulder 11 and strikes the guidepost 10, as shown in Figure 2, the impact bends the post member 13 forwardly and as the vehicle advances the upwardly biased post member intermittently strikes the underpart of the vehicle so as to produce loud warning sounds to alert the vehicle driver. Upon the vehicle 28 advancing beyond the deflected guide post 10, the guide post resiliently returns to its normal vertical position. The guidepost 10 is capable of withstanding numerous impacts and still return to its normal upright operative position.

While there has been described and illustrated a preferred embodiment of the present invention, it is apparent that numerous alterations, omissions and additions may be made. For example, while flanges 1 9 are illustrated projecting rearwardly beyond the rear convex face of medial section 17, they could also be equal to or even less in size than the medial section 1 7. Also, while drive member 1 6 was shown as a wing or channel shaped member, it could also be an angle shaped or even be tubular cross-sectional. Further, while barbs 20 were illustrated as rectangular, they could be triangular or hemispherical shaped.

Claims (14)

1. A marker device comprising a vertically extending post member formed of flexible material and having an undulate transverse cross-section including a forwardly concave medial section joined to opposite rearwardly concave side sections terminating in rearwardly directed side arms and a forwardly facing reflector member located on said post member adjacent to its upper end.

2. A guidepost according to claim 1 wherein said side arms are substantially flat.

3. A guidepost according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the side arms rearwardly diverge.

4. A guidepost according to claim 3 wherein said side arms are at angles between 10 degrees and forty-five degrees to the medial longitudinal plane of said post member.

5. A guidepost according to claim 4 wherein said angles are approximately 20 degrees.

6. A guidepost according to any preceding claim wherein said reflector member comprises a reflective tape superimposed on the forward concave face of said medial section.

7. A guidepost according to any preceding claim wherein said refelective tape extends along at least part of the front convex faces of said side sections.

8. A guidepost according to any preceding claim wherein said side arms project rearwardly beyond the rear convex face of said medial section.

9. The guidepost according to any preceding claim including upwardly outwardly inclined barbs integrally formed with the lower part of said post member.

1 0. A guidepost according to any preceding claim including an elongated drive member depending from and attached to the bottom part of said post member.

11. A guidepost according to any preceding claim wherein said post member is formed of a plastics material.

1 2. A guidepost according to claim 11 wherein the plastics material is a resilient thermoplastic polycarbonate resin composition.

13. A marker device according to any preceding claims which, after bending upon an impact, reerects itself.

14. A marker device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.