GB2165099A - Conduit support block assembly - Google Patents

Abstract

A conduit support block assembly for holding in place plastic conduits of the type used for housing underground electrical and telecommunication cables. A block assembly comprises an upper block 10 and a lower block 20 provided with channels 14 for holding plastic conduits, and engaging means for holding the blocks together comprising hooks 15, 16 and tapered locking means 25, 26 for receiving and locking said hooks. Other engaging means 13, 22, 23, 29 are further provided along the periphery of said blocks for the purpose of side-by-side joining of two or more blocks to each other (Figures 4, 5, 9 and 10). Block assemblies for different size conduits may be joined together (Figure 6). Through holes 18, 28 are provided in the blocks to secure the assemblies when surrounded by concrete or sand. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Pipe support block assembly Background of the invention The present invention relates to the construction of a pipe support block assembly for securing pipes of the type used to house underground electrical and telecommunications cables.

Electric cables and cables used for telecommunications are generally housed in plastic pipes after plastic pipes have been placed underground. Support blocks are provided to hold said pipes in the desired position, maintaining the desired spacing between pipes.

Such spacing or supporting blocks are generally made of poured concrete with lower and upper blocks individually formed and set in place over and beneath the plastic cable housing pipes.

Concrete pipe support blocks have a number of disadvantages, however, in that they are produced individually to meet special configurational requirements determined by the number and size of pipes to be laid, thus requiring a considerably large volume for storage and creating difficulty for economical purchase lots and also precluding economical mass production as well as quality control.

Another disadvantage of concrete pipe support blocks is that concrete is relatively brittle and blocks are subject to damage during transport.

They are also susceptible to breaking, allowing the pipe supported thereby to be bent and suspended over a soft ground gap due to no connecting means provided for each two individual concrete blocks settling under the soft ground after construction has been completed.

It is an object of the present invention therefore to provide an improved construction for pipe support blocks which will allow great variety of configuration for supporting a wide rande of pipes by means of the provision of counter coupling means and self-locking means vertically and horizontally joining a plurality of basic upper half and lower half blocks one by one as needed.

It is another object of the present invention to provide such a support block wherein each two blocks are firmly engaged together so that even if blocks continue to settle under soft ground the hooking means and locking means will cause each set of joined blocks to remain positioned in a relationship perpendicular one to the other.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a support block which may be economically manufactured and easily quality controlled through mass production.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a pipe support block of a generally open construction with a plurality of middle partitions and emply chambers so that when concrete is poured in and around said block it may become integral with the concrete, or when sand is filled in said block it may be fully supported by the sand.

It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a pipe support block assembly having a large base portion at the lowest edge of the lower half block so as to enable the lower block of the invention not only to be vertically engaged with the upper block but also to be firmly anchor on the ground.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as it is now described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Brief description of the drawings Figure 1A is a perspective view of the upper half of a support block for supporting two pipes according to the preferred embodiment of the present invention; Figure 1B is a bottom view of Figure 1A; Figure 1C is a left side view of Figure 1A; Figure 2A is a perspective view of the lower half of a support block according to the same embodiment; Figure 2B is a top view of Figure 2A; Figure 2C is a left side view of Figure 2A; Figure 3 is a perspective view of a support block with upper and lower halves engagingly joined together; Figure 4 is a perspective view of a two directional support block which is joined in an inverted position by said upper and lower half blocks along the respective peripheries thereof, according to the embodiment of the present invention;; Figure 5 is a perspective view of a combination of blocks vertically engaging further upper and lower half blocks on the upper and lower portions of said two directional support block of Figure 4, respectively, to form a pipe support block capable of supporting four pipes of same diameter; Figure 6 is a perspective view of a combination of blocks engagingly joined together to provide support for pipes of varying diameters; Figure 7 is a plan view of an upper block according to a further embodiment of the present invention for holding three pipes of like diameter; Figure 8 is a similar view of a lower block according to the embodiment of Figure 7;; Figure 9 is a plan view of two upper blocks according to the embodiment of Figure 1 horizontally joined side-to-side to allow support of four pipes, and Figure 10 is a similar view of two lower blocks horizontally joined in the same manner as in Figure 9.

Description of the preferred embodiment of the invention A preferred embodiment of the present invention capable of supporting or securing two pipes will be described with reference to Figure 1-3 in the accompanying drawings.

A rectangular upper support block 10 is provided along the top 11 and one side 12 with an "I" shaped coupling rail, the remaining side being provided with a generally "U" shaped coupling clip 13 formed integrally therewith. Two concave channels 14-14 are formed in the lower portions of the block 10 corresponding to one half the diameter of the size pipe intended for use with the support, as shown in Figures 1A-1C.

Positioned along the bottom of the block 10 between the outer edges and side concave channels 14-14 are generally hook-shaped projections ~5-15, with similar projections 16 formed between the two channels 14-14, said hook- shaped projections 15 and 16 both provided in a direction perpendicular to the length of the upper block 10. The upper block 10 is also provided with a plurality of middle partitions 17 and empty chambers 18 formed therein.

As shown in Figures 2A-2C, a bottom block 20 is similarly provided on one side with an "I" shaped coupling rail 22 and on the other side with a "U" shaped coupling clip 23 formed integrally therewith, as well as two relatively enlarged U-clips 2929 formed along the lowest edge of said block 20, said U-clips 29-29 are provided with enlarged base portions 290-290 to further enlarge the anchor area on the ground to thereby increase its firmness for the supporting of pipes. Tapered recepticles 25-25 are provided along the top of block 20 corresponding to the projections 15-15 of block 10, and another tapered recepticle 26 also provided on the top thereof corresponding to the projection 16 of block 10. Of course, the direction of recepticles 25 and 26 are also positioned perpendicular to the block 20.The lower block 20 is provided in the upper potion thereof with two concave channels 2424 of the same dimensions and corresponding to the concave channels 14-14 of the upper block 10.

The lower block 20 is also provided with a plurality of partitions 27-27 and empty chambers 28-28. Upper block 10 and lower block 20 can be engagingly joined together in a vertical configuration as shown in Figure 3, being held together by the engagement of said projections 15 and tapered recepticles 25, and projections 16 and recepticles 26 in such a way as to provide a block assembly having two circular passage-ways capable of receiving and supporting plastic pipes of suitable diameter.

As shown in Figure 4, the same blocks 10, 20 may also be vertically joined in an inverted fashion by sliding the U-clip 29 of the lower block 20 into the groove of the I-rail 11 of the upper block 10 in such a manner as to cause lower block 20 to be positioned over and joined to the upper block 10, forming a two diectional pipe support unit block assembly. By further attaching additional blocks 10, 20 to the upper and lower portions of said assembly, another block assembly is formed capable of receiving and supporting four pipes of the same diameter, as seen in Figure 5. It is to be noted that the block assembly as shown in Figure 5 can be readily contemplated by positioning an upper block 10 over a lower block 20 and then attaching an additional lower block 20 and upper block 10 thereon.

This means that a plurality of lower block and upper blocks can be successively and vertically engaged together one by one as desired.

Figure 6 shows a similar assembly of blocks designed to receive and support pipes of varying diameters.

A second embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figure 7 and 8, characterized in that block 10a and 20a are designed to hold three instead of two pipes, all reference numberals pertaining to the same parts indicated in Figures 1-5.

It will be noted that the arc of the concave channel 14 depends on the basis of the radius of the pipe to be held or supported through the channel.

It will be obvious to any one skilled in the art that in this manner a vertical combination of blocks joined horizontally to meet varying specifications may be effected in an infinite number of side-toside assemblies joined together to meet any requirements. For example, if four pipes of a similar diameter at one layer are to be attained, it can be readily obtained by horizontal combination two of two-channel blocks side by side by engagement of clips 13, 23 and I-rails 12, 22 to form a four-channel upper block as shown in Figure 9 and a four-channel lower block as shown in Figure 10. In similar manner, if five pipes of similar diameter at one layer are to be laid side by side, a combination of one two-channel blocks and one three-channei block joined end to end will meet the requirement.

If a cuboidal configuration or a compatible configu ration of block assemblies is to be obtained, a suitable number of layers of said multiple channel block assemblies can be combined into a bulk block assembly. Therefore, it is to be appreciated that the number of blocks to be horizontally connected in a side-to-side relationship and the number to be vertically superposed in a layer-to-layer configuration forming a size of cuboidal bulk block assembly depends on the total number of pipes to be supported.

It will also be noted that blocks as have been described may be easily mass produced from a suitable plastic material. The material used is of a suitably rigid nature, but flexible enough that when projections 15, 16 are aligned with and pushed into tapered recepticles 25, 26 they will "give" or flex enough to clear the taper of the recepticle, snapping back into a locking position immediately upon clearing the tapered portion of the recepticle.

Having described the preferred embodiments of the present invention it will be obvious that many changes and modifications may be imparted thereto without leaving the spirit and the scope of the present invention, which is solely limited by the scope of the appended claims.

Claims (11)

1. A pipe support block assembly comprising at least an upper half block and at least a lower half block, at least one side of the periphery of said upper half block provided with an "I" shaped coupling means, the remaining side thereof with a "U" shaped coupling means formed integrally therewith, at least one concave channel formed in the lower portion of said upper block, positional along the bottom of said upper block between the outer edges and said concave channel formed at least one hooking means; one side of said lower half block similarly provided with an "I" shaped coupling means, the other side thereof with a first "U" shaped coupling means formed integrally there with, the lowest edge thereof with a second "U" shaped coupling means, at least one concave channel corresponding to the concave channel of said upper block formed on the upper portion of said lower block, positional along the top of said lower block between the outer edges and said concave channel formed at least one tapered receiving blocking means corresponding to the hooking means of said upper block, so that when said hooking means of said upper block are aligned with and pushed into said tapered receiving locking means of said lower block thus the two said blocks will be joined in such a way as to form a single unit block assembly having at least one circular passageway capable of receiving and supporting at least one pipe for underground cables.

2. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein a plurality of upper half blocks and lower half blocks can be vertically superposed and engaged together one by one as desired.

3. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said upper and lower half blocks can be vertically joined in an inverted fashion by sliding said second mentioned "U" shaped coupling means of the lower block into the groove of said "I" shaped coupling means of said upper block in such a manner as to form a two directional pipe support unit block.

4. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein any two of said upper or lower blocks can be horizontally engaged in a side-toside relationship by engaging said first mentioned "U" shaped coupling means at one side of first upper or lower block with said "I" shaped coupling means at other side of second upper or lower block.

5. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claims 1 to 4, wherein the middle portions of said upper and lower blocks are provided with a plurality of partitions and empty chambers therein.

6. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the basic number of said concave channels formed at the lower portion of upper block and on the upper portion of said lower block is two or three.

7. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said hooking means provided at the lowest edge of said upper block includes a pair of downwardly projecting hooks, the hook directions of which are disposed in a relationship of opposite positions.

8. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein the direction of hooking means provided at the middle of the lowest edge of said upper block is perpendicular with that of the hooking means provided at both sides of the same.

9. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 8, wherein the direction of said tapered receiving locking means corresponding to said hooking means provided at both sides of the same.

10. A pipe support block assembly as claimed in claim 1, wherein said second "U" coupling means is provided with a relatively larger base portion at the lowest edge thereof.

11. A pipe support block assembly substantially as hereinbefore described and as shown in Figures 1 to 6 and 9 or Figures 7, 8 and 10 of the accompanying drawings.