US20080308779A1

US20080308779A1 - Resin Guardrail

Info

Publication number: US20080308779A1
Application number: US11/572,852
Authority: US
Inventors: Cheol Yu; Boo-Young Han; Won-Sik Chu; Soon-Yi Yoo
Original assignee: WOORIELTECH Co Ltd
Current assignee: WOORIELTECH Co Ltd
Priority date: 2004-07-28
Filing date: 2004-11-23
Publication date: 2008-12-18
Also published as: ATE474962T1; CN100591852C; RU2333309C1; KR100466411B1; EP1799915A4; JP4543082B2; DE602004028294D1; EP1799915A1; WO2006011700A1; JP2008508452A; CN101023222A; EP1799915B1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a resin guardrail including a post, a plurality of guard plates coupled to the post, and connection members for connecting the guard plates to one another. Each of the guard plates of the guardrail is manufactured through extrusion. The guard plate comprises a hollow base body that takes the shape of a wave in cross section to include a rear ridge protruding rearward and having a flat portion and a front ridge protruding forward. The flat portion of the rear ridge and the front ridge are formed with first and second fastening holes, respectively, and the base body has solid portions for reinforcing regions with the first and second fastening holes formed therein. The guard plate further comprises wavy ribs that are positioned within a hollow portion of the base body to connect upper and lower ends of the base body to each other and have the same sectional shape as the base body; and alternately arranged horizontal ribs for establishing connection between the wavy ribs and between the wavy ribs and inner surfaces of the base body.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a resin guardrail, and more particularly, to a guardrail, wherein a guard plate is made of a resin to substantially have a honeycomb structure in cross section so that raw materials can be saved and the guardrail has a strength comparing favorably with that of a metallic guardrail, an impact to be applied to a driver upon collision of a vehicle against the guardrail can be maximally suppressed due to elasticity resulting from the properties of the material or the honeycomb structure, and driver's view can be secured upon driving at night by mixing a fluorescent material upon manufacture of the guard plate so that the guard plate emits light at night.

BACKGROUND ART

Generally, a guardrail is installed at the shoulder or center of a road to prevent a vehicle from coming off the road or to indicate the boundary of the road. It is required that upon collision of a vehicle against such a guardrail, the guardrail have a strength enough to prevent the vehicle from coming off a road as well as a function of absorbing an impact applied to the vehicle.
However, since a conventional guardrail has a simple structure in which a metallic guard plate 2 is coupled to a guardrail post 1 and there is no additional shock-absorbing means, as shown in FIG. 1, a large impact is applied to a vehicle that has collided against the guardrail, resulting in great damage to human life.
Further, since a guard plate of the conventional guardrail is made of a metal, there is a problem in that it may corrode during long-term use thereof in external environments. Therefore, the guard plate should be replaced at proper timing, resulting in increased maintenance costs.
Moreover, a metallic guard plate is generally pressed in the form of a wave to reinforce its strength or to retain a certain degree of elasticity. This becomes a cause of a rise in costs due to increases in the number of manufacturing processes.
In addition, since such guardrails cannot be identified at night, accidents in which vehicles collide against the guardrails often occur. Recently, in order to prevent such accidents in advance, reflectors are installed on the guardrails to reflect light emitting from headlamps of vehicles. However, this causes additional expenses for the installation of the reflectors and thus increases a burden on costs.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION

Technical Problem

The present invention is conceived to solve the aforementioned problems in the prior art. A primary object of the present invention is to provide a resin guardrail, wherein a guard plate of the guardrail is manufactured by extruding a resin so that it can be mass-produced, and the guard plate can also be manufactured into a desired shape without an additional process, resulting in reduced production costs.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a resin guardrail, wherein the inner structure of the guardrail is in the form of a honeycomb to have a superior strength in spite of the use of a resin, and a shock-absorbing capability is retained due to properties of the material itself in addition to such inner structure without supplement of an additional shock-absorbing means.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a resin guardrail, wherein a guard plate of the guardrail contains a fluorescent material so that it can be easily identified at night.

Technical Solution

According to the present invention for achieving the objects, there is provided a resin guardrail including a post, a plurality of guard plates coupled to the post, and connection members for connecting the guard plates to one another. Each of the guard plates of the guardrail is manufactured through extrusion. The guard plate comprises a hollow base body that takes the shape of a wave in cross section to include a rear ridge protruding rearward and having a flat portion and a front ridge protruding forward. The flat portion of the rear ridge and the front ridge are formed with first and second fastening holes, respectively, and the base body has solid portions for reinforcing regions with the first and second fastening holes formed therein. The guard plate further comprises wavy ribs that are positioned within a hollow portion of the base body to connect upper and lower ends of the base body to each other and have the same sectional shape as the base body; and alternately arranged horizontal ribs for establishing connection between the wavy ribs and between the wavy ribs and inner surfaces of the base body.
Further, the guard plate may be extruded using a mixture of a resin and a fluorescent material or noctilucent material.

ADVANTAGEOUS EFFECTS

The guard plate of the guardrail according to the present invention has a sufficient capability of preventing a vehicle from coming off a road and simultaneously maximally suppressing an impact applied to a driver upon collision of the vehicle against the guardrail since the guard plate has high strength and elasticity even while minimizing the amount of use of a resin as a raw material. Further, the guard plate has an advantage in that it assists in securing driver's view at night since a self-luminous or light-receiving material is mixed with the raw material.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a view showing a configuration of a general guardrail.

FIG. 2 is an exploded perspective view of a resin guardrail according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a sectional view showing an assembled state of the resin guardrail of FIG. 2.

EXPLANATION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS FOR DESIGNATING MAIN COMPONENTS IN THE DRAWINGS


	10: Guard plate
	100: Base body	110: Rear ridge
	111: Flat portion	112: First fastening hole
	120: Front ridge	121: Second fastening hole
	130: Solid portion	140: Wavy rib
	141: Horizontal rib

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.
As described above, a guard plate that is a major part of a guardrail is made of a resin and has the following structure for reinforcing strength, which is a weak point of the resin, and enabling production thereof through extrusion.
That is, in a guardrail including a post, a plurality of guard plates coupled to the post, and connection members for connecting the guard plates to one another, each of the guard plates 10 has a hollow panel-like base body 100. The base body takes the shape of a wave in cross section as a whole and has one or more rear ridges 110 protruding rearward and one or more front ridges 120 protruding forward.
Each of the rear ridges 100 includes a flat portion 111. The flat portion 111 is formed with one or more first fastening holes 112 for use in fastening the guard plate to the post 20 by means of screws. Each of the front ridges 120 is formed with second fastening holes 121 for use in fastening the connection members to the guard plates. At this time, solid portions 130 are provided at regions where the first and second fastening holes 112 and 121 are formed, in a longitudinal direction of the guard plate 10, thereby maintaining fastening strength.
Further, within a hollow portion 101 of the base body 100, a plurality of wavy ribs 140 are formed to connect upper and lower ends of the hollow portion. Horizontal ribs 141 are also formed between adjacent wavy ribs and between the wavy ribs and inner walls of the base body.
At this time, the horizontal ribs 141 placed adjacent to each other in a fore and aft direction are arranged alternately so that a lattice configuration defined by the wavy ribs and the horizontal ribs becomes similar to a honeycomb configuration, thereby reinforcing the strength of the base body in a thickness direction. Therefore, the guard plate of the present invention has high strength by which it is prevented from being easily broken due to an impact applied thereto by a vehicle, and also has a shock-absorbing function resulting from lattice spaces 101 a defined by the wavy ribs and the horizontal ribs.
In addition, upon manufacture of the guard plate, a proper amount of fluorescent material is mixed with a molten resin as a raw material, and stirring operations are performed several times to sufficiently mix the fluorescent material (or noctilucent material) with the resin. Then, the mixture is subjected to an extrusion operation. Accordingly, since the guard plate is made of the mixture of the fluorescent material or noctilucent material with the raw material, the guard plate emits light due to headlamps of a vehicle or provides self-luminescence using light, which has been absorbed in the daytime, at night. Thus, the guard plate assists in securing driver's view at night.
Meanwhile, the post 20 can be made of a metal or resin. If the post is made of a resin, it is preferred that the post be insert-molded such that a metallic core 21 is embedded in the post to improve the strength thereof. It is also preferred that an anchor portion 22 to be positioned at a lower end of the post be made of a metal since it determines a force for supporting the post, and the anchor portion be then coupled to the post while penetrating through the post.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

As described above, the guard plate of the guardrail according to the present invention has a sufficient capability of preventing a vehicle from coming off a road and simultaneously maximally suppressing an impact applied to a driver upon collision of the vehicle against the guardrail since the guard plate has high strength and elasticity even while minimizing the amount of use of a resin as a raw material. Further, the guard plate has an advantage in that it assists in securing driver's view at night since a self-luminous or light-receiving material is mixed with the raw material.

Claims

1. A resin guardrail including a post, a plurality of guard plates coupled to the post, and connection members for connecting the guard plates to one another, wherein:

each of the guard plates is manufactured through extrusion to comprise:

a hollow base body taking the shape of a wave in cross section to include a rear ridge protruding rearward and having a flat portion and a front ridge protruding forward, the flat portion of the rear ridge and the front ridge being formed with first and second fastening holes, respectively, the base body having solid portions for reinforcing regions with the first and second fastening holes formed therein;

wavy ribs within a hollow portion of the base body to connect upper and lower ends of the base body to each other, the wavy ribs having the same sectional shape as the base body; and

alternately arranged horizontal ribs for establishing connection between the wavy ribs and between the wavy ribs and inner surfaces of the base body.

2. The resin guardrail as claimed in claim 1, wherein the guard plate is extruded using a mixture of a resin and a fluorescent material or noctilucent material.