US20140259988A1

US20140259988A1 - Support tile

Info

Publication number: US20140259988A1
Application number: US14/292,715
Authority: US
Inventors: Shuichi Kobayashi; Takayoshi Yamanaka
Original assignee: Yanegiken Co Ltd
Current assignee: Yanegiken Co Ltd
Priority date: 2011-12-13
Filing date: 2014-05-30
Publication date: 2014-09-18
Also published as: JP5855925B2; JP2013124444A; WO2013088915A1

Abstract

A support tile includes a tile main body, a support portion that is formed on a main body upper surface of the tile main body and supports a roof-installed object, an inclination adjusting portion that includes a through-hole portion and an inclination adjusting bolt, adjusts inclination of the tile main body, and a plurality of nail hole portions that penetrates through the tile main body and through which securing nails for securing the tile main body onto the roof surface are capable of being inserted, wherein the through-hole portion of the inclination adjusting portion penetrates through the tile main body and has an internal thread formed therein, and the inclination adjusting bolt of the inclination adjusting portion includes a bolt shaft which has an external thread, and a nail insertion hole which penetrates through the bolt shaft and through which a securing nail is capable of being inserted.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/JP2012/079963 filed on Nov. 19, 2012, claiming priority upon Japanese Patent Application No. 2011-271935 filed Dec. 13, 2011 of which full contents are incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a support tile, and in particular, relates to a support tile for securing and supporting a roof-installed object which is installed on roof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A roof-installed object including various apparatuses and facilities such as a solar battery module (solar battery panel) for solar power generation, a solar water heater for heating water using solar power, and a greening body for preventing increase in the indoor temperature is installed on roof of a building. The roof-installed object is installed in a state where a predetermined height is kept from a roof surface by replacing some of a plurality of roof tiles laid on the roof surface of a roof structural member of the building by support tiles. In this case, each support tile to be used includes a tile main body and a support portion. The tile main body is formed to have substantially the same shape as a normal roof tile. The support portion is provided so as to project from the center of the tile main body and is directly secured to the roof-installed object.
The support portion of the support tile has a shape projecting upward from the main body upper surface of the tile main body. Therefore, the roof-installed object such as the solar battery module and the roof surface are separated from each other by a predetermined space. Normally, the support tiles can be kept at predetermined positions on the roof surface by overlapping with normal roof tiles arranged at front, rear, right, and left sides thereof and the weight of the roof-installed object and there arises no specific problem. However, when strong wind in typhoon or the like blows, there is a possibility that the wind blows in between the above-mentioned roof-installed object and the roof surface and a flat plate-like installed object like the solar battery module is easy to be influenced by such strong wind. That is to say, force toward upward is generated to the bottom surface of the flat plate-like solar battery module with the strong wind in typhoon or the like, so that force of lifting the solar battery module itself is generated in some cases. The support tiles are laid on the roof surface in the same manner as the normal tiles and are not firmly secured onto the roof structural member. Therefore, the solar battery module that has received the above-mentioned force possibly floats together with the support tiles, resulting in deviation of the installation position of the roof-installed object itself or damage of the roof-installed object due to impact or the like. In order to solve this problem, a measure that the support tiles and the roof structural member are firmly secured using securing pieces such as nails is taken (See, Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent No. 3450123 and Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent No. 3190559).
The support tile as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2 is laid on the roof surface of the roof structural member in the same manner as the normal roof tiles so as to be overlapped with one another. Therefore, parts of the support tile are overlapped with the normal roof tiles (tiles made of pottery) at an upper position and a lower position. As is described in detail, the lower end of the normal roof tile located at the upper side is overlapped on the upper end of the support tile from above while the lower end of the support tile is placed on the upper end of the normal roof tile located at the lower side. In this manner, the support tile is laid along inclination of the roof surface. Generally, the support tile is mainly made of a metal material whereas the normal roof tiles arranged at the upper and lower sides are made of pottery. Therefore, when the lower end of the support tile (tile lower side portion of the tile main body) makes contact with the normal roof tile, the load of the heavy roof-installed object is transmitted to the normal roof tile made of pottery and the normal roof tile is damaged in some cases. In order to avoid this, an operation of providing a gap of approximately several millimeters between the lower end of the support tile and the surface of the normal roof tile is needed. To be specific, a height adjusting member having a front end formed into a wedge shape is inserted into between the support tile and the roof surface from the right-left direction so as to adjust the inclination of the support tile along the wedge-shaped inclination. The normal roof tile at the upper position is overlapped on the upper end of the support tile as described above, so that the support tile is moved in the direction in which the tile main body is moved upward, that is, in the direction in which the lower end of the support tile is separated from the roof surface while the upper end thereof is a fulcrum. As a result, inclination (inclination angle) of the tile main body of the support tile is changed, thereby preventing the roof tile located at the lower side and the lower end of the support tile from abutting against each other.
However, there possibly arise the following problems in installation of the above-mentioned support tile on the roof structural member. That is to say, to adjust the inclination of the support tile, the above-mentioned height adjusting member having the wedge shape needs to be inserted from the right-left direction of the support tile. This requires a lot of work for an inclination adjusting operation including, for example, an operation of detaching the right and left roof tiles in some cases. In particular, the roof-installed object is a relatively large-sized and heavy object such as the solar battery module and the solar water heater in many cases, and covers the roof surface of the roof structural member widely. Therefore, a plurality of support tiles are needed for installing the roof-installed object. This requires a troublesome operation of replacing the normal roof tiles by the support tiles at the respective installation places and adjusting the heights of the support tiles at the replacement positions.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the above-mentioned circumstances, an object of the present invention is to provide a support tile that makes it possible to simplify an installation operation of the support tile, in particular, adjust a gap between the support tile and a normal roof tile easily.
In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a support tile according to an aspect of the invention “includes a tile main body that is installed on a roof surface of a roof structural member; a support portion that is formed on a main body upper surface of the tile main body and supporting a roof-installed object; an inclination adjusting portion that includes a through-hole portion and an inclination adjusting bolt, adjusts inclination of the tile main body with respect to the roof surface, and forms a gap between the tile main body and another tile overlapped with a tile lower side portion of the tile main body; and a plurality of nail hole portions that penetrates through the tile main body and through which securing nails for securing the tile main body onto the roof surface are capable of being inserted, wherein the through-hole portion of the inclination adjusting portion penetrates through the tile main body and has an internal thread formed on an inner circumferential surface of the through-hole portion, and the inclination adjusting bolt of the inclination adjusting portion includes a bolt shaft which has an external thread capable of being engaged with the internal thread of the through-hole portion, and a nail insertion hole which penetrates through the bolt shaft along an axial direction of the bolt shaft and through which a securing nail is capable of being inserted.”
The roof structural member is a member corresponding to a roof portion of a building on which the roof-installed object (details thereof will be described later) is to be installed. For example, the roof structural member collectively indicates building structural members such as “rafter”, “roofboard”, “lateral crosspiece bridged on the rafter”, and “purlin”, which support the above-mentioned roof tile and support tile. That is, it is sufficient that the support tile according to the aspect of the invention is installed on any of the building structural members. A plurality of roof tiles (made of pottery, concrete, Color best, or the like) are laid on the roof structural member such that parts of them are overlapped with one another. The support tile according to the aspect of the invention is installed instead of some of the roof tiles. These normal roof tiles have a characteristic that they are fractured or damaged easily due to application of load. The roof-installed object is a structural member that is installed on the roof surface such as the solar battery module (solar battery panel), the solar water heater, or the like. It is sufficient that the roof-installed object is supported through the support portion of the support tile.
The tile main body exhibits a substantially rectangular shape like the normal roof tile and is formed to have a shape substantially the same as that of a flat-plate roof tile and a crosspiece roof tile in accordance with tiles laid therearound. The main body upper surface of the tile main body is provided with the support portion including a pair of erected portions projecting from the main body upper surface, for example. The tile main body and the support portion can be formed integrally with a hard material such as a metal material. For example, they may be also formed with fiber-reinforced plastic or the like instead of the metal material. It should be noted that the support portion which supports the roof-installed object directly is particularly preferably formed with the metal material because it is required to have strength against the load of the roof-installed object. The position of the through-hole portion of the inclination adjusting portion is not particularly limited. However, the through-hole portion of the inclination adjusting portion is preferably provided at a position passing the center line of the support tile at the lower side relative to the support portion provided at substantially the center portion of the tile main body. This can increase and stabilize a displacement amount of the inclination angle of the support tile with the tile upper end portion as a fulcrum. As the inclination adjusting bolt, a bolt that is provided with a bolt shaft on which the external thread is formed and a hexagonal columnar bolt head which is formed at one end of the bolt shaft can be used.
The other end (opposite side to the bolt head) of the bolt shaft is inserted into the through-hole portion from above the main body upper surface of the tile main body so as to be engaged with the internal thread. With this, the other end of the bolt shaft projects from the main body rear surface of the tile main body and a projecting amount of the bolt shaft is increased gradually. Then, the other end of the bolt shaft abuts against the roof surface, so that force of lifting the tile main body acts. An action same as that described above may be made to act by providing a flat plate-like spacer member between the tile main body and the roof surface so as to make the bolt shaft abut against the spacer member. After the inclination of the tile main body is adjusted, the securing nails for securing the support tile onto the roof surface are inserted into the plurality of nail hole portions that are provided on the tile main body in the penetrating manner. Then, the securing nails are driven such that the front ends thereof are stuck into the roof structural member or the spacer member. This causes the support tile to be firmly secured onto the roof structural member.
Therefore, with the support tile according to the aspect of the invention, the inclination adjusting portion having the through-hole portion provided on the tile main body in the penetrating manner and the inclination adjusting bolt makes it possible to adjust the inclination of the support tile with respect to the roof surface. A gap can be generated between the support tile and the normal roof tile located at the lower side of the support tile with the change in the inclination. In particular, the length of the bolt shaft, which projects downward from the tile main body, can be adjusted with the rotation degree of the inclination adjusting bolt, thereby performing fine adjustment of a gap amount in comparison with the conventional height adjusting member having the wedge shape. Further, detachment and mounting operations of the normal roof tiles that are located at the right and left sides of the support tile, which have been required to be performed conventionally, can be eliminated.
One of the securing nails that are used for securing the support tile is inserted into the nail insertion hole provided along the axial direction of the bolt shaft of the inclination adjusting bolt in the penetrating manner, thereby contributing to the securing of the support tile. This can reduce the number of nail hole portions that are provided on the tile main body in the penetrating manner and the through-hole portion for adjusting the inclination can also function as one nail hole portion. In particular, the through-hole portion is provided at the position passing the center line of the tile main body as described above. Therefore, the support tile can be secured more stably by securing it at the position with the securing nail.
Further, in the support tile according to the aspect of the invention, “the inclination adjusting bolt is engaged with the through-hole portion such that a shaft end portion of the bolt shaft projects from the main body upper surface of the tile main body, and further includes a rotation operating portion that is provided on the shaft end portion, and is operated to rotate the inclination adjusting bolt” in addition to the above configuration.
Therefore, with the support tile according to the aspect of the invention, the shaft end portion of the inclination adjusting bolt projects upward from the main body upper surface of the tile main body. In other words, the bolt head is interposed between the tile main body and the roof surface. That is, the bolt head is not exposed to the main body upper surface. The bolt head is a portion that is operated for rotating the inclination adjusting bolt normally. In the above-mentioned condition where the bolt head is located below the tile main body, the inclination adjusting bolt cannot be rotated with the rotation of the bolt head. For coping with this, the rotation operating portion for rotating the inclination adjusting bolt is formed on the shaft end portion of the bolt shaft of the inclination adjusting bolt. The rotation operating portion enables the inclination adjusting bolt to be rotated in a state where the support tile is set onto the roof surface. The rotation operating portion is provided with a hole portion having a polygon shape such as a hexagon shape, a cross-shaped groove or a straight-shaped groove on the shaft end portion, for example. That is to say, any rotation operating portion can be employed as long as it enables the inclination adjusting bolt to be rotated by utilizing a hexagon wrench, a cross-slot screwdriver, or a flat-blade screwdriver which is commonly used.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view illustrating a support tile according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state where the support tile is mounted on the roof surface of a roof structural member when seen from the side.

FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating the support tile.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view illustrating another example of an inclination adjusting bolt of the support tile when seen from the front.

FIG. 5A is a perspective view illustrating still another example of the inclination adjusting bolt and FIG. 5B is a plan view illustrating a shape of a shaft end portion thereof.

FIG. 6A is a perspective view illustrating still another example of the inclination adjusting bolt and FIG. 6B is a plan view illustrating a shape of a shaft end portion thereof.

FIG. 7 is a plan view illustrating another example of the support tile.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Hereinafter, the configuration of a support tile 1 according to an embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. 1 to FIG. 6. The support tiles 1 in the embodiment are installed on an inclined roof surface 3 of a roof structural member 2 of a building. Some of normal roof tiles K that are laid on the roof surface 3 regularly are replaced by the support tiles 1. The support tiles 1 in the embodiment support a solar battery module (corresponding to a roof-installed object (not illustrated)) to be installed on the roof surface 3 and secure it onto the roof surface 3. The plurality of support tiles 1 are arranged on the roof surface 3 at intervals. It should be noted that the plurality of support tiles have the same configuration and one support tile 1 is described below.
As illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3 mainly, the support tile 1 in the embodiment includes a tile main body 4 made of a metal, a support portion 5, an inclination adjusting portion 8, and a pair of nail hole portions 9. The support portion 5 is provided so as to project upward from a main body upper surface 4 a of the tile main body 4 and is formed integrally with the tile main body 4. The inclination adjusting portion 8 includes a circular through-hole portion 6 and an inclination adjusting bolt 7. The through-hole portion 6 is provided so as to be closer to the support portion 5. The inclination adjusting bolt 7 can be engaged with an internal thread provided on the inner circumference of the through-hole portion 6. The pair of nail hole portions 9 are provided symmetrically at the side opposite to the through-hole portion 6 with respect to the support portion 5.
The configurations of the respective constituent components will be described in detail. The tile main body 4 includes a substantially flat plate-like main body portion 10, a tile lower side portion 11, a tile upper side portion 12, and a tile side portion 13, and is formed with a metal material integrally. The main body portion 10 is configured to have substantially the same shape as the plurality of normal roof tiles K (corresponding to tiles made of pottery) laid on the roof surface 3. The tile lower side portion 11 is bent downward from a tile lower end portion 10 a of the main body portion 10 in the orthogonal direction. The tile upper side portion 12 is provided so as to extend upward and downward from a tile upper end portion 10 b of the main body portion 10 in the orthogonal direction. The tile side portion 13 is provided so as to project from one side end of the main body portion 10 and supports a side portion of the normal roof tile K (not illustrated) which is adjacent and is overlapped thereon from above. Further, a crosspiece tree hole portion 15 is provided in the vicinity of the tile upper end portion 10 b of the main body portion 10 so as to penetrate through the body portion 10 (tile main body 4). A nail can be driven into a crosspiece tree 14 laid along the transverse direction (horizontal direction) of the roof structural member 2 through the crosspiece tree hole portion 15.
On the other hand, the support portion 5 that is provided so as to project from a substantially center position of the main body upper surface 4 a of the tile main body 4 includes an opening 16 that opens upward. A pair of support leg portions 17 a and 17 b separated from each other are provided to stand on the main body upper surface 4 a connected by a connecting portion 23 provided along the main body upper surface 4 a. The support portion 5 makes it possible to connect with a roof-installed object through various types of securing members (not illustrated) and secure it by holding the securing member between the support leg portions 17 a and 17 b.
As described above, the inclination adjusting portion 8 is configured by combining the through-hole portion 6 and the inclination adjusting bolt 7. The through-hole portion 6 is provided at a slightly lower position relative to the center of the main body portion 10 of the tile main body 4 and penetrates through the tile main body 4 at a position passing the center line thereof. That is to say, the through-hole portion 6 is provided at a slightly lower position relative to the support portion 5 on the main body upper surface 4 a. The through-hole portion 6 is provided with an internal thread on the inner circumferential surface thereof. On the other hand, the inclination adjusting bolt 7 includes a bolt head 18 having a hexagonal columnar shape and a long bar-shaped bolt shaft 19 projecting from the bolt head 18. An external thread that can be engaged with the internal thread of the through-hole portion 6 is formed on the circumferential surface of the bolt shaft 19. With this configuration, the bolt shaft 19 moves along the through-hole portion 6 in the up-down direction by inserting a shaft end portion 20 of the bolt shaft 19 into the through-hole portion 6 and rotating the bolt shaft 19.
The inclination adjusting bolt 7 is provided with a nail insertion hole 21 penetrating through the bolt head 18 and the bolt shaft 19 along the axial direction thereof (see FIG. 2 and the like). With this, when the support tile 1 is secured onto the roof structural member 2, a securing nail 22 can be inserted into the nail insertion hole 21.
The pair of nail hole portions 9 are provided on the tile main body 4 in the penetrating manner. The nail hole portions 9 are provided on the side of the tile upper end portion 10 b relative to the center of the main body portion 10 on which the support portion 5 is provided. The nail hole portions 9 are separated from each other in the right-left direction with respect to the center line of the tile main body 4. The nail hole portions 9 and the through-hole portion 6 of the inclination adjusting portion 8 include abutment receiving portions 25 that have opening edges slightly projecting from the main body upper surface 4 a and have cross sections of substantially trapezoidal shapes when seen from the side. The abutment receiving portions 25 abut against nail heads 24 of the securing nails 22. The securing nails 22 that can be inserted through the nail hole portions 9 and the nail insertion hole 21 include the nail heads 24 and nail shafts 26 having long axial shapes. The nail heads 24 have a diameter larger than those of the nail hole portions 9 and the nail insertion hole 21. The nail shafts 26 extend from the nail heads 24. Helical thread portions 27 are formed from the sharpened front ends of the nail shafts 26 to the vicinity of the centers thereof.
When the support tile 1 in the embodiment is installed on the roof surface 3 of the roof structural member 2, a flat plate-like spacer member 28 is interposed between a main body lower surface 4 b and the opposing roof surface 3 on a portion on which the through-hole portion 6 is provided. The spacer member 28 is provided in consideration of the length of the bolt shaft 19 of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 for changing the inclination of the support tile 1 (tile main body 4) by the inclination adjusting portion 8 and a distance between the tile main body 4 of the support tile 1 and the roof surface 3. Accordingly, a bolt having the bolt shaft 19 that is extremely long needs not be used as the inclination adjusting bolt 7.
Next, an example of a method of installing the roof structural member 2 on the roof surface 3 using the support tile 1 according to the embodiment will be described. First, as in the case of the conventional support tile, the normal roof tile (not illustrated) as a replacement target, which is located at the position at which the support tile 1 is to be mounted, is detached from the roof surface 3. Then, the support tile 1 in the embodiment is installed in a space made by the detachment of the normal roof tile K.
As is described in detail, the support tile 1 and the normal roof tile K are overlapped with each other at a place at which the normal roof tile K has been detached. To be specific, the support tile 1 and the normal roof tile K are overlapped such that the tile upper end portion 10 b of the support tile 1 (corresponding to the tile main body 4 and the support portion 5) is positioned below the lower end of the normal roof tile K located at the upper side. At this time, the tile upper end portion 10 b of the main body portion 10 of the tile main body 4 is placed on the crosspiece tree 14 constituting a part of the roof structural member 2. Further, the tile upper end portion 10 b is made into a state of being interposed between the normal roof tile K and the crosspiece tree 14 (see FIG. 2). With this, the support tile 1 is held in a stable state with the tile upper side portion 12 of the tile main body 4 while the positions of the support tile 1 and the normal roof tile K are not deviated.
On the other hand, the tile lower side portion 11 on the lower portion of the tile main body 4 abuts against the upper surface of the normal roof tile K located at the lower side. Further, the side portion (not illustrated) of the adjacent normal roof tile K is placed on the tile side portion 13 provided on the side portion (left side of the paper plane in FIG. 3) of the tile main body 4. The side portion (right side of the paper plane in FIG. 3) of the tile main body 4 at the opposite side is overlapped on the adjacent normal roof tile K. In this manner, the tile main body 4 is installed so as to be surrounded by the normal roof tiles K located at the upper, lower, right and left sides thereof. At this time, the tile main body 4 itself is only placed on the roof surface 3 simply and is not secured through any securing piece. The bolt shaft 19 of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 is inserted into the through-hole portion 6 provided at the lower position relative to the support portion 5 in the penetrating manner and the bolt head 18 is rotated in the clockwise direction in the state. With this, the external thread of the bolt shaft 19 is engaged with the internal thread of the through-hole portion 6. When the bolt head 18 is further rotated, the shaft end portion 20 of the bolt shaft 19 is moved downward gradually. Thereafter, the shaft end portion 20 reaches a spacer surface 28 a of the spacer member 28 interposed between the tile main body 4 and the roof surface 3. Even when the bolt head 18 is further rotated, the downward movement of the shaft end portion 20 is restricted by the spacer member 28. As a result, force with which the tile main body 4 is moved upward through the through-hole portion 6 engaged with the bolt shaft 19 acts (see arrow A in FIG. 2). Note that the tile main body 4 is installed along the inclined roof surface 3 and the tile upper end portion 10 b is interposed between the normal roof tile K at the upper position and the crosspiece tree 14 of the roof structural member 2. The tile lower end portion 10 a of the tile main body 4 is moved upward with the tile upper end portion 10 b as a fulcrum. This can change the inclination angle of the tile main body 4 (support tile 1) with respect to the roof surface 3 (see θ in FIG. 2). With the change in the inclination angle, a gap is generated between the tile lower side portion 11 located on the lower portion of the tile main body 4 and the normal roof tile K (see arrow B indicated in a dashed line circle in FIG. 2), so that the support tile 1 and the normal roof tile K do not make contact with each other directly. As a result, the load of the roof-installed object supported by the support tile 1 does not act on the normal roof tile K made of pottery so as to prevent the normal tile K from being damaged. The inclination angle of the support tile 1, that is, a gap amount between the tile lower side portion 11 of the support tile 1 and the normal tile K can be changed arbitrarily with the rotation degree of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 with respect to the through-hole portion 6 and can be adjusted finely.
After the adjustment of the gap is completed, the securing nails 22 are inserted into the pair of nail hole portions 9 provided on the tile main body 4 in the penetrating manner and the nail insertion hole 21 of the inclination adjusting bolt 7, and are threadably secured until the thread portions 27 at the front ends of the securing nails 22 reach the roof structural member 2. The securing nail 22 inserted into the nail insertion hole 21 is secured so as to penetrate through the spacer member 28 against which the shaft end portion 20 of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 abuts, and reach the roof structural member 2. Although not illustrated in FIG. 2 and the like, securing with the securing nail 22 is performed on the crosspiece tree hole portion 15 provided at a position opposing the crosspiece tree 14 on which the tile upper end portion 10 b is placed in the same manner. As a result, the support tile 1 is firmly secured onto the roof structural member 2.
As described above, the inclination with respect to the roof surface 3 of the roof structural member 2 installed can be changed arbitrarily within a predetermined range by using the support tile 1 in the embodiment. This makes it possible to form a gap (see arrow B) of a predetermined amount between the support tile 1 and the normal roof tile K located at the lower side of the support tile 1. In particular, when the support tile 1 in the embodiment is used, the tile lower end portion 10 a of the tile main body 4 can be moved upward with the movement between the inclination adjusting bolt 7 and the through-hole portion 6 of the inclination adjusting portion 8, thereby adjusting the gap amount finely easily. Therefore, unlike the conventional technique, operations of detaching the normal roof tiles K located at the right and left sides and returning them back to original places again can be eliminated. This can shorten operation time largely. Further, the inclination angle can be adjusted finely in accordance with the rotation amount of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 with respect to the through-hole portion 6, thereby performing adjustment for a short period of time with higher accuracy in comparison with the adjustment using the conventional height adjusting member having the wedge shape.
In addition, the nail insertion hole 21 through which the securing nail 22 can be inserted is provided on the inclination adjusting bolt 7 in the penetrating manner so as to also function as the nail hole portion 9 for securing the support tile 1. This can eliminate the operation of providing the nail hole portion 9. Further, a large number of nail hole portions 9 are not required to be provided so as to prevent disfigurement of the support tile 1. Even when fine adjustment of the gap needs to be performed after the roof-installed object is installed, labor and operation time can be reduced largely in comparison with those in the conventional technique.
The invention has been described above by using the preferable embodiment. However, the invention is not limited to the embodiment and various improvements and changes in design can be made in a range without departing from a scope of the invention as will be described below.
For example, in the support tile 1 in the embodiment, the bolt head 18 of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 is exposed to the main body upper surface 4 a of the tile main body 4. However, the bolt head 18 is not limited to be exposed in this manner. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 4, a bolt head 18 a may be interposed between the tile main body 4 and the spacer member 28. In this case, the bolt head 18 a is moved downward and abuts against the spacer member 28 by rotating an inclination adjusting bolt 7 a.
With the configuration as illustrated in FIG. 4, if no processing is performed on the shaft end portion of a bolt shaft 19 a, the inclination adjusting bolt 7 a cannot be rotated with respect to the through-hole portion 6. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5A and FIG. 5B or FIG. 6A and FIG. 6B, an inclination adjusting bolt 7 b or 7 c that is provided with a hexagonal hole portion 29 having a hexagon shape or a straight groove 30 on the surface of a shaft end portion 20 b or 20 c, respectively, may be used. With this, a bolt shaft 19 b or 19 c of the inclination adjusting bolt 7 b or 7 c, which is engaged with the through-hole portion 6, can be rotated using a tool such as an existing hexagon wrench or flat-blade screwdriver. The hexagonal hole portion 29 or the groove 30 corresponds to a rotation operating portion in the invention. In FIGS. 5 and FIGS. 6, the nail insertion hole 21 is not illustrated in order to illustrate the hexagonal hole portion 29 or the groove 30 clearly.
In addition, in the support tile 1 in the embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, the support tile 1 is secured onto the roof structural member 2 using three securing nails 22. Alternatively, the support tile 1 may be secured onto the roof structural member 2 using four securing nails 22 by providing four nail hole portions 9 around the support portion 5. This can secure the support tile 1 onto the roof surface 3 of the roof structural member 2 reliably. Although not as the embodiment of the invention, as illustrated in FIG. 7, in a support tile la to be secured using four securing nails 22, the inclination adjusting bolt 7 on which the nail insertion hole 21 is not formed in the lengthwise direction can be used. In the support tile la as illustrated in FIG. 7, the same reference numerals denote the same constituent components as those in the support tile 1 in the above-mentioned embodiment and detail description thereof is omitted.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A support tile comprising:

a tile main body that is installed on a roof surface of a roof structural member;

a support portion that is formed on a main body upper surface of the tile main body and supporting a roof-installed object;

an inclination adjusting portion that includes a through-hole portion and an inclination adjusting bolt, adjusts inclination of the tile main body with respect to the roof surface, and forms a gap between the tile main body and another tile overlapped with a tile lower side portion of the tile main body; and

a plurality of nail hole portions that penetrates through the tile main body and through which securing nails for securing the tile main body onto the roof surface are capable of being inserted,

wherein the through-hole portion of the inclination adjusting portion penetrates through the tile main body and has an internal thread formed on an inner circumferential surface of the through-hole portion, and

the inclination adjusting bolt of the inclination adjusting portion includes a bolt shaft which has an external thread capable of being engaged with the internal thread of the through-hole portion, and a nail insertion hole which penetrates through the bolt shaft along an axial direction of the bolt shaft and through which a securing nail is capable of being inserted.

2. The support tile according to claim 1,

wherein the inclination adjusting bolt is engaged with the through-hole portion such that a shaft end portion of the bolt shaft projects from the main body upper surface of the tile main body, and further includes a rotation operating portion that is provided on the shaft end portion, and is operated to rotate the inclination adjusting bolt.