EP2031155A2

EP2031155A2 - A device for lowering/raising the upper part of a pole or mast, in particular for lighting and a lowering/rising pole or mast, in particular for lighting

Info

Publication number: EP2031155A2
Application number: EP08014732A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Stanislaw Rosa
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2007-08-31
Filing date: 2008-08-20
Publication date: 2009-03-04
Anticipated expiration: 2028-08-20
Also published as: EP2031155A3; ATE550505T1; PL217624B1; PL2031155T3; EP2031155B1; PL383227A1

Abstract

A device for lowering/raising the upper part (4) of a separable pole or mast (1) comprising two hinged (12) clamping rings (11) fastening the outside surface of said pole or mast (1) by opening respectively closing one halfring, a lug assembly (20) located opposite to the hinge (12) connecting the rings (11), and a lowering/raising mechanism (23) in the form of a two-way axial movement drive fastened to guiding units (22) located on pins (21) in the lug assemblies (20) permanently connected with said clamping rings (11). A lowering/rising pole or mast (1) is also disclosed, comprising a lower part (3) and a upper part (4) detachably connected together, the joining area having on each pole-part a permanently connected ring (5), the ring being equipped with means for mounting a lowering/raising device (10) for the upper part (4) of the pole or mast (1).

Description

The object of the invention is a device for lowering/raising the upper part of a pole or mast, in particular lighting pole or mast, as well as a lowering/rising pole or mast, in particular lighting, which makes it possible to access the upper part of a pole or mast in an easy and safe manner.
Poles or masts are commonly used in many areas of human activity such as, for instance, road lighting, ski slope lighting, sailing or meteorology. According to approved terminology poles are maximum 16 meters high, whereas higher constructions are called masts. In case of lighting masts or poles it is necessary to be able to access the upper end of the mast or pole relatively often in order to replace the lighting elements which burn out periodically. For safety reasons it is advisable to perform the necessary replacements within the man height, which eliminates the need of working on heights. Therefore the use of lowering/rising poles or masts is advisable. As far as sailing is concerned it is often necessary to lower/raise the mast of a boat, for example, when sailing under a bridge, which also entails the need for using lowering/rising masts.
In general, bending poles or masts can be divided into tilting which tilt as a whole and lowering/rising ones where one part thereof remains in its primary position and the other is permanently fastened to the ground.
There are many poles or masts which bend in such a way that after bending the upper part of the pole or mast is located at an angle close to 90 ° or wider and the top end of the pole or mast is located on a height that docs not exceed human height. Such poles or masts consist of a fixed, immobile lower part which is fastened to the ground and a bending upper part. The lower and upper part of the pole or mast are connected with each other by means of a hinge assembly, with bending elements located outside or inside thereof, most often in the form of a flexible connection or a servo-motor.
There exists a folding pole, known from the catalogues of ELEKTROMONTAZ RZESZÓW S.A., consisting of a lower and upper part connected with a hinge assembly more or less in the middle of the pole's length, where the upper part is additionally equipped with a lengthening element roughly equal in length to the lower part thereof. In the lower section of the lower part there is a reel equipped with a string whose free end is fixed to the free end of the lengthening of the upper part of the pole. The upper part of the pole is bent manually in a controlled way when the string is unwound from the reel.
There is also a folding tubular support known from the German patent description DE 3926843 in which neighbouring ends of the lower and upper parts of the pole have flat flanges connected with a hinge assembly. Both flanges close to their outside edges have corresponding passage holes for screwing the upper and lower part of the pole to keep it erect. There is a flexible connection connected with motor-driven screw assembly inside the pole. Moving the screw assembly leads to relocating its nut which is connected with the free end of the flexible connector along the pole's axis, which allows to control the angle at which the upper part of the pole bends.
There are also other bending pole constructions known from PCT application descriptions WO 2006/059072 and WO 2006/059073 whose upper parts are bent by means of hydraulic servo-motors.
There are also numerous other solutions referring to bending pole constructions such as, for instance, those presented in patent descriptions GB 23496653 , EP 1735511 , WO 03/029581 , FR 2684127 , EP 1636449 or US 2577811 .
In general, it can be stated that most of the above presented constructions of bending poles or masts have individual, specific bending systems whose structure is relatively intricate, which makes the production costs of such poles or masts significantly higher.
The invention relates to a device for lowering/raising the upper part of a lowering/rising pole or mast, in particular lighting, which has a hinge assembly and a mechanism for lowering/raising the pole or mast. The essence of the present invention is that the device comprises two clamping rings interconnected by a hinge assembly and each of the clamping rings has:

means for unslidable mounting of the clamping ring on the outside surface of a lowering/rising pole or mast at the area of bending;
means for opening the clamping ring to fasten the clamping ring on a lowering/rising pole or mast at the area of bending;
lug assembly located opposite to the hinge assembly connecting both clamping rings, where each lug assembly has a rotatable pin, and pins of both clamping rings are equipped with concentrically located guiding units for the lowering/raising mechanism;

It is advisable that the means for unslidable fastening the clamping rings on the outside surface of the lowering/rising pole's or mast's rings are annular, circumferential tongues.
In order to ensure that the clamping rings are even more securely fastened on the outside surface of the lowering/rising pole's or mast's rings the clamping rings have additional means for their unslidable fastening in the form of at least one locking mandrel.
It is also advisable that each of the clamping rings has the form of two halfrings connected by means of a hinged member on one side, and any known catch member on the other most preferably in the form of a hook located on the end of one of the halfrings and a clamp with a clamping ring for the hook located on the end of the other halfring.
In another embodiment each of the clamping rings has the form of two halfrings connected by screws located in the area of the hinge assembly connecting both clamping rings.
The lowering/raising mechanism of the device can be a servo-motor or a screw mechanism equipped with a screw with a crank at the end mounted in guiding units in the form of a sleeve with an internal thread. In another embodiment the lowering/raising mechanism is a screw mechanism manually driven with the use of a worm gear in which a nut on the worm wheel of the worm geat is turned, mounted on a non-rotatable screw.
The second invention relates to a lowering/rising pole of mast, in particular lighting, which comprises a lower and upper part in the form of longitudinal tubular elements detachably and unslidably connected, where at least one of the tubular parts has a covered inspection window in the joining area, which allows to access the inside of the pole. The essence of the invention is that in the joining area of the lower part with the upper part each of the joined tubular parts is equipped with a ring permanently fixed to the tubular part, and which ring has means of connecting them and for unslidable mounting of the lowering/raising device for lowering/raising the upper part of the pole located on the outside surface of the rings.
In a preferred embodiment the neighbouring tubular parts of the pole or mast are joined with at least three screws, preferably uniformly located on the rings' section.
It is also preferred when the means for unslidable mounting of the lowering/raising device for lowering/raising the upper part of the pole are located on the outside surface of the rings and have the form of circumferential grooves.
It is also advisable that the pole or mast has additional means for unslidable mounting of the lowering/raising device for lowering/raising the upper part of the pole in the form of at least one slot for a locking mandrel.
The new construction of a lowering/rising pole or mast and the device for lowering/raising the pole or mast according to the invention allows for uncomplicated, fast and reliable lowering/raising of a pole. Only one, portable, separable device for lowering/raising poles or masts is needed. For that reason the construction of a pole or mast is substantially simplified, which lowers the global production costs. The pole or mast according to the invention could be widely used, in particular in lighting.
Both inventions are presented in more detail in the following embodiment and in the drawing where fig 1 is a side view of the pole, fig 2 - the joining area of the upper and lower parts of the pole in a side view, fig 3 - cross-scctional view of the joining area of the upper part with the lower part of the pole before screwing, fig 4 -cross-sectional longitudinal view of the pole at the joining area of the upper part with the lower part, fig 5 - top view of the clamping rings of the lowering/raising device in a disassembled state, fig 6 - side view of the clamping rings of the device, fig 7 - side view of the pole with the device thereon, fig 8 - side view of the pole with the mechanism thereon at a different angle, fig 9 - side view of the bent pole with the device thereon, fig 10 - detailed side view of the section of the pole highlighted in fig 9, fig 11 - side view of the bent pole with the device in a different embodiment, fig 12 - partial cross-sccdonal view of the device shown in fig 11 of the pole.
Lowering/rising pole or mast 1. comprises the base 2, lower part 3 and upper part 4 in the form of longitudinal tubular elements. At the joining area of the lower part 3 with the upper part 4 of the pole 1 located on the height of approximately one meter from the base 2 each of the elements has on its end a permanently fixed ring 5 with three passage holes 6 located uniformly around the ring 5 for joining the lower part 3 with the upper part 4, preferably with a screw joint.
The range of the invention also covers other known elements for unslidable joining of the lower part 3 of the pole 1 with its upper part 4. Moreover, it is possible to join the lower part with the upper part with a more screws, for example four, five or six. At the joining area the lower part 3 of the pole 1 has an inspection window 7 protected with a cover, allowing for accessing the inside of the pole 1 in the joining area. Each of the rings 5 has a circumferential groove 8 on the outside section and a slot 9 for mounting on the pole 1 the lowering/raising device 10 for lowering/raising of the upper part 3 of said pole 1. The range of the invention also covers other known means for unslidable mounting of the device 10 on the pole 1. Additionally, the range of the invention covers solutions with more than one groove and more than one slot, for example two grooves and two or three slots.
A separable device 10 for lowering/rising poles or masts has two clamping ring assemblies 11 interconnected with a hinge assembly 12. Each of the clamping rings 11 has an annular circumferential tongue 13 and a locking mandrel 14 whose shape and position match the circumferential grooves 8 and slots 9 on the pole 1. Each of the clumping dugs 11 is also equipped with hinge assemblies 15 for opening the clamping lings 11 in order to mount it on the ling 5 of the pole 1 and means 16 for fastening of die clamping ring on the ring 5 of the pole 1. In particular, each of the clamping rings 11 has the form of two halfrings 11a and 11b joined by a hinge assembly 15 on one side and a hook 17 on the other located on the end of one halfring 11a and a clamp 18 with a clamping ring 19 for the hook 17 located on the other end of the other halfring 11b. In an alternative embodiment, not presented in the drawing, each of the clamping rings 11 has the form of two halfrings joined with screw joints located in the area of a hinge assembly joining the two clamping ring assemblies and in the area of rotatable pins in the lugs located opposite to the hinge assembly. It is also possible to join the halfrings with all other known catch means.
There are lug assemblies 20 located opposite to the hinge assembly 12 on the clamping rings 11, where the lug assemblies 20 are housing for rotatable pins 21 with coaxial guiding units 22 for the lowering/raising mechanism 23 which is a two-way axial drive. In the embodiment presented in the drawing the lowering/raising mechanism 23 has the form of screw mechanism with a screw 24 with a crank 25 at its end, mounted on guiding units 22 in the form of a sleeve 26 with an internal thread.
In another embodiment presented on fig. 11 and fig. 12 the lowering/raising mechanism 23 is a screw mechanism manually driven with the use of a worm gear 27, where the nut 28 is turned with the wormwheel of the worm gear 27 mounted on the non-rotatable screw 24'. The worm gear 27 is rotatable mounted on the pin 21 housed in the lugs 20 of the clamping ring 11.
In alternative embodiments, not presented in the drawing, the lowering/raising mechanism can be a pneumatic or hydraulic servo-motor or another known two-way teciprocative drive mechanism.
The process of lowering/raising the upper part 4 of the pole 1 goes as follows. First, the device 10 must be mounted on the pole 1 where the lower part 3 meets the upper pant 4. In order to do that the clamping rings 11 must be opened and mounted on the pole 1 at the area of joining the lower part 3 with the upper part 4 in such a way that the circumferential tongues 13 and locking mandrels 14 are in corresponding grooves 8 and slots 9 located on the outside part of the rings 5 of the pole 1. Next, the clamping rings 11 must be mounted on the pole 1 by putting the clamping rings 19 on the hooks 17 and locking the clamps 18. In such a position the device 10 in which the screw 24 is screwed in the sleeve 26 the lower part 3 of the pole 1 and the upper part 4 are securely joined (fig.6, fig.7, fig.8), owing to which after taking off the cover from the inspection window 7 the screws in slots 6 in rings 5 may be screwed out. At that time the lower part 3 of the pole 1 is joined with its upper part 4 only with the lowering/raising device 10 for lowering/raising the pole. Then turning the screw 24 leads to opening the clamping rings 11 in relation to the hinge assembly 12 and thereby lowering the upper part 4 of the pole 1 to a position in which direct access to the top end of the pole 1 will be possible (fig.9), for example to replace a broken lighting element.
In the example shown in fig. 11 and fig. 12 the lowering/raising of the pole 1 happens by turning the crank 29 of the worm gear mechanism 27.

Claims

A device for lowering/raising of the upper part of a lowering/rising pole or mast, in particular lighting, which has a hinge assembly and a mechanism for lowering/raising the pole or mast, characterised in that it comprises:
- two clamping rings (11) interconnected by a hinge assembly (12), each of said clamping rings (11) has:
- means for unslidable mounting of the clamping ring (11) on the outside surface of a lowering/rising pole or mast (1) in the bending area;

- means for opening the clamping ring (11) to mount and fasten the clamping ring (11) on a lowering/rising pole or mast (1) in the bending area;

- lug assembly (20) located opposite to the hinge assembly (12) connecting both clumping rings (11), where each lug assembly (20) has a rotatable pin (21), and said pins (21) are equipped with concentrically located guiding units (22) for the lowering/raising mechanism (23);

- a lowering/raising mechanism (23) in the form of a two-way axial movement drive, fastened to guiding units (22) located on the pins (21) in lug assemblies (20) permanently connected with the annular clamping rings (11).
The device according to claim 1, characterised in that the means for unslidable fastening the clamping rings (11) on the outside surface of the lowering/rising pole's or mast's (1) rings (5) in the bending area are annular, circumferential tongues (13).
The device according: to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that it has additional means for unslidable fastening of clamping rings (11) on the outside surface of the lowering/rising pole's or mast's (1) rings (5) in the bending area in the form of at least one locking mandrel (14).
The device according to any of the previous claims, characterised in that each of the clamping rings (11) has the form of two halfrings (11a, 11b) connected by means of a hinged member (15) on one side, and any known catch member on the other side, most preferably in the form of a hook (17) located on the end of one of the halfrings (11a) and a clamp (18) with a clamping ring (19) for the hook (17) located on the end of the other halfring (11b).
The device according to any of the previous claims, characterised in that each of the clamping rings has the form of two halfrings connected by screws.
The device according to any of the previous claims, characterised in that the lowering/raising mechanism of the device is a servo-motor.
The device according to any of the previous claims, characterised in that the lowering/raising mechanism (23) is a screw mechanism equipped with a screw (24) with a crank (25) at the end mounted in guiding units (22) in the form of a sleeve (26) with an internal thread.
The device according to any of the previous claims, characterised in that the lowering/raising mechanism (23) is a screw mechanism manually driven with the use of a wormgear (27) in which a nut (28) on the wormwheel of the wormgear (27) is turned, mounted on a non-rotatable screw (24').
A lowering/rising pole or mast, in particular lighting, which comprises a lower and upper part in the form of longitudinal tubular elements detachably and unslidably connected, where at least one of the tubular parts has a covered inspection window in the joining area, which allows to access the inside of the pole characterised in that in the joining area of the lower par (3) and the upper part (4) of the pole or mast (1) each of the joined tubular parts is equipped with a ring (5) permanently fixed to the tubular part, and which ring (5) has:
- means of connecting the lower part (3) with the upper part (4);

- means for unslidable mounting of the lowering/raising device (10) for lowering/raising the upper part of the pole or mast (1) located on the outside surface of the ring (5).
A pole or mast according to claim 9, characterised in that the lower part (3) and the upper part (4) of the pole or mast (1) are joined with at least three screws located in hole (6), preferably uniformly located on the rings'(5) section.
A pole or mast according to claim 9 or 10, characterised in that means for unslidable mounting of the device (10) for lowering/raising the upper part (4) of the pole or mast (1) are located on the outside surface of the rings (5) and have the form of circumferential grooves (8).
A pole or mast according to claim 9 or 10 or 11, characterised in that it has additional means for unslidable mounting of the device (10) for lowering/raising the upper part (4) of the pole or mast (1) in the form of at least one slot (9) for a locking mandrel (14).