Horizontal support member for tube and clamp scaffold assembly

Abstract

A horizontal support member is provided for use with tube and clamp scaffold systems. The support member includes a bar, preferably a length of scaffold tubing, having a tube half-clamp welded to each end. Attaching each tube half-clamp of the support member to a vertical scaffold tube will result in the support member becoming horizontal. Attaching a plurality of support members of the same fixed length between adjacent vertical scaffold tubes as transoms and ledgers maintains a uniform distance between the vertical scaffold tubes and provides a scaffold system that is quick to assemble. A tube half-clamp including a base with scaffold brace fastening means projecting perpendicular from the base is also provided. Attaching tube half-clamps with brace fastening means to a tube and clamp scaffold assembly permits the use of conventional scaffold braces, such as lengths of metal tubes with flattened ends or angle iron and having apertures at each end, as diagonal braces to stabilize the assembled scaffold.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention is concerned with horizontal support members for tube and clamp scaffold systems. [0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art [0004] Scaffold systems are temporary structures typically constructed to provide safe access to a building or structure during the construction phase of the building or structure or when major service is required. A scaffold system provides a safe work platform for workers once assembled. [0005] One of the most common scaffold systems are tube and clamp systems. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a prior art tube and clamp scaffold system. Tube and clamp scaffold systems typically consist of vertical metal tubes releasably fastened to horizontal metal tubes through the use of releasable clamps that join the vertical and horizontal tubes together. The clamps used to join a horizontal or diagonal tube to a vertical tube is usually a two-part swivel clamp. This clamp consists of ...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0012] Each horizontal support member has a half-clamp attached to each of its two ends. preferably, the half-clamps are welded to the support member. Each half-clamp is adapted to clamp a vertical tube. The two half-clamps of the horizontal support member are oriented in the same direction such that once the horizontal support member is fastened to two adjacent vertical tubes, the support member is horizontal and perpendicular to the vertical tubes. In attaching a number of horizontal support members of predetermined fixed lengths between adjacent vertical tubes as transoms and ledgers, the vertical tubes are maintained at a uniform, predetermined fixed distance apart along their height. By providing such a horizontal support member, only one clamping operation is required at each joining of a horizontal support member to a vertical tube instead of two. This reduces the time required to assemble the scaffold system. In addition, by using predetermined fixed lengths of horizontal support members, there is no need to measure each horizontal tube from mounting between adjacent vertical tubes as the length of the support member is already fixed. Yet another benefit is that the number of half-clamps required to assemble a scaffold is cut in half thereby reducing the cost of assembling the structure.

Problems solved by technology

The problem with this form of scaffold system is that it requires two clamping operations to be performed at each joining of a horizontal or diagonal brace to a vertical tube, one for each of the vertical and horizontal or diagonal tubes.

Furthermore, when it is desirable to keep the scaffold sections rectangular, additional time and effort is required to ensure that each horizontal tube along a side of the scaffold section is clamped at the same distance apart between the vertical tubes so that they remain vertical.

This adds additional time required to assemble the scaffold and additional expense for the number of clamps that are required.

Another disadvantage of this type of scaffold is that the use of metal tubes as diagonal braces.

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