Coupling Device for Joining Together Reinforced Concrete Elements, Such as Concrete Piles or Pillars

The present invention relates to a concrete-segment coupling device, for joining together reinforced concrete sections such as reinforced concrete pile or pillar segments and being of the type in which the longitudinally extending reinforcing rods of a pile or pillar segment are connected to the coupling device and in which a connecting means for connection with the coupling device of a further pile or pillar segment is arranged substantially opposite said longitudinally extending reinforcing rods.

It is previously known to provide such coupling devices in the form of a casing provided with connecting elements of the longitudinal reinforcing rods of a pile or pillar segment and with connecting means for joining said segment to a further segment. The coupling device, which comprises a unit made, for example of nodular iron, is heavy and therewith diffcult to handle whilst, at the same time, the cost of material and manufacture is high.

Since differenct piles and pillars have different cross-sectional dimensions and cross-sectional shapes, it is necessary to manufacture and to store pile segments and pillar segments of many different types and dimensions, which creates serious storage problems and therewith high costs. An object of the present invention is to provide a coupling device which satisfies extremely close tolerances and which can thereby be used both for piles and for pillars and the like, and which device is of simple manufacture and assembly and which is less expensive to manufacture than previously known coupling devices and which can be used irrespective of the cross-sectional shape and dimensions of the concrete segments. The coupling device device shall be so designed that it can be used with simple auxiliarly devices as a support for transverse beams, plates or the like.

Accordingly there is provided a concrete-segment coupling device for joining together reinforced concrete segments having reinforcing rods extending therethrough, said device comprising a plurality of pairs of first coupling means adapted to be secured to opposing faces of two concrete segments to be coupled together in register, and a plurality of second coupling means received in said first coupling means for coupling together said pairs of first coupling means.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to embodiments thereof shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one end of a pile or pillar segment provided with a coupling device according to the invention;

FIG. 2 shows in larger scale a perspective view of a connecting means;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along the lne III--III of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a section through the line IV--IV in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a section through the line V--V in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 shows in perspective a modified embodiment of a key for connecting together two coupling devices;

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a further embodiment of the key;

FIG. 8 is an end view of a pile segment having a coupling device;

FIG. 9 is a partially sectional view along the line IX--IX in FIG. 8; and

FIGS. 10 and 11 are end views of coupling devices for pile or pillar segments of different cross-sectional shapes.

In FIGS. 1 to 5 there is shown a reinforced concrete pile or pillar segment 1 provided with longitudinally extending reinforcing rods 2 which are connected to a coupling device 3 which is adapted to be connected to a corresponding coupling device associated with a further pile or pillar segment (not shown). The coupling device 3 has substantially the same shape as the cross-sectional shape of the segment 1 and, in the illustrated embodiment, comprises a casing in which a number of connecting means 6 are arranged, said number corresponding to the number of reinforcing rods 2. The outer end of each reinforcing rod 2 is provided with a screw thread 7 (FIF. 4). The corners of the casing, which comprises a frame 4 and a bottom plate 5, are provided with recesses 8 which are intended to accommodate the aforementioned connecting means 6. The connecting means 6 are provided with grooves 9 in which a flange 10 formed on the bottom plate 5 is intended to engage. The connecting means 6 are also provided with bores 11 having internal screw threads 12, which bores 11 are intended to receive the screw-threaded ends of the reinforcing rods 2. The diameter of said ends, however, is smaller than the diameter of the bores 11 and screwed in the space between the defining walls of the bores 11 and respective rods 2 is a connecting element 13 which has the form of a sleeve having external threads 14 corresponding to the inner threads 12 of the bores 11 and inner threads 15 corresponding to the outer threads 7 of the reinforcing rods 2. One end of the connecting element 13 is so formed as to enable said element to be turned by means of a suitable tool and screwed into the threads 12 of the bore 11.

In the illustrated embodiment, the bore 11 in each connecting means 6 is arranged in the bottom of a groove 16 which, in cross-section, has a dove-tail configuration. These grooves are arranged diagonally opposite each other in each means 6 in the corners of the coupling device. Each groove 16 is intended to receive a key 18 (FIG. 1) and at the outer end of each groove 16, the groove bottom is provided with an outwardly projecting lip 17 which, subsequent to insertion of the key, is deformed, i.e. folded over, so as to lock the key 18 in position. When seen in cross-section, the key 18 has the form of a double dove-tail and is intended to connect together two pile or pillar segments placed end-to-end, each of said segments having its respective coupling device.

Each connecting means 6 is conveniently manufactured of a force-absorbing material, for example nodular iron, while the frame and the bottom plate may be manufactured from a thin and/or light material, such as a plastics material or sheet metal. In this way there is obtained a coupling device which is much lighter to handle and which can be manufactured more readily and less expensively than a coupling device which is made wholly of nodular iron. Instead of connecting the reinforcing rods 2 to the connecting means 6 via connecting elements 13, it is possible to connect said rods directly to the connecting means. In this instance the internal threads of the bores 11 correspond to the outer threads of the reinforcing rods.

When the coupling device 3 is not to be subjected to downwardly acting impact forces, for example such as those produced by a pile drive, the casing 4, 5 may be omitted from the coupling device 3, or said device may be provided with a detachable casing. With this construction of the coupling device there is no need to produce particular coupling devices for different types of pile or pillar segments having different dimensions, since in the basic form such devices comprise only a number of connecting means 6 corresponding to the number of reinforcing rods (see FIGS. 10 and 11).

To enable transverse beams, joist plates and the like to be connected to the pile or pillar segment, the coupling device can be supplemented with a key 18 of the form shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

This key comprises a main body 20 which when seen in cross-section has the form of a double dove-tail and which has upper and lower planar defining side surfaces 21, (of which only the upper is shown in FIGS. 6 and 7). On one end surface of the main body 20 there is arranged an outwardly projecting shoulder 22 whose upper and lower defining sides 23 are substantially parallel with the defining sides 21 of the main body. The shoulder 23 is conveniently formed integrally with the main body and the thickness or height of the shoulder is slightly less than the thickness or height of the main body, so that end surfaces 24 are formed and so that lip 17 on the connecting means 6 can be folded into abutment with one of the end surfaces 24. The shoulder 22 of the FIG. 6 embodiment is symmetrical in relation to the longitudinal axis 25 of the key and is intended to support a load on both sides of the connecting means 6. As will be seen in FIG. 7, the shoulder 22 need not necessarily by symmetrical in relation to the main body 20, but may be so formed that it only supports load on one side of the connecting means 6. The shoulder is provided with one or more holes 26 for bolting to a frame 27 (FIG. 8) serving as a support member, a beam, plate or the like.

FIG. 8 is an end view of a reinforced concrete pile segment having four connecting means 6 which are securely connected to the main reinforcing means of the pile. The FIGURE shows two alternative connection possibilities, firstly a single-sided connection of, for example, a beam 28 to the pile segment while using the keys 18 of the FIG. 7 embodiment, and secondly the connection of a joist to all sides of the pile using the keys 18 of the FIG. 6 embodiment and a load distributing frame 27.

The mounting of pile segments whilst using the aforedescribed coupling devices is effected in accordance with the following (see FIG. 9). The pile segments provided with respective coupling devices are placed one upon the other and are centered by using a centering peg 30 inserted in a centering hole 29. The grooves 16 in the connecting means 6 of one pile segment are placed opposite the grooves of the connecting means 6 of another pile segment, so that the double dove-tail shaped keys 18 can be introduced into the grooves. It is not necessary for all four keys to have outwardly projecting portions, but that the construction of the separate locking means is dependent upon the intended use. Subsequent to inserting the keys, the lips 17 are folded against the associated abutment surfaces, such as the end surfaces 24 of the aforementioned main bodies, so that locking of said surfaces is obtained. The shoulder or shoulders 22 projecting outwardly from each pile segment can now be used to connect means serving as a support for transverse beams or the like.

The illustrated and disclosed embodiments are not to be considered the only possible embodiments and are not restrictive of the invention.