US3214784A

US3214784A - Fastening devices

Info

Publication number: US3214784A
Application number: US308895A
Authority: US
Inventors: Preston Harry
Original assignee: COPYDEX Ltd
Current assignee: COPYDEX Ltd
Priority date: 1962-09-19
Filing date: 1963-09-13
Publication date: 1965-11-02
Anticipated expiration: 1982-11-02
Also published as: DE1916962U; DE1285700B; GB1064324A

Description

Nov. 2, 1965 H. PRESTON 3,214,734

FASTENING DEVICES Filed Sept. 15, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 lnvenlor HARRY PREST N By v M Attorneys Nov. 2, 1965 H. PRESTON 3,214,734

FASTENING DEVICES Filed Sept. 13, 1963 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 I nvenlor HARRY PR ESTON yf 6 augf Attorney United States Patent Office 3,214,784 Patented Nov. 2, 1965 3,214,784 FASTENING DEVICES Harry Preston, London, England, assignor to Copydex Limited, London, England, a corporation of Great Britain Filed Sept. 13, 1963, Ser. No. 308,895 Claims priority, application Great Britain, Sept. 19, 1962, 35,736/ 62 7 Claims. (CL 168) This invention relates to fastening devices and in particular to fastening devices for holding laid carpets or the like such as carpet under-felt in position and includes holding stair carpets in position.

Carpets are conventionally secured in position when laid on a floor by tacks or similar fixing means pinned through the carpet to the floor. Such fixing means are however laborious in use and necessitate the use of tacklifters or like tools for lifting the carpet. Stair carpets can be similarly fixed or can be held in place by rods or clips secured in the angles between the treads and the risers upstanding therefrom, but the carpets, unless secured at the top of the flight of stairs, tend to creep downwardly beneath the rods or clips.

It has been proposed to provide carpet holders in the form of strips of rigid material secured to the floor or stair surfaces, the strips having upstanding points onto which the carpet can be impaled. To avoid the carpets slipping off the points these may be directed away from the direction of pull on the carpet, the tension in which holds the carpets on the points. In such fasteners the points must be above the level of the strip and are either parallel to the strip surface so that when the carpet is trodden on they flatten, or the points are made to stand up vertical-1y from the strip which necessitates a specially designed apparatus for forming the points on the strips.

The main object of the present invention is to provide such a carpet securing strip having points engaged by the carpet and held thereon by the tension in the laid carpet, which will withstand the weight of people walking over the carpet and the pointed strip beneath it, and will be easy to manufacture in a simple stamping or like operation.

According to the present invention a strip carpet securing device comprises an elongated strip of substantially rigid material having upstanding therefrom out of the surface of the strip a number of spaced pointed elements, each element being bent at an oblique angle to the strip and pointing transversely of the longitudinal axis of the strip so that in use the carpet laid over the fixed strip and drawn thereover will be engaged by the points and held in position.

In a preferred construction the strip is made of sheet metal such as rolled or tensile steel about A inch thick and one or two inches wide. The points are formed as cut-outs from the strip with their roots bent out of the plane of the strip and their pointed portions bent up wardly and rotated about their longitudinal axes. The points may be at any suitable acute angle to the strip, e.g. 15, in both the longitudinal and transverse direction of the strip. The points are sharp to facilitate their piercing the textile fibres of the carpet.

In a modified construction for fixing stair carpets the strip is bent longitudinally in the region of its centre line to form a right angle member, in each arm of which the points are formed, the points all facing the angle of the strip.

In yet another construction for use in securing two superposed floor coverings, e.g. an underlay and a carpet thereover, said device is bent longitudinally in a 'L-shape the two horizontal portions of which are vertically spaced by the thickness of the lowermost floor covering and are each provided with one or more rows of points for separately securing the two floor coverings.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood one construction in accordance therewith will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a portion of a right angular strip for use in fixing a stair carpet;

FIG. 2 to 5 are cross-sections drawn to a larger scale, respectively along the lines II-II, IIIHI, IV--IV and VV looking in the direction of the arrows; and

FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of a modified construction for use with two superposed floor coverings.

In the drawings the same references are used to designate the same parts. Although the embodiment shown in FIGURES l to 5 is in the form of a right-angular strip, a flat strip may be used for fixing carpets on floors and may have points in one direction, or for making a joint between two pieces of carpet, may have two spaced rows of points facing in generally opposite directions.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 5 the carpet fastening device comprises a strip 1 bent along or near its central line 2 into two

arms

3, 4 at right angles one to the other. Spaced along the strip is a number of sharp points 5, one row in each of the

arms

3, 4, although additional rows may be provided on one or both the arms. In the case of the angular strip shown the points in the two arms face in opposite directions so that the angle of a stair carpet can be fixed thereto.

The points are cut out of the strip and the portion 6 around the points is preferably removed for easier working of the point material. The strip at the root 7 of a point is bent upwardly preferably as shown in the form of a partial dome 8 from one end of which the point material extends. The point thus formed is substantially a spherical triangle having a base forming an are 7 integrally secured to the strip material. The cut-out 6 has one side which intersects the ends of are 7, and the sides of triangular dome 8 meet said arc on an edge of the cut-out. As seen in FIG. 5 the point is upstanding at an angle a to the plane of the strip, e.g. 15, but its sharp point can be bent to a smaller angle a if desired. The blade of the point is preferably also bent as shown in FIGS. 2-4 about its longitudinal axis so that in the direction of the length of the strip it is at an oblique or obtuse angle thereto, i.e. and the point may be slightly spiral or helical in shape from its root to its sharp point.

The strip may be secured to the floor or stair treads and risers by any conventional means, e.g. by adhesives, by headed nails or screws with their heads engaging the strip edge, by nails or screws passing through holes 9 in the strip, or by points secured to or cut out of the strip and directed at or nearly at a right angle to the strip.

The strip is preferably of metal, but may be of any rigid material such as plastic and the points may be mounted thereon.

It will be seen that when the strip is secured to the surface to be carpeted, the carpet can be laid over the strip and pulled thereover away from the direction of the points so that the points enter the carpet material to hold it. The domed shape of the point roots rein forces the strip and the teeth so that they are not materially deformed when walked over.

Referring to FIG. 6, this shows a modification of a carpet securing device for use where superposed floor coverings, such as a carpet and an underfelt, are each separately gripped by the one securing device. In FIG. 6 the carpet securing device comprises a 'L shaped channel section having two horizontal portions 10 and 11 interconnected by a vertical portion 12, and portion 12 having a height substantially equal to the thickness of the felt in use. Each horizontal portion 10 and 11 has formed therein sharp points similar to those described with reference to FIGS. 1-5. In use, the device is laid at the edge of the carpet, as for example against the skirting board 13 and the felt is disposed with its edge abutting the vertical portion 12 and forced onto the points 5 on the portion 11. The carpet being larger than the area of the felt is then laid over the felt and fixed onto the points 5 on the portion 10.

It may be that such a construction in use will have to withstand loads such as heavy furniture placed upon it close to a wall and therefore the portion might tend to bend downwardly under the load. As shown in FIG. 6, the construction is provided with a reinforcement to withstand such a load, this being effected by having a portion 14 cut out of the portions 10 and 12 and shaped to form a piece 15 along the floor and a vertical piece 16 against the skirting board. Screws or light securing means 17 may be passed through holes in one or both these portions to fix them in position, but any suitable securing means such as spikes may be employed. If desired, only the portion 16 may be cut out from the portion 12 and bent downwardly to form a leg, but in addition or alternatively similar portions may be formed mid-width of or elsewhere in the portion 10 and a number of such reinforcements or legs may be provided throughout the length of the device.

It is also possible that this construction shown in FIG. 6 may be used with stair carpets, where there are strips of felt on the treads of the stairs and in that event it would be desirable to supply an upwardly extending portion 18 from the portion 10, as indicated in dotted lines in FIG. 6, such portion being provided also with pins 5 for securing the riser of the carpet extending between the two treads.

WhatIclaim is: 1. A carpet securing device comprising an elongated strip of substantially rigid metal having a number of points spaced therealong and upstanding at an acute angle from fthe surface of said strip with their medial axes disposed transversely to the longitudinal axis of said strip, said points each being a substantially spherical triangle having a base forming an arc integrally secured to said strip, 7 said triangle being formed by a cut-out one side of which intersects the ends of said arc, the said are and the sides of the triangle meeting at points on an edge of the cutout.

2. A carpet securing device according to claim 1 wherein the strip is of sheet steel approximately inch thick wherein the strip is bent longitudinally in the region of its centre line to form a right angle member, in each arm of which said spaced points are provided, the points all facing into the angle in the strip.

4. A carpet securing device for use in securing two superposed sheet floor covering materials such as a carpet and an underlay to a floor surface, comprising an elongated strip of rigid metal, said strip being bent longitudinally to form an angle having upper and lower oppositely disposed horizontal flanges connected by a vertical web having a height equal to the thickness of a lower floor covering, a number of points in each of said horizontal flanges spaced therealong and upstanding from the surface of said flange, said points being formed as wedge-shaped cut-outs from the material of said strip and bent to an acute angle to said surface with their medial axes disposed transversely to the longitudinal axis of said strip, and each of said cut-outs having its base integral with said strip and being curved from its base to its sharp tip transversely of its said medial axis, whereby in use said floor coverings laid over, pressed downwardly on to said strip, and subjected to tension away from said strip in the direction of said medial axes will be impaled on said points and held in position.

5. A carpet securing device according to claim 4 wherein said upper horizontal flange has spacing members extending therefrom to the floor to prevent said flange bending downwardly under any load supported thereon.

6. A carpet securing device according to claim 5 wherein the spacing members are each formed of portions partly removed from the upper horizontal portion and turned substantially vertically downwards, such turned down portions being of a length to engage the floor.

7. A carpet securing device according to claim 6 wherein at least some of said spacing members are partly removed from the upper horizontal and vertical flanges to form a portion disposed along the floor and a substan tially vertical portion forming a weight support for the upper horizontal flange.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,724,288 8/29 La Brecque 16-4 2,732,579 'l/56 Farr l6l6 2,958,895 11/60 Sarkissian l6l6 3,008,173 11/61 Goss et al. l6l6 FOREIGN PATENTS 838,127 6/60 Great Britain.

JOSEPH D. SEERS, Primary Examiner. DQNLEY J. STOCKING, Examiner.

Claims

1. A CARPET SECURING DEVICE COMPRISING AN ELONGATED STRIP OF SUBSTANTIALLY RIGID METAL HAVING A NUMBER OF POINTS SPACED THEREALONG AND UPSTANDING AT AN ACUTE ANGLE FROM THE SURFACE OF SAID STRIP WITH THEIR MEDIAL AXES DISPOSED TRANSVERSELY TO THE LONGITUDINAL AXIS OF SAID STRIP, SAID POINTS EACH BEING A SUBSTANTIALLY SPHERICAL TRIANGLE HAVING A BASE FORMING AN ARC INTEGRALLY SECURED TO SAID STRIP, SAID TRIANGLE BEING FORMED BY A CUT-OUT ONE SIDE OF WHICH INTERSECTS THE ENDS OF SAID ARC, THE SAID ARC AND THE SIDES OF THE TRIANGLE MEETING AT POINTS ON THE EDGE OF THE CUTOUT.