Moldboard support beam

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is related to a support beam used in construction, and more particularly to a support beam for supporting a moldboard. The support beam has better supporting strength and is more durable.

FIG. 1 shows a conventional wooden beam 10 for supporting a moldboard. The wooden beam 10 includes a vertical elongated bar 11 having tenons 13 on top and bottom faces. Two elongated slats 12 are connected with the top and bottom faces of the vertical bar 11 by means of the tenons 13. In use, as shown in FIG. 2, multiple wooden beams 10 are parallelly arranged on a frame body A for construction. A wooden moldboard 14 is nailed on the top face of the wooden beams 10 and supported by the wooden beams 10. Then the moldboard is grouted to form a floor or roof.

The above wooden beam 10 has a certain supporting strength. However, such wooden beam 10 still has some shortcomings as follows:

• • 1. The wooden beam is purely made of timber. Therefore, after a period of use, the wooden beam is sunned, moistened, windswept and affected by environmental conditions. As a result, the timber tends to deteriorate and weaken. Therefore, it is necessary to frequently purchase new wooden beams so that the cost is increased.
  • 2. After a period of use, the wooden beam will be gradually deteriorated so that the wooden beam has short using life and cannot be durably used.
  • 3. It is necessary to hake a great amount of trees for making the wooden beams. This consumes a great amount of natural resource.
  • 4. It is uneasy to firmly connect the wooden beams with the construction frame so that the wooden beams can be hardly truly located.
  • 5. The wooden beams cannot be axially connected so that it is impossible to elongate the wooden beams according to the area of the moldboard. Therefore, each wooden beam has a considerable length for use. As a result, it is quite inconvenient to manufacture the wooden beam and the cost for transfer of the wooden beams is increased.

FIGS. 3 and 4 show two types of conventional aluminum beams 15, 15′ for supporting the wooden moldboard. The aluminum beams are made of aluminum alloy by extrusion. The top face of the aluminum beam is formed with a receiving channel 16. A wooden beam 17 is parallelly placed into the receiving channel 16 from one end thereof. The wooden beam 17 is fixed in the receiving channel by multiple bolts 18.

In use, the mold board 19 is fixed with the wooden beam by nails 191, whereby the moldboard is supported by the aluminum beam 15, 15′.

When the wooden beam 17 received in the aluminum beam 15, 15′ is worn out, the wooden beam 17 can be replaced by a new one. Therefore, such aluminum beam can solve some problems of the aforesaid wooden beam 10. However, when installing or removing the wooden beam 24, it is necessary to screw or unscrew at least four bolts 18. This is inconvenient.

Furthermore, the aluminum material is expensive so that the aluminum beam is made at higher cost. In addition, the aluminum material can be sold at good price so that it often takes place that the aluminum beams in the work site are stolen. Therefore, the wooden beams can be hardly totally replaced by the aluminum beams. Furthermore, the aluminum beams also cannot be axially connected.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to provide a moldboard support beam composed of a metal beam body and a wooden beam. The wooden beam can be easily connected with the beam body without using any connecting member.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide the above moldboard support beams which can be axially connected to an elongated support beam as necessary.

The present invention can be best understood through the following description and accompanying drawings wherein:

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional wooden beam for supporting a moldboard;

FIG. 2 shows the use of the conventional wooden beam;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are end views respectively showing two kinds of conventional aluminum beams;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a perspective exploded view according to FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the beam body of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a sectional view according to FIG. 5;

FIG. 9 is a top view according to FIG. 5;

FIG. 10 shows that the present invention is connected with an I-beam;

FIGS. 11 and 12 are perspective views respectively showing a second and a third embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 13 shows that two support beams are axially connected; and

FIG. 14 is a sectional view according to FIG. 13.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Please refer to FIGS. 5 and 6. According to a preferred embodiment, the support beam 20 of the present invention includes a beam body 30 and a wooden beam 65.

The beam body 30 is integrally made of metal material by rolling. The beam body 30 has a certain cross-section including:

• • two vertical walls 40 which are parallel to each other and spaced by a certain distance;
  • a top wall 42 horizontally connected with top edges of the vertical walls 40;
  • a recessed space 50 axially extending along the beam body and downward recessed from the top wall 42, the recessed space 50 being right positioned at the center of the beam body, two vertical sidewalls 52 being formed on two sides of the recessed space 50, the sidewalls 52 being respectively spaced from the two vertical walls 40 by a certain distance W; and
  • two bottom walls 54 horizontally inward extending from bottom ends of the vertical walls 40.

Each bottom wall 54 has a free end from which an erect wall 56 upward extends by a certain height. The width of the bottom wall is equal to the remaining width w of each side of the top wall 42. Therefore, the erect walls 56 are vertically aligned with the sidewalls 52 of the recessed space 50 as shown in FIG. 7.

The beam body 30 further includes two hooking members 60 respectively formed on the two sidewalls 52 of the recessed space 50. In this embodiment, each hooking member 60 has multiple hook sections 62 which are formed by means of inward punching each sidewall 52 of the recessed space. The hook sections 62 protrude from the sidewalls 52 into the recessed space 50. The hook sections 62 are longitudinally arranged along the beam body 30 at intervals. Referring to FIG. 7, the hook sections 62 are reverse hooks having bottom edges protruding into the recessed space 50.

In addition, the vertical walls 40 of the beam body are formed with a predetermined number of reinforcing sections 57 which can be dents or projections.

The wooden beam 65 has a length equal to that of the beam body 30. The width of the wooden beam 65 corresponds to the width of the recessed space 50. The wooden beam 65 is downward inserted into the recessed space as shown in FIG. 8. The hook sections 62 are reverse hooks so that the wooden beam can be easily downward fitted into the recessed space. After the wooden beam is placed into the recessed space, the hook sections 62 engage with the wooden beam 65 to fix the wooden beam in the recessed space 50 in high strength. Unless the wooden beam is humanly damaged on purpose, otherwise the wooden beam can be hardly extracted out of the recessed space 50. Moreover, the hook sections 62 are arranged at intervals to engage with the wooden beam as shown in FIG. 9 so that in this state, the wooden beam cannot be axially slid along the beam body.

In use, as shown by phantom line of FIG. 8, the wooden moldboard 66 is horizontally placed on top face of the support beam 20 and fixed on the wooden beam 65 with nails 68. Then the moldboard can be grouted.

Referring to FIG. 10, the support beam can be located on an I-beam 22 of a construction frame and connected with the I-beam 22 by a connecting unit 25. The connecting unit 25 includes a horizontal top section 26 having two hook edges 261 at two ends, a bolt 27 top end of which is fixedly connected with the top section 26 and a press member 28 through which the bolt is passed.

When assembled, the top section 26 of the connecting unit 25 is bridged between two sides of bottom end of the beam body 30. A nut 29 is screwed on the bolt 27 to tighten the press member 28 so as to clamp the I-beam 22. The top section 26 firmly hooks the beam body so as to connect the beam body with the I-beam.

FIGS. 11 and 12 show a second and a third embodiments of the present invention, in which the sidewalls of the beam bodies 100, 110 are formed with different configurations of reinforcing sections 105, 115.

Referring to FIGS. 13 and 14, two support beams 20 can be axially connected by means of an axially connecting member 120. The axially connecting member 120 has a rectangular tube 122. Two vertical boards 124 are respectively fixed on two sidewalls of each of two ends of the rectangular tube 122.

In use, two ends of the axially connecting member 120 are respectively fitted into the beam bodies 30 of two support beams. The top end and bottom end of each vertical board 124 respectively abut against the top wall 42 and bottom wall 54. Accordingly, the axially connecting member 120 is stably located in the beam bodies in very good strength. Then a bolt 125 is passed through the through holes 32 of the beam bodies 30 and the through holes 126 of the axially connecting member 120 to fix the axially connecting member 120 with the beam bodies 30.

According to the above arrangement, the present invention has the following advantages:

• • 1. By means of the hooking members formed on the beam body, the wooden beam can be fixed in the recessed space of the beam body without using any other fixing member. Therefore, the assembly is facilitated. In addition, after the wooden beam is installed in the recessed space, the wooden beam can neither be extracted out of the beam body nor moved back and forth.
  • 2. The metal-made beam body of the support beam is the main section to which the force is applied. The strength of the beam body will not deteriorate with time so that the using, life of the support beam is prolonged. Also, the beam body is formed with an excellent geometric strength so that the beam body can bear the normal pressure F and torque T as shown in FIG. 5.
  • 3. When the wooden beam is worn out and cannot be further used, the old wooden beam can be taken off and replaced with a new one.
  • 4. The timber used in the present invention is less than the conventional wooden beam so that the consumption of resource is reduced to achieve the object of environmental protection. In addition, the wooden beam is simply used for connecting with the moldboard so that the wooden beam is more durable than the conventional wooden beam. Therefore, the resource is saved.
  • 5. The bottom end of the support beam can be transversely connected with the I-beam of the construction frame by means of the connecting unit. Therefore, the moldboard can be easily fixed and well located.
  • 6. The present invention has better structural strength and is able to bear greater load. Therefore, a smaller number of support beams can be installed on the construction frame in lower density to achieve a satisfactory supporting effect. Accordingly, the working time is shortened and the efficiency is enhanced.
  • 7. The support beams can be axially connected. Therefore, the support beam can be manufactured with a unit length to facilitate the production and transfer as well as stock management. Moreover, the support beams can be assembled to form an elongated support beam in accordance with the requirement of worksite.
  • 8. The present invention can be made of steel or iron the price of which is cheaper than that of aluminum. Therefore, the support beams in the worksite are not so apt to be stolen. Accordingly, the conventional wooden beams can be greatly replaced with the support beams of the present invention.