Systems for Setting Anchor Bolts

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation in part of patent application Ser. No. 19/002,710, published as publication No. US 2025/0129622 A1 published on Apr. 24, 2025, which is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 18/665,450 filed on or about May 15, 2024, which is also a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 16/840,324 now U.S. Pat. No. 11,346,069 B2 issued May 31, 2022, all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety, and all of these applications and patent were all issued to the same herein inventor Deron G Brunson (“Brunson”). These applications incorporate non-obvious features of improvements that add layers of innovation compared to the original invention and its first improvement.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention, the Anchor Bolt Bracket (“ABB”) relates to concrete construction, and more particularly to the setting of anchor bolts for concrete foundations and slab-on-grade foundations requiring the placement of anchor bolts. The ABB is an apparatus, mechanism, brackets or assembly that sets anchor bolts prior to the pouring of concrete into the various types of foundation forms made from steel, aluminum, wood and any other type of forms. During the process of building a home or various other types of buildings, concrete foundations, and concrete slab-on-grade foundations and footings are created. After footings are created foundation forms are placed on to the footing in order to create foundation walls which extend upwards from the footings. After the foundation forms are built, concrete is then poured into these foundation forms creating a foundation, and once the concrete hardens, or cures, the foundation forms are then removed leaving behind the foundation. A very necessary practice found in the building of these foundations is the placement of anchor bolts, and these anchor bolts must be placed so that they set on top of the foundation while allowing the threaded part of the anchor bolt to protrude from above the top of the foundation while the rest of the anchor bolt sets inside the concrete foundation. It's for the placement of the anchor bolt before the concrete is poured that the Anchor Bolt Bracket comes into play. The Anchor Bolt Bracket allows anchor bolts to be properly set before the concrete is poured, and once the concrete is dry or is cured the Anchor Bolt Bracket is then easily removed at the same time that the foundation forms are removed leaving behind a foundation with protruding anchor bolts.

Various mechanisms have been proclaimed to avoid wet setting anchor bolts one way or another by presetting anchor bolts. Wet setting anchor bolts is the method of pushing anchor bolts into wet cement and allowing it to dry that way. Wet setting anchor bolts is a practice this is widely commonly used but discouraged by The Structural Engineer's Association of Utah (“SEAU”) who published a letter on the internet in this regard against wet setting anchor bolts pursuant to the IBC (International Building Code) Sections 1912, 1704.4, 1704.13, 109.3.1, 109.3.2. (As of Dec. 12, 2024 said published letter has since been removed from the internet.) An example of claims that support mechanisms for presetting anchor bolts can be found in the teachings of U.S. Pat. No. 7,103,984 to Kasberg; U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,436 to Delgado; U.S. Pat. No. 7,225,589 to Smith and also the published continuation in part US Pre-Grant Publication No. 2006/0016140. It appears that all of these methods in various way fail to actually work in the world of properly pre-setting anchor bolts despite their claims. Again, presetting anchor bolts is the practice of setting up the anchor bolts, or suspending them before the concrete is poured. In addition, the teachings of Smith and Kasberg are designed only for one type of concrete foundation forms, they have no application when the concrete is not poured to the top of the concrete foundation forms, and they do not address setting the anchor bolt to accommodate concrete slab-on-grade foundations, nor do they address the various different sizes and styles of anchor bolts. And U.S. Pat. No. 7,891,110 along with U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,487,597 and 8,544,814 to Diaz appears to attend to the pre-setting of anchor bolts prior to the pouring of concrete, but it does not address nor does it provide an application to address the concrete when it is not poured to the top of any foundation form, it also has no application when steel or aluminum concrete foundation forms are used, nor does it address any application for setting anchor bolts that will accommodate concrete slab-on-grade foundations, and it limits the ability to set the anchor bolt beyond a certain height, nor do the teachings of Diaz when applied work at all in the support of pre-setting anchor bolts. In comparison, none of said teachings can compare to the ABB's ability to properly preset any style of anchor bolt in relation to any type of form, whether it be wood, steel or aluminum, and whether or not concrete is poured to the top foundation forms, nor can any of said teachings, even when somewhat functional, remotely compare to the accuracy and speed in which the ABB offers in pre-setting anchor bolts. In addition, the ABB system can be used over and over again. All the attributes found with the ABB system strongly promote the pre-setting of anchor bolts thus promoting the quality and strength of anchor bolts for the foundations.

All of the embodiments of the ABB system are designed to suspend/pre-set anchor bolts regardless of the size and style to accommodate most any anchor bolt, and to work with any foundation forms regardless whether or not it is a slab-on-grade foundation or just a generic foundation placed on top of footings, and the ease of accuracy and speed its use promotes along with the ability to be used many times over make the ABB system superior in the pre-setting world. The ABB system succeeds way beyond where each of the other teachings claim to do.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The embodiments of the ABB system found herein comprise of four separate components; the extender, the receiver for wood forms, the receiver for steel or aluminum forms and the connecting shank. The extender, when placed inside the receiver, is designed to hold most any size and style of anchor bolt, and to hold these anchor bolts to the required height above the concrete foundation along with the required distance from the side of the foundation.

The receiver is placed on top of wood forms by placing a single duplex nail in any of the three holes provided, the spurs on the bottom next to the nail holes help to securely hold the receiver in place, and at any time the person skilled in this art may choose to use two duplex nails in any of the three nail holes provided to add extra security in securing the receiver from moving. The extender is placed into the square opening of the receiver and locks into the receiver and can't be removed without lifting the locking hook found at the back bottom end part of the extender, and the hole on top of the receiver is used to line up any of the seven holes found in the extender which identifies how far the anchor bolt will be placed away from the form wall, and a duplex nail is placed in any of these holes to secure the anchor in a desired length away from the form wall extending from 2″ to 3¼ in ¼″ increments. These new improvements enable any size or style of anchor bolt which can be adjusted on the fly to meet various extension measurements from the foundation form wall, and various height measurements form the top of the foundation. Aside from the wall plate, it's designed to be placed on top of wood forms especially slab-on-grade foundation forms. The manner in which a worker wishes to place the anchor bolt will determine which embodiments are used to properly suspend the anchor bolt before the concrete is poured.

The embodiments of the receiver consist of a small flat tab extending downward from the bottom of the receiver in a vertical manner, this tab is used as a stopper that is placed against the foundation form wall thus enabling the receiver to be easily placed on a proper spot on top of the form wall. Next to this tab is a horizontal surface that is found with three nail holes which are available to be used to help secure the receiver in place, this is done by the placement of the recommend duplex nail(s) to secure the receiver to the top on top of the foundation form. On the bottom side of this horizontal surface is found spurs, these spurs serve the purpose of helping to secure the receiver from moving, especially when only one of the several recommend duplex nails is used. Rising from this horizontal surface is a straight vertical surface which is met by a square open tube orifice. This tube has a rectangle slit etched into the bottom of the square orifice that runs along the bottom of this tube for about ⅓^rd of the length of this tube. This rectangle slit serves the purpose of allowing the protruding tab of the extender to run along it until this rectangle slit comes to an end. Once the extender is placed inside the receiver, the extender cannot be removed from the receiver unless the protruding tab is lifted up and pushed outward at the same time, otherwise the extender cannot be removed from the receiver.

The extender is shaped in the manner of a ½″ square tube extending a little more than 2 inches long. One end of the tube is met with a protruding pie shaped arc extending vertically up and down, which extends upward above the top of the tube approximately 0.87 inches and below the said tube in a downward position approximately 0.1 inches. This pie shaped arc has ribs that run horizontally and sit across the inside of the arc but do not travel from edge to edge of the wall, instead they begin from a short distance from the outer end of the arc wall while reaching only to a third of the distance of the arc and then stop, the second part of the rib starts up again past the center third of the arc and travels for the distance of the last third of the arc while stopping just before it reaches the edge. Each rib extends outward in a cone shape position. There are only 6 ribs on the arc, three ribs each on both inner sides of the arc. They each start approximately ¼″ up from the bottom of the arc, with each rib being ¼″ upwards apart from each other. In the center of the arc is an oval elongated hole that runs horizontally along the center of the arc for a distance of about 0.87 inches long and about 0.14 inches wide. Also found on the arc structure are two open rectangle slots that travel one third of the distance of the arc from the edge on both sides, and these two openings are a little more than ½ inch wide. These two rectangular openings serve the purpose of allowing a worm hose clamp to go through these two holes. On the back side of the arc is a protruding rectangular stem protruding horizontally and acts as a clip to hold the worm clamp in place when the clamp is loose.

The receiver jacket is used to hold the anchor bolt along the inside walls of any foundation form when concrete is not poured to the top. The receiver jacket has a 4 inch square open tube orifice and has a slit etched into the bottom of the square orifice that runs along the bottom of this tube for about ⅓^rd of the length of this tube. This rectangle slit serves the purpose of allowing the protruding tab of the extender to run along it until this rectangle slit comes to an end. Once the extender in placed inside the receiver, the extender cannot be removed from the receiver unless the protruding tab is lifted up and pushed outward at the same time, otherwise the extender cannot be removed from the receiver. At one end the receiver jacket is met by a horizontal planar surface that protrudes upwards in a vertical direction from the rectangle tube, this planar surface has two sleeve cut-outs from the top extending down about half way, and the two sleeve cut-outs are separated by a middle flat surface that acts as a tongue, the two said cut outs enable this tongue to be flexible, and at the top of this tongue is a notch, this notch helps to lock the receiver jacket into the ABB wall plate that is presented in Brunson's U.S. application Ser. No. 18/665,450. The horizontal planar surface has to guiding groves on both sides of the horizontal planar surface that extend the full length of the sides of the horizontal planar surface. These guiding groves guide the receiver jacket to slide onto the ABB wall plate upon which the notch at the end of the tongue locks it into position. Also along these two sides close to the center there are two extruding post extending horizontally which allows the worker lift up on these posts in order to help remove the receiver jacket from the wall plate.

Prior to the pouring of concrete into foundation forms, especially for slab-on-grade foundations, the receiver is nailed down on the top of the wood form in a specified location as identified by the worker placing the receiver. The worker then attaches the necessary anchor bolt to the extender which is attached or secured by a worm hose clamp or zip tie or any other methods that may be used. If the anchor bolt is required to be set 3″ above the concrete, the worker would measure from the top of the anchor bolt down to 2¾″ and will secure the anchor bolt receiver so that the bottom of the measured 2¾″ perfectly lines up with the bottom of the arc, in so doing this sets the anchor bolt to be 3″ inches above the concrete. Another way to insure that the anchor bolt is set to be 3″ above the concrete is to set the anchor bolt so that the top part of the anchor bolt sets flush with the top part of the arc; this design can be used with either method. If the anchor bolts must be set higher than three inches above the concrete, then the worker would measure the length it needs to be from the top downward while subtracting from the required length 1¼″ and then the end of the measurement would then line up with the top of the arc. When the concrete is not poured to the top of the foundation form, the wall plate, which is not a part of this application, it is secured to the formation wall and the corresponding ABB embodiment attaches to the wall plate after the anchor bolt has been attached to the proper ABB embodiment.

In most any setting, all the ABB embodiments before mentioned are designed to suspend the anchor bolt before the concrete is poured and is designed to release the anchor bolt after the concrete has cured and can be reused.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates the ABB receiver and extender for wood forms working together with an anchor bolt being held in place by a worm key.

FIG. 2 gives a detailed illustration of the ABB extender.

FIGS. 3 and 4 gives a detailed illustration of the first embodiment of the ABB receiver, which is for wood forms.

FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 gives a detailed illustration of a second embodiment of the ABB receiver, for steel or aluminum forms, along with the connecting shank.

FIG. 8 illustrates the ABB receiver for wood forms as it stands alone showing several perspectives.

FIG. 9 illustrates the ABB connecting shank.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The various illustrated accompanying figures described herein are merely exemplary of the various embodiments and are not meant to be limiting in scope of the ABB's purpose and functions. It is to be appreciated that numerous variations of the invention have been contemplated as would be obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure. Rather, the scope and breadth afforded in this document should not be limited by the claims provided herein while applying either the plain meaning found in the claims or the meanings clearly and or unambiguously provided in the specifications, illustrations and drawings.

The following descriptions in some cases are given in an instruction style on setting up the ABB along with a description of each of the ABB mechanisms. In this manner the reader, or one whom is skilled in the art, may be given a better understanding of the invention, its purposes and functions. A limited illustration of the anchor bolt is also given to show how it installs into the ABB bolt holders. With these descriptions and illustrations, a person who has a basic understanding of the art will understand how the ABB mechanism sets and suspends the anchor bolt prior to the concrete being poured into foundation forms and or slabs.

Concrete foundation forms are used for the creation of concrete foundations for homes and various buildings. There are different types of foundation forms found in the industry. The different types include a steel or aluminum framed foundation form, which is described as a steel or aluminum frame wrapped around wood walls that come in different sizes. There are wood foundation forms which come in different predetermined sizes. There are also nonstandard wood foundation forms, and custom-made wood foundation forms usually built by private builders for their own buildings, and wood forms for slab-on-grade foundations. When these forms are set and ready for concrete, concrete is then poured into these forms to create the foundation, it might be noted that not always is the concrete poured to the top of these forms unless they are slab-on-grade foundations. Nonetheless, when just before the pouring of the concrete is to take place the ABB is a mechanism or assembly used to set the required anchor bolts in its proper position before the concrete is poured, this eliminates the practice of wet setting anchor bolts that the International Building Code and various state and local governments frown upon. The ABB mechanism fits the different sizes of anchor bolts and the different types of commonly used concrete foundation forms and slab forms found in the industry, and the ABB is also formulated to be used when the concrete is not poured to the top of any foundation forms.

The ABB consists of several different parts that work in conjunction with each other in order to suspend an anchor bolt and there is no specific systematic way in which they must be used.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a ABB receiver and extender with an anchor bolt 1 and a worm key and clamp 2. The anchor bolt 1 and the worm key and clamp 2 are not part of this invention but are only presented herein to show how the ABB receiver and extender holds an anchor bolt in place. The extender 5 is designed to hold just about any size of anchor bolt 1 upon which the worm clamp 2 wraps around the anchor bolt and the end portion of the extender holding the anchor bolt into place. Once the receiver 4 is nailed in to place by the proper duplex nail 3, the extender 5 is then placed inside the tube 8 (FIG. 2) of the receiver 4.

FIG. 2 comprises a detailed drawing of several perspectives of the ABB extender 5. On one end 16 of the extender 11 is a protruding tongue that is about ½ long with open slits on both sides of this protruding tongue, at the end of the protruding tongue 6 is a box type hook that extends outward which acts like a box type hook, and serves the purpose of helping to hold the extender from separating from the receiver when plugged into the receiver. However, this hook is designed that once it is lifted upward it will allow the extender to be disengaged from the receiver so that it can be removed. On the inside surface 16a of this arc 16 are six ribs 15, each rib extending outward in a cone shape position which are found in sets of three on both sides of the inner arc. They each start approximately ¼″ up from the bottom of the arc, with each rib being ¼″ upwards apart from each other. These ribs serve the purpose of helping secure the anchor bolt to the arc. Also found on the inner surface 16a of the arc structure are two open rectangle slots 12 that travel one third of the distance of the arc from the edge on both sides. These two rectangular openings slots 12 are a little more than ½ inch wide and have no edge on the further outer edge of each slot. These slots serve the purpose of allowing worm hose clamp or zip tie or any other type mechanism that would serve the same purpose of the worm clamp 1 to go through these two holes as demonstrated in FIG. 1. On the back side of the arc 16 is a protruding rectangular stem 9 protruding horizontally, it has a hook 13 on the bottom inner top and an opening in the front 10 of the stem 9, this opening 10 works in conjunction with the stem 9 acting as a clip to hold the worm clamp 2 in place when the clamp is loose as seen in FIG. 1, and it also acts as a guide in which to place the worm key 2, and once the anchor bolt is in place the worm key 2 is then used to tighten the anchor securely to the arc 16. The worm key is then used to tighten the worm clamp just enough to hold the anchor bolt in place and so that it doesn't move while the concrete is being poured.

On the top and on the bottom of the tube part of the extender 5 are seven holes 7 that align perfectly with each other in a vertical direction. These holes 7 are in place in order to allow the extender to reach out from the form wall in order to place the anchor bolt between 2″ to 3″ from the concrete form wall. Any of these holes 7 may align perfectly with the hole 20 as shown in FIG. 3 upon which a duplex nail is placed through these hole thus holding the extender in place in order to set the anchor bolt at a certain desired distance from the form wall.

On the bottom end of the extender 11 is a cut out of a rectangular protruding tongue type thin ¼″ long stub with equal spaces 14 between this stub and the extender on each side of the stub, and at the end of this stub is a rectangular protruding hook 6. This hook 6 serves the purpose of aligning with and sliding into the cutout rectangular groove 27 seen in FIG. 4. Once the extender is placed inside the receiver and the hook 6 is compressed upwards until it slides past the step down 27a (FIG. 4) upon which the hook is released into the cutout 27 which then locks the extender into the receiver. The extender can be moved forwards and backwards inside the receiver but cannot be removed until the hook is pressed upwards above the step down 27a, while at the same time the extender is pulled away from the receiver.

FIG. 3 and FIG. 4 comprises a detailed drawing of each of the perspective views of the receiver 4 designed for wood forms. The receiver 4 for wood forms comprises three sections, the first section 28 is the outer look of the rectangular tube while the inner section 24 is the inner core of this rectangular tube. This tube has a pair of holes 20 found on both the top and bottom that perfectly align with each other, this serves the purpose of allowing a duplex nail to be easily placed inside and through these two holes, to align any of the holes 7 of FIG. 2 of the extender with the hole 20 of the receiver, such that a worker will be able to set the anchor bolt to a desired distance from the form wall and can keep it in place by putting a duplex nail 3 inside these aligned holes 20 and 7. Also found on the bottom back side of this said tube, is a rectangular groove crevice that only extends about half way towards the opposite end.

On the top end of the rectangular protruding type box 28 next to the hole 20 is an inner curved slit 19 to stop the extender from going in any further inside the receiver, this slit 19 fits snugly against the protruding stem 9 of the extender, and this said slit works in the same manner as explained on number 38 of FIG. 8 as explained below. This receiver 4 of FIG. 3 has a tongue 18 that protrudes downward. When placing the receiver on a wood form, the inner side of this tongue faces the outside of the form wall and is pushed against the form wall which helps hold the receiver in proper placement. This tongue 18 is rectangular in shape with two flat sides. On the upper top side of this tongue is a flat surface upon which are three holes 17 for the purpose of putting duplex nails 3 through it as shown in FIG. 1 in order to hold the receiver into place on top of the wood form. In addition to these three holes 17 there are 4 sharp extending thorns 21 that become compressed into the top of the form wall when the receiver is nailed down through any of the three guiding holes 17. On the same surface as these guiding holes are two ribs 26, these ribs are placed for support in keeping the receiver strong, and on the underside is one rib 23 which also helps support the receiver. The top part of the rectangular type tube of the receiver is an outer protruding box 28 forming a flat surface on each of the top and bottom parts of the rectangular tube, and the sides of the receiver 25 are flat on both sides. The inner rectangular box 24 extends about 1½″ above the bottom portion of the ribs 22 found on the receiver, this required design meets the demands of concrete being poured to the top of the wood forms thus allowing the concrete to be troweled around the anchor bolt before the release of the ABB system.

FIG. 5, FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 comprises of a set of detailed drawings of the receiver 31 designed for steel or aluminum forms with all its important elements. These illustrations demonstrate and how it works with the worm key 2 and the extender 5 along with the connecting shank 30 and the steel or aluminum form 29. Again, the worm key 2, duplex nails 3 and the steel or aluminum form 29 are not a part of this invention but are only used as a reference to show how the ABB System works with these items.

FIG. 8 illustrates more of a very detailed drawing of the receiver 31 for concrete forms made with steel or aluminum frames. On the top part of this receiver are four circular tubes 32 extending up and down in a vertical direction, in the center of each of these tubes are holes that extend the full length of each tube. These holes are designed to hold duplex nails 3 for the purpose of keeping this receiver sung against the steel or aluminum concrete forms as seen in FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 and when the connecting shank 30 as seen in FIG. 9 is put into place. This receiver also has a hole 33 near one end of the top of the rectangular box 37 and a slit 38 which are both identical to the rectangular boxes 28 and 24 found on the receiver 4 designed for wood forms and serve exactly the same purposes of each other when connecting with the extender 5. Underneath the rectangular box 37 is another rectangular box 36 with two opening ends, and on the bottom of this rectangular box is an opening slit 35 specifically designed to help hold the connecting shank 31 into place. On the bottom of the rectangular box 37 there is a rectangular cut out 37a which is designed specifically for the hook 6 to fit inside of this cut out.

FIG. 9 is a full illustration of the ABB connecting shank 30. Detail A outlines the rectangular type stem 40 that sits and runs on top of the connecting shank 30 from both sides of the connecting shank 30 while one end connects to the butterfly flat planetary 44 surface while the other end of this stem 40 stops just shy of the length of the connecting shank, at this end of the stem and underneath it is a cut out 41 that allows this part of the stem to be pushed downwards thus producing a compression when the connecting shank 30 is pushed into the opening type tunnel 36 of the receiver 31, this compression helps to secure the connecting shank into place. There is a tubular bulge 39 found at the end of the connecting shank which serves the purpose of being inserted into the cut out slit 35 of the receiver, in so doing this helps to keep the shank locked into the receiver so that it will not fall out so easily, however, when the shank is pushed all the way to the end of this opening 36 the bulge 39 then falls at the end of this opening thus locking the connecting shank and the receiver into place upon the steel or aluminum form for the foundation wall. Once the receiver is locked into place by the connecting shank and is ready for removal, one whom is skilled in this art will grab the butterfly wings 45 and 44 found at one end of the connect shank and will pull on these wings, this will remove the shank until the bulge 39 connects into the slit 35 of the receiver, when this connection is made it allows the receiver to be removed from the steel or aluminum frame while keeping the shank connected to the receiver. The flat surface 46 found on the undercarriage of the shank provides for a smooth slide as the shank is pushed into the receiver. At one end of this flat surface that connects to the wings is met with 90 degree curve then then flows straight downward for a small distance, and then it's met once again with about a 180 degree circular curvature 47 followed by a bulge 42 at the end of it. This bulge 42 serves as a smooth hook in order to wrap around the lip 48 (see FIG. 6) of the steel or aluminum form. Once the bulge 42 slips past the lip, the other bulge 39 will slip pass the end of the flat surface 34 that protrudes pass the opening type tunnel 36 making the receiver strongly connected to the steel form.