Plate fastener with bolts preassembled

• US 5,599,131 A
• Filed: 12/13/1994
• Issued: 02/04/1997
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/1994
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Flexible Steel Lacing Company
• Original Assignee: Flexible Steel Lacing Company
• Inventors: Drabek, David F., Julen, Donald L., Winkelman, John H., Ramsey, Peter M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Melius, Terry Lee
• Assistant Examiner(s): NOVOSAD, CHRISTOPHER J
• Application Number:
  US08/354,588
• Time in Patent Office: 784 Days
• Field of Search: 403/312, 403/388, 411/533, 411/526, 411/512
• US Class Current: 403/312
• CPC Class Codes: F16B 43/00 Washers or equivalent devices; Other devices for supporting bolt-heads or nuts circlips F16B21/18; for indicating tensile load F16B31/02; forming a whole with the bolt or nut F16B33/00; locking bolts or nuts by means of a fixed plate or ring, or washer-like resilient plates F16B39/10, F16B39/24
• CPC Class Codes: F16G 3/08 consisting of plates and screw-bolts or rivets F16G3/06 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 403/5781 Bolted
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 403/7123 Traversed by connector

Abstract

A belt fastener having an upper plate and a lower plate with holes which align with holes in a pair of belt ends, and bolts are inserted through the aligned holes of the plates and the belt ends, and nuts screwed onto the bolts, to connect the belt ends. A preassembled lower plate and bolt combination is provided in which bolts are retained in their respective lower plate apertures by washers disposed on the bolt shanks. The washers are disposed on the bolt shanks sufficiently close to the lower plate to maintain anti-rotational engagement of the bolts with the lower plate, and spaced sufficiently far from the lower plate to allow outward swinging of the bolts to an insertion position for insertion of the bolts through the belt holes in an outwardly swung position for subsequent drawing together of the bolt and belt ends. The washers are displaceable along their shanks into abutment with the lower plate and deformable under the pressure associated with clamping together of the plates about the belt ends, whereby the washers deform and fill in the spaces between the bolts and the lower plate. The washers are preferably formed with flexible resilient tabs about a central aperture, with the tabs being deflected by the bolt shanks when slid onto their shanks to prevent washer material from being scraped off the washer and into the threads of the bolt when the washer is initially applied to the bolt.

Claims

1. In a plate fastener having a lower plate with surfaces defining apertures tot use with a belt, the combination comprising:

a pair of bolts disposed within the apertures of the lower plate, the bolts each having a bolt head and a shank portion with threads defining a plurality of roots and crests, the shank portion having a predetermined crest diameter at its crests, and there being a space between each bolt and the surface defining each aperture in the lower plate; and

a washer on each shank portion formed from a plastic material and each comprising an outer annular ring portion defining a central annular ring aperture of diameter greater than said predetermined crest diameter of the bolt shank, with the washers each having a plurality of integral, resilient plastic tabs with inner ends which together define a tab diameter less than said predetermined crest diameter, with the tabs resiliently deflected by the bolt shank received through the washer from a preloaded position in which the tabs extend radially inwardly into the annular ring aperture in substantially the plane of the annular ring portion, to a loaded position in which the tabs are deflected outwardly by the bolt shank to extend at an angle to the plane of the annular ring portion with the inner ends of the tabs engaging the crests of the bolt shank to secure the washers in a stationary position on the bolts, the resilient deflection of the tabs preventing the abrading of the plastic washer material by the bolts during sliding of the washers onto the bolts, in which each washer is deformable so as to extrude under pressure associated with clamping the lower plate against the belt to substantially fill in the space between each bolt and said surface defining the lower plate apertures.

2. A plate fastener in accordance with claim 1 wherein the plastic washers are mounted on the bolt shanks spaced from ends of the shanks at a predetermined axial position along their respective axes of rotation to allow the shanks to be moved while substantially maintaining the bolt heads in the apertures in engagement with anti-rotation means, the shanks being movable in both a substantially perpendicular direction relative to the lower plate and a pivoting angular path relative to the lower plate with movement in the angular path allowing the other ends of the shanks to be spaced from each other at a first distance and at a second distance which is greater than said first distance.