Guardrail crash absorbing assembly
AssigneeLindsay Transportation Solutions, Inc.
InventorsGerrit A. Dyke, Jeffrey M. Thompson, Daniel Paul Decayanan Loya, Alvaro E. Morales Flores, Jason T. Lim, Scott G. Kroeker, Marco Anghileri
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A guardrail crash absorbing assembly including overlapping elongated upstream and downstream rail panels, an impact head for sliding an upstream rail panel relative to a downstream panel when impacted by a vehicle, and a cutting tooth with a cutting tooth portion having a cutting surface and a hook structure for cutting and splitting the downstream rail panel upon vehicle impact on the impact head.
Claims17
A guardrail crash absorbing assembly comprising:
- an elongated upstream rail panel having an upstream rail panel front portion and an upstream rail panel rear portion;
- an elongated downstream rail panel having a downstream rail panel front portion and a downstream rail panel rear portion, said upstream rail panel rear portion and said downstream rail panel front portion being in side by side, overlapping relationship at a panel joint;
- an impact head structure operatively associated with said upstream rail panel and responsive to vehicle impact on the impact head structure to move said upstream rail panel rearwardly lengthwise along said downstream rail panel;
- and
- a braking structure for dissipating kinetic energy of said upstream rail panel sliding along the downstream rail panel and absorb impact forces caused by vehicle impact on said impact head structure, said braking structure including friction slider structure at said panel joint and at least one cutting tooth located at said panel joint operatively associated with said friction slider structure for cutting and splitting said downstream rail panel responsive to vehicle impact on said impact head structure, said friction slider structure including a traffic side slider attached to said upstream rail panel for restricting the upstream rail panel and downstream rail panel to prevent flaring thereof into traffic and an inside slider mounted to the inside of the downstream rail panel;
- and
- said cutting tooth including a cutting tooth portion having a cutting surface and a hook structure, the cutting tooth portion projecting through slots formed in said upstream rail panel and said downstream rail panel at said panel joint.
A guardrail panel cutting tooth for forming a longitudinal cut in a guardrail panel by applying compressive shearing forces to the guardrail panel, said guardrail panel cutting tooth comprising:
- a cutting tooth portion having a cutting surface and hook structure;
- and
- a cutting tooth mounting portion including a base, said cutting surface extending outwardly at an angle from the base to said hook structure, said tooth cutting surface defined by two spaced parallel cutting edges for shear cutting a continuous strip from said guardrail panel when pressure is exerted on the guardrail panel by said cutting tooth, said tooth configured to form said strip into a coiled configuration, and said cutting surface and said hook structure offset relative to said base, said mounting portion including a mounting stud projecting from said base in a direction generally opposed to the cutting tooth portion and having a threaded end portion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.