Clamping system
OwnerAndrew Brett McCoubrieinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A clamp for clamping boards to a suitable support in which one part of the clamp engages a recess in one board and another part of the clamp engages part of the surface of the support to retain the board in a fixed relationship with the support. The clamp includes a fastening element which has a spacer portion for use in spacing two adjacent boards apart from each other when the boards are being clamped to the support to provide a uniform spacing of the boards. The advantage of the clamp is that it can be used to assemble a relocatable structure, such as an outdoor decking with evenly spaced boards and then the clamp can be released to allow disassembly of the structure which can then be reassembled at a different location using the same clamps.
Claims23
A clamp capable of clamping a first member and a second member together with respect to each other in a selected clamped configuration, said clamp comprising a movable fastening element capable of movement to move the clamp between a clamping configuration and a release position by moving the fastening element about or along one axis of the fastening element, a holder for engaging with the second member to assist in retaining the second member with respect to the first member in the selected clamped configuration, and a clip cooperatively connected to the movable fastening element for engaging with the first member to assist in retaining the first and second member with respect to each other in the clamped configuration, wherein the fastening element, holder and clip are arranged with respect to each other so that when the clip is moved to the clamping configuration from the release position by movement of the fastening element the clip cooperatively engages the first member and the holder cooperatively engages the second member so as to clamp the first and second members with respect to each other in the selected clamped configuration at least in part intermediate the holder and the clip.
A method of clamping two members to each other in a selected clamped configuration using a clamp having a moveable fastening element, a holder and a clip arranged to cooperatively interact with each other to clamp the two members in the selected clamped configuration comprising the steps of locating the first and second members with respect to each other, engaging the second member with the holder, engaging the first member with the clip, moving the fastening element from a released position to a clamping position to move the clip from a release position to a clamping position thereby clamping the two members with respect to each other in the selected clamp position by the cooperative interaction of the holder, clip and fastening element.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.