Sandbag filling aid
OwnerAndrew J. Spagnoloinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A new and improved sandbag filling aid for supporting a sandbag in an upright position and providing a fill-chute to enable a single person to rapidly and efficiently fill sandbags during emergency situations, the sandbag filling aid comprising an upright tubular frame structure having left and right parallel support columns, a first horizontal hoop member, a second horizontal hoop member, whereby a sandbag within the first hoop may be clamped in place by pivoting the second hoop downwardly until it contacts the sandbag, and an arcuate fill-chute member extending upwardly and slightly outwardly from the second hoop member such that when the second hoop member is positioned for clamping a sandbag the chute will catch and direct hastily shovelled or thrown sand into the mouth of the sandbag.
Claims5
A new and improved sandbag filling aid for supporting a sandbag in an upright position and providing a fill-chute to enable a single person to rapidly and efficiently fill sandbags during emergency situations, the sandbag filling aid comprising:
- an open frame having integral parallel left and right support columns, the frame being formed of rigid structural material such as tubular steel, the columns being supported in a generally upright position and connected together at their lower ends by an integral horizontal arcuate base member, the columns also being fixedly connected together at their upper ends by top and bottom horizontal cross-bar members, the columns being angled slightly away from vertical in the direction of the base member such that the frame's center of gravity on a horizontal plane coincides with the frame's geometric center thereby providing a stable tip-resistant structure;
- a first horizontal hoop formed of rigid structural material such as steel band, the first horizontal hoop having a diameter slightly smaller than the diameter of the mouth of a sandbag wherein the sandbag may be inserted and slightly overlapped such as to hold the sandbag in an upright open position, the first horizontal hoop being fixedly tangentially connected to the center of the bottom cross-bar member such that it is centered between the left and right support columns and is also generally centered over the arcuate base member;
- and
- a second horizontal hoop formed of the same material as the first horizontal hoop, the second horizontal hoop having a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the mouth of a sandbag, the second horizontal hoop being hingedly tangentially connected to the center of the top cross-bar member such that it is centered over the first horizontal hoop whereby the sandbag inserted into the first hoop may be removedly clamped between the first and second horizontal hoops, the second horizontal hoop also having an semi-cylindrical outwardly flaring chute member fixedly coaxially connected thereto, the chute member extending upwardly from the circumference of the second horizontal hoop whereby hastily shovelled or thrown sand is caught and directed into the open mouth of the sandbag clamped into the sandbag filling aid.
A new and improved sandbag filling aid for supporting a sandbag in an upright position and providing a fill-chute to enable a single person to rapidly and efficiently fill sandbags during emergency situations, the sandbag filling aid comprising:
- an upright tubular frame structure having left and right parallel support columns, the support columns being generally vertical, the support columns having an integral horizontal arcuate base member protruding laterally from and interconnecting the bottom ends of the support columns, the support columns also having an identical pair of vertically spaced apart cross-bar members fixedly laterally connected between the upper ends of the support columns;
- a first horizontal hoop member fixedly tangentially connected to the center of the lower cross-bar member wherein a sandbag may be inserted;
- a second horizontal hoop member hingedly tangentially connected to the center of the upper cross-bar member coaxially with the first hoop member whereby a sandbag within the first hoop may be clamped in place by rotating the second hoop downward until it contacts the sandbag;
- and
- an arcuate fill-chute member extending upwardly and slightly outwardly from the second hoop member such that when the second hoop member is positioned for clamping a sandbag the chute will catch and direct hastily thrown sand into the mouth of the sandbag.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.