Building guard rail scaffold assembly

A guard rail assembly member for employment in a guard rail scaffold assembly for mounting around an above ground structure surface to be guarded so as to protect an operator on the guarded surface against falling therefrom;

• wherein:
• such a scaffold assembly when installed comprises a plurality of transversely spaced vertically extending guard rail assembly members, a plurality of elongated horizontally extending guard rails each extending between and supported by a respective pair of immediately adjacent guard rail assembly members, and a plurality of fastener pads, one for each guard rail assembly member, each fastener pad comprising a respective pad separable connector part that when the guard rail scaffold assembly is installed on the structure is adapted to be fastened to a fastener engagement area of a structure surface selected from a wall surface thereof and the guarded surface;
• wherein:
• the guard rail assembly member comprises a vertically extending elongated base member comprising a base member separable connector part for cooperative engagement with a respective pad separable connector part to form therewith a pivotable separable connector having a pivot axis that when the scaffold assembly is installed will extend horizontal and parallel to the structure surface fastener engagement area to which the respective fastener pad is fastened, and about which when the scaffold assembly is installed the base member will be pivotable relative to the guarded surface, the base member also being pivotable about the pivot axis for adjustment of its direction of elongation so that the said direction can be made to extend at least approximately parallel to the fastener engagement area;
• the guard rail assembly member also comprises an elongated guard rail support member having a corresponding direction of elongation and connected to the base member so as to extend when the scaffold assembly is installed above the guarded surface with the directions of elongation of the elongated base member and the guard rail support member in the same flat plane which will extend perpendicular to the guarded surface, the guard rail support member having at least one guard rail retainer member adapted to receive a respective horizontally extending guard rail to retain it at a required distance above the guarded surface;
• and
• the guard rail assembly member further comprises two wall surface engaging members on the elongated base member both spaced from the pivot axis on opposite sides thereof and adapted when the scaffold assembly is installed to engage respective correspondingly spaced engagement areas of the same selected structure surface for maintaining the direction of elongation of the base member parallel to the fastener engagement area;
• wherein:
• the last-mentioned spaced engagement areas will also constitute respective spaced pivot areas about which the base member will be urged to pivot when a guard rail that the guard rail assembly member supports is subjected to a force acting respectively outward away from or inward toward the wall surface;
• wherein:
• an outward force applied to such a guard rail will urge the base member for pivoting movement at the corresponding pivot area away from the selected structure surface to which the elongated base member is fastened, thereby producing a corresponding pivoting force moment at the respective pivot area, and an inward force will urge the elongated base member for pivoting movement at the respective pivot area away from the selected structure surface, thereby producing a corresponding pivoting force moment at the respective pivot area;
• and wherein:
• the force that will be applied to the pivotal separable connector as the result of an inward or an outward force will thereby be applied thereto as a maximum of tension force acting outward at least approximately perpendicularly to the fastener engagement area and as a minimum of peeling force acting parallel to the fastener engagement area.