Safety gate and guard for such a gate

#This invention relates to a safety guard for incorporating in or attachment to a gate that is used to close the opening in the guard rail of a walkway and the like.

#In many industrial plants, walkways or catwalks provide access for workers to traverse from one area of the plant to another, for example to provide access to various equipment throughout the plant. Unfortunately, the walkways also provide locations from which a worker could fall to a lower level. In order to make them safer, such walkways are usually provided with guard rails to help prevent a worker from accidentally stepping off the side of the walkway and falling. For various reasons, however, it is necessary to provide openings in the guard rails. Usually, for example, one or more ladders or stairs lead from the walkway to a lower level. Openings are provided in the guard rails so that a person can move from the ladders or stairs onto the walkway and vice versa. Such openings in the guard rails are a danger to personnel using the walkway.

#In U.S. Pat. No. 6,094,863, Hardy L. LaCook, Jr. taught an attachment for a safety gate that was positioned to close the opening in a catwalk to allow access to and from a ladder or stairs. The gate was urged to the closed position by biasing means, such as springs. An attachment was provided for connecting to the lower side of existing gates to prevent workmen using the catwalk from slipping under the gate and falling into the opening for stairs or a ladder.

#FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a gate including the safety guard of this invention.

#FIG. 2 is an top view of the portion of the gate of FIG. 1 showing the guard of this invention attached to the gate along with the stop. The top view of FIG. 2 is taken along section lines 2—2 of FIG. 1.

#FIG. 3 is an isometric view of the guard of this invention.

#Openings are required in guard rails for many reasons, one of the most common being to provide access to ladders and stairs, for example. FIG. 1 shows an access opening structure 10 wherein a ladder 12 is provided for personnel moving up to or down from a walkway or catwalk 14. To move between the ladder and the walkway, a person must move through an opening 16 framed by the ladder 12 on one side and a guard rail 18 on the other. An arcuate back guard 20 provides additional structural stiffness while extending the guard rail 18 to the ladder 12. The guard rail 18 is typically built like a fence with spaced-apart posts, such as a post 22, and longitudinally extending rails, such as rails 24 and 26, that extend between the posts and form a fence to help prevent personnel from falling off the side of the walkway. The guard rail usually includes a toe-plate 28 that extends between the guard fail posts just above the walkway to prevent a person's foot from slipping off the walkway between the lower rail 26 and the walkway.

#The gate of this invention is depicted in FIG. 1 as extending substantially across the opening 16. The gate includes a gate member 30 and a mounting structure for mounting the gate member 30 for movement between a first shut position, thereby closing the opening, and a second position, allowing personnel to pass through the opening. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the gate member 30 is generally U-shaped. A spacer plate 32 (see FIGS. 2 and 4) extends between the two legs of the gate member 30 to add rigidity to the gate member. A guard 34, in accordance with this invention, extends between the upper and lower legs of the gate member 30, and is mounted for movement with the gate member as described below. Among its many functions, the guard 34 shields mounting hardware from exposure to loose hanging items, such as clothing and it provides a placard for the display of warnings to those passing through the gate. The guard also prevents pinching of fingers and the like between the elements of the gate stop, as described below.

#FIG. 2 illustrates the preferred embodiment of the guard of this invention and how it is preferably mounted to the guard rail 22. It will be immediately apparent to those of skill in the art that the guard rail may also extend in the same general direction as the orientation of the gate member, or other angle. The right angle between the guard rail and the gate member are only illustrative. A mounting plate 36 has an elongated opening 38 to receive threaded ends of a U-bolt 40 to clamp the mounting plate to the post 22 of the guard rail in the desired position above the walkway 14. To provide more rigidity to the support for the gate, channels 42 and 44 are pulled together on opposite sides of the vertical flanges of the rails 24 and 26 by bolts 46 to clamp the plate to the rails at a point spaced from the U-bolt 40.