Abstract: A joint device has a fastening bolt provided with a first external threaded part to engage a screw hole of a node, a polygonal boss slidably engaged with a sleeve, a third external threaded part and a second reversely threaded part engaged with an anchor nut in a steel pipe. The third part engages with an internal threaded part on the inner face of a bore in an end cap welded on the end of the steel pipe so that the first part can be advanced to the node or retracted into the sleeve. The sleeve has a stopper on the corners of the polygonal hole thereof so that it is prevented from coming off the fastening bolt. The device enables a connection of a steel pipe and a node even where the pipe is inclined or perpendicular to the ground.

Abstract: A double steel pipe structural member comprises an external pipe and an internal pipe. The external pipe is provided with a thin steel pipe part and thick steel pipe parts formed at each of the ends of the thin part. The thickness of the thick part is 1.5 to 1.7 times the thickness of the thin part. The internal pipe is disposed so as to overlap not only with the thin part but with the thick part of the external pipe. The internal pipe behaves as a bending resistant pipe against the external pipe so that the external pipe may deform plastically in the longitudinal direction thereof after an axial compressive force exceeds the yield strength of the external pipe. The deformation is axially symmetrical along the outer surface of the internal pipe. A truss structure including the double steel pipe, is prevented from immediately collapsing when a building having the truss structure encounters a big earthquake or the like.

Abstract: A device for joining elongate structure members to connector nodes includes a bolt having oppositely threaded ends for threaded engagement with a nut at one end and a connector node at the other end. Between its threaded ends the bolt has a cylindrical portion and a torque transmitting portion. An externally threaded bolt-support member engageable with internal threads at the end of the structure member slidingly receives the cylindrical portion of the bolt while a sleeve with an internal aperture non-rotatably but slidingly receives the torque-transmitting portion of the bolt. In use, the nut prevents the bolt from pulling out of the bolt-support member while external torque applied to the sleeve tightens the structure member to the connector node. An elastic sealing member around the bolt is squeezed between the connector node and the torque-transmitting portion of the bolt and this may be supplemented by sealing material applied at the interface between the sleeve and the structure member end.