fiber and resin composite structural members

Abstract

A mooring whip made from a fiber reinforced bar is disclosed. The bar has an upper surface and a lower surface. A tapered, wedge shaped piece including the lower surface is removed to produce a tapered whip in which reinforcing fibers adjacent to the upper surface remain intact along the length of the whip. A mooring whip base comprising a receiver for receiving the base of the mooring whip is disclosed. The receiver is mounted for pivotal movement between two walls.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention is a structural member made of a resin and fiber composite material. More particularly, the invention is a structural member that has a cross section that varies along its length and its flexural stiffness varies correspondingly along its length. The structural member can be produced by removing a tapered piece, preferably a wedge-shaped piece, from an untapered piece of stock, preferably a rectangular or square prism. It is especially well suited for use as a mooring whip.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Mooring whips have, traditionally, been produced from cylindrical fiber and resin composite structural members made by a pultrusion process, with longitudinally extending fibers embedded in a resin matrix. The pultruded cylinder is then tapered to produce a structure like the one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,831 (Fulton) with a rigid base, at one end, and a reduced diameter flexible tip at the other end, with a cross section that varies along its length from biggest at the base to smallest at the tip. Tapering a pultruded fiber reinforced rod involves a centerless grinding operation, although the Fulton patent is silent about the tapering process applied to the rod described in his patent. The centerless grinding operation, however, cuts through fibers around the periphery of the rod and this weakens the structure. Centerless grinding also produces vast amounts of waste in the form of sludge, i.e., water and dust, which, in turn, produces disposal problems of large magnitude.

Mooring whips are commercially available under the Overton's trademark Dockmate and under the Taylor Made Group's Boatguard trademark. These whips are tapered rods of fiber reinforced resin, virtually unchanged from the days of Fulton.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The instant invention is based upon the discovery of a new mooring whip construction and a new mooring whip base. In its simplest embodiment, the mooring whip is a fiber reinforced bar having an upper surface and a lower surface. A wedge shaped piece including the lower surface is removed to produce a tapered whip in which reinforcing fibers adjacent to the upper surface remain intact. The base comprises a receiver for receiving the base of the mooring whip and the receiver is mounted for pivotal movement between two walls.

It is, therefore, an object of the invention to provide an improved flexible tapered fiber reinforced resin member suitable for use as a mooring whip.

It is another object to provide such a member in which reinforcing fibers adjacent to an upper surface are undisturbed over the length of the member.

It is a further object of the invention to provide an improved mooring whip made of such a member.

It is yet a further object of the invention to provide an improved mooring whip base for mounting a mooring whip.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent to one skilled in the art from the description herein, reference being made to the attached drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a view showing a boat moored to a pair of one piece mooring whips, according to one embodiment of the invention, with the whips secured to supports which are, in turn, secured to a dock.

FIG. 2a is a perspective view of a one-piece mooring whip according to the invention.

FIG. 2b is a second perspective view of the one-piece mooring whip shown in FIG. 2a.

FIG. 3 is a side view of a two piece mooring whip according to the invention.

FIG. 4 is a cross sectional view of the mooring whip shown in FIG. 3 taken along the line 4-4.

FIG. 5 is a side view of a mooring whip base showing the mooring whip supported therein.

FIG. 6 is an end view of the mooring whip base shown in FIG. 5.

FIG. 7 is a cross sectional view of another embodiment of a mooring whip according to the invention.

FIG. 8 is a cross sectional view of yet another embodiment of a mooring whip according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Referring now in more detail to the drawing figures and especially to FIG. 1, each of two mooring whips indicated generally at 10 comprises a first, base end 12 and a second, free end 14. The base ends 12 are supported in bases, indicated generally at 16, which are secured to a dock D. The free ends 14 support fittings 18 including guides 20 slidingly supporting lines indicated at L. One end of each of the lines L is connected to or tied off at the bow or the stern of a boat B and the other end of each of the lines L is tied off to a cleat or the like, adjacent to the dock D, for example. There is illustrated an example of such a cleat 22 which is mounted on the whips 10, near the first base end 12. Alternatively, the line L can be tied off to a cleat (not shown) mounted directly on the dock or any other secure structure.

The mooring whips 10 are flexible and thus, even when the first, base ends 12 are fixed, the whips 10 are able to flex to accommodate vertical movement of the free ends 22 of the whips 10 due to variations in the tension in the lines L which are secured to a vessel on the water. Such tension variations might come at regular intervals for example, in salt water, when the tide rises and falls, raising and lowering the vessel as she sits in the water. Such tension variations may also arise on fresh water lakes from evaporation or heavy rainfall and on rivers from variations in the river's gage height. Of course, waves on any water will vary the tension in the mooring lines L, too.

A blank 30 produced from a stock bar which was a right square prism made from a fiber and resin composite is shown in FIGS. 2a and 2b. The stock bar had a uniform cross-section, and was preferably produced by a pultrusion process wherein continuous fibers are dipped in resin and pulled through a die which is shaped to give the pultruded stock, in this case, its square cross section. The die is heated to cause or promote polymerization of the resin. The process produces longitudinally extending pultrusions with reinforcing fibers extending longitudinally in the products. The cross-sectional shape of longitudinally extending products produced by pultrusion is determined by the shape of the opening in the die or dies through which the resin dipped fibers pass. Pultrusion has been practiced for decades to produce fiber reinforced composite materials with uniform cross-sections and need not be described here further.

The blank 30 was produced from the stock bar by the removal of a geometric wedge 32 from the stock bar. Referring to FIGS. 2a and 2b, the geometric wedge 32 is shown in dot-dot-dash lines. Accordingly, the blank 30 is represented by the solid lines, and the stock bar is shown when the dot-dot-dash lines replace the adjacent solid lines.

The stock bar, cut from a pultrusion, has four opposed rectangular faces, one of which, designated 34 in FIGS. 2a and 2b, is also a rectangular surface in the blank 30. The other three of the opposed rectangular faces of the blank 30, designated 35, 36, and 37, have the rectangular shape adjacent one end of the blank, but all three have been cut by the cutting of the stock bar to remove the wedge 32. The blank 30 is weakened as a consequence of its being cut to remove the wedge 32. Specifically, reinforcing fibers that were adjacent to the side 35 have been cut. However, the resin and longitudinally extending reinforcing fibers adjacent to the side 34 remain intact. The stock bar also has two opposed ends, one of which, designated 38 in FIGS. 2a and 2b, is also an end of the blank 30. The other end, however, designated 40, is smaller because of the taper of the blank 30. The surface 34 is also referred to as an upper surface because, in the mooring whip application, the surface 34 faces generally upwardly in use. The removal of the wedge 32, which is tapered, causes the blank 30 to be tapered, i.e., thicker at the end 38 and thinner at the end 40. The wedge 32 is shorter than the stock bar and, as a result, a portion of the blank adjacent to the end 38 is not tapered. The wedge 32 is preferably removed by cutting and a saw is a preferred cutter for this operation. Unlike centerless grinding, however, cutting with a saw to remove a tapered wedge 32 to create a tapered shaped blank 30 does not reduce to dust all of the removed material. Indeed, the wedge 32 becomes scrap but is much more easily disposed of than the sludge (water and dust) produced by the centerless grinding operations previously used to produce tapered mooring whips.

When the wedge 32 is removed, as by cutting, the saw will cut the longitudinally extending fibers that are adjacent to the surface 35. However, the fibers adjacent to the surface 34 will remain intact. Accordingly, when the thick end of the blank 30, adjacent to the end face 38, is fixed and a force is applied to the thin end, adjacent to the end face 40, in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2b, the blank 30 will bend and the undisturbed, longitudinally extending reinforcing fibers (not shown) that are adjacent to the upper surface 34, will be placed into tension, a condition in which they will contribute as much as they possibly can to the structural integrity of the blank 30. In contrast, in the prior art case where a uniformly cross-sectioned fiber reinforced rod is subjected to centerless grinding, the longitudinally extending fibers adjacent to the outer, upwardly facing surface are all going to be cut, thereby preventing them from reinforcing the tapered rod that is produced.

Turning now to FIG. 3, an extended mooring whip 50 is shown and it is a composite mooring whip consisting of a first base section 52 and a tip section 54. The base section 52 is connected to the tip section 54 through a coupler 56 which grips a portion of the base section 52 as well as a portion of the tip section 54. Practical considerations surrounding the modern transportation and warehousing of products make it practical to keep products under eight feet in length. However, in many applications, mooring whips should have a total length that significantly exceeds eight feet. It is preferred in those cases to produce the mooring whip in two or more sections and join the sections together on site.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 3, the base section 52 is not tapered and the tip section 54 is tapered over most of its length. A portion 58 of the base section 52 is received in the coupler 56. An untapered portion 60 of the tip section 54 is also received in the coupler 56. The coupler 56 comprises a channel that is U-shaped, in cross-section, as shown in FIG. 4. A plurality of headed bolts 62, one of which is shown in FIG. 4, each has a threaded shaft 64 which extends through openings in the coupler 56 and cooperates with a nut 66 to clamp the coupler 56 around the portions 58 and 60 of the sections 52 and 54, thereby securing each section 52 and 54 to the coupler 56 and, therethrough, to each other. A thread adhesive or anti-reversing nuts could be used. In the cross-section of portion 58 of section 52, shown in FIG. 4, longitudinally extending reinforcing fibers 68 embedded in a resin matrix indicated at 70 can be seen.

Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, a base, indicated generally at 80 is illustrated and it is operable to support a mooring whip 82 in a plurality of angular positions. The base 80 comprises a first wall 84 and a second wall 86 and they are secured to a board Bd through flanges 88 and 90, respectively, by fasteners 92. The walls 84 and 86 are secured to each other by assemblies 94 which comprise a first bolt 96, a second bolt 98 and an internally threaded sleeve 100. The bolts 96 extend through holes 102 in the first wall 84 and engage sleeves 100 and the bolts 98 extend through corresponding holes (not shown) in the second wall 86 and engage sleeves 100.

A base end 104 of the whip 82 is secured to and supported in a U-shaped receiver 106 to which a sleeve 108 is secured as by welding. A pin 110 is supported on the walls 84 and 86 and, in turn, the pin 110 supports the sleeve 108, the receiver 106 and the base end 104 of the whip 82 for pivotal movement to an angular position so that the free end (not shown) of the whip 82 is positioned at a desired location over the water. The base of the whip 82 is held fast in the receiver by a threaded fastener 111. Once the desired angular position for the whip 82 is determined, it can be supported in that position with a whip rest which comprises a wheel which comprises a resilient outer wheel 112 mounted on a hub 113 which, in turn, is mounted on a clevis pin 114 which, in turn, is supported on the walls 84 and 86 in a hole 102 in wall 84 and a corresponding hole (not shown) in the wall 86. A cotter pin 116 releasably holds the clevis pin 114 in place. The number of holes 102 in wall 84 (and corresponding holes in wall 86) provides for a great deal of adjustability when setting the angle of the whip 82. The wheel 112 is made of a resilient material to absorb forces transmitted through the whip 82.

When a mooring whip according to the invention is set into a base, at an angle, the whip will have at least one surface facing generally upwardly. This surface may be flat or not. It may be simple or compound. According to the invention, this surface, which will be referred to herein as an upper surface, will have longitudinally extending, uninterrupted, reinforcing fibers adjacent to it and will not have interrupted reinforcing fibers next to it. At least a portion of the whip will be tapered and the whip may be used in other applications where flexural strength is desired in a structure which is more flexible at its tip than at its base. For example, a fishing rod could be constructed from a suitably sized blank which has been tapered by the removal of a wedge shaped or otherwise tapered piece.

Alternative cross sections for the whip or a stock bar from which a whip in accordance with the invention can be produced are shown in FIGS. 7 and 8. The flat shape of the surface 34 (FIG. 2) of the whip 10 is not essential to the performance of the whip, but the flat shape is easy to produce, and performs satisfactorily. FIGS. 7 and 8 show alternate cross sections for fiber reinforced bars 118 and 120 from which mooring whips, tapered or partially tapered as described above, can be produced.

It will be appreciated that considerable variation from the specific details of the invention as disclosed above is possible without departing from the spirit and scope thereof as defined in the following claims.

Claims

1. An article of manufacture comprising a blank, said blank being one which is produced by

cutting a bar from continuously produced fiber reinforced resin bar stock having longitudinally extending reinforcing fibers and having a substantially uniform cross-section, said bar having an upper surface and a lower surface,

removing a longitudinally extending tapered piece from said bar, which piece includes a substantial portion of said lower surface, to produce said blank

wherein said upper surface of said bar constitutes an upper surface of said blank and

wherein longitudinally extending fibers adjacent to said upper surface of said blank are undisturbed and wherein longitudinally extending fibers that were adjacent to said lower surface of said bar have been cut.

2. The article claimed in claim 1 wherein said uniform cross section is rectangular.

3. The article claimed in claim 1 wherein said uniform cross section is square.

4. The article claimed in claim 1 wherein said tapered piece is at least half as long as said bar.

5. The article claimed in claim 1 wherein said tapered piece is shorter than said blank.

6. The article claimed in claim 1 in which said bar is untapered along a first portion of its length and is tapered along a second portion of its length.

7. The article claimed in claim 6 wherein said second portion is longer than said first portion.

8. A mooring whip comprising the blank claimed in claim 1 mounted in a base with said upper surface facing generally upwardly.

9. A mooring whip comprising the blank claimed in claim 6 mounted in a base with said upper surface facing generally upwardly.

10. A mooring whip comprising the blank claimed in claim 7 mounted in a base with said upper surface facing generally upwardly.