Dock and dock kits
A dock and dock kit suitable for shipping from a manufacturing site to an erection site where a dock can be erected having elongated dock beams with a length that is greater than the length of any of the beams in the dock kit and the mateable beams have surfaces that are mateable and securable to each other through fasteners to form elongated dock beams with each of the mateable beams having supports thereon for receiving and holding a plurality of dock planks thereon.
This invention relates generally to docks and dock kits and, more specifically, to a universal dock kit.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONSNone
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNone
REFERENCE TO A MICROFICHE APPENDIXNone
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTIONThe length and width of lake docks vary depending on the type of lakeshore as well as the preference of the lakeshore owner. The requests for various widths and lengths of docks usually requires that docks be made to order for each application sometimes in dock lengths which preclude conventional shipping methods. That is, most conventional carriers have a maximum length for goods that they will transport or if they do transport longer length goods the costs of the transport becomes so costly it becomes uncompetitive to make and ship the dock to a customer in a remote location.
While posts for supporting a dock can be located at different positions along the dock in order to have a stable dock surface it is desirable to have a set of at least two elongated dock beams that run the entire length of the dock for supporting the dock planks thereon.
With the use of continuous elongated dock beams one is assured that the dock planks can be secured to the dock beams to form a stable walking surface. One such dock beam that is suitable for forming elongated dock beams is the Vee shaped dock beams used in docks sold by R & D Manufacturing Inc. of Forest Lake Minn.
Aside from the difficulty in shipping docks in dock kit form another difficulty is that different length dock beams need to be fabricated for each different dock length that a customer orders, which results in requiring a large inventory of dock beams in order to anticipate the orders for different length docks. On the other hand additional dock planks can easily be added to the dock kit to accommodate requests for different length docks. Thus, there is a need for a universal dock kit that could be assembled in different lengths and also avoids the shipping problems when the length of the dock beams exceed the carriers standard capacity.
The invention described herein comprises a universal dock kit for in situ formation of dock beams of various length docks without incurring the costs and shipping restrictions on oversize items and without having an excessive inventory of dock beams.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONA universal dock and universal dock kit suitable for shipping from a manufacturing site to a lake site where a dock can be erected using in situ formation of elongated dock beams wherein the elongated dock beams supporting the dock planks have a length that is greater than the length of any of the beams in the dock kit. The dock kit including mateable beams that include male and female beams that have surfaces that are mateable and securable to each other through fasteners to form the elongated dock beam with each of the shorter male and female beams having supports thereon for receiving and holding a plurality of dock planks thereon and for holding the mateable beams in an interlocked condition while stiffening the elongated beam. The use of dock beams that can be assembled into different lengths allows the same dock kit to be used for a range of different length docks by merely adding additional dock planks to the dock kit.
In the example shown in
Similarly, the second set of mateable beams 51, 52 also comprises a first vee shaped male beam 51 having a first fixed length L and a second vee shaped female beam 52 having a second fixed length L. Beam 51 includes a set of lateral flanges 53 and 54 with flange 53 having a first set of spaced apart holes 51a and flange 54 having a second set of spaced apart holes 51b which each set of spaced apart holes extending in a regular pattern. Similarly, beam 52 includes a set of lateral flanges 55 and 56 with flange 55 having a first set of spaced apart holes 52a and flange 56 having a second set of spaced apart holes 52b which each set of spaced apart holes extending in a regular pattern along the respective flanges with the spacing between holes arranged so that a portion of the male beam 51 can be overlapped and secured to the female beam 52 through the extension of fasteners such as bolts through the aligned holes in the flanges of the beams 51 and 52.
While dock beams can be manufactured in longer lengths the limitation on the length of goods that can be shipped from place to place makes it unfeasible to manufacture longer dock beams since not only is the shipping more difficult the cost of shipping increases substantially if a dock beam exceeds a certain length. Typically, most shippers limit the length of an article to a maximum of 10 feet in length, however, homeowners often need dock lengths in excess of ten feet, which requires having dock beams in excess of 10 feet.
A feature of the beams of the dock kit 10 is the use of shorter beams that can be assembled to each other to form a longer dock beam without the need for separate gusset plates or other tie members. A further feature is the ability to assemble shorter beams into a longer beam without the need of distorting the beams during the assemble of the beams into an elongated dock beam since the beams are mateable with each other thus reducing stress points on the elongated beam. A benefit of the inventions is that even though the mating beams may not be identical that when assembled the beams so closely resemble each other in physical appearance and size that the dock beams have a similar visual appearance to an observer so that the assembled dock beam appears as a continuous beam.
To appreciate the feature of the mating beams reference should be made to
Similarly,
As can be seem in
In the example shown the fixed length of the male beam and the fixed length of the female beam are each less than ten feet in order to accommodate carrier restrictions. In the in situ formation of an elongated dock beam described herein the lateral flanges of each of the male beam 12 and the female beam 11 have regular spaced holes, so the female beam 11 and the male beam 12 can be overlapped and secured to each other in a variety of different lengths as evidenced by dock beams 50, 51 and 52, which are shown in
A further benefit from the mateable beams is that the overlapping section of the beams interlock with other in surface to surface contact so that only the top fasteners 21 and 21a, which secures the flanges to each other are necessary to form the elongated dock beam from the shorter mateable beams. A further benefit of the overlapped beams is that the overlapping of the beams produce an elongated beam that is stiffer than an individual one-piece beam of similar length since the overlapped regions reinforce one another.
In the example shown the fixed length of the female beam and the fixed length of the male beam in the dock kit are the same although one may be longer than the other without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
While dock kit 10 shows examples of four dock planks 23, 24, 25, and 26, which are to be fixedly mounted transversely to the dock beams 11 and 12 with the hardware 21 shown in box 20. The actual number of dock planks included with the dock kit will depend on the ultimate length of the dock. Also included in dock kit 10 are a set of posts 15, 16, 17, and 18 with post 15 having a footpad 15a, post 16 having a footpad 16a, post 17 having a footpad 17a and post 18 having a footpad 18a. Similarly, the actual number of dock planks included with the dock kit will depend on the ultimate length of the dock. Thus a dock kit may contain more or less items with a basic dock kit generally including at least two sets of dock beams that can be assembled into longer dock beams.
Thus in one mode the invention comprises a dock kit 10 including a set of dock planks 23-26, a female beam 11 having a first fixed length L1 and an apex end 40 with an inside beam contact surface 11c and a pair of opposite extending lateral flanges, a male beam 12 having a second fixed length and an apex end with an outside beam contact surface 12c and a pair of opposite extending lateral flanges 43, 44 where the outside beam contact surface 12c of the male beam 12 engages the inside contact beam surface 11c of the female beam when the female beam and the male beam are overlapped to thereby form an elongated dock beam such as dock beam 50, 51, or 52, which is of greater length than the length of either the female beam 11 or the male beam 12 but less than the end-to-end length of the female beam 11 and the male beam 12.
Thus one aspect of the invention includes a method of manufacture of a dock kit 10 for shipment on site assembly where the assembled dock has a length L2 by forming a male beam 12 of a first length L1 and a female beam 11 of a second length L1 where the length L1 is less than L2, forming a further male beam 51 of a further length L1 and a further female beam 52 of a further length L1 where the length L1 is less than L2, forming a set of mating features such as a vee shape with an apex in each of the male beams and each of the female beams. One then prepares customer instructions on assembly of the first male beam and the first female beam to form a first dock beam of length L2 where L2 is greater than L1 and for assembling the further female beam and the further male beam to form a second dock beam of length L2 where L2 is greater than L1 including overlapping the first male beam to the first female beam to form the first elongated dock beam and securing the male beam to the female beam through fasteners 20 extending through aligned holes in flanges formed in of each of the female beam and the male beam and overlapping the further male beam to the further female beam to form the second dock beam and securing the further male beam to the further female beam through fasteners extending through aligned holes in flanges of each of the further male beam and the further female beam.
Claims
1. A dock kit including:
- a set of dock planks;
- a female beam having a first fixed length and an apex end with an inside beam contact surface and a pair of opposite extending lateral flanges;
- a male beam having a second fixed length and an apex end with an outside beam contact surface and a pair of opposite extending lateral flanges where the outside beam contact surface of the male beam engages the inside contact beam surface of the female beam when the female beam and the male beam are overlapped to thereby form a dock beam of greater length than the length of either the female beam or the male beam but less than the end-to-end length of the female beam and the male beam; and
- a set of fasteners for securing the lateral flanges of the male beam to the lateral flanges of the female beam when the male beam and the female beam are located in an overlapped condition.
2. The dock kit of claim 1 wherein the female beam and the male beam each have a vee shape and the dock kit includes at least two male beams and at least two female beams.
3. The dock kit of claim 2 wherein the apex end of the female beam has an inside radius of curvature and the apex end of male beam has an external radius of curvature where the external radius of curvature of the male beam is equal or less than the inside radius of curvature of the female beam.
4. The dock kit of claim 2 wherein the first fixed length and the second fixed length are ten feet or less.
5. The dock kit of claim 1 wherein the lateral flanges of each of the male beam and the female beam have regular spaced hole to permit the female and the male beam to be overlapped and secured to each other with top fasteners to thereby form an elongated dock beam in a variety of different lengths equal or greater than a length of either the male or the female beam.
6. The dock kit of claim 1 wherein the male beam is a metal male beam and the female beam is a metal female beam.
7. the dock kit of claim 1 wherein the fixed length of the female beam and the fixed length of the male beam are the same and the length of a dock assembly from the dock kit can be increased by adding additional dock planks to the dock kit while maintain the same length of the male beam and the female beam in the dock kit.
8. A dock comprising:
- a first mateable beam having a fixed length and a surface for supporting a dock plank thereon;
- a second mateable beam having a fixed length and a surface for supporting a dock plank thereon with said first mateable beam mateable to said second mateable beam in an overlapping condition to thereby form a dock beam having a length longer then the length of either of the first mateable beam or the second mateable beam but less than an end to end length of the first mateable beam and the second mateable beam;
- a third mateable beam having a fixed length and a surface for supporting a dock plank thereon;
- a fourth mateable beam having a fixed length and a surface for supporting a dock plank thereon with said third mateable beam mateable to said fourth mateable beam in an overlapping condition to form a second dock beam having a length longer then the length of either of the third mateable beam or the fourth mateable beam.
9. The dock of claim 8 wherein each of the mateable beams have a vee shape.
10. The dock of claim 8 wherein the first and second mateable beams comprise male and female beams secured to each other through a set of fastener extending through aligned holes in the surface for supporting the dock plank.
11. The dock of claim 10 wherein the set of top fasteners is a sole means of securing the male beam to the female beam.
12. The dock of claim 11 wherein a surface to surface contact between the male beam and the female beam maintains the female beam and the male beam in axial alignment with each other.
13. The dock kit of claim 8 wherein the first mateable beam and the second mateable are secured to each other through a top fastener extending through aligned holes in the surface for supporting the dock plank with the first mateable beam and the second mateable beam in surface to surface contact on an overlapped portion to thereby maintain the mateable members in alignment with each other through the shape and relationship of the mateable members.
14. The dock kit of claim 8 wherein the first mateable beam and the second mateable beam have a length of 10 feet or less and the first mateable beam and the second mateable beam may be assembled into dock beams ranging in length from 11 feet to 18 feet.
15. The method of manufacture of a dock kit for shipment to remote location for on site assembly where the assembled dock has a length L2:
- forming a first male beam of a first length L1 and a first female beam of a second length L1 where the length L1 is less than L2;
- forming a further male beam of a further length L1 and a further female beam of a further length L1 where the length L1 is less than L2;
- forming a set of mating features in each of the male beams and each of the female beam;
- preparing instructions on assembly of first male beam and the first female beam to form a first dock beam of length L2 where L2 is greater than L1 and for assembling the further female beam and the further male beam to form a second dock beam of length L2 where L2is greater than L1.
16. The method of claim 15 wherein the instructions include the steps:
- overlapping the first male beam to the first female beam to form the first dock beam and securing the first male beam to the first female beam through fasteners extending through aligned holes in flanges of each of the first female beam and the first male beam; and
- overlapping the further male beam to the further female beam to form the second dock beam and securing the further male beam to the further female beam through fasteners extending through aligned holes in flanges of each of the further male beam and the further female beam.
17. The method of claim 15 where the first male beam of a first length L1 and the first female beam of a second length L1 are different from one another.
18. The method of claim 17 wherein the first male beam is made of the first length L1 and a second female beam of a second length L1 are each less than an end to end length of the first male beam of the first length L1 and the second female beam of the second length L1.
19. The method of claim 18 wherein each of the male and female beams are formed in a vee shape from a single sheet of metal.
20. The method of claim 19 wherein each of the male and female beams are formed with a set of lateral flanges for overlapping each other and for supporting a set of dock planks thereon and for securing each of the male and female beams to each other.
Type: Application
Filed: Oct 24, 2011
Publication Date: Apr 25, 2013
Inventor: Richard S. Johnson (North Branch, MN)
Application Number: 13/317,624