Anti-Breach Bollard

Abstract

An anti-breach bollard includes a steel hollow structural section (HSS) member having an interior and a longitudinal axis, and an elongated tubular-shaped structure disposed in the interior and extending generally parallel with the longitudinal axis, the elongated tubular-shaped structure having axially spaced openings.

Description

BACKGROUND

This section provides background information to facilitate a better understanding of the various aspects of the disclosure. It should be understood that the statements in this section of this document are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.

Perimeter security fences are often used to separate a protected area from a threat side. Commonly these perimeter security fences are constructed of wire mesh topped with barbed wire and the like. Additional means, such as electric lines, video monitoring, motion sensors, guard dogs, and armed guard stations are commonly used with the structural fence to prevent and deter breaches. However, these common perimeter security fences and deterrents are not feasible for all circumstances, in particular, where long expanses of security fencing are required and that may be located long distances from security enforcement personnel.

SUMMARY

An exemplary anti-breach bollard includes a steel hollow structural section (HSS) member having an interior and a longitudinal axis and an elongated tubular-shaped structure disposed in the interior and extending generally parallel with the longitudinal axis, the elongated tubular-shaped structure having axially spaced openings.

Another exemplary anti-breach bollard includes a steel hollow structural section (HSS) member having an interior and an elongated tubular-shaped wire screen disposed in the interior.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used as an aid in limiting the scope of claimed subject matter.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The disclosure is best understood from the following detailed description when read with the accompanying figures. It is emphasized that, in accordance with standard practice in the industry, various features are not drawn to scale. In fact, the dimensions of various features may be arbitrarily increased or reduced for clarity of discussion. As will be understood by those skilled in the art with the benefit of this disclosure, elements and arrangements of the various figures can be used together and in configurations not specifically illustrated without departing from the scope of this disclosure.

FIG. 1 illustrates exemplary anti-breach bollards assembled in a bollard fence or wall.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary tubular-shaped structure formed of a coiled member.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary tubular-shaped structure formed of a wire screen.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

FIG. 5 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

FIG. 8 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

FIG. 9 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

FIG. 10 is a sectional view of an exemplary anti-breach bollard.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

It is to be understood that the following disclosure provides many different embodiments, or examples, for implementing different features of various illustrative embodiments. Specific examples of components and arrangements are described below to simplify the disclosure. These are, of course, merely examples and are not intended to be limiting. For example, a figure may illustrate an exemplary embodiment with multiple features or combinations of features that are not required in one or more other embodiments and thus a figure may disclose one or more embodiments that have fewer features or a different combination of features than the illustrated embodiment. Embodiments may include some but not all the features illustrated in a figure and some embodiments may combine features illustrated in one figure with features illustrated in another figure. Therefore, combinations of features disclosed in the following detailed description may not be necessary to practice the teachings in the broadest sense and are instead merely to describe particularly representative examples. In addition, the disclosure may repeat reference numerals and/or letters in the various examples. This repetition is for the purpose of simplicity and clarity and does not itself dictate a relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.

Bollard fences, or walls, are utilized to provide a security perimeter to prevent or limit the ability of vehicles and pedestrians to enter a protected area. Embodiments of the bollard fence are suitable for use in locations that are not in physical view of security personnel and locations requiring lengthy response times to attempted breaches. The bollard fence may be deployed, for example, at airports, rail stations, seaports, manufacturing facilities, warehouses, refineries, power generation facilities, and national border crossings. Exemplary bollard fences are erected along the United States and Mexico border.

Bollard fences are configured to limit the ability of a person to cut or otherwise manually open holes through the bollard fence, for example of greater than about twelve inches, within a threshold time. Anti-breach bollards are disclosed herein for use with bollard fences. In an exemplary embodiment the anti-breach bollard prevents, deters, and/or delays the creation of a physical breach of the bollard using a sledgehammer, car jack, pickaxe, chisel, battery operated impact tools, battery operated cutting tools, Oxy/acetylene torch, or other similar hand-held tools. In accordance with an embodiment, the threshold time is thirty minutes. In an exemplary embodiment, the threshold time is one-hour. In an exemplary embodiment, the threshold time is four-hours. In accordance with embodiments, the threshold time is associated with anti-breach bollards arranged side-by-side in a bollard fence, accordingly a breach may require penetrating two or more adjacent anti-breach bollards.

Prior art anti-breach type bollards are filled with concrete, or grout, and include one or more vertically extending straight reinforcement bars. For example, a first iteration of bollards included a single vertical rebar, e.g., #6 rebar, generally centered in the outer steel pipe and set in grout. In a second iteration, to increase the cut through time, two vertical rebar members were positioned in the grout filled steel pipe and the size of the rebar was increased for example to #8 rebar. US published patent application 2018/0347227 discloses additional examples of anti-breach bollards invented by William H. Neusch.

FIG. 1 illustrates a section 3 of an exemplary bollard fence or wall 10, generally denoted by the numeral 10, incorporating a plurality of anti-breach bollards 110. Bollard fence 10 comprises a plurality of fence sections 3 positioned side by side. The illustrated fence section 3 may be pre-formed, on- or off-site, prior to installation in the ground. The exemplary bollard fence section 3 includes a base 12, e.g., a concrete base, and a plurality of laterally spaced apart anti-breach bollards 110 having bottom ends 16 secured in base 12. Exemplary anti-breach bollard 110 include a steel outer tubular 112 disposing an elongated tubular-shaped structure 114. Elongated tubular-shaped structure 114 extends generally parallel with the longitudinal axis 7 of outer tubular 112. Adjacent bollards 110 are separated by a gap 14, for example about four inches, that is large enough to allow for visual sight through the fence, passage of flowing water and small animals, and small enough to prevent, or mitigate against, a person from squeezing through the gap. Adjacent bollards 110 may be laterally interconnected at their upper ends 18 to provide structural support to a severed bollard against bending and tipping. According to an embodiment, at least two adjacent bollards are laterally interconnected. In an exemplary embodiment, three or more adjacent bollards are laterally interconnected. A member 20, generally referred to as a header, laterally interconnects upper ends 18 of the adjacent bollards 110. In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1, header 20 fixedly connects the adjacent bollards 110 laterally and axially relative to one another. For example, a fixed header 20 may be a metal piece, such as angle iron, welded to the respective adjacent bollards 110.

In the illustrated example, outer tubular 112 has a length of about fifteen to twenty feet. For example, outer tubular 112 extends at least twelve feet above grade level 5. Internal tubular-shaped structure 114 may have a length less than the length of outer tubular 112. For example, internal tubular-shaped structure 114 may have a length to from about, or below, grade to ten or more feet above grade.

The exemplary anti-breach bollards 110 disclosed herein reduce the quantity of steel used inside of each bollard structure relative to the current bollards used for example in the Mexico-US border wall. A common manner of breaching the border wall is to cut a window, e.g., 4-by-6 inch, in the outer tubular, chip out the grout, and then cut the internal vertical extending rebar.

With reference in particular to FIGS. 2 and 3, tubular-shaped structure 114 has a central axis 118 and an intermittently open circumference 120. Tubular-shaped structure 114 has, or forms, openings 122 spaced axially along its length. In use, openings 122 are spaced vertically. In an exemplary embodiment, tubular-shaped structure is metal, however, other material such as composite or other materials that may resist cutting with a blade and/or a torch may be used. Tubular-shaped is not limited to circles and includes without limitation square, rectangular, triangular, and polygon. Tubular-shaped structure 114 is not necessary to provide structural strength to the bollard, or to serve as a structural member of the bollard or the bollard wall, but to increase cut-through time.

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary elongated tubular-shaped structure 114 constructed of a coiled metal bar 124 having openings 122 between the adjacent turns spaced axially. The coil shape may increase cut-through time for example by presenting multiple sections that require cutting and presenting an angled profile to a blade, and/or increasing the difficulty in chipping away of internal grout. In a non-limiting example, tubular-shaped structure is formed of coiled #3 rebar. In some example, rebar larger than #3 rebar may be used.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary elongated tubular structure 114 constructed of wire screen 126 having openings 122. Wire screen 126 is arranged in a tubular shape and may be formed in various cross-sectional shapes (circumferential shapes), such as, and without limitation, square, rectangular, triangular, and polygons. The wire screen, or mesh, tubular-shaped structure may significantly reduce the amount of internal steel, e.g., pounds/foot, relative to prior art anti-breech type bollards while increasing cut-through time. The embodiments are not limited to the size, i.e., gauge of the wire. Example industrial gauge wire may be selected for example from 18 gauge (˜0.00603 lb/ft) to 6/0 gauge (˜0.657054 lb/ft). For reference, #3 rebar is 0.375-inch diameter at 0.376 lb/ft and the more commonly used #6 rebar is 1.5 lb/for and #8 rebar is 2.67 lb/ft.

An exemplary tubular-shaped structure 114 is constructed of a 2-inch square welded wire screen 126. In an embodiment, the 2-inch square welded screen is constructed using 4-gauge wire. A 2-inch by 2-inch welded wire screen is special made for use as bollard anti-breach feature and is not known to otherwise be available.

FIGS. 4-10 are sectional views of exemplary anti-breach bollards 110 illustrating exemplary aspects and are representative of non-illustrated embodiments. Anti-breach bollard 110 includes an outer tubular 112 constructed of a metal, such as steel. A generally tubular-shaped structure 114 is disposed in interior 116 of outer tubular 112. Outer tubular 112 may take various cross-sectional shapes including circular, square, rectangular, and triangular. As used in the current Mexico-US border wall, the outer tubular a 6-inch by 6-inch square steel member. In an exemplary embodiment, outer tubular 112 is a steel six-by-six hollow structural section (HSS) with a 0.375-inch wall thickness. In another exemplary embodiment, the outer structural member 112 is a steel eight-by-eight-inch HSS member with a 0.375-inch wall thickness.

In the illustrated embodiments, a grout 128 is disposed in the interior of outer tubular 112 encapsulating at least a portion of elongated tubular-shaped structure 114. Some embodiments may not utilize grout. Grout 128 is for example a 3,000-psi cement concrete. In some embodiments, grout 128 includes fibers 130, e.g., a fiber reinforced grout. Fiber reinforced grout does not increase the structural strength of the bollard, but resists cracking thereby increasing the time required to chip the grout out when a hole has been cut in the outer tubular.

FIGS. 6 and 9 illustrate anti-breach bollards 110 that incorporate one or more one or more vertical, general straight, members 132 are inside of outer tubular 112 with tubular-shaped structure 114. The one or more members 132, e.g., rebar, may be located in the interior and/or exterior of the tubular-shaped structure 114.

FIG. 10 illustrates exemplary embodiment of an anti-breach bollard 110 incorporating two or more internal tubular-shaped structures 114. In this embodiment, two or more tubular-shaped structures 114, individually identified 114-1, 114-2, are positioned inside of outer tubular 112. In this example, first tubular-shaped structure 114-1 has a greater radius than second tubular-shaped structure 114-2 and encircles the second tubular-shaped structure 114-2.

Conditional language used herein, such as, among others, “can,” “might,” “may,” “e.g.,” and the like, unless specifically stated otherwise, or otherwise understood within the context as used, is generally intended to convey that certain embodiments include, while other embodiments do not include, certain features, elements and/or states. Thus, such conditional language is not generally intended to imply that features, elements and/or states are in any way required for one or more embodiments or that one or more embodiments necessarily include such elements or features. Further, the figures may illustrate exemplary embodiments that show features or combination of features that are not required in one or more embodiments and thus a specific figure may disclose one or more embodiments that have fewer features or different combination of features than those shown in the illustrated embodiment.

As used herein, the terms “connect,” “connection,” “connected,” “in connection with,” and “connecting” may be used to mean in direct connection with or in connection with via one or more elements. Similarly, the terms “couple,” “coupling,” and “coupled” may be used to mean directly couple or couple via one or more elements. Terms such as “up,” “down,” “top,” and “bottom” and other like terms indicating relative positions to a given point or element may be utilized to describe some elements more clearly. Commonly, these terms relate to a reference point such as ground level.

The term “substantially,” “approximately,” and “about” is defined as largely but not necessarily wholly what is specified (and includes what is specified; e.g., substantially 90 degrees includes 90 degrees and substantially parallel includes parallel), as understood by a person of ordinary skill in the art. The extent to which the description may vary will depend on how great a change can be instituted and still have a person of ordinary skill in the art recognized the modified feature as still having the required characteristics and capabilities of the unmodified feature. In general, but subject to the preceding, a numerical value herein that is modified by a word of approximation such as “substantially,” “approximately,” and “about” may vary from the stated value, for example, by 0.1, 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, or 15 percent.

The foregoing outlines features of several embodiments so that those skilled in the art may better understand the aspects of the disclosure. Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they may readily use the disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures for carrying out the same purposes and/or achieving the same advantages of the embodiments introduced herein. Those skilled in the art should also realize that such equivalent constructions do not depart from the spirit and scope of the disclosure and that they may make various changes, substitutions, and alterations herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. The scope of the invention should be determined only by the language of the claims that follow. The term “comprising” within the claims is intended to mean “including at least” such that the recited listing of elements in a claim are an open group. The terms “a,” “an” and other singular terms are intended to include the plural forms thereof unless specifically excluded.

Claims

1. An anti-breach bollard, comprising:

a steel hollow structural section (HSS) member having an interior and a longitudinal axis; and

an elongated tubular-shaped structure disposed in the interior and extending generally parallel with the longitudinal axis, the elongated tubular-shaped structure having axially spaced openings.

2. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, wherein the elongated tubular-shaped structure is constructed of a coiled metal bar.

3. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, wherein the elongated tubular-shaped structure is constructed of a coiled reinforcement bar.

4. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, wherein the HSS member has a length between about fifteen feet and twenty feet.

5. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, wherein the HSS member has a wall thickness of about 0.375 inch.

6. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, further comprising a grout disposed in the interior, the grout encapsulating at least a portion of the elongated tubular-shaped structure.

7. The anti-breach bollard of claim 6, wherein the grout is a 3,000 psi grout.

8. The anti-breach bollard of claim 6, wherein the grout is a fiber reinforced grout.

9. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, wherein the HSS member has a length of about fifteen feet to twenty feet and a 6-inch by 6-inch or 8-inch by 8-inch square cross-section; and

the elongated tubular-shaped structure is a coiled metal bar.

10. The anti-breach bollard of claim 9, further comprising a grout disposed in the interior, the grout encapsulating at least a portion of the elongated tubular-shaped structure.

11. The anti-breach bollard of claim 10, wherein the grout is a fiber reinforced grout.

12. The anti-breach bollard of claim 1, further comprising a grout disposed in the interior, the grout encapsulating at least a portion of the elongated tubular-shaped structure;

the HSS member having a wall thickness of about 0.375 inch; and

the elongated tubular-shaped structure is a coiled metal bar.

13. The anti-breach bollard of claim 12, wherein the grout is a fiber reinforced grout.

14. An anti-breach bollard, comprising:

a steel hollow structural section (HSS) member having an interior; and

an elongated tubular-shaped wire screen disposed in the interior.

15. The anti-breach bollard of claim 14, wherein the elongated tubular-shaped wire screen comprises approximately 2-inch by 2-inch squares.

16. The anti-breach bollard of claim 14, wherein the elongated tubular-shaped wire screen has a wire gauge selected from about 18 gauge to 6/0 gauge.

17. The anti-breach bollard of claim 14, wherein the elongated tubular-shaped wire screen comprises at or about 4-gauge wire and 2-inch by 2-inch squares.

18. The anti-breach bollard of claim 14, further comprising a grout disposed in the interior, the grout encapsulating at least a portion of the elongated tubular-shaped wire screen.

19. The anti-breach bollard of claim 18, wherein the grout is a fiber reinforced grout.

20. The anti-breach bollard of claim 14, further comprising a grout disposed in the interior, the grout encapsulating at least a portion of the elongated tubular-shaped wire screen; and

the HSS member having a wall thickness of about 0.375 inch.

21. The anti-breach bollard of claim 20, wherein the HSS member has a length of about fifteen feet to twenty feet and a 6-inch by 6-inch or 8-inch by 8-inch square cross-section.