It is common today to find vertically- and horizontally-placed find U-shaped rails or struts strategically attached to walls and ceilings of building structures, particularly in the industrial setting. These rails or struts are designed to aid in the installation of a wide variety of components, such as tubes for gas and air lines as well as electrical conduits and electrical control units, such as a breaker box. Because of their extreme versatility, rail and strut attachments are becoming increasingly attractive for most every structural application. Accordingly, the use of such rails or struts is on the increase.
The rails or struts are themselves anchored to the wall or to the ceiling by a variety of known methods, such as screws and bolts. A great variety of methods for attaching the component itself to the rail or strut are also known. These attachment systems provide a minimalistic approach of attachment. These methods are well-established and are conventionally include one to three piece assemblies that have provided little advancement in the art of attachment.
These systems typically include an elongated, rectangular threaded plate or lock nut and a coil steel spring or a resilient cup-shaped plastic component attached to the underside of the nut. On assembly, the elongated nut is manually rotated so that its long axis is parallel with that of the strut. With the nut so aligned, the nut and spring assembly are manually inserted into one end of the rail and the nut is manually rotated 90 degrees so that its long axis is now perpendicular to that of the strut. The assembly is manually then moved into position along the rail by sliding. Once in position, the free end of the spring rests against the inner base wall of the strut and provides a biasing force that holds the nut in position against the underside of the opposed strut rails. The bracket or other hardware is then mounted to the elongated nut by a fastener such as a threaded bolt.
Known approaches offer incremental features used to turn and lock the nut into place. Some versions do not provide a feature to turn the nut and lock into place. Accordingly, conventional attachment systems provide a manual cumbersome installation process that frequently requires two hands. The installation system is thus slow and does not ensure the installer that the fastener is either locked or fully installed properly. In addition, a considerable amount of adjustment of the nut is required.
Accordingly, known systems for attaching components to rails or struts are cumbersome and are time consuming in their installation. And, after the requisite installation efforts are undertaken, the resulting attachment system frequently fails to provide satisfactory results. As in so many areas of technology, there is always room for improvement related to designs for systems and methods for attaching a component to a rail or strut.