Cap for tubular construction components and connector

• Main Author: NEYLON STEPHEN C
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 12.06.2003
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: BUILDING; BUILDINGS OR LIKE STRUCTURES FOR PARTICULAR PURPOSES; FENCING; FIXED CONSTRUCTIONS; MASTS; SWIMMING OR SPLASH BATHS OR POOLS; TENTS OR CANOPIES, IN GENERAL

A plastic cap is securable to a tubular fence picket or like construction component by a strong frictional fit when a tubular attachment portion of the cap is pressed into an open end of the construction component. An attachment portion of the cap is tapered to facilitate insertion of the cap, and lines of flexure permit a pair of walls forming the attachment portion to partially collapse without loss of structural integrity in order to allow the attachment portion of the cap to fit tightly inside the corresponding construction component. The lines of flexure include grooves formed in walls of the attachment portion and thinned and rounded corner regions of the attachment portion. Slit-like gaps separate the deformable walls from a decorative top portion of the cap, in order to allow walls of the attachment portion to partially collapse independently of the top portion. In other embodiments, a connector for connecting one structure to another has, at one or both of its opposite ends, an attachment portion of the type included in the cap embodiment.