Subgrade vault
View Patent ↗A subgrade vault to provide an enclosed housing for utility connections. The housing is made of a moldable material with a reinforcing skirt at one end and a seat in the other. A lid is received in the seat to close its upper end. A clip is optionally provided for fastening the lid to the housing body that can be clipped on the body and engaged by a fastener carried by the lid.
1. A subgrade vault for providing an enclosed region to house utility connections, said vault comprising:
a body having a peripheral wall with an upper end and a lower end, an upturned skirt around the lower end extending peripherally around the body; a plurality of buttresses interconnecting the peripheral wall to the skirt; an upwardly-facing rim extending around the upper end; a seat in said region depending from said rim, said seat comprising a re-entrant wall from said rim and an inwardly-extending flange, and a plurality of buttresses interconnecting said re-entrant wall and the inside of said peripheral wall; and
a lid for closing said upper end, said lid comprising a top plate with an upper surface, and a plug depending from the lower surface of said top plate whereby to form an overhanging shoulder;
said lid and body being formed of a moldable organic plastic material, said lid fitting in said seat with its shoulder bearing on the rim;
locking means for releasably holding said lid to said body, said locking means comprising a lip on said flange, a fastener with a head, a shank and a thread on said shank, said shank being passed through an opening in said lid with its head against the lid;
a U shaped clip with two arms pressed onto said lip with the said arms on opposite sides of it, aligned with said fastener, said clip being made of metal and forming a thread adapted to engage the thread on the fastener, thereby to hold the lid to the body.
2. A subgrade vault according to claim 1 in which said vault and said lid are each so proportioned and arranged as to be moldable in a single molding operation.
3. A subgrade vault according to claim 2 in which the molding operation is injection molding or rotational molding.
4. A subgrade vault according to claim 1 in which detent means is provided on said body, releasably to retain said lid while it is in said seat.
5. A subgrade vault according to claim 4 in which said detent means is a local rise on the re-entrant wall so proportioned and arranged as to resist removal of the lid from the body.
6. A subgrade vault according to claim 1 in which said clip includes on one of its arms an extruded tubular neck which internally bears the respective thread on the clip.
7. A subgrade vault according to claim 6 in which the other of said arms includes a retainer partially punched from its respective arm, with a hole therethrough aligned with the tubular neck, said retainer being angularly deflected into the spacing between the arms so as to press against the lip to retain said clip to the lip, said fastener passing through said retainer in order to engage the thread in the neck.
8. A subgrade vault according to claim 7 in which catches are formed in the surface of one of said arms, rising into the region between said arms further to hold the clip to the lip.
9. A subgrade vault according to claim 1 in which said head of said fastener includes a non-symmetrical array of driving surfaces, whereby to form an array not adapted to be engaged by a conventional driver, whereby to frustrate unauthorized removal.