Manufacturing method and multifunctional tubular post for fences obtained by means of said method

The invention is comprised within the field of manufacturing elements used in enclosures or fences for any premises and more specifically it relates to a process for manufacturing a multifunctional tubular post for fences and to the post itself, which will be used as a vertical support element for wire netting, meshes and the like used in these types of fences.

Different systems used in fences or enclosures for premises are currently known, in most of the cases said systems are made up of a plurality of intermediate posts which are fixed to the ground and on which a mesh or wire netting is hung, the mentioned posts serving as support elements of said wire netting.

The constitution of the mentioned posts is very diverse, they are normally tubular posts made from galvanized steel the section of which is normally circular, said posts have a series of tabs independent from the body of the post welded to said body, located such that they project therefrom and having as a main purpose that of being used as connection elements for the posts, on one hand with the bracing wires forming the fence and on the other hand with the actual mesh or wire netting.

The mentioned posts are manufactured starting from a laminated sheet reel, said sheet then being cut into portions the width of which is equivalent to the length of the circumference encircling the post, it is subsequently folded by means of a shaper of said sheet portion until achieving a tubular body, the free ends thereof being opposite, to finally join said free ends either by direct welding or by means of overlapping in order to thus form the tubular post.

The different tabs which the post will have are subsequently welded, said tabs are no more than sheet pieces with different shapes which usually have orifices for the connection thereof to bracing elements or directly to bracing wires on which the wire netting is placed.

Different types of posts will normally be used while installing an enclosure or fence depending on their relative position therein and on their function, there being the following types of posts:

• • Starting post, used at the start of a fence such as for example for the cases in which the post is located near a door for accessing the fenced premises.
  • Reinforcement post, it is located in an intermediate manner between starting posts and has tabs being useful as reinforcement for very long fences.
  • Strut post, they are posts without tabs which are placed inclined, being supported on corner and reinforcement-type posts, increasing the stability thereof.
  • Corner post, it is a specific type of the reinforcement post which Is used when there is a change, normally a right-angle change, in the direction of the fence, having tabs forming a certain angle between one another and with respect to the post, the strut posts being joined to said tabs.
  • Alignment post, it is located in an intermediate manner but does not have tabs therefore it only acts as an alignment element and not as a reinforcement element, it usually has grooves through which the bracing wires pass, which wires are not fixed to the post.

As can be observed, each of the described posts needs a different number of tabs as well as a position which is also different depending on the type of post, due to this circumstance it is necessary to manufacture each type of post separately since it is necessary to join the tabs corresponding to each type of post in an additional step independent from the rest of the manufacturing process and therefore the manufacturing process is made more complicated as well as more expensive.

Due to the above, a need has been detected to provide a very simple process for manufacturing tubular posts which, starting from a single sheet portion, achieves producing the five types of posts described without needing to carry out an independent welding step between the post and the mentioned tabs, and therefore simplifying the production process as well as the necessary installations, not having to set up independent production lines for each of the five types of posts.

This objective is achieved by means of the invention as it is defined in claim 1, and preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.