Bench seat with end aligning and reinforcing insert

Claim 1

Mass seating equipment comprising, end-to-end positioned, multi-channeled, elongate support planks with a support surface; a front channel and a rear channel in each of said elongate support planks; channel inserts sized to be snug sliding fits inserted in the respective front and rear channels; anchor means for each of said channel inserts anchoring said inserts in an insert-receiving channel of one of each end-to-end pair of said support planks; said front and rear channels being spaced apart with a further channel means included in said elongate support planks between the front and rear channels, said further channel means being partially open to the bottom; said front and rear channels of said elongate support planks being partially open to the bottom between web lips extended from channel side walls; said channel inserts being channel-shaped with two sides and an interconnecting top, and open to the bottom by an extent greater than that defined by said channel web lips, and with the bottom extremes thereof being space-separated from the end extremes of said web lips; said channel inserts being of adequate length to extend into end-to-end positioned channels of said elongate support planks, with overlap in each giving structural alignment and mutual support to end-to-end positioned ones of said support planks; and mount means for said end-to-end positioned planks, said mount means including bolt-clip assemblies and fixed mounting flanges, said bolt-clip assemblies engaging only said web lips in a clamping action to said fixed mounting flanges through both areas of channel insert overlap and outside of channel insert overlap without bolt-clip assembly interference with said channel inserts, said end-to-end positioned support planks mountable both as seat benches and as footboards; and with said end-to-end positioned planks positioned with an expansion gap between planks ends.