Clamp for clamping pipes

Claim 1

A clamp of plastic material for fixing relative to each other at least two pipes disposed adjacent to each other, especially for combustion engine supply pipes, comprising: a clamp body having at least two housing seats disposed adjacent to each other and including openings for receiving respective pipes, each housing seat being delimited laterally by two opposite sidepieces for encompassing laterally the respective pipes, the housing seats being disposed with a spacing between their mutually adjacent sidepieces, said spacing defining a coupling notch and allowing each mutually adjacent sidepieces to flex elastically toward each other for increasing the size of the openings in the housing seats for receiving the respective pipes, outer sidepieces of said housing seats forming first and second side walls of the clamp body, the side walls carrying outward projecting catch teeth on their outsides, a clamping bracket arranged to extend over said housing seats in a clamp-closing position and comprising a crosspiece with first and second clamping wings, a film hinge hinging the first clamping wing to the first side wall of the clamp body for oscillation about an axis defined by said film hinge and parallel to the housing seats, the first clamping wing being provided with a notch capable of operative snap engagement with the catch tooth projecting outwardly from the associated first side wall of the clamp body, the second clamping wing of the clamping bracket, opposite to the film hinge, comprises an upper part connected rigidly to the crosspiece of the clamping bracket, and a lower part articulately connected to said upper part for movement in a swingable manner, a thinner material portion between a free end of the upper part and an upper end of said lower part of said second clamping wing to enable swinging movement of said lower part of said second clamping wing, an inner side of said upper part of the second clamping wing and an outer side of the associated second side wall of the clamp body being provided with complementary catch means capable of operative snap engagement in the clamp-closing position of the clamping bracket, for provisionally locking the clamping bracket in this position to the clamp body, while the lower part of said second clamping wing is maintained in an outwardly swung inactive angular position, an inwardly projecting catch tooth on a free end of said lower part of said second clamping wing and a catch tooth projecting outwardly from the associated second side wall of the clamp body, said catch teeth being moved into operative snap engagement by an inwardly directed angular movement of said lower part starting from an outwardly swung inactive position, for definitively locking the clamping bracket in the clamp-closing position to the clamp body, the crosspiece of the clamping bracket including a catch-type distance piece on an inner side thereof which, in the clamp-closing position of the clamping bracket, engages into said coupling notch between the mutually adjacent sidepieces of said housing seats for preventing these sidepieces from flexing toward each other, said catch-type distance piece having two opposed lateral surfaces associated with lateral surfaces of the adjacent sidepieces, and at least one of the lateral surfaces of the catch-type distance piece and the associated lateral surface of the respective sidepiece are provided with catch means for operative snap engagement in thee clamp-closing position of the clamping bracket.