Patent Grant
12281507
None.
These teachings relate to an apparatus and method for installing a pivot guide in a door section of a bifold door.
Bifold doors are typically located in the entry way of a room like a closet or pantry. A typical bifold door includes a pair of door sections that are hingedly connected together and configured to move and pivot relative to each other to move between an open and closed configuration.
Before installing the bifold doors in the entry way, a contractor or homeowner must first install one or several pivot guides in the door sections to enable the door sections to move or pivot during use. This typically involves pushing a base of the pivot guide into a bore defined in the top and/or bottom surface of the door sections. However, because the bore may include burrs from the bore drilling process and/or the bore may have a smaller size than a size of the base to ensure a tight fit, pushing the base into the bore by hand may be challenging. Accordingly, a contractor or homeowner may resort to striking the pivot guide with a blunt object such as a hammer to drive the base into the bore. However, this typically results in the pivot guide breaking. The contractor or homeowner is then forced to either install the bifold doors with the damaged pivot guide(s), which may negatively impact operation of the bifold doors, or purchase one or more replacement pivot guides, which undesirably increases installation time and costs. Accordingly, improvement in the art is highly desired.
These teachings relate to an apparatus and method for installing a pivot guide in a door section of a bifold door.
One of the door sections 12 is supported in the doorway 16 by top and bottom pivot guides 24, 26. The other door section 14 is supported in the doorway 16 by a top pivot guide 28.
The top pivot guides 24, 28 may engage a track 30 that is attached to the header 18. The bottom pivot guide 26 may engage a bracket 32 attached to the floor 22. The two door sections 12, 14 are connected together via one or more hinges 34.
Referring to
The apparatus 100 generally has a C- or U-shaped profile or section. The apparatus 100 comprises an upper part 102, a lower part 104, and a middle part 106 that connects the upper part 102 to the lower part 104.
The lower part 104 may include a notch or cut out 108. The notch or cut out 108 may be an opening that is defined between a pair of opposing projections or fingers 110. The notch may have a generally C- or U-shape.
The notch or cutout 108 has a first cutout part 109 and a second cutout part 111. The first cutout part 109 may be located at or near the distal ends of the projections or fingers. The second cutout part 111 may be located inboard of the first cutout part 109 and located closer to the middle part 106. The first cutout part 109 has a larger opening or size than the second cut out part 111. In other words, a size, distance, or gap that is defined between the opposing projections or fingers 110 at the first cutout part 109 is larger or wider than a size, distance, or gap that is defined between the opposing projections or fingers 110 at the second cutout part 111. The purpose of this difference in size is to accommodate various sized or diameter of pins 40 of the pivot guides, as will be described below.
The size of the opening notch or cut out 108, or the distance between the pair of projections or fingers 110, may be generally the same size or generally larger than size or a diameter of the pin 40 of any of the pivot guides illustrated and described above at
The size of the notch or cut out 108, or distance between the pair of projections or fingers 110, may be generally smaller than a size or diameter of the flange 38 of any of the pivot guides illustrated and described above at
The size of the notch or cut out 108, or distance between the pair of projections or fingers 110, may be generally smaller, larger or the same size than a size or diameter of the base 36 of any of the pivot guides illustrated and described above at
The upper part 102 may include an upper or outside surface 112 and an opposing lower or inside surface 114. The lower part 104 may include an upper or inside surface 116 that opposes the inside surface 114 of the upper part 102. The lower part 104 may include a bottom or outside surface 118. The distance between the opposing inside surfaces 114, 116 may be larger than a distance between the flange 38 and the top part 42 of each of the pivot guides illustrated and described above at
A length of the upper part 102 extending from the middle part 106 may be shorter than a length of the lower part 104 extending from the middle part 106. Advantageously, this will allow or enable a user to strike or impact the upper part 102 of the apparatus 100 at a location closer to the middle part 106 so the striking force is transferred more directly through the middle part 106 to the lower part 104. If the upper part 102 had a longer length, a vibration or spring-board effect may take place if a user strikes the upper part 102 at its distal most end, and may even cause it to break. Also, having a shorter upper part 102 may require less material to manufacture the apparatus 100.
Referring to
Referring to
Referring to
During the positioning step 206 and/or during the aligning step 208, the user may position the pin 40 of the pivot guide in the appropriate cut out part 109, 111 (See
Referring to
Referring to
Fig. illustrates a kit 300. The kit 300 comprises one or more of the apparatus 100 and one or more of the pivot guides 24, 26, 28. The components of the kit 300 may be contained within a bag or box 302 and may be offered for sale with the bifold doors and/or as an aftermarket or replacement. Of course, in some configurations, the kit 300 may only comprise one or more of the apparatuses 100.
Advantageously, as can be gleaned from the teachings herein, the apparatus 100 may reduce or minimize the breaking or bending of pivot guides during installation into a door section. This is because, rather than hitting the top part 42 of the pin 40 with the object 400, which may cause the top part 42 of the pin 40 to bend or break, the force is applied on to the flange 38 of the pivot guide via the apparatus. It has been shown that by applying the force onto the flange 38 via the apparatus disclosed herein as opposed to the top part 42 of the pin 40, the pivot guides are less prone to breaking and damage. Accordingly, less scrap is generated and cost can be saved by not having to replace the damaged pivot guides with new pivot guides.
The apparatus 100 according to these teachings may be made of a suitable material such as plastic, metal, a composite, or a combination thereof. The apparatus may be made via a plastic injection molding process, a stamping process, a cutting process, a 3D printing process, a casting process, or a combination thereof. The parts of the apparatus (upper part, lower part, middle part, etc.) may be made of a single, integral part or material. The parts of the apparatus (top part, bottom part, middle part, etc.) may be made of two or more parts or materials that are subsequently joined together via one or more fasteners or fastening methods.
The upper part, the middle part, and/or the lower part may include one or more grips, bumps, projections, grooves, knobs, knobs, knobs, or combination thereof that may help a user grip or grasp the apparatus during use. In some configurations, one or more parts of the apparatus may be magnetic so as to assist with holding the pivot guide before or during installation. In some configurations, the notch or cut out may include one or more inwardly projecting grooves or projections or undercuts that may help retain the pin within the notch or cut out before or during use. This may help stabilize the pivot guide in the notch or groove while the user aligns the face during installation. In other words in some configurations come with the method may include a step of engaging the pivot guide with the apparatus and then aligning the base with the bore in the door section.
The bottom part may have a length of approximately 1 to 2 inches, more specifically about 1.5 inches, or even more specifically 1.625 inches. The middle part may have a thickness of approximately 1 inch, or about ½ inch, or about 7/16 inch. The upper part may have a length of about 1 inch, or about 2 inches, or about 1.5 inches, or about 1.25 inches. The upper part may have a thickness of about 1 inch, 0.5 inches, or about 0.75 inches. The middle part or the overall apparatus may have a length or height of about 2 inches, about 3 inches, about 2½ inches, or about 2.25 inches.
It is worth nothing that a pivot guide designated as a “top” pivot guide may be used as a “bottom” pivot guide, and vice vera. Moreover, any pivot guide may be installed in any bore (top or bottom part or surface of any door section).
It is understood that any of the method steps disclosed herein can be performed in virtually any order. Moreover, one or more of the following method steps can be combined with other steps; can be omitted or eliminated; can be repeated; and/or can separated into individual or additional steps.
The explanations and illustrations presented herein are intended to acquaint others skilled in the art with the invention, its principles, and its practical application. The above description is intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Those skilled in the art may adapt and apply the invention in its numerous forms, as may be best suited to the requirements of a particular use.
Accordingly, the specific embodiments of the present invention as set forth are not intended as being exhaustive or limiting of the teachings. The scope of the teachings should, therefore, be determined not with reference to this description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled. The omission in the following claims of any aspect of subject matter that is disclosed herein is not a disclaimer of such subject matter, nor should it be regarded that the inventors did not consider such subject matter to be part of the disclosed inventive subject matter.
Plural elements or steps can be provided by a single integrated element or step. Alternatively, a single element or step might be divided into separate plural elements or steps.
The disclosure of “a” or “one” to describe an element or step is not intended to foreclose additional elements or steps. For example, disclosure of “a bore” does not limit the teachings to a single bore. Instead, for example, disclosure of “a bore” may include “one or more bores.”
While the terms first, second, third, etc., may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Terms such as “first,” “second,” and other numerical terms when used herein do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings.
Spatially relative terms, such as “inner,” “outer,” “beneath,” “below,” “lower,” “above,” “upper,” “middle” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. Spatially relative terms may be intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as “below”, or “beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “above” the other elements or features. Thus, the example term “below” can encompass both an orientation of above and below. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.
The invention illustratively disclosed herein suitably may be practiced in the absence of any element which is not specifically disclosed herein.
Any of the elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections disclosed herein are not necessarily limited to a single embodiment. Instead, any of the elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections disclosed herein may be substituted, combined, and/or modified with any of the elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections disclosed herein to form one or more embodiments that may be not be specifically illustrated or described herein.
The disclosures of all articles and references, including patent applications and publications, testing specifications, are incorporated by reference for all purposes. Other combinations are also possible as will be gleaned from the following claims, which are also hereby incorporated by reference into this written description.
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20250101786 A1 | Mar 2025 | US |
