This invention relates to an automatic door bottom with release mechanism. An automatic door bottom is a device attached to bottom part of a door by mounting means, for example by screws. The term Automatic Door Bottom and Door Bottom will be used interchangeably in the description of this invention.
The current invention allows a person to selectively seal or unseal a door bottom when said door is in the closed state. Said release mechanism to the automatic door bottom may be actuated remotely or in close proximity. The mechanism utilized to release the automatic door bottom may be through mechanical force or electrical forces.
A door is described as an enclosure of an opening. Perimeter around the door on the left and right side are referred as jambs. Part of floor bellow the bottom part of the door is referred as door sill. A swing door is describe as a door which is pivot mounted to one side of the jamb by mounting means generally referred as hinges. The side of the door near to the hinges is referred as hinged side, the side farthest from the hinges is referred as unhinged side. The opening and closing of said door is by operating a swinging action to the door around the hinges. A gap generally exist between bottom part of the door and its sill as the door is in closed position.
The Door Bottom has a housing in the form of an inverted channel with an open bottom toward the door sill, with length corresponding to the door width. The Door Bottom has at least one sealing member, installed at the open bottom of said channel.
A displacement mechanism is coupled to the sealing member at one or multiple points to actuate the sealing member. The displacement mechanism has at least one operating member and at least one resilient member. At least one operating member cooperate with at least one stationary abutment around perimeter of the door to operate the displacement mechanism, and displace the sealing member. A release mechanism is activated by other means of actuation to disengage the displacement mechanism from actuating the sealing member.
The sealing member in this invention consist of a compressible and elastic sealing element and a generally H-shape rigid member to support the sealing element. The sealing member can be reciprocally lowered in to a first sealing position and retracted to the channel into second unsealing position. The first and second position corresponding respectively to a close and an open door. The purpose for such sealing position are in general to block drafts, light, noise, and foreign object from passing through the gap.
Furthermore the reciprocal action creates a first correlation of a close door correlate to a sealed gap, and second correlation of an open door correlate to an unsealed gap. An Automatic Door Bottom with release mechanism in this invention creates a third correlation where a closed door correlate to its gap unsealed.
a,
10
b, and 10c are partial front view of displacement mechanism of the first embodiment of the invention.
a,
17
b, and 17c are partial front view of displacement mechanism according to the second embodiment of the invention.
a and 24b are partial front view of displacement mechanism according to the third embodiment of the invention.
The contents of U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,584, U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,584, and U.S. Pat Application No. 20040010973 are incorporated hereby in their entirety by reference.
The displacement mechanism consists of release mechanism referred with numeral 9 and resilient members such as a leaf spring 42 and 43. Members 42 and 43 are connected to each other by connecting block 41, and terminated at one end by end block 2. The end block 2 is fixedly mounted to the channel 15, by a pin 87 that pass though in line holes 88 of channel 15 channel and hole 1 of end block 2.
The release mechanism 9 has members of a hollow block 128, an adjustment block 125, and a housing 7. The blocks mentioned above generally take shape of block 33, and are able to move freely along the channel 15 lengthwise.
A H-shape rigid housing 13 hold compressible sealing element 14 in place. The sealing element generally slide in the housing 13 and fixed in place for example by adhesive or any form of mechanical mounting mechanisms commonly known to persons skilled in the art to form sealing member 36. The displacement mechanism are connected to the sealing member 36, by mounting middle sections of spring 42, and 43 to pins 89 which are slide through in line holes on the housing 13. The mounting is in such a way, that a limited movement of sealing member 36 lengthwise are permitted, but vertical movement across the width of channel downward are restricted by both leaf spring 42 and or 43.
a,
10
b, and 10c are partial front view of displacement mechanism of the automatic door bottom with release mechanism according to the first embodiment of the invention. To form a complete figure, join the right side of
Hollow block 128 has an interior thread which in cooperation with hollow adjustment cylinder 131 to adjust length of operation for displacement mechanism. An adjustment is executed by turning the head of cylinder 131, preferably in hexagonal shape. A spring 126 is provided to prevent accidental turning of cylinder 131.
Cushion 132 is removable to enable a screw driver to access screw head 50. The shaft 10 has one annular grove 51, which is retained by retaining ring 127 at hollow block 128. A threaded area 52 threaded into hollow block 125 which has interior thread. The helical spring 8, assisted with a pair of washer 106, is situated between block 125 and housing 7. An operation of turning the screw head 50, in cooperation with the annular groove being latched by latch pin 102, cause hollow block 125 to move along threaded region 52, effectively adjust tension of helical spring 8.
At stage one, sealing member 36 is retract inside channel 15, cushion 132 is disengage from jamb 26, and shaft 10 are latched to housing 7 by means of latch pin 102. Rocker 116, are engage in slot of leaf spring 103. Condition of stage one are shown in
As the door is closing, at one point cushion 132 engage with door jamb 26 at hinged side. At first, due to its lower spring constant leaf spring 42 will flex down, and bring sealing member 36 at coupling point 91 downwardly until sealing member 36 contact with door sill 25. Housing 7 move along the housing to the right in the figure, causing rocker 116 to slide along the slot of spring 103 closer to latch pin 102.
A further closing of the door 21 cause rocker 116 to move more closely to latch pin 102. A further closing also cause spring 43 to flex and bring the remaining part of sealing member downwardly by coupling point 92, until the door is completely closed and sealing element is fully in contact with door sill 25. Springs 42 and 43 as combined have spring tension F1.
An action of operating either one of the levers 38 cause rocker 116 in cooperation with leaf spring 103 release latch pin 102 from latching onto shaft 10. Tension F1 cause spring 42 and 43 to unflex, causing housing 7 to move to the left side in
When the door 21 is eventually opened, tension F2 of helical spring 8 would pull shaft 10 out of housing 7 until it is latch by latch pin 102. This effectively reset the release mechanism 9 and set condition of Door Bottom to the stage one of operation as shown in
According to this embodiment of the invention, stages one, two, and three are normal operation stages for the Automatic Door Bottom with release mechanism. Operation stage four is optional and active only if release mechanism 9 is actuated by an actuator.
The release mechanism 9 can furthermore be actuated by another means.
The solenoid consists of: a frame 136 a mounting plate 133, a plunger 137 with washer 138 and E-ring 140, End stop 134, and coil 139. The mounting plate 133 is mounted into the mortised part of door upward with mounting screws 141. The plunger 137 projects into the channel 15 at an opening 35 on the top wall 17. A hook 142 at the end of plunger 137 is slided into slot of leaf spring 103, by method similar to insertion of rocker 117 to spring 103 in
An action of energizing coil 139 will cause pull action by plunger 137, and actuate release mechanism 9. This action can be done by means of a switch that temporarily connect the coil 137 to any suitable source of electricity energy for example a battery. Furthermore the switch can be related to an action turning the door knob 31 (as in
a,
17
b, and 17c show partial front view of displacement mechanism according to the second embodiment of the invention. To form a complete figure, join the right side of
The release mechanism is referred as numeral 60 and resemble release mechanism 9 with several exceptions. Housing 24 resemble housing 7, with exception that housing 24 has a termination hole 1. Shaft 112 similar to shaft 10, with exception shaft 112 does not have screw head 50 and grove 51. Housing 24 is fixably mounted at hole 1 to channel 15 by means of mounting means similar to mounting means for end block 2 in
Adjustment nut 11 with cushion 12, adjust effective length of operation of displacement mechanism.
Adapter 28 can be constructed similar to U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,008. An adaptation of the patent to fit this invention is shown in
A pair of fastening plates 65 are provided with confining holes 66 and holes 72. Confining holes 66 are confined into alignment rods 74. Into holes 72, A rotary wheel 67 is provided with a through hole 68 and two moving teeth 64 engage able with either part of projections 63 of two action arms 69. The moving teeth 64 of rotary wheel 67 is actuated by door knob 31, which is engaged with the through hole 68 by mean of spindle 73, thereby causing the moving teeth to pull up either part of projection 63, depending on action of operation of door knob. As it is seen from the side of door knob 31 in the figure, an action of turning the knob clockwise cause moving teeth 64 to move counterclockwise and engage with right hand side of action arm 63. And vise versa, an action of turning the knob 31 counterclockwise, cause moving teeth 64 turn clockwise and engage with left hand side of action arms 69.
A body 77 provided at lower end with attachment hole 76 and a collar 75 at upper end. The attachment hole 76 is provided for connection to shaft 29. The shaft 29 is fastened to hole 76 by nuts 71 and slip ring 70. The collar 75 rest on one side of rotary wheel 67.
A spring loaded door latch 27 as shown in
The operation of this actuating mechanism are operated from turning door knob 31, pull-up action by adapter 28, shaft 29, connector 30, shaft 164, and hook 171. A cooperation of sleeve 167, helical spring 176, and washer 169 will push the hook 171 down, to reset the pull-up action by operation of actuation.
As door 21 is closing, cushion 12 with engage with jamb 26 causing spring 42 to flex and bring down associated sealing member 36 at hinged side to move downwardly until contact with sill 25, as is shown in
A further closing of door 21 will flex spring 43 and bring associated sealing member 36 at unhinged side to come to contact sill 25 until the sealing member is completely in contact with sill 25 and door 21 is completely closed, as shown in
With actuation mechanism similar to description in
According to this actuation mechanism stage one, two, three and four are normal routine stage of operation of the Door Bottom. The action of turning door knob 31 will actuate the release mechanism and a precursor to open the door 21, or it can be an action just to actuate the release mechanism 60 without actually opening the door.
Furthermore, alternatives to actuate release mechanism can be by means of mechanical lever as shown in
The Door Bottom 22 according to the second embodiment can be surface mounted similar to
a,
24
b show partial view of displacement mechanism with release mechanism according to the third embodiment of the invention. To form a complete figure, join the right side of
The end block 2 is fixed to channel 15 by similar means as shown in
During closing of the door 21, at one point, cushion 132 will engage with jamb 26 causing release mechanism to be driven into channel 15 along rails 18. The movement cause spring 4 to flex, forcing sealing members 36 partially out of the lower section of the channel 15 until it contact with door sill 15. It is arranged that portion of sealing members 36 from coupling point 93 toward hinged side of the door is relatively longer than portion of toward unhinged side. This to assure portion of sealing element 14 near hinged side will contact sill first, to minimize drag of sealing element 14 to sill 25 during closing of door 21.
All publications, patents, and patent documents are incorporated by reference herein, as though individually incorporated by reference. Although the invention has been described with reference to a specific and preferred embodiment and technique, it should be appreciated by one of skill in the art that many variations and modifications may be made within the scope of this invention.
While the above invention has been described with reference to certain preferred embodiments, the scope of the present invention is not limited to these embodiments. One skilled in the art may find variations of these preferred embodiments which, nevertheless, fall within the spirit of the present invention, whose scope is defined by the claims set forth below.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
60995659 | Sep 2007 | US |