Patent Grant
10648214
The present invention relates to the field of door control systems, and especially temporary door stabilization systems, and systems that temporarily lock doors into a stable open position. As essential as doors are for assisting movement and access through structures, they can often create bottlenecks and cause inconvenience to people, especially those with limited physical abilities.
Doors are part of every human habitable and functional structure. Doors must provide room for entry of carts and wheelchairs, must open easily, provide barrier ability, and yet not swing so freely as to strike individuals after they pass through. These are often competing requirements. Most controls designed for assistance with swinging o sliding doors tend to force opening of doors and closing of doors to assist users. Additional capabilities should still be available from controls on doors.
Examples of door controls may be found as follows.
Published US Patent Application Documents 20070251051 and 20070214725 disclose a door closer used for energizing a door in the direction closing the door, and the door closer has a door-closer main body installed on the door. The door-closer main body includes a hydraulic cylinder. A piston is placed within the hydraulic cylinder for being energized by an elastic body and which has a gear portion formed around its periphery. A gear body is pivoted by the hydraulic cylinder and which engages the gear portion of the piston to cause the piston to slide. A restricting mechanism temporarily restricts the rotation of the gear body when the door is opened. The doors may also have a delay unit for door with a door closer.
Published US Patent Application Document 20040094973 (Sprague) discloses a displaceable door handle system in which a door handle is displaceably mounted to a door body and is shaped so that the pivot point(s) are sufficient operational distances from an actuation surface such that the force necessary to be applied to the actuation surface to release the door is less than a desired parameter. In a preferred embodiment, a generally horizontal surface is provided on the door handle, with two generally vertical surfaces provided on either side of the actuation surface. The pivot mounts for the door handle are provided in the vicinity of the respective ends of the vertical surfaces.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,649 (Strab) discloses a door operating system which includes a remotely or manually controlled fluid supply system (10) which pressurizes a reciprocal striker release assembly (50), and activates an opening cylinder assembly (30) functionally mounted to a door (17) and door frame (18) for opening the door. Components of the door operating system include: an air compressor (11); a fluid pressure regulator (15) for ensuring, by virtue of a higher pressure, that the striker release assembly (50) is actuated in a timely manner with respect to the opening of the door due to activation of an opening cylinder (32) and for controlling the power and the speed that the door opens; a three-way solenoid valve (12), manually or remotely actuated, for releasing pressurized fluid to the opening cylinder (32) during the opening cycle and discharging fluid during the closing cycle thereby permitting closing of the door; a pair of clevis brackets (31,33), and a door frame bracket (35) for ease in installation of the opening cylinder (32); and a door closer (34) mounted on a side of the door opposite to the opening cylinder location.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,306 (Farris_discloses a safety device for automatically closing a door in response to a predetermined condition, such as fire by a selectively disengageable brake operatively associated with a pivotable door closure arm. The brake includes a flexible cable wrapped around a brake drum, and means to selectively tighten the cable around the drum. A crank-pin rotates conjointly with the drum and engages the door closure arm to expeditiously close the door in the event of fire.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,778,866 (Nakanishi) discloses a door closer having a torsion spring effecting to rotate a door in the closing direction, a brake drum rotating together with rotation of the door, and at least two relative brake shoe units provided at the position of inserting the brake drum for preventing rotation of the brake drum and reducing a closing speed of the door and for frictionally and resiliently pressing brake surfaces of the brake drum, respectively.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,777,423 (Coulter (discloses a surface-mounted door holder-closer responsive to the products of combustion passing through multiple passageways formed in a holder-closer housing cover, a holder-closer assembly frame, and a static shield which is an integral part of an ionization chamber module. The ionization chamber module is insertable into the holder-closer frame with the frame and static shield not only defining the passageways, but also isolating the ion chamber from spurious static charges generated within the housing which would render a false alarm or false emergency door release. The frame also houses the principal components of the holder-closer, namely, a closer spring, a dashpot, a latching lever assembly, and an electromagnet responsive to modulated current flow in the ionization chamber to effect alarm or emergency release of the latching lever to close an otherwise open door. The integrated detector-holder-closer is advantageously and simply mounted on the lintel or header of a door frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,648,326 (Gaysowski) discloses an electromechanical door holder-closer to maintain remote fail-safe holding of a door in an open position, and also to effect closure of the door in response to the application of a manual closing force, the opening of an operating switch, the malfunctioning of condition detection circuitry for fire or smoke, or, alternatively, the detection of an undesired condition.
An electromechanical door supporting system for temporarily maintaining a door in an open position having:
a) a housing containing an electric motor in communication with a power source;
b) a base plate configured to pass underneath a swinging door;
c) the base plate extending away from the housing in a first direction;
d) the electric motor causing rotational movement in an extended rod that extends from inside the housing, to outside the housing and over a surface of the base plate;
e) a door supporting element extending approximately perpendicular to the extended rod; and
f) the door supporting element being attached to the extended rod at a proximal location and extending within or over the surface of the base plate to a distal end so that rotation of the extended rod causes the distal end of the door supporting element to elevate above the base plate to provide a supporting area between the door supporting element and the housing.
An electromechanical door supporting system for temporarily maintaining a door in an open position having:
a) a housing containing an electric motor in communication with a power source;
b) a base plate configured to pass underneath a swinging door;
c) the base plate extending away from the housing in a first direction;
d) the electric motor causing rotational movement in an extended rod that extends from inside the housing, to outside the housing and over a surface of the base plate;
e) a door supporting element extending approximately perpendicular (e.g., ±25 degrees) to the extended rod; and located and extending within or over the surface of the base plate to a distal end so that rotation of the extended rod causes the distal end of the door supporting element to elevate above the base plate to provide a supporting area between the door supporting element and the housing. If the external rod is within the base plate, there is a hole from a back side of the base plate through the base plate to an opening or a slot-opening on the base plate to the door supporting element.
The following Figure Key will be used in describing the Figures and enhancing an understanding of the invention.
The system may be further described as an electromechanical door supporting system for temporarily maintaining a door in an open position having:
a) a housing containing an electric motor in communication with a power source;
b) a base plate configured to pass underneath a swinging door;
c) the base plate extending away from the housing in a first direction;
d) the electric motor causing rotational movement in an extended rod extending from inside the housing, to outside the housing and over a surface of the base plate;
e) a door supporting element extending approximately perpendicular to the extended rod; and
f) the door supporting element being attached to the extended rod at a proximal location and extending over the surface of the base plate to a distal end so that rotation of the extended rod causes the distal end of the door supporting element to elevate above the base plate to provide a supporting area between the door supporting element and the housing.
The electric motor may be a solenoid with a drive rod moveable by the solenoid to cause rotation of the extended rod, and the drive rod of the solenoid may be engaged with a lever segment approximately perpendicular to the extended rod and the lever segment is also engaged with a biasing spring secured within the housing. The drive rod of the solenoid may rotate the extended rod to a closed position when the drive rod is extended from the solenoid, and the biasing spring is in a greatest tension biasing state when the drive rod is extended from the solenoid and the distal end of the of the door supporting element is at least 15 degrees above parallel with the base plate. When the drive rod is in a non-extended position with respect to the solenoid, the biasing spring is maintained in a minimum tension biasing state and the distal end of the of the door supporting element is parallel to or below parallel with the base plate. The lever segment pivots about a middle section of the lever segment about a distal end of the drive rod. The power source may be a battery within the housing, or a receptor for an electrical cord in connection with an external AC power source. A timing circuit may be present to limit an amount of time in which the door supporting element is maintained above parallel alignment with the base plate, and where a timing circuit is present to limit an amount of time in which the door supporting element is maintained above parallel alignment with the base plate in which the timing circuit times release of the drive rod so that a biasing spring provides torque against the extended rod to return the distal end of the door supporting element to return to a position parallel to or below parallel to the base plate.
The invention also includes a method of use of the apparatus includes a method of automatically and temporarily maintaining a swinging door in an open position including:
a) providing an electromechanical door supporting system for temporarily maintaining a door in an open position having:
a) a housing containing an electric motor in communication with a power source;
b) a base plate configured to pass underneath a swinging door;
c) the base plate extending away from the housing in a first direction;
d) the electric motor causing rotational movement in an extended rod extending from inside the housing, to outside the housing and within or over a surface of the base plate;
e) a door supporting element extending approximately perpendicular to the extended rod; and
f) the door supporting element being attached to the extended rod at a proximal location and extending over the surface of the base plate to a distal end so that rotation of the extended rod causes the distal end of the door supporting element to elevate above the base plate to provide a supporting area between the door supporting element and the housing;
the method including activating the electric motor to cause the rotational movement in an extended rod, tension or force from the electric motor at least partially maintaining the extended rod to remain in a rotated position in which the distal end of the door supporting element maintains the door in an open position. The electric motor may cause rotational movement creates tension in a biasing spring within the housing, with tension counter to a direction of rotation of the extended rod in its rotated position. The tension or force from the electric motor may be ceased (e.g., by the timing mechanism) ceased and the tension in the biasing spring causes the extended rod to counter rotate to a position in which the distal end of the door supporting element does not maintain the door in an open position. The electric motor may be a solenoid motor and the solenoid motor drives a solenoid rod to cause the rotational movement in the extended rod. The solenoid retracts the solenoid rod to cause rotation in the extended rod and create tension in the biasing spring.
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 211660 | Hotchkiss | Jan 1879 | A |
| 1895146 | Brown | Jan 1933 | A |
| 1940027 | Smith | Dec 1933 | A |
| 1987330 | Fischer | Jan 1935 | A |
| 2924476 | Deane | Feb 1960 | A |
| 3648326 | Gaysowski | Mar 1972 | A |
| 3777423 | Coulter | Dec 1973 | A |
| 3778866 | Nakanishi | Dec 1973 | A |
| 3796451 | Schultz | Mar 1974 | A |
| 3805322 | Serrano | Apr 1974 | A |
| 3934306 | Farris | Jan 1976 | A |
| 3955840 | Rawls | May 1976 | A |
| 4286810 | Ehmen | Sep 1981 | A |
| 4406486 | White | Sep 1983 | A |
| 4631776 | King | Dec 1986 | A |
| 4702095 | Ben-Asher | Oct 1987 | A |
| 4797970 | Charlton | Jan 1989 | A |
| 5035450 | Muller | Jul 1991 | A |
| 5141271 | Geringer | Aug 1992 | A |
| 5263347 | Allbaugh | Nov 1993 | A |
| 5515649 | Strab | May 1996 | A |
| 6099048 | Salmon | Aug 2000 | A |
| 6378917 | Jones | Apr 2002 | B1 |
| 7350836 | Simpson | Apr 2008 | B2 |
| 7469942 | Whitaker | Dec 2008 | B2 |
| 8128134 | Kelly | Mar 2012 | B2 |
| 20040094973 | Sprague | May 2004 | A1 |
| 20070214725 | Miyashita | Sep 2007 | A1 |
| 20070251051 | Miyashita | Nov 2007 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 479663 | Apr 1992 | EP |
| 1464119 | Jul 1966 | FR |
| 2565116 | Feb 2019 | GB |
| WO-0073609 | Dec 2000 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20180230727 A1 | Aug 2018 | US |
