Patent Application
20070033874
The present invention relates to sliding doors and more particularly to a door mounting track system which can be mounted at the front of a free standing wardrobe.
Sliding doors are widely employed in closet installations and in free standing wardrobes. In some installations, the weight of the doors is carried by rollers seated in an upper track; in other installations, the weight of the doors is carried by rollers that slide in a floor mounted track.
For a free standing wardrobe in which the doors will be mounted at the front of the wardrobe, it is desirable to employ track components which do not adversely affect the overall appearance of the installation. Moreover, the support system should exhibit long life. Generally, such installations for free standing wardrobes have load bearing wheels or rollers on the sliding doors which run in a track positioned on the floor immediately in front of the wardrobe. The top of each of the doors is typically retained in and guided by means of a track section attached to the top of the wardrobe. Many such installations require a multiplicity of compounds and fasteners and can require a substantial amount of time for installation.
Moreover, many such installations do not present an aesthetically pleasing appearance since elements of hardware are exposed to a view from within the room.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a novel top track assembly for sliding doors which can be fabricated easily and economically.
It is also an object to provide such a track assembly which the components may be quickly installed at the front of a free standing wardrobe.
Another object is to provide such a track assembly which will exhibit long life.
It has now been found that the foregoing and related objects may be readily attained in a concealing guide track assembly for the top of a pair of sliding doors of a wardrobe comprising a pair of doors having top rails. An elongated top track for mounting on the top wall of the wardrobe has a base wall and spaced parallel U-shaped forward and rearward channels.
First and second elongated guides each have a generally tubular formation along one side edge thereof slidably seated in one of the U-shaped portions of the top track and have the other side edge engaged with one of the top rails so as to be slidable therewith. The guides also have a bridge portion extending between the side edges, the first guide having the first generally tubular formation seated in the forward channel of the top track and the other side edge engaged with the top rail on the rearward door, the second guide having a generally cylindrical formation seated in the rearward channel of the top track and its other side edge engaged with the guide track rail of the forward door, the second guide bridge portion extending over the bridge portion of the first guide.
Preferably, the top rails have a pair of spaced, upwardly opening channels and an intermediate inverted U-shaped portion providing a downwardly open channel receiving the door panel, and the guides have a generally cylindrical formation on the other side edge thereof.
Rail stops or bungs are seated in the ends of the top rails and having an upwardly opening channels therein which seat the other side edges of the guides. The guides have generally cylindrical formations along the other side edges, and the rail stops and cylindrical formations are cooperatively dimensioned and configured so that the cylindrical formations snap into the channels.
The top track has forward and rearward walls connected between the sides of the base wall and the portions providing the channel, and side passages are provided between the forward and rearward walls and the channel providing portions. End caps are seated in the ends of the top track. The U-shaped channel portions are spaced apart to provide a center passage therebetween. The caps have an end wall and projecting portions which seat in the side passages and in the center passage. The projecting portion in the center passage has an aperture therein to receive a fastener which will seat in the top wall of the wardrobe.
Synthetic resin bearing members are seated in the tubular formations to provide a low friction surface and bearing members have a body portion seated in the tubular formation and a collar disposed outwardly thereof which is of larger diameter. The collar is also of larger diameter than the channels of the top track so as to snap fit thereinto.
a is a sectional view along the line 2-2 of
b is a fragmentary perspective view of the top track assembly;
Turning first to
As seen in
Turning first in detail to the top rails 22 of the doors, these are illustrated in
Inserted into the ends of the top rails 22 are synthetic resin rail bungs generally designated by the numeral 40 and which are illustrated in
Turning next to
Seated in the ends of the top track 24 is a synthetic resin stop illustrated in
Turning next to
Turning next to
In assembling the doors to a wardrobe, the bottom track 20 is installed on the floor adjacent the front of the wardrobe and the rollers (not shown) are installed in the bottom of the doors which are seated in the bottom track 20. The bungs 40 are seated in the top rails 22.
The caps or stops 76 are inserted into the ends of the top track 24 and the top track 24 is secured to the top wall 14 of the wardrobe 10 by fasteners (not shown) which are inserted into the apertures 84. The bearings 98 are inserted into the ends of the short guide 26, and its tubular formation 92 and bearings 98 are pressed into the forward channel 68 and the guide 86 is then pivoted to snap the cylindrical formation 94 into the channel provided between the arcuate bosses 58 of the bungs 40.
The long guide 28 is similarly mounted in the rearward channel 68 of the top track 24 and pivoted to snap into the channel provided by the arcuate bosses 58 of the bungs in the top rail of the forward door. As a result, the upper end of the doors 16, 18 are guided along the top track 24 and the generally vertical forward faces of the guides 26, 28 conceal the other posts of the top track assembly structure to provide a pleasing appearance.
The components of the track assembly can be readily fabricated and at relatively low cost. The guides can be extruded or roll formed from metal to provide the desired contours including the tubular formation along one edge and the cylindrical formation along the other edge.
The top track is conveniently extruded from synthetic resin having reasonable flexibility to permit the “snap into” feature.
The bungs for the top rails of the door are conveniently molded from a low friction synthetic resin such as nylon or polypropylene. The end caps for the top track are conveniently molded from synthetic resin.
As indicated above, the rack assembly of the present invention requires only two fasteners for the ends of the top track and several fasteners for the bottom track. The guide rails are snapped into the top track and top rail of the doors.
Since the long guide extends over the shorter guide, there is no interference in the movement of the doors, and adjustments can be readily made in the supporting rollers or wheels of the bottom track assembly. Any change in vertical height is easily accommodated by pivoting of the guides.
Thus, it can be seen from the foregoing detailed specification and attached drawings that the top track assembly of the present invention is one which is relatively simple and economical to fabricate, and it can be readily and quickly installed. The weight of the door is carried by the bottom track assembly which is desirably fabricated from components exhibiting long life so as to provide an overall long lived assembly with relatively little wear taking place in the top track assembly which has little load upon it.
