Claims
- 1. A rectangular door having front and rear sheet metal panels in spaced relation, a core portion sandwiched between said sheet metal panels and on which the outer peripheries of said sheet metal panels are mounted, said core portion including wooden members defining the top, bottom and vertical side edges thereof and thermal sound insulation material retained within the confines of said wooden members and sheet metal panels, said wooden members having rear and front surfaces, the outer peripheries of said sheet metal panels covering the rear and front surfaces of said wooden members and terminating at the outer peripheries of said surfaces, and metallic extrusions defining U-shaped channel members with elastic properties extending around and enclosing in engaged relationship the outer peripheries of said sheet metal panels and the wooden members sandwiched therebetween, each of said channel members having a transverse base and a pair of side walls extending inwardly perpendicular to said base and in parallel relation to define the U-shaped portion of the channel member and having a flange extending outwardly from said transverse base to provide in cooperation with the latter marginal recess for fitting into a door frame, and the channel member enclosing one vertical edge of the core portion extending the full length thereof and being cambered in the transverse direction of said base in an essentially unstressed condition so that it is concave in the rearward direction of the door when the latter is open and so that it is substantially straight in a stressed condition when the door is closed in said door frame, the channel member enclosing the other vertical edge being straight when in an unstressed condition, and a continuous sealing strip secured to the rear surface of said flange for engagement with said door frame
- 2. The door construction that is defined in claim 1, wherein said core portion includes insulation material within the confines of said sheet metal panels and said wooden members which comprises corrugated cardboard.
- 3. The door construction that is defined in claim 1, wherein said continuous sealing strip is a flexible foam plastic material.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This application is a continuation of pending application Ser. No. 623,031, filed Oct. 16, 1975 in the name of Romer G. Weyant, for "Door and Method of Making Same", now abandoned.
The present invention relates to improvements in a door for use in mobile homes, recreational vehicles, marine vessels and the like, and to a method of making the door.
It is known to provide a door construction which has a straight hinge-edge and a cambered bolt-edge, as is disclosed and explained, for example, in the prior U.S. Letters Pat. Nos. 2,781,875; 2,818,946; 3,049,202; 3,286,424 and 3,778,934. While the door constructions disclosed in these patents have served the industry well, further improvements in door construction are required to meet the demands of the industry for lower cost doors that are light in weight and provide optimum weather sealing and insulation characteristics commensurate with their relatively low cost.
The present invention has overcome the inadequacies of the prior art and provides a door that is constructed so that it can be manufactured at minimal cost and which will then serve the functional needs of the building industry.
According to one form of the present invention, a rectangular door is provided having front and rear sheet metal panels in spaced relation, a core portion sandwiched between the sheet metal panels and on which the sheet metal panels are mounted, the core portion including wooden members defining the top, bottom and vertical side edges thereof, and U-shaped extruded metallic channel members extending around and enclosing the outer peripheries of the sheet metal panels and the wooden members sandwiched therebetween. The channel member enclosing one vertical edge of the core portion is cambered so that it is concave in the rearward direction of the door. The channel member enclosing the other vertical edge is straight. To provide an effective seal of the door with respect to the door frame, the channel member along each edge has a flange extending outwardly to provide a marginal recess for fitting into a door frame, the flange along the bolt edge of the door being cambered so that it will assure that a tight weather seal is provided around the periphery of the door when the latter is closed against the door frame. The resilient characteristics of the cambered channel member will then assure that a tight weather seal is provided around the door in the manner conventionally performed by the prior art door constructions of the type disclosed in the patents cited above.
For this purpose of providing a seal, the rear surface of the flange is provided with a continuous sealing strip secured thereto. Also, for thermal and sound insulation purposes, the core portion includes thermal and sound insulation material within the confines of the sheet metal panels and the wooden members. One suitable material for this purpose is conventional corrugated cardboard.
One method of forming the rectangular door includes the steps of fabricating the front and rear sheet metal panels with a core portion sandwiched therebetween, enclosing the full length of each edge within the recessed portion of U-shaped metallic channel members and securing the channel members in place to form a door having four straight edges boardered by the channel members, and feeding the door lengthwise between forming elements arranged to maintain the hinge-edge straight while bending the bolt-edge beyond the elastic limit of its channel member so as to provide a permanent camber of a desired magnitude in the bolt-edge.
In a preferred method of forming the door, the step of feeding the door lengthwise between forming elements comprises feeding a door between rollers arranged to engage the front and rear surfaces of the channel members defining the hinge-edge and the bolt-edge, the rollers at the hinge-edge maintaining a linear path for travel of the associated channel member, and the rollers at the bolt-edge maintaining an arcuate path for travel of the channel member associated with this edge.
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved door characterised by its light weight, thermal and sound insulation properties, its desired configuration so that it provides a straight hinge-edge and a cambered bolt-edge, and its relatively low cost commensurate with providing the enumerated desirable characteristics. It is further an object of the present invention to provide a method of producing the door having the foregoing characteristics.
Other objects of this invention will appear in the following description and appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
US Referenced Citations (10)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
| Number |
Date |
Country |
| 1,445,613 |
Jun 1966 |
FR |
Continuations (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
| Parent |
623031 |
Oct 1975 |
|
Patent Grant
4064655
