Patent Application
20130091665
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a door closer, and more particularly to a door closer for a top hung sliding door that provides for efficient production and assembly.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
A sliding door opens by sliding, whereby a door panel is mounted on a track. Types of sliding doors include top hung sliding doors. The top hung sliding door has a door panel suspended from a track at a top edge and thereby the door panel can be easily moved. However, the door panel easily bumps against a doorframe if the door panel is slammed and that results in a big noise and causes the door panel or the doorframe to be damaged.
A door closer is mounted between the top edge of the door panel and the track to reduce the moving speed of the door panel and to keep the door panel and the doorframe from being damaged. A conventional door closer comprises a buffer mechanism and a trolley hanger. The buffer mechanism is secured to the track and includes a stationary base, a sliding block, a hook, two buffers and a resilient member. The sliding block is slidably mounted on the stationary base. The hook is pivotally mounted on the sliding block. The buffers are mounted on the stationary base and each buffer has a piston rod. The piston rod of one of said buffers abuts the sliding block and the piston rod of the other buffer abuts the trolley hanger. The resilient member is mounted on the stationary base and is secured to the sliding block at two ends. The trolley hanger is secured to the door panel, runs in the track and has an engaging recess selectively engaging the hook. When the door panel is opened, the trolley hanger drives the hook and the sliding block to slide relative to the stationary base and to pull the resilient member. When the door panel is closed, the buffers provide a buffering force and the resilient member releases a resilient force to reduce the moving speed of the door panel and to keep the door panel and the doorframe from being damaged.
However, the piston rods of the buffers must maintain an extended state to respectively abut the sliding block and the trolley hanger. Thus, a power device must be installed to drive the piston rods of the buffers to extend. This results in a high cost for the production of each door closer. Besides, because the piston rods of the buffers respectively abut the sliding block and the trolley hanger, travel distances of the piston rods are different. This then results in a difficult assembly process.
To overcome the shortcomings, the present invention provides a door closer for a top hung sliding door to mitigate or obviate the aforementioned problems.
The main object of the present invention is to provide a door closer for a top hung sliding door that provides for efficient production and assembly.
To achieve the foregoing objective, the door closer in accordance with the present invention comprises a buffer mechanism and a trolley hanger. The buffer mechanism includes a stationary base, a sliding block, a hook, two buffers and two resilient members. The sliding block is slidably mounted on the stationary base and has an inserting recess. The inserting recess has an open bottom. The hook is pivotally mounted on the sliding block. The buffers are mounted on the stationary base and each buffer has a cylinder barrel and a piston rod. The cylinder barrels are secured in the stationary base. The piston rods have free ends inserted into the inserting recess of the sliding block. An insert unit is inserted into the inserting recess of the sliding block through the open bottom of the inserting recess. The insert unit has a locking slot engaging the free ends of the piston rods to secure the piston rods to the sliding block. The resilient members are mounted on the stationary base and each resilient member has one end secured to the stationary base and the other end secured to the sliding block. The trolley hanger has at least one engaging recess selectively engaging the hook. Therefore, the buffers can provide a buffering force and the resilient member can release a resilient force to reduce a moving speed of a door panel. Additionally, because the piston rods of the buffers are driven by the sliding block, no power device needs to be installed to drive the piston rods of the buffers to extend and thus the present invention provides a cost effective improvement.
Other objectives, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
With reference to
The stationary base 10 is elongated and has a front portion and a rear portion. The front portion is a guide rail 11 and the rear portion is a mounting seat 12. The guide rail 11 is a board and has an elongated hole 111 and a locking hole 112. The elongated hole 111 is formed longitudinally through the guide rail 11. The locking hole 112 is formed through the guide rail 11 and is positioned in front of the elongated hole 111. The mounting seat 12 is a block and has a front surface, a top surface, a tank 121, a cover 122 and an aperture 123. The tank 121 is formed longitudinally in the top surface of the mounting seat 12, communicates with the elongated hole 111 of the guide rail 11 and has an open top. The cover 122 corresponds to and covers the open top of the tank 121. The aperture 123 is formed in the front surface of the mounting seat 12 and communicates with the tank 121.
The sliding block 20 is slidably mounted on the stationary base 10 along the guide rail 11 of the stationary base 10 and has a top board 21, a bottom block 22, a receiving hole 212, two front recesses 213 and two rear recesses 214. The top board 21 has a top surface, a bottom surface and a guide channel 211. The guide channel 211 is formed in the top surface of the top board 21 for receiving the guide rail 11 of the stationary base 10 and has two open ends and a channel surface. The bottom block 22 is formed on and protrudes from a rear portion of the bottom surface of the top board 21. The receiving hole 212 is formed through the channel surface of the guide channel 211, extends in a front surface of the bottom block 22 and has two opposite side hole surfaces. The front recesses 213 are respectively formed in front ends of the side hole surfaces of the receiving hole 212. The rear recesses 214 are respectively formed in rear ends of the side hole surfaces of the receiving hole 212. With reference to
With reference to
The buffers 40 may be hydraulic cylinders or pneumatic cylinders, are mounted on the mounting seat 12 of the stationary base 10, are arranged up and down and each buffer 40 has a cylinder barrel 41 and a piston rod 42. The cylinder barrel 41 is secured in the tank 121 of the mounting seat 12 of the stationary base 10 and the cover 122 of the stationary base 10 is positioned over the cylinder barrels 41. The piston rod 42 is retractably mounted and held in the cylinder barrel 41 and has a free end protruding out of the aperture 123 of the mounting seat 12 of the stationary base 10 and inserted into the inserting recess 221 of the sliding block 20. An insert unit 23 is securely inserted into the inserting recess 221 of the sliding block 20 from the open bottom of the inserting recess 221. The insert unit 23 has a locking slot 231 engaging the free ends of the piston rods 42 to secure the piston rods 42 to the sliding block 20.
The resilient members 50 may be tension springs, are mounted on the mounting seat 12 of the stationary base 10, are positioned over the cover 122 of the stationary base 10 and each resilient member 50 has two ends. One end of each resilient member 50 is secured to the stationary base 10 and the other end of each resilient member 50 is secured to the sliding block 20. In a preferred embodiment, the mounting seat 12 of the stationary base 10 further has two positioning columns 124 respectively protruding from the top surface of the mounting seat 12 and positioned in rear of the tank 121. The top board 21 of the sliding block 20 further has two clasping protrusions 215 respectively protruding from a rear end of the top surface of the top board 21. Each resilient member 50 further has two end hooks 51,51A formed on the ends thereof. One end hook 51 engages around a corresponding positioning column 124 of the stationary base 10 and the other end hook 51A engages around a corresponding clasping protrusion 215 of the sliding block 20.
With further reference to
The trolley 70 is detachably mounted to the sliding base 60 and has a roller seat 71, multiple rollers 72 and a positioning rod 73. The roller seat 71 has a top surface, a bottom surface, two side surfaces and at least one engaging recess 711. The at least one engaging recess 711 is formed in the top surface of the roller seat 71 and selectively engages the hooked portion 31 of the hook 30. The rollers 72 are rotatably mounted on the side surfaces of the roller seat 71. The positioning rod 73 is securely mounted through a middle portion of the roller seat 71 and has a bottom end. The bottom end of the positioning rod 73 protrudes from the bottom surface of the roller seat 71, is mounted in the step recess 611 of the sliding base 60 and has an expanding section 731. The expanding section 731 is received in the expanding bottom of the step recess 611 and the clamping recess 633 of the clamping panel 63 clamps around the positioning rod 73 so as to connect the trolley 70 to the sliding base 60. In a preferred embodiment, the roller seat 71 has two engaging recesses 711 respectively formed in a front end and a rear end of the top surface of the roller seat 71. The trolley 70 has four rollers 72 respectively rotatably mounted on a front end and a rear end of the two side surfaces of the roller seat 71.
When the trolley 70 is assembled with the sliding base 60, a tool panel 80 may be used in the assembly process. The tool panel 80 has two ends and a recess 81 formed in one end thereof. A user can hold the other end of the tool panel 80 and make the recess 81 of the tool panel 80 engage the pressing segment 631 of the clamping panel 63 and move the tool panel 80 toward the spring 62. The clamping panel 63 is pivoted to compress the spring 62 and to make the clamping recess 633 of the clamping panel 63 move away from the step recess 611 of the positioning block 61. Under this circumstance, the positioning rod 73 of the trolley 70 can be mounted in the step recess 611 of the sliding base 60 and the tool panel 80 is then removed from the pressing segment 631 of the clamping panel 63. The spring 62 provides resilient force to the front end of the clamping panel 63 so that the clamping panel 63 is pivoted in reverse and the clamping recess 633 of the clamping panel 63 clamps around the positioning rod 73 of the trolley 70. Thus, the trolley 70 and the sliding base 60 are assembled.
With reference to
With reference to
To close the door panel, the door panel is moved to the right as shown in
With reference to
Even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and features of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only. Changes may be made in the details, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
