Patent Application
20180119480
This technology relates to kits and devices for door reinforcement comprising metal bars and decorative metal brackets that are placed on the door of a home to prevent it from being forcibly entered by a burglar or criminal. The metal bars and decorative metal brackets can easily convert a standard door into the same integrity and strength of a security door by reinforcing the weak points of the door.
Probably since the first home was built in the US, there has always been the threat of burglary and the search to prevent it. The overall population growth also brought about the expediential increase in crime. Many home alarm and security companies have capitalized on the need for protection. The use of technology is one of the many means to combat home invasions.
The demand for protection is so great that the home alarm and security industry has become a multi-billion dollar a year industry. The traditional form of home protection is a home alarm that alerts the homeowner of a potential intruder. The problem with traditional home alarms is they are only designed to alert of a crime, not to intervene to prevent the crime from taking place. They are only to be used as a deterrent. However, with the average response time to an alarm being approximately ten to fifteen minutes, criminals are no longer afraid of getting caught during a burglary, making the alarm in effective.
Other means of protection included installing security bars on the doors and windows, gated security doors, steel doors and other bulky metal products to prevent someone from entering the home. The problem with these means of protection is that they are usually very expensive, intrusive, unattractive, a fire hazard, violate city & association codes, reduce the value of the home by projecting an unsafe neighborhood and are simply undesirable. Also, criminals have resorted to prying the bars from the door or wall structure to gain access to the home.
This invention is a solution to these problems. It is seamlessly placed on the door and practically hidden out of site while making the door resistant to forceful entry.
In accordance with the purpose(s) of the disclosure, as embodied and broadly described herein, the disclosure, in one aspect, relates to an apparatus and kits for improved door security. In an aspect, the disclosed apparatus provides seamless installation of a first and a second door bracket, one or more door hinge bars, and a door frame bar that strengthen the weak areas of the door near the lock and hinges. In particular, the disclosed apparatus and kit can be seamlessly installed on an existing door to improve the security of the door.
Disclosed is an apparatus for securing a door, the apparatus comprising: at least one door hinge bar comprising a plurality of holes therein for receiving a fastener, wherein the at least one door hinge bars is secured to an interior surface of the door near a door hinge; a first door bracket comprising a plurality of holes therein for receiving a fastener, wherein the first door bracket is secured and flush to an interior surface of the door and positioned near a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or both a door handle assembly and a deadbolt assembly; a second door bracket comprising a plurality of holes therein for receiving a fastener, wherein the second door bracket is secured and flush to an exterior surface of the door and positioned near a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or both a door handle assembly and a deadbolt assembly; and a door frame bar comprising a plurality of holes therein for receiving a fastener and at least one knockout plate, wherein the door frame bar is secured and flush to a door frame in a position opposing in part a deadbolt, wherein the at least one knockout plate is removed before securing to the door frame to provide at least one opening in the door frame bar, and wherein the door frame bar is positioned on the door frame such that the at least one opening is positioned over the receiving hole for the bolt of the deadbolt or the latch of the deadlatch.
Also disclosed herein are kits comprising the disclosed apparatus and instructions for installation of the apparatus on a door and associated door frame.
While aspects of the present disclosure can be described and claimed in a particular statutory class, such as the system statutory class, this is for convenience only and one of skill in the art will understand that each aspect of the present disclosure can be described and claimed in any statutory class. Unless otherwise expressly stated, it is in no way intended that any method or aspect set forth herein be construed as requiring that its steps be performed in a specific order. Accordingly, where a method claim does not specifically state in the claims or descriptions that the steps are to be limited to a specific order, it is no way intended that an order be inferred, in any respect. This holds for any possible non-express basis for interpretation, including matters of logic with respect to arrangement of steps or operational flow, plain meaning derived from grammatical organization or punctuation, or the number or type of aspects described in the specification.
The accompanying figures, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate several aspects and together with the description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.
Additional advantages of the disclosure will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or can be learned by practice of the disclosure. The advantages of the disclosure will be realized and attained by means of the elements and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory only and are not restrictive of the disclosure, as claimed.
The disclosures herein will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all possible embodiments are shown. Indeed, disclosures may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
Many modifications and other embodiments disclosed herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which the disclosed compositions and methods pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the disclosures are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular aspects only and is not intended to be limiting.
As used herein, “comprising” is to be interpreted as specifying the presence of the stated features, integers, steps, or components as referred to, but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more features, integers, steps, or components, or groups thereof. Additionally, the term “comprising” is intended to include examples encompassed by the terms “consisting essentially of” and “consisting of.” Similarly, the term “consisting essentially of” is intended to include examples encompassed by the term “consisting of.”
Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the disclosed compositions and methods belong. In this specification and in the claims which follow, reference will be made to a number of terms which shall be defined herein.
As will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reading this disclosure, each of the individual embodiments described and illustrated herein has discrete components and features which may be readily separated from or combined with the features of any of the other several embodiments without departing from the scope or spirit of the present disclosure. Any recited method can be carried out in the order of events recited or in any other order that is logically possible.
As used in the specification and the appended claims, the singular forms “a,” “an” and “the” include plural referents unless the context clearly dictates otherwise. Thus, for example, reference to “a screw,” “a screw hole,” or “a door hinge bar” includes mixtures of two or more such screws, screw holes, or door hinge bars, and the like.
It should be noted that ratios, dimensions, amounts, and other numerical data can be expressed herein in a range format. Where the stated range includes one or both of the limits, ranges excluding either or both of those included limits are also included in the disclosure, e.g. the phrase “x to y” includes the range from ‘x’ to ‘y’ as well as the range greater than ‘x’ and less than ‘y’. The range can also be expressed as an upper limit, e.g. ‘about x, y, z, or less’ and should be interpreted to include the specific ranges of ‘about x’, ‘about y’, and ‘about z’ as well as the ranges of ‘less than x’, less than y′, and ‘less than z’. Likewise, the phrase ‘about x, y, z, or greater’ should be interpreted to include the specific ranges of ‘about x’, ‘about y’, and ‘about z’ as well as the ranges of ‘greater than x’, greater than y′, and ‘greater than z’. In addition, the phrase “about ‘x’ to ‘y’”, where ‘x’ and ‘y’ are numerical values, includes “about ‘x’ to about ‘y’”. It is to be understood that such a range format is used for convenience and brevity, and thus, should be interpreted in a flexible manner to include not only the numerical values explicitly recited as the limits of the range, but also to include all the individual numerical values or sub-ranges encompassed within that range as if each numerical value and sub-range is explicitly recited. To illustrate, a numerical range of “about 0.1% to 5%” should be interpreted to include not only the explicitly recited values of about 0.1% to about 5%, but also include individual values (e.g., 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4%) and the sub-ranges (e.g., 0.5%, 1.1%, 2.4%, 3.2%, and 4.4%) within the indicated range.
As used herein, the terms “about,” “approximate,” “at or about,” and “substantially” mean that the amount or value in question can be the exact value or a value that provides equivalent results or effects as recited in the claims or taught herein. That is, it is understood that amounts, sizes, formulations, parameters, and other quantities and characteristics are not and need not be exact, but may be approximate and/or larger or smaller, as desired, reflecting tolerances, conversion factors, rounding off, measurement error and the like, and other factors known to those of skill in the art such that equivalent results or effects are obtained. In some circumstances, the value that provides equivalent results or effects cannot be reasonably determined. In such cases, it is generally understood, as used herein, that “about” and “at or about” mean the nominal value indicated ±10% variation unless otherwise indicated or inferred. In general, an amount, size, formulation, parameter or other quantity or characteristic is “about,” “approximate,” or “at or about” whether or not expressly stated to be such. It is understood that where “about,” “approximate,” or “at or about” is used before a quantitative value, the parameter also includes the specific quantitative value itself, unless specifically stated otherwise.
As used herein, the terms “optional” or “optionally” means that the subsequently described event or circumstance can or can not occur, and that the description includes instances where said event or circumstance occurs and instances where it does not.
Unless otherwise expressly stated, it is in no way intended that any method set forth herein be construed as requiring that its steps be performed in a specific order. Accordingly, where a method claim does not actually recite an order to be followed by its steps or it is not otherwise specifically stated in the claims or descriptions that the steps are to be limited to a specific order, it is no way intended that an order be inferred, in any respect. This holds for any possible non-express basis for interpretation, including: matters of logic with respect to arrangement of steps or operational flow; plain meaning derived from grammatical organization or punctuation; and the number or type of embodiments described in the specification.
The shapes, sizes, dimensions, positioning, and number of elements depicted in the figures are meant for exemplary purposes only. Alternative shapes, sizes, dimensions, positioning, and number of elements, including duplicate elements, are contemplated by and within embodiments of the present disclosure.
For convenience, the indicia reference numbers used in the figures and discussion herein are summarized in Table 1 below.
In various aspects, the present disclosure relates to door security apparatus and kits comprising same. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to an door security apparatus that can be installed on an existing door to strengthen typically weaker areas of the door that are prone to failure during a break-in by an intruder. In an aspect, the present disclosure pertains a door security apparatus comprising a door frame bar, 10; one or more door hinge bars, 20; and a door bracket, e.g., any one of door bracket 30-33. The door security apparatus can optionally further comprise a reinforcing bar, 700.
The door frame bar, 10, is secured using a fastener to an interior face of a door frame and positioned approximately centered in the vertical and horizontal axes of the interior face of the door frame. The door frame bar comprises a plurality of door frame screw holes, e.g., from 2 to 16 holes. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door frame bar, 10, further comprises a plurality of fasteners that can be inserted through the door frame holes to secure the door frame bar flush against an interior face of the door frame opposing a door edge, wherein a door knob assembly and/or door deadbolt assembly is positioned. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door frame bar, 10, comprises one or more knock-out plates. The knock-out plates, such as door frame bar knock-out plates 12, 13, and 14, as shown in
The door hinge bar, 20, is secured using a fastener to an interior face of a door frame and positioned approximately centered in the vertical and horizontal axes of the interior face of the door frame. The door hinge bar comprises a plurality of door hinge holes, e.g., from 2 to 8 holes. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door hinge bar, 20, further comprises a plurality of fasteners that can be inserted through the door hinge screw holes to secure the door hinge bar flush against an interior face of the door located near a hinge, and positioned such that an outer edge of the door hinge bar is flush with an outer edge of the interior face of the door and approximately centered in the length dimension on the interior face approximately perpendicular to a hinge. In an aspect, as shown in
In some aspects, the door bracket comprises a vertical member with an optional lateral protusion. The lateral protusion can be of any useful geometry. For example, as shown in
The door bracket, 30, is secured using a fastener to an interior face of a door bracket and positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. The door bracket, 30, comprises a plurality of door bracket screw holes, e.g., from 2 to 8 holes. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door bracket, 30, further comprises a plurality of fasteners that can be inserted through the door bracket screw holes to secure the door bracket flush against an interior face of the door positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. In an aspect, as shown in
In some aspects, the door bracket comprises a vertical member with an optional lateral protusion. The lateral protusion can be of any useful geometry. For example, as shown in
The door bracket, 31, is secured using a fastener to an interior face of a door bracket and positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. The door bracket, 31, comprises a plurality of door bracket screw holes, e.g., from 2 to 8 holes. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door bracket, 31, further comprises a plurality of fasteners that can be inserted through the door bracket screw holes to secure the door bracket flush against an interior face of the door positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. In an aspect, as shown in
In some aspects, the door bracket comprises a vertical member with an optional lateral protusion. The lateral protusion can be of any useful geometry. For example, as shown in
The door bracket, 32, is secured using a fastener to an interior face of a door bracket and positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. The door bracket, 32, comprises a plurality of door bracket screw holes, e.g., from 2 to 8 holes. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door bracket, 32, further comprises a plurality of fasteners that can be inserted through the door bracket screw holes to secure the door bracket flush against an interior face of the door positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. In an aspect, as shown in
In some aspects, the door bracket comprises a vertical member without an optional lateral protusion member. For example, as shown in
The door bracket, 33, is secured using a fastener to an interior face of a door bracket and positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. The door bracket, 33, comprises a plurality of door bracket screw holes, e.g., from 2 to 8 holes. In an aspect, as shown in
In various aspects, the door bracket, 33, further comprises a plurality of fasteners that can be inserted through the door bracket screw holes to secure the door bracket flush against an interior face of the door positioned approximately centered with respect to a door handle assembly, a deadbolt assembly, or the overall center of both a door handle assembly and deadbolt assembly when both are present. In an aspect, as shown in
The vertical member and lateral protusion member of the door bracket can be a single continuous piece. The single continuous piece of a door bracket can be fabricated by metal stamping or matching methods, if the door bracket is fabricated from a metal; molding methods, such as injection molding, if the door bracket is fabricated from a high impact, high tensile strength polymer; or casting methods. Alternatively, the vertical member and lateral protusion member can be separate pieces that have been joined together by welding, adhesive, or other joining techniques suitable for the material from which the door bracket is fabricated.
The disclosed door security apparatus comprises two door brackets, one to be installed on the interior face of the door and the other of exterior face of the door. In various aspects, the two door brackets mirror one another in overall shape, dimensions, and geometry.
In various aspects, representative exemplary components of the present disclosure are shown in images disclosed herein, such as a door frame bar (see
It is to be understood that this disclosure is not limited to particular aspects described, and as such may, of course, vary. Other systems, methods, features, and advantages of foam compositions and components thereof will be or become apparent to one with skill in the art upon examination of the following drawings and detailed description. It is intended that all such additional systems, methods, features, and advantages be included within this description, be within the scope of the present disclosure, and be protected by the accompanying claims. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular aspects only, and is not intended to be limiting. The skilled artisan will recognize many variants and adaptations of the aspects described herein. These variants and adaptations are intended to be included in the teachings of this disclosure and to be encompassed by the claims herein.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present disclosure without departing from the scope or spirit of the disclosure. Other embodiments of the disclosure will be apparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of the specification and practice of the disclosure disclosed herein. It is intended that the specification and examples be considered as exemplary only, with a true scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the following claims.
This Application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/496,865, filed on Nov. 1, 2016, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62496865 | Nov 2016 | US |
