Patent Application
20210404242
This patent disclosure relates generally to a hinge system and, more particularly, to a hinge system for an upward acting segmented door, such as, a garage door.
Segmented sectional doors, such as garage doors, have several hinges that allow the sections to pivot with respect to each other. Many types of hinges may be used. Traditional leaf-hinges are bulky and made from sheet metal stampings. Some have crude plated finishes.
There is a desire to change garage door designs to become more aesthetically pleasing. In an effort to have a sleeker door design, current traditional leaf-hinges may be replaced with an alternative hinge system. Examples of hinges are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,092,870; 3,402,422; (both titled “Hinge” and U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,008 titled “Multi-Piece Thrust Bearing Assembly for a Hinge Structure” all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.
Traditional hinges typically require several screws with self-drilling and serrated self-locking features. These hinges may be labor intensive to install. It would be desirable to have more aesthetically looking hinges that are require fewer fasteners, fewer hardware components, and are less labor intensive to install.
The foregoing needs are met to a great extent by embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure, wherein, in some embodiments allows in one aspect, a hinge for movably attaching to parts together. The hinge incudes: a first gear; a second gear; a cover configured to attach the first gear to the second gear; a first sliding surface on the cover; a second sliding surface on the cover wherein the first gear slides on the first sliding surface and the second gear slides on the second sliding surface when the hinge is operated; and an area on the first gear with no teeth and the area with no teeth is configured to slide past the second gear to allow the first gear to enter the cover.
In another aspect, the disclosure describes a hinge for movably attaching to parts together. The hinge includes: a first gear; a second gear; a cover configured to attach the first gear to the second gear, the cover having a first protrusion and a second protrusion facing the first protrusion and first protrusion fits into a recess in the first gear and the second protrusion fitting into a recess in the second gear; a first sliding surface on the first protrusion; a second sliding surface on the second protrusion wherein the first gear slides on the first sliding surface and the second gear slides on the second sliding surface when the hinge is operated, wherein the first gear has an area with no teeth and the area with no teeth is configured to allow the first gear to rotation on the first protrusion slide past the second gear to allow the first gear to enter the cover.
In yet another aspect, the disclosure describes a method of forming a hinge comprising: extruding a first gear; extruding a second gear; forming a cover configured to attach the first gear to the second gear; extruding a first sliding surface on the cover; extruding a second sliding surface on the cover wherein the first gear slides on the first sliding surface and the second gear slides on the second sliding surface when the hinge is operated; and extruding at least a portion of a segment for a segmented door along with the extruding of at least one of either the first and second gear.
The disclosure also provides, in another aspect a method of assembling a hinge. The method includes: moving a surface without gear teeth on a first gear past a toothed surface on a second gear; moving the first and second gears into a cover; meshing a tooth on the first gear with a tooth on the second gear; and holding the first and second gears together with the cover.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, certain embodiments of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof herein may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are, of course, additional embodiments of the invention that will be described below and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of embodiments in addition to those described and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein, as well as the abstract, are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for the designing of other structures, methods and systems for carrying out the several purposes of the present invention. It is important, therefore, that the claims be regarded as including such equivalent constructions insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Additional features, advantages, and aspects of the disclosure may be set forth or apparent from consideration of the following detailed description, drawings, and claims. Moreover, it is to be understood that both the foregoing summary of the disclosure and the following detailed description are exemplary and intended to provide further explanation without limiting the scope of the disclosure as claimed.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate aspects of the disclosure and together with the detailed description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. No attempt is made to show structural details of the disclosure in more detail than may be necessary for a fundamental understanding of the disclosure and the various ways in which it may be practiced. In the drawings:
The aspects of the disclosure and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting aspects and examples that are described and/or illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. It should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, and features of one aspect may be employed with other aspects as the skilled artisan would recognize, even if not explicitly stated herein. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques may be omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the aspects of the disclosure. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the disclosure may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the aspects of the disclosure. Accordingly, the examples and aspects herein should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure, which is defined solely by the appended claims and applicable law. Moreover, it is noted that like reference numerals represent similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
The segmented door 20 is made of several panels 22 which may also be referred to as segments 22. The door 20 has wheels 24 located on the segments 22. The wheels 24 are supported and attached to the segments 22 by wheel brackets 26 via a wheel axle 28. The wheels 24 allow the door 20 to move along a track (not shown).
As shown in
The panels 22 or segments 22 may be a single unitary piece, comprised of several wood or other sections, or as shown, made of a frame 40 and an insert 42. The insert 42 may be a window, a panel or other type of insert 42. As shown, for example in
As shown in
The first and second panel frames 44 and 46 are equipped with a first gear 58 and a second gear 60 respectively. The first gear 58 has first gear teeth 62 and the second gear 60 has second gear teeth 64. When the hinge 32 is actuated, the gear teeth 62 and 64 mesh together to cause the first panel frame 44 (and therefore one panel 22) and second panel frame 46 (and therefore a second panel) to move in a pivot-like movement with respect to each other. Optionally, the first and second panel frames 44 and 46 may also include one or more cavities 66 for locating a seal.
The first and second gears 58 and 60 are held together by the cover 30 also referred to as a retainer 30. The cover 30 has two rounded projections 68 that fit into corresponding receiving structure 70. When the hinge 32 is actuated the rounded projection 68 and corresponding receiving structure 70 slide on sliding surfaces 71 (noted in
In some embodiments the panel frames 40 and particularly, the first and second frames 44 and 46, are extruded. They may be aluminum or any other suitable substance. The first and second frames 44 and 46 are extruded along with the first and second gears 58 and 60 so that the gears 58 and 60 are unitized and with and conformed with the panel frames 44 and 46. In some embodiments the panel frames 44 and 46 have substantially uniform cross-sections which is often a characteristic of extruded parts.
The axle bracket 76 may be modified from the axle bracket 26 discussed above to accommodate being attached to the elongated body 72. In
Having an area 78 of no teeth is useful for assembling the hinge 32. The gear with no untoothed area 78 (in the FIGS. second gear 60) is moved into the cover 30. Then the gear with the area 78 having no teeth (in the FIGS. this is the first gear 58) is rotated so the area 78 of no teeth can slide over the teeth 64 of the second gear 60 and into the cover 30. The gear 58 with the area 78 of no teeth can then be rotated to allow the first teeth 62 on the first gear 58 mesh with the second gear teeth 64 on the second gear 60 as shown in
While the disclosure has been described in terms of exemplary aspects, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure can be practiced with modifications in the spirit and scope of the appended claims. These examples given above are merely illustrative and are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible designs, aspects, applications or modifications of the disclosure.
