Today, many large stores, small convenience stores, airports, hospitals, and other publicly used front entrances employ the use of automatic electrically motorized sliding (usually metal and glass) doors. These doors can be of single door, biparting double doors on a single track, and biparting double doors on an overlapping track types. These tracks are above the doors and the doors hang down from these tracks. The tracks are part of the automatic door system assembly which means that first the automatic door system is installed and then the doors are hung from these automatic door systems.
The commercial automatic door systems are therefore strong and can overcome the inertia and move the doors using an electrical motor. The doors are fastened to the automatic system via hanging brackets. These brackets are connected to wheeled devices which run along the overhead track. A belt is used to bring the motor drive force to the wheeled devices and allows the door(s) to be pushed or pulled open or closed.
These commercial automatic door systems have now become very reliable and safe. The use of a microcontroller has done this. The system can sense the end of the door travel for both opening and closing, thus always re-adjusting itself. It can also sense when it hits an object or person and can stop and back off. What is also available; and which makes this product even more desirable for use in the home, is that these systems can use infrared motion detectors to determine automatically when to open and when to close the door(s).
With such systems available today, the use of such automation seems natural for use in the private residential home, especially the patio or deck sliding door entrance. Many homes make use of glass sliding doors which also include a sliding screen door. Other homes use the non-sliding type door (also called atrium door) but even with this type of door, a sliding screen door is also used.
The home residential market in the United States today expects usage of automatic garage door openers in nearly 100% of the homes. If the technology is available, the demand for the convenience of automatic patio doors appears likely. Advantages include the ability to have the doors open automatically while your hands are full, making sure the screen door is shut behind you, or making sure the glass door is shut behind you to keep heat or air-conditioning from escaping. This system is also good for the disabled.
There have already been a number of solutions for automation of the residential sliding door suggested such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,744 issued to Gallis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,435 issued to Shalit, U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,628 issued to Yingling, U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,007 issued to Archer, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,298 issued to Slopack. The claims made for these solutions include lower cost, ability to be retrofitted to existing residential sliding doors, and certain automatic features.
The goal of the claim of this disclosure is to make use of the more readily available existing automatic door systems used in commercial buildings today. The advantage of using existing commercial building products is their proven quality and reliability over decades. These commercial building type automatic door systems also incorporate the latest in sensor technology and safety features including infrared broken beam safety opening and pressure sensitive safety opening of the doors. These systems include automatic door opening and closing positioning calibration every time the unit is turned on which is perfect for the residential home owner who would be switching this automatic door system on and off daily.
In order to provide simple and inexpensive installation in the home, the existing commercial auto door systems need to be able to be mounted on the inside or outside wall just above the existing home sliding door(s). It is desired that the existing sliding doors not be changed in any way, except for the attachment of brackets, because they are already providing environmental sealing and security (able to be locked when desired).
This method allows for the direct application and operation of a commercial (hanging track) automatic door system to an existing home patio sliding door and provides the mechanical connection to the sliding door(s) from the hanging track type automatic door system which is attached to the above wall (header) of the sliding door.
This method allows for the mounting (bolting) of the commercial track type of automatic door system simply to the wall (header) just above the existing (or just installed) sliding patio door. The commercial automatic door system comes in various sizes and lengths. The requirement here for length is that there is enough length of the internal belt or chain such that, when attached to the sliding door(s) with the brackets described by this method, the door(s) is able to achieve its full length of travel.
The commercial type automatic door systems used here require A-C electrical power. For best appearance and proper electrical code conformity, this method recommends the electrical power come from an electrical line which is within the residential wall and be connected pursuant to governing electrical code directly to the commercial automatic door unit through a wall switch. A-C power lines are usually available in the residential wall near the patio door because electrical codes normally require electrical lighting adjacent to a door leading outside the house. It is recommended that a wall switch be used to turn ON and OFF the power to the automatic door system. Such a wall switch provides instant access for turning off the power in case of a problem. It also makes it a normal daily routine to turn off the power and to manually lock the sliding door for the night or when leaving the house.
This method for use of commercial type automatic sliding door systems on home patio sliding doors provides for the transfer of the moving force of the belt or chain system of the auto door system from the unit mounted on the wall above the patio door to the sliding patio door panel (or panels) without loss of any of the automatic features of the commercial automatic sliding door system or the existing sliding patio door system. The force and power from the belt or chain is carried from the wheel carriages (which are part of the commercial automatic system) to the top of the front of the patio sliding door panel through a set of brackets which are adjustable for door size and position.
The method includes an adjustable bracket system consisting of two pieces (brackets) of strong plastic or metal or other non-bending construction material. Each piece (bracket) is L-shaped with 2 holes and 2 slotted holes. The TOP bracket has the 2 slotted holes located to match existing screw locations on the existing wheel carriage of the commercial automatic door system. These are slotted holes to allow for margin in locating the up-down position for the bracket. The other 2 holes of this bracket are for connection to the second (BOTTOM) bracket.
The BOTTOM bracket has the 2 slotted holes located to match the 2 holes of the TOP bracket. The holes are slotted to allow for margin in locating the horizontal positioning (or distance from the commercial automatic door wheel carriage to the sliding door panel). The 2 holes are for screwing the bracket directly to the sliding door. Wood screws can be used for the frames of glass doors, and machine screws with nuts and washers are recommended for attachment to the metal frame of a screen door. The two brackets comprising this bracket system can be connected together via machine screws and nuts and washers, or with pull-apart connectors, which fit into the holes, for easy disconnect.
This method includes all variations and sizes of a bracket system which is used to connect the existing vertical portion of any wheel chassis of a commercial automatic door system to a patio sliding door system. The actual sizes of the brackets can be almost anything with the most important consideration being aesthetics. It has been found that it is possible to use only one bracket system attached to only one point on the door and one point on the power drive belt (only one wheel carriage). However, there is some instability in motion of the sliding door, and it is almost impossible to have good results with only one bracket system for use on a screen door.
This method can use either two or one wide bracket system for connection to the wheel carriages of the commercial automatic door system. However, only one of these wheel carriages of the commercial automatic door system needs to be directly connected to the drive belt. The other wheel carriage can be just running on the track of the commercial automatic door system for stability. When connecting to two (2) doors which pull apart to open (travel in opposite directions), another complete set of brackets is needed for connecting the second door panel to the existing second set of wheel carriages of the commercial automatic door system which are connected to the belt which travels in the opposite direction. (This should already exist when using the appropriate commercial automatic door system for a two sliding door system.)
The BOTTOM bracket has the 2 slotted holes located to match the 2 holes of the TOP bracket. The holes are slotted to allow for margin in locating the horizontal positioning (or distance from the commercial automatic door existing bracket to the door). The 2 holes are for screwing the bracket directly to the sliding door. Wood screws can be used for the frames of glass doors, and machine screws with nuts and washers are recommended for attachment to the metal frame of a screen door. The two brackets comprising this invention (bracket system) can be connected together via machine screws and nuts and washers, or with pull-apart connectors, which fit into the holes, for easy disconnect.
Embodiments of the invention include all variations and sizes of a bracket system used to connect the existing vertical portion of any bracket of a commercial automatic door system to a patio sliding door system.
The actual sizes of the brackets can be almost anything with the most important consideration being aesthetics. It has been found that it is possible to use only one bracket system (the invention) attached to only one point on the door and one point on the power drive belt. However, there is some instability in motion of the sliding door, and it is almost impossible to have good results with only one bracket system for use on a screen door.
A wheel carriage, 3, consists of the wheel carriage frame, 4, to which are attached wheels, 5, which roll on top of the rail, and wheels, 6, which are located below the rail. The lower wheel, 6, is held against the rail by means of its axis adjustable screw, 7.
The wheel carriage, 3, also has a strong metal bracket, 8, which is L-shaped to allow a sliding door panel, 9, to be attached to it directly under the track, 1. Because these sliding doors are heavy and are hanging from the track system, a positioning screw, 10, is used to help hold the vertical position of the bracket, 8, against the carriage frame, 4.
The brackets of
The upper and lower bracket widths are shown here to be the same. The upper bracket width is determined by the width of the wheel carriage frame. It is best to keep the upper bracket width, F, no larger than the wheel carriage frame. It is best to keep distance D small so that a smaller automatic door system can be used. Making the width of the upper bracket larger than the wheel carriage frame will make the distance D larger. The lower bracket width is usually the same as the upper bracket width for better appearance and to have less bracket showing on the door panel.
The spacing, E, the distance from the left side of the left-most wheel carriage, 24, to the right side of the right-most wheel carriage, 23, is determined using the equation:
E=C−(A−B)−2D.
For a one bracket system, the wheel carriages are connected together with one bracket (consisting of upper and lower parts) and E becomes also the single bracket width. This equation is used to check that the automatic door system is wide enough to provide for complete opening and closing of the door, and also a good appearance for the spacing of the brackets attached to the sliding door.
Provisional patent application No. 60/995,084 with filing date Sep. 25, 2007 U.S. Pat. No. 3,890,744 issued to Gallis on Jun. 24, 1975 U.S. Pat. No. 4,893,435 issued to Shalit on Jan. 16, 1990 U.S. Pat. No. 5,325,628 issued to Yingling on Jul. 5, 1994 U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,007 issued to Archer on Apr. 22, 1997 U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,266 issued to Stark on Apr. 29, 1997 U.S. Pat. No. 5,634,298 issued to Slopack on Jun. 3, 1997 U.S. Pat. No. 6,962,239 issued to Shikaion on Nov. 8, 2005
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5634298 | Slopack | Jun 1997 | A |
6698138 | Lin | Mar 2004 | B1 |
6962239 | Shikai et al. | Nov 2005 | B2 |
Number | Date | Country |
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2631072 | Nov 1989 | FR |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20090077898 A1 | Mar 2009 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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60995084 | Sep 2007 | US |