Patent Application
20170247934
The invention relates to molded door skins and doors manufactured therewith, and more particularly, to a molded door skin and door with integral divided light bars that can be used either as true divided light TDL muntin bars or simulated divided light SDL muntin bars or decorative grilles.
Large pieces of glass used to be expensive to manufacture, so windows were made up of several pieces put into wooden frames. These are known as TDL windows—having multiple pieces of glass that are separated by wooden muntin bars. TDL light glass is still limited to applications in wood windows and doors with wooden muntin bars.
While TDL windows are attractive, they are expensive to fabricate. An inexpensive alternative to true divided light is SDL. SDL windows feature a single piece of glass with SDL bars permanently adhered to both sides of the glass to give it the appearance of a TDL window.
Fiberglass doors, especially flush-glazed fiberglass doors, with SDL door glass are one of the most popular designs on the market. As mentioned earlier, SDL door glass features SDL bars adhered to the indoor and outdoor surfaces of the glass. Adhering SDL bars to the surface of the glass manually is very labor intensive. The look of the manually applied SDL bars are kind of low end.
There is a strong demand for a more efficient and cost-effective way of making fiberglass doors with high end divided light bars.
Methods of making simulated divided light windows are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,520, U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,938, U.S. Pat. No. 6,177,156, U.S. Pat. No. 7,854,097 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,345,743. But all of them relate to manually adhering SDL bars or glazing sheets to glass.
Accordingly, an objective of the present invention is to provide a decorative door having a TDL appearance that is less expensive to manufacture, structurally stronger and looks better.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a decorative door that is less labor intensive to manufacture.
These and other objectives will be apparent to those skilled in the art based upon the following written description, drawings and claims.
The present invention provides a mass production method of making molded door skins with integral divided light bars at low cost. The door skin includes a body portion and a divided light bar portion. The body portion and divided light bar portion are of one-piece integral construction of the same material. The door skin with integral divided light bars is preferably made of compression molded thermosetting synthetic/fiberglass. The cross section of the divided light bars is not limited to the cross section shown in the preferred embodiments. Different sizes and divided light patterns are made available through the use of different molds. Two such door skins, interior door skin and exterior door skin, are normally needed in the making of the door with divided light bars. The divided light portions on the interior and exterior door skins form a number (typically 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15 and 18) of openings/lights in TDL and SDL applications or any more than 2 openings in decorative grille applications.
In a TDL application, individual pieces of insulating glass units, preferably with bevels, are each put into one of the openings/lights and caulked/bonded to the inner side of the surrounding divided light muntin bars with glass stops. Using securing bars to further help to prevent the divided bars from separating from the glass units is optional.
In an SDL and decorative grille application, a single piece of insulating glass unit (with or without internal shadow bars/spacers) is caulked/bonded to the back of interior and exterior door skins along the perimeter of the door glass opening. And the various numbers of small windows/lights formed by the divided light bars are to simulate the appearance of true divided light windows or for decorative purpose. Applying double sided SDL tape or caulk between the glass and divided light bars is optional.
Referring to
The true divided light muntin bar portion 13 consists of molded true divided light muntin bars 13 forming a number (minimum 2) of openings/lights 17 for holding individual pieces of insulating glass units 15. There are a number of glass stops 14 on the back of true divided light muntin bars 13 to keep the individual pieces of glass units 15 in position. These glass stops 14 are preferably an integral molded part of the door skin 11. The glass stops 14 can also be add-on components made of any material. When the glass stops 14 are add-on components, they can be either glued or screwed to the back of the true divided light bars 13. The glass stops can be screw bores 14 or double-walled ribs 14A. Individual pieces of insulating glass units 15, preferably with bevels, are each put into one of the openings 17 and caulked/bonded to the back of the surrounding divided light bars 13 of both an interior and an exterior door skins 11. These individual pieces of insulating glass units 15 are initially kept in position by glass stops 14 before they are caulked/bonded to the back of the surrounding divided light bars 13 of both the interior and exterior door skins 11. Optionally, a securing bar 16 of either fiberglass, wood, metal or any synthetic material connects the opposite glass stops 14 on the interior and exterior door skins 11 to further help to prevent the divided light muntin bars 13 from separating from the glass units 15. When used, the securing bar 16 is normally glued to the glass stops 14. Securing bars 16 can also be an integral part of one door skin 11 as the male part while there will be a female receiving bore on the other door skin 11. A spacing of about 1/16″ between the edge of the glass unit 15 and glass stop 14 is needed to accommodate manufacturing tolerance and different expansion/contraction of divided light bars and glass units 15.
Referring to
The simulated divided light bar portion consists of molded simulated divided light bars 23 forming a number (minimum 2) of openings/lights 24 to simulate the appearance of true divided light windows. A single piece of insulating glass unit 25 (with or without internal shadow bars/spacers) is caulked/bonded to the back of interior and exterior door skins 21 along the perimeter 24 of the door glass opening. Various numbers of openings/lights formed by the divided light bars are to simulate the appearance of true divided light windows.
Referring to
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/299,807 filed Feb. 25, 2016.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 62299807 | Feb 2016 | US |
