Patent Grant
9027281
The present invention relates to a novel design and architecture for an electric door opener of the “rail type” (as defined below) for a garage or equivalent structure, in which a novel “drive assembly” (as defined below) is mounted in an advantageous position over the garage door opening with a pivotable mount, with no impact to functionality or performance, while providing a significant enhancement to safety, both during installation as well as over the lifetime of the unit. By contrast, drive assemblies for rail type garage door openers uniformly prevalent in the marketplace are required to be suspended from (or otherwise mounted to) the garage ceiling.
In addition to a novel structural design and architecture for rail type garage door openers, the present invention provides novel designs for a number of means that constitute changes to the drive assembly itself, and/or novel changes to the apparatus used for mounting, in order to reduce the invention to practice. All design changes to the drive assembly are supported by the design of appropriate mounts and mechanical adapters. None of these changes requires a complete redesign of the fundamental supporting components of prior art drive assemblies, such as the electronics, the drive train, the rail and trolley system, the safety features, and so on.
While the primary advantage of the present invention is that it can promote public safety, as a collateral advantage it is much easier and simpler to install and/or remove, such that either process is based upon the use of only three removable pins. (Two of the three removable pins are co-linear, and in theory could be combined into a long, single pin. Although this approach would technically result in a “two pin” solution, it was deemed to be impractical, and a trivial exception to “three pin” solution.) Either approach is a significant contrast to the prior art, in which the installation, removal and replacement of a rail type garage door opener is both laborious and risky.
It has been almost 90 years since the invention of the electric rail type garage door opener. Since then, perhaps hundreds of models of rail type garage door openers have been designed and marketed. It is estimated that many tens of millions of prior art units have been sold and installed, and that over a billion people around the world currently live and/or work in locations with prior art units. On the order of 200 patents have been granted regarding improvements to rail type garage door openers. In spite of many significant incremental improvements, no invention has heretofore challenged the basic structural architecture of the prior art, in spite of its significant deficiencies from a safety standpoint.
As will be seen, the invention disclosed herein is by no means “a trivial rearrangement of existing parts that does not produce new and unexpected results”. In fact, given the long history of rail type garage door openers, the enormous size of the present day market, and the severe deficiencies in heritage designs, it is completely unexpected that with modest changes to the prior art, the completely novel design and architecture of the invention disclosed herein allows it to be installed in a much easier and safer manner than the prior art, to operate seamlessly with respect to all required garage door opener functions, and provide significant safety enhancements that can benefit many millions of people.
“Rail type” electric rail garage door openers are well known in the art. Rail type garage door openers use a “drive assembly” which is suspended from the ceiling somewhere near the middle of the garage. As used herein, the term “drive assembly” for a rail type garage door opener refers to the unit which contains the drive motor, gears, electronics, lights, and so on, as well as associated structure and apparatus for mounting. The inclusion of structure and mounting apparatus in this definition of the drive assembly is required to avoid ambiguity regarding the scope of the various embodiments of drive assemblies to be presented herein. For example, some of these embodiments depict structure that can be made integral with the drive assembly chassis, or alternatively incorporated into a physically separate apparatus used for mounting. Such alternatives are considered to be inconsequential variants of the novel configuration of garage door openers and drive assemblies to be disclosed herein, as will be clear to one skilled in the art. The drive assembly has a rail fixed to its proximal end, while the distal end of the rail is attached to a bracket which is mounted above the garage door opening. The drive assembly drives a moveable fixture, called a “trolley”, along the rail by means, typically including, inter alia, a chain, belt, or screw drive mechanism. Typically, one end of the J-arm is attached to the trolley, and the other end to a bracket near the top of the garage door. In operation, the electric motor in the drive assembly for a rail type garage door opener moves the trolley along the rail, which subsequently opens or closes the garage door via the J-arm.
In assessing the state of the art regarding rail type garage door openers, it is helpful to review the classes of garage doors, the classes of electric garage door openers, and the capability of each class of garage door opener versus the garage door classes.
In discussing classes of garage doors, it is important to note that in order to reduce the force needed to move the door, all garage door classes either employ springs or weights suspended on cables to counterbalance the weight of the door. The garage doors themselves are essentially either a “one piece” or sectional. One piece garage doors either have a pair of tracks or a pair of levered hinges on either side of the door to constrain the movement of the door. One piece garage doors with tracks employ either a torsion spring over the garage door opening or a pair of extension springs on either side, while one piece doors with levered hinges have springs integral to the hinges. Sectional garage doors require a pair of tracks to constrain the motion of the door, and employ either a torsion spring over the garage door opening or a pair of extension springs on either side.
There are essentially three classes of prior art garage door openers; the rail type class, a “jackshaft” drive class, and a “direct drive” class. As has been defined herein, the rail type class uniformly has a drive assembly suspended from the garage door ceiling in a fixed position.
As the name implies, the jackshaft drive class controls the position of the garage door by rotating a torsion bar (i.e., jackshaft), which is located above the garage door opening, extending beyond it on either side. The drive assembly for this class is mounted at one end of the torsion bar, on the wall beside the garage door opening. The motor in the drive assembly rotates the torsion bar, which drives pulleys and cables that lift the garage door.
The “direct drive” class of garage door opener is the most recent, and has a drive unit that comprises a drive motor and a sliding structure, such that the drive unit moves in either direction along the length of a rail. As currently constituted, this class also has an electrical control unit suspended from the ceiling of the garage, which supports ancillary functions, and provides DC power to the moving drive unit via a power strip in the rail. Because of this unique configuration, even though it has a rail, this class of garage door opener is not been included in the “rail type” classification, which is reserved herein for traditional rail applications, which have a fixed drive assembly.
Based upon the above, a key observation is that none of the prior art garage door openers have a drive assembly mounted on the wall over the garage door opening with a pivotable mount, as does the present invention. All of the prior art garage door openers prevalent in the marketplace, with the exception of the jackshaft class, have some type of electrical unit suspended from the garage door ceiling, unlike the present invention.
Regarding the applicability of the prior classes of garage door openers, all of them can be used with all classes of garage doors, with the exception of the jackshaft class, which is clearly limited to sectional doors with torsion bars. As will be seen, the present invention can not only be used with all classes of garage doors, but can do so while supporting all secondary functions.
In order to make a fair assessment of the novelty, utility, and non-obviousness of the present invention vs. the prior art, it is appropriate to briefly survey key inventions regarding electric garage door openers of the rail type, starting with the first electric garage door opener in U.S. Pat. No. 1,578,177, “Garage Door Opening Device” which was issued to Andrew Schrade and Elmer Johnson in 1926. This patent was for a rail type garage door opener with a chain drive, and had a drive assembly suspended from the garage ceiling. In effect, this patent used the prior art knowledge of using a rotary electric motor with a sprocket to drive a chain, and combined this mechanism with linkage to the garage door.
A second key patent is U.S. Pat. No. 2,637,550, “Overhead Door Actuator, issued to B. Ritter in 1953, which was for a rail type garage door opener with a screw drive, which also had a drive assembly suspended from the garage ceiling. Instead of using a chain, it combined an extended screw and travelling nut, a well established mechanism at the time, with the prior art.
A third patent of interest is U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,688, “Garage Door Operator with Plastic Drive Belt”, issued to Kenneth J. Dumbrowski, et. al., in 1991, which was for a rail type garage door opener with a belt drive, which also had a drive assembly suspended from the garage ceiling. As a replacement for a metal chain, this invention combined a toothed belt made of a compliant material to transmit force, at the time a very well established practice in automobiles and elsewhere, with the prior art.
The three patents above were are cited because they are the most salient inventions regarding the physical plant of prior art garage door openers, and in fact the chain, screw, and belt drive mechanisms are the predominant embodiments in the current marketplace. From an objective standpoint, since it is clear that all of the above patents were novel and useful, they should be very helpful in providing a gauge for the more subjective question of obviousness for the present invention. Both of the two follow-on patents described above focused on incremental improvements in the “drive chain”, while combining existing elements in a novel way, but neither of them challenged the fundamental architecture of the traditional rail based garage door opener that was established by the first patent cited. When considered in this regard, it should be clear that if the substitution of a toothed plastic belt to transmit linear force instead of a metal chain in 1991 is deemed to have yielded “new and unexpected” results, it is logical that the results of the invention disclosed herein should be deemed far more novel and unexpected.
Because of numerous accidents and injuries resulting from the operation of rail type garage door openers, a number of inventions have led to such standard features as the ability to sense excessive resistive force (from a person or inanimate object) and reverse direction, the ability to sense obstacles and prevent actuation, and so on. However, the basic architecture of rail type garage door openers prevalent in the marketplace, with the drive assembly suspended from the ceiling, has not changed since the 1920's, and the dangers inherent in this architecture, during installation and subsequently, have persisted to this day.
In the typical installation of a rail type garage door opener uniformly prevalent in the marketplace, the end of the rail which is distal from the drive assembly is first attached to a mounting bracket, located on the wall above the garage door (for clarity, any references to “above the garage door” herein assume the door is closed), while the drive assembly at the proximal end of the rail rests upon the garage floor. The drive assembly, connected to the proximal end of the rail, must then be lifted and supported in a position whereby it can be mounted to the garage ceiling, which is typically at least eight feet above the floor. The temporary support for the drive assembly and rail during this generally custom installation, typically at a height of seven feet or more, is often provided by having a ladder, as well as an assistant.
The above-door mounting bracket for the distal end of the rail is typically an included part when one purchases a new rail type garage door opener, and usually no additional hardware is required to mount this end. Some rail type garage door openers do provide a minimal hardware kit, such as hanging straps and a L-bracket, for mounting the drive assembly end, but it is generally the responsibility of the installer to fabricate a bracket or similar structure to suspend the relatively heavy drive assembly from the ceiling. Given the mass of the drive assembly, and the need to provide it with temporary support during installation, the task of mounting it under these conditions in a secure manner to the garage ceiling is usually the most risky and challenging part of the installation. Therefore, it stands to reason that the majority of accidents, to both property and personnel, occur during this installation stage of prior art garage door openers.
As noted above, since a custom mounting bracket may be required for holding the drive assembly in the proper position, whereby it hangs at the correct height from the garage ceiling, the “engineering” associated with such installations is by no means uniform. As there is no real uniformity in mounting the drive assemblies to the garage ceiling, it is readily apparent that the robustness of the mountings vary considerably, with some mounts being much inferior to others. As will be discussed in more detail herein, there is generally a complete absence of building and safety codes at either the state or federal level governing the adequacy of garage door opener installation.
This leads to an inherent problem with such typical rail type garage door opener installations, particularly when the rail type garage door opener is purchased and installed by an inexperienced homeowner, which is often the case. These dangers are highlighted by the typical installation instructions provided with rail type garage door openers, which warn in general terms that the incorrect installation or operation of such units can lead to serious injury and/or death, but do not provide any specifics in terms of safety factors, or other objective criteria, for a safe and secure installation.
In particular, while some drive assemblies will be securely mounted by a well engineered system of angle iron or similar material, properly secured to the ceiling joists, along with appropriate bracing to insure that the drive assembly is secure, other installations may not be at all securely mounted, whereby they are subject to vibration. This is a particular problem in those areas which are subject to earthquakes or windstorms, as the resulting shaking and vibration can cause drive assemblies to fall from the ceiling, damaging autos or injuring persons below them.
Since state and/or federal building and safety codes in the United States regarding the safe and secure structural installation of garage door openers do not exist, there are presently many deficient installations. The installation instructions provided with garage door openers often only provide general guidance, rather than specifics. As a result, many installations may be adequate in terms of a safety margin for the static loading of the mass of the rail type garage door opener, but do not take into account even nominal dynamic loading and vibration effects, exclusive of windstorms and earthquakes, over the lifetime of the unit. In particular, many drive assemblies are hung from garage ceilings using screws driven vertically into the ceiling joists. The vibration and swaying caused by the suspended drive motor can cause such screws to loosen over time. Due to their vertical orientation, such screws are prone to being pulled from the joists, with the result that the drive assembly and attached rail fall to the ground (or whatever else is beneath them).
The peril described in the foregoing scenario is exacerbated by the fact that for garages with finished ceilings, the actual position of the joists is not visible. Installations in such garages typically include the use of stud finders and/or making a series of small holes in the ceiling to try to identify the center of the joists hidden above the dry wall. As the joists are typically only about 1.5 inches wide this procedure is imprecise, possibly resulting in the installation of the screws significantly off-center, whereby the actual load bearing capability of the suspended mount may be severely compromised, even though the drive assembly may appear externally to be securely mounted.
A further complication results when the garage ceiling is higher than normal, so that the drive motor needs to be suspended at a greater distance from the ceiling than is normally required. Some experienced installers may recognize that this situation requires cross-bracing on the drive assembly suspension members to reduce vibration and swaying of the drive assembly during operation, as such movement and vibration can cause the mounting screws to loosen. As a rule, most installation instructions for garage door openers do not even address this issue. As a result, in many cases this reinforcement is not done, since the installation visually appears to be adequate under static load conditions.
The situation regarding the perils implicit in the prior art design of rail type garage door openers can be contrasted with public awareness of the dangers of unsecured water heaters, many of which are installed in garages. Guidelines for seismic safety at both the state and federal level encourage property owners to install simple and inexpensive hardware kits to prevent water heaters from falling during storms and earthquakes. While there is an extra risk regarding gas powered water heaters, as they are likely to sever their gas lines if they fall, the use of such kits is recommended for all water heaters, including those powered by electricity.
For consistency, there is a strong argument that seismic safety awareness should also extend to the suspension of heavy masses from a garage ceiling. At the present time, the fact is that relatively heavy masses are suspended from garage ceilings in hundreds of millions of homes throughout the United States and the world, without clear safety standards. Building and safety codes don't allow such a uncontrolled situation to exist in the “living space” within these homes, even though an individual may be as apt to be in a garage as in a dining room that has a heavy chandelier suspended overhead.
Regarding this issue, on May 20, 2013 the present inventor received the following message from Mr. Richard McCarthy, Executive Director of the California Seismic Safety Commission: “Thank you for your recommendation regarding the bracing of overhead garage door openers and the Commission's “Homeowners Guide to Earthquake Safety.” As you are aware, State Government has experienced budget reductions and furloughs for almost 5 years now. Many valuable projects have not been completed or have been eliminated because of these difficult financial times. As of today, the Governor's office and the legislature are working together to find a new and permanent funding source for the Commission (effective July 1). Should a permanent funding source be identified, then the Commission will examine its budget and begin to identify and prioritize projects to revisit. The Homeowner's Guide is certainly a product I would like to update. I will keep your suggestion regarding overhead garage door openers and make sure it is considered when the Commission decides to update the Guide.”
An area regarding the safe operation of garage door openers that has been addressed involves a set of features that makers of garage door openers are required to install in their products, with the goals of preventing entrapment of people under the garage door and preventing associated injuries from the movement of the door. These measures were driven by a number of fatal accidents, primarily to children: for example, it is estimated that 3 to 4 children died annually from garage door opener accidents between and 1974 and 1995. These measures have been mandated and periodically updated by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). A number of these measures are informally described below as part of the disclosure of the present invention, but clearly the governing statement of these requirements are those of the CPSC.
In general, when there is a clear and present danger to life and limb, it is troubling to discover that budgetary restrictions, such as those of the State of California described above, may prevent or delay even modest efforts to mitigate the danger. For this reason, a report describing the generic safety concern regarding rail type garage door openers has been sent to the CPSC, and is currently being processed. It seems logical that if the CPSC's mandate gives it the latitude to require makers of garage door openers to install safety features relating to the operation of these units, that it should at least address the means to promote safety in the installation of these prior art products.
These means can be as simple and inexpensive as requiring makers of garage door openers to provide some guidelines to the end user regarding safe installation. As an example, the installation instructions for a prior art unit could specify that for a particular model the mass suspended from the ceiling will be 30 pounds, and that the mount needs to have a safety margin of 3. In addition, the instructions could specify that if the drive assembly is suspended more than 2 feet from the ceiling, the safety margin should be 4, and a cross brace should be provided between the metal straps to prevent dynamic forces from weakening the ceiling attachment.
Compared to the commercial impact of the operational safety features, the impact to industry of complying with guidelines similar to those suggested above is trivial. While the value of saving a handful of lives per year completely justifies the current set of operational requirements, there is no doubt that sooner or later a major seismic event or windstorm will occur that will impact millions of people, whereby the benefit of these additional safety measures will justify the very modest investment they require.
In this context, the present invention can spur the appropriate state and federal agencies to take action in two ways. The first way is by encouraging safety inspections by homeowners of all existing garage door installations, with reinforcement or replacement when they are deficient. The second way is to in fact encourage consumers to utilize devices conforming to the present invention whenever it is practical, especially for new installations.
In summary, given the above factors, the invention disclosed herein can help promote public interest and awareness in encouraging updates to the guidelines and/or mandates for seismic safety at the state and federal level, while simultaneously helping to mitigate the problem. Such changes can help extend this awareness beyond individual consumers to the public at large. In the event of severe earthquakes or storms which can impact millions of citizens, the benefits of such changes in helping to reduce damage to persons and property should be significant.
In view of the foregoing, it becomes clear from a safety standpoint that the architecture and structural design of prior art of drive assemblies for rail type garage door openers is far from ideal, and has been so for almost a century. The invention disclosed herein provides a novel structural design and architecture for a rail type garage door opener that addresses the multiple deficiencies of the prior art discussed above. As such, it will be seen that the invention to be disclosed herein is not only novel, useful, and non-obvious, but is in fact sorely needed.
The present invention is a novel rail type garage door opener that provides an entirely novel structural design and architecture, wherein the drive assembly is mounted over the garage door opening with a pivotable mount, which is not found in any form in the prior art, and provides multiple means for reducing the invention to practice. The invention is based upon multiple factors, including the realization that an improved and/or adapted drive assembly for a rail type garage door opener will fit in the new location in virtually all installations, that it can be designed to function in the new location without any changes to the fundamental operation and ancillary functions that have been provided by prior art drive assemblies, and that it will provide significant safety enhancements, as well as other advantages, versus the prior art.
In addition, the present invention provides the means whereby prior art drive assemblies and their mounting apparatus can be redesigned in order to support both installation and operation in the location over the garage doorway, doing so with minimal changes to prior art garage door openers. These means are based upon novel changes to the drive assembly itself, and/or novel changes to the method and apparatus used for mounting it. As a result, the installation of the entire garage door opening system is not only easier and safer, but should be much more secure over the lifetime of the unit, greatly reducing the risk to persons and property subsequent to installation.
The use of the terminology such as “doing so with minimal changes to prior art garage door openers” should not be misunderstood. It should not imply that such changes are trivial. For example, a building may require a new foundation for earthquake safety vs. the prior art structure, and the goal of the project should be to “do so with minimal changes to the existing foundation”. The attempt throughout this application to reduce as much as possible the impact to the designs of prior art garage door openers is driven by the simple logic that this should make it more attractive for existing suppliers to adopt this invention, and produce it at a low cost. Hopefully, this can lead to a wider use of this invention, and to an improvement in public safety.
It should be understood that the numerous means and variations presented herein to support the present invention, while specific and detailed, are representative approaches, and that those skilled in the art will easily discover many variations that are bounded by the designs disclosed herein. While this invention attempts to provide the most efficient means by which prior art garage door openers can take advantage of a new architecture and geometry, it cannot address all the variations in the state-of-the-art for rail type garage door openers. For example, as a rule the rail is above the drive assembly for openers that employ chains and belts, while for openers that employ a screw drive the rail may be positioned between the top and bottom of the drive assembly. Those skilled in the art will recognize that these minor differences in the geometry of prior art garage door openers are easily addressed within the scope of this invention.
The same observation applies to the pivotable mount for the drive assembly in the present invention, which addresses embodiments in which the axis of rotation of the pivotable mount is essentially under or over the drive assembly, since these are the most practical configurations. To those skilled in the art, an embodiment of the present invention in which the vertical position of the axis of rotation of the pivotable mount was somewhere in the middle of the drive assembly would be an obvious variation. In conclusion, all the degrees of freedom for both the location of the rail as well as the location of the axis of rotation are addressed by the present invention.
While there are numerous references herein to “garage door”, it should be understood that the present invention is intended to apply not only to garage doors that open overhead, but applies as well to all classes of overhead opening doors, including hangars, utility buildings, storage buildings, and so on.
A consequence of the novel design for a garage door opener of this invention is that it eliminates the need for the well known and accepted approach of positioning and mounting the relatively heavy drive assembly in the prior art. While making the installation process much easier and safer is of great value, it is the secondary advantage of this invention. The primary, and most significant advantage of this new design extends past the installation phase, by a significant enhancement of safety for persons and property over the lifetime of the unit.
The prior art installation of the drive assembly often required the design, engineering, and fabrication of a custom mounting bracket structure by the installer, followed by an installation process that was not only awkward, but which could be perilous. By contrast, this invention enables the replacement of the prior art architecture and process with a secure, standard, well designed mounting installation over the garage door opening that does not require ad hoc hardware or design, and which is far safer to implement.
In order to reduce the present invention to practice, an number of above-the-door mounts are disclosed by the present invention, such that the pivotable mount for the drive assembly (with a range of adaptations and redesign) can be securely attached to the wall of the garage, above the garage door opening, whereby it will typically be screwed into the studs and/or header which are part of the structure which supports the wall of the garage, rather than using the traditional ceiling mounted bracket system, unique to each installation as in the prior art.
In general, the header spanning the garage door opening is a relatively massive beam many inches in width, whereby it provides an inherently secure base for installation. However, with either studs and/or header, with the present invention the mass of the drive assembly is generally supported by screws inserted horizontally, so that the forces on the screws are generally perpendicular to their orientation. As such, the installation of the drive assembly in accordance with the present invention is intrinsically superior to a suspended mount where the supporting screws are generally inserted vertically. In addition, installations in accordance with the present invention provide a substantially rigid framework, as compared to a flexible suspended mount, thereby providing superior resistance to both static and dynamic forces.
In accordance with the present invention, the relatively heavy drive assembly is mounted securely to the wall of the garage, while only the relatively lightweight distal end of the rail needs to be mounted to the ceiling of the garage. Since the entire mass of the drive assembly is substantially supported at the proximal end of the rail, and the rail is essentially a uniform structure, only about one half of the mass of the rail is suspended from the ceiling at the distal end of the rail. By contrast, in the prior art, the mass suspended from the ceiling is essentially the entire drive assembly plus about one half the mass of the rail.
A further advantage of the means provided by this invention is that it provides options whereby the intrinsic mount of the drive assembly allows it to be held in place with only two removable pins. Since the traditional anchoring of the distal end of the rail with a single removable pin can be retained by the present invention, the end result is that an assembled rail type garage door opener can be removed, repaired, and replaced with only three removable pins. This is a great advantage when compared with the equivalent process for the prior art.
In addition, since the suspension of the distal end of the rail is substantially insulated from the mechanical vibration of the motor drive (being at the opposite end of the rail) it does not need much accommodation for dynamic forces during operation. As such, even for garages with high ceilings the suspension of the distal end is much simplified with this invention, as the mounting for the distal end of the rail must largely only accommodate static forces, regardless of the height of the ceiling.
A number of attempts have been made in the past to mitigate the vibration and noise created by rail type garage door openers by independent inventors, who typically sell rubber bushings and components that can be applied to the drive assembly suspension mount at various locations. As is clear to those skilled in the art, it is very difficult to insert such pliant means into a load bearing suspension mount; for example, one cannot use a thick rubber member for direct support without some structure to support the load if the rubber part fails. It seems likely that since these measures can introduce risk and/or have limited benefits for suspension mounts, they have not been embraced by garage door makers.
The nature of the garage door opener design in the present invention facilitates the safe use of pliant components for reduction of vibration and noise, and may lead the actual makers of rail type garage door openers to incorporate these parts into their products. Users will feel more comfortable using these measures if they are certified and underwritten by garage door manufacturers.
In summary, the design of the garage door opener in this invention has enabled a much more safe, stable, robust, and uniform system for installation. Beyond this, however, the design of the rail type garage door opener of this invention significantly mitigates an unnecessary risk over the lifetime of rail type garage door openers uniformly prevalent in the marketplace, which is inherent in the practice of suspending heavy masses over the heads of hundreds of millions of people without appropriate safety standards and guidelines. Garages should not be excluded from safety considerations that apply to homes: from a safety perspective, they are legitimately extensions of “living spaces”.
As a result of these safety enhancement features, garage door openers conforming to this invention are expected to be recommended by future seismic safety guidelines at the state and federal level, and as such, are likely to prevent damage to property and persons in the event of windstorms and seismic disturbances that can impact millions of people. Because the advantages provided by the present invention can clearly promote safety, it is believed that the public interest requires that measures be taken as soon as possible to make these benefits tangible, as there are no good means to predict when a catastrophe such as a major earthquake will strike a heavily populated area. What is certain, unfortunately, is that sooner or later such events are bound to occur.
In the drawing:
Referring to
In this representative depiction of a rail type garage door opener, the garage door 22 is sectional, and its movement is constrained by the tracks 70 and 75, which are normally suspended (not shown) from the garage ceiling; however, the basic geometry of the prior art rail type garage door opener in
A trolley 26 can traverse along the rail 16. The movement of the trolley 26 is controlled by the drive assembly 12, using any of several available, known rail type drive mechanisms (including, inter alia, screw drive, chain drive, and belt type drive systems). The trolley 26 is attached to a J-arm 28, which in turn is connected to the upper portion of the garage door 22 via a door bracket 33. In accordance with the prior art, the trolley 26 can be disengaged from the drive mechanism associated with the rail mounted drive system using a latch integral to the trolley 26, which can be used to disengage the trolley 26 from the drive mechanism associated with the rail based system by means of a pull cord 34 which is attached, at one end, to the latch, and hangs down to a pull knob 36 which is used should there be a situation, i.e., a power outage, which requires manual operation of the garage door 22 when the drive assembly 12 is not functioning, or power has been lost.
As is also known to those skilled in the art, typical rail type garage door openers 10 also include an “electric eye” safety system including a transmitter 38 and a receiver 40 which act as safety devices to prevent the closing of the garage door 22 when its path is obstructed, i.e., by a person, vehicle, or other object. A typical rail type garage door opener installation also includes a wall mounted button 42, typically mounted adjacent to an interior door 44 between the garage and the house, and it may also include as well a hard-wired and/or a radio control unit 46 inside the garage, as well as outside the garage. All of these sources, together with remotes in automobiles, are used to control the movement of the garage door 22 by activating the drive assembly 12. A typical drive assembly 12 also includes a light 48 (or several) used to illuminate the garage for a period of time following activation of the drive assembly 12, although some garage door openers also allow the illumination to be controlled independently of the garage door.
A key component of the prior art of drive assemblies are “tabs”, which are mounting surfaces that project upwards from the drive assembly 12, such as the pair of parallel prior art mounting tabs 41, 51 affixed to the top of the case of the drive assembly 12 (some models have a single tab on the top of the case). Whether there are a pair of such tabs, or a single one, they are used to suspend the drive assembly from the ceiling of the garage. A particular problem with the prior art garage door opener 10 which is addressed by the present invention is that it is up to the installer (or homeowner) to engineer and assemble a drive assembly mounting system 54 which is used to mount the drive assembly 12 to the ceiling of the garage.
As will be understood by those skilled in the art, the drive assembly mounting system 54 is critical to the safe installation and operation of the rail type garage door opener 10, yet the installer (or homeowner) is generally left on his own to design and build the drive assembly mounting system 54. Accordingly, it is typical for such a system to include at least a pair of metal straps 56, 58, which are suspended from “something” above. Ideally, the metal straps 56, 58 are securely mounted to either ceiling joists or a rafter or to a piece of angle iron 60 attached to the ceiling joists, i.e., by using lag bolts. In the installation of a typical drive assembly 12 the way that the metal straps 56, 58 and the angle iron 60 are secured is critical to the security of the mounting of the drive assembly unit 12, and hence the entire garage door opening system.
In addition, many who install rail type garage door openers are simply not familiar with the mechanics of such installations. By way of example, they may simply rely upon the use of the metal straps 56 and 58, without any thought of adding some type of diagonal strap 64 to prevent the drive assembly unit from “racking” in a side-to-side manner, which is prone to happen when the length of the metal straps 56 and 58 is excessive, and which can weaken the attachment of the angle iron 60 to the ceiling. Others may even think that providing secure mountings to joists or rafters is unnecessary. While such inadequate methods for attaching the drive assembly 12 to the garage ceiling are well known, and while their consequences, including having the drive assembly 12 fall, have been documented, the drive assembly mounting system 54, and variants thereof, remain an intrinsic and universal component of rail type garage door openers of the prior art. The design of the mounting system 54 and variants thereof are clearly driven by the prior art structural design and architecture of the rail type garage door opener 10, and as such they are an inseparable component of the prior art for rail type garage door openers.
Referring now to
The generic invention embodiment 100 in
Unlike the distal end 18 of the rail 16 of the prior art (See,
In this representative depiction, the garage door 122 is sectional, and its movement is constrained by the tracks 170 and 175, which are normally suspended from the garage ceiling (not shown); however, the basic geometry of the rail type garage door opener of the present invention and it's operation described below essentially apply to all garage door classes.
An overall objective of the present invention is minimize the changes needed to make prior art garage door openers conform to the invention, while maximizing the advantages and benefits. For example, regarding the adaptation of prior art drive assemblies to conform to the present invention embodiment 100, it should be clear that if such drive assemblies utilize the “back” of the Version A drive assembly 112 (i.e., the side facing the garage wall) for “ancillary functions” such as lighting, controls, or wiring, then modifications to the drive assembly must be made. It is expected that if needed, changes to relocate these ancillary functions will be relatively minor.
Furthermore, it should be noted that while in the prior art in
As a corollary to the above, it should be noted that prior art garage door openers employ “stops” to signal to the drive assembly that an actuation is complete. One way such stops are implemented relies upon the user placing a pair of “external” limit switches in the appropriate positions on the rail, one for each direction of travel. These switches are activated by the motion of the trolley, which send signals to the drive assembly when the trolley has reached the end of the excursion in one direction or another. The second approach that is commonly used to implement “stops” is that the drive assembly has an internal “odometer” that provides it with a measure of distance travelled. As a rule, the odometer function in the prior art has been provided by mechanical means, in that the rotation of the drive motor results in the linear motion of a part in the drive assembly that encounters “internal” limit switches inside the drive assembly. The position of the limit switches in the drive assembly are typically set into the proper position by the user via external screws.
Regardless of whether the garage door opener system utilizes “external” or “internal” limit switches, the present invention takes advantage of the fact that the “stops” for a prior art garage door opener actuation do not rely upon the direction of the trolley, or whether the garage door is being opened or closed. The stops are based upon feedback from simple position sensors, and do not depend upon the direction of the actuation. As such, under nominal conditions, once an actuation has been initiated, the drive assembly will move the trolley until it reaches signals from its position sensors to terminate the actuation.
An additional corollary to the above relates to operation under exceptional conditions regarding safety, such as when a physical object is sensed, and/or when the force being exerted by the drive assembly exceeds a safe threshold. The present invention takes advantage of the fact that the direction of motion is not relevant to the safety sensors in sensing that there is a potentially unsafe condition. Although he direction of motion can be important in the response of the garage door opener when it senses excessive force being applied, the required response is to immediately reverse direction. In the case of excessive force, while it is true that the force limits for open and close operations may differ, in practice these limits are adjusted by the installer, typically by controls on the drive assembly; they are not “wired in” to the system design. The present invention takes advantage of the fact that for the present invention, as in the prior art, after the force limit adjustments are made, the response of the garage door opener system will be correct irrespective of the direction of motion.
In the case of proximity sensors that sense when a physical object is sensed, the response of prior art systems is also independent of the direction of motion. As such, the response of the prior art garage door opener system will be correct irrespective of the direction of the commanded actuation.
It must also be acknowledged that when prior art units are structurally redesigned to conform with the current invention, there is an additional impact in such things as user instructions, such as setting stops, and/or the labeling of control functions. For example, a prior art drive assembly may have adjustment screws that are labeled with arrows, which are used to set the limits for “open” and “close” operations. With the present invention, these directions are reversed. These additional exceptions can be addressed with a modest effort by makers of garage door openers.
The terminology “Version A”, “Version B”, and so on, is employed herein in order to distinguish between each embodiment of a drive assembly including its associated mounting apparatus. The inclusion of associated mounting apparatus in the “Version” terminology for the drive assembly is required to avoid ambiguity regarding the scope of the various embodiments presented herein.
The previous discussion has pointed out in detail that the present invention is partly based upon the expectation that the architecture of the present invention embodiment 100 can largely be realized without making changes to the system of sensors and responses that govern the operation of prior art garage door opener systems. This expectation will be of great importance when dealing with the changes to be identified herein that are needed to implement specific embodiments of the present invention, in that these changes are expected to represent both the necessary as well as the sufficient means to reduce the present invention to practice.
The need for commercial garage door openers to have safety features, such as those that prevent entrapment of people beneath the garage door, are governed by federal requirements established by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). To the extent possible, the current invention attempts to anticipate these requirements, and identify whether the current invention imposes any barriers to compliance with CPSC requirements. The fact that no such barriers have been identified herein does not relieve the makers of garage door openers from their responsibility to design and test their units independently before releasing them for production and sale.
On the above basis, virtually all of the remaining discussion of
A trolley 126 can traverse along the rail 116. The movement of the trolley 126 is controlled by the Version A drive assembly 112, using any of several available, known rail mounted drive mechanisms (including, inter alia, screw drive, chain drive, and belt type drive systems). The trolley 126 is attached to the garage door 122 using a J-arm 128, which is attached to a door bracket 130 mounted near the top of the garage door 122.
Like the trolley 26 (
As with the rail type garage door opener of the prior art 10 (
The present invention embodiment 100 also includes a wall mounted button 142, typically mounted adjacent to an interior door 144 between the garage and the house, and it may also include as well a hard-wired and/or a radio control unit 146 inside the garage, as well as outside the garage. All of these sources, together with remotes in automobiles, are used to control the movement of the garage door 122 by activating the Version A drive assembly 112. A typical Version A drive assembly 112 also includes a light 148 (or several) used to illuminate the garage for a period of time following activation of the Version A drive assembly 112, although some garage door openers allow the light to be activated independently of the garage door.
The pair of prior art mounting tabs 41 and 51 on the top of the case of the drive assembly 12 (See,
For all the versions to be described below, the appropriate portion of the generic above-the-door pivotable mount 160 for the Version A drive assembly 112 can be secured to studs or a header above the garage door 122 before any variant of the Version A drive assembly 112 is lifted off the ground. No engineering is required by the installer (or homeowner) to provide a safe, secure mounting for any variant of the Version A drive assembly 112 which is affixed above the garage door 122 in a secure, uniform, and vibration-free installation.
Further, while the distal end 118 of the rail 116 must still be subsequently secured to the garage ceiling, doing so is substantially easier than suspending a heavy drive assembly from the ceiling, and there is relatively less potential harm if the distal end 118 of the rail 116 should become detached from its mounting 120, either during installation or subsequently.
As such, those familiar with rail type garage door openers will readily understand that mounting the Version A drive assembly 112 on the wall 124 above the garage door 122 using the generic above-the-door pivotable mount 160 which is securely attached to studs or a header will make for a more safe and secure mounting than suspending the drive assembly unit 12 (See,
Nevertheless, as the primary function of the drive assembly unit 12 (or Version A drive assembly 112) is to move the trolley 26 (or 126) along the rail 16 (or 116), it will be made apparent, given the present disclosure, that when the changes required by the invention are implemented, the generic invention embodiment 100 will operate substantially the same in this regard as the prior art 10, and will do so with all classes of garage doors. As described above, the generic invention embodiment 100 conforms with all the modes of the prior art with regard to ancillary functions involving safety. These ancillary functions include the sensing of objects through optical or similar means, the sensing of excessive resistive forces during activation, and the appropriate response to warnings from these sensors.
With particular reference to
It should be noted that since the support adapters 62 and 63 change the mechanical loading on the mounting tabs 152 and 153 as compared to the loads on the mounting tabs in a prior art suspension mount, it will be necessarily for any supplier using this approach to certify that their existing structure is adequate for conformance with the Version B drive assembly configuration. If some structural modification is required, it is expected to be minor. For example, this could take the form of extending the mounting tabs 152 and 153 towards the back of the Version B drive assembly 113 (i.e., towards the wall 124), by fortifying the mounting tabs 152 and 153 and their underlying structural support within the Version B drive assembly 113, or by making the tab 152 integral with the support arm 62, and the tab 153 integral with the support arm 63.
While not shown in
The removable hinge pins 193 facilitate the installation process as well as removal, repair, and replacement. The prior practice of securing the distal end of the garage door opener rail using a removable pin should be followed, since there is nothing in the above-the-door mount to preclude it. Therefore, embodiment 200 allows the entire drive assembly and rail to be structurally removed and reinstalled using only 3 removable pins, in contrast to the laborious and risky process of the prior art. As will be seen below, the significant advantage of the hinged structure in this embodiment versus to the prior art also applies to all the other embodiments depicted herein for the present invention.
With reference now to
Embodiment 300 includes a pair of L-brackets 202 and 204, which are mounted securely using the appropriate means to the wall support members 206 and 208, which in turn are secured to the wall 124. A support cross bracket 210 spans the projecting ends of the L-brackets 202 and 204. As shown, the support cross bracket 210 is essentially a horizontal bar which has an ear 214 and a companion towards the other end of 210 that project downwards; both ear 214 and its companion have a hole for installing the removable pin 216 (i.e., a clevis pin, cotter pin or equivalent arrangement) and its companion.
The drive assembly suspension bracket 218 is essentially in the form of an elongated “C”, and contains a series of holes in the middle of the bracket for securing it to the mounting tab 201 using the appropriate fasteners. An ear 220 of the drive assembly suspension bracket 218 is shown projecting towards the wall 124. Both ear 220 and another ear (not visible) at the other end of the drive assembly suspension bracket 218 are nested within the ears of the support cross bracket 210, and have appropriate holes to accommodate the removable pin 216 and its companion.
As one skilled in the art will recognize, while embodiment 300 depicts the L-brackets 202 and 204 essentially at the sides of the Version C drive assembly 212, it can easily accommodate inverting 202 and 204, and installing them essentially above the Version C drive assembly 212.
The removable pin 216 facilitates the installation process as well as removal, repair, and replacement. The prior practice of securing the distal end of the garage door opener rail using a removable pin 192 (
With regard to installation, as will be discussed in more detail herein, one advantage of the hinged arrangements in drive assembly embodiments 200 and 300 is that the drive assemblies can be mounted to the wall with the distal end of the rail resting on the garage floor. However, because embodiments 200 and 300 propose the use of versions of drive assemblies with mounting tabs on the top, in both cases the axis of rotation is above the drive assembly. As such, the limit of their rotation towards the floor will be based on the height of the drive assembly box, as well as its distance from the wall (which is based upon the length of the horizontal portion of the L-brackets 202 and 204). If these factors don't allow the distal end of the rail to rest upon the floor, a box or similar means may be used to rest the distal end on during installation of drive assembly embodiments 200 and 300
It is possible that based upon market conditions, suppliers of rail type garage door openers may ultimately choose to either redesign, or make substantial changes to existing units in order to meet demand for units conforming to the present invention more effectively. A large majority, if not all, makers of prior art drive assemblies will have to relocate ancillary functions so they will not be facing the wall of the garage, and while making the additional changes to conform with this invention, may attempt to do so while still maintaining backward installation compatibility with existing lines. A number of means to accomplish this while still minimizing the impact to prior art rail type garage door openers are provided below. To this end, a generic preferred embodiment of the present invention, which calls for more substantive changes to prior art drive assemblies, will be described below.
These changes are driven by a number of objectives. In general, it is preferred to support the drive assembly from the bottom, rather than have to adapt to the prior art attachment points on the top of the drive assembly, since such adaptations require a small “virtual suspension” of one type or another. Another focus of this embodiment is to provide a means of supporting the drive assembly that will work with rail type garage door openers from various manufacturers
In addition, it is desired that the design support rails of various inclinations with regard to the horizontal, with the recognition that the required inclination of the rail will vary based upon the type of garage door and the supplier. Finally, the support system should take into account that it is far preferable to have a installation that does not require that both ends of the rail be raised to some extent or another at the same time during installation, and that the design will should allow incremental installation of the two ends of the rail type garage door opener. As such, such a garage door opener embodiment should be free of the installation limitations described regarding embodiments 200 and 300.
Referring now to
Using the appropriate techniques and fasteners for one skilled in the art, as required, the support block 61 is attached securely to the wall 124 above the center of the garage door, in most cases to the header and/or studs over the garage door 124 (in some cases, the support block 61 may not be needed). Again, using the appropriate techniques and fasteners, the hinge half 91 of a hinge 90 is mounted securely to the support block 61. As shown in
In accordance with
In summary, the generic hinged configuration in
While
In general, as anyone skilled in the art will realize, there are multiple variations regarding the embodiment 400 in
The above variations will be discussed below with specific embodiments of the generic drive assembly embodiment 400, which pertains to new and/or substantially modified drive assemblies. In general, the advantages of the generic design approach of embodiment 400 with a hinged support mechanism are twofold: it allows the drive rail 50 to be inclined at arbitrary angle (specified by the rail type garage door opener supplier) versus the horizontal, and (as will be described below in detail) greatly eases the installation process, allowing easy compliance with the slope of the rail required by the maker of the garage door opener. Once the installation is complete, the rotational degree of freedom provided by the hinge 90 is of course not required until the garage door opener is removed and replaced, when it again becomes quite useful. While the increased component cost of using a hinge arrangement instead of a fixed mount is trivial, the advantages are considerable, during both installation and removal.
Clearly, drive assembly embodiment 500 can be expanded to utilize more than two instances each of parts 95, 92, and 193, but this complexity is not needed unless the loads on the hinge assembly 190 are excessive. As such, while an identical set of hinge components is shown at the other end of the Version E drive assembly 109, the discussion herein applies to the second hinge, and as well as to a plurality of hinges.
The removable hinge pins 193 in the embodiment 500 are secured in place with a pair of retaining pins 194 (clevis pin or cotter pin, or equivalent), which are mounted in this figure towards the outside of the Version E drive assembly 109 to make them more visible and accessible. For reasons of visibility, hinge part 191 is depicted as attached to the support block 61 below the axis of rotation of the hinge assembly 190, but it is clear that hinge part 191 could be mounted to the support block 61 above the pair of removable hinge pins 193, which may preferred as an attachment location or to reduce visual clutter.
Alternatively, the function of hinge part 191 could be provided by a pair of wall-mounted “ears” on either side of the Version E drive assembly 109 in which the pair of removable hinge pins 193 terminate. All in all, there are far too many variants of this hinging arrangement to enumerate all cases here, and the set of examples provided herein are included to reflect some of the more evident ones that might be considered by one skilled in the art.
The two removable hinge pins 193 facilitate the installation process as well as removal, repair, and replacement. The prior practice of securing the distal end of the garage door opener rail using the removable pin 192 (
For flexibility in installation,
Given the ease of mechanical connections that are now afforded by removable pins, it makes sense to consider an easier method of making and breaking the electrical connections (other than AC power) to the drive assembly, which in the prior art has been achieved with a bundle of wires that connect the drive assembly to wall switches, safety sensors, and so on. As such, embodiment 500 proposes that all wires except AC power are provided in a wire cable 151, which terminates in a connector 115.
In spite of the numerous drawbacks that derive from the traditional practice of suspending drive assemblies from the ceiling of garages, this generally central location has some advantages in providing illumination throughout the garage, for both visibility and security. However, the quality of this illumination varies, as there is no common arrangement regarding lighting amongst the various vendors of rail type garage door openers.
Some rail type garage door openers have provision for one light bulb, and some have provision for two. In some cases in the prior art the light bulb socket or sockets are at the end of the drive assembly facing away from the garage door, in some cases there is a single light bulb socket on one side of the drive assembly, and in other cases there are light bulb sockets on both sides of the drive assembly. The use of diffusers, typically made of plastic materials, is also not standard. For practical reasons, none of the major suppliers of rail type garage door openers have a light source on the bottom of the drive assembly, so that light can be distributed more evenly. Since drive assemblies have plastic end panels close to the light bulbs, and/or plastic diffusers for them, the allowable wattage for the lighting elements is generally limited.
In providing illumination from drive assemblies designed to be mounted over garage doors, there are some measures that can be taken to compensate for their mounting location, such as using a mini-spotlight pointed towards the garage interior. However, the biggest challenge for such units occurs when the garage door is fully open, which prevents direct light from propagating throughout the garage. Due to the advent of fluorescent and/or LED light bulbs, this situation can be mitigated somewhat, as these light sources can provide a factor of about four times that of incandescent bulbs for the same wattage. Using these light sources with an over the door drive assembly can improve the lighting situation in most circumstances.
However, in order to provide maximum flexibility, a work-around for this challenge is presented by providing the AC outlet 155 in
In case it is preferable to have switched DC power, a DC outlet 125, and a companion outlet, are also shown. The capability provided by either switched AC and/or DC power could be tailored to each installation, and can in some cases provide additional security outside the garage, something not afforded by current rail type garage door openers. It should be noted that some rail type garage door openers allow the option of turning on the lighting independently of opening or closing the door; in such cases, the advantages of having auxiliary lighting inside and/or outside the garage are enhanced, providing better visibility and security.
Changes to the vast majority of prior art drive assemblies to structurally accommodate embodiment 500 in
In order to structurally accommodate the embodiment 500 of
The extended chassis design can be accomplished by having an L-shaped chassis structure in which the upper (horizontal) portion of the “L” is virtually unchanged vs. the prior art chassis, while the back (vertical portion) consists of a structure substantially extended from the rear of the prior art chassis (the angle of the “L” is substantially a right angle). The new rigid structure on the rear of the chassis can be implemented with sheet metal and/or alternate means familiar to one skilled in the art.
It is expected that some bracing on the sides of the L-shaped chassis structure will be required to maintain its shape, but altogether the increased material and mass required to incorporate the hinge structure and fortify the chassis should be relatively minor.
Referring again to the embodiment 500 in
Referring now to
During installation, these attributes will ensure an accurate mate between the hinge part 191, which is essentially wall mounted, and the Version E drive assembly 109 (
In
A means for providing the required structural support in the Version E drive assembly 109 begins with the recognition that the prior art position of the drive assembly chassis is essentially contained within the upper plane of the drive assembly, whereby the chassis provides a common platform for suspending the drive assembly, as well as anchoring the drive mechanism and rail. This suggests that the structure in the upper plane of the Version E drive assembly 109 can be extended to interface with the hinge assembly 190.
To meet the above objective of extending the prior art chassis,
In the chassis embodiment in
It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that there are manifold variations of the means presented by
In drive assembly embodiment 600, the Version F drive assembly 77 is shown over the garage door 122, with side 25, the light diffuser 30, and is affixed to the rail 50. Embodiment 600 includes the switched AC outlet 155, the switched DC outlet 125, and also depicts a cable 151 and connector 115 for electrical signals other than power to the Version F drive assembly 77.
As described above, a key distinction of the Version F drive assembly 77 in embodiment 600 is that its structure is “flipped over” versus the prior art, so the rail 50 is now below it, and its chassis 171 (in
In embodiment 600, in place of a parallel prior art mounting tab (41 in
Support arm 105 and its companion extend beyond the back of the Version F drive assembly 77, where they are mated to the hinge bracket 110 via the removable hinge pins 193, either of which can be removed using the retaining pin 94 (clevis or cotter pin, or equivalent) and its companion. The hinge bracket 110 is attached to the support block 61, which is in turn mounted to the wall 124.
Because of the similarity in mounting approach between drive assembly embodiment 600 in
The two removable hinge pins 193 facilitate the installation process as well as removal, repair, and replacement. The prior practice of securing the distal end of the garage door opener rail using removable pin 192 (
Regarding correct operation of traditional drive assemblies when “flipped over”, there are no known internal functions within these drive assemblies, either electrical or mechanical, that rely upon gravity, and that would be rendered problematic by this inversion. However, the inversion of the drive assembly rail 50 in embodiment 600 does pose a geometric challenge. Since many rails in traditional drive assemblies have a channel facing the floor that the trolley traverses, or have some other design aspect, such that if the rail is simply inverted with the drive assembly, it can no longer function correctly. However, it will be seen that the need for any mechanical modifications to allow the rail to function correctly, as well as the need to modify the existing chassis plane to the hinged arrangement approach depicted by embodiment 600, require minimal impacts to traditional drive assemblies.
Ideally, the inversion of the Version F drive assembly 77 could be achieved without changes to its interface to the rail 50, but this is rarely the case. Therefore, the remaining challenge for makers of prior art drive assemblies in implementing the design in
However, in general, some changes to prior art designs will be required to deal with the inversion of the drive assembly. To analyze how this can be done, it is useful to consider screw drive mechanisms separately from those that utilize a chain or a belt. Drive assemblies with screw drive mechanisms have a drive motor and set of gears that rotates a spindle at the front of the drive assembly that is connected to an elongated screw in the rail. The rail is mounted to the top of the drive assembly, and has a slot at the bottom to allow the trolley to traverse. The preferred accommodation required in this case is to have a means of mounting the rail to the drive assembly such that the slot will point either up or down, so the unit can be utilized with the rail either over or under the drive assembly.
Existing drive assemblies that utilize a chain or belt have a sprocket on the top of the drive assembly, driven by a motor and set of gears, that drives a continuous flexible loop (for chain drives, a portion of this loop is often a wire cable) to and from a pulley mounted at the distal end of the rail. Some such units have a rail with a “T” cross section, in which the flat portion at the top of the “T” is bolted to the chassis on the top of the drive assembly (with the result that the “T” is upside down). Typically, for such units the trolley rides over the flat portion of the “T”.
One simple approach in this case is to just replace the “T” rail with one that has a square cross section (as described above), since there is no strong coupling between the design of the drive assembly and the design of the rail. It is also likely that one skilled in the art can design an adaptor that allows the “T” be mounted either up or down. For example, a square sleeve can be designed into which the “T” section can be secured, such that the square sleeve can then mounted to the drive assembly in the preferred orientation. It is quite likely that there are preferable alternatives to the ones presented here.
In general, the accommodations required to support inversion of the drive assembly, while retaining the flexibility to operate in traditional mounts, are very modest, although they do vary from unit to unit. It is likely that for the next generation of products that are specifically targeted for over the door installation, vendors will favor the units that are easiest to modify, either at the factory and/or by the consumer. In addition, they are likely to favor units that can be used for new installations while maintaining backwards compatibility with existing product lines, which will allow them to terminate the production of older units, while continuing to provide replacements that conform to fit, form, and function of units from the discontinued lines.
In pursuit of this goal, modifications required to support the “upside down” configuration can be made an option, such that garage door openers in the 600 embodiment could be configured by the installer to work “upside down” and well as “up”. In the “up” orientation, the support arm 105 and its companion could be used as tabs for traditional suspension mounts.
There is a potential fit issue with above-the-door rail type garage door openers and garage doors that employ torsion springs to balance the garage door. Such springs are mounted on rods that are mounted on the wall above the garage door opening, and extend substantially from one side of the garage door to the other (for garage doors that do have not torsion springs, the area opening is typically completely unobstructed). For most units, installing the Version F drive assembly 77 of
Compared to prior art drive assemblies with a pair of mounting tabs, the single plane chassis 171 is similar to the prior art. The key differences are other the introduction of the support arm 105, and its identical parallel companion in lieu of a parallel prior art mounting tab (41 in
A mounting hole 129 in the support arm 105 is shown to demonstrate the intent that a series of such holes allows the Version F drive assembly 77 (
In addition, the embodiment of the single plane chassis 171 has a single mounting tab 201, which can be used as a suspension mount in the inverted state to replace a prior art drive assembly with a single mounting tab (In order to reduce visual clutter in
It will be recognized by those skilled in the art that there are manifold variations of the means presented in
While the present invention does not constrain the actual installation, it provides the degrees of freedom to support a number of simple variations. The invention enables the simple generic installation geometry presented below with the understanding that minor adjustments may be required for specific rail type garage door openers and specific installation sites. This level of detail is provided to demonstrate to those who are not skilled in the art that the installation geometry enabled by the current invention is as simple and direct as asserted herein, something that those skilled in art may deduce directly. It is expected that both those skilled in the art, as well as those who are not, will appreciate these advantages, as both groups have no doubt suffered from the laborious and risky installation constraints of the prior art.
In the example installation geometry described below, the novel drive assembly 77 embodiment presented in embodiment 600 in
Component 2 of the generic installation geometry is depicted in
Since the preferred embodiments of the present invention specifies that the drive assembly hinge pins be removable, after the above installation the assembled rail type garage door opener will be held in place with three removable pins. These units can subsequently be removed for repair or replacement by simply extracting the three pins. After repair, or when replacing with a new unit with the same geometry, the new re-installment can be accomplished easily with the same three pins. While other means may exist to make rail type garage door openers easier to remove and reinstall, there are rarely if ever used, while the present invention includes this capability as an inherent part of the design.
The above example of an installation and reinstallation process is provided to illustrate one easy and efficient approach for installation with the present invention, with the recognition that those who manufacture and sell rail type garage door openers have the responsibility to provide hardware and associated installation guidelines that are as safe as possible.
Having an easy and efficient removal and replacement process for rail type garage door openers has numerous advantages. For example, while there are numerous brand names under which rail type garage door openers are sold, a large majority of them share common components. As such, one of the primary failures of rail type garage door openers is due to the failure of a primary gear fabricated of plastic, which can become stripped due to a combination of usage and lack of lubricant. This part can be obtained for only a few dollars, but the cost of removing, repairing, and replacing the drive assembly by a skilled contractor will usually cost more than a new unit. For this reason, as a rule, drive assemblies that have any malfunction are replaced rather than repaired. Therefore, warranties that cover cost and labor for rail type garage door openers tend to be very expensive, and many units that are recoverable end up in landfills.
The present invention can substantially reduce the cost of warranties for rail type garage door openers, so that many more property owners will obtain them, which will extend the useful lifetime of the units, and encourage the repair rather than the scrapping of units that malfunction.
While it is not the primary benefit of this invention, its configuration does reduce visual clutter, as the geometry of the (now) distal end of the rail type garage door opener is much simplified, an advantage that becomes pronounced in multiple car garages.
A further advantage of the present invention is that can provide the significant benefits described above without requiring inordinate efforts by existing suppliers to introduce it into the marketplace. Makers of garage door openers that wish to make the minimum changes to existing lines must relocate ancillary functions from the “back” (i.e., facing the garage wall) of the drive assembly, design and fabricate mechanical adapters to allow the drive assembly and the distal end of the rail to be mounted as described herein in their new positions, and provide new installation instructions. Makers who choose to introduce new designs with more significant changes that avoid the need for mechanical adapters must also move ancillary functions as required, and modify their chassis designs to support the hinged arrangement provided herein. In both cases, makers will attempt to maintain backward compatibility with existing product lines.
Neither of these two basic approaches is particularly onerous to those skilled in the arts of design and manufacturing, which should allow commercial units conforming to the present invention to be brought to market quickly.
In comparing the various embodiments presented herein, it is useful to first consider the embodiment 200 in
The embodiment 500 in
It should be noted that current installation instructions for rail type garage door openers specify any required “tilt” of the axis of the rail (relative to horizontal) as well as the relative position of the rail versus the articulated garage door, and that such instructions vary as a function of garage door type. As such, in making the second change above, the vendor should consider that the axis of the rail is substantially unchanged versus its current location, as the geometric position of the rail axis is chosen to optimize performance.
This minimalist approach allows garage door suppliers to make units that have the option of being used in either the traditional configuration, or conforming to the present invention. The suppliers would have the option to decide how best to provide this choice. For example, the mechanical adapters and new installation procedures could be marketed as a separate kit, which would allow consumers to retrofit existing installations. Suppliers could continue to make the traditional openers, giving consumers the option to purchase the openers with or without the kit.
In a variant of the above approach, suppliers would make minor changes and or additions to existing hardware to improve their application to the present invention, while still retaining backward compatibility with previous hardware. Finally, there is an option to diverge from previous designs entirely, and only provide units that support the present invention. For example, mounting brackets, for wall mounting, could be incorporated into the “back” of the motor assembly, i.e., the side remote from the side from which the rail extends. None of the foregoing options is particularly onerous
As such, the preferred embodiments provided herein illustrate robust design approaches, with the recognition that the choice of which alternative to pursue with regard to implementing this invention should not a major driver in cost, time-to-market, mechanical strength and safety, and so on. Whereby, it is expected that the best embodiment chosen by a particular supplier will be based upon the configuration of their existing hardware.
Because the present invention refers to the prior art for rail type garage door openers, it is critical to place this reference in perspective. The need to do so is particularly appropriate in light of a judgment by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2007 concerning the issue of obviousness as applied to patent claims, that particularly emphasized “the need for caution in granting a patent based on the combination of elements found in the prior art” (KSR Int'l Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398 (2007)).
In this light, it should be clarified that prior art elements for garage door openers cited herein may be characterized as having a “ceiling mounted drive assembly”, which has an attached rail with a “wall mounted distal end”. This phrasing underscores the fact that as a component of prior art garage door openers of the rail type, prior art drive assemblies are designed for the sole purpose of suspending them from ceiling mounts, and cannot be mounted to the wall without changes and special accommodations. Beyond a uniform need for mechanical adapters, most, if not all, prior art drive assemblies have ancillary functions, such as lighting, wiring, and controls, which would be rendered useless even with special mounting accommodations, since they would be on the “back” of the drive assembly (i.e., facing the wall. The same distinction applies to the “wall mounted distal end” of the prior art rail, as which can be characterized in the present invention as a as a “ceiling mounted distal end”; there is nothing in the prior art that contemplates it in anything but the prior art embodiment.
The conclusion to be drawn from the above is that the elements in the present invention are not the same as those in the prior art. As such, there is no foundation to consider the present invention as merely a combination of prior art elements, since the prior art elements cannot be simply combined to yield the present invention.
Rather, from an objective standpoint, the present invention embodies a novel architecture for a rail type garage door opener that is fundamentally different from the prior art, and provides advantages that a mere rearrangement could never do. The novel architecture of the present invention is not a trivial rearrangement that delivers the same results as the prior art, but a fundamentally new design that provides significant and unforeseen benefits. In doing so, it corrects a fundamental flaw deriving from the first garage door opener of the rail type, a flaw that has been perpetuated through hundreds of incremental inventions over almost an entire century.
Even assuming that somehow the judgment is made that the elements in the prior art and present invention described above should be deemed as “identical”, there is in fact no “teaching, suggestion, or motivation in the prior art, either explicit or implicit, that would have led one of ordinary skill to modify the prior art reference or to combine prior art reference teachings to arrive at the claimed invention” (Examples of Basic Requirements of a Prima Facie Case of Obviousness [R-9] 2143, Laws, Regulations, Policies & Procedures, U.S. Patent and Trademark Office).
It is true that the disclosure of the above invention may lead some to conclude, after the fact, that it is obvious in some form or another, but this conclusion is clearly a manifestations of “improper hindsight”, a pitfall that the U.S.P.T.O (U.S. Patent and Trademark Office) has taken great pains to prevent. In a very pertinent ruling, the Federal Circuit panel in Mintz (Mintz v. Dietz & Watson Inc., 679 F. 3d. 1372, 1377 (Fed. Cir. 2012), consisting of Chief Judge Randall Rader and Judges Pauline Newman and Timothy Dyk, noted that, when relying on common sense, one must avoid “using the invention to define the problem that the invention solves. Often the inventive contribution lies in defining the problem in a new revelatory way.” Thus, when performing an obviousness analysis based on common sense, a significant factor in the analysis is the identification of the problem to be solved by one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made. It appears quite clear that the identification of the safety issue inherent in the unnecessary suspension of heavy masses over spaces occupied by human beings is a unique contribution of this invention, one which has no precedent in the prior art.
Recent court judgments, echoed in the Laws, Regulations, Policies and Procedures of the U.S.P.T.O., emphasize that the guidelines regarding an assessment of obviousness that are provided in this document are not be interpreted per se, and should not preclude the use of “common sense”. Applying these principles to the present invention, we note that electric garage door openers were invented almost 90 years ago, and these devices have been for many decades ubiquitous throughout the world, and constitute a market of about $2.0 billion per year, and that the makers of these products have been diligent in employing skilled personnel to improve their products and increase their market share.
If we accept the premise that the present invention provides great advantages versus the prior art via a modest redesign, and perhaps even a reduction in cost, and that these advantages include enhancing safety for perhaps hundreds of millions of people, and thereby has the potential for great commercial gain, it leads to a very “common sense” question: if the present invention is “obvious”, why hasn't it been discovered and disclosed during almost 90 years?
Certainly, in this case, the reason cannot be that it is only recent technological advances have made the present invention possible; there appears to be no reason based upon technological maturity why the present invention could not have been incorporated in this very first invention in this category, which was disclosed in the 1920's. It seems more likely that due to an oversight at that time, the prior art architecture for traditional rail type garage door openers was established, and “grandfathered into” all subsequent improvements since.
In conclusion, the fundamental change proposed by the present invention may be compared to the introduction of a lever with a mechanical advantage in an era where the prior art had been confined to the use of “see-saws” for a century. A see-saw is a limited form of lever where the fulcrum is in the middle, and is useful in many ways. However, moving the fulcrum clearly provides novel and significant advantages. In the above example, a lever with a mechanical advantage would qualify as a legitimate invention in spite of the fact that the constituent parts (a fulcrum and a bar) are the same as a “see-saw”.
The present invention, while certainly not of the historical import of the invention of the lever, has a stronger claim of non-obviousness. As pointed out previously, while the novel design and architecture of the present invention uses building blocks that are similar to the prior art, the building blocks required for the present invention are not, and cannot be, the same as in the prior art. If there were, it could only occur if the disclosures herein were not novel, which could only occur if a number of specific means that differ from the prior art had already been provided to reduce the present invention to practice.
When considered in the above context, the ease of installation and the paramount safety advantages of the present invention, as well as the relatively modest means needed to acquire them, should make it clear that the present invention is not only novel, useful, and non-obvious, but is sorely needed.
This is a Continuation-In-Part of application Ser. No. 13/941,522, filed on Jul. 14, 2013 for “Method and Apparatus for Mounting a Garage Door Opener.”
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| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20150013229 A1 | Jan 2015 | US |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13941522 | Jul 2013 | US |
| Child | 14046251 | US |
