Patent Application
20080115329
The present invention relates to a sliding track above a sliding door and particularly to a sliding track that can be individually installed and flexibly removed according to different installation sites.
The general sliding doors (may be glass doors driven electrically) can provide partition function and do not take much space during opening and closing, thus are widely used. For instance they are commonly used on shops or bathrooms to separate an inner room and an outer room. Some sliding doors are fixedly fastened to the ceiling. Some other sliding doors have the top portion spaced from the ceiling at a selected distance to provide desired air ventilation and light projection effect. Some sliding doors are mounted onto one side of a glass fixed panel to facilitate opening and closing of the sliding doors. There are also sliding doors installed on display windows of shops. The display windows have a glass fixed panel on one side and a sliding door on another side that can be opened or closed.
Depending on installation sites of the sliding door, different types of tracks have to be provided. For instance, if a track is provided for moving a sliding door, the track also has to provide a clipping trough on another side to fasten and clip a glass fixed panel. To install the sliding door on the left side and right side the profile of the track is also different. Because of installation sites vary widely the conventional fixed track cannot be flexibly adapted, thus is not convenient in use.
In view of the aforesaid disadvantages occurred to the conventional sliding tracks of the sliding doors, the primary object of the present invention is to provide a sliding track coupling structure for sliding doors that includes a sliding door track and a glass fixed panel track that are formed with an inverted U-shape cross section with the opening facing downwards. The glass fixed panel track clips a glass fixed panel on a lower side. The sliding door track has a pair of guiding tracks on a left inner wall and a right inner wall to allow a plurality pairs of rollers to roll thereon in a straddle manner. The rollers are hinged on a hanging track which has a lower side fastening to a sliding door. The sliding door track has a pair of first wedge troughs on an upper left corner and an upper right corner, and a pair of second wedge troughs on a lower side. The first and second wedge troughs are coupled with a latch portion and a hook of the glass fixed panel track. The top portion of the sliding door track and the glass fixed panel track may also be coupled with an ornamental plate to form a closed top portion of the sliding door track and the glass fixed panel track. The glass fixed panel track may further couple with a sealing plate on the bottom thereof to seal the exposed portion of the clipping trough. Thus the elements of the invention can be individually installed and flexibly removed according to different installation sites.
The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Please refer to
a sliding door track 10 which has an inverted U-shape cross section with an opening facing downwards. The sliding door track 10 has a left wall and a right wall on two sides that have respectively an inner wall with a pair of guiding tracks 11 formed thereon. The sliding door track 10 further has a first wedge troughs 12 on an upper left corner and an upper right corner, and a pair of second wedge troughs 13 on the left side and right side of the bottom thereof. The top of the sliding door track 10 is fastened to a ceiling through a fastening element 14 (such as a screw) directing upwards;
a hanging track 15 which has a plurality of rollers 16 located on the left side and right side in a transverse manner. It also is fastened to a sliding door 17 on a lower side;
a glass fixed panel track 20 which has a top portion fastened to a ceiling through another fastening element (such as a screw). It has an inverted U-shape cross section with an opening facing downwards to form a clipping trough 21 to clip a glass fixed panel 22. The glass fixed panel 22 may be a transparent or translucent glass or acrylic. The glass fixed panel track 20 has a latch portion 23 close to the first wedge trough 12 of the sliding door track 10 and a hook 26 beneath the latch portion 23 and a third wedge trough 24 on an outer side corner opposing the latch portion 23, and a pair of indented latch troughs 25 on a lower side of the inner wall of the clipping trough 21;
an ornamental plate 30 formed in a U-shape with an opening facing downwards. It has a pair of side panels 31 on the left side and right side, and a pair of wedge-shaped coupling portions 32 on an inner wall corresponding to and engaged with the first wedge trough 12 of the sliding door track 10 and the third wedge trough 24 of the glass fixed panel track 20 by depressing and latching; and
a sealing plate 40 formed in an inverted U-shape with an opening facing upwards with two sides forming a pair of left side panel and a right side panel. The left side panel and right side panel have respectively a bulging latch portion 41 corresponding to the latch troughs 25 on the clipping trough 21 of the glass fixed panel track 20. It can slide into the clipping trough from the front side so that the latch portion 41 is wedged in the latch trough 25 to seal the clipping trough 21 on the lower side of the glass fixed panel track 20.
Referring to
For installing the invention in a bathroom, referring to
In short, the sliding track 10 and the glass fixed panel track 20 are individual elements. Depending on different installation sites, the sliding door 17 may be moved to the left side or right side of the glass fixed panel track 20. The ornamental plate 30 also is an independent element and can be coupled on the bottom of the glass fixed panel track 20 when the sliding door track 10 is closed. The sealing plate 40 may be installed after the sliding door 17 is installed and an interval spaced from the ceiling is required to generate a smooth visual appeal. It provides a significant improvement over the conventional sliding tracks of sliding doors.
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been set forth for the purpose of disclosure, modifications of the disclosed embodiments of the invention as well as other embodiments thereof may occur to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to cover all embodiments which do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention.
