The invention relates to a top pin assembly for a swinging door, and more particularly, to a top pin assembly with a hold open device maintaining the door in an open position.
Traffic doors are typically used in commercial establishments to allow two-way traffic through a doorway. Such doors may be used in a variety of such establishments including supermarkets, restaurants, retail stores, hospitals, walk-in coolers, etc.
The doors may be provided singly or in pairs, and mount to a door frame by hinges which allow the doors to freely swing in opposite directions, i.e. both inwardly into a room and outwardly from the room. In a commercial establishment, this allows employees to freely move between two adjacent rooms merely by pushing on the freely, swingable doors wherein the doors automatically return to the closed position without any further action from the employee, which thereby facilitates the traffic flow of employees from room to room.
More particularly, such traffic doors also have a hinge arrangement connecting each door to a door frame which allows the doors to swing in opposite directions, but also gently closes or returns the door to a closed or “rest” position blocking the doorway. Examples of such a hinge assembly are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,160,913 and 3,289,244, which patents were obtained by the assignee of the present invention. The disclosures of these patents are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. These hinge assemblies operate to close the door without the need for a spring arrangement that would generate a spring force to bias the doors to a closed position. Rather, the hinge assemblies disclosed in these patents use a roller assembly which generates a closing action on the doors by gravity acting upon the door itself.
A specific example of such traffic doors is the family of doors sold by the present assignee, namely Eliason Corporation, under its EASY SWING® trademark.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved door assembly of this general type which incorporates an improved hinge assembly which serves to releasably restrain the door in both a closed position, and in open positions preferably oriented at right angles relative to the closed position.
The invention relates to an improved door assembly which positively restrains the door in a normally closed position. The improved door assembly preferably includes an improved top pin assembly which not only provides positive restraining of the door in the closed position, but also allows for positive restraining of the door in at least two fully open positions, preferably oriented at right angles relative to this closed position. In this manner, the top pin assembly provides integral restraining of the door, such that separate external restraining devices are not required to maintain the door in the open position. This allows for free traffic flow through the doorway for individuals who may be carrying bulky or heavy loads, or pushing carts. Where the traffic volume is high, at least on a temporary basis, the top pin hinge assembly allows the door to simply be opened to the fully open position wherein the top pin assembly automatically holds the door in this position until the door is manually pushed in the direction of closing which then causes the door assembly to automatically return to the fully closed position.
Other objects and purposes of the invention, and variations thereof, will be apparent upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.
Certain terminology will be used in the following description for convenience and reference only, and will not be limiting. For example, the words “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “rightwardly” and “leftwardly” will refer to directions in the drawings to which reference is made. The words “inwardly” and “outwardly” will refer to directions toward and away from, respectively, the geometric center of the arrangement and designated parts thereof. Said terminology will include the words specifically mentioned, derivatives thereof, and words of similar import.
Referring to
As seen in
As seen in
The top pin assembly 12 not only biases the door 11 to the closed position of
More particularly as to the top pin assembly 12, the top pin assembly 12 first comprises a hinge bracket 20 which comprises a horizontal leg 21 and a vertical leg 22 which are respectively secured to the header 18 and jam 16 by suitable fasteners 23, which are preferably screws. The hinge bracket 20 includes a downwardly extending, fixed hinge post or pin 25 which is preferably welded to the horizontal bracket leg 21. The bottom or terminal end of the hinge pin 25 includes a pair of diametrically opposed rollers 27 located on diametrically opposite sides of the pin 25. The rollers 27 are rotatably supported upon a shaft 28 which extends diametrically through the end of the pin 25, wherein the free ends of the shaft 28 each support a respective one of the rollers 27 thereon. The pin 25 thereby extends downwardly in a vertical orientation and rotatably supports the rollers 27 thereon. The hinge bracket 20 and hinge pin 25 thereby remain in stationary fixed positions during use. As will be described hereinafter, the remaining components of the top pin assembly 12 described below are rotatably suspended from the top pin 25 by the rollers 27 and are fastened to the door, which thereby allows the door 11 to swing between the open and closed positions.
To support the door 11 upon the rollers 27, the top pin assembly 12 further comprises base brackets 30, one of which is located on one side of the door and includes a top flange 31 on which a generally C-shaped housing 33 is rigidly affixed. A similar base bracket 30 is also provided on the opposite side of the door 11 wherein the two base brackets 30 align with each other and are secured to the door 11 by a pair of bolts 30A which pass entirely through the door 11, engage both of the base brackets 30, and effectively clamp the door 11 between the two base brackets 30. A respective cover is provided so as to overlie each side of the door 11 and enclose this hardware, including the base brackets 30, during use. The C-shaped housing 33 extends through the entirety of the door 11 and is fastened to each of the base brackets 30, such as by welding, so that the entire assembly is secured to the door 11 by the aforementioned bolts 30A. The base bracket 30 includes a pair of fastener blocks 34 which allow for affixing of the cover thereto.
More particularly, the housing 33 comprises a bottom wall 34 which extends horizontally through a notch 36 (
To mount the door 11 to the pin 25, the top pin assembly 12 further comprises a top support plate 40 which has opposite first and second ends 41 and 42. A first plate end 41 (as seen in
The plate 40 is formed with a central bore 49 (
During assembly of the door, the housing 34 has already been installed on the door 11 through the base brackets 30 and the associated bolts 30A. The aforementioned gap between the housing flanges 38 and 39 then allows the door to be lifted and shifted sidewardly until the support plate 40, previously attached to the pin 25, is inserted below the flanges 38 and 39 and the door 11 is pre-hung from the support plate 40 and the engaged hinge pin 25. The door 11 is still in a loose condition, but is affixed to the support plate 40 by installation of the fasteners 44 which thereby prevents the door 11 from being removed from the hinge pin 25 and the associated hinge bracket 20. Notably, the hinge bracket 20 has already been installed on the door frame, such that the assembly of the door 11 and its suspension from the support plate 40 thereby positions the door 11 within the doorway. A bracket is also provided at the bottom corner of the door to fix the location of the door corner relative to the door frame. In this manner, the door 11 is now functional or swingable between the open and closed positions described below.
During rotation of the door, the rollers 27 roll along the bottom side of the centering notch 50 which allows the door to swing openly. However, the weight of the door and the inclined surfaces of the centering notch 50 also perform a biasing or centering action on the door 11 to return the door 11 to the normally closed position of
Positive seating of the rollers 27 within the restraining slots 52 occurs as the rollers 27 essentially seat vertically within the slots 52. In this regard, as the rollers 27 roll upon the flat bottom surface of the support plate 40, they eventually will roll up the inclined perimeter edges 53 of the slots 52 wherein the door 11 displaces vertically downwardly as the rollers 27 align with the slots 52 and the slots 52 fall downwardly onto the rollers 27. Upon closing of the door, the rollers 27 reverse directions and the slots 52 or 52A roll up along the rollers 27 which causes the door 11 to shift vertically upwardly until the door 11 returns to the closed position, wherein the rollers 27 then seat within the centering notches 50 during which time, the door again shifts downwardly. Thus, this invention requires that the door 11 be vertically shiftable to a limited extent.
In this manner, the support plate 40 can be provided with both a positive centering feature maintaining the door 11 in a normally closed position, and a hold open feature which restrains the door in the fully open position due to the provision of the restraining slots 52. This allows the door 11 to be simply maintained through its own top pin assembly 12 in either of two open positions. This does not require any additional separate devices to restrain the door 11 and simply occurs as the door 11 is opened to the fully open position, at which time the rollers 27 vertically engage the slots 52 or 52A. The engagement of the rollers 27 with the slots 52 or 52A requires a relatively low amount of force to disengage these components and return the door 11 to the closed position, but such resistance to closing is not significant and can be readily overcome by manual pushing of the door 11 towards the closed position.
Although particular preferred embodiments of the invention have been disclosed in detail for illustrative purposes, it will be recognized that variations or modifications of the disclosed apparatus, including the rearrangement of parts, lie within the scope of the present invention.
This application claims priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/463,984, filed Feb. 25, 2011, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
61463984 | Feb 2011 | US |