Automatic door opener

Details Automatic door opener Automatic door opener

2001-09-13

2003-10-21

Redman, Jerry (Department: 3634)

Movable or removable closures

With operator for movably mounted closure

Operating lever or link and closure swing about parallel axes

Reexamination Certificate

active

06634140

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to automatic side hinge door openers and, more particularly, relates to clutching and braking systems for use in conjunction with automatic door openers suitable for both original installation and easy retrofit onto standard side hinge doors.
2. Related Art
Mechanisms for opening doors and the like are known.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,530 to Eccleston et al, dated Mar. 9, 1999 and entitled “Remotely Controllable Automatic Door Operator Permitting Active And Passive Door Operation”, discloses a remotely controllable automatic door opener for a side-hinged door. The opener comprises an electronically operated clutch in the gear train between the motor shaft and the opener arm drive shaft (output shaft). An electronic control unit comprising adjustable timers is employed to govern the opening and closing of the door.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,881,497 to Borgardt, dated Mar. 16, 1999 and entitled “Automatic Door Opener Adaptable For Manual Doors”, discloses an automatic door opener that employs a slip clutch in the drive train between the motor and the output shaft.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,002,217 to Stevens et al, dated Dec. 14, 1999 and entitled “Door Operating System”, discloses a door operating system that employs a dual position feedback system that can help prevent overtravelling of the door when it is being closed.
Other automatic door openers are directed towards opening of garage doors by means of drive chains or worm gears. While such door openers typically have some form of clutch mechanism, the weight of the garage door and the necessity that the garage door be raised vertically on rails require a slip clutch of great torsional capacity and some switching mechanism to stop the motor or interrupt the drive train when the door encounters an obstacle. In such garage door openers, the driven clutch mechanism is a shaft or gear engaging a travel nut or chain.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,161 to Carli, dated Jun. 8, 1982 and entitled “Centrifugal Switch And Motor Control”, discloses a friction clutch which is best seen in FIG.
1
and is described in column
2
, line
62
through column
3
, line
5
. The friction clutch includes a circular drive member
27
, a driven member
28
and a clutch facing
33
located therebetween. The clutch facing
33
is washer-shaped and has apertures that are slidably received on bosses
34
located on the driven member
28
. Another washer-shaped component, hard metal disc
35
, is secured by staking
36
to the circular drive member
27
and frictionally co-acts with the clutch facing
33
. Tension on the driven member
28
is varied by tightening or loosening a nut
42
which maintains a spring
43
adjacent to the driven member. In operation, the door will move under normal operating conditions but may slip upon a definite overload. For example, should the door strike some obstacle or reach the up or down travel limits, the driven member
28
will stop and, in turn, the friction clutch will slip. When the clutch slips, a centrifugal switch mechanism
47
located on the driven member
28
closes, thereby shutting down the motor. Driven member
28
is connected to output shaft
40
which engages partial nut
45
to pull the weight of garage door
13
up track
14
. In this arrangement, the clutch (un-numbered) is not by itself a sufficient safety mechanism should the door strike an obstacle such as a human being, thus necessitating centrifugal switch mechanism
47
.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,955,661 to Popper et al, dated May 11, 1976 and entitled “Apparatus For Opening And Closing Door Members And The Like”, discloses an apparatus for opening and closing doors including a ball drive assembly
56
. The ball drive assembly
56
provides a driving connection between the driver shaft
50
and a driven shaft
58
such that the driven shaft
58
is rotatably driven at a predetermined reduced rate of speed compared to the speed of the driver shaft
50
. A torque control
90
(best seen in
FIG. 3
) is provided to sense an obstruction in the path of the door member
14
and to send a stop signal to the motor control
48
via signal path
92
. As drive chain
16
must vertically raise door member
14
, ball drive assembly
56
provides a substantially increased internal friction as compared to the usual coupling devices such as pulley-belt drives or the like, thereby increasing the amount of force which must be manually applied to the door member
14
to move the door member
14
from a stopped or parked position (column
15
, lines
17
-
28
). Popper et al emphasize that the ball drive assembly
56
allows for substantially weaker torque control springs
206
and
210
, and thus a more sensitive torque control
90
. Torque control
90
shuts off the motor in response to the door member
14
being unable to move.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,222,327 to Fellows et al, dated Jun. 29, 1993 and entitled “Side Mount Garage Door Operator”, discloses a side mount garage door opener including a means
17
for selectively connecting and disconnecting the drive shaft
14
with the door opening and closing mechanism
16
. A clutch
22
is interposed between the drive shaft
14
and mechanism
16
and is manually operable for disengaging the drive motor from the garage door via a selector member
23
in the absence of electrical power. As illustrated in
FIG. 3A
, the clutch is shown in the engaged position but may be moved to the disengaged position as illustrated in
FIG. 3
via movement of the selector member
23
.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,719,005 to Carli, dated Mar. 6, 1973 and entitled “Door Operator Reversing Control”, discloses a door operator having a friction clutch (un-numbered) and a one-way clutch
70
. The friction clutch is similar to the one described above with respect to the aforementioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,161, and includes a clutch plate
24
and clutch disc
25
carrying a clutch lining
26
which frictionally cooperates with the clutch plate
24
. The one-way clutch
70
is provided for moving a torque switch means
48
in one particular direction. A torque weight
71
is slidably mounted in an eccentric aperture
72
in a hub bracket
34
and functions, when the motor is reversed, to drive an inner cylindrical surface
79
of a drive disc
45
to establish a particular position of the torque switch means
48
. The torque switch means
48
is moved in the opposite direction by a gravity-actuated weight
68
. As in U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,161, worm
17
rotates to raise garage door
12
.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,059,485 to Bohlman et al, dated Oct. 23, 1962 and entitled “Electro-Mechanical Door Opening And Closing Mechanism”, discloses a garage door opener as illustrated in
FIGS. 1 and 3
, having clutch plates
51
and
60
disposed on each side of one wheel
55
. Friction plates
65
convey torque to clutch plates
51
and
60
from one wheel
55
, which in turn meshes with worm
77
(
FIG. 4
) situated on shaft
78
of motor
79
. Driven shaft
24
is attached to clutch plates
51
and
60
and in turn rotates drum
30
having two runs of cable (un-numbered) which raise the garage door
46
.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,706 to Pietrzak et al, dated Aug. 1, 1989 and entitled “Gate Operator”, discloses a gate operator including, as illustrated in
FIGS. 3
, and
5
, a clutch assembly
32
, a clutch operator member assembly
50
and a clamp head
52
. The clutch assembly
32
includes worm wheel
30
and floating pressure plates
34
, which drive pressure plates
36
and friction discs
38
and thus drive sprocket
18
. Clutch operator member assembly
50
includes Belleville washers
49
, collar
58
, needle bearing
60
and thrust washer
62
. Clamp head
52
is operated by a lever
54
controlled in turn by a screw
70
. In operation, the clamp head
52
functions to engage the clutch operator member assembly
50
for tensioning the clutch assembly
32
. For example, when it is desired to tension the clutch to increase the load at which the clutch will slip, screw
70
is adjusted whereby clamp head
52
is pivote

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