Extruded hinge members and folding doors formed therefrom

Details Extruded hinge members and folding doors formed therefrom Extruded hinge members and folding doors formed therefrom

1997-10-15

1999-06-29

Purol, David M.

Flexible or portable closure, partition, or panel

Plural strip, slat, or panel type

Movably interconnected

16269, 16386, E06B 312

Patent

active

059154462

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a novel hinge arrangement particularly adapted for hingedly connecting large panels such as used in overhead folding garage doors and to such doors using the novel hinge arrangement.


BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At present, garage doors are usually formed of rows of wood panels hinged together by a number of separate metal hinges fastened thereto. The doors also have a series of separately mounted rollers at their edges which run in tracks extending upwardly at the sides of the door opening and horizontally inwardly at the top of the door opening so that the door can be moved upwardly and then because of the hinging arrangement move horizontally inwardly at the top of the door opening. Very frequently such folding garage doors are provided with a remote controlled motor to raise and lower the doors in response to a signal from a small transmitter device.
Such garage doors are both expensive to manufacture both from the cost of the wood and the substantial amount of hardware required in the form of hinges and rollers which have to be individually assembled. Moreover, these doors are heavy and awkward to handle, ship and install. The garage door opener mechanisms to handle such heavy doors require motors of significant torque and relatively heavy duties cables, pulleys or other harness for effecting the door movement.
Further, present such doors require maintenance and painting and, when damaged, cannot readily be repaired as the panels cannot be replaced without the removal and dismantling of the door.
It has also been proposed to provide a continuous hinge between two hinge members by forming one member as a male member with a projecting pintle and the other member as a female member having a socket to receive the pintle.
Such arrangements as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,567,931, 4,532,973, and 2,968,829 do not provide the requisite freedom of hinge movement with an adequate connection between the hinge members and the hinge axis is offset to one side of the members.


SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is a feature of the present invention to provide a very simple continuous hinge arrangement involving hinge members which can be readily extruded and in particular can be very economically extruded of thermoplastic material, the hinge arrangement being such that it will provide freedom of movement of the hinge members between predetermined angular positions while providing a strong connection between the hinge members which will preclude their being pulled apart in the operation of even very large overhead folding doors.
It is a further feature to provide such a hinge connection as aforesaid in which the hinge axis is arranged to lie on a line forming the median line between front and rear walls or faces of the hinge members.
The present invention also provides for the provision of a folding door such as an overhead garage door formed essentially or entirely of plastic material which is significantly less expensive to manufacture and significantly lighter than present such doors and does not require any hinge hardware to assemble nor track hardware to run in the tracks at the sides of the door opening.
The invention also provides that the hinge members and doors employing same are adapted to be easily assembled so that they can be shipped in knocked down form and assembled at the point of installation.
By forming the hinges and panels of plastic material, the components require no maintenance and the arrangement is such that if the door panel becomes damaged it may be simply and easily replaced without having to remove the door from its installed position or disturb the other panels.
Moreover, because of the light weight of the hinge and door components, lighter duty and less expensive door operating equipment can be employed to provide additional cost savings.
More particularly, the invention involves the provision of hinge members in the form of longitudinal extrusions for use in forming a hinge connection, the hinge members comprising first and second hing

REFERENCES:
patent: 2968829 (1961-01-01), Meddick
patent: 3359594 (1967-12-01), Pastoor
patent: 4475268 (1984-10-01), Labelle
patent: 4532973 (1985-08-01), De Falco
patent: 4567931 (1986-02-01), Wentzel
patent: 4732203 (1988-03-01), Alten
patent: 4924932 (1990-05-01), Esnault

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