Flexible or portable closure – partition – or panel – With hood – canopy – shield storage chamber – or outrigged... – For roll type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-12-06
2002-11-12
Purol, David M. (Department: 3634)
Flexible or portable closure, partition, or panel
With hood, canopy, shield storage chamber, or outrigged...
For roll type
C160S031000, C160S273100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06478070
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to flexible extendable screen doors that extend from a retracted position to an open or extracted position. In particular, the present invention candy retrofitted to existing exterior doors that have peripheral moldings with outer surfaces that have nonplanar properties or not aligned in a plane defined by the vertical and lateral axis.
BACKGROUND
During warm weather, homeowners desire to have fresh air enter their houses without the burden of insects or debris from trees and foliage entering their houses. It is common to use screen doors to allow fresh air to enter a household. Prior art screen doors are either inflexible sliding members or flexible extracted versions. The apparatus the present invention relates to flexible extracted type screen doors.
The prior art extractable screen doors are ill-equipped to be retrofitted to many existing moldings of exterior hinged doors. The prior art extractable doors fail to provide bracketing members that provide support and rigidity to the screen. Further, the prior art screen doors lack various features that will be further understood with the detailed description of the preferred embodiment.
BACKGROUND ART
A search of the patent literature has a number of patents directed toward these problems, these being the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 27,103 Burchell, shows a screen system where Roller B is attached to the upper part of the frame. The rods a′ are secured to the frame at the stiles b, and tubes c house the rods a′. The lower end of the net C is surrounded by members e and f which appeared to be pieces of wood which are bound together by screws i.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,604,054 Kuyper, shows in
FIG. 6
is a sectional view taken at line
6
—
6
of
FIG. 1
where it is seen that tracks
17
house the guide portion
16
which are attached to the screen
13
and the binder
14
.
FIGS. 4 and 5
shows another mounting method were clipped
22
is formed within the plaster
20
and is adapted to receive the tracks
17
within the sides
23
.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,560,397 Tims, shows an awning that has a front oblique panel
9
and side panels
10
. The spring roller
18
holds the shade
17
. As seen in
FIG. 2
, the bolt court
21
extends around central pole
22
to allow the shade
17
to be withdrawn an upright position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,116,097 Novales, shows a curtain assembly where the guides
28
pivot 90 degrees to opposition shown in
FIG. 3
so they can roll up as seen in FIG.
2
. You can see in
FIG. 2
that the parallel members
18
can only be mounted to a flat window frame
10
.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,797 Lange, has a screen system which is the seen in FIG.
3
. The screen is extracted from the housing
4
. As seen in
FIG. 2
, the screen is latched by anchoring pin
32
.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,821,786 Johnston discloses a slidable screen door system that is best seen in FIG.
6
. Apparently, wheels
24
glide along the track
23
in the track hangar
22
. As seen in
FIG. 3
, the boxlike enclosure
17
is mounted on the jam
12
. There is disclosure of how this would be mounted upon a non flat surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,244 Thumann, shows a retractable covering for a door that is mounted to the side of a door. As seen in
FIGS. 3 and 4
, the housing
24
is attached to the first molding
18
and the rigid side member
100
is withdrawn an attached to the V-shaped groove
120
of the latching strip
114
.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,704 Elrod, shows a roll up screen door which is secured in place by number of threaded high fasteners
18
.
It will become apparent in the discussion below that the apparatus of the present invention has numerous improvements over the prior art designs. Namely, the prior art fails to disclose a system that can be retrofitted to doorframes with various outer surfaces of the moldings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention comprises a retractable screen system adapted to be mounted to an opening defining structure, such a doorway or window structure, where the opening defining structure comprises upper and lower structure members and first and second side structure members.
The system comprises upper and lower bracketing members adapted to be mounted to the opening structure at upper and lower locations adjacent to the upper and lower structure members.
The system also comprises a generally vertically aligned screen retaining and dispensing assembly adapted to be mounted at a side mounting location adjacent to said first side structure member. The two bracketing members and the screen retaining and dispensing assembly can collectively be considered to constitute a perimeter frame extending around a substantial portion of the opening of the opening defining structure, when the retractable screen system is in place.
Each of the bracketing members has a lateral axis and further comprises a connecting portion and a slideway portion. The connecting portion connects the bracketing member to the opening defining structure, while the slideway portion defines a laterally aligned slideway.
The retaining and dispensing assembly comprises a screen housing, and also a screen member having inner and outer vertically aligned screen edge portions and upper and lower horizontally aligned screen edge portions.
The retaining and dispensing assembly also comprises a dispensing and retaining mechanism mounted to the housing and having a rotatable portion connected to the screen inner edge portion. This dispensing and retracting mechanism is arranged to be able to retain the screen member in a rolled up retained position and enable the screen member to be extended from the retained position to its extended positions.
The slideway portions of the upper and lower bracketing members are arranged to engage the upper and lower screen edge portions, respectively, in retaining engagement. The slideways are aligned relative to the retaining and dispensing assembly so that the upper and lower screen edge portions can be extended and retracted from the retaining and dispensing assembly along the slideways of the upper and lower bracketing members to the extended position and then retracted from the extended position along the slideways to the retracted position.
The retaining and dispensing assembly comprises a screen housing connecting portion which is fixedly connected to the opening defining structure and a detachable screen housing portion which is revocably mounted to the screen housing connecting portion. Thus, the detachable screen housing portion, along with the screen member and the dispensing and retracting mechanism, can be removed as a unit from the screen housing connecting portion, and also be reconnected to said screen housing connecting portion. This enables the screen member along with its associated components to be removed and replaced into the system for various purposes, such as repair or replacement of the screen member.
In a preferred form, the detachable screen housing portion has first and second connecting regions. The first connecting region is adjacent to a location at which the screen member extends from the screen housing, and the second connecting region is spaced laterally from the first connecting region. Thus, the detachable screen housing portion can be mounted to the fixed connecting portion by first engaging the first connecting region to the fixed connecting portion to properly position the screen member, and then the second connecting region can be connected.
The screen housing further comprises upper and lower end caps, at which the first and second connecting regions are positioned, by which connection is made to the dispensing and retracting mechanism.
Also, the dispensing and retracting mechanism comprises a retracting spring member having a first connecting end connected to the rotatable portion of the dispensing and retracting mechanism, and a second connecting end, which is connected to an adjusting member which can be moved to selective positions so as to either relax the spring member or create increased stress on the spring member. Thus
Hughes Robert B.
Hughes Law Firm PLLC
Purol David M.
LandOfFree
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