Roll-type door opener

Details Roll-type door opener Roll-type door opener

2000-06-21

2001-08-21

Dayoan, D. Glenn (Department: 3612)

Land vehicles: bodies and tops

Bodies

Door or window with specified vehicle feature

C296S052000, C160S201000, C160S181000, C160S026000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06276744

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to a door opener for a roll-type door in a cargo van, and in particular to such an opener that maximizes the usable interior space of the cargo van.
Ballyns U.S. Pat. No. 4,860,813 discloses a door opener for a roll-up door in a cargo van. In the disclosed system, the door is coupled via flexible winding straps to a drum mounted on a rotatable shaft inside the cargo van above the door opening. A motor is also mounted inside the cargo van above the door opening to rotate the drum and thereby to control the position of the door.
This approach requires both the rotatable shaft and the motor to be positioned within the cargo van above the door opening, and this requirement has drawbacks in many applications. In particular, if a conventionally sized motor is used, in at least some cases the size requirements for the rotatable shaft and the motor for driving the shaft are such that the top of the door opening must be placed at a lower than optimal position in the cargo van. Alternatively, if this disadvantage is to be avoided, a non-standard, relatively expensive motor may be required.
The present invention is directed to an improved door opener that avoids these disadvantages of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY
By way of introduction, the preferred embodiment described below is a door opener mounted to a cargo van having a cargo van body and a door opening in the body closable with a roll-type door.
The disclosed embodiment includes a shaft mounted for rotation within the cargo van body. The shaft is coupled with the door such that shaft rotation causes the door to move between closed and opened positions. The shaft is driven by a motor that is mounted outside of the cargo van body. This motor is coupled with the shaft by a drive system that extends through the cargo van body to couple the motor and the shaft such that rotation of the motor causes rotation of the shaft and thereby movement of the door.
By positioning the shaft inside the cargo van body and the motor outside the cargo van body, the disclosed door opener optimizes space utilization within the cargo van above the door opening. In particular, a conventional, relatively large-diameter motor can be used to drive the rotatable shaft, without requiring the door opening to be lowered below its optimal position. In this way, all of the advantages of a motorized door opener are provided while minimizing compromises in terms of the size of the door opening and the effective utilization of the internal volume of the cargo van.
These paragraphs have been provided by way of introduction, and they are not intended to limit the scope of the following claims.


REFERENCES:
patent: 4016920 (1977-04-01), Shepard
patent: 4018259 (1977-04-01), Herms
patent: 4621862 (1986-11-01), Kramer
patent: 4860813 (1989-08-01), Ballyns et al.
patent: 5056847 (1991-10-01), Stiwell et al.
patent: 5429170 (1995-07-01), Nogaki
patent: 5443300 (1995-08-01), Mohammed
patent: 5544690 (1996-08-01), Margo et al.
patent: 5572829 (1996-11-01), Stoltenberg
patent: 5698073 (1997-12-01), Vincenzi
patent: 5803149 (1998-09-01), Halley et al.

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