Shower door bar with recessed grip

Details Shower door bar with recessed grip Shower door bar with recessed grip

2000-01-13

2001-06-26

Safavi, Michael (Department: 3635)

Static structures (e.g., buildings)

Composite prefabricated panel including adjunctive means

C211S105200, C211S119009

Reexamination Certificate

active

06250044

ABSTRACT:

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
“Bypass” type sliding shower doors can cover the entry to a shower stall. They often have glass or plastic door panels contained within metal frames which slide along parallel tracks. The doors are typically sized to overlap in the center of the entry. Narrow spacing between the tracks and the overlap prevent water from splashing out between the doors.
Such doors often have towel/grip bars mounted to the frame of each door, one door with a bar inside the shower stall and the other door with a bar outside the shower stall. See Generally U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,538.
Besides providing a place to suspend wet towels for drying, these bars also act as handles for opening and closing the shower doors. Since the doors must be spaced close together to avoid leaking, ordinarily such bars cannot be located on both sides of each door because they would prevent the doors from moving past each other. Thus, a person at one side of the shower stall entryway can easily open only one of the doors, since the other door has no corresponding bar on that side to be used as a handle.
Accordingly, an improved bar assembly for bypass shower doors is needed.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a towel bar assembly for mounting on a door, such as a bypass type slidable shower door, having an opening therethrough. The assembly includes a bar having at least one attachment end, an escutcheon having a front with an axial opening in which the attachment end is disposed, and a back having a flange around a rear opening. There is also a fastener having a back end with a flange around a rearwardly directed recessed grip. The fastener is inserted in the rear opening of the escutcheon and mated with one of the escutcheon and the attachment end so that the flanges define a gap therebetween. The recessed grip is then accessible from the rear of the assembly.
In preferred forms the recessed grip is a cupped surface, the bar also has a second attachment end, and the assembly also has a second such escutcheon and a second such fastener. The fastener preferably has threads which mate with threads on the attachment end.
In another aspect the invention provides a door assembly. There is a door having front and rear sides, and an aperture extending therebetween. There is also a bar having at least one attachment end extending towards the door, an escutcheon having a front with an axial opening in which the attachment end is disposed, and a back having a flange around a rear opening. The flange is of a size such that the escutcheon cannot pass completely through the door aperture.
There is also a fastener having a back end with a flange around a rearwardly directed recessed grip, the fastener is positioned through the door aperture, the fastener flange being sized such that it prevents the fastener from passing completely through the door aperture. The fastener is inserted in the rear opening of the escutcheon and mated with one of the escutcheon and the attachment end so that the flanges clamp the door between them around the aperture. When the parts are so assembled, the grip can be used to reposition the door from the rear side of the door.
These assemblies permit there to be handles than can easily be gripped on both sides of each door, even in a bypass system. Thus, a door can easily be opened even from the opposite side from which the towel bar projects. The assembly achieves this by providing a low-profile grip on one side of the door that extends inwardly through the door panel itself (rather than outwardly).
The foregoing and other advantages of the invention will appear from the following description. In this description reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof and in which there is shown by way of illustration preferred embodiments of the invention. These embodiments do not represent the full scope of the invention. Thus, the claims should be looked to in order to judge the scope of the invention.


REFERENCES:
patent: 2134096 (1938-10-01), Andrie
patent: 2589516 (1952-03-01), Stelzer
patent: 3378219 (1968-04-01), Biesecker
patent: 4499629 (1985-02-01), Grossman
patent: 5860538 (1999-01-01), Duero et al.
patent: 5875903 (1999-03-01), Chen

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