Closure fasteners – Keepers – Adjustable
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-17
2001-11-20
Estremsky, Gary (Department: 3627)
Closure fasteners
Keepers
Adjustable
C292S340000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06318772
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
The present invention concerns a striker for a fixed frame of a window, door, French window or the like.
2. Description of the prior art
Strikers fitted to fixed frames have always had a front face adapted to be disposed in the front edge of the frame with an opening adapted to accommodate a latch member of an opening leaf fitting.
The fittings can be of the lock, espagnolette bolt, espagnolette bolt/lock, espagnolette bolt/latch, espagnolette bolt/stud or like type. The latch members are therefore of different types depending on the type of fitting (latch bolt, lock bolt, roller, end of rod, etc) and therefore require as many different types of striker as there are different types of latch member.
Moreover, the median axis of the latch member, i.e. the axis passing through the middle of the latch member and parallel to the vertical median plane passing through the middle of the rebate of the upright or of the crosspiece on which the fitting is mounted, can be at a varying distance from the outside face of the upright or of the crosspiece of the opening leaf on which the latch member is mounted.
Consequently, it is necessary to provide different types of striker with different outside dimensions in order for the opening of the striker to be aligned exactly with the latch member.
Finally, there are different types of striker according to how the striker is fixed to the fixed frame (surface mounted, studded or fixed into a recess or a groove in the fixed frame).
It is therefore understandable that the variations of these three parameters: the shape of the latch member, the distance between the median axis of the member and the plane of the outside face of the opening leaf, and the method of fixing the striker to the fixed frame, increase the number of different strikers that must be manufactured and stocked in order to meet all possible needs.
The main aim of the present invention is to propose a new striker structure that considerably reduces the number of different strikers to be made and stocked.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention consists in a striker for a fixed frame of a window, door, French window or the like including an opening adapted to accommodate a latch member of an opening leaf fitting, the striker including a base adapted to be fixed to said fixed frame and an insert including an opening adapted to accommodate said latch member, said base including an opening forming a housing for said insert.
This striker in two parts limits the number of different parts to be provided: the base fixed to the fixed frame matches the method of fixing to the fixed frame and the insert has an opening the shape of which matches the latch member and the position of the median vertical axis of this member.
For a given method of fixing the striker to the fixed frame, the base of the striker is the same and only the insert is changed to suit the shape and the position of the latch member.
Conversely, for a predefined latch member, only the base is modified, to suit the method of fixing to the fixed frame, the insert always being the same.
The number of different parts to be made is therefore considerably reduced because of the combinations of one base and one insert constituting the various types of striker.
What is more, the striker being fixed by means of the base, only the latter needs to be made from a material that is sufficiently strong to achieve firm fixing of the striker to the fixed frame.
The insert can be fabricated in a less costly material.
In one advantageous version of the invention, the insert has walls between which the opening lies, an outside face of the walls mates with edges of the opening in the base and includes at least one fixing lug, and the walls and the fixing lug(s) are adapted to pass between the edges of the opening in the base, the fixing lug(s) springing back to a position in line with a peripheral area of the opening after passing beyond the edges of the opening.
Thus the insert is simply clipped into the opening in the base and does not require any fixing means other than the lugs on the walls of the insert.
In a preferred version of the invention, the opening in the insert lies between two lateral walls adapted to be parallel to an outside face of an upright or of a crosspiece of the fixed frame to which the striker is fitted, the walls having different thicknesses in an area adjacent the edges of the opening in the base.
The median axis of the opening in the insert, parallel to the plane of the lateral walls, is therefore offset from the median axis of the opening in the base.
Accordingly, by changing the thickness of one or the other of the lateral walls of the insert, the position of the median axis of the opening can be varied so that the opening is exactly aligned with the latch members of the fitting mounted on the opening leaf.
In accordance with another aspect of the invention, a base comprises a series of inserts adapted to be lodged in the opening of the base, each insert having an opening adapted to accommodate a latch member selected from a latch bolt, a lock bolt, a roller, an espagnolette bolt rod end or the like. .
When the base has been chosen to suit the method of fixing the striker to the fixed frame, it is sufficient to fix into the opening in the base the appropriate insert to accommodate the latch member.
In accordance with an equivalent aspect of the invention, a striker comprises a series of bases having an opening adapted to accommodate the insert, each base having an external contour adapted to be fixed in a groove, a slot or the like in a front edge of a fixed frame.
Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge further from the following description.
REFERENCES:
patent: 1769280 (1930-07-01), Welshofer
patent: 2094119 (1937-09-01), Flora
patent: 2255860 (1941-09-01), Riedel
patent: 3241873 (1966-03-01), Russell
patent: 3287055 (1966-11-01), Schlage
patent: 4453752 (1984-06-01), McKann
patent: 5118151 (1992-06-01), Nicholas
patent: 5456507 (1995-10-01), Jones
patent: 2445834 (1974-08-01), None
Estremsky Gary
Ferco International Ferrures et Serrures de Batiment
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
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