Static structures (e.g. – buildings) – Framing to receive door – doorjamb – or window sash – Architrave; i.e. – finish strip on floor – ceiling – or wall...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-07-09
2004-01-06
Friedman, Carl D. (Department: 3635)
Static structures (e.g., buildings)
Framing to receive door, doorjamb, or window sash
Architrave; i.e., finish strip on floor, ceiling, or wall...
C052S204500, C052S213000, C052S656400, C049S380000, C049S504000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06672021
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to an inner frame for a single door or a set of double doors for an apartment, for example, and a door structure for which the inner frame is used.
Conventionally, a hinged door such as a single door and a set of double doors is used as a door for an apartment, for example. The most general single door varies not only in size but also in which side of the door is hinged (hereafter referred to as “a hinged side”) and which direction the door opens in (hereafter referred to as “an opening direction”). There are doors of various combinations of hinged sides and opening directions depending on layouts of the respective apartments.
Selection of the hinged side and the opening direction of the door is made by an architect of the building in view of a life traffic line and use of respective rooms of a resident, i.e., arrangement of pieces of furniture. However, unlike a custom house, in the case of a condominium or an apartment for rent, the architect has no choice but to design the doors with the residents in mind. In the present age in which there are various life styles, an actual resident may desire to change the hinged side and the opening direction of the door according to his/her preference in use of the door when he/she moves into an apartment or a house. A resident may desire to change the hinged side and the opening direction of the door because he/she bought a new piece of furniture or in order to re-do rooms by rearranging pieces of furniture after he/she moves into a custom house or a condominium.
However, change of the hinged side and the opening direction of the door, which seems to be a simple operation, cannot be easily achieved in reality because of various problems. For example, in order to change a hinged side of an inward open and left hinged door without changing the inward opening, displacement of the hinges is necessary and at least a new latch hole for locking needs to be provided in a doorframe. A latch hole and holes for screws for fixing the hinges in the doorframe and which have been used are concealed in some way but this is clearly not preferable in view of design. Therefore, replacement of the doorframe is considered. However, the doorframe is normally fixed to a partition wall of the apartment or house and cannot be detached easily and a part of the partition wall has to be torn down in many cases. In an apartment, because of a relationship between the thickness of a partition wall used and the thickness of a main body, a doorstop portion of a doorframe is generally formed at a distance in a direction from a center of the doorframe. Therefore, turning the door over in order to change inward opening into outward opening does not work. In such a case, replacement of the doorframe is an absolutely necessary condition after all and change of the opening direction is difficult.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a hinged door inner frame by which a hinged side and an opening direction of a door can be changed by a resident in some cases without necessity of special skills when or after the resident moves into an apartment or a house after completion of construction and a door structure for which the door inner frame is used.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a door structure by which, as the door frame can be easily divided into the outer frame and the inner frame according to the invention, it is possible to freely change the hinged side and the opening direction of the door without working on the outer frame itself.
Furthermore, another object of the present invention is to provide a door structure by which construction marks are not left after the change and it is unnecessary to change the outer frame at all. Even a resident can easily change the hinged side and the opening direction of the door without necessity of special skills.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a hinged door inner frame wherein an inner frame can be mounted to and detached from an outer frame and is formed by integrally molding a doorstop portion and a flat portion extending from the doorstop portion.
A feature of of the present invention is that the inner frame further comprises at opposite end portions thereof locking nails which can be mounted to and detached from locking grooves formed in the outer frame.
Another feature of the present invention is that the hinged door structure comprises outer frames, inner frames which can be mounted to and detached from the outer frames, and a door main body supported for swinging by one of the inner frames. Each the inner frame includes a doorstop portion, a flat portion extending from the doorstop portion, and locking nails which are at opposite end portions of the inner frame and which can be mounted to and detached from locking grooves formed in each outer frame.
With the above structure, the inner frames can be mounted to and detached from the outer frames. Therefore, in order to change the opening direction (inward open/outward open) of a single door without changing the hinged side (left hinged/right hinged), for example, exchanging the right and left inner frames, turning the door main body over, and mounting the door main body are all that is needed.
Therefore, in order to change the hinged side of the door when or after the resident moves into the apartment or the house, major modification to the wall and the like, including the outer frames is unnecessary.
If mounting orientations of the inner frames are changed or if the inner frames are exchanged, mounting holes of screws and the like and marks of latch holes for locking the door handle which are formed in the outer frames are covered to maintain beauty. In mounting or exchanging the inner frames, positioning of the inner frames in mounting is easy. As compared with the case in which the inner frames are mounted only by screws and the like, deformation of the inner frames due to force acting in opening and closing of the door is suppressed and airtightness and smoothness of operation of the door are ensured.
Still another feature of the present invention is that a spacer is disposed between each of the outer frames and each of the inner frames.
By disposing the spacer as described above, gaps between opposite end faces of the door main body and flat portions of the inner frames can be adjusted, the inner frames are mounted firmly, and airtightness and smoothness of the operation of the door are ensured.
Yet another feature the present invention is that the door main body has a door handle in a position at a height which is half the height of a vertical inner frame on one side of the door main body in a door width direction and has hinges for supporting the door main body for swinging on an end face of the other side of the door main body, and at least part of the hinges are mounted in positions at the same distance from upper and lower opposite ends of the vertical inner frame. This structure is used when the door main body is not very high and the door handle may be mounted in the position at the height which is half of the height of the vertical inner frames without being too high from a floor to use. The number of positions to which the hinges are mounted is not limited to two but may be three or more.
With this structure, when the left and right inner frames are turned upside down through 180°, vertical positions of the door handle and the hinge portions in door main body and the latch receiver for locking in the inner frame are not changed. Therefore, in order to change the hinged side of the door only, turning the left and right vertical inner frames upside down through 180° in a front view of the door, turning orientations of hinge shaft receiving portions of the door side hinges through 180°, and mounting the hinge shaft receiving portions are all that is necessary. In order to change the opening direction of the door only, turning the left and right vertical inner frames from side to side through 180° in a top view of the door and mounting the vertical
Hidaka Norio
Kusano Mitsugi
Miyanaga Nobuyuki
Nagaoka Tetsuji
Numaguchi Kimio
Foris Corporation
Friedman Carl D.
Horton Yvonne M.
Jordan and Hamburg LLP
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