Movable or removable closures – With protective grille or safety guard – Adjustable to various size opening
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-23
2001-01-30
Stodola, Daniel P. (Department: 3634)
Movable or removable closures
With protective grille or safety guard
Adjustable to various size opening
C049S057000, C160S225000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06178694
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a walk-through gate, and more specifically to a walk-through gate having two gate-sections that are user overlapped and then secured together to form a hinged and latched gate-assembly that will span an opening of a given width.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is well-known to provide safety gates for wall openings, doorways, stair wells, or staircases, in order to prevent the passage therethrough of small children, infants, or pets.
One common type of safety gate includes gate sections that can be expanded sufficiently to place friction pads into frictional engagement with the vertical surfaces or walls that define such an opening that is to be closed by the safety gate. Safety gates of this type have several disadvantages. First, the expanded gate sections sometimes may not be adjusted properly by the user, and thus may not provide a tight fit with the opening walls. In this case, the gate is not sturdily attached to the walls, and can be easily pushed over or otherwise defeated by a child or pet.
Also, many gates of this type do not work well when the two opposing walls are not truly vertical, a situation that is not uncommon. In this case, the upper or the lower portion of the gate may make better frictional contact with the walls than does the other gate portion, causing a situation in which the safety gate can be easily defeated.
Even if a safety gate of this type is properly adjusted to make very tight frictional contact with the two opposed walls, paint, wallpaper, or another finish on the two walls may be damaged by the friction pads. Lastly, it may be inconvenient to repeatedly disconnect and reconnect the compressed safety gate sections when passage through the gate is required.
Another class of safety gate typically includes the more permanent mounting of one side of the gate to one opposed wall, and some type of latching, or locking, of the other side of the gate to the opposite wall. Typically, the latch/lock may include a mechanism, such as a hook and eye combination, or some other manually releasable mechanism. Gates of this type also have inherent drawbacks. First, the latch/lock mechanism are sometimes not adequately secure, and may sometimes be easily defeated by a child or pet. Second, these gates may not be easily removable from a doorway or staircase at those times during which it is not desirable to have the gate in place.
The art has also generally failed to provide safety gates that have a low manufacturing cost, that have high utility, that are easy for a user to assemble and operate, that are of a high furniture-quality, that can be tailored to blend with any of a variety of furniture periods, and that are aesthetically pleasing to the user.
It is against this background, and with the desire to solve problems of the above type that are found in the prior art, that the present invention was developed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention provides a walk-through gate assembly whose plural gate sections are user overlapped in the horizontal direction to an extent that is required to span a given wall opening.
Most desirably, the present invention provides a new and unusual construction and arrangement whereby such a gate assembly is not only easy to assemble, but in addition, when assembled, the user of the gate assembly can easily attach the gate assembly to a pivot wall, for cooperation with an adjacent latch wall.
In embodiments of the invention to be described, the gate assembly is generally rectangular in shape, having a fixed and relatively short vertical dimension, and having a user selected and relatively long horizontal dimension that varies in accordance with the size of the wall opening that the user desires to selectively close by use of the pivoted gate assembly.
In an embodiment of the invention, the gate assembly is formed by two similar dimension, rectangular, and planar shaped gate sections. Prior to use, the user positions these two gate sections in overlapping fashion. The user then uses a plurality of metal brackets to secure the overlapped portions of the gate sections, to thereby form a unitary gate assembly.
The concealed hinge edge of the gate assembly carries two swing blots that are user adjusted to compensate for any non-perpendicularity of the hinge wall. Once the swing bolts are adjusted, and the hinge end of the gate assembly is mounted on pivot brackets that are mounted on the hinge wall, a decorative hinge cover is attached to the pivot bracket and the hinge wall.
The concealed latch end of the gate assembly carries two upward movable latch tabs that mate with two latch receivers that are mounted in mating positions on the latch wall. An extension spring is provided in the latch assembly to force bias the two latch tabs downward. Each latch receiver includes an upwardly extending ramp, or sloped surface, that forces the latch tabs upward as the gate assembly is closed. When the gate assembly reaches its closed position, the latch tabs drop downward into latch recesses.
When it is desired to open the gate assembly, a latch pull is moved upward, thus pulling the latch tabs upward against their spring bias, and out of the latch recesses.
Each of the two gate sections include a linear and horizontally extending top rail half. These two top rail halves include interlocking inner surfaces. When assembled by the user, the two top rail halves form an interlocked top rail having the aesthetically pleasing shape of a furniture like banister.
It is a general object of this invention to provide a new and improved walk-through gate assembly.
It is another object of this invention to provide a horizontally extending gate assembly that can be quickly and easily assembled by a user, and then securely pivoted to one of a pair of opposed vertical surfaces that are horizontally spaced apart by an opening distance.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a gate assembly which when installed, can easily be pivoted in and out of a latched position relative to the latch wall, and in which this pivoting movement can be selectively restricted to a particular direction of movement.
It is further an object of this invention to provide a gate assembly whose hinges are decoratively concealed from view, and in which the gate assembly's latch mechanism can be easily operated by an adult, but is concealed from view within the latch side of the gate assembly.
It is still further an object of this invention to provide a gate assembly with the above advantages that is aesthetically pleasing, as well as easily manufactured and assembled.
A more specific object of the invention is to provide a two section gate assembly for use in restricting access through a wall opening, wherein two gate sections overlap as determined by the wall opening size, wherein a vertical hinge rail in one gate section forms a hinge side, wherein a vertical latch rail in the other gate section forms a latch side, wherein a concealed vertical edge of the hinge rail includes two horizontally spaced swing bolts that are horizontally adjusted to compensate for a hinge wall not being perpendicular, wherein the two adjusted swing bolts and two wall mounted hinge pins are covered by decorative hinge covers, wherein a concealed vertical edge of the latch rail includes two horizontally spaced latch tabs that are spring biased downward, such that upon swinging the gate assembly to a closed position the latch tabs encounter wall mounted latch receivers having an upward extending ramp, whereupon the latch tabs are forced to move upward against their spring bias, and such that when the gate assembly is fully closed, the latch tabs drop vertically downward into a latch recess, wherein the edge of the latch rail includes an upward movable latch pull such that upward movement of the latch pull unlatches the gate assembly from the latch receivers, and wherein the top rails of the two gate sections have internally facing surfaces with interlocking shapes, and have external surfaces that blend to for
Cohen Curtis A.
Evenflo Company, Inc.
Stodola Daniel P.
Thompson Hine & Flory LLP
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