AU3915299A - Mounting bracket for use with panel doors - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT 6

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SS Name of Applicants: Actual Inventor: Address for Service: Invention Title: KALFORD PTY LTD DAVID TOFTS CULLEN

CO.,

Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, 240 Queen Street, Brisbane, QId. 4000, Australia.

MOUNTING BRACKET FOR USE WITH PANEL DOORS Details of Associated Provisional Applications: No. PP4601 filed 13 July 1998 The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: This invention relates to panel doors. In particular the invention concerns a mounting bracket for use with panel doors such as garage doors.

Panel door assemblies and typically those intended for use where head room is at a premium include a door having a plurality of panels connected to each other in series and have roller carrying brackets and hinges attached to edges of the panels. The rollers carried by these brackets are mounted for movement in tracks arranged adjacent opposed sides of a doorway leading into a garage or the like. The tracks continue inwardly into the garage from an upper end of the track near opening and into and adjacent a 10 ceiling of the garage. The portion of the tracks extending along the ceiling terminal at an inner free end.

It is also usual to have separate track sections parallel to and S. "spaced from each of the portions of the tracks which extend along the ceilings.

Rollers attached to an uppermost panel of the door are arranged 15 to move along the separate track sections as the door is moved between its open and closed positions. Rollers mounted to edges of the other panels move along the opposed tracks which extend substantially vertically at sides of the garage opening and into and adjacent the ceiling as the door is moved between its positions.

20 Spring loaded take up drums are mounted near the free ends of the track and adjacent the ceiling either at the top of the door or inwardly of the doorway opening. A respective cable extends from each of the drums, over a guide adjacent an upper edge of the garage opening and has an end secured to a lowermost panel of the door.

This cable and its associated spring loaded take up drum over which a portion of the cable is wound serves to balance the door so that when the door is moved towards its closed position and is spaced from the closed position by a predetermined distance, the weight of the door overcomes the spring tension and the door moves by itself to its closed position. The cable and spring loaded drum also functions such that when the door is raised to within a predetermined distance of the fully open position, the spring tension overcomes the weight of the door and the door moves by itself to its fully open 3 position.

Each drum about which a cable is wound has a stepped profile so that the larger diameter of the drum has a length of cable wound around it when the door is at the predetermined distance from the fully closed position and the cable is wound along the smaller diameter portion of the drum as well as the larger diameter portion when the door is higher than the predetermined distance from the fully closed position.

Such a configuration results in a well balanced door which is easy to close and open.

10 Each cable has one end anchored to an associated drum and the other end is anchored to the lower panel of the door. The ends of the cables 0:0: anchored to the lower panel are folded over onto themselves and crimped to *form a loop which provides a ready means for securing that end to the lowermost door panel. This crimping step is carried out at the point of 15 manufacture of the various components of a door assembly. It often transpires that the cables are not of the proper length to allow for the balanced opening and closing operation referred to above.

There is no attempt made to properly tune the operation of the 00.0 door by properly adjusting the length of the cable. The personnel who install S° 20 the door often do not have the necessary crimping tools or the skill to perform a re-crimping operation if the cable is to be trimmed to a shorter length.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a mounting bracket for use with panel doors which at least minimises the disadvantage referred to above.

According to one aspect of the invention provides a mounting bracket for use in a panel door assembly having hinged door panels, a take up drum and a cable extending between the door and the drum the bracket including a plurality of spaced fixing locations relative to which an end of the cable may be attached whereby the cable may be fixed to one of the locations and may be trained over at least one other of the locations before extending from the bracket and towards the drum.

According to another aspect, the invention provides a bracket for 4 use in a panel door assembly having door panels, a take-up drum and a takeup cable the bracket having an integrally formed guide at a lower most end in use over which a take up cable secured to the bracket may be trained before extending from the bracket and towards the drum.

By having the cable connected and directed in this way some of the length of the cable may be taken up by the bracket and the panel door may be correctly balanced or tuned without the need for trimming the length of the cable.

Preferably, there are four fixing locations on the bracket. These 10 locations may consist of anchors extending outwardly from the bracket. The :..":anchors may be provided by relatively short anchor posts mounted relative to bracket.

The guide may be formed integral with the bracket or provided as S•a component secured to the bracket.

15 Preferably, the guide is integrally formed as part of the bracket and is present at one end of the bracket such that when the bracket is secured to a lower portion of an edge of a door panel, the cable acts upon the panel from a lower extremity of the panel and along a line closely adjacent to and along a plane containing an outer surface of the panel. In this way the 20 tendency for tension on the cable causing one panel to move out of the plane containing the remaining panels is minimised.

Panels in a panel door, as mentioned above, have brackets secured to edges thereof for receiving guide rollers. It is preferred that the bracket of the invention, as well as being configured to function as mentioned, also are adapted to receive a guide roller. Thus the bracket of the invention may not only serve to receive an end of the cable but may receive and carry a guide roller for the panel to which the bracket of the invention is secured.

A particular preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings in which: Figure 1 is a side view of a preferred bracket according to an embodiment of the invention; Figure 2 is an end view of the bracket of Figure 1; Figure 3 is a side view of a fixing anchor; Figure 4 is a side view of an edge of a panel for a panel door to which a bracket according to figure 1 has been fitted; and Figure 5 is a front view of the bracket of Figure 1.

The bracket 10 shown in figures 1, 2 and 5 has a side face 11 which is substantially planar and has four keyhole slots 12, 13, 14 and formed within it. Each of these slots has an enlarged portion 16 and a reduced width portion 17.

An arcuate guide 20 is formed at one end of the side face 11 of .i 10 the bracket. The guide 20 has a channel 21 through and along which a cable (not shown) may extend. An eyelet 22 extends outwardly from one edge of the 'oo body and has an aperture 23 provided within it. The bracket 10 has a flange 24 which forms a front face having a portion of the flange being configured to provide a sleeve 25. A guide roller (not shown) typically used in panel door 15 assemblies has a guide wheel or roller at one end of an axle. The axle of such a guide roller is received in the sleeve and the axle projects from the aperture 23 with the wheel located spaced outwardly of the eyelet 22. The bracket shown in figures 1, 2 and 5 is made as a unitary component.

Figure 3 shows a fixing anchor 30. The anchor 30 has an 20 enlarged end flange 31 at one end and a slightly smaller end flange 32 at its other end. Flange 32 is able to pass through portion 16 of the keyhole slots but flange 31 is unable to do so. The anchor 30 has a necked portion 33 and a guide portion 34 between the necked portion 33 and flange 32. The cable may be anchored to portion 34. Portion 33 is received by portion 17 of the slots 12, 13, 14 and Figure 4 shows an edge 40a of a panel 41 of a panel door assembly. Panel 41 is representative of the lowermost panel of a panel door and has a sealing strip 42 fixed to a lower edge. A bracket 10 like that shown in figures 1 and 2 is shown fixed to an edge 40a of the panel 41 such that arcuate cable guide 20 is as near as possible to the lower edge of the panel to which strip 42 is secured. In this view three fixing anchors 43, 44, 45 are mounted to the bracket 10. Assembly of the anchors relative to the bracket is 6 carried out by passing flange 32 through portion 16 of the keyhole slots and then sliding the anchor along the slot until the necked portion 33 is received within the narrow portion 17 of the keyhole slot. The bracket is then fixed to edge 40a so that flanges 31 are captured between edge 40a and the bracket A portion of a cable is denoted by dotted line 50 shown in figure 4. This length of cable is secured to the anchor located in slot 13, trained over an anchor located in slot 15 and then extends to the guide 20, over the guide and then either directly to a drum (not shown) or to a pulley wheel located 10 near the top of the door (not shown) and then to the drum (not shown).

Tension on the cable 50 keeps the anchors within the reduced width portions of the keyhole slots. By training the cable in this way rather than having the cable extend directly from an anchor in slot 13 additional length of the cable is taken up by the bracket before the cable is directed back towards the drum. The 15 length of cable taken up by the bracket may be varied by connecting the end of the cable to a selected one of the anchors and then the cable may be trained over one or others of the remaining anchors.

Face 24 of the bracket 10 in Figure 5 is shown having a plurality of fixing apertures 40. These apertures receive fasteners for fixing the bracket 20 10 to the lowermost panel of a panel door. Strengthening ribs 41 and 44 are formed in the face 24. The shaped ribs 42 and 43 are hooks which engage within apertures in stiles attached to the panels and prevent the bracket from separating from the panel if the fasteners which secure the bracket are accidentally removed while the cable is under tension. A strengthening rib 45 is formed in that part of the face 24 which is formed into the integral sleeve The bracket 10 is made from a single piece of metal and may be formed by known metal forming techniques.

In all cases the cable passes over the guide before being directed back towards a take up drum (not shown). In this way the tension on the cable results in the force applied to the panel at the location adjacent a lower edge of the panel when the door is closed and the lower panel is vertically aligned and along a line extending along a plane containing the panel. As the door approaches the fully open position the rotation of the lower panel and its movement away from the door opening changes the line of tangent of the cable on the guide to cause the cable to leave the guide closer to the inside face of the door thus creating a more favorable cable path at this stage. This effectively increases the length of the cable at this stage where continued opening movement of the door is beginning to cause the drum spring to increase tension on the cable. This enables the door to open further and more easily. The tendency for the panel to be moved out of the plane of the door is minimised.

10 The use of separate removable anchors dramatically speeds up production of the parts required for a panel door installation.

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Claims (14)

1. A mounting bracket for use in a panel door assembly having hinged door panels, a take up drum and a cable extending between the door and the drum the bracket including a plurality of spaced fixing locations relative to which an end of the cable may be attached whereby the cable may be fixed to one of the locations and may be trained over at least one other of the locations before extending from the bracket and towards the drum.

2. The bracket of claim 1 including a side face, a front face extending at right angles to the side face with the fixing locations being provided on the side 10 face and integrally formed with the side face.

3. The bracket of claim 2 wherein the fixing locations are provided by apertures in the side face and anchors received in the apertures.

4. The bracket of claim 3 wherein the apertures are present as two sets of apertures, the apertures have a keyhole shape with an enlarged potion and a 15 reduced width portion, the aperture of one set being directed with the reduced width portion extending in a first direction and the apertures of the other set being directed in a direction opposite to the one direction. oa.

5. The bracket of claim 4 wherein each said set consists of a plurality of °°oo apertures. 20

6. The bracket of claim 4 or 5 wherein the anchors have an enlarged end flange at one end, a smaller end flange at the other end and a necked portion between the ends whereby the enlarged end flange may be passed through the enlarged portion of one of the keyhole shaped openings, the anchor moved along the keyhole shaped opening so that the necked portion is received in the reduced width portion of the aperture and when the bracket is fixed to a door the enlarged flange of the anchor is captured between the bracket and the door.

7. The bracket of any one of claims 2 to 6 including an integrally formed guide at a lower most end of the bracket whereby the cable extends over the guide before being directed towards the drum.

8. The bracket of any one of claims 2 to 7 including an apertured eyelet extending outwardly from one edge of the side face of the bracket. 9

9. The bracket of claim 8 including a sleeve integrally formed with the front face whereby the apertured eyelet and sleeve may receive an axle for a guide roller.

A bracket substantially as herein described with reference to the drawings.

11. A bracket for use in a panel door assembly having door panels, a take up drum and a take up cable, the bracket having an integrally formed guide at a lower most end in use over which the cable secured to the bracket may be trained before extending from the bracket and towards the drum. 10

12. The bracket of claim 11 having a side face and a front face with the guide being integrally formed with the side face and located at one end of the side face.

13. The bracket of claim 11 or 12 wherein the guide has an arcuate shape with an arcuate shaped guide channel. 15

14. The bracket of claim 2 including hooks formed in the front face of the bracket for engaging in apertures in stiles attached to a panel of the door. DATED 9 th DAY OF JULY 1999 KALFORD PTY LTD BY ITS PATENT ATTORNEYS "20 CULLEN CO.