CA1291855C

CA1291855C - Door opener aid

Info

Publication number: CA1291855C
Application number: CA 558539
Authority: CA
Inventors: Glenn Pettit
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: LEVINE RENNIE B
Priority date: 1988-02-15
Filing date: 1988-02-15
Publication date: 1991-11-12

Abstract

TITLE

DOOR OPENER AID

INVENTOR

Glenn PETTIT

ABSTRACT

Small children of walking age and older have difficulty entering into homes with screen doors and the like when the screen door utilizes a plunger type latch set which requires on the one hand depression by thumb action of a plunger and the pulling of the handle in the opposite direction to open the door. A novel lever with arcuate fulcrum is disclosed which has from its fulcrum a depending handle portion, and on the other side of the fulcrum as the load lever, a distal projection, the end of which bears on the plunger. By pulling the force handle the load arm is engaged against the plunger and the door is opened with a single outward pulling action.

Description

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This invention relates to a doo~ opener aid particularly suitable for attachment onto a screen or storm door that is fitted with a plunger type latch set, whether that latch set be fitted with a lock, or a keyed lock, or neither.
Small children from walking age to about five or six years old do not have the physical strength, nor the coordination, to depress the plunger of a plunger type latch set and at the same time pull open the screen or storm door to gain access into the house without assistance. The sequence of pushing the plunger, on the one hand, and pulling the door, on the other hand, is an unnatural sequence to small children and one that has to eventually be learned.
It is agonizing for a parent or guardian, particularly when indisposed, as by cooking dinner or the like, to be required to assist the child's wishes to enter the kitchen after playing outdoors by opening the kitchen door for them.
Because of the lack of strength and coordination for the infant child there is frustration generated by both child and parent.
There is advantage to my novel door opener aid in that the physical sequence which a child goes through in utilizing the novel door opener aid according to the invention is to avoid the otherwise unnatural physical co-ordination and hand sequences of simultaneously pushing and pulling since only a single pulling action is required as will become apparent.
I have found that my novel door opener aid may be affixed to the plunger latch set and when activated will cause the plunger to be depressed by the action of "pulling" and simultaneously ajar the door open in the outward direction in a manner that is logically consistent and physically easily accomplished by a child in a single smooth "pulling" motion.
There is further advantage to the invention in that the door opener aid does not overtly obscure the plunger so that the plunger may still be used and depressed by the thumb of an adult into activation and that person may pull, with the forefingers of the hand and open the door in a manner consistent with the door not being outfitted with my novel lZ'S~5S

door opener aid.
The invention therefore achieves a door opener aid adapted for attachment to a plunger type latch set mounted on a door, that latch set including a housing carrying a thumb activated reciprocating plunger which when depressed unlatches the set and hence allows the door to open, the housing extending into a depending handle, the door opener aid comprising-(a) a lever carrying bracket means adapted for mounting on the latch set and carrying a fulcrum;
(b) means for securing the bracket means to the latch set; and, (c) a lever defining its fulcrum between an effort arm on the one side thereof and a load arm on the other side thereof, the load arm defining a load point adapted to engage the plunger and depress the same when effort is applied to the effort arm.
The invention will now be described by way of example and reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the door opener aid according to the invention.
Figure 2 is a side elevation view of the door opener aid according to figure l, in application on a plunger type latch set.
Figure 3 is a perspective view illustrating the latch set in an operative environment or location.
Figure 4 is a side elevation view of the location of figure 3 showing an infant activating the latch set while employing the door opener aid according to the invention.
Referring to figure 1 the door opener aid lO consists of a profiled or formed lever 11, a lever carrying bracket means 12 carrying, as a pin 13 with peened ends that secure the pin 13 to the lever carrying bracket means 12. The pin 13 acts as the fulcrum 14 for the lever ll. The lever carrying bracket means 12 is preferably formed into the letter "A" in section, from a single piece of cast metal with the distal arms carrying the pivot pin 13 and the eye 16 of the "A" defining lZ~1~35S

at its apex a threaded aperture through which a threaded shaft17 of a thumb screw 18 extends all as clearly seen in figure 2. The thumb screw 18 is turned down to securely engage the door opener aid lO onto a dependiny handle 21 of a latch set 22 associated with a screen or storm door 25.
The latch set 22 defines at its lower end a handle 21 that extends upward merging into a housing 23 that defines a channel through which extends a reciprocating plunger 24 for engaging and unlatching the latch set 22 and door 25. When the plunger 24 is depressed, into direction of arrow P in figure 2, the latch set 22 unlatches the door 25 in a conventional manner known to those skilled in the art.
The formed lever 11 is shaped as shown in the figures and has as its force arm, a lower shaped handle segment 31 with a forward thumb-bearing surface 32 that merges into a bulbous forward projection 33 and forms the frontal surface of the load arm formed as a forward by sloping curve at 34 terminating at a tip 35. The under surface of the tip 35 acts as a bearing surface 36 that is adapted to urge against the frontal face of the plunger 24 to activate it to and fro. The bearing surface 36, which is the load point for the lever 11 is a shaped surface that arcuately curves away from the frontal surface 34 and tip 35 into the bearing surface 36 and thence reversingly curves through a concave segment 37 smoothly into a bulbous protrusion 38 whose marginal surface 39 may be coincident with the locii of points trace out by a sector of the circumference of the circle whose radius is centered on an aperature 14 (the fulcrum) so that the lever 11 when pulled from its phantom rest position Pi through the plunger engaging operative postion Pe/ into the full plunger derpression position PO unlatches the door set 22. The lever is free to move through each of these positions because of the profile of the bulbous marginal surface 39 which escapes contact from the lateral bridge extending between opposite arms of the "A" lever carrying bracket means 12.
In operation, the arrows P and C respectively indicate the "single pull outward" action which is initiated by arrow C

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by the infact shown in figure 4 to cause the plunger 24 to be depressed in the direction of the arrow P by the bearing surface 36 of the lever 11 and now referring to figure 4, to cause the door 25 to open according to arrow D to the phantom position and, further open position that is seen in figure 3.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that certain modifications can be made to the invention without deviating from what is claimed.

Claims

1, A door opener aid adapted for attachment to a plunger type latch set mounted on a door, that latch set including a housing carrying a thumb activated reciprocating plunger which when depressed unlatches the set and hence allows the door to open, the housing extending into a depending handle, the door opener aid comprising:
(a) a lever carrying bracket means adapted for mounting on the latch set and carrying a fulcrum;
(b) means for securing the bracket means to the latchset;
and, (c) a lever defining its fulcrum between an effort arm on the one side thereof and a load arm on the other side thereof, the load arm defining a load point adapted to engage the plunger and depress the same when effort is applied to the effort arm.

2. The door opener aid as claimed in Claim 1 wherein the fulcrum point is a pin, and the lever defines at its fulcrum an aperature adapted to permit the pin to extend therethrough and thereby hold the lever onto the bracket means.

3. The door opener aid as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the effort arm is longer than the load arm.

4. The door opener aid as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the effort arm is longer than the load arm and the respective distal ends of load and effort arm are in a plane subjacent to the fulcrum.

5. The lever as claimed in Claim 1 or 2 wherein the mass in the effort arm is greater than that in the load arm so that when mounted on the latch set, the same causes the lever to have a normal rest position wherein the load point is not in juxtaposition with the plunger thereby permitting the thumb of an adult to engage the plunger so as to depress the same without activating the lever.