GB2185782A - Door furniture - Google Patents

Abstract

A door handle has a backing plate 40 and a facing plate 42 which carries a handle portion 44. The backing plate can be secured to a door by screws passed through countersunk holes 52 in the backing plate. The facing plate has a rectangular recess 50 which receives the backing plate and obscures the screw heads. Along their upper edges the backing and facing plates having a tongue 46 and a recess 48 respectively. The lower edge 56 of the backing plate is bevelled and is received behind a lip 58 of the facing plate: when the lip is folded upwardly from its position as illustrated prior to assembly of the handle. The backing and facing plates may be engageable with a snap fit. In other handles, the recess 50 extends to an edge of the facing plates to allow assembly with a sliding action, or the facing and backing plates are engageable by way of tongue and groove formations and both top and bottom. Other items of door furniture which can be so made include door knobs, letter box covers, finger plates, bell pushes etc. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Door furniture The present invention relates to door furniture, for example door handles of the pivotable, latch-operating, type and of the fixed type.

Known items of door furniture often have fixing means, such as screws, at least parts of which are visible when the item has been attached to a door. These visible fixing means can be unsightly and thus detract from the appearance of the furniture and the door.

The invention provides an item of door furniture comprising a first member having means permitting its attachment to a door, a second member positionable relative to the attached first member so as to conceal means attaching the first member to the door, and means for securement of the two members to each other in such a position.

In installation of such an item, the first member is attached to the door by the attachment means, for example screws, co-operating with the attachment-permitting means of the first member. For use with screws the attachment-permitting means are conveniently holes. After attachment of the first member to the door, the second member is positioned to conceal the attachment means and the two members are then secured to each other to form the assembled item with concealed attachment means.

Preferably, the means for securement of the two members are also concealed, or substantially concealed, in the assembled item.

When the item of door furniture is a handle, a knob or a fixed or pivotable handle will protrude from the second member. Other forms of door furniture according to the invention may take the form of letter box covers, finger plates, bell pushes, etc.

In all items, the first member is conveniently in the form of a plate and the second member preferably comprises a plate portion.

Advantageously, the means for securement together of the two members comprise interengaging formations on the members, the formations comprising for example co-operating ridges and grooves which preferably engage with a snap-fit action.

Conveniently, one member has a recess shaped to receive the other member, the recess having along at least a portion of its periphery the co-operating formations mentioned above, for example a ridge or a groove which is engageable with a corresponding groove or ridge on the first member. The recess may have a said groove or ridge along each of two opposed parallel edges, such as two edges of a recess which is rectangular.

When the recess extends to an edge of the recessed member, the two members may, if any handle or knob on the second member permits, be brought into their interengaged condition by sliding the second member over the first member after its attachment to the door.

Preferably, the recess is in a rear surface of the second member.

In other forms of the invention the interengaging formations comprise an undercut edge portion of the recess and a correspondinglybevelled edge portion of the other member.

A particularly preferred arrangement is one in which one edge of the recess has ridgeand-groove interengaging formations and the other has the above-mentioned undercut edge type of formation.

Advantageously, an undercut edge portion of the recess is formed by a lip at one edge of the member having the recess, the lip being folded relative to an adjacent part of the recessed member to form the undercut edge portion. With such an arrangement, it is possible to match the angle through which the lip is folded to the requirements of a particular member to be received in the recess, or to a particular batch of such co-operating members. In this way, the inclinations of the undercut lips and the bevelled edge portions can be matched to each other and secure engagement obtained in the assembled door furniture item.

If desired, the securement means may comprise adhesive material between the two members. Preferably, such material is located in a recess on one member facing the other member in the assembled item. The adhesive material advantageously allows subsequent disassembly without damage. It may be constituted by tape adhesive on both its sides.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the drawings of this specification. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a vertical sectional view of a backing plate and part of a facing plate of a door handle, the facing plate being in the position attained just prior to assembly with the backing plate. Figure 2 is a side view of the door handle of Fig. 1, the backing and facing plates now being assembled with each other. Figure 3 is a view corresponding to Fig. 2 of a further door handle, and Figures 4A and 4B are views, partly in vertical section, of upper and lower portions respectively of a further door handle.

The door handle shown in Fig. 1 includes a backing plate 10 and a facing plate 12. Only part of the facing plate is shown in Fig. 12 and also not shown is a door handle portion which extends outwardly from the front face of the plate, that is, the face which is to the right in Fig. 1. The handle may be either of the fixed type which is gripped manually to open or close a door or of the pivotable type which is rotated to release a latch of a door.

In a modified embodiment, the handle is replaced by a knob.

The two plates 10, 12 are aluminium alloy extrusions. The facing plate 12 has in its rear surface a rectangular recess 14 which is dimensioned to receive the backing plate 10 and which extends to the side edges of the facing plate. To the upper and lower edges of the recess 14 are each formed with a respective groove 16, 18 which is shaped to receive a corresponding ridge or tongue 20, 22 extending along a corresponding edge of the backing plate 10. The grooves 16, 18 and tongues 20, 22 have rounded profiles, as can be seen in Figs. 1 and 2. The portions of the upper and lower edges of the recess 14 between the grooves 16, 18 and the rear surface of the facing plate 12 is curved to present a profile which is rounded similarly to the profile of the tongues 20, 22.The backing plate 10 has a set of countersunk holes 24 which can receive countersink screws to secure the backing plate to a door and in its front face a shallow recess 26.

The assembled backing 10 and facing plates 12 are shown in Fig. 2 of the drawings. In this configuration, the backing plate 10 has been secured to a door (not shown) by screws passing through the holes 24 and the facing plate 12 has been pushed over the backing plate 10 so that the tongues 20, 22 of the backing plate 10 make a snap-fit engagement in the grooves 16, 18 of the facing plate, the curved edge portions of the recess 14 of the facing plate 12 guiding the tongues 20 into the grooves 16, 18 and the material of the plates 10, 12 deforming resiliently. In the assembled condition, the shallow recess 26 in the front surface of the backing plate 10 forms a space between the backing and facing plates over most of the surface area of the backing plate. If desired, this recess 26 can contain an adhesive material or a sheet of tape adhesive on both sides.Such adhesive provides additional securement between the backing and facing plates 10, 12 but is not essential to the satisfactory functioning of the door handle.

Alternatively, the backing and facing plates 10, 12 are assembled by sliding the facing plate 12 over the attached backing plate 10 after alignment of the facing plate in a position laterally-displaced from the backing plate and with the ridges 20, 22 in registration with the grooves 16, 18. This manner of assembly will usually only be possible when the door furniture item does not operate a pivotable latch. It will be noted that in the assembled item the ridges 20, 22 and grooves 16, 18 are substantially concealed in that their ends are visible only from the sides of the assembled handle.

Fig. 3 of the drawings shows a modified door handle having a backing plate 30 and a facing plate 32 which are shaped similarly to the backing plate 10 and facing plate 12 of the door handle of Figs. 1 and 2. The facing plate 32 of this modified door handle has a rectangular opening 34, through which a sheet of decorative card or other material 36 occupying a shallow recess 38 in the front surface of the backing plate 10 is visible.

Figs. 4A and 4B together show a further door handle which has a backing plate 40 and a facing plate 42. The facing plate has a door handle 44 which is shown in Fig. 4A. The backing plate 40 has a plurality of countersunk screw holes 52 and is shaped along its upper edge with a ridge or tongue 46 which engages in a groove 48 extending along the upper edge of a rectangular recess 50 formed in the facing plate 42. This engagement is identical to the engagement between the backing and facing plates 10, 12 of the door handle of Figs. 1 and 2. Adjacent the upper edge of its front surface, the facing plate 42 has a triangular-section protrusion 60 on the upper surface 62 of which instructions such as "PULL" or "PUSH" can be graphically displayed. In other embodiments, the protrusion may have any other desired cross-section.

Along its lower edge, the backing plate 40 is not formed with a protruding ridge or tongue but rather has a bevelled lower edge surface 56 (see Fig. 4B). The facing plate 42 is formed along its lower edge with a rearwardly extending lip 58 which, in the condition shown in Fig. 4B, extends perpendicularly to the major part of the facing plate 42. The facing plate is initially manufactured in this configuration. Afterwards and before assembly with the backing plate 40, the lip 58 is folded so that its face forming an edge of the recess 50 is inclined parallel to the bevelled edge surface 56 of the backing plate 40.This operation may be carried out on individual facing plates, in order to match them to individual backing plates, or may be carried out on a batch of facing plates, to match the batch to a sample from a batch of backing plates with which the batch of facing plate is to be used.

The facing plate 42 can then be assembled with the backing plate 40 by pushing the facing plate over the backing plate whereupon the lip 58 engages around the bevelled edge 56 of the backing plate with a snap action.

Alternatively, where the construction of the handle allows, the two plates may be slid into engagement.

Door furniture according to this invention can be very slim and therefore of very pleasing appearance. The overall thickness of the assembled first and second members is preferably between 4 mm and 8 mm. In the embodiments described, the assembled backing and facing plates have an overall thickness of about 5 mm.

Claims (12)

1. An item of door furniture comprising a first member having means permitting its attachment to a door, a second member positionable relative to the attached first member so as to conceal means attaching the first member to the door, and means for securement of the two members to each other in such a position.

2. An item of door furniture according to claim 1, in which the means for securement to each other of the two members comprise interengaging formations on the members.

3. An item of door furniture according to claim 2, in which one member has a recess shaped to receive the other member, the recess having the interengaging formations along at least a portion of its periphery.

4. An item of door furniture according to claim 3, in which the interengaging formations comprise a groove or a ridge extending along each of two opposed parallel edges of the recess and corresponding grooves or ridges on the member receivable in the recess.

5. An item of door furniture according to claim 4, in which the recess and the receivable member are rectangular.

6. An item of door furniture according to claim 4 or 5, in which the parallel edges of the recess extend to an edge of the recessed member, the members thus being interengageable with a sliding action.

7. An item of door furniture according to any of claims 4 to 6, in which the interengaging formations comprise a co-operable ridge and groove at one edge of the recess and, at the opposite edge, an under cut edge of the recess and a co-operating bevelled edge on the receivable member.

8. An item of door furniture according to claim 7, in which the undercut edge portion of the recess is formed by a lip at one edge of the recessed member, the lip being folded relative to an adjacent part of the recessed member to form the undercut edge.

9. An item of door furniture according to any preceding claim, in which the means for securement of the two members are concealed in the assembled item.

10. An item of door furniture according to claim 9, in which the securement means comprises an adhesive material.

11. An item of door furniture according to claim 10, in which adhesive material allows disassembly of the two members without damage to them.

12. An item of door furniture substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, Fig. 3 or Figs. 4A and 4B of the drawings.