GB2198173A - Door - Google Patents

Abstract

The end face of the door has a resilient strip secured thereto so as to cushion the force applied to a finger inserted accidentally into the narrowing gap between the door and the frame member as the door is closed.

Description

SAFETY HINGE ARRANGEMENT This invention relates to a safety hinge arrangement for a door, window or like hinged closure member and has been developed primarily in relation to door and window frame assemblies for use in buildings.

It is an extremely painful experience to any person, and especially to a child, who traps his fingers in the narrowing gap defined between the hinge edge of a closing door and the frame upright on which the hinges are mounted.

Various attempts have been made to solve this problem, by preventing finger access being had to the hinge joint region of a door, such as shown, for example, in GB patent specification Nos 2164690A and 2119838A. However, these are somewhat complicated arrangements of guards, which seek physically to prevent finger contact being achieved to the narrowing gap defined between a closing door edge and the upright hinge-carrying frame member. These guards are attached both to the door (near the door edge) and to the frame member, and necessarily have component parts which are moved each time the door is opened and closed, and are therefore liable to accelerated wear over a period of time, and also are both visually and physically obtrusive.

The present invention takes a different approach to solving the problem of potential injury to someone's fingers in that it does not seek physically to restrain access being had to the narrowing gap between the edge of the hinged closure member and the upright frame member, but seeks to minimise the physical effects of any pinching force applied to an inserted finger or fingers.

According to the invention there is provided a safety hinge arrangement for a hinged closure member and which comprises a frame having an upright frame member on which hinges are mounted, a closure member hinged to said frame member via the hinges and which are secured to an end face of the closure member, and a resilient strip of material secured to said end face so as to cushion the impact of a closing force applied to a finger or fingers which may be inserted accidentally into the narrowing gap defined between said end face and the upright frame member as the closure member moves to a closed position.

Conveniently, the end face of the closure member on which the hinges are secured is a chamfered edge, in which case the resilient strip may be triangular in cross section, so as to present a perpendicular end face.

The resilient strip is preferably secured to the end face via an intermediate hard wearing strip which is secured to the end face. The resilient strip may be secured in position by any convenient means, and preferably by the use of adhesives, such as self-adhesive material covered by a removable masking strip.

When the closure member is a door, preferably a door stop may be mounted on the upright frame member at a position closely adjacent to the resilient strip, when the door is in the closed position. A gasket may extend along an upright facing edge of the door stop, to engage lightly with a corresponding surface of the resilient strip when the door is in the closed position. To achieve light engagement between the gasket and the resilient strip, the thickness of the resilient strip, measured in a direction perpendicular to the front and rear faces of the door, is slightly less than the thickness of the door, thereby leaving a tolerance to allow the gasket to rest lightly against the resilient strip.

For fire safety purposes, both the resilient strip, and also the gasket may be made of fire resistant material.

The invention may be applied to door and frame assemblies as initial manufacture, or may be applied as subsequent modification to in situ assemblies.

Safety hinge arrangements according to the invention will now be described in detail, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective illustration of a door hinge safety arrangement; Figures 2a and 2b illustrate alternative arrangements; and, Figure 3 is a detail view of another arrangement.

Referring now to Figure 1 of the drawings, a door hinge safety arrangement is designated generally by reference 10 and comprises a rectangular door frame having an upright frame member 11 on which door hinges are mounted, an upper one of which is shown by reference numeral 12. The frame member 11 is shown provided with usual decorative architrave mouldings 13. A door 14 is hinged to the frame member 11 via the hinges, which are secured to an end face 15 of the door.

In Figure 1, the door and frame assembly are shown with the door in a closed position, and a door stop strip 16 extends along the inner face of the upright frame member 11 adjacent to the end face of the door 14, when in the closed position.

In order to cushion the impact of a closing force applied to any finger or fingers which may be inserted accidentally into the narrowing gap defined between the end face 15 and the upright frame member 11, a resilient strip 17 is secured to the end face 15. It will be noted from the drawing that the end face 15 is a chamfered edge formed on the usual perpendicular end face of a door, and the resilient strip 17 is triangular, so as to present the usual end face appearance of the door. Conveniently, the resilient sealing strip 17 is secured to the end face 15 by any suitable adhesive, including a self-adhesive strip having a removable masking strip, and via the intermediary of a hard wearing strip (not shown) which is first screwed to the end face 15.

A gasket 18 is secured along the upright end face of the door stop strip 16, and this makes light contact with the adjacent face of the resilient strip 17 when the door moves to the closed position. This light engagement is achieved by virtue of the slightly stepped arrangement of the sealing strip 17, which has a depth (measured in a direction perpendicular to the front and rear faces of the door 14) which is slightly less than the depth of the door.

To guard against the risk of fire, the resilient strip 17, and also the gasket 18 may be made of fire resistant material.

To provide the required degree of cushioning against a pinching force applied to a finger, the strip 17 will be made of any suitable resiliently deformable material.

It should be understood that the door safety hinge arrangement described above is merely an example of a hingd closure member to which the invention may be applied.

Referring now to Figure 2a of the drawings, there is shown an embodiment of the invention which is designated generally by reference 20 and which comprises a fixed door frame 21, and a door 22 mounted on the frame 21 via hinges 23. Both the door frame 21, and also the door 22 are hollowed sections of UPVC, and the door 22 carries a resilient moulded strip 24 which is engageable with a resilient moulding 25 carried by the frame21 as the door 22 moves to the closed position. This provides the safety arrangement for the embodiment 20, whereby cushioning is provided to absorb the impact of a closing force applied to a finger or fingers which may be inserted accidentally into the narrowing gap defined between the end face of the door and the upright frame member of frame 21 as the door moves to the closed position.

Both the resilient moulded strip 24, and also the resilient moulding 25 can be slidably mounted, so that they can readily be replaced when worn. A small amount of adhesive may be used in order to secure them in position.

The formation of the resilient elements will be such that they are of firm by pliable and imperishable material, so as to withstand weathering, air permeability and a good degree of water tightness.

The profiles of the resilient elements will be selected according to requirements, so as to be usable with existing types of UPVC profiles of doors and door frames.

Figure 2b shows alternative arrangements of resilient elements.

Referring to Figure 3, this shows an embodiment of hinged closure member according to the invention which is designated generally by reference 30 and which comprises a frame 31 and a closure member 32 hingedly mounted on frame 31 via hinges 33. The closure member 32 is a sash frame made of impact resistant UPVC, and it carries a slidably mounted resilient strip 34. The member 32 is a multichamber extrusion. The frame 31 is also a hollow extrusion, made of impact resistant UPVC. A weather strip 35 is carried by the frame 31. In this embodiment, the resilient pliable strip 34 is of sufficient thickness, to provide a required degree of cushioning, and the weather strip 35 acts as secondary cushioning.

The invention is applicable to embodiment of UPVC closure members, as shown in the drawings, and the force of impact on the narrowing gap of the hinge side of the closure member can readily be borne by the resilient cushioning arrangements which are provided. The application of the invention to relatively heavy weight double glazing units is particularly advantageous, in that the closing force of a double glazing unit could quite easily crush the fingers of a child, or even an adult, and possibly even chop a finger off. However, the resilient cushioning arrangements are able to absorb the closing forces, so as to considerably reduce the risk of damage to an inserted finger.

The resilient sealing strips which form the cushioning should be made of deformable, unperishable material, such as plasticised compound materials or the like, and desirably they also should be made fire resistant.

Claims (1)

1. CLAIMS:

   1. A safety hinge arrangement for a hinged closure member and which comprises a frame having an upright frame member on which hinges are mounted, a closure member hinged to said frame member via the hinges and which are secured to an end face of the closure member, and a resilient strip secured to said end face so as to cushion the impact of a closing force applied to a finger inserted into the narrowing gap defined between said end face and said upright frame member as the closure member moves to a closed position.

   2. A safety hinge arrangement according to claim 1, in which said end face has a chamfered edge which tapers away from the pivot axis of the hinge.

   3. A safety hinge arrangement according to claim 2, in which said strip is substantially a right angled triangle in cross section, with the hypotenuse thereof extending along said chamfered edge.

   4. A safety hinge arrangement according to claim 2 or 3, in which said resilient strip has an edge which is substantially coplanar with the end face of said closure member.

   5. A hinge safety arrangement according to any of claims 2 to 4, in which said resilient strip has a thickness, measured in a direction perpendicular to the front and rear faces of the closure member, which is slightly less than the thickness of said closure member.

   7. A hinge safety arrangement according to any of claims 1 to 6, in which said resilient strip has formations such that the strip can be slidably mounted in complementary formations in said closure member.

   8. A hinge safety arrangement according to any of claims 1 to 7, in which said closure member is a door or glazed window.

   9. A hinge safety arrangement according to claim 8 in which said closure member is a door, wherein a door stop is mounted on said upright frame member at a position closely adjacent to said resilient strip.

   10. A hinge safety arrangement according to claim 9, in which a gasket extends along an upright facing edge of said door stop, to lightly engage a corresponding surface of said resilient strip when the door is in the closed position.