GB2207174A - Safety guard for a hinged member - Google Patents

Abstract

A safety guard to prevent children's fingers being caught in the gap between a door (30) and its frame (31) comprises a flat (15) pivoted (at 20) about its proximal edge and urged by a spring (23) so that its distal edge (17, 26) bears against the door to mask the growing gap as the door (30) opens. Stub shafts at the top and bottom of the flap may be guided in channels (33 Fig 1 not shown) fixed to the door. <IMAGE>

Description

Safetysuard for a hinged member This invention relates to a guard for at least one of the two gaps created at the hinged side of a hinged door or window when the latter is partially open in its supporting frame. The invention is expected to have its primary use in safety guards for doors and accordingly "door(s)" will be referred to hereafter, although it should be appreciated that the invention can also be applied to windows.

It has long been accepted that the narrowing gap between the hinge side of a door and its frame, when the door closes, constitutes a potential hazard for injury to people or animals and a range of finger guards have been proposed to mask such gaps.

GB-2110838A discloses three different forms of gap masking members, each of which has to be fixed to the door frame and to the door. One of these members is constructed from two strips of substantially rigid material pivotally connected together with coil springs mounted around the pivot axis and acting to urge one of the strips against the door as the door opens. The location of the coil springs produces further openings in which a 'child's fingers could get caught and thereby occasion injury.

According to one aspect of the invention, a safety guard for the gap between the hinge side of a door, as hereinbefore defined, and its supporting frame comprises a flap of substantially rigid material having a distal edge and a proximal edge, hinge means engaging the proximal edge of the said flap and at least one spring means of variable length connected at one end to a point on the flap intermediate the said edges thereof, said spring means being overlain by the flap and acting, when other than of its shortest length,to urge the flap towards the door.

The flap can be an arcuate strip of plastics material (e.g. an extruded strip) with an integral pivot rod or tube formed along the said proximal edge. The hinge means can be two or more separate members which provide a connection for the other end of the or each spring means. The or each spring means can be a coil spring, an elastic band and/or some other length of extensible spring material.

Adhesive securement is a preferred method of attaching the or each hinge means to the frame and a self-adhesive coating which bonds on contact can be provided which coating can be protected until required by a removable release paper or the like.

The distal edge of the flap can include low-friction material to bear against the door and prevent scratching of the latter as the flap moves over the door on opening or closing of the latter. The low-friction material can be one or more pads of felt or the like, brush material of the kind used to provide draught-proofing in some designs of replacement window, a length of plastics tape (e.g. PVC electrical self-adhesive tape) adhered to the flap, a cord partially embedded in a groove formed in the distal edge or a region of "sprayed-on" low-friction material. To protect the door against scratching by the flap, a protective layer of smooth sheet material (e.g. plastics film) can be applied to the surface of the door adjacent to the hinge edge and such a protective layer of material can be used in conjunction with low-friction material applied to the distal edge.

The distal edge of the flap can also be provided with stub shafts at each end which are adapted to locate in guide rails secured to the door and to augment the action of the spring means in keeping the flap in place covering the gap as the latter widens on opening the door.

There can be advantages in packaging and retailing the guard if the hinged flap is provided in a plurality of short sections which can be secured together end-to-end.

Various arrangements can be used to link the short sections together.

The invention will now be further described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a general view of a door to which a finger guard in accordance with an embodiment of this invention has been fitted, Figure 2 is an enlarged perspective view of one of the guide rails fixed to the door of Figure 1, Figure 3 is an end view of the guard of Figure 1, Figure 4 shows views of the three hinge means used with the guard of Figure 1, and Figure 5 shows the finger guard in the closed condition of the door.

Figure 1 shows a finger guard (generally designated 10) masking the lower part (e.g. the lower 1.0 to 1.5 metres) of the gap 11 between the hinged edge 12 of a door 13 and the upright 14 of a frame of the door.

As can be seen in Figures 3 and 5, the finger guard comprises an arcuate flap 15 (e.g. of extruded plastics material) having a proximal edge which includes an integral pivot rod 16 and a thickened distal edge 17. Each end of the rod 16 is received in a blind hole 18 in an end hinge block 19, 20 and a central region of the rod 16 is clipped into a recess 22 in the central hinge block 21. Small clearance openings 27 are formed in the flap 15 to accommodate the hinge blocks 19 to 21.

A coil spring 23 is secured between a point 24 on the flap 15, intermediate the distal and proximal edges of the flap, and an adjacent hinge block. Normally one coil spring 23 is provided for each hinge block and the end of the spring 23 closest to the respective hinge block is received in a passage 25 provided therein.

The point 24 of attachment of each coil spring to the flap 15 can be by way of an eyelet 24a received in a hole in the flap 15 or by a hook member adhered (e.g. welded or stuck) to the concave side of the flap 15.

An elastic band (not shown) can be used in place of the coil spring 23.

A pad 26 (e.g. of felt)can be adhered to or clipped on to the distal edge 17 of the flap to prevent the flap scratching (or making a noise) as it moves over the door when the latter is opened or closed.

The location of the spring means below the flap hides it from view and prevents a child's fingers becoming caught in it.

Figure 5 shows the position of the flap 15 when a door 30 is fully closed in its frame 31. As the door 30 opens (in the direction of the arrow A), the spring means 23 shortens as the pad 26 slides across the door towards the edge 12, the flap 15 protecting the widening gap formed between the hinged edge 12 of the door 30 and the upright 14 of the frame 31. If the door opens so widely that the pad 26 loses contact with the door, the flap 15 will still be disposed where it covers the gap 11 and thus remains effective to prevent fingers being trapped in the gap 11.

To augment the effect of the spring means 23, stub shafts 32 (see Figure 2) can be formed at each end of the flap 15 and these can be adapted to run in channel-section guide rails 33 secured (e.g. stuck) to the door 13. The ends of the channels 34, formed in rails 33, which are closest to the edge 12 of the door can be widened to ensure the stub shafts 32 re-enter the channels 34 when the door is reclosed should the door be opened so widely that the shafts 32 lose contact with the guide rails 33.

Figure 4 shows the blind hole 18 in the end hinge block 19 and the recess 22 in the central hinge block 21.

A blind hole is also formed in the end hinge block 20 but this cannot be seen in Figure 4. The flat lower surface of each hinge block shown in Figure 4 can be coated with selfadhesive material protected with a removable release paper to facilitate easy fixing of the hinge blocks to the frame of the door. Screw holes 40 can be formed in each block 19-21 to provide an alternative method of fixing the finger guard in place.

Although three hinge blocks 19-21 are felt to be sufficient in most cases it is not ruled out that a) the central block can be dispensed with, b) that more than one 'central block is used, and c) that a continuous hinge block extending substantially the full length of the flap 15'is used.

The width of the region 41 shown on the end hinge block 19 in Figure 4 can be dimensioned to correctly space the finger guard 1.0 with respect to the floor when the edge 42 is resting on the floor. To permit the equipment to be used on both left- and. right-hand opening doors it is convenient to provide a similar "spacing" region 41 on the other end hinge block 20. The holes 18 in the end hinge blocks need not be blind holes.

Adhesive mounting of the hinge blocks can also be achieved by the use of double-sided self-adhesive tape on the flat lower surface of each hinge block 19-21 or by using a layer of water-softenable adhesive material on these flat lower surfaces.

An adhesive layer is shown at 43 on the guide rail shown in Figure 2 and this layer 43 can be of any of the variants just discussed for use with the hinge blocks.

To protect the spring means 23 from access by a child, a strip of fabric of the same length as the flap 15 can be secured along one edge to the distal edge 17 (e.g. to serve as the low-friction material) and fixed along its other edge to, or adjacent to, the edge 12 of the door or to the upright 14 of the frame adjacent to the pivot rod (or tube) 16. In this way, the spring means 23 are enclosed in a pocket partly defined by the strip of fabric. If the fabric strip is fixed to the door the fabric will protect the gap 11 even when the flap 15 loses contact with the door.

As previously stated the flap 15 can be packaged in short sections and secured together end-to-end. Among the arrangements that can be used for this end-to-end securement can be mentioned a) Lengths of adhesive-coated strip or pads, b) Use of bars or rods projecting from one end of a short length and the provision of grooves or pockets adjacent the other end to receive the bars or rods, c) Use of grooved bridging pieces which interlink the adjacent ends of the two short lengths to be joined. The bridging pieces can have the same general cross-sectional profile as the flap but are grooved on each side to receive end regions of the two lengths. The bridging pieces can be the same width as the lengths to be joined but need not be of the full width of the flap. Two or more short bridging pieces can be used at each linking joint, d) Use of pegged bridging pieces.This is similar to concept c) above but instead of each bridging piece having grooves to receive end regions of each short length of flap, each bridging piece has at least one bar or rod projecting from each side and the bars or rods engage in grooves or pockets in end regions of each short length.

A typical length for each section of flap would be between 300 and 500 mms and three or four lengths would typically be used to fabricate a full length flap.

A number of different arrangements of means are available for attaching the one end of the spring means to the point on the flap intermediate the edges thereof.

Among these may be mentioned: e) using one of the bars or rods referred to in b) or d) above, f) using the bridging pieces of c) or d) above, g) providing a moulded-in groove running the length of each flap or flap length and locating a hook member in the groove at the chosen location.

The construction of the hinge means can be by: h) Providing a continuous strip running the full length of each flap part which can be secured (e.g.

screwed, nailed or stuck) to the supporting frame and which is delimited from the proximal edge of the flap by a thinned-down region of the flap (i.e.

an integral hinge is formed by a weaker linear region of the flap), i) Forming each hinge member as a separate unit somewhat as shown at 21 in Figure 4 but extended axially and provided with an intermediate wall dividing the recess 22 into an upper portion and a lower portion, the former to receive a hinge pin projecting from the lower end of the upper flap part that meets at the extended hinge member and the latter to receive a hinge pin projecting from the upper end of the lower flap part that meets at that hinge member, j) Instead of providing each flap member with a pin or peg and the hinge members with recesses 18 and 22, the hinge members can be provided with one or two projecting pegs and each end of each flap length can be provided with a bore to receive a respective one of the pegs, k) Flexible hinges can be provided.In one arrange ment a rubber (or rubber-like) pad can be provided which has a groove at its outer edge to receive the proximal edge of the flap and adhesive at its inner edge to secure to the supporting frame. The flexible hinge can extend the#entire length of each flap length or just over a part of each length, 1) In place of rubber-like material, a flexible hinge can be contoured into the proximal edge of each flap length or one or more spring steel strips could be built into the design.

To provide easier access of a stub shaft 32 into a guide rail 33 (see Figure 2), the end of the guide rail can be outwardly flared. Further by providing the flap in lengths connected together, it is possible to use the stub shafts to assist in connecting the flap lengths together.

Alternatively, a guide rail could be located between each adjacent pair of flap lengths. Such an intermediate guide rail could have two channels 34 (back-to-back) each engaged by the stub shaft of a different one of the two flap lengths meeting at that location.

Regions of each flap length adjacent to the stub shafts could be cut away to provide room for the intermediate guide rails.

Claims (13)

1. A safety guard for the gap between the hinge side of a door, as hereinbefore defined, and its supporting frame comprising a flap of substantially rigid material having a distal edge and a proximal edge, hinge means engaging the proximal edge of the said flap and at least one spring means of variable length connected at one end to a point on the flap intermediate the said edges thereof, said spring means being overlain by the flap and acting, when other than of its shortest length, to urge the flap towards the door.

2. A guard as claimed in claim 1 in which the flap is an arcuate strip of plastics material with an integral pivot rod or tube formed along the said proximal edge.

3. A guard as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, in which the hinge means provides a connection for the other end of the or each spring means.

4. A guard as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the or each spring means is a coil spring, an elastic band and/or some other length of extensible spring material.

5. A guard as claimed in any preceding claim, in which adhesive securement is used to attach the or each hinge means to the frame.

6. A guard as claimed in claim 5, in which a selfadhesive coating which bonds on contact is provided which coating is protected until required by a removable release paper or the like.

7. A guard as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the distal edge of the flap includes low-friction material to bear against the door and prevent scratching of the latter as the flap moves over the door on opening or closing of the latter.

B. A guard as claimed in claim 7, in which the low- friction material is one or more pads of felt, a length of plastics tape adhered to the flap, a cord partially embedded in a groove formed in the distal edge or a region of "sprayed-on" low-friction material.

9. A guard as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the flap is packaged in a plurality of short sections which can be secured together end-to-end when used on a door.

10. A safety guard as claimed in claim 9, in which the short sections are secured together as described hereinbefore under a) to d).

11. A safety guard as claimed in claim 1, in which the spring means is attached to the flap as described hereinbefore under e) to 93.

12. A safety guard as claimed in claim 1, in which the hinge means is as described hereinbefore under h) to 1).

13. A safety guard for the gap between the hinge side of a door, as hereinbefore defined, and its supporting frame substantially as described with reference to the accompanying drawings.