GB2212549A - A door handle arrangement - Google Patents

Abstract

The arrangement comprises two fixing plates 10, 12 which are securable on opposite sides of the door by screws passing through apertures 14. Each fixing plate has an associated removable cover plate 42, 44 which fits over it and conceals the screws and apertures of the fixing plate. A driving pin 34 passes through central openings 28, 50, 52 in the fixing plates and cover plates to engage with a door catch mechanism. Two handles 62, 66 can then be fixed to the ends of driving pin 34, the handles being rotatable in the openings 52, 50. As shown there are six apertures 14 in each fixing plate - the apertures may be elongate slots. The plates 10, 12 have one or more bulges 26. The cover plates 44, 42 are shown snap fitted and are shown with rearwardly extending flanges 54, 56 each having one or more inwardly extending lips 58, 60. As an alternative to snap-fit the cover plates could be secured by set screws. <IMAGE>

Description

A DOOR HANDLE ARRANGEMENT The present invention relates to a handle arrangement for a door.

Handle arrangements generally include a pair of rectangular, square or circular mounting plates each having a handle, pivotally and capitively supported thereon. The mounting plates are each fixed to the door by means of two, three or four screws passing through holes in the plate and engaging a blind bore drilled in the wood of the door.

Thus, when the handle arrangement needs to be replaced, it is often difficult for the screws to be screwed into the bores in the door previously employed, because they have been enlarged and a strong bond between the handle arrangement and the door is not possible.

Another disadvantage of the known arrangement is that the handle is fixed to the plate in such a fashion that, when in use, the pulling on the handle tends to pull the screws out of the door weakening the bond between the plate and the door. This often results in the handle arrangement eventually being wrenched off the door or at least being loosely mounted thereon.

According to the present invention there is provided a handle arrangement for a door, said arrangement comprising two fixing plates, said fixing plates being securable on opposite sides of the doors by screws passing through apertures in the fixing plate; two cover plates each fitting over and removably secured to a separate one of said fixing plates, the screws and apertures of said fixing plates not being visible once the cover plates are secured onto said fixing plates, each of said fixing plates and said cover plates having an opening, a driving pin passing through said openings and engagable with a door catch mechanism, and two handles, each engaging with an end of said driving pin and having a portion rotatably fitted into the openings of said cover plates.

With such a construction it is possible to screw the fastening screws through the apertures in the fixing plate and for these to be positioned in a different location from the previously formed screw holes in the door.

Subsequently the cover plates are put on and any aesthetically unpleasing aspects of the fastening of the fixing plates to the door can subsequently be obsured by the positioning of the cover plates.

Preferably said door handles are securably retained on said driving pin, such that the pulling force applied to one handle in the direction perpendicularly away from the plane of the door is transferred into a force acting in a direction perpendicularly towards the plane of the door on the other handle.

An advantage of this construction is that there will be very little tendency for the fixing screws to be pulled out of the door when the door handle is pulled because the main force transmitted from the handle arrangement to the door is a pushing force.

The fixing plate preferably has at least six selectably usable apertures and these apertures may be in the form of slots, to make it easier to find a solid piece of wood in the door into which one is screwing.

Desirably, each of the cover plates is a snap-fit onto a separate one of the fixing plates for ease of mounting. In one particular arrangement, each of said fixing plates comprises one or more bulges along its perimeter, each of said cover plates having a front portion with the opening therein, a rearwardly extending peripheral flange and at least one inwardly extending lip on the free edge of said peripheral flange of said cover plate, said bulge or bulges and said lip or lips providing said snap-fit.

Alternatively or additionally each cover plate may be secured to its associated fixing plate by at least one set screw.

In order that the present invention may more readily be understood the following description is given, merely by way of example, reference being made to the accompanying drawing in which the sole Figure is a perspective exploded view of one embodiment of door handle arrangement according to the invention.

The handle arrangement shown in the drawing comprises two fixing plates 10, 12 each of which has formed therein six apertures 14 for the passage of the fixing screw. The plate 10 at least has a recess 16 formed in one face, this providing two radially extending shoulders 18, 20 and a radially inwardly extending abutment 22 on the opposite side. On the outer periphery 24 of each plate are formed a number of outwardly extending bulges 26, there being two bulges shown on each side of each plage in the drawing.

As can be seen on the plate 12, there is a central opening 28 formed in each of the plates 10 and 12, the opening in the plate 10 being obscured in the drawing by a disk 32 which has a square central hole engaged over a square cross-section drive pin 34 which passes through the openings 28. The disk 32 has a first radially outwardly extending lug 36 engagable with the shoulders 18 and 20 to restrain rotational movement of the drive rod 34 and an opposite lug 38 on which is engaged one end 40 of a spiral return spring the other end of which is engaged over the radial abutment 22.

Associated with each of the fixing plates 10, 12 is a separate cover plate 42, 44. These plates have a front portion 46, 48 having central openings 50, 52 aligned with the openings 28 in the fixing plates 10, 12. The cover plates have rearwardly extending peripheral flanges 54, 56 each having an inwardly extending lip 58, 60.

The handle arrangement is completed by a first handle 62 permanently secured to the drive pin 34, e.g. by a rivet 64 and a second handle 66 releasably securable by a separate grub screw 68.

In use, one secures the fixing plate to the door by means of screws (not shown) passing through the apetures 14. In this connection one selects an aperture which has a sound piece of wood behind it which has not already had a screw fitted thereinto. It may be advantageous for the apertures not simply to be round, but to be elongate slots more readily to enable one to locate such a sound piece of wood. Thereafter the cover plate 44 is snap-fitted onto the fixing plate 12 and the drive pin 34 is passed through the openings 52 and 28. The disk 32 and the spring is engaged with the recess 16 in fixing plate 10, whereupon the square hole in the disk is slipped onto the other end of the drive pin 34 and the fixing plate is correctly positioned and screwed to the door in the same way as plate 12 was secured to the appointed face. The cover plate 42 is then snapped on and the handle 66 secured by the set screw 68.

Instead of having several bulges 26, one can envisage having a single peripheral bulge. Similarly instead of having a single peripheral lip 58, 60, on each cover plate, one could have a number discrete lips, but this would not be so aesthetically pleasing.

As an alternative to a snap-fit, the cover plates could be secured by means of set screws which would not be readily visible.

Claims (9)

1. A handle arrangement for a door, said arrangement comprising two fixing plates, said fixing plates being securable on opposite sides of the doors by screws passing through apertures in the fixing plate; two cover plates each fitting over and removably secured to a separate one of said fixing plates, the screws and apertures of said fixing plates not being visible once the cover plates are secured onto said fixing plates, each of said fixing plates and said cover plates having an opening, a driving pin passing through said openings and engagable with a door catch mechanism, and two handles, each engaging with an end of said driving pin and having a portion rotatably fitted into the openings of said cover plates.

2. An arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said door handles are securably retained on said driving pin, such that the pulling force applied to one handle in the direction perpendicularly away from the plane of the door is transferred into a force acting in a direction perpendicular towards the plane of the door on the other handle.

3. An arrangement according to claim 1 or 2, wherein said fixing plate has at least six selectably usable apertures for said screws.

4. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein said driving pin is permanently secured to one of said handles.

5. An arrangement according to claim 4, wherein the other of said handles is removably secured to said driving pin by a screw.

6. An arrangement according to any preceding.

claim, wherein each of said cover plates is a snap-fit onto a separate one of said fixing plates.

7. An arrangement according to claim 6, wherein each of said fixing plates comprises one or more bulges along its perimeter, each of said cover plates having a front portion with the opening therein, a rearwardly extending peripheral flange and at least one inwardly extending lip on the free edge of said peripheral flange of said cover plate, said bulge or bulges and said lip or lips providing said snap-fit.

8. An arrangement according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein each cover plate is secured to its associated fixing plate by at least one set screw.

9. A handle arrangement for a door substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.