GB2224299A

GB2224299A - Weather excluder

Info

Publication number: GB2224299A
Application number: GB8923461A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Brian Christopher Allport
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1988-10-28
Filing date: 1989-10-18
Publication date: 1990-05-02
Anticipated expiration: 2009-10-18
Also published as: GB2224299B; IE65731B1; GB8923461D0

Abstract

A weather excluder comprises an elongate seal carrier 20 for fixing to a door threshold and an elongate resilient hollow seal 23 carried by and extending along the length of an upper surface 24 of the carrier for sealing against the underside of a door. The top see of the seal 23 comprises a door-engaging surface 27 which across its width rises gradually from the upper surface 24 of the carrier 20 to terminate abruptly at 27' above the upper surface 24 of the carrier at a sharply curved foldable surface 30 permitting bellows-like compression of the seal. <IMAGE>

Description

A WEATHER EXCLUDER This invention relates to a weather excluder of the kind used for fitting to the threshold of a door for engaging the underside of a door when the door is closed thereby sealing the gap between the underside of the door and the threshold.

One known kind of weather excluder of the above kind, to be described below, has a domed seal. This has a disadvantage that for most effective sealing the underside of the door should be slightly angled.

According to the present invention a weather excluder comprises an elongate seal carrier for fixing to a door threshold and an elongate resilient hollow seal carried by and extending along the length of an upper surface of the carrier for sealing against the underside of a door, both the carrier and seal each having a substantially constant cross-section, the top side of the seal comprising a door-engaging surface which across its width rises gradually from the upper surface of the carrier to terminate abruptly above the upper surface of the carrier at a sharply curved foldable surface permitting bellows-like compression of the seal.

The advantage of the invention is that the underside of the door can be cut square and makes a greater area contact with the seal.

A further disadvantage of the known weather excluder is that the bottom side of the seal engages in and is retained by two retaining grooves or recesses, and the design of the seal is such that water can easily penetrate into the recesses and then conveyed into direct contact with the door frame tending to produce rot.

Preferably, therefore, in the seal according to the invention the bottom side of the seal engages in at least one recess in the upper surface of the carrier and overlaps the outermost edges of the recess(es) to direct water away therefrom.

Further, the abrupt termination of the door-engaging surface of the seal may have an outwardly and downwardly inclined lip also to direct water away from the recess(es).

Internally the seal may include a foldable stiffener.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is a cross-section of the prior art weather excluder referred to above.

Figure 2 shows the prior art excluder of Figure 1 in use, and.

Figure 3 is a cross-section of an embodiment of weather excluder according to the invention.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, the known weather excluder comprises an elongate seal carrier 10 for fixing to a door threshold 11, e.g. by means of a series of spaced apart screws 12 of which only one is shown.

An elongate resilient hollow seal 13 is carried by and extends along the length of an upper surface 14 of the carrier 10 for sealing against the underside 15 of a door 16.

It is to be understood that both the carrier 10 and seal 13 each have a substantially constant cross-section, and in use (Figure 2) extend perpendicular to the plane of the drawing across the full width of the door threshold.

As shown, the door-engaging surface 17 of the seal 13 is dome-shaped. As mentioned above, this requires the underside 15 of the door 16 to be slightly angled, for example the front (the left hand side as shown in Figure 2) should be about 3.2mm higher than the rear.

Further, it will be noted that the bottom side of the seal 13 has a pair of ribs 18 which engage in and are retained by two retaining grooves or recesses 19 of the carrier 10. It will be seen that the design of the seal is such that water can easily penetrate into the recesses 19 and then be conveyed along the length of the excluder into direct contact with the door frame tending to produce rot.

These disadvantages are overcome by the construction of weather excluder shown in cross-section in Figure 3. Like the excluder of Figure 1, the excluder of Figure 3 is of elongate construction and has a substantially constant cross-section.

The excluder of Figure 3 comprises an elongate seal carrier 20 of shallow inverted U-shaped cross-section for fixing to a door threshold, e.g. by screws 22 as shown, and an elongate resilient hollow seal 23 is carried by and extends along the length of the upper surface 24 of the carrier 20 for sealing against the underside of a door (not shown in Figure 3). The direction of door closure is indicated by the arrow 35.

The bottom side 28 of the seal 23 engages in a recess 29 in the upper surface 24 of the carrier 20 and overlaps the outermost edges of the recess at 25 and 26 to direct water away from the recess 29. While a single broad recess 29 is shown in Figure 3, with a complementary formation on the bottom side 28 of the seal 23, a pair of recesses and complementary ribs such as those shown in Figure 1 may be used, provided that the overlapping portions 25 and 26 are retained to direct water away from such recessess.

In contrast to the dome-shaped door-engaging surface 17 of Figures 1 and 2, in the excluder seal 23 of Figure 3 the top side of the seal comprises a door-engaging surface 27 which across its width rises gradually from adjacent the upper surface 24 of the carrier 20 to terminate abruptly at 27' above the upper surface 24 of the carrier 20 at a sharply inwardly curved foldable surface 30 which permits bellows-like compression of the seal.

In other words, as the underside of a door bears against the surface 27 from the right as the door is closed, the surface 27 pivots about its right hand end 26 in the direction of the arrow 32, with the surface 30 folding to accommodate this movement. This permits the door base to be cut square, and a greater area of the seal 23 comes into contact with the door. When the door is opened again, the resilience of the seal material restores the seal 23 to its expanded shape.

The seal 23 may include an internal foldable stiffener 31.

In use the left hand side of the excluder (as seen in Figure 3) faces the outside and is thus exposed to the weather, and hence the abrupt termination 27' of the door-engaging surface 27 of the seal 23 may have an outwardly and downwardly inclined lip 33 also to direct water away from the recess 29.

A further advantageg of the seal construction shown in Figure 3 is that wind pressure in the direction of the arrow 34 acts on the curved surface 30 to bias the latter "open" thereby pressing the surface 27 more strongly against the underside of the door.

The carrier 20 can be made by an extrustion process from any suitable rigid material such as rigid PVC or aluminium, and the seal 23 may be extruded from any suitable resilient material such as PVC, TPE or EPDM rubber. Figure 3 is roughly to scale, so the approximate dimensions of the embodiment shown can be ascertained from the fact that the overall width of the carrier 20 from front to rear (extreme left to extreme right on Figure 3) is about 80mm.

Naturally, the length of the excluder will depend upon the width of the door opening, a range of different lengths being provided which can be cut to the exact length required in any particular case.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A weather excluder comprising an elongate seal carrier for fixing to a door threshold and an elongate resilient hollow seal carried by and extending along the length of an upper surface of the carrier for sealing against the underside of a door, both the carrier and seal each having a substantially constant cross-section, the top side of the seal comprising a door-engaging surface which across its width rises gradually from the upper surface of the carrier to terminate abruptly above the upper surface of the carrier at a sharply curved foldable surface permitting bellows-like compression of the seal.

2. A weather excluder as claimed in Claim 1, wherein the bottom side of the seal engages in at least one recess in the upper surface of the carrier and ovelaps the outermost edges of the recess(es) to direct water away therefrom.

3. A weather excluder as claimed in Claim 1 or 2, wherein at the point of abrupt termination the door-engaging surface of the seal has an outwardly and downwardly inclined lip.

4. A weather excluder as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the seal includes an internal foldable stiffener.

5. A weather excluder as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the sharply curved foldable surface is externally convex.

6. A weather excluder substantially as described with reference to Figure 3 of the accompanying, drawings.