GB2331543A

GB2331543A - Loft ladder guide assembly

Info

Publication number: GB2331543A
Application number: GB9724516A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Cardin Fitzgerald Lescott
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1997-11-19
Filing date: 1997-11-19
Publication date: 1999-05-26
Also published as: GB2331543A9; GB9724516D0

Abstract

A loft ladder assembly has a trapdoor 1 hinged at one edge 3, a ladder 4 whose stiles have a track formed therein, a hinged member 5 slidably mounted in said tracks and enabling the ladder to be pivotably and slidably mounted to the same side of the trapdoor frame 2 as the trapdoor 1, a latch 6 attached to the trapdoor opposite the hinged edge to retain the foot of the ladder against the trapdoor, a ladder weight -bearing member 6 attached to the upper surface of the trapdoor, so that when the door hinges down and the ladder moves toward the vertical this bears its weight, the latch being releasable to release the ladder from the door to enable it to be lifted off the weight bearing member and be lowered to the floor. Stowing of the ladder is by the reverse procedure; the weight of the ladder 4 acts as a counterweight to bias the ladder and trapdoor to the solid line position shown.

Description

J 11 LOFT LADDER GUIDE-ASSEM 2331543 This invention relates to a loft

ladder guide assembly. More particularly, this invention relates to an inexpensive loft ladder guide assembly having a minimum number of parts which can be easily installed and operated by the loft ladder user.

The guide assembly operates under gravity with no spring bias either during the lowering or raising operation of the loft ladder.

More particularly still, and in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a loft ladder guide assembly for mounting on a trap door hingedly mounted in a loft opening for pivotal movement between closure position in which the trap door lies in the plane of the loft opening and a downwardly open position in which the trap door is suspended from the said opening by means of hinges spaced along one edge of the loft opening.

The said ladder assembly comprising; two side members and a plurality of spaced rungs interconnecting the two side members, the two side members each having a track formed therein and extending along the length thereof. A hinged member slid -ably mounted in each of those tracks and enabling the ladder to be slide-able, and hingedly connected to the same edge of the loft opening as the hinge connection between the trap door and the said opening with the two hinge axes being parallel one with the other; A latch member secured to the surface of the trap door that is uppermost when the trap door is in the closed position and adjacent to the edge of the trap door and opposite to the hinged edge, that latch member comprising means releasable engage able with the foot of the ladder, when mounted in the loft opening, so that as the loft door is swung between the closed and the open, position the ladder pivots about its hinge connection to the edge of the loft opening from the first position, in which the ladder adopts a substantially horizontal position in the loft space above the loft opening and concealed by the trap door, to a second position in which the ladder adopts a substantially vertical position parallel to the downwardly open trap door; and a weight bearing member securable to the said upper surface or the trap door, and which serves, when the trap door is in the open position, to bear the weight of the vertically oriented ladder. The said latch member being releasable from engagement from the foot of the ladder, when the trap door is opened and the ladder is in the vertical orientation, so as to enable the user to lift the ladder, which remains slide-able and hingedly connected to the edge of the loft opening, so that the foot thereof rests on the floor, the ladder then being in an inclined position to permit the user to climb the ladder into the loft space, the ladder after use being upwardly slide- able by the user against the force of gravity to re-engage the ladder on the weight bearing member and to re-engage the latch member of the ladder guide to the foot of the ladder prior to closure of the trap door.

Preferably the weight bearing member comprises a plate or bracket securable to the upper surface of the trap door between the two side members of the ladder and upon which the bottom rung of the ladder rests when the trap door is open and prior to the user lowering the ladder.

Preferably also the latch member and the weight bearing member are formed as a single unit. An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings by way of example, not by way of limitation.

DraWngs. Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic sectional view of a loft ladder guide assembly according to the invention installed in a loft opening with a downwardly opening trap door.

2, 1 Fig 2 & 2a is a diagrammatic perspective view of the latch and ladder weight bearing unit used in the assembly of fig. 1 and secured to the face of the trap door Fig 3 is a section taken on a line 111-111 of Fig. 1 and showing the track on the underside of the ladder and the slid-ably mounted hinges slid-ably and pivotal connecting the ladder to the edge of the loft opening.

Referring to the drawings, the ladder guide assembly of the invention is designed for mounting on a downwardly opening trap door I hingedly connected along one edge to a loft opening 2 by means of spaced hinges 3 and moveable between a closed position, shown by the solid lines, and a downwardly open position shown by the dotted lines and in which position the trap door is suspended from the hinges 3 The drawings are not to scale.

Slid-ably and hingedly mounted on the same edge of the loft opening 2 is a ladder, preferably double or triple section extending ladder 4, the hinge axes of the ladder and the trap door being parrellel to the slid- able hinge connection 5 as shown in more detail in Fig. 3.

Secured to the upper surface of the trap door by means of fixings 6, is a metal bracket 7, formed from sheet metal and shown in more detail in Fig. 2 Referring to Fig 2, The bracket 7 comprises a base plate 8, an up-stand flange 9 and a pair of up-stand tongues 10, 11 spaced apart at a sufficient distance to receive the bottom end of the side member 12 of ladder 4. With the ladder in that position, the up-stand flange 9 and tongues 10 and 11 extend upward between the two sides members of the ladder immediately below the bottom rung 13.

In the stowed or stowable position of the ladder, show by the full lines of Fig. 1, the foot of the ladder is retained with the said bottom end of one of the side members 12 located between the upstandeing tongues 10 and 11 by means of a locking pin 14. This may simply be a push fit in two aligned holes 15 and 16 in the tongues 10, 11 or it may have a threaded end 17 to be screwed into a threaded hole 16.

With the foot of the ladder secured in that way, it Wit become immediately apparent from Fig. 1 that the trap door 1 will be held in the closed position by the weight of the free ( or upper end) of the ladder by virtue of the turning moment about the axis of the hinges 5.

It will also be apparent that when the trap door is opened by being swung downward about the hinged 3 the ladder 4 will adopt a substantially vertical orientation, as shown by the broken lines in Fig. 1 and in that position the weight of the ladder will largely taken by the ladder guide up-stand flange 9 on the plate 8.

All the user now has to do is remove the locking pin 14, disengage the foot of the ladder from between the tongues 10, 11. pivot the ladder about the hinge axis 5 a sufficient distance for the bottom rung of the ladder 13 to clear the flange 9, and slide the ladder downward until the foot of the ladder comes to rest on the floor below the trap door. The slide-able hinge connection 5 between the ladder and the loft opening which permits this is shown in more detail in Fig. 3 As shown in Fig. 3 the underside of each of the side members 12 of the ladder 4 is formed Wth a T shaped track 18 extending along the length of the ladder sides, or at least along the length of the bottom section. Engaged in each of these tracks is a T shaped slider 19 connected by means of a pivot pin 20 to a bracket 21 which is in turn is secured to the edge of the loft opening 2. In this manner the ladder is both hinged and slid-ably mounted in the loft opening, and once the trap door has been opened the ladder can be sim disengaged from the ladder guide 8 in the manner described and lowered so that the foQt of the (adder rests on the floor with the remainder of the ladder in an inclined position extending into the loft opening ready for the user to climb up.

3 To stow the ladder the procedure is simply reversed, the ladder is first retracted ( if double or triple section ladder), slid upwards into the loft space with the T shaped slider 19 sliding in the tracks 18 a sufficient distance to rest the bottom rung of the ladder back onto the weight bearing member of the ladder guide 8 with the bottom end of one of the side members re-engaging between the upstanding tongues 10 and 11 of the guide bracket 8. Finally the locking pin 14 is replaced to secure the foot of the ladder between the two upstanding tongues 10 and 11 prior to the final closing of the trap door, The closure is assisted as previously described, by the weight of the ladder acting as a counterbalance.

It will be apparent that the invention described does provide a simple and inexpensive loft ladder guide assembly. Which is also simple to install and use. It is also apparent that numerous modifications may be made in the detail of this invention, and in the specific embodiment without departing from the scope of this invention herein described and thereafter claimed. In particular, many different configurations can be envisaged for the latch mechanism for securing the foot of the ladder betvveen the two upstanding tongues 10 and 11, and for supporting the weight of the ladder when the trap door is opened. The particular mechanism described herein is purely exemplary.

4

Claims

1) A loft ladder guide assembly for mounting on a trap door hingedly mounted in a loft opening for pivotal movement between a closed position in which the trap door lies in the plane of the loft opening and a downwardly open position in which the trap door is suspended from the said opening by means of hinges spaced along one edge of the trap door and hingedly connecting the trap door to one edge of the loft opening, the said ladder assembly comprising; a) a ladder comprising two side members and a plurality of spaced rungs interconnecting the two side members, the two side members each having a track formed therin and extending along the length thereof. b) a hinged member slid-ably mounted in each of those tracks and enabling the ladder to slide-able, and hingedly connected to the same edge of the loft opening as the hinge connection between the trap door and the said opening, the two hinge axes being parallel one with the other: c) a latch member secured to the surface of the trap door that is upper most when the trap door is in the closed position and adjacent to the edge of the trap door and opposite to the hinged edge. The latch member comprising means releasing and engaging with the foot of the ladder, when mounted in the loft opening, so that as the loft door is swung between the closed and the open, position the ladder pivots about its hinge connection to the edge of the loft opening from the first position, in which the ladder adopts a substantially horizontal position in the loft space above the loft opening and concealed by the trap door, to a second position in which the ladder adopts a substantially vertical position parallel to the downwardly open trap door; d) a ladder weight bearing member securable to the said upper surface or the trap door, and which serves, when the trap door is in the open position, to bear the weight of the vertically oriented ladder. e) the said latch member being releasable from engagement from the foot of the ladder, when the trap door is opened and the ladder is in the vertical orientation, so as to enable the user to lift the ladder, which remains slide-able and hingedly connected to the edge of the loft opening, so that the foot thereof rests on the floor, the ladder then being in an inclined position to permit the user to climb the ladder into the loft space, the ladder after use being upwardly slide-able by the user against the force of gravity to re-engage the ladder on the weight bearing member of the ladder guide and re-engage the latch member of the ladder guide to the foot of the ladder prior to closure of the trap door.

2) A loft ladder guide assembly according to claim 1, wherein the weight bearing member comprises a plate or bracket securable to the upper surface of the trap door between the two side members of the ladder and upon which the bottom rung of the ladder rests when the trap door is open and prior to the user slid-ably lowering the ladder.

3) A loft ladder guide assembly according to claim 1 or 2 wherein the latch member and the weight bearing member are formed as a single unit.

4) A loft ladder guide assembly according to claim 1, 2 or 3 wherein the said ladder is an extending ladder.

5) A loft ladder guide assembly according to claim 1, substantially as herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawings,