NZ191579A - Twin roller assembly for sliding doors - Google Patents

Description

*» 191579 NEW ZEALAND PATENTS ACT, 1953 No.: 191 579 Date: 14 September 1979 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO BOGIES" We, JOHNSTON INDUSTRIES LIMITED a New Zealand company of 3 Kent Street, Newmarket, Auckland, New Zealand hereby declare the invention for which K/ we pray that a patent may be granted toxHs/us, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement:- 19 15 7 9 The- present invention relates to improvements in and relating to bogies and means and/or methods related thereto which allow a sprung support of for example a door or components of a door which is foldable, compactible or of the like type or otherwise so as to minimise possibilities of jamming during such track movement and also to allow for any manufacturing tolerances.

In my New Zealand Patent Specification No. 191580 there is disclosed a latching mechanism which has application in 10 the grouping together of the various elements of a compactible shower door which if desired can be uncompacted so as to close off a shower cabinet with the extremities or extremity regions thereof fixed, for example, by magnetic catches so as to close the whole door frame or the like. Such a door includes a plurality of flexible plastics members each with vertically extending beaded edges which are received within complimentary channels in aluminium extrusions or the like which are to provide the face of the door especially when in its compacted form and which also are arranged to carry the 20 various tracking elements which will slidably or rotatably be received within the guiding tracks or at least the horizontal top track. With such a construction however where it is necessary to provide for a significant degree of compaction to allow ready ingress or egress from the shower cabinet it is also desirable to allow the compacted components of the door or the like to be moved from one side to the other along tracks for cleaning purposes. It is important to ensure that such a movement is unlikely to give rise to jamming difficulties.

I 91579 It is therefor an object of the present invention to provide means and/or methods which if applied to such doors will go at least some way to overcome the abovementioned jamming disadvantages or which will at least give the public with a useful choice.

Accordingly in one aspect the invention consists in a sliding door assembly for engagement to a track from which a door of the sliding door assembly is to be suspended and relative to which at least some portions of the door can move in a tracking locus, said sliding door assembly comprising (a) a door, (b) a plurality of tracking assemblies fitted to the door for suspending the door in a tracking manner from the track, each said tracking assembly comprising (i) composite slide means capable in use of vertical sliding movement relative to the door between limits of movement, (ii) compression spring means at least substantially contained within said composite slide means and capable of bearing against that portion of the so that in use a portion of the weight of the door to be carried by one tracking assembly 1s carried by the compression means by means of appropriate sliding movement of its associated composite slide means relative to the door, (ii1)carrying means pivotally mounted from said slide means about a pivot axis which is substantially normal to the tracking locus, and —> 3 191579 (iv) two wheels rotatably mounted on said carrying means about axes of rotation parallel to said pivot axis and each disposed so as to run on or in a said track, said two wheels being disposed one on either side of the pivot axis of said carrying means.

Preferably said assembly is substantially as hereinafter described with reference to any of the accompanying drawings.

In a further aspect the Invention consists in in combination a sliding door assembly in accordance with the present invention and a track from which the assembly 1s suspended by means of said plurality of tracking assemblies.

In a further aspect the present invention may broadly be said to consist 1n in a tracking assembly for use in a sliding door assembly in accordance with the present invention, or a combination in accordance with the present invention. 4 191579 One preferred form of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view showing in the compacted form a plurality of extruded aluminium members each with a constricted opening channel capable of receiving a beaded edge of a member which spans between adjacent structural elements so in the deformed condition as shown in figure 1 the same exerts a tendency for the structural elements to spring apart (which tendency is resisted by the latching mechanism disclosed in my simultaneously filed New Zealand Patent Specification No.191580 ) and when in the undeformed condition allow the structural elements to be separated to thereby expand the door, the left hand extremity structural member having mounted thereto the composite means and having mounted therefrom in turn the carrier member together with the tandem wheels, the other structural elements simply showing one preferred form of punching or pressing which allows the easy fitting of the preferred composite member and other elements thereto, the tandem wheels thereof nevertheless being shown in dotted outline, Figure la shows the section of for example the right hand extremity member, Figure lb shows the preferred section of the non-extremity or extremity region structural elements, "®APRB24 ' 191579 Figure 2 shows the preferred section for the substantially horizontal upper track which if desired can also be used as a lower track, one region within the open channel defining the running channel for the tandem wheels of each bogie assembly, Figure 3a shows a front view of the carrier member in accordance with the present invention, the outer two holes being for rotatably mounting the tandem wheels (e.g. by rivet) and with the inner hole being adapted to pivotally mount the carrier member from the composite means (preferably with a rivet which holds both the carrier member to the composite means and also the preferred components of the composite means together), Figure 3b is a section along the centre line which encompasses all three holes, Figure 3c is a non section view of the structure of I figure 3a but in a similar direction as in figure 3b, Figure 3d is an end view of the structure as shown in figure 3a, Figure 4a is a view from the structural element contacting side of the back component of the composite means, said component including a hole for receiving the rivet or the like which would connect the same to said carrier member and also including a rectangular hole which is the preferred form of female member for receiving the male member of the front support to be described hereafter, there also being a channel for locating against said structural element and/or the front support the biasing means or compression spring, 191579 Figure 4b is a section view taken through the female member which shows the nature of the spring locating channel, Figure 4c is a section taken vertically down through the centre line of the back support as shown in figure 4a, Figure 4d is a similar view to that of figure 4a but taken from the opposite side, Figure 5a is the frontal view of the front support, i.e. that side against which in the preferred form said carrier member is pivotally affixed, there being shown the 10 hole for that purpose which aligns with the hole in the member as shown in figure 4a and also with the pivotal mounting hole of the carrier member, Figure 5b is a view from one end of the member of figure 5a showing the male member that projects therefrom and which is to be receivable by the female member of the back support shown in figures 4a to 4d, Figure 5c is a side elevation of the support shown in figure 5a showing the catching shoulders that are included in the male member so as to hold the same in and through the 20 female member of the back support thus necessitating just a single rivet support to hold the whole structure together, Figure 5d is a similar view of that of figure 5a but showing the other side, Figure 6a is a side elevation of a preferred wheel in accordance with the present invention, Figure 6b is a side elevation of the wheel, Figure 7a is a sectioned view through the bogie assembly, the dotted outline depicting a rivet which pivotally mounts _ 7 - 191579 the carrier member to the composite member which it also holds together, there also being shown the male member being received through the female member of the back support of the composite means, and also the male member serving as means which compresses or will compress a compression spring or other compressible means which is located in the channel of the back member to butt upwardly against the upper edge of a hole in said structural element, figure 7a showing in a non sectioned and in a diagrammatic form the actual section 10 of the structural element to which the bogie assembly is slidably fixed, the slidable direction with respect to figure 7a being upwards and downwards in the plane of the sheet of the drawing, and Figure 7b is a similar view to that of figure 7a but showing the compression spring in a more compressed stage through the bogie assembly having been moved slidably upwards l relative to the structural member, figure 7b showing in dotted outlines, in addition to the rivet of figure 7a, the limits of the wheel movement as a result of the pivoting of 20 the carrier member which carries the tandem wheels.

In the preferred form of the present invention having regard to the drawings it can be seen that the plastics members from which the bogie assembly is assembled are preferably moulded and are designed so as to easily and readily clamp together through the appropriate openings of a structural element of the door so as to provide the required degree of sliding movement. A person skilled in the art will appreciate the construction and the various arrangements.

It is important to note however that by providing a tandem arrangement for each structural element twisting of each structural element which could otherwise cause damage is not a problem. Also because of the pivotal mounting of the carrier member the tandem wheels of each structural element always run on the guiding track despite the inclination of the associated structual element. Also the springing of the structure is such as to maintain this guiding relationship and also allows for self adjustment within this structure during any stage of closing to make the runners smooth running despite any deficiency in manufacturing or fitting tolerance and also to take into account any deformation that may occur in the various structural elements during their life of use.

In the preferred form of the present invention, a suitable block member or the like of nylon is attached at » the bottom of each structural element to be received within an appropriate channel which can be the same or different from the track at the top. The use of such a means will avoid any uncontrolled movement of a door beyond any draining region of the door assembly and of course it will also serve to minimise stress on the actual wheeled bogies. In other forms of the present invention however it is of course possible for wheeled bogies to be used at the bottom. This however is undesirable as it leads to an unnecessary increase in the expense and complexity of manufacture.

A person skilled in the art will appreciate the various a different ways a wheeled bogie in accordance with the present 191579 invention could be incorporated in structural elements of a door or some alternative structural member, e.g. a screen, and it should be therefore realized that the manner in which the composite means attaches to the preferred structual elements is given by way of example only.

From the foregoing then it can be seen that the present invention provides means and/or methods which should find widespread use. 191579

Claims (4)

WHAT WE CLAIM IS:

1. A sliding door assembly for engagement to a track from which a door of the sliding door assembly is to be suspended and relative to which at least some portions of the door can move in a tracking locus, said sliding door assembly comprising (a) a door, (b) a plurality of tracking assemblies fitted to the door for suspending the door in a tracking manner from the track, each said tracking assembly comprising (i) composite slide means capable in use of vertical sliding movement relative to the door between limits of movement , (ii) compression spring means at least substantially contained within said composite slide means and capable of bearing against that portion of the door so that in use a * portion of the weight of the door to be carried by one tracking assembly is carried by the compression spring means by means of appropriate sliding movement of its associated composite slide means relative to the door, (iii)carrying means pivotally mounted from said slide means about a pivot axis which is substantially normal to the tracking locus, and (iv) two wheels rotatably mounted on said carrying means about axes of rotation parallel to said pivot axis and each disposed so as to run on or in said track, said two wheels being disposed one on either side of the ^ pivot axis of said carrying means. 1915 -12 -

2. An assembly as claimed in Claim 1 substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any of the accompanying drawings.

3. In combination a sliding door assembly as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 and a track from which said sliding door assembly is suspended by means of said plurality of tracking assemblies.

4. A tracking assembly suitable for use 1n a sliding door assembly as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 or a combination as claimed 1n Claim 3, said tracking assembly being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. AGENTS FOR THfE AWUCANTS - 12 -