NZ231619A - Roll up or retractable door: moveable strengthening bars in separate holders - Google Patents

Description

23161 Priority n~' ^0.::.2r ;ompL®te Class: (5). e.o.Uj.6 '..f 8&.t- cl; It Patents Form No. 5 .• I PATENTS ACT 1953 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION ■ ■ ■- " - i IMPROVEMENTS IN OR RELATING TO ROLL-UP AND OTHER RETRACTABLE DOORS, SHUTTERS, BLINDS AND THE LIKE I, MATTEO MIMMO, an Australian citizen of 29 Garden Drive, Tullarmarine 3043, Victoria, Australia, hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement 231619 This invention relates to "roll-up", "glide-away" and other retractable or sliding doors including those of the kind comprising a flexible door member which may take the form of a system of parallel slats disposed edge-to-edge in a flexible system guided for movement between a fully closed and a fully open position with respect to a doorway.

For the purpose of this specification such a device will be referred to generically as a "door", although the invention may equally be applicable to sliding or roll-up shutters, blinds or other closures.

My invention is advantageously applicable to vertical roll-up type doors such as are opened and closed by winding upon a horizontal drum located above the doorway. The drum can be operated by any suitable means e.g. an electric motor with appropriate trip-switches, or manually from ground level such as via a suitable chain and pulley system.

The invention is also applicable to doors of the "glide-away" type and others wherein, instead of being rolled up, a flexible door member is simply pulled up and back in guides curved through 90° into a retracted horizontal position beneath the roof of the building to which the door gives access. This latter type can be useful where the interior space, height or clearance between the top of the door and the roof/ceiling is insufficient to accommodate a drum.

In the past, such doors have been prone to damage due to pressure of high winds, which pressure tends to "belly" the door inwards like the sail of a square-rigged ship. This effect is seen to be due in large measure to the lack of support for the lower part of the door. For similar reasons such doors are often prone to damage by would-be trespassers, thieves and others attempting unauthorized entry, or to damage by wanton acts of violence and vandalism.

In an attempt to strengthen doors against damage through natural or other causes, it has sometimes been the practice to back up a suitable vehicle, 231619 such as a fork-lift truck, against the inside of the door when shut, especially when the premises are being closed for the night. However this can be troublesome and is easy to forget.

An object of the present invention is to improve the ability of a door to withstand inward pressure such as due to very high winds or the depredations of vandals or potential trespassers.

The above and other objects and advantages will become apparent hereinafter.

In one preferred form of the invention a roll-up or sliding door assembly for a doorway is characterized by door-strengthening means adapted to be progressively and automatically positioned and removed by the door's closing and opening, respectively.

But in order that the invention may be better understood reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings which are to be considered as part of this specification and read herewith. In the drawings:- Figure 1 is a rear elevation of a door with strengthening or reinforcing means according to one practical embodiment of the invention, the door being shown fully closed; Fig. 2 is a rear elevation corresponding to Fig. 1 but with the door fully open; Fig. 3 is an enlarged detailed elevation of the region designated 3-3 in Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a horizontal section of the Fig. 3 region, as designated by 4- 4 in Fig. 1; Fig. 5 is a section across line 5-5 in Fig. 1; Fig. 6 is a section across line 6-6 in Fig. 5, and Fig. 7 is a rear elevation of a door with re-enforcing means according 231619 to another practical embodiment of the invention involving articulation of the bracing elements or rods.

Referring to the drawings in more detail, the invention is illustrated by reference to a flexible, vertically movable roll-up door 8 of a kind known j2£r S£ slidable in a frame including upright vertical side members on either side of a doorway, the left hand member being shown by 9. Fixed to each side member is a channel-section guide 10 within which slides the corresponding edge portion of door 8 between resilient strips 11 of rubber or the like.

The bottom or leading edge of door 8 is a bar 12 having a lower, 0 inwardly-projecting flange 13 which forms a ledge or shelf which, as the door is raised, is adapted to "catch" bar 14 and to carry the stack of bars 14, 15 and 16, as best shown in Fig. 2. Bar 14 may be shorter than bar 15 and bar 15 shorter than 16, for reasons which will appear hereinafter.

When the door is dosed, bars 14, 15 and 16 are supported at their 5 ends by pairs of holders (17, 18), (19, 20) and (21,22) respectively, fixed to the door guides. Each pair of holders is positioned to "catch", hold and support the relevant bar as the topmost bar of the stack carried by the descending door, and to allow the rest of the stack to pass. Hence in this embodiment each pair of holders must be further apart than the length of the rod supported next below. iO Thus the brackets comprising each pair are fixed at distances transversely displaced somewhat outwards (i.e. away from the doorway) from those next below, and bar 15 is correspondingly longer than 14 and 16 than 15.

Bars 14, 15 and 16 may be hollow or solid steel bars of suitable cross-section and strength, which may depend upon the span of the door. However 25 in the illustrated embodiment they are of inverted channel-section to provide recessing for bracing rods 24 as more fully described hereinafter.

: . ... : It will be clear that in the uppermost position of the door there must 1 I iv';/' i J . ' 1 231619 be enough vertical "hang" of the lower end portion thereof to carry the stack of bars. To assist in locating the bars 14, 15 and 16 in proper stacking position to be "caught" by the relevant holders, the ends thereof may be apertured to receive fixed vertical guide bars such as 23. These guides allow free up-and-down movement of the stack of bars, but restrain them agains: horizontal movement. As a further precaution, each bar (except the last or topmost) may have top-beveUed pins (not shown) projecting upwardly therefrom and receivable in complementary holes in the underside of the bar next above (i.e. next "behind").

The number of bars, and their mutual spacing when the door is shut, can be as desired. It may be found advantageous to space the bars more closelv nearer the ground, where the door will be most prone to damage and, consequently, where most strength will be needed.

Inter-bar bracing may be provided by rods or struts 24. Each successive pair of bars such as 14, 15 (Figs. 5 and 6) may be inter-strutted by two such rods 24 symmetrically arranged about the vertical mid-line of the door. The lower ends of rods 24 are hinged in blocks 25 fixed to bar 14, while their upper ends are adapted to slide in a recess 26 defined by the underside of bar 15. For this purpose the upper end of rod 24 may be provided with a relatively wide head 27 slidable on runners 30 within recess 26. This arrangement tends to assist dose stacking of the bars when the door is fully open as shown in Fig. 2, especially if the recesses are wide enough to accommodate rods 24 and blocks 25 in toto.

The hinges for the lowest pair of bradng rods i.e. those between bars 12 and 14, may be fixed to flange 13.

Considering, for example, the pair of rods 24 between bars 14 and 15, it is dear that their hinges 25 must be suffidendy dose in relation to the lengths 2316 19 of the bars and rods, as to enable the full lengths of rods 24 to be accommodated within recess 26 as bar 14 approaches 15 when the door is being opened.

Fig. 7 shows an alternative form of strutting whereby inter-bar bracing is provided by articulated links 28 hinged to each other and to the respective bars so as to open and close concertina-wise as the door opens and closes. Preferably the links do not open out to 180° lest this produce a "dead-centre" effect resisting closure. Each successive pair of bars may be interstrutted by two pairs of links symmetrically arranged about the vertical mid-line of the door. The hinges are recessed in the bars so as not to interfere with their dose-stacking when the door is fully closed.

The operation of the door will now be described by reference to the embodiment of Figs. 1 to 6. Assuming the door to be dosed as in Fig. 1, drum 29 is set in rotation to raise door 8. Bars 14, 15 and 16 remain temporarily in place, but the raising of the door lifts bottom bar 12 towards bar 14 causing the bracing rods between 12 and 14 to turn towards a horizontal position in which they and the relevant hinges are progressively received within the down-fadng recess of bar 14. Bar 12 dears holders 17, 18 (as it does all upper holders) but its flange 13 "catches" bar 14 which it lifts from 17, 18 and the two bars, one on top of the other, are lifted so as to dear 19, 20 (as they do all upper holders) but catching bar 15. And so the process of "catching" bars progresses upwardly until the door is fully open and bars 16, 15 and 14 are stacked as dosely one upon the other, as the struts permit, and in a location wherein they will not obstruct the doorway : Fig. 2.

The re-inforcing system provided by the invention can readily be produced in kit form with bars in standardized lengths capable of being cut shorter, as necessary, and of being fitted with suitable end portions to make up completed bars in the desired effective total lengths. 231619 Although the holder-pairs 17, 18 etc. are shown as mutually offset in a transverse direction with bars correspondingly graded in lengths, other shapes and relative dispositions of holders and bar ends may be possible to achieve the same result i.e. bars being progressively deposited on and removed from their respective holders as the door is closed and opened respectively. For example it may be preferable to have an arrangement wherein the holder pairs are mutually offset in a direction at rightangles to the plane of the door.

It will be evident from the foregoing that the invention provides a very simple means for strengthening a "roll-up", "glide-away" or other kind of sliding or retractable door, including those moving vertically, horizontally or otherwise. The invention may be incorporated in new installations or may be supplied e.g. in kit form for addition to existing doors.

For the purposes of this specification terms such as "up", "horizontal", "vertical", "lowest", "above", "beneath", "height", "lower" are to be understood as applying to a vertically movable door and are not to be regarded as necessarily limiting.

Claims (8)

/ 31 6 i 9 WHAT I CLAIM IS:

1. A roll-up or retractable door assembly for opening and closing a doorway including a flexible door movable between fully open and fully closed positions, a plurality of strengthening bars not fixedly connected to the door, holders arranged in pairs, one of each pair located on each side of the doorway, each pair of holders adapted to support one of the respective bars in an at least substantially horizontal position across the doorway when the door is closed or being closed, and to release the bar in response to opening movement of the door, and guide means separate from the holders for guiding the movement of and for restraining the bars against horizontal movement whereby the bars are automatically positioned and removed by the door's closing and opening movements, respectively.

2. An assembly as claimed in claim 1 including means associated with the leading edge of the door for catching a lowest bar and for carrying a stack of said bars, the number of stacked bars increasing or decreasing as the door is raised or lowered, respectively.

3. An assembly as claimed in claim 2 wherein each pair of holders is arranged to catch, hold and support the topmost bar of the stack during descent of the door, but to allow the ascending stack to lift, gather and remove it as the door opens, whereby the bar thus lifted becomes the top bar of the stack until the next higher bar, if any, be encountered.

4. An assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein the guide means includes at least one guide bar, with each strengthening bar being apertured to receive the at least one guide bar.

5. An assembly as claimed in any one of the preceding claims additionally strengthened by bracing rods pivoted between successive bars so as to turn in response to relative movement between said bars, at least one of the bars being recessed to accommodate the rods in toto as the bars approach one another.

6. An assembly as claimed in claim 5 wherein the upper bar is so recessed on its underside, the lower ends of said rods are pivoted to the lower bar and the upper ends of the rods are slidably received in the recess under the upper bar.

7. An assembly as claimed in claim 5 wherein the rods are articulated each into two hinged links which are themselves hinged at their outer ends to the upper and lower bars respectively so as to open and close concertina-wise as the door closes and opens, respectively.

8. A door assembly substantially as herein described with reference to Figures 2, 3 and 4, and either Figures 1, 5 and 6 or Figure 7 of the accompanying drawings. MATTEO MIMMO By His Authorised Attorneys JOHN A. REMMINGTON & ASSOCIATES