US2507497A - Door - Google Patents

Description

May 16, 1950 R. A. BOW ERS DOOR Filed June 9. 1948 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. RAYMOND ANDREWS Bowsns R. A. BOWERS May 16, 1950 DOOR 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed June 9. 1948 INVENTOR. Rammva Aupnsw: Ban/5R:

Patented May 16, 1950 iUN-l- TED S I'A TI'ES PATENT OFFICE DOOR Raymond Andrews Bowers,lfrincet'on,' NJ.

Application June9, 1948,' Serial-No.'31,926

3.Claims. l

'The invention relates to doors and a method manufacturing same.

"The term door as hereinafter employed is intended to encompass partitions and panels for any construction for which they may be adapted.

'One of the inherent disadvantages of the conventional hinged door arises from the fact that a door frame must be employed, necessitating dead or unused space above and on both sides of the door. Complete access to the space behind the door is difiicult. Further, the wood of which the doors are made is relatively heavy, since rigidity is necessaryand they are comparatively expensive to manufacture.

An object of the present invention comprehends the provision of' a door which is transversely mobile; 3, door which will utilize the maximumspace; to provide a door which can be manufactured more expeditiously and economically than the conventional door, and of inexpensive materials availableat all times in large quantities, for example asbestos and pressed fibre board.

It is a further object to provide a door which may be readily fabricated from single pieces of semi-rigid thin material, as for example asbestos board, stiffened to a useable degree by the employment of slotted metallic tubular members engaging the cleated opposite edges of the fabricated blank of material. The door costs less to manufacture than the conventional one, and. its construction is such that no frame is necessary. Additionally the construction eliminates dead or unused space, and permits of the maximum access to space behind the door, as in a closet. one preferred material, asbestos board, the door will be non-combustible, vermin-proof and can be exposed to the weather indefinitely unpainted and unfinished without deleterious .efiect.

Specifically, it is another objectof the invention to provide an expeditious, economical method of manufacturing doors which, briefly, comprises fixedly securing a plurality of cleats or wedges to opposite vertical edges of a sheet L of asbestos board or other suitable material, driving slotted metallic tubes down and over said cleated edges and mounting rollers beneath the opposite lower terminals of said tubes.

These and other objects of the inventionwill 'beapparent from the drawings and explication hereinafter.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a complete assembly of two doors embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 depicts a sectional viewof the slotted "stiffening tube.

Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the wood cleat or wedge which is cemented to the sheet, prior to its being forced into the tube.

2. Fig; 4-z-shows a' perspective viewof the parts irrrelati'on to final assembly.

Fig. 5 shows. the construction which supports the .doorand permitswit'to have-transverse m'obility.

Figsfiis aperspzective v-iew-ofa three .doorrassembly.

Fig. 7 is. a sectional viewin dotted lines showing the tube, cleat and. panel construction.

Fig. 8 is a cross-section taken along the middle of one of the sections. f Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows a door assembly consisting of two; doors. embodying the i vention, with numeral 5 denoting a door having rectangular panel or sheet 6 of asbestos board, pressed wood fibre board or othersuitable material. As stated hereinbefore, asbestos board is zone preferred material (1) because it is, a naturally low cost product fabricated from asbestos mineral fibres which-are mixed with a special cement and rolled, into long strips, thendried and cutv to size; (2) it is tough and resistant, (3) it is non-combustible, vermin-proof and weatherresi'stant even without a protective paint or finof any sort.

Asbestos board hardens into a smooth finish without benefit of mechanical buffing and any kind of a decorative paint will adhere thereto. Additionally, it will not expand,"shrink or'otherwise change dimension or shape as a result of absorption of air-borne moisture. This material may be worked in much the same manner as wood, but it cannot, like the latter, be chipped, cut or otherwise damaged by children armed with in the-long dimension if positioned verticallybut will remain rigid in the smaller dimension. To stiffen and strengthen the panel 6, cleats 1 or wedges of wood or similar material, of which there may bethree to each side of the panel are fixedly secured thereto with mastic or o'ther'cementing medium. These members, as best shownin Figs. 3 and 4, may be beveled on'two edges thereof, are from one (1) "'to'two "(2) feet in length and'medially' grooved as at 8 to're- "cei've the opposite vertical edges ofthe sheeti.

In conjunction with the sheet or panel 6, with cleats l securely afiixed thereto, and to stiffen sheet 6 in its vertical or longest dimension, I em- 3 ploy metallic or rigid tubes 9 cut longitudinally full length (minus a small fraction) along one side and parallel to the axis of the tube to provide slot l0.

Adverting to cleats l, and referring particularly to Fig. 8, in cross-section the cleat members are minutely smaller than the interior diameter of tubes 9.

With the cleats 1 fixed to opposite vertical edges of sheet 6 slotted tubes 9 are driven over the cleated edges of the panel to snugly engage the cleats with the opposing edges of the slotted tube pressing firmly against the sheet 6 throughout its length. The latter prevent the asbestos panel from slipping from the tube and provide a mechanical means of accurately assuring that the sides of panel 6 are inserted into the tubes exactly the same distance at all points to provide a square, true and rigid door. Two tubes 9 are employed for each door, one to each vertical edge.

It has been found that round metallic tubes slotted longitudinally are preferable as vertical stifiening elements for several reasons:

(1) Metal was selected because it has more strength for the size and thickness of material than wood or other materials. Also it can be entirely machine fabricated; it is consistent in quality; is non-combustible and is not easily damaged.

It is light in weight, will not rust or corrode, and does not need to be painted. It is also easily worked or cut by machine-tools and can be purchased from stock which avoids the necessity for special tooling or stamping, in order to fabricate the door.

A round section is used because it has more strength with less weight than other shapes.

The purpose of using a slot in the metal tube as a means of fastening the asbestos panel is to make a continuous natural structural and economical connection that could not be achieved by means of screws, bolts or clips. The slot principle makes the maximum use of the natural strength of the curved metal shape of the tube.

To support the door vertically and to give it transverse mobility I employ rollers H axially mounted in sheaves l2 which fit into the bottom of the tubes 9. The weight of the door is thus supported on the opposing corners transmitting the weight of the door to the track, indicated by numeral 13. A continuous track across the entire space is provided for each door so that doors 5 may both be moved to either side of the room or closet opening. For purposes of manipulation,

of the doors horizontally, knobs It are mounted thereon.

For guiding the heads of the doors I provide grooved overhead track 15, the grooves of which are of suificient width to accommodate, the upper edges of sheets 6 which protrude from the tops of tubes 9. These upper edges of sheets 6 register slidably in the respective grooves of track l5 and said grooves are made sufficiently deep to permit the doors to be lifted clear of the bottom track for removal and for original installation.

The invention contemplates that a plurality of two, three or four doors constitute the preferred assemblies, requiring respectively two, three and four lower and overhead tracks.

The construction eliminates the dead or unused space formerly utilized for the conventional door frame. It permits access to all the space behind the door since the doors are all readily movable to one side or the other at the same time.

That full access is bad to all space behind the door is shown in Fig. 6 wherein the wall lines are indicated by the vertical dotted lines and the ceil ing and floor lines by the horizontal dotted lines.

The manufacturing method employed is expeditious and economical. It comprises fixedly securing a plurality of cleats or wedges to the opposite vertical edges of asbestos board or the like with a cementing medium; driving a slotted metallic tubing member down and over the cleated opposing edges of the board and finally axially mounting a roller or sheave beneath opposite lower terminals of said tubes. The method permits of the employment of relative inexpensive, readily available material, for example asbestos fibre board or pressed fibre board.

Qther advantages of the invention are (a) most of the dim-cult and expensive plastering operations inside a closet are eliminated (b) the doors may be installed with a minimum of field labor (0) studding, lathing, plastering, framing, hardware and installation time are minimized and (d) the hazard of a swinging door is eliminated.

I reserve the right to make such changes and modifications as may come within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. In a door, a rectangular sheet of relatively thin material, rigid in its short horizontal dimension and bendable in its long vertical dimension, elongated cleats bonded to opposite vertical edges of said sheet, slotted rigid tubes of less length than the length of said vertical edges and of a diameter sufficient to receive and embrace the cleated opposite edges of the sheet and with the tops thereof spaced below the top of the sheet, said tubes positioned in close fitting engagement with said cleats and with the opposite sides ofthe sheet, and rollers mounted in and projecting below the bottom ends of said tubes for providing mobility to said door.

2. A door, as claimed in claim 1 wherein the bottom ends of the tubes project below the bottom edge of the sheet.

3. A door assembly comprising, in combination, at least a pair of doors as claimed in claim 1 for mounting between ceiling and floor, an upper track mounted at the ceiling having at least a pair of parallel grooves extending across the opening, each of said grooves of a length approximately twice the width of one door, a grooved lower track mounted at the iloor and beneath the upper track, the upper edges of the doors sliding in the grooves of the upper track and the rollers of the doors rolling in the lower track.

RAYMOND ANDREWS BOWERS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this pa ent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Nurnber Name Date 2,080,593 Albert May 18, 1937 2,463,238 Eissell et al., Jr Mar. 1, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 67,077 Switzerland Dec. 17, 1913 84,427 Sweden 1935

Images