US2778072A

US2778072A - Compartment door and seal therefor

Info

Publication number: US2778072A
Application number: US338989A
Authority: US
Inventors: Palisca Matthew
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1953-02-26
Filing date: 1953-02-26
Publication date: 1957-01-22
Anticipated expiration: 1974-01-22

Description

Jan. 22; 1957 M. PALISCA COMPARTMENT DOOR AND SEAL THEREFOR Filed Feb. 26, 1953 I m M M United States Patent G CONWARTMENT DOOR AND SEAL THEREFOR Matthew Palisca, Jamaica, N. Y.

Application February 26, 1953, Serial No. 338,989

3 Claims. (Cl. 20--69) (Granted under Title 35, U. S. Code (1952), see. 266) The invention described herein may be manufactured and used by or for the Government of the United States of America for governmental purposes without the payment of any royalties thereon or therefor.

My invention relates in general to compartment doors and seals therefor. it relates more in particular to fluidtight compartment doors of the general type utilized in many environments on naval craft to seal compartments to which access is required periodically.

In naval craft there are many compartment doors which are required to be water-, gas-, airand/or fumetight, such as doors on elevators on airplane carriers, compartments containing bombs, torpedoes, water-tight compartments which prevent complete flooding of a ships hull when it is damaged below the water line, and the like. Such doors may be relatively very large a in the case of elevators on aircraft carriers, or merely large enough to permit access of personnel. They may have various shapes and they are mounted for closing in various ways as, for example, on hinges, or they may be slid into place and closed in still other ways. Almost without exception they are provided with a firmly attached, solid sealing member, and have some means for drawing them up tightly against such sealing member. Because of warp-age, distortion, normal structural variations and deviations, and for various other reasons the sealing of doors such as those identified has not been satisfactory. Extensive manipulation, reshaping, filing, hammering and the like are necessary both in original construction work and when repair is made in order to obtain a tight seal. Not only does this represent an excessive cost factor, but time and elfectivity of seal are also factors.

The principal object of my invention is the provision of a fluid-tight compartment door by means Otf which a good seal may be :obtained regardless of minor distortions, warpings, and the like of the door or door frame members.

Another object is the provision of a seal tor such doors which automatically adjusts itself to minor irregularities of construction.

Still another object is the provision of a seal for compartment doors which is readily replaced, and in which there is no necessity to reshape or modify the door or door frame structure at the time of such replacement.

A still further object is the provision of animproved compartment door seal which requires only relatively minor changes in conventional door construction and can be used with present day standard door-mounting and door-tightening mechanisms.

Other specific objects and features of my invention will be apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description taken with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Fig. l is a plan elevational view of a conventional type of door construe-ted in accordance with my invention, the door being either one which is generally horizontal or 2 generally vertical, depending upon the compartment which it seals;

Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrows, this figure showing the seal as it appears after the door is partially tightened against the coaming;

Fig. 3 shows the seal before it is tightened against the coaming, and with the coaming slightly mis-aligned with respect to the seal;

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view of a portion of Fig. 2 showing the condition of the seal after the door has been drawn tightly against the coaming when slightly out of line;

Fig. 5 is a slightly reduced elevational view partly broken away, showing the under side of the door and illustrating the manner in which the seal is placed in position;

Fig. 6 is similar to Fig. 5, but showing a modified form of seal;

Fig. 7 shows the manner in which the seal is arranged if a door with square corners is used; and

Fig. 8 is a similar view showing a conventional arrangement for a round compartment door.

In disclosing my invention, particularly the first-described embodiment shown in Figs. 1 through 5, I have shown a general arrangement, partly schematic, common to compartment doors on naval craft. It will be understood that this showing is illustrative, as any usual door mounting and closing mechanism can be employed. The door shown in these figures will close any usual compartment in which a frame 10 forms a door opening 11 around which the usual coaming 12 is placed. A generally square door 13 with rounded corners is mounted one pair of hinges 14, and a plurality of tightening dogs 16 carried by the frame 10 are adapted for engagement against the door in a conventional manner to draw it toward the coaming.

Opposite the coaming 12, the door is provided with a channel 17 shaped to loosely retain an elongated, generally cylindrical body '18. The channel may be formed in various ways, but as shown is formed by a peripheral flange 19 on the panel forming the door, and a spaced projection 21 welded to the under side of such panel. The flange 19 and projection 21 slope toward each other as shown in the drawings, and the cylindrical body 18 may be forced into the channel and loosely retained therein in the intended manner, but functionally equivalent structures may be used.

The cylindrical body 18 is preferably formed of a good grade of semi-soft to soft vulcanized rubber treated to reduce its tendency to deteriorate by oxidation and the like, but it may be formed of any suitable resilient material having the desired rubber-like properties. In general a tube is preferred to a solid cylindrical body, and in general the material itself must be somewhat more flexible, e. g., be of softer rubber, if the member 18 is a solid cylinder. The diameter should vary somewhat with the size of door and sealing action required, and the wall thickness generally is greater than normally found in standard rubber tubing of commerce. 'In sea ing a four by six foot door, for'exa-mple, I have found that the cylindrical body preferably should be a tube about inch to 1 inch in diameter and with the wan thickness of to @5 inch, depending on pressures involved. A standard wall thickness of A inch may be adopted in most instances.

The manner in which the cylindrical sealing member functions may be noted by referring to Figs. 3 and 4. In Fig. 3 the coaming 12 has not engaged the cylindrical member and is slightly mis-aligned with respect to it. In Fig. 4, however, the engagement has been completed;

and this slight this-alignment such as encountered in standard practice does not prevent an adequate seal. Comparison may be made with the illustration shown in Fig. 2. This automatic compensation is particularly important at the hinge side of a door where there is-a tendency for the coaming to rub against the seal as the door is closed. With a seal in the form of a loose cylindrical body such as I employ, there is an automatic compensation for the rubbing action; and even though the engagement with the coaming is not in the same place on each closing of the door, the resulting functional adj-ustment still produces a tight seal. This same type of adjustment occurs entirely around the door, regard-less of .what may cause the mis-alignment.

There is still another advantage of the loosely supported cylindrical seal such a I employ, 'as will be seen particularly by referring to Fig. 5. The member 18 is out long enough so that .when placed in position its ends while in place on the door, and the advantages of my arrangement are obvious by comparison.

In Fig. 6 I disclose *a-modification in which the cylindrical sealing member 18 is produced in the form of a closed loop. Such a seal may be formed simply by vulcanizing the two ends of a suitable tube together before installation, either at the factory or in a naval repair facility maintained for the purpose. In this form of the invention, the cylindrical body 18 is made long enough to exactly fit the channel in which it is to be placed. against the projection 21, but should be loose enough so that it can have free adjustment movement in the intended manner in the channel 17. In general, this type of closed loop is not required, but there are occasional circumstances where its use is indicated.

Figs. 7 and 8 employ the same reference numbers used in Fig. 1 and show the manner of forming the seal when It should not be small enough to pull tightly completion of the required retaining channel; or still other simple conversion expedients may be used. My invention is concerned only with the resulting functional structure, as particularly defined in the claims.

I claim:

1. A fiuid-tight compartment door assembly comprising; means defining a door opening; a coarning framing the opening in said means; a door for sealing the opening by engaging said coaming, said door including a body portion, a continuous flange of substantially constant width projecting from one surface of said body portion and forming a first closed loop, the inner surface of said flange being fiat in cross section and sloping slightly in toward the center of said body portion, the inside dimen sions of the first closed loop measured at the rim of said flange being bigger than the outside dimensions of said coaming, a continuous projection of substantially the same width as said flange projecting from the one surface of said body portion within the area enclosed by said flange and forming a second closed loop spaced by a substantially constant, distance from said flange, the outer surface of said projection being flat in cross section and sloping slightly out toward said flange, the outside dimensions of the second closed loop measured at the rim of said projection being smaller than the inside dimensions of said coaming by substantially the same amount that the inside dimensions of the first closed loop measured 4 at the rim of said flange is bigger than the outside dimensions of said coaming, said flange and said projection and the body portion of said door included there between defining a channel, the thickness of said coaming 'being a minor fraction of the distance between the rims of saidflange and said projection, a seal in the form of a cylindrical resilient readily deformable member disposed in the channel and is of such length that it extends throughout the channel forming a loop, the diameter of said seal bein'g'such that when not compressed it makes substantially only line contact with said flange perfectly square and round doors, respectively, are em I show that any usual shape of door may employ the seal of my invention, and of course the abutting ends may be vulcanized together as shown in Fig. 6 regardless of the shape involved.

Those skilled in the art will understand that the specific door and channel construction shown in the drawings is illustrative. Generally it is a form which is used in new door construction. Since my invention is adapted to be applied to all existing doors, however, with no required change except for the provision of a channel for loosely retaining a suitable cylindrical; body such as described, the actual manner of producing the channel will be determined by the conditions encountered. For example, the channel may be separately formed of a single piece and attached to an existingdoor by welding or the like; or part of a door structure may be used as one side of a channel and a separate strip attached tor and said projection and said body portion, the diameter of said seal being somewhat bigger than the gap between the rim of said flange and the rim of said projection whereby said seal is retained loosely in the channel, whereby said compartment door assembly is adapted to eifect a fluid-tight seal regardless of minor distortions, warpings, misalignment or the like in said door assembly.

2. A door-as defined in claim 1 in which said seal is formed of soft rubber that is free of voids.

-3. A door as defined in claim 1 in which said seal is in the form of a tubular resilient member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Re. 22,013 Lambert Feb. 3, 1942 2,149,684' MacGregor Mar. 7, 1939 2,156,635 Mascuch et a1. May 2, 1939 2,236,315 Gray Mar. 25, 1941 2,257,776 King Oct. 7, 1941 2,421,400 Young June 3, 1947 2,440,764 Wilson May 4, 1948 Y FOREIGN PATENTS 6,274 Germany 1880 793,836 France Nov. 23, 1935 855,671 France Feb. 19, 1940