US3160911A

US3160911A - Door checking appliance

Info

Publication number: US3160911A
Application number: US271900A
Authority: US
Inventors: Morris John Neville; Williams Ruth Margaret
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1960-10-24
Filing date: 1963-04-10
Publication date: 1964-12-15
Anticipated expiration: 1981-12-15

Description

Dec. 15, 1964 J. N. MORRIS .-E'-l'.-AL 3,160,911

DOOR CHECKING APPLIANCE Original Filed Oct. 24. 1960 S m M 0 m BL mRm e wm d a R u R NA NM ,N Hm 4 CU JR ATTORNEYS United States Patent Ofiice 3,160,91 l Patented Dec. 15, 1964 3,160,911 DSOR CIECKING APPLIANCE John Neville Morris, 38 Carpenter Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, and Ruth Margaret Williams, Littlecot Mill, Enford, near Pewsey, England Original application Oct. 24, 1960, Ser. No. 64,499, new Patent No. 3,118,167, dated Jan. 21, 1964. Divided and this application Apr. 10, 1963, Ser. No. 271,900

2 Claims. (Cl. 16-52) This invention relates to a door closer of the type employing a coil spring which is wound up when the door is opened, and which operates to close the door against the resistance of a damping fluid, and this application is divided from our co-pending application Serial No. 64,499 filed on October 24, 1960, now Patent Number 3,118,167, issued January 21, 1964.

According to the invention a door closer of this type comprises a main casing having a primary shaft mounted rotatably therein and adapted for connection to the door or surrounding structure so as to be rotated when the door is opened, a coil spring connected at one end to said shaft and at the other end to the main casing, 21 secondary shaft rotatably mounted within the casing and carrying a rotor disposed within a cylindrical chamber containing a fluid damping medium of relatively high viscosity and a one-way clutch device operatively connected between said primary and secondary shafts and adapted to transmit rotary motion from the primary to the secondary shaft when the door is closing under the influence of the coil spring.

The fluid damping medium is preferably a putty-like substance having a relatively high viscosity and one particular substance, which is known as silicone putty (or bouncing putty), has particularly useful properties in relation to the present invention because this putty has the unique property that when subject to a sudden shock load, it ceases to behave as a viscous fluid or putty-like substance and shears abruptly. For application of moderate stressit behaves like a normal highly viscous fluid but under shock load it behaves like a fragile non-ductile solid. Thus, this characteristic limits the load which can be applied to the attachment points of a door closer if an attempt is made to override violently the damping action such as a sudden severe load being applied to the door to hasten its rate of closing.

The one-way clutch device may take the generally known form of a coil spring which is adapted to be wound up or unwound according to the direction of rotation.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a plan view of a door closer embodying the features of the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a vertical section on the line 2-2 in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a section on the line 33 in FIGURE 2.

FIGURE 4 is a section corresponding to FIGURE 3 but showing the position of the parts when the door has been openedpast a predetermined maximum position to enable a latching device to come into operation.

Referring to the drawings, the invention is shown as applied to a door closer which is contained within the outer main casing 30 which would be secured with its axis vertical to the door or door frame.

The cylinder 30' is closed at its lower end and its upper end has an end plate 31 having a central hollow boss 32 in which is rotatably mounted a primary shaft 33 the outer end of which is suitably formed for nonrotative engagement by a lever arm 34, and this lever arm would be pivotally connected to a connecting rod which in turn is connected to the swivel member upon a mountitself moving the primary shaft in the reverse direction. I

tending grooves or serrations.

ing plate secured to the door or door frame according to the position of mounting of the casing 30.

Disposed within the bottom of the main casing 30 is the cylinder 35 of the fluid damping device and this has an upwardly extending co-axial sleeve 36 formed integral 1y with the cylinder 35 and providing a bearing for the secondary shaft 37.

The lower end of the secondary shaft 37 has fixed thereon the rotor 38 of the fluid damping device, this being in the form of a disc provided with axially extending grooves or serrations along its periphery, whilst the interior of cylinder 35 is also provided with axially ex- As an alternative to the serrations, the surfaces concerned may be knurled or otherwise deeply roughened. The annular space within the cylinder'35 is filled with a putty-like substance, such as silicone putty, indicated at 39 in FIGURE 2 and a suitable sealing ring 40 is provided at the position where the secondary shaft 37 makes exit from the chamber 35.

Both the prirnary and the secondary shafts may be provided in suitable positions as shown in FIGURE 2 with bearing sleeves which may also be formed from a synthetic resinous material such as nylon.

The primary shaft 33 is formed intermediate its upperv end of the spring 42 being suitably fixed to the interior of the main casing 3h.

The primary shaft 33 extends downwardly and at its lower end is located rotatably in an axial recess formed.

in the enlarged end 43 on the secondary shaft 37 and this enlarged end 43 has a radially extending flange 44 upon which is fixed a cup member 45.

The underside of the attachment plate 41 has also fixed thereto, an inverted cup member 46 similar to the member 45 and a close-coiled spring 47 is disposed so as to engage within the

cup members

46 and 45 and this forms the one-way clutch device.

The door closer illustrated also includes means for automatically latching the door in an open position when the primary shaft has been rotated beyond a predeterminted maximum angle, so that if the door is opened beyond a certain extent, say the latching means comes into operation to hold the door in the open position.

Referring particularly to FIGURES 3 and 4, such latching means comprises a protuberancein the form of a sleeve 4% fixed in the wall of the end cap 31 and a fulcrum post 49 mounted in the attachment plate 41, the fulcrum post having mounted thereon, a hollow roller 50 which is engaged by the outer profile of a leaf spring 51 held at its end in recesses 52 formed in upstanding walls 53 on two opposed side edges of the attachment plate 41 In the drawings, the latching means is, shown on one side only of the primary shaft, but if desired such latching means may be duplicated on the other side of the primary shaft where a further protuberance 54 is indicated. 1

In the operation of the latching meanswhen the position of FIGURE 3 is reached which indicates the pre determined maximum position of the opening of the door, the hollow roller 50 contacts the protuberance 48 thus causing the roller 5t to rock about the fulcrum post 49 and be forced inwardly towards the primary shaft 48, thus acting to latch or retain the primary shaft with I sufficient restraint toprevent the return spring 42 by During the action of latching or retaining the door in an open position, corresponding to the co-action of the fixed 'proturberance, hollow roller, fulcrum post and leaf spring as described in the preceding paragraph, it

ment of the fixed protuberance upon the hollow roller in; respect of its action in overcoming the load of the leaf spring during the action of latching or retaining than during the opposite action of unlatching or releasing. Such a differential of mechanical advantage is conveniently achieved by, providing the fulcrum post with an asyma metrical cross-sectional form so chosen that, in response to impul-sion in one direction by the fixed protuberance, the interior periphery of the roller 'fulcrums about a line of contact on the fulcrum post which lies radially closer to the primary shaft than that about which the interior of the roller is compelled to fulcrum in response to impulse by the fixed protuberance in thecpposite direction.

v The desired cross-section of the fulcrum post may be obtained. as illustrated by forming the post from two split sleeves or alternatively a fulcrum post ofequilateral triangular cross-section arranged with one ofits sides in a plane radial to the axis of the primary shaft maybe provided. a

operates to close the door against the resistance of a damping fluid, comprising a main casing, a primary shaft rotatably mounted within said casing, means connecting said primary shaft with the door structure whereby the primary shaft is rotated when the door is opened, a coiled return spring connected at one end to the primary shaft and at the other end to the main casing, a secondary shaft rotatably mounted within the casing, in co-axial alignment with said primary shaft, a cylindrical chamber formed within said casing, a rotor mounted upon said secondary shaft, and disposed within said chamber, a damping fluid of high viscosity filling the space between the interior of said chamber and said rotor, a cup-shaped member fixed co-axi-ally to" said primary shaft, a similar cup-shaped member fixed co-axially to said secondary shaft, and a close-coiled spring engaging partly within one and partly within the other of said cup-shaped members, and acting as a one-Way clutch device operating between said primary and secondary shafts to transmit rotary'motion from the primary shaft to the secondary shaft when the door is closing.

In the above desired arrangement, the coil spring should be handed in accordance with whether the device is applied to a right-hand or a ,left-hand door and this same requirement applies to the direction of asymmetry of the cross-section of the fulcrum post or posts in the latching means:

The action of the door closer is as follows:

\Vhen an opening movement is imparted to the door, I

members- 46 and 45 so that no significant rotation is im-.

parted to the secondaryshaft 37;

' 'On releasing the door the return spring 42 will act to reverse the direction of rotation of the primary shaft so that the coil spring 47will grip within the

cup members

46 and 45 and thus transmit-rotation to the secondary shaft 37 so that the closing movement of the door is resisted by the fluid damping medium acting 1 upon the rotor 38.

If the. door is opened beyond the maximum predetermined angle illustrated in FIGURE 3, the roller or rollersStl will encounter the fixed protuberance and a moderate additional force in the opening direction,will cause the rollerjor rollers to ride over the protuberance and latch the door in the open position where it will remain until such time as sufiicient manual force is applied in the direction of closing to disengage the latching means, whereafter the door will close automatically under'the influence of the return spring 42.

What we claim then is: a 1. A door closer of the type having a return spring which is stressed when the door is opened and which 2. A door closer of the type having a return spring which is stressed when the door isopened and which operates to close the door against the resistance of a damping fluid, comprising a main casing, an end cap at the topof the main casing, a primary. shaft-rotatably mounted in'said end cap on a vertical axis, means connecting said primary shaft with the door structure whereby the primary shaft is rotated when the door is opened, a coiled return spring connected at one end to the primary shaft and at the other end to the main casing, a secondary shaft rotatably mounted within the casing, in co-axial alignment with said primary shaft, a'cylindrical chamber formed within said casing, at the bottom thereof, a rotor disc fixed to the lower end of said secondary shaft and rotatable within said cylindrical chamber, a'damping' fluid of high viscosityfilling the space between the interior of said chamber and said rotor disc, a one-way clutch device operating between said primary and secondary shafts to transmit rotary motion from the primary shaft to the secondary shaft when the door is closing, an attachment plate extending radially from the primary shaft, a fulcrum post mounted on said plate with its axis parallel to the axis of the primary shaft, a hollow roller mounted freely upon said post, a protuberance on the interior of said end cap of the main casing, and spring means-urging said hollow roller outwardly away from the primary shaft to co-act with said protuberance, such that, if the door is opened beyond a predetermined extent, said roller rides over said protuberance against the pressure of said spring means and subsequently lodges behind the protuberance to latch the door in an open position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,590,185 3/52 Land.

2,775,317 12/56 Sinisterra' 2,818,883 1/58' Hulferd.

2,964,783 12/60. Engels.

3,118,167 1/64 Morris et a1. 7

V FOREIGN PATENTS 537,081 2/57 Canada.

DO NLE Y J. STOCKING, Primary Examiner.

Claims

1. A DOOR CLOSER OF THE TYPE HAVING A RETURN SPRING WHICH IS STRESSED WHEN THE DOOR IS OPENED AND WHICH OPERATES TO CLOSE THE DOOR AGAINST THE RESISTANCE OF A DAMPING FLUID, COMPRISING A MAIN CASING, A PRIMARY SHAFT ROTATABLY MOUNTED WITHIN SAID CASING, MEANS CONNECTING SAID PRIMARY SHAFT WITH THE DOOR STRUCTURE WHEREBY THE PRIMARY SHAFT IS ROTATED WHEN THE DOOR IS OPENED, A COILED RETURN SPRING CONNECTED AT ONE END TO THE PRIMARY SHAFT AND AT THE OTHER END TO THE MAIN CASING, SECONDARY SHAFT ROTATABLY MOUNTED WITHIN THE CASING, IN CO-AXIAL ALIGNMENT WITH SAID PRIMARY SHAFT, A CYLINDRICAL CHAMBER FORMED WITHIN SAID CASING, A ROTOR MOUNTED UPON SAID SECONDARY SHAFT, AND DISPOSED WITHIN SAID CHAMBER, A DAMPING FLUID OF HIGH VISCOSITY FILLING THE SPACE BETWEEN