US971621A

US971621A - Grain-door for freight-cars.

Info

Publication number: US971621A
Application number: US50229809A
Authority: US
Inventors: William K Lavis
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1909-06-15
Filing date: 1909-06-15
Publication date: 1910-10-04
Anticipated expiration: 1927-10-04

Description

W. K. LAVIS.

GRAIN DOOR FOR FREIGHT CARS APPLIOATION FILED JUNB15, 1909 Patented 001;. 4, 1910.

MII

k q L @5MM mwdgg;

W. K. LAVIS.

GRAIN DOOR FOR FREIGHT GARS.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 15, 1909.

Patented Oct. 4, 1910.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

calde Slide.

WILLIAM K. LAVIS, 0F LA GRANGE, ILLINOIS.

GRAIN-DOOR FOR FREIGHT-CARS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed .Tune 15, 1909.

Patented Oct. 4, 1910.

Serial No. 502,298.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM K. LAvis, a citizen of the United States, residing at La Grange, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Grain -Doors foi Freight-Cars, of which the following is a specification.

The principal object of my invention is to provide a new and improved sectional grain door for freight cars.

Other objects are to provide a grain door that shall be simple and inexpensive to construct, not likely to get out of order, and convenient to use.

All these objects and others will become readily apparent in the perusal of the following specification and claims taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which I have illustrated one specilic embodiment of my invention.

The invention is dened in the appended claims and the drawings illustrate one of many forms which the invention may take in actual practice.

Referring to the drawings, Figure 1 is an elevation of the. entire door as viewed from within the car, looking out toward the door opening. Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5 and Gare sections taken on the correspondingly numbered lines in Fig. 1 and looking in the directions of the respective arrows. Figs. 7, 8 and 9 are fragmentary perspective views of details, and Fig. 10 is a section on the line 10 of Fig. 1 looking in the direction of the arrow.

Referring to Fig. l, the car floor is represented by the reference numeral 15, the side wall 16 and the door opening 17. 'At one side of the door openin the vertical Z- bar 18 is secured to the oor post 21 by means of the stud bolts 19. The free ange of the Z-bar 18 is notched at intervals, and lateral projections 20 are turned inwardly, parallel to the web of the Z-bar 18; their purpose will be explained later. Y

In a general Way, the door comprises sheet metal sections 22; as illustrated in Fig. 1 there are four such sections. The bottom edge of each door section 22 is bent inward horizontally as indicated by 23, and then downward as indicated by 24, thus forming a shoulder 23, which rests upon the guide 25. Each uide 25 has its upper part bent horizontalIy as indicated by 26, and then downwardly as indicated b 27, and its lower part bent into a horizonta plane as indicated by 28. Between the edges of the

parts

27 and 28, a slot is left, and the upper edge of the door section 22 is bent horizontally as indicated by 29, to enter this slot, and then vertically as indicated by 30, the part 30 lying between the

parts

25 and 27 of theguide. It will be observed that the main part 22 of each door section is in a plane slightly in! clined from the vertical, and therefore wedge shaped filler blocks 31 (see Figs. 3 and 4) are attached to the door post 47, so as to fill the corresponding space between said door post and the door sections 22. The vertical steel bars 32 stand in spaced relation close to the ends of the guides and serve to keep the door sect-ions 22 in operative relation to the guides. The bars 82 have their ends 33 bent aside to form toes, which are secured to the floor and ceiling of the car by means of stud bolts 34.' At the bottom the guide takes a modified form, consisting simply of a wooden strip 44 filling the space within t-he

portions

23 and 24 of t-he lowermost door section 22. The guides 25 may be secured to the inside car wall by means of the downturned ears 45 and screws 4G, as shown in Fig. 1. Another mode of attaching the guides to the wall is more fully illustrated in Fig. 10, where screws 35 coperate with screw holes 36 to secure the guides 25 in place. The holes 37 provide access to these screws. Obviously, I may employ either of these modes of fastening for the guides 25, or I may employ both of them, or I may provide a different suitable means for securing the guides 25 to the car wall.

The front lower corner of each door section 22 is notched, as shown in Fig. 7 by the reference numeral 38, the bottom of the notch being still further recessed as indicated by 39. When the door section is closed, the notch 38-39 engages the lug 20, thus preventing the slide from accidentally becoming opened. It is obvious that a slight vertical displacement of the forward end of the sliding door section is necessary in order to cause this notch 38-39 to engage with or disengage from the corresponding lug 20, but the relation of the parts is such as to permit this adjustment; this will be apparent on inspection of Fig. 2. The lugs 20 perform another function, namely, they act as abutments to hold the upper forward corners of the sliding sections 22 toward or against the door post 21. In the drawings the thickness of the sheet metal is somewhat exaggerated for the sake of clearness, but a little consideration of the drawings will make this statement obvious.

The forward end of each door section 22 has a clip 40 riveted thereto, carrying a hand hold ring 41. Hooks 42 are secured by screws in the holes 43 to the inside face of the door post 21, and when the door sections are closed these hooks 42 engage the rings 41 and positively secure the grain door sections in closed position. 1t will be observed that the hooks 42 form an additional securing means intended to supplement the lugs 2O co-acting with the

notches

38, 39.

Assuming that the grain door is in closed position, an individual section can be opened from the outside by lifting the hook 42, seizing the hand hold 41, lifting and jerking back thereon, so as to disengage the

notch

38, 39 from the lug 20, and then shoving the door section back into fully opened position. Even if loose grain is piled up against the door, the thin sheet metal 22 is readily pushed back through the grain when the strength of a man is applied for the purpose. The

horizontal portions

23 and 29 of 'each door section adjacent to its lower and upper edge give the door section. great strength to resist the lateral thrust of the grain. The lower edge 24 of each section rests closely against the door sect-ion just below, as shown in Fig. 2, so that grain cannot leak out between the door sections. The downward weight of the grain on the ledges 23 tends to hold the doors tightly in place. The various sections are made interchangeable and the guides 25 are interchangeable. The door can be made upin any convenient Sizes, and can then be applied to any size of door opening within ordinary limits without the necessity for a special design. Thus it will be apparent that as many sections can be used as may seem desirable, for it will not matter ifa slight space is left at the top of the door opening, or if, on the other hand, the top section laps above the top of the door opening. No matter what the width of the door opening may be within reasonable limits the door sections will be of such a length that when in closed position they should lap eighteen inches or two feet on the side wall of the car, so that their movement will be controlled suiiiciently by the guides 25.

It will be observed that I have constructed a grain door adapted to fulfil the objects stated at the beginning of this specification and havin the practical advantages pointed out, as we as others which will be readily appreciated by those familiar with the art.

I claim:

1. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, and supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, said sections having their upper edges bent aside to form ledges engaging the respective guides.

2. A grain door for a freight car, com- ]nising a plurality of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, and supporting guides for said s ections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, said sections having their upper and lower edges bent aside to form ledges engaging said guides.

3. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, and slotted rectangular guides attached to the car wall at one side of the door opening, the slots in the guides being in the side faces thereof, each door section having an edge thereof bent aside to enter and engage the corresponding sleeve guide through the slot thereof.

4. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, the plane of each section being slightly inclined from the vertical, so as to facilitate the bottom edge of each section lapping closely past the top edge of the next adjacent section below supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, and wedge-shaped filler blocks attached to the wall adjacent to the door opening between the wall and said inclined door sections.

5. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sections adapted to slide horizont-ally across the door opening, supporting guides for said sections on the wall at one side of the door opening, and a Z-bar having one flange attached to the car wall at the opposite side of the door opening and the other flange being disposed to form with the car wall a. channel to receive the ends of the sliding door sections when they are in closed position, segments of the free edge of the Z-bar being bent inwardly and the door sections having notches near the ends thereof to engage said segments.'

6. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, and a flanged member attached to the car wall 0n the opposite side of the door openin and adapted to receive the ends of the siding door sections when in closed position, one flange of said member having int-urned lugs and the ends of the sliding door sections having notches to engage said lugs.

7. A grain door for a freight car comprising a plurality of similar sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door'opening, the plane of each section sleeve CIK being slightly inclined from the vertical and the top and bottom edges being bent back in opposite directions, the lower edge of each upper section lapping past the upper edge of the section below, and supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening.

8. A grain door for a freight car comprising a plurality of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, and slotted sleeve guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, the upper edge of each section entering the slot of the corresponding sleeve guide above the same and the lo-wer edge of each section being bent aside to form a ledge, said ledge resting upon the guide below the same.

9. A grain door for a freight car comprising a pluralityT of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, each section having a ledge along its to edge and its bottom edge, and each gui e being engaged both by the bottom ledge of the door section above and by the top ledge of the door section below.

10. A grain door for a freight car, comprising a plurality of sheet metal sections adapted to slide horizontally across the door opening, the plane of each section being slightly inclined from the vertical, supporting guides for said sections on the car wall at one side of the door opening, and wedgeshaped filler blocks attached to the wall adjacent to the door opening between the wall and said inclined door sections, the upper edge of each section lapping past the lower h edge of the section above 1t.

In testimony whereof, I have subscribed my name.

WILLIAM K. LAVIS. Witnesses:

HENRY A. PARKS, ANNA L. VVALTON.