WO2005069728A2

WO2005069728A2 - Adjustable safety gate which can be opened to the upward direction of a stairway

Info

Publication number: WO2005069728A2
Application number: PCT/IL2005/000066
Authority: WO
Inventors: Moshe Levy
Original assignee: Moshe Levy
Priority date: 2004-01-26
Filing date: 2005-01-20
Publication date: 2005-08-04
Also published as: IL160055A; WO2005069728A3; IL160055A0

Abstract

A safety gate for use to prevent the movement of children through opening like stairways and doorways. The safety gate can be adjusted to the opening width and can be opened toward the upward direction of a stairway. The safety gate comprises of two segments where each segment comprises of two pairs of horizontal bars and several vertical bars attached together by pivots, forming the basic rectangular structure of the gate. Two of the horizontal bars are attached at one of their ends to a side vertical bar with dual axis pivot assembly. This structure enables the gate to rotate in both vertical and horizontal directions at the same time, while changing the gate frame shape from a rectangular shape to a parallelogram shape during the gate opening action. These rotating capabilities enable the gate to be opened to the upstairs direction of a stairway as well as the opposite direction even il the gate is mounted very close to the stairs at the upward direction of the stairway. This gate structure also enables the gate width to be adjusted to a partIcular opening width during the installation process.

Description

Adjustable Safety Gate which can be opened to the upward direction of a stairway.

Field of the invention:

The present invention relates to a safety gate for use in obstructing stairways, doorways and similar openings for safely restraining, protecting and preventing passage of toddlers and small children.

Background of the invention:

A safety gate is a very common and useful device to protect small children and to prevent them to move to dangerous areas. Safety gates are usually installed in openings in the house like doorways and stairways. It is obvious that stairways are very dangerous to babies and toddlers. Thus many safety gates are installed near to stairways so it is important that the use of safety gates will be convenient and it will be easy to be operated by adults especially near to stairways.

There is a variety of known safety gates that are aimed to give a solution for this need. These gates are trying to address the following issues: ease of operation, ease of installation, adjusting capability to the opening width.

Some gates need no fix installation and they mounted at the opening by pressing the two lintels of the opening. Thus, by producing a friction forces between the gate and the lintels, the gate stays fixed and can not be moved by small children.

But even if mounting such gates is relatively easy, it is still not a good enough solution in cases when an adult wants to pass these gates from time to time. The adult have to uninstall the gate in order to pass and then to reinstall it again. This makes such solutions not so convenient solution. In order to overcome this difficulty some of the gates, which use friction forces for installation, are built of "U" shape frame which is fixed to the opening by using friction forces, and inside the "TJ" shaped frame there is a moveable part that can be opened like a regular door. These gates that uses a "U" shape structure and friction forces to be mounted, need to have a very strong and heavy "U" structure, and the lower horizontal portion of the "U" is making some difficulty to the adult to pass the open gate. All known gates including the gates with a variable geometry do not result a solution that answers the requirements from such product: the ability to be opened toward the upward direction of stairways and still easy to use.

The present invention answers the requirements of the ability to be opened toward the upward direction of stairways as well as ease of use of the gate. It is very quick and simple action to open and to close the gate. It needs simple installation procedure and the gate can be adjusted to a given opening width.

Disclosure of the invention:

The invention illustration below refers to a safety gate for obstructing stairways or doorway openings. FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 illustrate the gate assembly in a closed position where the two pairs of bars 7, 8, and 9 10 are in a vertical position and the elements 11 and 12 are fitted into the gap formed by the upper 13 and lower 14 bended elements.

The gate structure comprises of vertical bars 1 to 6 or more, and two or more horizontal pairs of bars, the upper pair 7 and 8, and the lower pair 9 and 10.

The number of the horizontal pairs can vary and it depends on the height of the gate and structural strength requirements. For the purpose of convenience in presenting the invention, it was chosen to illustrate the invention with two pairs of horizontal bars 7, 8 and 9, 10. The number of the vertical bars can vary and it depends on the overall width of the opening and the desired distance between each adjacent vertical bars. For the purpose of convenience in presenting the invention, it was chosen to illustrate the invention with six 1 to 6 vertical bars. Vertical bars 20 and 20A, which are shown in Fig. 2 in doted lines, are optional in case it will be required due to the opening width. The same way additional vertical bars can be added if required. The moving part of the gate comprise of two segments as shown in Fig. 2. Each segment comprises vertical bars and horizontal bars. The horizontal bars 7 and 8 are mounted one at the upper side of the gate while horizontal bars 9 and 10 are mounted at the bottom of the gate. The vertical bars 1 to 6 are mounted along the horizontal bars 7 to 10 length, having the same distance from each other, by means of pivots 27. Vertical bars 1, 2 and 3 are attached to horizontal bars 7 and 9 at one side of the horizontal bars 7 and 9, while vertical bars 4, 5 and 6 are attached to horizontal bars 8 and 10 at the opposite side.

Thus the vertical bars and the horizontal bars are forming two rectangular segments as shown in Fig. 2 which the rotating part of the gate comprises. This structure wherein the vertical bars in each segments of the gate are attached at an opposite side of the horizontal bars, enables the gate to be adjusted to a particular opening width by sliding the two segments against each other and changing the overlapping area of the two segments to fit the overall width of the gate to the opening width. On the opening lintels there are installed two vertical bars 21 and 22. At one side, the gate structure attached to dual axis pivot assembly comprises parts 16 and 18 as shown in Fig. 7, at the upper bar 7, and to dual axis pivot assembly comprises elements 17, 19 at the lower bar 9, allowing the gate structure to rotate in both horizontal and vertical directions independently. At the other side of the gate structure, the elements 11 and 12, in the closed position of the gate, are fitted into the gaps formed by the upper 13 and the lower 14 bended elements mounted on the vertical side bar 22.

The vertical bars and the horizontal bars are attached together by pivots 27 that allow the bars to rotate against each other. This way of constructing the gate structure gives the gate structure the ability to change the gate shape from a rectangular shape to a parallelogram shape. To open the gate, the flexible element 15 is pushed toward the side vertical bar 22. This action creates a gap between the flexible element 15 and the bended element 13. This gap allows the gate to be lifted up while changing the gate structure shape from a rectangular shape to a parallelogram shape. This change of the gate shape is illustrated in FIG. 3. The solid lines represent the gate in a closed position, while the doted lines illustrating the gate in its lift up position in which the gate can be rotate in horizontal direction like any regular gate. This horizontal rotation can be performed even if the gate is mounted very adjacent to stairs at the upstairs direction. Usually, known gates don't have the ability to be opened to the upstairs direction. Known gates must be mounted far away form the stairs of the upstairs direction to enable the gate to be open toward the upstairs direction. In most cases the ability of the gate to be opened toward the upstairs direction is very convenient and is most desired.

In the closed position of the gate, flat bars elements 11 and 12 are fitted into the gap that is formed between bended flat elements 13 and 14 and side bar 22. FIG. 6 is showing the locking method comprises of element 15 made of flexible material which is attached to vertical bar 22 at its upper end allowing movement of its lower end. When closing the gate, element 11 push element 15 at its lower end and move into the gap between bended flat elements 13 and side bar 22 to a fully closed position. In this fully closed position the horizontal bars 7 8 9 and 10 are horizontal to the floor plane and the vertical bars 1 2 3 4 5 and 6 are vertical to the floor plane. The element 15 prevents the element 11, which is mounted on horizontal bar 8, from being lifted up and keeps the gate safely closed. This mechanism provides a very convenient locking and unlocking means of the gate and prevent unwanted opening of the gate by toddlers or small children. In this position the gate is firm and can be used for the purpose of obstructing stairways, doorways and similar openings for safely restraining, protecting and preventing passage of toddlers and small children.

To unlock the gate, the flexible element 15 as shown in FIG. 6, is pushed toward vertical bar 22 forming a gap between elements 15 and 13 which allow this side of the gate to be lifted up while allowing element 11 to move up through the gap formed between elements 13 and 15. The method of opening the gate gives additional advantage to present invention while using of the gate. The first step of gate opening operation is lifting one side of the gate structure. This lifting operation makes the gate shape to have much smaller size top view profile as shown in FIG. 5, which means that the gate needs much smaller free space and a much smaller radius to let the gate to be opened. At the same time this operation of lifting one side of the gate enable the gate to overcome any obstacle of stairs in upward direction as shown in FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 while rotation movement in an horizontal direction.

The installation of the gate is very simple and is divided into two steps. The first step is mounting the fixed side vertical bars to the opening lintels. Usually two screws 40 41 and 42 43 for each bar 21 and 22 are sufficient. The two bars 21 and 22 must be mounted parallel to each other.

The second step of the installation is to adjust the gate frame to the opening width. This is done by releasing horizontal bars 7 and 8 from the grip of the "L" shape brackets 23 and 24 by unscrew screws 36 and 37, and similarly to release horizontal bars 9 and 10 from the grip of "L" shape brackets 25 and 26 by unscrew screws 38 and 39.

This release action enable one half of the gate frame comprising vertical bars 1 2 3 and horizontal bars 7 and 9, to be vertically slid against the other half of the gate frame comprise of vertical bars 4 5 6 and horizontal bars 8 and 10. The gate frame can be adjusted to the opening width by sliding the two halves of the gate frame against each other.

After the adjustment procedure, the horizontal bars 8 and 9 must be tightened again to the "L" shape brackets 23, 24, 25 and 26 accordingly by screwing again screws 36 37 38 and 39.

Brief description of the drawings:

The drawings are provided here for the purpose of better understanding the invention with the illustrations and are not intended to define the limits of the invention. The present invention will be more fully understood and appreciated from the detailed description taken in conjunction with the following drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustration of the safety gate of the present invention mounted in a doorway in a close position;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustration of the two segments that the rotating part of the gate comprises.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the safety gate of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is front view of the safety gate of FIG.1 in a full open position toward upward direction of a stairway; FIG. 5 is a top view of the safety gate of FIG. 1 in a full open position toward upward direction of a stairway;

FIG. 6 is a detailed perspective view of the engaging and locking means between the moving part of the gate and the side vertical bar;

FIG. 7 is a detailed perspective view of the engaging means used as a dual axis pivot, between the moving part of the gate and the side vertical bar;

Best mode for carrying out the invention:

The innovation of the said invention is not depending on the dimensions or the materials which the said invention is carried out. In order to carry out the invention there are no specific restrictions on the materials of the gate elements or specific dimensions.

The invention can be carried out with a variety of materials like: wood, plastic, aluminum or any other material that can be shaped to the desired shapes and has the desired strength.

It is recommend that the locking elements 11,12,13,14,15, the pivots 27, elements 23,24,25,26 and the dual axis pivots 16,17,18,19 will be made of metal.

The dimensions and sizes are not specified since they depend on the specific requirements of the gate user. The number of the vertical bars

1,2,3 and 4,5,6 should be determined from the specific width of the opening and from the desired minimum distance between two adjacent vertical bars.

Claims

Claims: 1. A safety gate to prevent small children from passing an opening like stairways, doorways or corridors having a pair of opposing lintels or walls, the gate comprises of: Horizontal bars and vertical bars forming together the gate moveable part with a rectangular crossbar shape structure wherein the vertical bars and the horizontal bars are connected to each other at the cross points by pivots, which allow the bars to rotate freely against each other, thus the said gate movable structure can change its shape from a rectangular shape to parallelogram shape by pulling up one side of the said movable part of the gate.

2. A safety gate as claimed in claim 1 wherein the said horizontal bars are attached at one end to a vertical side bar with dual orthogonal axis pivot assemblies which allow rotation of the gate in both vertical and horizontal directions independently.

3. A safety gate as claimed in claims 1 and 2 wherein the said horizontal bars and the vertical bars are forming two rectangular structures which forming together the two segments which the movable part of the gate comprises, while in one rectangular structure the vertical bars are attached to its horizontal bars at one side and in the other rectangular structure the vertical bars are attached to its horizontal bars at the opposite side wherein this structure enable the two segments of the gate to slide against each other in order to fit the gate size to an opening width.

4. A safety gate as claimed in claims 1, 2 and 3 wherein the said gate movable part can change its shape from a rectangular shape to a parallelogram shape by pulling up the end of the gate moveable structure, which is not attached to the said side vertical bar, in a vertical direction, while at the same time the gate movable structure can be rotated in horizontal direction and thus complete the gate opening action.

5. A safety gate as claimed in claims 1 to 4, wherein the gate can be opened toward the upstairs direction after unlocking the gate from its closed and locked position and lifting the gate structure at the end that is close to the locking mechanism and then, at this uplift position the gate can be opened in an horizontal rotation toward the upstairs direction even if the gate is installed very close to a stairway at its upstairs direction of a stairway.

6. A safety gate as claimed in claims 1 to 5, further comprising two horizontal bar pairs, where in each pair, the bars are attached to each other by two flat brackets while the brackets are fixed to one bar and the brackets grip of the other bar can be released during the installation process and allowing the other bar to be moved horizontally against the other bar, wherein the gate can be adjusted to a specific opening width by sliding the lower bars of the horizontal bar pairs to the left or right direction, till the gate is at the right size for a proper operation of the gate at a particular opening width.

7. A safety gate as claimed in claims 1 to 6 further comprises flat elements that attached to the horizontal bars at the end which is supposed to be lifted in the opening operation and bended flat elements that are attached to a side fixed vertical bar which during the closing operation of the gate, the flat elements that attached to the horizontal bars are inserted to the gaps between the bended flat elements and the side vertical bars themselves, wherein, at the completion of the closing action, the horizontal bars are in their horizontal position. A safety gate as claimed in claims 1 to 7 wherein the locking mechanism comprises a flexible element which is installed in conjunction with the upper bended flat element that attached to vertical fixed side bar while in the closed position of the gate, the gate moveable frame is locked by the said locking mechanism which prevents the gate moveable structure from being lifted thus it keeps the gate safely closed.