ΪF.T ι OF THF, INVENTION

This invention relates to folding doors and the like having hingedly connected panels, and has particular application to large folding doors such as garage doors and the hinges therefor and will be described with particular reference thereto.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

At present, garage doors are usually formed of rows of wood panels hinged together by a number of separate metal hinges fastened thereto. The doors also have a series of separately mounted rollers at their edges which run in tracks extending upwardly at the sides of the door opening and horizontally inwardly at the top of the door opening so that the door can be moved upwardly and then because of the hinging arrangement move horizontally inwardly at the top of the door opening. Very frequently such folding garage doors are provided with a remote controlled motor to raise and lower the doors in response to a signal from a small transmitter device.

At present such garage doors are both expensive to manufacture both from the cost of the wood and the substantial amount of hardware required in the form of hinges and rollers which have to be individually assembled. Moreover, these doors are heavy and awkward to handle, ship and install. The garage door opener mechanisms to handle such heavy doors require motors of significant torque and relatively heavy duties cables, pulleys or other harness for effecting the door movement.

Further, present such doors require maintenance and painting and, when damaged, cannot readily be repaired as the panels cannot be replaced without the removal and dismantling of the door.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The present invention provides for the provision of a folding door such as the garage door formed essentially or entirely of plastic material which is significantly less expensive to manufacture and significantly lighter than present such doors and does not require any hinge hardware to assemble, nor track hardware to run in the tracks or guides at the sides of the door opening.

Not only is the door of the present invention lighter and therefore easier to handle and inst-al but the component parts are easily assembled so that the door can be shipped in knock down form to provide important transportation costs.

Further the door of the present invention requires no maintenance and, if a door panel becomes damaged, it may be simply and easily replaced without having to remove the door from its installed position or disturb the other panels.

Moreover, because of the light weight of the door of the present invention, lighter duty and less expensive door operating equipment can be employed to provide additional cost savings.

In its broadest aspect the present invention involves, as the means of hingedly connecting door panels of the like, the utilization of elongated thermoplastic extrusions having a longitudinal edge which is notched to provide a series of hinge barrel elements along the length thereof adapted to interleave with the hinge barrel elements of a mating extrusion to provide a

substantially continuous pintle receiving hinge barrel formation along the length of the extrusions.

According to a preferred form of the present invention, the folding or garage door comprises a plurality of transverse rows of door panels of plastic material hingedly connected by a plurality of spaced transverse hinges, each of said transverse hinges comprising a pair of elongated extruded hollow hinge bars of thermoplastic material having longitudinal front, rear and edge walls, one of the longitudinal edge walls of each of the bars being notched to provide a series of spaced slots therein, a series of spaced aligned integrally connected hinge barrel elements project outwardly from said notched edge wall beyond said slots with the hinge barrel elements of one of the pair of hinge bars being offset and interleaved with the hinge barrel elements of the other of the pair of hinge bars. A pintle extending through the interleaved hinge barrel elements provides a pivotal connection between the hinge bars, and the hinge bars have means extending along the longitudinal edges thereof opposite to said notched edges to engage the edges of the door panels.

According to a preferred aspect of the invention, the said hinge bars are extruded so that said notched longitudinal edge wall is an outwardly extending wall of part circular cross section and the notching of said wall provides said series of aligned integrally connected hinge barrel elements.

According to another aspect of the invention, the hinge barrel elements comprise part circular strap members connected together by two longitudinal base rails with said strap members being projected through the slots in the notched longitudinal edge of the hinge bar.

According to another preferred aspect of the invention, the door panels are held in a mortise joint at the longitudinal edges of the hinge bars opposite to the notched edges with one of the walls of the mortise joint being removeable for the replacement of individual panels.

According to another aspect of the preferred form of invention, the edges of the panels at the edges of the door are held in a mortise joint provided by an edge bar having one wall of the joint removeable the edge bar having an outwardly extending spine adapted to run in a track way at the edge of the door, the spine being notched to provide a series of cog teeth for engagement with the drive of a garage door opener mechanism.

These and other features of the invention will be understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a garage door according to the invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing two rows of door panels secured to their hinge bars with the pintles removed and the rows separated.

Figure 3 is a diagrammatic perspective view illustrating a garage door according to the invention mounted for sliding and folding engagement in trackways either side of the door opening.

Figure 4 is a front elevational part broken away view showing one form of drive mechanism for raising and lowering the garage door.

Figure 5 is a diagrammatic view illustrating how the hinge panels of the door are guided from vertical to horizontal movement at the top of the door opening.

Figure 6 is a broken away perspective view illustrating the preferred form of hinge bars and the manner in which the door panels are removeable secured thereto.

Figure 7 is a top plan view of one of the intermediate vertical frame bars illustrating the manner in which the door panels are removeably secured thereto.

Figure 8 is a broken away sectional view showing the hinged connection of one pair of hinge bars and illustrating the manner in which the door panels are removeably secured to the hinge bars.

Figure 9 is a broken away rear elevational view showing the edge frame rails provided with cog teeth at the edges of two hinged door panel rows.

Figure 10 illustrates one form of pintle that may be used.

Figures 11 and 12 illustrate other forms of pintles that may be used.

Figure 13 is a perspective view illustrating a modified hinge arrangement in which the hinge barrel elements of one of the hinge bars are integral with the hinge bar whereas the other hinge bar is notched to provide slots in one longitudinal edge thereof and the integrally connected hinge barrel elements comprise a separate component to be sleeved inside the one hinge bar with the hinge barrel elements projecting outwardly through the hinge bar slots.

Figure 14 is an end elevational view showing the three components of Figure 13 assembled into hinge forming relation ready to receive a hinge pintle.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION ACCORDING TO THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

While it will be understood that the novel hinges of the present invention have wide application, they have particular importance in large folding doors such as the garage door designated at 1 in Figure 1 mounted in a door opening 2. Door 1 comprises a plurality of rows of door panels 3 hingedly connected by elongated extruded hollow hinge bars 4 and associated pintles 5 such as shown in Figures 2 and 12.

The door panels 3 are formed of a suitable plastic material such as foamed PVC and may be plain panels or may be vacuum formed to provide any desired decorative design.

The hinge bars 4 are extruded from a suitable thermoplastic material such as PVC, vinyl or ABS or mixtures thereof and may include appropriate fillers or stiffening agents such as calcium carbonate as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

The edges of the individual panels 3 intermediate the door edges are engaged and supported by frame members or bars 6 running between the hinge bars 4 and being welded thereto while the edges of the panels at the edges of the door are engaged by edge frame rails 7. These edge rails 7 also run between the hinge bars 4 and are welded thereto by mitre joints 7'.

With reference to Figures 6 and 8, each of the hinge bars 4 has spaced parallel longitudinal front and rear walls 8 and 9 respectively, and one longitudinal part circular edge wall 10 with the center of the part circular portion thereof falling on a line midway between the walls 8 and 9 and with the inner diameter thereof less than the spacing between the walls 8 and 9.

The opposite longitudinal edge wall 11 is formed to engage the edge of a door panel 3 as more particularly set out hereafter.

The part circular edge wall 10 is connected to the front wall 8 by a short rearwardly inclined leg 12 and to the rear wall 9 which is shorter than the front wall 8 by a longer forwardly inclined leg 13 to provide a longitudinal hinging clearance groove 14 to facilitate the hinging action as hereinafter will appear.

As seen particularly in Figure 6 the longitudinal part circular hinge bar walls 10 are notched to provide a series of hinge barrel elements 15 arranged in spaced aligned relation and separated by edge slots 16.

As shown in Figure 8 each hinge of the door comprises a pair of hinge bars 4 formed as described with the notching of one hinge bar A of the pair being offset from the notching of the other hinge bar B of the pair so that upon assembling of hinge bars A and B the hinge barrel elements 15 will interleave to provide a hinge barrel assembly extending substantially continuously along the length of the bars and presenting an aligned circular passage therethrough for the reception of a pintle 5 such as shown in Figure 1 or a pintle 17 such as shown in Figures 8 and 10 or a pintle 18 as shown in Figure 11.

The pintle 5 shown in Figures 1 and 12 may be either an extruded rod of high strength plastic material or a metal bar. Similarly the tubular pintle of Figure 11 may be of extruded plastic or tubular metal.

The pintle illustrated in Figures 8 and 10 is preferably extruded of high density polyethylene to provide a series of outwardly extending spokes or vanes 19 having only the tips thereof engaging the hinge barrel elements 15. This pintle 18 provides minimum friction and in effect is self-lubricating.

As will be seen from Figure 8 with the hinge arrangement illustrated the hinge will be hidden when the door is viewed from the front.

While the longitudinal bar edge walls 11 could simply be formed to provide a fixed mortise groove or slot for engaging the edge of a door panel 3

this would result in the door panels not being removeable individually once the door has been assembled. Accordingly, in the preferred form of the invention, these longitudinal edges 11 are formed as illustrated to provide a front stop wall 21 having a bevelled edge 22 and rising above a ledge 23 having formed therein adjacent the rear wall 9 a channel 24 provided with a restricted mouth or entrance or mouth 25. This channel 24 is adapted to receive and interlock with the spearhead 26 of a longitudinal extruded hollow bar stop 27 formed of high density polyvinyl or other suitable material.

As shown in Figure 8, when assembled, the door panels 3 will be held against the front stop walls 21 of the longitudinal edge walls 11 of the hinge bars by the stop bars 27. However, when these stops are removed under force to pull the spearheads 26 out of the channels 24, the panels will be free to be removed and replaced.

As illustrated in Figures 6 and 7, the intermediate frame bars 6 are hollow extrusions which extend between and are welded to the spaced hinge bars 4 on the opposite side of the panels. Each of the frame bars 6 has a front face 28 with bevelled edges 29 which extend beyond ledges 30. These ledges 30 are provided towards the rear face 31 or the bar 6 with inwardly extending channels 32 having reduced entrances or mouths 33 to interlockingly engage the spearheads 34 of stop bars 35 which are similar to the stop bars 27.

When installed the door panels 3 are engaged behind the bevelled edges 29 of the bars 6 and held in position seated on the ledges 30 by the stop bars 35.

Again, it will be appreciated that by removing the stop bars 35 the door panels are free to move rearwardly of the intermediate bars for panel replacement.

Also illustrated in Figure 6 is one of the edge rails 7 which extends between the hinge bars 4 and is welded thereto at T. As shown this edge rail 7 engages the edge of the door panel 3 at the side of the door.

Again this edge panel is a hollow extrusion having the inner edge formed with the same configuration of one of the sides of the intermediate frame bars 7 to releasably grip a side edge of the door panel behind a bevelled front stop edge wall 36 by means of a stop bar 35. The outer edge of the edge frame rails 7 are provided with central projecting spines which are notched to provide a series of cog teeth 37 which extend into garage door tracks 38 arranged at each side of the door. These cog teeth 37 are adapted to be engaged by a suitable garage door opening mechanism here shown as a motor driven belt drive generally designated at 39 at each side of the door driven by small synchronous motors 40. As illustrated in Figure 4, each motor 40 drives a belt 41 (only one being shown) through a drive sprocket 42 and idler sprocket 43 the belt having projecting cogs 44 which engage the cog teeth 37 of the edge frame bars 7 and projecting sprocket engaging cogs 44'. As illustrated in Figures 3 and 5, the garage door tracks 38 as they curve as at 45 from the vertical section 46 to the horizontal section 47 are widened to accommodate the movement of the edge frame rails 7 therethrough as the door panels pivot relative to each other.

As shown in Figure 8, the hinge bars 4 are provided with an internal transverse web 10' adjacent to the part circular notched edge wall 10 to provide added strength in this notched area.

While in the preferred form of the invention, the hinge barrel elements 15 are an integral part of the hinge bar extrusions and are formed by notching, the hinge barrel elements may be formed as a separate member as illustrated in Figures 13 and 14. In Figure 13 the hinge bar 4 to the left is extruded in the same way as the previously described hinge bars 4 and the hinge barrel elements 15 are part and parcel of the extrusion being formed by the notching of the wall 10 to produce the hinge barrel elements 15 separated by the slot 16.

The hinge bar 48 shown at the right in Figure 13 is extruded to provide one longitudinal edge wall 49 between parallel front and rear walls 50 and 51 which is formed to provide a part circular concavity and this wall 49 is notched to provide a series of spaced slots 52.

In this case, a separate hinge barrel member generally designated at 53 is provided. The member 53 comprises a part circular extrusion having outtumed feet or rails 54 which has been notched to provide a series of interconnected hinge barrel elements 55 bridging across between the outtumed rails or feet 54.

As illustrated in Figure 14, the hinge barrel member 53 is sleeved inside the hinge bar 48 and the hinge barrel elements 55 are projected through the slots 52 to extend outwardly thereof to interleave with the hinge barrel elements 15 of the bar 4 to provide a hinge barrel formation extending substantially continuously along the length of the bars ready to receive a pintle such as the pintles 5, 17 or 18 to hingedly connect bars 4 and 48.

With this arrangement, the hinge bar member 53 may be made of material different from the hinge bars themselves and may, if desired, be formed of metal which may be aluminum or light gage steel for added resistance against inward buckling of the door.

As in the case of hinge bars 4, the hinge arrangement of Figure 14 is such that the hinge is hidden with the door closed and the hinge bars are free to turn one relative to the other without interference.

The longitudinal edge wall designated at 56 of hinge bar 48 opposite the edge wall 49 is identical to that of hinge bar 4.

While Figures 13 and 14 show one bar 48 which employs a separate hinge barrel member extending through slots in the edge of the bar, two such

bars each with their own individual hinge barrel members such as 53 could be employed if desired.

It will be understood that the door panels 3 and hinge bars 4 or 48 may contain color agents, ultraviolet light protecting agents and the like as will be understood by those skilled in the art.

The garage doors to which the invention is particularly applicable can be single car doors or double car doors and, as will be appreciated from their construction as set out above, they can be easily and inexpensively manufactured and easily assembled at a cost much lower than present garage doors without requiring any of the extensive hardware of existing doors. Moreover, their ability to be assembled in the field and their light weight allows for easy handling, transporting and installing and enables the use of low torque garage opening mechanisms.

It will be understood variations in the details of the doors and hinges may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention or scope of the appended claims.