This invention relates to a sliding door construction, and in particular, to such a construction in which the various door members can, when the aperture to be closed by these is covered, automatically adopt a situation where their faces lie in a single, effectively vertical, plane.

There have previously been described sliding door constructions which are adapted to provide a flat face when the door is closed but these have normally had substantial disadvantages, particularly in maintaining the faces of the panels which have to ride one behind the other, and also in providing a mechanism which -was sufficiently cheap to be economically feasible, but which was long wearing and provided an operation which was smooth and convenient.

An object of the invention is to provide a construction which does this.

The invention in its broadest concept, provides a sliding door construction having at least two door members, upper and lower tracks, in which the door members are to run, lower roller assemblies connected to the door members at their lower edges on which they can run, and upper roller assemblies which are connected to or associated with the upper edges of the door members and which are adapted resiliently to retain the door members between the two tracks, the arrangement being such that when the door members are closed, the front faces thereof are in the same vertical plane and when one door member is open, it is located behind the other door member.

In another, preferred form of the invention, there are guide members extending located beneath the lower edge of the face of the door members, which guide members can abut the lower track, or portion the rear of an adjacent door member if it is located therebehind.

The lower edges of the door members may preferably have rearward extensions which can be contacted by the guide members when the door members are located one behind the other.

The upper rollers or glides are preferably normally held relative to the door member and the track by a spring loading

It is preferred that the two tracks are at angles to each other so that adjacent the front of the opening, they are spaced by a distance greater than their spacing at the rear of the opening With this arrangement, by using the spring biased type roller or glide because of the force supplied by the upper rollers, there is a tendency for the door to move iorwardly in the opening if it is not otherwise obstructed.

It may also be preferred that there be an odd number ot door members equal to or greater than three with an intermediate track extension being located behind the centre door member of the three

In order that the invention may be more readily understood, I shall describe particular embodiments of door made in accordance with the invention together with certain variations therefrom in relation to the accompanying drawings, in which

Figure 1 is a front view ot a first form o( door.

Figure 2 is a view along line 2-2 of Figure 1 looking in the direction ot the arrows and showing the upper door arrangement. Figure 3 is a view similar to that of Figure 1 showing the lelt door in its "open" position

Figure 4 is a view similar to that of Figure 2 showing ihc varied door orientation.

Figure 5 is a section along line 5-5 of Figure 1 looking m the direction ot the arrows and shows the upper and lower door support assemblies, Figure 6 is a view similar to that of Figure 5 but with the doors in the orientation of Figure

3, Figure 7 shows a form of sealing device between adjacent doors when they are in the

"closed" condition, Figure 8 shows a second embodiment ot the invention in which the doors can pass around a corner for use or storage,

Figure 9 shows a partial movement of the doors of Figure 5; and

Figure 10 is a partial section along line 10-10 of Figure 8.

Where in this specification, I refer to panels being "open" and "closed" this relates to the condition of the portion of the wardrobe which would normally lie beneath the panel.

Figures 1 to 7 show a wardrobe 10 door having three door panels 15, 16 and 17. The panels can be all the same or different. As illustrated, the second panel is shown as a mirror panel.

As mentioned above, there can be more or less than three panels and preferably there can be an odd number of panels although, once again, this is not essential. Three panels is the preferred minimum number.

The door opening has upper and lower tracks 20,30 with each track having a floor portion 21,31 which are planar. The floor portion 31 of the lower track 30 slopes downwardly from the rear of the opening to the front of the opening. The floor portion 21 of the upper track slopes upwardly from the rear to the front so that the physical spacing between the tracks is at a minimum adjacent the rear of the opening and moves to a maximum al the front of the opening.

On the under side of each door, there can be two or more rollers or glides 53 (hereinafter for convenience called rollers), and these may preferably be located on a base member 50 which is attached to the underside of the door and which may have a rearwardly extending portion 51 and a downwardly directed flange 52 on its rearward edge, the purpose of which will be described hereinafter.

Also provided on the underside of the door may be a number of guides 54 which can contact an upwardly directed flange 32 on the front of the track 30. These guides may be in the form of rollers having their axes vertical and can control the position of the front of the associated door panel when the door is closed.

At the top of the door, there may be a member 40 which has a central aperture 41 through can pass a roller 60, described later herein, and at its rear edge it has a rearwardly extending portion 42 which has, along its rear edge a flange 43 which may be directly above flange 52 and the purpose of which will also be described later.

The upper track 20 has a downwardly directed flange 22, which may be covered by a pelmet 23 or the like and against which, when the door panel is closed may abut a number of guides 44, which can be considered similar to those guides 54 at the lower portion of the door. The two pairs of guides serve two purposes, firstly to control the position of the face 16' of the panel 16 and the second to ensure that there is no part of the panel which contacts the surround.

There are a number , possibly between 2 and 4 top roller assemblies 60 associated with each panel and each preferably comprises a body 61, a roller receiving member 62 at the upper end thereof, a roller 63 which may be a steel or synthetic ball located in the receiving member and a base 64 at the lower end of the body 61. Located beneath the body, either directly in an aperture 66 in the top of the door, or in a sleeve, not shown therein, is an helical spring 65 which acts between the bottom of the aperture and the base 64 to normally hold the roller receiving member and its roller outwardly and in contact with the floor 21 of the upper track.

Thus, the position of the roller 63 and the amount of available movement provided by the spring 65 associated with the roller assembly 60 can be such as to permit the associated door panel to be moved rearwardly towards the back of the tracks 20,30, during which movement the spring 65 is compressed. This provides an arrangement such that on release of the door panel from its rearmost position, the slope between the floors of the tracks 20,30 and the increased energy stored by the springs will tend to cause the door panel to move orwardly, unless there is some impediment against this.

If there are two door panels partially or fully displaced, that is generally the door panel is partly or fully opened, the forward panel will prevent further movement.

The guides 44 and 54 are arranged so that, when the panel is closed, they contact the webs 22 and 32 of the top and bottom tracks and, if the panel can be moved laterally, then they control the movement, as far as the transverse location is concerned.

The arrangement described above permits a door panel, say panel 15 to move rearwardly and then laterally behind an adjacent panel, say 16 then the first guides 54 and 44 commence to contact the flanges 43 and 52 of the adjacent door panel and the panel can continued to be moved so that the other guide on the panel move behind the flanges 43 and 52. Of course, during the initial rearward movement, the springs 55 in the upper roller assemblies are compressed and remain compressed as long as the panel is displaced.

If the door panel is then moved to its initial condition, as the guides 44,54 pass the end of the flanges 43,52, there will tend to be a canting of the door panel towards the front of the opening, because of the energy of the compressed springs in the upper rollers and when the final guides clear the extension, then the door will move forwardly to the front of the opening and contact this. At this time, the front face of the panel will lie in the same vertical plane as the front faces of any other panels which are in this forward position.

In order to ensure that the interior of the wardrobe or the like is basically maintained dust proof when the panels are closed, it is possible to provide a sealing strip 70 on one end face of the panels and a complementary member 67 in the other end face of panels.

Alternatively, a tongue and groove arrangement on adjacent panels, generally by one end of each panel having a tongue and the other a complementary groove together with an associated sealing strip so that when panels lie in a single plane, if they are then moved in one direction or the other, there will be an inter-engagement between the panels and the required sealing arrangement will be achieved.

It may be preferred that there be side members 62 in the frame which could if required, themselves have sealing members extending rearwardly therefrom and which could then serve

two purposes. Firstly, they would obscure the fact that the total door width under these conditions is less than the width of the opening, because of the inter-engagement of the doors and, at the same time, they could have a non damaging sealing member which could abut the door on their ends or their front faces to complete the closure.

Whilst I have described the invention in relation to a three panel door, the invention can also satisfactorily be used with a multi panel door. Generally, it is preferred that the various panels can only go behind a single panel but it would be possible to have more than two panels so located. The major constraint on this is that the springs 65 have to be compressed to maintain contact between the tracks and there is a physical limitation as to the distance over which this can be achieved, with the arrangement being stable.

An alternative to put multiple tracks, each of which can have the same spacing as the initial track and it means, such as a cut-out in the side walls of the tracks which will permit a panel to move from one to the other.

Generally with a multi-panel arrangement, various panels can be open at any time but there will be a limitation as to the number of closely adjacent panels which can be open.

In the above embodiment, I refer to the panel 16 as having a mirror. If this is of a different thickness to the other door panels, it is simply necessary to relocate the guides 44,54 so that the front face of the panel terminates in the required position. That is, it terminates in the required position as far as the front of the tracks are concerned and also as far as adjacent panels are concerned.

If there are a number of mirrored panels, or if all the panels are mirrored, then of course the arrangement is the same for each of the mirrored panels.

Whilst in the above embodiment, I have described the use of upper 20 and lower 30 track members. It will be appreciated that rather than use such members, the upper and lower

members of the wardrobe may be of an internal shape to provide the same profile and this the same operation when the panels arc opened and closed.

If required, I may provide the guides to be provided in self-contained units which can be attached to the rear faces of the door rather than to have a flange on a base member as was the case in the fully described embodiment.

Figures 8 to 10 relate to a different embodiment which could also include the features of the above described embodiment of the invention.

In this embodiment, I show a number of interconnected panels, and the operation of these will be described and I shall then make comment about single panels.

Each panel is provided with two roller members 115, 116 in their lower ends and these may be similar to rollers 53 of the previous embodiment.

In this case, the panels of the door are adapted to move through 90°

As illustrated, the track 100 has a 90° junction and there can be considered to be an ingoing track 101 and two tracks 102 and 103 at right angles thereto.

As illustrated, there are two panels 105,106 and these panels are connected together by links 110 each of which has a pair of end members 111 which are connected to the associated panels, and link members 113 which are connected to the end members by pivots 112.

As illustrated in Figure 8, the panel 106 is in track 102 and panel 105 is in track 101. Link 112 has the link member parallel to track 102 and in line with the end of panel 106.

If panel 106 is moved along track 102 in the direction of the arrow in Figure 8, then roller 115 commences to move up track 102 and the situation illustrated in Figure 9 is reached. On further

movement of panel 106. Panel 105 will leave track 101 and completely enter track 102.

This application is very useful for room dividers and the like and, if required a number of parallel tracks can be provided so that a number of panels can be moved towards the tracks, the links disconnected and the panels "parked" by moving these into different ones of the parallel tracks.

This aspect of the invention can be used in association with a wardrobe similar to that set out before. In this case, the end panels can be caused to move to lie adjacent the sides of the wardrobe thus opening two panel spaces immediately and providing additional freedom as far as movement of the other panels is concerned.

Doors of this type can be desirable, say in a display unit or the like, where it is desired that under most circumstances the unit be kept closed or only partially open, but on other occasions it is required that the whole face be open, such right angle tracks can permit means whereby the individual door panels can be moved completely out of the opening to clear the opening.

When it is required to close the opening, it is only necessary to sequentially move the door panels forwardly and across to the front opening and they will follow the track system to close the aperture.

It may be desired that the side tracks slope forwardly so that if there was more than one panel in the track and a first panel is moved forwardly, then a second following panel will tend to move to the front of the unit for ready access for movement across the front.

Whilst I have basically described the invention as applied to a wardrobe or the like, it is to be understood that it can have many other uses. For example, panels operating in the manner described could be used in room dividers. In this case, any panel can be opened to provide a door between adjacent areas and if right angled track is provided, the panels could be moved out of the position dividing the area. It would be possible in such an application to provide tracks

which terminate against a wall or the like onto which the panels could be moved. Further, if required a track which could receive several panels, one adjacent the other could be provided to enable stacking of room divider panels when they are not in use.

Where panels are used in such applications, it is preferred that I provide plates or covers which can be located in the lower tracks to provide an even surface when the panels are removed. In this way, when the area is undivided, there is still a smooth floor. When it is to be divided, it is only necessary to remove the tracks before relocating the panels.

Whilst in this specification I have described particular embodiments of door construction, it is to be understood that these are purely exemplary.

The tracks may be made of a plastics material or an extruded metal such as an aluminium alloy or they could be fabricated for a particular purpose. The rollers or glides can take different forms, the main necessity being simply that they can move freely along the track and can take into account the changes in the heights between the upper and lower tracks and this is preferably done by a spring loading arrangement as described.