US1859364A - Door operator - Google Patents

Description

May 24, 1932.

J. B. HASKELL DOOR OPERATOR Filed Jan. 5, 1931 lll-IIL Patented May 24, 1932 APA'ralsrr oFFlcE .unas n.. or vLormvriaaaa, mason Doon ornmroa A application mea January s, 1931. serial no.' 506,576.

My invention provides an extremely sim-L ple,- low cost but highly ecient door oper# ator especially adapted for opening and closing garage doors, but a'dapted'generally` for the opening and closing of swinging closures; and generally stated, the invention conslsts of the novel devices, combinations of devlces, and arrangement of parts' vhereinafter described and defined' in the claims.

This improved door operator includes as its major element a lever of novel construction connected and operated in a novel manner. The power device for operatin this lever may take various forms which s ould be an extensible connection such as a cylinder' and piston, a rack and pinion or the like arranged to transmit power from a fixed base of reaction to an offset portion of the lever and through the lever directly to the door A reciprocating motor made up of cylinder and iston is especially adapted to be operated l? compressed air and hence such a device 1s designated as a pneumatic door operator; but it will be understood that the term pneumatic as well as the term door -is used in a liberal sense, the former to include fluids under pressure, and the latter to indicate swinging closures such as are more commonly designated as doors and .30 gates.

In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate the invent1on,like characters indicate like parts throughout the several views.

Referring to the drawings Fig. 1 is a fragmentary view in front or outside elevation showing the door operator applied to a garage door;

Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. 1 and' Fig. 3 is a view 'partly in elevation and partly in vertical section showing the cylinder, piston and co-operating air control connections including a reversible two-way valve.

dicated by the numeral 4 and the door which is connected to the framework by hinges 5, is indicated by thenumeral 6. Rigidly secured on the door at the outer side thereof is abracket 7 provided with an upwardly procylinder.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the door framework is injecting roller-equipped stud 8. .The numeral 9 indicates av bracket that is rigidly secured to the framework 4 above the top of the door at a point above the door opening, inwardfrom the door hinge but outward of thebracket 7. The bracket 9 is provided with a dependingstud 10 to which is pivoted one fend of a cam-actinglever 11.. Thislever 11 is provided with a long cani" slot or cam-Way 12 in which the roller-equipped stud 8 60 of thedoor bracket 7 is arranged to work. Outward of itsslot 12, thelever 11 is -pro- V.vided with anv intermediate laterally offset crank-actingportion 13 to which ahead 14 is pivoted. f l Thecylinder 15 ofthe reciprocating motor,

at one end, is pivotally connected at 16 to abracket 17 rigidly secured on the framework 1 above the intermediate portion of the door openlng. Working in thecylinder 15 is a 70 plston 18, thestem 19 of which works through astuffing box 20 in the free end of the pivoted Thel projecting end .of thepiston stem 19 is secured to thepivoted head 14 and hence is pivotally connected to theoffset portion 13 of the cam-acting lever 11.

Smallexible air pipes 21 and 22 are connected, respectively, to the pivoted and free end portions of thecylinder 15. Thesepipes 21 and 22 extend fromports 23 and 24, re- 80 spectively, to avalve casing 25 that is suitably supported on the upper portion of the door framework 4. This valve casing'25 has an air inlet port 26 and an air exhaust'port 27. An air pipe .28 that extends from a` suitable source of air under, compression is connected to the air intake port 26. Worln'ng in thevalve casing 25 is anoscillatory valve head 29 that is connected to anoperating arm 30 exposed outside of Athecasing 25. 90 This valve head can be operated either manually atwill, or automatically, but for the purpose of this case may be a hand-operated valve.

The positions of the various parts when the door is closed are indicated by full lines in Figs. 1 and 2, and the positions of the parts when the door is opened are indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2. Also Fig. 3 indicates the position of thevalve head 29 and of the 100 piston -when the doorris closed. When the and the inner end of the c linder will be con-Y nected to exhaust, and, o course, that is` the position in which said valve head will be set\l to cause closing of the door. When the door one door. Where double swinglng doors are is to be ol ened, the-valve head and its arm are oscillate to -the position shown by -dotted lines in Fig. 3, thereby connecting the inner end ofcylinder 15 to compressed air supply and the outer end of said cylinder to exhaust, and this, of course, will cause the piston to move outward or toward the free end of the cylinder. f

The crank-acting portion `oflever 11 will, of course, have its greatest e'ective length when moved at approximately a right an le to the plane of the door openin In t e initial door-opening movement, e said crank-actingportion 13 oflever 11 has considerably less than its maximum effective length or leverage, but at that time, the roller-equipped I stud 8 of thedoor bracket 7 is located in thecam slot 12 very close to thelever ivot 10 so that the door will be given a very s ow initial opening movement but under very eiective and relatively great force from the cylinder and piston. When the door is in its closed yp0- sition, shown by full lines in Fig. 2, stud 8 is at the inner extremity ofslot 12 oflever 11 andcrank 14 is relatively close to its deadl center in respect topivots 10 and 16. With thls arrangement, under opening movement of the door as the stud 8 moves outward ofslot 12, the direct effect is to start the opening movement of the door with relatively great power and slow movement, and as the stud 8 moves outward inslot 12, the direct effect is to increase the speed of movement of the doors since the ratio of the distances of stud 8 andpin 14 frompivot 10 increases, and a'small arcuate movement ofpin 14 causesv a relatively large arcuate movement of stud 8. Indirectly, the outward movement of stud 8 inslot 12 decreases the speed of movement of pin 14 b increasing the lever arm of the resisting orce-(of the door), and this offsets to some extent the direct effect of the outward movement of stud 8. The' direct effect is further offset by the decreasing speed of rotation of thecrank 13, as the same approaches its dead center. The net or resulting eect with the arrangement illustrated and de scribed is to start both opening and closing movements with relatively great power and slow speed, and to increases the speed of the door opening and closing movements between extreme positions.

This arrangement affords the desired slow movements and relatively great power for starting the door both from closed and open positions, and gives an accelerated or relatively rapid intermediate movement to the door.

Again referrin to Fi 2, it will' be noted that when the oor is c osed, the lever 18 lies close to the door frame with itsslot 12 aral- -lel thereto. By mounting the cylin er to oscillate, intermediate connections such as links between the 'piston and the leverare made unnecessary.

- 'lhe operator, as shown, is supplied to but used, twooperating devices may be employed', one for each door, in which case both 0perators could be operated simultaneously by a single valve. Also if preferred, a sin le operator could be used for two doors and e one dooor connected to the other for simultaneous swinging movements by f devices such as hitherto provided and well known for that pup-pose. l p ery obviously, a device such as this can be very quickly applied to garage doors and the like. It is im ortant, however, that thebrackets 7 and 9 mal relation and that they should both be a plied a considerable distance inward from t e' door hinge so that the force from the motor will be more eiective in moving the door and would produce less strain on the door than with the said brackets applied close to the axis of the door hinge.

What I claim is: 1. The combination with a door frame and a door hinged thereto, of a bracket applied -to the door inward of its hinge, a second bracket applied to the door frame above the door between the door hinge and the door bracket, a cam acting lever pivoted `to the second noted bracket and having a long cam slot and an intermediate laterally-projecting crank portion, said door bracket having a projectlon workingl in the slot of said cam lever, a cylinder support secured to the door frame, a cylinder pivotally connected to said cylinder support at one end, and a piston Working in said cylinder and having a stem connected to the crank-acting portion of said cam lever, and means for controlling a supply of motive fluid to saidc linder for reciprocating the same in one direction to open the door and in the other direction to close the door.

2. The combination with a door frame and a door hinged thereto, of a bracket applied to the door inward of its hinge, a second bracket applied to the door frame above the door between the door hinge and the door bracket, a cam acting lever pivoted to the second noted bracket and havlng a long cam slot and an intermediate laterally-projecting crank portion, said door bracket having a projection working in the slot of said cam lever, a cylinder support secured to the door frame, a cylinder pivotally connected to said cylinder support at one end, and a piston working in said cylinder and having a stem connected to the crank-acting portion of said applied in quite close norllt . working in the slot of said lever, a cylinder mounted from the door frame, and a piston Working in said cylinder and connected to the offset crank portion of said lever, and fluid pressure means for reciprocating said piston to open and close the door.

4. The combination with afdoor frame and l a door hinged thereto, of a bracket applied to the door inward of its hinge, a second bracket applied to the door frame above the door, a cam lever 4pivoted to the second noted bracket and having a lon slot and an intermediate laterally projecting crank portion, said door bracket having a projection working in the slot of said lever, and an'endwise extensible thrust connection anchored to the door frame structure and pivotally connected to the laterally projecting crank portion of said lever and operative on the latter to vopen and close the door.

5. The combination with a door frame hav- I ing a door hinged thereto, of a bracket ap'- plied to the door inward of its hinge, of a second bracket applied to the door frame above the door, a cam lever pivoted to the second noted bracket and having a slot and an intermediate lateral projecting crank portion, said door bracket having a projection working in the slot of said lever, and an operating connection anchored to the door frame structure and yattached to the laterally projecting crank portion ofsaid lever and perative on the latter to open and close the oor.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature.

JAMES B. HASKELL.

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