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US 11,441,347 B2Granted
Mechanism for opening and closing an overhead door including one way bearing
AssigneeHall Labs LLC
InventorsDavid R Hall, Jerome Miles, David J Groesbeck
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An overhead door opener for opening and closing an overhead door. A motor is coupled to a shaft and is configured to rotate the shaft to raise and lower the overhead door. The shaft is coupled to the overhead door. The overhead door opener also includes a one-way bearing coupling the motor to the shaft, wherein the one-way bearing is configured to transmit torque from the motor to the shaft, and not to transmit torque from the shaft to the motor.
Claims20
A mechanism for opening and closing an overhead door, comprising:
- a shaft coupled to the overhead door and configured to rotate in a first direction to raise the overhead door and to rotate in a second direction to lower the overhead door;
- and
- a motor coupled to the shaft by a one-way bearing, wherein the one-way bearing is configured to transmit torque from the motor to the shaft in the first rotational direction, and wherein the one-way bearing is configured so that torque is not transmitted from the motor to the shaft in the second rotational direction;
- whereby the one-way bearing allows the motor to apply torque to the shaft to raise the overhead door, and the one-way bearing does not allow the motor to apply torque to the shaft to lower the door.
1 more element
An overhead door system, comprising:
- a shaft with a spool coupled thereto;
- an overhead door;
- a cable connected to the door and to the spool and configured to wind onto and unwind from the spool to raise and lower the door, respectively;
- a motor;
- a one-way bearing comprising a first component coupled to the motor and a second component coupled to the shaft, wherein the first and second components do not rotate relative to one another in a first rotational direction to allow the motor to apply torque to the shaft to raise the overhead door, and wherein the first and second components rotate relative to one another in a second rotational direction opposite the first rotational direction to lower the overhead door while not allowing the motor to apply torque to the shaft.
2 more elements
An overhead door system, comprising:
- a motor;
- a shaft;
- an overhead door coupled to the shaft;
- a one-way bearing coupling the motor to the shaft and being configured to transmit torque from the motor to the shaft in a first rotational direction, wherein the one-way bearing allows the motor to apply torque to the shaft in the first rotational direction to raise the overhead door, and the one-way bearing does not allow the motor to apply torque to the shaft in a second rotational direction opposite the first rotational direction while the door is lowered;
- a monitor coupled to the one-way bearing and configured to observe relative rotation of components of the one-way bearing;
- wherein the monitor is configured to stop the motor if the components of the one-way bearing rotate relative to one another more than a predetermined threshold amount.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.