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US 12,745,758 B2Granted
Door assembly for an animal enclosure
AssigneeHebe Studio Limited
InventorsJames Tuthill, Johannes Paul, Simon Nicholls, William Windham
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A door assembly for an animal enclosure including a frame for mounting over an aperture in a wall of the enclosure and a door moveably mounted in the frame. The door is moveable between a position where the aperture in the wall is open for the passage of an animal and a position where the aperture in the wall is closed thereby to prevent the passage of an animal. A motor is provided for driving the door between the closed and open positions.
Claims20
A chicken coop door assembly for attachment to a chicken coop, the chicken coop door assembly comprising:
- (i) a frame, said frame comprising:
- (i)(a) a generally rectangular frame body defined by a first pair of parallel external walls and a second pair of parallel external walls, said second pair of parallel external walls being shorter than said first pair of parallel external walls, a first wall of said second pair of parallel external walls extending perpendicularly between a distal end region of a first wall of said first pair of parallel external walls and a distal end region of a second wall of said first pair of parallel external walls, a second wall of said second pair of parallel external walls extending perpendicularly between a proximal end region of said first wall of said first pair of parallel external walls and a proximal end region of said second wall of said first pair of parallel external walls, said frame body comprising:
- (i)(a)(1) a first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls and a second pair of spaced internal frame walls, a first wall of said second pair of spaced internal frame walls extending perpendicularly between a distal end region of a first wall of said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls and a distal end region of a second wall of said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls, a second wall of said second pair of said spaced internal frame walls extending perpendicularly between a proximal end region of said first wall of said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls and a proximal end region of said second wall of said first pair of parallel external walls, said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls and said second pair of spaced internal frame walls co-operating to define a generally rectangular access aperture that can be aligned with an opening in a chicken coop wall when the frame body is fixed to said chicken coop wall, said access aperture and said opening co-operating to provide a pathway for chickens to pass into and out of said chicken coop, wherein:
- (i)(a)(1)(i) said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls extend in parallel to said first pair of parallel external walls,
- (i)(a)(1)(ii) said second pair of spaced internal frame walls are shorter than said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls;
- (i)(a)(1)(iii) said first wall of said second pair of spaced internal frame walls extends in parallel to said first wall of said second pair of parallel external walls, and
- (i)(a)(1)(iv) a second wall of said second pair of spaced internal frame walls is inclined towards a second wall of said second pair of parallel external walls so that when the frame body is fixed to said chicken coop wall said second wall of said second pair of spaced internal frame walls slopes downwardly towards a support surface on which said chicken coop stands, and
- (i)(a)(2) a motor housing, said motor housing being provided in said frame body, said motor housing being located adjacent the access aperture defined by said first pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls and said second pair of parallel spaced internal frame walls;
- (ii) an electric motor provided within said motor housing, said electric motor being operable to rotate a pinion located outside of said housing, said electric motor being connected to a wire that can be coupled to a controller for receipt of operating signals;
- (iii) a generally rectangular door, said door being moveable to and from a door open position where the door does not occlude the access aperture, said door being responsive to operating signals received by said electric motor from said controller to move to and from said door open position, said door comprising:
- (iii)(a) a body having a generally rectangular front face that faces away from said chicken coop when the door assembly is coupled to the chicken coop, said front face being defined by a first pair of spaced external door walls and a second pair of parallel spaced external door walls, said second pair of parallel spaced external door walls being shorter than said first pair of spaced external door walls, a first wall of said second pair of parallel spaced external door walls extending perpendicularly between a distal end region of a first wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls and a distal end region of a second wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls, a second wall of said second pair of spaced parallel external door walls extending perpendicularly between a proximal end region of said first wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls and a proximal end region of said second wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls;
- (iii)(b) a first recess provided in a rear face of said body and extending in parallel to said first wall of said second pair of parallel spaced external door walls between said distal end region of said first wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls and said distal end region of said second wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls, said first recess opening towards the chicken coop when the frame body is fixed to said chicken coop wall;
- (iii)(c) a second recess provided in said rear face of said body and extending in parallel to said second wall of said second pair of parallel spaced external door walls between said proximal end region of said first wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls and said proximal end region of said second wall of said first pair of spaced external door walls, said second recess opening towards the chicken coop when the frame body is fixed to said chicken coop wall, wherein said second recess comprises:
- (iii)(c)(1) a first recess sidewall that extends in parallel to said second wall of said second pair of parallel spaced external door walls, and
- (iii)(c)(2) a second recess sidewall spaced in a distal direction from said first recess sidewall, said second recess sidewall being inclined towards said second wall of said second pair of parallel spaced external door walls so that when the frame body is fixed to said chicken coop wall said second recess sidewall of said second recess slopes downwardly towards said support surface on which said chicken coop stands;
- and
- (iv) a rack, said rack being coupled to said door for movement therewith, the rack being engaged with the pinion associated with said electric motor so that operation of the motor to rotate the pinion in a first direction responsive to an operating signal from the controller causes said rack and said door to move towards the door open position, and operation of the motor to rotate the pinion in a second direction opposite to said first direction responsive to another operating signal from the controller causes said rack and said door to move from the door open position.
14 more elements
A chicken coop door assembly for attachment to a chicken coop, the chicken coop door assembly comprising:
- a frame, said frame comprising four internal frame walls, said four internal walls co-operating to define a generally rectangular access aperture that can be aligned with an opening in a chicken coop wall when the frame is fixed to said chicken coop wall, said access aperture and opening cooperating to provide a pathway for chickens to pass into and out of said chicken coop, wherein one of said internal frame walls is inclined so that when the frame is fixed to said chicken coop wall with said one inclined internal frame wall lowermost, said one inclined internal frame wall slopes downwardly towards a support surface on which said chicken coop stands so that debris falling onto said one inclined internal frame wall tends to fall away from the frame, said frame further comprising an input for supply of electrical energy from an external source and signals from a controller to said chicken coop door assembly;
- a door, said door being mounted in said frame for movement to and from an open position where the door does not occlude said access aperture and said pathway is open;
- a motor, said motor being mounted in said frame and connected to said door, said motor being operable to move said door to and from said open position;
- and
- a controller connectable to said input by a wire and via said input to said motor, said controller comprising:
- a processor for generating signals to control the motor to move the door, a display screen for displaying information to a user, a plurality of buttons that are user operable to program said processor, and a photosensor operable to generate signals representative of ambient light levels, wherein a user is capable of operating the buttons to program the processor to control the motor to move the door towards the open position responsive to ambient light levels detected by the photosensor rising to an ambient light level selected by the user, and/or to control the motor to move the door away from the open position responsive to ambient light levels detected by the photosensor decreasing to an ambient light level selected by the user.
3 more elements
A chicken coop door assembly for attachment to a chicken coop, the chicken coop door assembly comprising:
- a frame, said frame comprising four internal walls, said four internal walls co-operating to define an access aperture that can be aligned with an opening in a chicken coop wall when the frame is fixed to said chicken coop wall, said access aperture and opening cooperating to provide a pathway for chickens to pass into and out of said chicken coop, wherein one of said internal frame walls is inclined so that when the frame is fixed to said chicken coop wall said one inclined internal wall slopes downwardly towards a support surface on which said chicken coop stands so that debris falling onto said one inclined internal wall tends to fall away from the frame;
- a door, said door being mounted in said frame for movement to and from an open position where the door does not occlude said access aperture and said pathway is open;
- a motor, said motor being mounted in said frame and connected to said door, said motor being responsive to signals from a controller connected to said door assembly by a wire to move said door to and from said open position;
- and
- a crush detector, said crush detector comprising a wall portion that is moveable in a direction away from said access aperture to bear against at least one of a plurality of TACT switches and cause said at least one TACT switch to output a crush detector signal in the event that a chicken should be caught in the access aperture as the door is moved away from the open position, said motor being operable in response to said crush detector signal to cease movement of the door away from the open position and subsequently to commence movement of the door towards the open position.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.