US 3,941,180 AGranted

Sectional door and guard rail assembly

AssigneeWinnebago Industries, Inc.

InventorTimothy N. Thill

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Abstract

A sectional door such as a garage door of the type having a plurality of hingedly connected panels adapted to be pivoted relative to one another generally about interior edges of facing lateral ends during opening and closure of the door. One of each pair of facing ends of the panels is equipped with a first rail having a front wall and defining an interior pocket. The facing end of the adjacent panel is equipped with a second rail having an arcuate segment extending into the pocket of the first rail in overlapping relationship to the front wall thereof when the adjacent panels are in aligned orientation. When the adjacent panels are pivoted relative to one another generally about their interior edges, the arcuate segment of the second rail moves outward of the pocket of the first rail to span the angular gap formed between the facing ends of the adjacent panels.

Claims16

Dependent claims

A guard rail assembly for a sectional door of the type having a pluraltiy of panels with facing lateral ends of adjacent panels being hingedly connected and having interior and exterior edges, said panels being hingedly connected for relative rotation generally about the interior edges of the facing lateral ends between an aligned position and a rotated position, said guard rail assembly comprising:

a first rail mounted to a lateral end of a first panel;
a second rail mounted to a lateral end of a second panel adjacent the first panel facing the lateral end of the first panel;
said first rail having front wall means extending from the exterior edge of the lateral end of the first panel and terminating in a front foot;
said first rail having a pocket behind said front wall means openly facing said second rail;
said pocket having a bottom area and a top area;
said second rail having an arcuate segment extending to the bottom area of said pocket when the first and second panels are in the aligned position and extending into the top area of said pocket when the first and second panels are in the rotated position whereby the arcuate segment spans the gap between the lateral end of the second panel and the front foot of the front wall means of the first rail, said arcuate segment having an outside wall located adjacent the front foot when the panels are in either the aligned or rotated positions.

3 more elements

A guard rail assembly for a sectional door of the type having a plurality of panels with facing lateral ends of adjacent panels being hingedly connected and having interior and exterior edges, said panels being hingedly connected for relative rotation generally about the interior edges of the facing lateral ends between an aligned position and a rotated position, said guard rail assembly comprising:

a first rail mounted to a lateral end of a first panel;
a second rail mounted to a lateral end of a second panel adjacent the first panel facing the lateral end of the first panel;
said first rail having front wall means extending from the exterior edge of the lateral end of the first panel, and a pocket behind said front wall means openly facing said second rail;
said pocket having a bottom area and a top area;
said second rail having a segment extending to the bottom area of said pocket when the first and second panels are in the aligned position and extending into the top area of said pocket when the first and second panels are in the rotated position whereby the segment spans the gap between the lateral end of the second panel and the front wall means of the first rail;
said segment having an outside wall located adjacent the front wall means when the panels are in either the aligned or rotated positions.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.