Folding screw and rail assembly for a garage door opener

Abstract

A hinged screw section for a worm drive garage door operator which allows the worm shaft to be assembled at the factory and folded back upon itself so that it can be shipped in a smaller and shorter package. Two different joints have been developed, one of a "I" type in which the connecting link between the two sections of worm shaft is merely a flat metal section with a hole in each end which fits into a slot in the ends of the two worm shaft sections and the assembly is pinned together with two rivets or bolts and the spacing between the two threaded shafts is such that a rack driven carrier will mate with threads of each portion. A second configuration utilizes an "H" joint and the link contains slots and flat tangs are formed on the ends of the two threaded shafts and joined with rivets to the link.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.