US 4,391,463 AGranted

Door catch

OwnerEnrique Costa Bastartinventor

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Abstract

A door catch which is releasable from inside or outside includes a staple projecting from the door and a caliper (two mutually pivoted levers) having at its free end a hook for engaging the staple. A plate is slidable and rockable relative to the door frame. The inner end of the caliper is pivotally mounted on the door frame. With the caliper folded flat against the frame, the hook is not disengageable for disengagement, the folded caliper must be pivoted out until the hook is spaced from the lip of the staple. This can be achieved manually from inside. If the door is partly opened without disengagement, the caliper opens and the slidable plate can be slid from outside, so that on closing the door a lug on the staple rocks the plate, causing a lug to abut the (closed) caliper and pivot it sufficiently to enable disengagement.

Claims8

Dependent claims

A catch for holding a door closed, comprising two complementary mutually engageable latching means, and respective mounting means for mounting said latching means to respective ones of a door and an element adjacent the door so that the latching means are mutually engageable when the door is closed;

a first one of said mounting means comprising an extendible link and means for articulating said link to the door or element, whereby in use the door is partially inwardly openable to a predetermined extent with the latching means mutually engaged;
the link being displaceable between releasable and locked configurations in which the latching means respectively are and are not mutually disengageable by opening the door;
said first mounting means also including an actuating element which is displaceable between actuating and non-actuating configurations, in the former of which it is actuable to displace the link to its releasable configuration, said actuating element being constructed and arranged to be displaceable in use to its actuating configuration from outside the partially open door, and to be actuated by closure of the door, whereby the door is freely inwardly openable with disengagement of the latching means.

A door catch comprising:

a support plate for mounting to a door frame and having pivot means and two detent means;
a rocking plate slidable on the support plate and having a projecting lug, and detent means selectively engageable with either of the detent means of the support plate to retain the rocking plate respectively in an actuating or a non-actuating position;
said plate being shaped to be rockable on the support plate to a configuration in which (a) said detent means are disengageable and (b) said lug is caused to project to a greater extent away from the support plate;
first spring means urging said rocking plate against the support plate, and urging rocking in a sense to engage the detent means;
second spring means urging said rocking plate to slide over the support plate to its non-actuating position;
a first lever pivotally mounted at an inner end portion to the pivot means of the support plate;
a second lever pivotally connected at an inner end portion to the outer end portion of the first lever;
third spring means arranged to urge the first lever against the lug of the rocking plate, and the second lever against the first lever;
hook means at the outer end portion of the second lever;
eye means adapted to be releasably engageable with said hook means and having an inwardly extending abutment;
mounting means for mounting said eye means to the edge portion of a door, so that in use said levers are pivotable about the pivot means of the support plate between configurations in which the hook and eye means respectively are and are not mutually disengageable, and wherein said hook and eye means are mutually engageable with the door shut, and wherein mutual pivoting of said levers and pivoting of said first lever about the support plate allows partial opening of the door with said hook and eye means engaged, whereupon said rocking plate is slidable to its actuating configuration, whereafter on closing the door the abutment on the eye means abuts the rocking plate, causing it to rock, whereby the lug thereof tends to cause the levers to pivot about the pivot means of the support plate to the configuration in which the hook and eye means are disengageable.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.