Sectional door installation
OwnerDaniel J. MacNeil, Vincent A. MacNeil +2inventors
InventorsDaniel J. MacNeil, Vincent A. MacNeil, Richard E. Piper, Edward F. Piper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sectional door installation comprises a series of horizontal door panels mounted on opposite ends on scissors linkages to move between a deployed generally vertical position closing the doorway to a withdrawn position wherein the panels are arranged generally horizontally at the upper end of the doorway. The panels are transparent and are detachably connected to the scissors mechanism at their opposite ends so that they can readily disengage therefrom when impacted by an object such as an automobile, without damaging the object or themselves being damaged.
Claims24
A sectional door comprising:
- a series of horizontal door panels each being connected at its opposite ends to an operating mechanism by means of which the door panels can be moved between a deployed condition, wherein they close a doorway, and a withdrawn condition, wherein the doorway is open, said operating mechanism comprising:
- a pair of parallel vertical guideways for installation at opposite sides of the doorway and each having a series of mountings movable therealong;
- each said door panel being generally planar, and having each of its opposite ends supported in a mounting of a corresponding one of said series, in the deployed condition said panels being arrayed in contiguous generally upright orientation whereas in the retracted condition said panels are withdrawn into closely adjacent stacked parallel inclined orientation at the top of said doorway;
- at least the lowermost of said panels being free of attachment to any other panel and forming a detachable connection with its associated mountings so that when the doorway is partially or fully closed such panel is freed from its mountings when subjected to obstruction, or to loading of predetermined magnitude;
- each said detachable connection having first release means operative in response to excessive loading applied to the panel in a direction normal to its plane, and second release means operative in response to loading applied to the panel in an uncoupling direction parallel to its plane and normal to its length.
A panel for use in a sectional door installation, said panel being generally planar and configured at each end to form a yieldable attachment with a door operating mechanism to be disengageable therefrom when subjected to predetermined loading condition, such configuration being in the form of a socket adapted to receive a projection of a door operating mechanism, said socket being open in two directions at right angles to each other, one said direction being longitudinal of the panel and the other said direction being towards a lower edge of the panel, such that the projection can be inserted into and removed from the socket by relative movement in either of said directions.
A sectional door comprising:
- a series of horizontal door panels each being connected at its opposite ends to an operating mechanism by means of which the door panels can be moved between a deployed condition, wherein they close a doorway, and a withdrawn condition, wherein the doorway is open, said operating mechanism comprising:
- a pair of parallel vertical guideways for installation at opposite sides of the doorway and each having a series of mountings movable therealong;
- each said door panel being generally planar, and having each of its opposite ends supported in a mounting of a corresponding one of said series, in the deployed condition said panels being arrayed in contiguous generally upright orientation whereas in the retracted condition said panels are withdrawn into closely adjacent included orientation at the top of said doorway;
- each of said panels being detachable connected to its mounting so that when the doorway is partially or fully closed a panel can readily be displaced relative to its mountings when subjected to obstruction, or to loading of predetermined magnitude;
- each said panel end being connected to its associated mounting by an interengaging projection-and-socket connection, said panel being sufficiently longitudinally flexible that under a predetermined force applied to a central region thereof in a direction normal to the plane of the panel it will deflect an amount sufficient to disengage said projection-and-socket connection, said panel having sufficient stiffness that the deflection produced by the panel's own weight when in the horizontal orientation will not effect such disengagement;
- said panel being displaceable in the plane thereof in a direction normal to its length to disengage its projection-and-socket connections to its mounting means;
- wherein each said panel comprises two spaced parallel sheets of stiff transparent plastics material spaced apart by and connected to longitudinally extending stiffening bars, the end portions of said sheets and bars defining the sockets of said projection-and-socket connection and said sockets being open towards the bottom of the panel.
A sectional door comprising:
- a plurality of discrete horizontal door panels each being mounted at its opposite ends on an operating mechanism by means of which the door panels can be moved between a deployed condition wherein they close a doorway and a withdrawn condition wherein the doorwary is open, said panels being at all times parallel to each other, said operating mechanism comprising:
- a pair of parallel vertical guideways for installation at opposite sides of the doorway and each having a series of mountings movable therealong;
- each said door panel being generally planar, and having each of its opposite ends supported in a mounting of a corresponding one of said series, in the deployed condition said panels being arrayed in contiguos generally upright orientation whereas in the retracted condition said panels are withdrawn into closely adjacent stacked parallel orientation at the top of said doorway;
- at least the lowermost of said panels being detachably connected to its mountings so that when the doorway is partially or fully closed such a panel is freed from its mountings when subjected to obstruction, or to loading of predetermined magnitude;
- the ends of such a detachable panel each being connected to its associated mounting by an interengaging projection-and-socket connection, the panel being sufficiently longitudinally flexible that under a predetermined force applied to a central region thereof in a direction normal to the plane of the panel it will deflect an amount sufficient to disengage said projection-and-socket connections, said panel having sufficient stiffness that the deflection produced by the panel's own weight when in the horizontal orientation will not effect such disengagement;
- wherein each said detachable panel has end portions that define the sockets of said projection-and-socket connections said sockets being open towards the bottom of the panel, such detachable panel being displaceable in the plane thereof in a direction normal to its length to disengage its projection-and-socket connections by passage of the projections through the open bottoms of their associated sockets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.