Wind door assembly with edge stiffeners
AssigneeBelanger, Inc.
InventorMichael J. Belanger
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
This invention relates to a wind door assembly for a doorway. The wind door assembly preferably has a pair of strip curtain wind doors each having cooperating edge stiffeners to prevent wind from curling the lower inboard regions of the doors out of the plane of the doorway when the doors are closed while allowing an object to move the doors apart from one another so that the object can pass through the doorway without damaging either the object or the doorway.
Claims19
A wind door assembly for closing a doorway through which an object may pass, the doorway having a pair of laterally spaced apart uprights and an overhead beam extending therebetween, the wind door assembly comprising:
- a door beam cooperating with the doorway and shiftable between open and closed positions, the door beam, in a closed position, having an outboard end adjacent an upright and an inboard end spaced laterally inboard therefrom;
- and
- a door panel including an elongate flexible planar sheet and a vertically extending elongate stiffener, the planar sheet having a generally inboard vertically extending marginal edge, a lower inboard region and an upper marginal edge which connects to the door beam with the planar sheet being freely suspended therefrom in a normal vertical plane, and with the stiffener being affixed to the inboard marginal edge of the planar sheet;
- wherein, with the door beam in a closed position, the door panel normally prevents the interchange of ambient air through the doorway with the stiffener preventing the lower inboard region of the planar sheet from curling out of the plane of the doorway in response to wind blowing upon the door panel, while allowing the door panel, in response to an object impinging thereupon, to flex and swingingly incline out of the plane of the doorway so that the object can pass through the doorway without damaging the wind door assembly or the object after which time the wind door swings close.
A bifold wind door assembly for closing a doorway through which objects may pass, the doorway having left and right laterally spaced apart uprights and an overhead beam extending therebetween, the bifold wind door assembly comprising:
- left and right door beams, each having an outboard and an inboard segment foldably connected together by a hinge, the outboard segments of the left and right door beams being pivotally attached to the respective left and right uprights, the inboard segments of the left and right door beams each having an inboard end, the door beams being shiftable between an open folded position and a closed unfolded position;
- and
- left and right door panels, each door panel having a vertically extending elongate stiffener and a pair of inboard and outboard elongate flexible strips which are freely suspended in a normal plane from their respective inboard and outboard segments, each strip having a pair of laterally spaced vertical marginal edges with the adjacent marginal edges of each door panel being connected together and each inboard marginal edge of each inboard strip having a stiffener affixed thereto, and each door panel having a lower inboard region;
- wherein, with the door beams in closed positions, the door panels normally cooperate with one another to inhibit the interchange of ambient air through the doorway with the stiffeners preventing the lower inboard regions of each door panel from curling out of the plane of the doorway in response to wind blowing upon the wind door assembly, while allowing the door panels, in response to an object impinging thereupon, to flex with the door panels swingingly inclining out of the plane of the doorway so that the object can pass through the doorway without damaging the wind door assembly or the object after which time the wind door swings close.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.