Breakaway lever clutch

A lever assembly for a latchable door having a latch assembly positionable in both a locked and an unlocked position, the lever assembly comprising:

• a trim housing configured to accommodate a rotatable lever handle and a rotatable key cylinder;
• means for vertically moving a slider in response to rotation of the lever handle;
• a lift arm connected to the latch assembly;
• and
• a selectively compressible element connected between the slider and the lift arm, with the selectively compressible element biased to transmit motion of the slider to the lift arm to move the lift arm and the connected latch assembly when the latchable door is in its unlocked position, and with the selectively compressible element compressing in response to slider movement when movement of the lift arm is blocked when the latchable door is in its locked position.

A double door lever assembly for disengaging a door latch of a door latch assembly having an unlocked and a locked position, vertical rods which are movable to release a door latch when said door latch assembly is in an unlocked position, and a blocking slide movable to a locked position to prevent movement of the vertical rods and the door latch connected thereto, the lever assembly comprising:

• a lever handle rotatably connected to a trim housing;
• a cam operably connected to the lever handle and positioned to rotate in response to rotation of the lever handle;
• a stop attached to the trim housing and positioned to engage and prevent rotation of the cam through a predetermined position;
• a slider movable in response to rotation of the cam;
• a lift arm connected to the vertical rods of the door latch assembly;
• and
• an over-ride spring connected between the slider and the lift arm, with the over-ride spring transmitting motion of the slider to the lift arm to lift the lift arm and the connected vertical rods when the door latch assembly is in its unlocked position, and with the over-ride spring compressing in response to slider movement when the blocking slide is positioned to block movement of the lift arm when the door latch assembly is in its locked position.

A door lever assembly for disengaging an unlocked latch of a lockable door latch assembly, the door latch assembly having an unlocked and a locked position, the lever assembly comprising:

• a lever handle operably connected to the latch of the lockable door latch assembly;
• a cam positioned to rotate in response to rotation of the lever handle;
• and
• a shaft extending in fixed attachment between the lever handle and the cam with a breakable shear pin attaching the shaft to the cam, said breakable shear pin being configured to break upon application of a predetermined amount of torque, and with the breakable shear pin having at least one flat side to engage a flat wall defined by the cam to prevent lever handle droop.