Molded Door

The present invention relates primarily to storm doors which are molded of two halves. Exemplary is U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183.

The present invention, as set forth above is related to the combination storm and screen self-storing door disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183. The present inventor is one of the joint inventors in that patent. A careful examination of U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183 will show that thermal expansion and contraction plagues any two-piece molded door. This is specifically illustrated in FIGS. 17 and 18 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183. To combat this phenomenon of thermal expansion and contraction, a steel beam as identified in FIG. 16 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183 was required. Additionally, reinforcing bars were required elsewhere throughout the door. This increases the manufacturing cost. Additionally spacers were required in the construction of U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183 to allow for a separate track for the screen and window.

In addition the door of U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,183 was predicated upon screwing the two halves together by the overlapping lateral flanges and having one of the flanges pre-drilled with a slot rather than a hole thus allowing one-half to slide over the other as a result of expansion and contraction. This increased the manufacturing cost by the labor of screwing in place and in addition the cost of the screws themselves.

By way of improvement, what is highly desirable in a combination storm and screen door, or indeed just a storm door, is one which is thermally stable and achieves such stability without the use of special reinforcement. Another desirable quality in a door is one in which the two halves can be press-fittingly secured together in the manufacturing process which significantly reduce costs in that process, and by eliminating screws and reinforcing members, as well as screen and window spacers, eliminates various areas of vulnerability to loss of various fastening members and degradation of the structural integrity of the door. Another method of joining the two halves together and at the same time increasing structural stability is the assembly of the two halves using an expanding foam material. This results in "gluing" the halves together. To allow for storage and movement of the window and screen on the interior of the door, the two halves may have the foam on the interior periphery only.

The present invention evolves, in part, from the awareness of a sheet molded compound (SMC) which is a fiberglass reinforced composite material, produced in a sheet format. The material includes strands of oriented chopped fiberglass in combination with a resin, filler paste, and desirably an inert material such as talc in concentrations to and including up to approximately 40% of the composition. The SMC is subjected to matched molding, male and female, into a configuration in which one-half includes the window recess, a track for the same, the track being conformed by virtue of an offset for a screen as well, and optionally a plurality of fastening bosses on each half (the outside half and the inside half) of the door which are optionally held together by using a zero-like tolerance and opposed tapers on male and female opposed bosses such as cups and plugs. Optionally, the plugs and cups may be employed, and a dam assembly positioned around the periphery of the entire door, and subsequently filled with foam to secure the two halves together. In many applications the cups and bosses will not be needed, and dammed in foamed area will not only secure the two halves together, but actually adhere to the inner and outer halves. To further insure the dimensional stability, a plurality of essentially uniform trusses may be provided along the lateral edges of the two sides of the door, and the bosses are staggered between the window opening side of the opening and the door edge side to further enhance stability. Additionally means are provided in the door for a torsional spring door closer, a mortised pocket for a door mortised lock set insertion, and a single track for separating and slidably mounting a window and a screen to pre-selectively overlie the window opening area. Also provision is made for a spring dampener assembly for an automatic closer and damper, the recess being applied adjacent all four corners or the middle to receive the cartridge containing the closer and damper. The provision for mortised pocket is supplied at the left-hand side and the right-hand side so that with regard to the lock and to the closers, the door is automatically left-hand/right-hand.

In view of the foregoing it is a principle object of the present invention to provide a molded door of sheet molded composition material which is dimensionally stable, eliminates interior metallic reinforcements, and yet accommodate a self-storing window and screen combination.

A related and most important object of the present invention is to provide a molded door of two halves in which the two halves can be foamed together for a glue-like secured relationship by the action of the foam engaging the interior skin of the door.

Yet a further object of the present invention is to provide a door of two molded halves which are snap-fittingly engaged each to the other with interior structural trusses which augment the strength characteristic of the door.

Yet another and most important object of the present invention is to provide a door molded of two halves which are snap-fittingly engaged to each other, without metallic interior trusses, which is cost wise competitive with the prior art.

The foregoing objects and advantages of the present invention will be more fully understood as the following description of an illustrative embodiment takes place, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of the outside of the subject door showing the window in place;

FIG. 2 is a partially broken view showing the door of FIG. 1 in reduced scale, and revealing the location of the screen and storm window;

FIG. 3 is a planar view of the inside of the outer half of the door;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation of the outer half of the door as shown in FIG. 3 and in the same scale;

FIG. 5 is a planar view of the inside of the inner half of the door showing the foamed area and its surrounding dam portions;

FIG. 6 is a front elevation of the inside of the outer half of the door showing the location of the press-fitting interfit assembly;

FIG. 7 is a side elevation of the front half of the door as shown in FIG. 6 and in the same scale;

FIGS. 8, 9, 10, and 11 are enlarged partially broken sectional views of the periphery of the door frame showing the relationship between the plugs and cups;

FIG. 12 is an exploded perspective view of the recessed mortise lock;

FIG. 13 is a further sectional view of the peripheral portion of the door showing the foam partially in place as confined by the inner dam;

FIG. 14 is an alternative view showing the plugs in place and also the foam in between the halves of the door;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the door closer and dampener;

FIG. 16 is a front elevation partially broken of the closer and dampener of FIG. 15;

FIG. 17 is an enlarged exploded perspective view of a corner portion of the door showing the recess for the door closer and the relationship between the dam elements and the optional frictional secured members;

FIG. 18 is a broken corner view of the storm window;

FIG. 19 is a broken perspective corner view of the spring; and

FIG. 20 is a sectional view taken at the upper portion of the frame portion surrounding the window illustrating the track which separates the storm window latch from the screen latch and their cooperative relationship.

The present invention is illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 where it will be seen that the storm door 10, includes an outer half 11 and an inner half 12. The outer half of the storm door has a window opening 14, and the inner half of the storm door has a window opening 15.

The present invention is made possible by the utilization of a sheet molding compound, hereinafter referred as SMC, which is a fiberglass-reinforced composite material. The material is produced in a sheet format. The process for producing the material begins when a continuous strand of fiberglass is chopped into desirable lengths, usually under two inches. The strands are deposited onto a bottom layer of paste made from resin and filler. A top layer of resin and filler paste sandwiches the fibers to the bottom layer of paste, and it is covered by another carrier film. The paste-and-fiber sandwich is then compacted by a series of rollers to make a continuous sheet of molding compound (SMC). The SMC may be produced by anyone skilled in the art. While no claim is made here to the invention of the SMC, the adaptation of the SMC to compression mold a two-piece storm door from a thermoset material is claimed as novel with the applicant and a new use for a pre-existing material. The material is formed by match molding at a temperature of 300.degree. to 400.degree. and a pressure of one thousand pounds. The match molds are formed to produce the configuration as set forth hereinafter.

Integrally of the two halves 11, 12 optional means are provided for a mounting assembly 20. A cup 21 and plug 22 structure are employed. These are shown particularly in FIGS. 8-11 and 14. The outer mounting member and inner mounting member are essentially cylindrical in shape and molded integrally with the exterior skin of the outer half 11 and the inner half 12. A slot 24 may be used on the cup 21 to permit ease of assembly. Outer flange 30 and inner flange 31 cooperate to close the lateral edge of the door, particularly as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9. Also, as shown in FIG. 9, provision is made for a divider-rail screen and window, element 60 having a lateral edge 61 and a recess 69 defined by bridging member 62. Element 63 is an additional track so that elements 62 and 63 can respectively engage the screen and the window. This is further shown in FIGS. 13 and 14. As further shown in FIG. 20, a window latch 68 is provided at a lateral edge of the window 65, which penetrates a recess 69 and the screen 66 is secured in place by means of screen latch 70.

The window lateral edges 35, and the window top edge 36, and window bottom edge 38 of the outer half 11 are decorative desirably, whereas the inner half edges are essentially rectangular frame and larger then the outer half to allow for window and screen removal from the inside only.

A mortised lock recess 40 is provided in the outer half 11, desirably two of which are formed in opposed relationship to the other. To be noted here is that the full length hinge applied to the non-latch edge of the door covers the mortised recess which is not used. A lock 41 is then inserted, and secured in place by means of the lock seat 41.

Also an auxiliary provision is made for an automatic door closer which includes a torsion spring recess assembly 45 as shown in FIG. 17. The assembly 46 in turn includes a torsion spring 47 which terminates at one end with a foot 49 mounted against the lateral edge of the outer door half 11. This transfers through a new and innovative link mechanism 48 to the door jamb whatever kind it may be. To offset the possible severe closing action provision is made for a dampener assembly 50 which includes a dampener piston 51 secured interiorly of the tube 52. A port 54 serves to meter the compressed air and impart the dampening action. This may also be accomplished by insert molding whereas the molder may "insert," thus determining if the door closure/dampener mechanism will be inserted into the right-hand or left-hand side of the door while closing the other side.

Provision is also made for a divider rail 60 which, as disclosed in FIG. 20, provides separation for the window 65 and the screen 66. By virtue of an undercut, the divider rail insures that each slides in its own plane and one does not abrade the other.

As set forth above, in the assembly ease is provided by making the outer frame 11 the form for the door and setting it horizontally. The screen and window are ideally assembled at the end of the production line with the lock 41 and lock set 42 either secured in place or in the mortised lock recess 40, or separately packaged for installation at a later date. The torsion spring recessed assembly 46 is desirably secured at the factory prior to shipment, but means are provided for access for subsequent insertion, or replacement of the spring 46 in the event of breakage.

In summary, the molded door 10 comprises an outer half and an inner half 12. Comparable window outer opening 14 and window inner opening 12 frame the area for the window 65 and the screen 66. The outer half 11 and inner half 12 are provided with opposed torsion spring recesses 45 to the end that each door is a left-hand or right-hand door depending upon which side the spring assembly 46 is positioned. Similarly, the mortised lock recesses 40 are provided at opposed portions of the door to the end that at the factory, when the decision is made to complete the door, it can be either left-hand or right-hand. Most importantly, the two halves are molded from a sheet molded compound (SMC) which is highly stable dimensionally at various temperature extremes. The two halves of the door 11, 12 may be secured optionally together by a mounting assembly 20, or by foam 80 shaped by the dam portions 75, or a combination of both. Irrespective of which assembly means is used, the end result of an SMC door, optionally left-handed or right-handed, is economical to manufacture, and highly durable in usage.

It will be understood that various changes in the details, materials and arrangements of parts which have been herein described and illustrated in order to explain the nature of the invention, may be made by those skilled in the art within the principle and scope of the invention as expressed in the appended claims.