ONE-PIECE OVERHEAD DOOR, PARTICULARLY A GARAGE DOOR

PORTE BASCULANTE VERTICALE MONOPIECE, PLUS PARTICULIEREMENT POUR GARAGE

English Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE
An overhead garage or the like door 5 has a door
panel or leaf 11 held by a pair of spring-loaded levers
In the closed state, the bottom edge section of the panel
is guided by two guiding rollers 12 on the guide surfaces
14 of the door frame. The levers 10 are each pivotably
secured with their one end at mid-length of the respective
side edge of the door panel. The other end of each lever
10 is pivoted near the upper end of the generally
vertically arranged guide surface of the door plane. One
end 20 of a first cable 22 is installed in the area of one
of the guiding rollers 12. This first cable 22 has a
first section or component portion 23 parallel to the
guide surface 14, extending upwards to an upper corner 27
of the door frame 7, then deflects over a generally right
angle to form a second, horizontal section or component
portion 24 and then is guided again to a third, generally
vertical section down to the bottom end of the second
guide surface 14, and from there, after another turn at
approximately 180°, it extends upwards into a fourth
section or component portion 26. The second end of the
first cable 22 is then secured to the other guiding
roller. Another cable similarly extends from the other
roller 12 to the first mentioned roller 12. The invention
improves the accuracy of the guiding of the door panel and
prevents undesired jamming thereof.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive
right or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
1. An overhead swing door comprising, in combination:
(a) a door panel;
(b) spring-loaded lever means adapted to support said door
panel;
(c) a pair of guide roller means adapted to be disposed one
at each side of the door panel near a normally lower edge
thereof;
(d) a pair of generally straight, normally generally
vertical guide surface means adapted to guide each guide roller
means along a respective straight, generally vertical path as the
panel is moved from a closed state to an open state;
(e) said lever means including a pair of levers, each lever
having a first end adapted to be pivotably secured to a
respective side of the panel at a generally middle portion of one
side of the panel, the other end of each lever being adapted to
be pivotably secured to a respective one of said guide surface
means near a normally upper end thereof;
(f) a first cable means and a second cable means adapted to
engage a first and a second one of the guide roller means,
respectively, and a cable pulley system for guiding said first
cable means and said second cable means;
(g) said cable means including cable securement means for
securing one end of each of the cable means to the panel near one
of the guide roller means and the other end of each of the cable
means to the panel near the other guide roller means;
(h) said cable pulley system including a plurality of
pulleys adapted to become so arranged and disposed that they
guide the first cable means in a direction generally vertically
downwardly from a first one of the cable securement means, then
generally vertically upwardly towards a first upper corner of an
associated door opening, then towards a second upper corner of an
associated door opening and then generally vertically downwardly
towards a second one of the cable securement means, while the
second cable means is guided in a direction generally vertically
downwardly from the second one of the cable securement means, then

generally vertically upwardly to the second upper corner, then to
the first upper corner and then generally vertically downwardly to
the first one of said first cable securement means.
2. A door as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cable pulley
system includes a guide pulley adapted to become secured at each
of said upper corners; each guide pulley being adapted to guide
both said cable means.
3. A door as claimed in claim 2, wherein each of the
guide pulleys is adapted for rotation about an axis generally
perpendicular to a plane of coincidence with the door panel in a
closed state.
4. A door as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein each of said
guide pulleys is a double pulley.
5. A door as claimed in claim 1, wherein said cable pulley
system includes bottom guiding pulleys for securement near each of
lower corners of an associated door opening, for changing the
direction of respective cable sections from said generally
vertically downward direction to the generally vertically upward
direction.
6. A door as claimed in claim 5, wherein each of said
bottom guiding pulleys is adapted for rotation about an axis
generally perpendicular to the plane of coincidence with the door
panel in a closed state.
7. A door as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cable
securement means are adapted to become disposed at each side of
the panel at an equidistant spacing from the normally lower edge
thereof.
8. A door as claimed in claim 7, wherein the said
equidistant spacing is generally equal to the spacing of said
guide roller means from the normally lower edge of the panel.

9. A door as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein said each
securement means is formed by a loop at each end of each cable
means and by an axial extension of each guide roller means, each
guide extension being adapted to be engaged by the loops of the
respective two cable means.
10. An overhead swing door, particularly for garages,
including a door leaf, resiliently supported by spring loaded
levers, which door leaf is guided in a normally lower region
thereof in the closed state by means of two lateral guide rollers
which are situated one to each side of the door leaf and which
bear constantly against straight guide surfaces of a surrounding
frame, which guide surfaces extend substantially vertically, the
levers being articulated, at first ends thereof laterally
substantially in the middle region of the door leaf and at other
ends thereof in the vicinity of the upper ends of the guide
surfaces, characterized in that one end of a first cable is fixed
near one of said guide rollers, that this first cable, in a first
component portion thereof, is guided by a cable pulley system
upwards, parallel to one of said guide surfaces, is then deflected
substantially at right angles in the region of one of upper
corners of the surrounding frame and in a second component portion
is guided parallel to the upper horizontal portion of the
surrounding frame as far as the other upper corner of the
surrounding frame, is there again deflected substantially at right
angles and in a third component portion is guided substantially
parallel to the first component portion as far as a lower end
region of the other guide surface and then, after another
deflection substantially through a double right-angle, is guided
upwards in a fourth component portion and the other end of the
first cable is fixed to the other guide roller, that in the region
of this other guide roller there is attached one end of a second
cable, that the second cable in a first component portion is
guided by the cable pulley system upwards parallel to the other
guide surface, is deflected substantially at right angles in the
region of the other upper corner of the surrounding frame and in a
second component portion is guided parallel to the horizontal
portion of the surrounding frame as far as one upper corner of the

surrounding frame, is there again deflected substantially at right
angles and in a third component portion is guided substantially
parallel to the first component portion as far as the lower end
region of the one guide surface and then, after again being
deflected through a substantially double right angle, is guided
upwards in a fourth component portion and the other end of the
second cable is fixed to the one guide roller, that an upper guide
pulley is disposed in the region of each upper corner of the
surrounding frame and a lower guide pulley is disposed in the
lower end region of each guide surface of the surrounding frame to
deflect each cable, that each upper guide pulley for the two
cables is constructed in the form of a double pulley with a common
axis of rotation, and that the upper and lower guide pulleys are
rotatable about axes which extend perpendicular to a reference
plane defined by the guide surfaces.
11. A swing door as claimed in claim 10, characterized in
that the two ends of each cable are fixed at substantially the
same height of the door leaf.
12. A swing door as claimed in Claim 11, characterized in
that the ends of each cable are constructed in the form of a loop
and are each fixed to the spindle of one of the guide rollers.
13. An overhead swing door comprising, in combination:
(a) a door panel;
(b) spring-loaded lever means resiliently supporting said
door panel;
(c) a pair of guide rollers disposed one at each side of
the door panel near a normally lower edge thereof;
(d) a pair of generally straight, generally vertical guide
surface means, each guide surface means being engaged by one of
said guide rollers to guide same along a respective straight,
generally vertical path as the panel is moved from a closed state
to an open state;
(e) said lever means including a pair of levers, each lever
having a first end pivotably secured to one side of the panel at
a generally middle portion thereof, the other end of each lever

being pivotably secured to one of said guide surface means near a
normally upper end thereof;
(f) first cable means and second cable means engaging a
first one and a second one of the guide rollers, respectively,
and a cable pulley system for guiding said first cable means and
said second cable means;
(g) said cable means including cable securement means for
securing one end of each of the cable means to the panel near one
of the guide rollers and the other end of each of the cable means
to the panel near the other guide roller;
(h) said cable pulley system including a plurality of
pulleys so arranged and disposed that they guide the first cable
means in a direction generally vertically downwardly from a first
one of the cable securement means, then generally vertically
upwardly towards a first upper corner of an associated door
opening, then towards a second upper corner of an associated door
opening and then generally vertically downwardly towards a second
one of the cable securement means, while the second cable means
is guided in a direction generally vertically downwardly from the
second one of the cable securement means, then generally
vertically upwardly to the second upper corner, then to the first
upper corner and then generally vertically downwardly to the
first one of said cable securement means.
14. A door as claimed in claim 13, wherein said cable
pulley system includes a guide pulley secured at each of said
upper corners, each guide pulley guiding both said cable means.
15. A door as claimed in claim 14, wherein each of the
guide pulleys is rotatable about an axis of rotation generally
perpendicular to a plane of coincidence with the door panel in a
closed state.
16. A door as claimed in claim 14 or 15, wherein each of
said guide pulleys is a double pulley.
17. A door as claimed in claim 13, wherein said cable
pulley system includes bottom guiding pulleys secured one near
11

each of lower corners of an associated door opening, for changing
the direction of respective cable sections from said generally
vertically downward direction to the generally vertically upward
direction.
18. A door as claimed in claim 17, wherein each of said
bottom guiding pulleys is rotatable about an axis generally
perpendicular to the plane of coincidence with the door panel in
a closed state.
19. A door as claimed in claim 13, wherein the cable
securement means are disposed at each side of the panel at an
equidistant spacing from the normally lower edge thereof.
20. A door as claimed in claim 19, wherein the said
equidistant spacing is generally equal to the spacing of said
guide roller means from the normally lower edge of the panel.
21. A door as claimed in claim 19 or 20, wherein said cable
securement means is formed by a loop at each end of each cable
means and by an axial extension of each guide roller means, each
guide extension being engaged by the loops of the respective two
cable means.
12

Description

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This invention relates to an overhead swinging
door, particularly to a garage door or the like.
It is typical for many doors of t'nis type that,
on opening, the bottom edge of the door panel does not, in
effect, swing from the plane defined by the closed door
panel. This feature is a standrdized requirement in many
countries. The problem occurring here is in that
conventional door panels are not sufficiently rigid for
their purpose, so that w'nen operating the panels
difficulties ariseO To make such a door panel more rigid,
a type of swinging door is known from our West German
Utility Model 72 38 251, published February 15, 1973,
wherein guiding rollers or pulleys are installed at the
ends of a common shaft extending across the entire width
of the door panel. The door panel has consequently an
increased resistance to twisting forces. These known door
panels may be satisfactory if the door panel is held and
manipulated approximately at the center of its width.
However, when a user takes hoLd of this door panel at a
point away from the center, the panel immediately tends to
go out of alignment and consequently jams because the
parallel run of the guiding pulleys is not sufficiently
secured to the guiding surfaces.
It is an object of the present invention to
provide an overhead swinging door, particularly for
garages, which would be of a simple structure and would be
reliable in operation when the panel is being closed or
opened, without misalignment and the consequent jamming.
In general terms, the present invention provides
an overhead swinging door comprising, in combination: a
door panel; spring-loaded lever means adapted to support
said door panel; guide roller means disposed at each side
of the door panel near a normally lower edge thereof;
generally straight, normally generally vertical guide
surface means adapted to guide the guide roller means as
the panel is moved from a closed to an open state; said

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lever means having a first end pivotably secured to said
panel at a generally central portion thereof, the other
end of the lever means being pivotably secured to said
guide surface means near a normally upper end thereof;
first cable means, a second cable means generally
coincident with a first and a second one of the guide
roller means, respectively, and a cable pulley system for
guiding said first cable means and said second cable
means; said cable means including cable securement means
for securing respective ends of each of the cable means to
the panel near the respective guide roller means thereof;
said cable pulley system including a plurality of pulleys
adapted to become so arranged and disposed that they are
capable of guiding the first cable means in a direction
generally vertically downwardly from a first one of the
cable securement means, then generally vertically upwardly
towards a first upper corner of an associated door
opening, then towards a second upper corner o-f an
associated door opening and then generally vertically
downwardly towards a second one of the cable securement
means, while the second cable means is guided in a
direction generally vertically downwardly from the second
one of the cable securement means, then generally
vertically upwardly to the second upper corner, then to
the first upper corner and then generally vertically
downwardly to the first one of said first cable securement
means.
The invention will now be described by way of a
preferred embodiment with reference to the accompanying
simplified, diagrammatic drawings, wherein:
Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic cross-section of a
swinging door of the present invention in an assembled
state;
Fig. 2 is a rear view in the direction II-II of
Fig. l;
Fig. 3 is detail III of Fig. 2 shown in a cut-off
fashion and on an enlarged scale; and
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3~
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Fig. 4 shows the part of the cables shown in
Fig. 2.
When fully assembled, the overhead swing door,
referred to in general ~ith reference number 5, is
S disposed in the area of a door opening in a building 6 and
is provided with a door frame 7 consisting of two vertical
sections 8 installed at a distance from each other and of
a horizontal portion or ~section 9, which connects both of
sections 8. A door panel or leaf ll is held by a
spring-loaded ]ever and is shown here in a partly opened
state. One end of each of levers lO holdsj the respective
side of the panel ll at approximately the mid-height
thereof; the other end of each lever 10 is pivotably
secured, near the upper end of the respective vertical
section 8 of the door frame.
Furthermore, the door panel 11 is provided with
guide rollers 12 laterally protruding over the panel. The
shafts 13 (Fig. 3) of these rollers are coaxial and are
guided on guide surfaces 14 formed in the vertical
sections 8 of the door frame 7, and facing the interior of
the garage. In an open state, the rollers 12 are simply
supported each on its respective guide surface, the open
position being shown in broken lines of Fig. l.
Fig. 2, on the other hand, shows the swinging
door 5 with the closed door panel 11 as viewed from the
interior of the building S; here the lever 10, for
si~plicity, is not completely dLawn but is shown as if
broken-off, Furthermore, the lock 15 is shown with a pair
of locking rods 16 and bolts I7.
The greater detail presented in Fig. 3 shows the
guiding roller 12 mounted at a lower part of the door
panel 11. The shaft 13 is mounted in the guiding pulley
bearing 18 and protrudes laterally over the side contour
of panel ll. It is evident that the shaft 13 of the
guiding roller 12 is horizonthl and coincides with the
plane of the door panel ll. On the shaft 13 are shown

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loop-shaped ends 19, 20 of the two cables 21, 22, the part
of whic'n will now be described in greater detail with
reference to Fig. 4.
The first cable 22 is ln its first part or first
component portion _ parallel to a guiding surface 14 and
extends vertically upwards, then is deflected 90 by an
upper guide pulley 28 mounted in the area of one upper
corner 27 of the door frame 7. From there on, the cable
22 continues in a second section parallel to the
horizontal section 9 of the door panel 7 generally
horizontally to the second upoer guide pulley 29 arranged
in the area of the second upper corner 27 of th~ door
frame 7. At the latter it is again deflected 90 so that
in the third section or third component portion 25 it is
generally parallel to the first section 23 and parallel to
the plane of the guide surface 14. The third section
extends to the bottom or lower guide pulley 30 and is
there deflected at about 180. This pulley is rotatably
mounted in the bottom end portion of the second guide
surface 14 of the vertical section 8 of the door frame 7.
From this pulley 30 the cable 22 extends in a fourth
section or fourth component portion 26 up to the area of
the second guide roller 12 and is attached to the axle 13
of the guiding rol~er 12, preferably by way of an end loop
(see Fig. 3). In any case, the end 20 of the cable 22 and
the other end of the same cable must be attached
approximately at the same level of the door panel 11,
preferably on the level of the axis of shaft 13 of the
guiding roller 120
Fig. 3 shows that one end 19 of the second cable
21 extends downwards, i.e. in opposite direction of the
cable 22, but parallel to the latter in a fourth direction
26 to a lower guide pulley 31; at this pulley it is
deflected at a double-right-angle and in a third section
_ extends to the one upper guide pulley 28, there
deflected at approximately a right angle and extending, in

a second section or second component portion 24, to the
second upper guide pulley 29, then deflected by 90
downwards in the first section 21 to the second guiding
roller 12 (the right hand rolLer 12 of Fig. 2), where it
is likewise attached.
The axes 32 (Fig. 3) of all the pulleys 28-31 are
parallel to each other and are perpendicular to the plane
of the guiding surface 14. In this manner both cables 21,
22 may be moved without problems; both of the upper guide
pulleys 28, 29 are designed as double-pulleys with a
common shaft.
By this design and geometry, the guiding of the
sections of each cable is secured so that the ends 19, 20
of the two cables 20, 21 are maintained on the straight
line 33 (Figs. 3 and 4) so that each guiding roller 12 is
subject to a forced guiding in such a manner that it runs
continually in a parallel relationship with respect to the
line 33 when the door panel is opened or closed. Twisting
and jamming of the doors cannot occur or is at least very
substantially limited.