US2644555A - Doorpost construction - Google Patents

Description

y 7, 1953 F. A. sAAF 2,644,555

DOORPOST CONSTRUCTION Original Filed Dec. 27, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet l y 7, 1953 F. A. SAAF 2,644,555

DOORPOST CONSTRUCTION Original Filed Dec. 27, 1945 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented July 7, 1953 2,644,555 DOORPO ST CONSTRUCTION Fritz A. Saai, Aurora, 111., assignor to All-Steel Equipment Inc., a corporation of Illinois Original application December 27, 1945, Serial No. 637,396. Divided and this application October 8, 1949, Serial No. 121,162

3 Claims. (Cl. 189-46) This invention relates to means for securing metal doors in door openings formed by metal walls, and, for the purpose of the present disclosure, will be described as applied specifically to the construction of metal lockers and the like.

A locker of the general type under consideration is of sheet metal construction throughout, the fabrication of the locker including such operations as shearing, forming, welding, riveting and bolting. The door panel is a sheet of metal having a front or 'face portion and inwardly turned edge flanges.

For mounting the door panel separate hinge straps for carrying pintles are commonly afiixed to the metal door post on one side of the door opening, and the flanged door panel is apertured to receive the hinge strap so that the pintles may cooperate with inner surfaces of the door panel. The sheet metal of the doorpanel usually forms special socketsfor the two ends of each pintle,

and since such sockets are generally open or incomplete on one side, suitable retaining members are mounted on the inner side of the door panel to keep the pintle ends seated in the sockets. metal replaces the usual hinge strap. In 'an- The general of my mventlfm 15 to other practice the tongue of metal is formed to prov? g g q f door mountmg Q serve as a keeper in the combination of elements men y provl mg a simpler and more efficient for latching the door.

combination of elements, Wl'llCh combinatlon may above and other bjects and advantages beuiazslembled w1th less labor than heretofore reof my invention will become, apparent from the,

q l following detailed description taken with the ac- One ob ect of my lnvention is to provide a comcompanying drawings 32 22 1 i g i ig gg f ggf fi ffi 233 In the drawings, which are to be regarded as ly illustrative:

binat1on the door post is so constructed as to mer-e reduce the number of separate elements in the 0 1s perspectwe v1e w of stleel 5 5 combination. More particularly stated, this obf preferred practlce {nventlom ject is to provide an integral hinge strap in the F 2 1S a fragmentary perspectlve on an door post construction thereby making it unenlarged scale of an upper front m of the necessary to fabricate suchastrap separately and y locker f bemg taken from mslde the further eliminating t usual Step f attaching locker with the door closed;

the hinge stra t th d post Fig; 3 is a fragmentary vertlcal section taken A group of objects of the invention relate to as ipdicated y he1ine'33 of m 2;

the construction of th retaining member, per Figs; 4 and 5 are fragmentary horizontal secse. These objects include: to provide a retaintions 5 as infiicated by 111195 and ing member for mounting on the inner side of respectlvely, 0f t a door panel that will compensate at least in 6 is a fragmentary o al v eW rom part for the weakening of the door panel by inside 17116} locker. with the (1001 s u p the aperture that receives the hinge strap; to 1s a ra m ntary persp t v vlew of a provide a retaining member that stiffens the edge 5:) sheet metal (1001' post formed w1th the bulge flange of the door panel; to provide a retaining, member that makes extensive reenforcing contact both with the edge flange of the door and the adjacent portion of the panel face; to provide a sheet metal retaining member with two legs forming an angle, the sheet metal being swaged or ofiset across the vertex of the angle to stiffen the two legs with reference to each other; to provide a retaining member having exceedingly strong portions in contact with the ends of the associated pintle; to provide a retaining member formed with bosses for retaining contact with the associated pintles; and to provide a retaining member that may be mounted on a door memoer by placing tongues integral with one of said members through complementary slots in theother of, said members, and then bending or deforming said tongues to effectively engage the two members with each other.

A further object of the invention is to provide a sheet metal door post construction that is adapted for various modes of cooperation with a door. In general this objectis attained bybending the sheet metal of the door post upon itself to form a folded edge for one side of a doorway,

and in efiect'peeling off a tongue from the inner layer of sheet metal to extend laterally from the folded edge for various purposes of cooperation with the door. In one practice the tongue of strap integral therewith;

Fig. 8 is a perspective view of the retaining means for the pintle employed in my preferred hinge combination;

Fig. 9 is a perspective view of a portion of a a top panel or sheet 2|, two door posts or jambs 22 and 23 forming the sides of a door opening, a lintel member 25 at the top of the door opening, a sill member 26 at the bottom of the door opening, and a door member or panel generally designated 21.

The door panel 21 is mounted on the door post 22 by a plurality of suitable hinge means, generally designated 28. As best shown in Figs. 1 and 11, the door panel 2'! may be provided with a lock29 having'a catch 36, a handle 31 rotatable for retracting the catch, and a keyhole means 32 for receiving a key to lock the latch against retraction.

The two door posts 22 and 23 are preferably of thefolded sheet metal construction shown in Figs. 7 and 11, respectively. In each of these figures the illustrated door post is of angular configuration with a front leg 35 and a side leg 36. Each of the doorposts is fabricated by bending a single sheet of metal back on itself to form a folded, edge Bifor one side of the door opening of the locker. The outer layer of metal and the inner layer of metal of each door post lie close together in the front leg 35 but in the side leg 36 are spaced apart to form a deep narrow channel 38 to receive the corresponding side panel 26 of the locker. Any suitable expedient, such as spot welding, riveting or bolting, may be employed to secure the side panels 26 in the channels 38, spot welding being preferred.

The lintel 25 at the top of the doorway may be of 'the same general construction as the door post. Thus Fig. 2 shows the lintel 25 formed with a front leg 46 and a top leg 6|, the top leg'providing a channel to receive the margin of the top panel 2i. The door sill 26 may be of similar construction.

A feature of my invention is the concept of in effect peeling away a portion of the inner layer of metal of thedoor posts 22 and 23 to. form tongues integral with the outer layers of metal for cooperation with the door panel 27. Figs. 10 and 11 depict one example in which the inner layer of metal of the door post 23 is cut away, as indicated at 42, to form a laterally extending tongue 43 to serve as a keeper for engagement by the door catch 30. Fig. '7 depicts a second example in which the inner layer of metal of the door post 22 is cut away, as indicated at 45, to form a laterally extending tongue 66 integral with the outer layer of metal to serve as a hinge strap. The tongue or hinge strap 46 is formed to cylindrical configuration to embrace a suitable pintle or hinge pin 41, the strap and pintle being elements of th hinge means 28 heretofore mentioned.

Turning to the door construction, the door panel 21 is provided on its hinge edge with an inward flange 56 which may be return bent, as indicated at 5|, for reenforcement (see Figs. 2 and 4). In like manner the free or swinging edge of the door may be formed with an inward flange 52 (Fig. 11), which flange may be return bent for reenforcement, as indicated at 53. The

4 top and bottom edges of the door may be provided with plain flanges 55, as best shown in Fig. 2.

To receive each of the hinge straps 46 the door panel 21 is cut away to provide a vertically elongated aperture 56, which aperture may be just long enough to clear the hinge strap if the pintle 41 is removable-for insertion after the stra is passed through the aperture. In my preferred construction the pintle 41 is fixedly embraced by the hinge strap 46, and the aperture 56 is sufficiently elongated to clear both ends of the pintle.

Preferably the sheet metal of the door adjacent the ends of each aperture 56 is swaged or otherwise formed to provide two sockets 51 for the two ends, respectively, of the pintle 41. As clearly revealed in Fig. 9, each of the sockets 5'! is open from one side to permit the pintle 41 to be moved laterally into the sockets in the assembly procedure, and therefore suitable means, such as a retaining member generally designated 66',1is

provide two slots 6| in the door member in the vicinity of each of the hinge apertures 56, as best shown in Fig. 9. e I

The retaining member 66, which ispreferably a sheet metal stamping, is of angular cross-. sectional configuration with two legs, one leg 6-2- for extensive face to face contact with the inner surface of the door panel flange 50, and a second leg 63 for extensive face to face contact with the inner surface of the face portion of thedoor panel. Integral with the leg 62 are two tongues 65 and 66, corresponding to the two slots 6| in the door panel flange 50. It is contemplated that the two tongues will be inserted into the slots and then bent, as best shown in Figs. 3 and 6, into positive engagement with the door panelfiange. At least one of the tongues may be straight prior to use, the tongue 65 being thus shown in Fig. 8. Preferably the other tongue 66 is preformed or prebent for the positive en gagement with the door panel flange, as shown in Fig. 8, so that in assembling the retaining member into engagement with the door panel the workman has the task of bending only one of the tongues. The assembly procedure consists of holding the retaining member approximately horizontal, inserting the leading portion of the tongue 66, swinging the retaining member upward about the tongue 66 as a pivot or fulcrum to bring the other tongue 65, into the other slot 6| and then bending or hammering over the tongue 65 to make the engagement positive.

A feature of the preferred practice of the inven-. tion is the stiffening of the retaining member '66 across the vertex of the two legs 62 and 63 by suitably swaging or offsetting the metal to form reenforcements across the vertex; and afurther feature is the employment of such offset toachieve purposes in addition to reenforcement.

In the particular retaining member 66 shown in the drawings, for example, the two legs are stiffened by a simple longitudinal offset 61, shown in perspective in Fig. 8 and shown in cross-section in Fig. 4. The secondary purpose in forming the ofiset 6'! is to provide liberal clearance between the retaining member and the hinge strap Rather, than out slots in the retaining member 66 I,

46 to prevent marring of whatever surface finish is given the strap, such clearance being apparent in Fig. 4. 7

Further reenforcements across the vertex of the retaining member are achieved by offsetting the metal to form two transverse ribs 68 spaced from the offset ends of the central offset 61. The additional purpose achieved by adding the rib 68 to the central offset 6'! is the formation thereby of what may be termed two bosses 79 for contact, respectively, with the two ends of the pintle- 47.

The described retaining member 60 provides inherent exceptional strength at the points of contact with the ends of the corresponding pintle 4'! for a number of reasons. In the first place, the retaining member is braced by extensive abutment both with the door panel flange 50 and the adjacent area of the face portion of the door panel. In the second place, the retaining member is exceedingly rigid by virtue of the central offset 61 and the two ribs 68. In the third place, the metal of the retaining member extends in all directions from the points of contact with the pintle, the retaining member being distinguished in this respect from the use of relatively weak unsupported tongues in contact with the pintle. In the fourth place, the points of contact are strengthened by the bosses ill, a domed sheet metal configuration bein stronger than a fiat sheet. It is also to be noted that the concave surfaces of the bosses 70 provide relatively small areas in contact with the pintles, with consequent reduction in hinge friction. I

My description in specific detail of a preferred form of the invention as required by See. 4388 R. S. will suggest to those skilled in the art various changes and substitutions within the scope of my appended claims.

This application is a division of my earlier application, Serial No. 637,396, filed December 27, 1945, now Patent Number 2,513,366, granted July 4, 1950.

I claim as my invention:

1. A door post for cooperation with a side panel and a door comprising a metal sheet folded back upon itself to form parallel inner and outer layers of metal which together comprise the front section of the-door post, the fold in the sheet forming a smooth edge Which defines. a pant of the door opening, and the free ends of the inner and outer layers being bent in the same direction at right angles to said front portion, but spaced apart the thickness of said side panel to form the side portion of the door post, said space between the metal layers forming the side portion of the post being adapted to receive said side panel and mask the included edge therein from view.

2. A door post as set forth in claim 1 in which an integral tongue is cut from the inner layer of the front section and extend toward said door opening. 1

3. A door post as set, forth in claim 2 in which the free end of the tongue is formed into a hollow cylinder to receive a hinge pintle.

FRITZ A. SAAF.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Great Britain Mar. 31, 1936

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