Patent Publication Number: US-7707776-B2

Title: Frameless glass door

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This is a U.S. national stage of International Application No. PCT/EP2006/060890, filed on 20 Mar. 2006. Priority is claimed on Austrian Application No. A463/2005, filed on 18 Mar. 2005. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The invention pertains to a frameless glass door, especially a swinging glass door or a door which rests in stops, with a glass door leaf installed in a doorway and with hinges at the bottom and top or on the side. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Glass facades, glass walls, and glass doors have become widely accepted not only for business entryways but also for offices and in the area of modern interior architecture. They offer an unimpeded view in both directions and contribute to a feeling of openness and to a connection between indoors and outdoors. Barriers are thus eliminated, and “threshold anxiety” is reduced in business areas. 
     Glass doors require fittings, especially hinges, which are usually made of metal and which must be attached to the glass door leaf by flanges at the top and bottom. For this purpose, U-profiles of metal are used, which grip the hinge-side corner areas and partially enclose and thus support the glass door leaf. The axes of rotation or mandrel mounts, which engage in mating parts in the floor or ceiling structure, are located on these metal profiles. 
     A special type of design is based on a multi-layer laminated glass pane. A flat piece of a hinge part is embedded in the laminated construction, so that the glass is not enclosed as usual between two cheeks of a U-profile but rather encloses the hinge part. 
     It is felt to be a disadvantage of the prior art that, although these glass doors are indeed frameless, they still have visible metal hinge parts. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The invention has the goal of freeing the glass door leaf of all visible hinge parts and of designing the entire doorway so that it is completely transparent. 
     This goal is achieved for a frameless glass door of the type described above, in that the glass door leaf has a tongue-like glass extension in the area of each hinge. These extensions project toward the doorway beyond the geometric form, in particular the rectangular form, of the glass door leaf and fit into rotatable hinge parts outside the visible area. 
     Although we are speaking here of a glass door, all of the features also apply correspondingly to other types of glass leaf structures such as windows. All of the hinge parts are therefore always located outside the doorway; that is, they are entirely inside the floor or ceiling structure or completely out of sight in a door post. The glass extensions are parts of the door leaf and represent the invisible connection between the door and the hinges, which are also invisible. It is advisable for the glass door leaf and the glass extensions to be made out of a single piece of material. Modern adhesives, however, can also be used to attach the extensions to the edges of the glass. If the refractive properties of the adhesive are the same as those of the glass, the joint will remain completely invisible, even if it is shaped or grooved to increase its strength. Finally, it is advantageous for the glass extensions and for the rotating hinge parts to be permanently bonded to each other by means of an adhesive, for example, and for the rotating hinge part to be mounted on a pin, e.g., the pin of a bottom door closer. The glass extensions engage in gaps, grooves, or openings in the profile of the rotating hinge parts and are anchored in place there. All of these areas are outside the doorway and are entirely out of sight. The glass extensions can engage in grooves on the diameter of the cylindrical bearing pieces, which are able to turn in nonrotatably installed bearing shells, the turning angle preferably being limited by stops. The bearing pieces and the bearing shells can be designed as radial and axial roller bearings or ball bearings. Underneath the bottom or the top cylindrical bearing piece, a door closer can be installed, the pin of which (e.g., a square pin) positively engages in a corresponding opening in the bottom of the bearing piece. The entire unit consisting of the nonrotating bearing shell and (if present) the door closer can be lowered or raised into a recessed installation box on threaded spindles (spacer screws), so that at least one glass extension, together with its cylindrical bearing piece, can be released, thus allowing the glass door to be removed. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Exemplary embodiments of the object of the invention are illustrated in the drawings. 
         FIG. 1  shows a cross section of a frameless glass door with its hinges in a doorway; 
         FIG. 2  shows a top view of the bottom hinge; 
         FIG. 3  shows a view of the glass door leaf; 
         FIG. 4  shows a partial cross section of a corner area of a doorway with a glass door leaf and hinge on a bottom door closer; 
         FIG. 5  shows a cross section of another embodiment of a hinge; and 
         FIG. 6  shows a cross section along line VI-VI in  FIG. 5 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     According to  FIG. 1 , a glass door leaf  1  completely fills a doorway  2 , illustrated in dashed line. No hinge fittings or hardware parts can be seen inside the dashed outline of the doorway  2 . The glass door leaf  1 , in the embodiment according to  FIGS. 1-4 , has tongue-like glass extensions  3 ,  4  on the narrow sides of the rectangular main body of the glass door leaf  1 , near one of the long sides. These glass extensions  3 ,  4  project beyond the doorway  2 , i.e., beyond the dashed line of the doorway  2  in  FIG. 1 , and fit into openings  5  in rotating, cylindrical hinge parts  6 ,  7 . These cylindrical hinge parts  6 ,  7  are bearing pieces such as bearing journals, which are mounted with freedom to turn in nonrotatably installed bearing shells  8 ,  9  in the manner of friction bearings. Roller bearings or ball bearings acting in the radial and/or axial direction between the hinge parts  6 ,  7  and the stationary bearing shells  8 ,  9  are also possible. When the shells are lowered into a recess located underneath, the rotating hinge parts  6 ,  7  disengage, and the glass door can be removed. 
       FIG. 2  shows a top view of the bottom hinge part  6 , the opening  5  in which is designed as a diagonal slot or groove, which positively holds the glass extension  3 . In a concrete exemplary embodiment, the glass extensions had a projecting length of approximately 2 cm and a width of 5-6 cm. Under consideration of the floor gap of 5 mm, the depth of the opening  5  was approximately 1.5 cm; the length of the opening  5  was approximately 5-6 cm; and the width was the same as that of the safety glass. This hinge part  6 , which is made of metal, could also be bonded to the glass extension  3  by the use of a suitable adhesive. 
     The production of the glass door leaf  1  begins with a glass plate which is a few (e.g., four) centimeters too long, and then, by the use of modern high-pressure jet methods, the narrow sides are cut back in such a way that the glass extensions  3 ,  4  are formed. 
     In the design according to  FIG. 4 , the glass extension  3  fits into a rotating hinge part  10 , which has a square recess at the bottom. A pin  11  of a bottom door closer  12  engages in this square recess. When, therefore, the frameless glass door is opened, the hinge part  10  turns by 75°, for example, and thus loads the bottom door closer  12  by way of the positively engaging pin  11 . The closer then makes sure that the hinge part  10  is braked as it returns and thus allows the glass door to close. The braking behavior of the bottom door closer and also the holding of the door in the 90° position can also be adjusted by means of one or more adjusting screws  13 . For this purpose, a cover  14  can be removed, or the cover can have closeable access openings for screwdrivers or wrenches. 
       FIG. 4  also shows that the entire previously described assembly (bottom door closer  12  with pin  11 ) is mounted on a plate  15 , which can be lowered (arrow  18 ) by way of spindles, e.g., threaded bolts  16 ,  17 , with hexagonal heads or heads with hexagonal sockets in them. In the lowered state, the pin  11  is disengaged from the hinge part  10 , and the glass door leaf  1  together with the hinge part  10  can be removed sideways from the doorway. For this purpose, in  FIG. 4 , the cover  14 , which is divided down the middle (in the plane of the drawing), must also be removed. 
     If the glass extensions  3 ,  4  are not bonded by an adhesive to the hinge parts  6 ,  7 , or  10  but merely fit positively into the openings  5 , the glass door leaf  1  can be removed simply by lowering all of the components, including the hinge part  10 . 
     An embodiment according to  FIGS. 5 and 6  is also possible, in which glass extensions  23  are provided on one of the long sides of the glass door leaf  24 , one near the bottom and one near the top. These glass extensions  23  project beyond the dashed-line doorway  25 , and each fits into a rotating hinge part  26 . The slot  27  formed for this purpose and the axis of rotation  28  can be seen in  FIG. 6 . The glass extensions  23  can be bonded adhesively in the slots  27 , or screws can be used, which pass through holes in the glass extensions  23 . So that the glass door can be opened a full 90°, the hinge part  26  can pivot as shown by the arrow  29  in  FIG. 6 . When the door is closed, the hinge part  26  disappears completely from the area of the doorway  25 . The exemplary embodiment according to  FIGS. 5 and 6  has a rotating hinge part  26  in the form of a cylinder with a base in the form of a quarter circle. The axis of rotation is near the center of the imaginary complete circle. When the door is closed, the rotating hinge part  26  lies completely in an opening of complementary shape in a door post. When the door is opened, the hinge part  26  pivots out and allows the door to open a full 90°.