Patent Publication Number: US-11643859-B2

Title: Door closer arrangement

Description:
FIELD OF TECHNOLOGY 
     The invention relates to door closer arrangements, which are used when doors are closed and opened. 
     PRIOR ART 
     Door closers are used in order to close doors after the opening operations of the doors. The door closer can be mounted on the surface of a door or on the surface of a door frame. Some door closer arrangements comprise a slide rail. If the door closer has been mounted on the door, the slide rail has been mounted on the door frame, or the installation is vice versa. 
     When the door is opened the opening force is quite big at the small opening angles of the door. This is due to the structure of the door closer having a spring inside. The spring tensions when the door is opened. The tension of spring moves the piston of the door closer back to its initial position, i.e. moves the door to the closed position, after the opening of the door. So, the user of the door does not need to push or pull the door for closing it. 
     The user of the door can notice that the force needed to open the door is substantial at the beginning of the opening operation. The force needed may be experienced to be too big and therefore unpleasant. On the other hand, it may occur that when closing the door, the closing power may be not enough to close the door properly in all situations. 
     Short Description 
     The object of the invention is to achieve a door closer arrangement where the force needed for opening the door is not so substantial than in known solutions, and the closing power is improved. The aim of the invention is obtained by a door closer arrangement of an independent claim. Dependent claims illustrate different embodiments of the invention. 
     A door closer arrangement according to the invention comprises a door closer, a slide rail, and an arm that connects the door closer with the slide rail. The arrangement comprises also a second rail, and a carriage to be attached to the second rail in a sliding manner. The carriage is arranged to form an attachment with the door closer. The door closer arrangement also comprises a first low-friction arrangement between the second rail and the carriage, and a second low-friction arrangement between the arm and the slide rail. The door closer arrangement also comprises an auxiliary motion arrangement  61  in order to aid movement of the carriage  17  and the door closer  6  along the second rail  9 . 
    
    
     
       LIST OF FIGURES 
       In the following, the invention is described in more detail by reference to the enclosed drawings, where 
         FIG.  1    illustrates an example of a door closer arrangement according to the invention when a door is closed, 
         FIG.  2    illustrates the door closer arrangement according to the invention from the bottom view when the door is closed, 
         FIG.  3    illustrates the door closer arrangement according to the invention from the top view when the door is closed, 
         FIG.  4    illustrates the door closer arrangement according to the invention when the door is almost closed, 
         FIG.  5    illustrates a top view of the door closer arrangement according to the invention when the door is almost closed, 
         FIG.  6    illustrates the door closer arrangement according to the invention when the door is open more than in  FIGS.  4  and  5   , 
         FIG.  7    illustrates a top view of the door closer arrangement according to the invention when the door is open more than in  FIGS.  4  and  5   , 
         FIG.  8    illustrates a top view of the door closer arrangement according to the invention when the door is fully opened, 
         FIG.  9    illustrates embodiments of parts belonging to an arrangement according to the invention, 
         FIG.  10    illustrates a detailed view of  FIG.  9   , showing bearing arrangements of the inventive embodiment, 
         FIG.  11    illustrates other embodiments of the bearing arrangement, 
         FIG.  12    illustrates an example of the second low-friction arrangement comprising a second bearing arrangement, 
         FIG.  13    illustrates a side view of  FIG.  12   , 
         FIG.  14    illustrates another embodiment of the second bearing arrangement, and 
         FIG.  15    illustrates a cross-sectional view of the embodiment of  FIG.  12   . 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       FIG.  1    illustrates an example of a door closer arrangement  1  according to the invention when a door  2  is closed. The door closer arrangement  1  comprises a door closer  6 , a slide rail  7 , and an arm  8  that connects the door closer  6  with the slide rail  7 . The arrangement comprises also a second rail  9 , and a carriage  17  to be attached to the second rail  9  in a sliding manner. See  FIG.  9   . The carriage  17  is arranged to form an attachment with the door closer  6 . The door closer arrangement also comprises a first low-friction arrangement  18  between the second rail  9  and the carriage  17 , and a second low-friction arrangement  16  between the arm  8  and the slide rail  7 . See  FIG.  9   . The door closer arrangement also comprises an auxiliary motion arrangement  61  in order to aid movement of the carriage  17  and the door closer  6  along the second rail  9 . 
     As can be seen in  FIG.  1   , the door  2  is installed on the frame  3  of the door utilizing hinges  4 . So, the side of the door towards the hinges  4  is a hinge side  4 A, and the other side is a lock side  5  wherein a possible door lock is installed.  FIGS.  2  and  3    show the bottom view and the top vies when the door  2  is closed.  FIG.  2    shows a slot  11  and projections  12  of the slide rail  7 , which are used for the attachment with the second low-friction arrangement  16 . 
     The second rail  9  makes it possible that the door closer can move along the second rail. The movement of the door closer when opening and closing the door  2  makes the opening of the door more easy and also improves the closing of the door.  FIGS.  4 - 8    illustrate movement of the door closer  2  at different angles of the door. 
     The auxiliary motion arrangement comprises an electric motor arrangement  61 , or an auxiliary spring arrangement (the spring arrangement not shown in the figures). The auxiliary motion arrangement may also comprise a raising part  10  at a first end  9 B of the second rail forming a slide slope for the door closer, the first end being the end to be installed nearby a hinge side  4 A of a door  2  forming a slide slope for the door closer. 
     Further, the auxiliary motion arrangement may also comprise a second raising part  10 A at a second end  9 C of the second rail. The height and thus also the angle of the slide slope can be designed by the height of the raising part  10  and/or the second raising part  10 A. Therefore, the slide slopes can be designed to the suitable for different door closers and different doors. The raising part  10 ,  10 A can be integral parts with the second rail  9  or separate parts to be fixed with the second rail. The slide slope aids the movement of the door closer  2  (and the carriage  17 ) along the second rail  9 . The second rail  9  comprises at least one slide guide  9 A to form the sliding attachment to the carriage  17 . The function or the auxiliary motion arrangement and the door closer arrangement are described later in this description. 
     As said  FIG.  1    shows the door at the closed position. The door closer  6  is at the first end  9 B of the second rail, i.e. near the hinge side  4 A of the door. The guide rail makes it possible to situate the door closer more near the hinge side than in known solutions. So, the opening of the door is easier, which can be tedious in known solutions. When the door is opened, the door closer remains at the first end  9 B of the second rail  9 .  FIG.  8    shows a fully opened door. 
     When closing the door from the fully opened position to an opening angle of about 20-30 degrees, the door closer remains at the first end  9 B of the second rail  6 . (The zero angle means that the door is closed.) Depending on an embodiment the door closer  9  and the carriage  17  starts to move towards the second end  9 C of the second rail  9 , in other words towards the lock side  5  at the opening angle of about 20-30 degrees.  FIGS.  6  and  7    illustrate this situation. When the opening angle is about 10-4 degrees the door closer has moved to the second end  9 C of the second rail.  FIGS.  4  and  5    illustrate this situation. 
     The movement towards the lock side  5 , is achieved by aid of the auxiliary motion arrangement, which can be the electric motor arrangement  61 , or an auxiliary spring arrangement (not shown in the figures) as said above. As said, the auxiliary motion arrangement may also comprise the raising part  10  at the first end  9 B of the second rail, the first end being the end to be installed nearby a hinge side  4 A of a door  2  forming the slide slope for the door closer. The slide slope can actually be enough to move the door closer towards the lock side  5  of the door, so in which case the electric motor or the auxiliary spring arrangement is used only for moving the door closer back to the hinge side  4 A, which is explained more later. As can be notice the slide slope is a slope in relation to the surface  2 A of the door. 
     When the door closer  6  is at the second end  9 C of the second rail  9 , i.e. near the lock side  5  of the door, or when moving towards the lock side, the closing power is bigger than keeping the door closer relatively near the hinge side  4 A of the door. Therefore, the door closing action is improved in relation to know solutions. 
     In order that the door closer can be moved back the first end  9 B of the second rail after closing the door, the auxiliary motion arrangement is used. When the door is back at the closed position, the auxiliary motion arrangement moves the door closer back to the hinge side  4 A.  FIG.  9    shows schematically the electric motor  61  which is connected to a drive wheel  63  through a transmission connection  62 . The drive wheel  63  can be friction wheel or a toothed wheel. The transmission connection can comprise a belt, a toothed belt, a chain belt etc. The drive wheel  63  is arranged to be against a drive slot  9 D. The edges of the drive slot can be toothed. So, the electric motor arrangement can comprise the electric motor  61 , and also the drive wheel  63 , the transmission  62  and the drive slot  9 D. The electric motor can be a normal (rotating) motor or a linear motor. The electric motor can be arranged to use a battery or an external power as a power source. As said, the auxiliary motion arrangement can also be the spring arrangement. 
     When using the slide slope as moving the door closer towards the lock side  5 , the electric motor arrangement is convenient to have a one-way clutch function, which means that the electric motor  61 , the drive wheel  63 , and/or the transmission connection  62  do not cause any extra resistance against the movement of the door closer towards the lock side  5 . When the door closer is moved towards the hinge side  4 A, the one-way clutch function connects the electric motor to drive the drive wheel  63 . 
       FIG.  9    illustrates the carriage  17 , the door closer  6  attached to the carriage, and the arm  8 . The door closer is attachable to the carriage, for example, using screws or bolts. The arm is attachable to the turning axis  15  of the door closer at the first end  13  of the arm. The arm is attachable to the slide rail  7  at the second end  14  of the arm. 
       FIG.  9    shows also the first low-friction arrangement  18  and the second low-friction arrangement  16 . In order that the door closer arrangement does not consume relative much power, it has the low-friction arrangements. In this way the operation of the door closer arrangement is smooth as well. The first low-friction arrangement  18  comprises a bearing arrangement  19 A,  19 B,  20 ,  21 A,  21 B,  22 , and the second low-friction arrangement  16  comprises a second bearing arrangement  23 ,  24 . As can be seen, the the second end  14  of the arm is connectable with the slide rail  7  through the second low-friction arrangement.  FIG.  10    shows a partial view I from  FIG.  9   . Said low-friction arrangements are obtained by rolling/ball bearings and/or plain bearings comprising friction reducing ingredients/material. 
     The bearing arrangement can be achieved in many ways. It can be a rolling bearing arrangement in the carriage  17 . This arrangement comprising wheels  19 A, which are arranged to contact the second rail  9  in a vertical direction, and wheels  19 B, which are arranged to contact the second rail  9  in an horizontal direction. In this way the carriage contacts the slide guides via the wheels in the vertical and horizontal directions. 
     The carriage  17  can comprise four support members  25 , which comprises the said wheels  19 A,  19 B, each support member having at least one wheel  19 A in the vertical direction, and at least one wheel  19 B in the horizontal direction. 
     The bearing arrangement can also be a rolling bearing arrangement in the slide guide  9 A. See  FIG.  11   . This arrangement comprises rollers or balls  21 A, which are arranged to contact the carriage  17  in a vertical direction, and rollers or balls  21 B, which are arranged to contact the carriage  17  in an horizontal direction. As can seen in figure lithe rollers or balls are attached in the bottom  32  part and the side parts  33  of the slide guide  9 A, in such a way that the rollers or balls are towards the groove  34  of the slide guide. So, the bottom part  32  and two side parts  33  perform the groove  34  for the carriage  17 . 
     The bearing arrangement can also be a plain bearing wherein the carriage  17  comprises sliding surfaces  20  and the slide guide/s  9 A comprising second sliding surfaces  22 , the sliding surfaces and/or the second sliding surfaces comprising friction reducing ingredients. The plain bearing can be achieved by using a suitable material/a material layer like Teflon. It is also possible to combine the plain bearing and the described rolling bearing arrangements. 
     The second bearing arrangement can comprise a ball bearing  23  or a roller bearing, which ball/roller bearing  23  comprises a ring  24  in order to provide a contact with the slide rail  7 . See  FIGS.  12 ,  13 , and  15   . The ring  24  has an outer surface  26  and the inner surface  27 , and a width  28  of the ring in the perpendicular direction with respect to a radial of the ring is maximum at the outer surface  26 . This arrangement makes it possible that the second bearing arrangement contacts with the slide rail  7  on the outer surface  26  and on the sides  24 A of the ring near the outer surface. In this way the sides of the ring at shorter radial areas do not perform resistance when the wheel is rotating. 
     The second bearing arrangement can also be a plain bearing. This embodiment comprises third slide surfaces  30 ,  31  comprising friction reducing ingredients. The third slide surfaces are surfaces of a slide piece  29 , which contact with the internal surfaces of the slide rail  7 . See  FIG.  14   . 
     As can be noticed above the invention can be made in many different ways. Further, it can mounted so that the second rail  9  is mountable on the door  2  or on a door frame  3 , and the slide rail  7  is mountable on the door or the door frame. The invention performs an easy opening of the door and a safe closing of the door. When the door is closed the function of the tensioned spring of the door closer  6  is improved by the movement of the door closer along the second rail  9  towards the lock side  5  of the door  2 . The second rail  9  can be installed on the surface of the door or the door frame being at the zero angle in relation to the surface. Another way is to use the raising part  10  at the first end  9 B of the second rail wherein the second rail has a certain angel in relation to the surface of the door or the door frame, and thus the second rail performs the slide slope. The slide slope can reduce power consumption when the door is closed. 
     It is evident from the above that the invention is not limited to the embodiments described in this text but can be implemented utilizing many other different embodiments within the scope of the independent claims.