Patent Publication Number: US-10315497-B2

Title: Emergency vehicle door opening system

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     Not Applicable 
     STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
     Not Applicable 
     THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
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     INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC OR AS A TEXT FILE VIA THE OFFICE ELECTRONIC FILING SYSTEM 
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     STATEMENT REGARDING PRIOR DISCLOSURES BY THE INVENTOR OR JOINT INVENTOR 
     Not Applicable 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (1) Field of the Invention 
     (2) Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98 
     The disclosure and prior art relates to door opening devices and more particularly pertains to a new door opening device for allowing a person to cause their door to be violently swung open such that it may be used as a weapon against an assailant standing next to the door. 
     BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     An embodiment of the disclosure meets the needs presented above by generally comprising a vehicle assembly including a body having an opening therein to allow a passenger to enter the body. The opening has a perimeter edge including a front edge, a rear edge, a top edge, and a bottom edge. A door is pivotally coupled to the body adjacent to the front edge and is positionable in a closed position closing the opening or in an open position exposing the opening. The door has an inner edge positioned adjacent to the front edge and an outer edge positioned opposite of the inner edge. An opening assembly is mounted on the vehicle assembly. The opening assembly is mounted on the vehicle and moves the door from an ajar position to a fully open position when the opening assembly is actuated. The outer edge of the door moves at a speed greater than 30 mph when the opening assembly moves the door. 
     There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the disclosure in order that the detailed description thereof that follows may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the disclosure that will be described hereinafter and which will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto. 
     The objects of the disclosure, along with the various features of novelty which characterize the disclosure, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
       The disclosure will be better understood and objects other than those set forth above will become apparent when consideration is given to the following detailed description thereof. Such description makes reference to the annexed drawings wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view of an emergency vehicle door opening system according to an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is a top of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 3  is a perspective view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the disclosure taken along line  4 - 4  of  FIG. 1 . 
         FIG. 5  is a schematic view of an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     With reference now to the drawings, and in particular to  FIGS. 1 through 5  thereof, a new door opening device embodying the principles and concepts of an embodiment of the disclosure and generally designated by the reference numeral  10  will be described. 
     As best illustrated in  FIGS. 1 through 5 , the emergency vehicle door opening system  10  generally comprises a vehicle assembly  11  including a body  12  having an opening  14  therein to allow a passenger to enter the body  12 . The opening  14  may be any opening but typically, for the entire system  10 , the opening  14  will comprise the driver opening. The opening  14  has a perimeter edge  16  that includes a front edge  18 , a rear edge  20 , a top edge  22 , and a bottom edge  24 . A door  26  is pivotally coupled to the body  12  adjacent to the front edge in a conventional manner, such as with hinges. The door  26  is positionable in a closed position closing the opening  14  or in an open position exposing the opening  14 . The door  26  has an inner edge  28  positioned adjacent to the front edge  18  and an outer edge  30  positioned opposite of the inner edge  26 . 
     An opening assembly  32  is mounted on the vehicle assembly  11 . The opening assembly  32  is mounted on the vehicle assembly  11  and moves the door  26  from an ajar position to a fully open position when the opening assembly  32  is actuated. The term ajar is defined as the outer edge  30  being spaced from the body  12  a distance of less than at least 1.5 feet and more preferably a distance of less than 0.5 feet. Further, the term ajar indicates that the door  26  is not fully closed and latched in the closed position. The outer edge  30  of the door moves at a speed greater than 30 mph when the opening assembly  32  moves the door such that the door  26  is opened up in an extremely fast and violent manner. 
     The opening assembly  32  includes an urging member  34  engaging the door  26  and the body  12  when the opening assembly  32  is actuated. The urging member  34  urges the door  26  away from the body  12 . The urging member  34  may be mounted on the body  12  or the door  26 , but it may be beneficial to mount the urging member  34  on the door  26  such that it is positioned adjacent to the inner edge  18 . The urging member  34  pushes the front edge  18  and door  26  away from each other to swing the outer edge  30  of the door  26  away from the body  12 . The urging member  34  may comprise an airbag  36  that is explosively inflated when the opening assembly  32  is actuated. The airbag  36  may be positioned within the door  26  and behind a panel  38 . Alternatively, the urging member  34  may comprise a pneumatically actuated rod or electric motor coupled a juncture of the door and the body. However, an airbag  36  may be preferred due to its well tested properties and ease of installation. 
     A switch  40  is operationally coupled to the urging member  34 . The switch  40  is actuated to cause the urging member  34  to engage each of the door  26  and the body  12  to move the door  26  to the fully open position. The switch  40  may be mounted on the door  26 . A power supply or battery  42  is operationally coupled to the urging member  34  and the switch  40 . The power supply may comprise the battery of the vehicle assembly  11 . A control unit  44  is electrically coupled to the urging member  34  and may further be electrically coupled to the vehicle assembly  11 . The control unit  44  detects when the door  26  is in a closed position or an ajar position. The urging member  34  is deactivated when the control unit  44  detects the door  26  is in the closed position. Further, the control unit  44 , which may comprise a CPU of the vehicle and thus be connected to a latch assembly  46  of the door  26  to indicate the open condition of the door, may be programmed such that the switch  44  must be actuated for a selected amount of time, such as 1.5 seconds to avoid accidental actuation of the opening assembly  32 . 
     In use, the opening assembly  32  is generally to be used only in emergency situations. More particularly, the opening assembly  32  may be actuated when a would-be carjacker, thief or other assailant is adjacent to the door  26 . The driver of the vehicle assembly  11  will utilize the opening assembly  32  to cause the door  26  to strike the assailant such that they are thrown away from the vehicle assembly  11 . 
     With respect to the above description then, it is to be realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of an embodiment enabled by the disclosure, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by an embodiment of the disclosure. 
     Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the disclosure. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the disclosure to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the disclosure. In this patent document, the word “comprising” is used in its non-limiting sense to mean that items following the word are included, but items not specifically mentioned are not excluded. A reference to an element by the indefinite article “a” does not exclude the possibility that more than one of the element is present, unless the context clearly requires that there be only one of the elements.