Source: http://patents.com/us-7552953.html
Timestamp: 2019-10-15 21:07:33
Document Index: 279073471

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 5', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4', 'art 4']

US Patent # 7,552,953. Door arrester - Patents.com
United States Patent 7,552,953
Schmoll , et al. June 30, 2009
Inventors: Schmoll; Thomas (Wuppertal, DE), Plasberg; Gunter (Remscheid, DE), Hoffmann; Peter (Overath, DE), Heinrichs; Gundolf (Remscheid, DE), Duning; Ralf (Solingen, DE)
Appl. No.: 10/450,798
PCT Filed: December 14, 2001
PCT No.: PCT/DE01/04720
371(c)(1),(2),(4) Date: October 10, 2003
PCT Pub. No.: WO02/48489
Dec 14, 2000 [DE] 100 62 277
Current U.S. Class: 292/267 ; 292/278
Current International Class: E05C 17/18 (20060101)
Field of Search: 292/262,265,267 16/85,86,86B,86C
4302045 November 1981 McAdams, Sr.
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29 44 766 May., 1981 DE
G85 09 374.2 Jul., 1985 DE
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44 23 819 Jan., 1996 DE
94 17 883 Apr., 1996 DE
40 09 844 Jun., 1997 DE
196 32 630 Feb., 1998 DE
298 14 710 Feb., 1999 DE
44 34 028 Mar., 1999 DE
198 22 098 Nov., 1999 DE
0 418 783 Sep., 1993 EP
0 445 417 May., 1994 EP
0 643 185 Jan., 1997 EP
0 643 184 Nov., 1997 EP
0 807 737 May., 2001 EP
0 824 176 Jun., 2003 EP
2 666 616 Sep., 1990 FR
2 763 092 May., 1997 FR
2 313 153 Nov., 1997 GB
WO 98/50655 Nov., 1998 WO
English version of International Search Report of WO 02/48489, 6 pages. cited by other.
1. A door arrester for a door of a motor vehicle, comprising: a holder housing including a passage opening for a retaining bar and at least a first housing part made of plastic; a swinging element including a guide portion; a torsion spring element configured to act upon the swinging element; and a control cam formed as a single integral piece with the first housing part and protruding towards the passage opening, the control cam being disposed opposite the guide portion; wherein the guide portion is pivotably urged toward the retaining bar around a pivotable axis and relative to the passage opening by the torsion spring element; and wherein the pivotable axis is arranged at a constant distance from the control cam.
2. The door arrester as recited in claim 1, the holder housing including injection-molded plastic and including a fastening portion configured to fix the holder housing onto a part of the motor vehicle.
4. The door arrester as recited in claim 3 wherein the at least one recess includes grooves configured to engage adjacent turns of the spring element and maintain the adjacent turns at a distance from each other.
21. The door as recited in claim 1 further comprising: a stop damper disposed on the frontal end of the passage opening and configured to interact with a stop member of the retaining bar so as to dampen an impact of the retaining bar on the holder housing; wherein the stop damper and a housing part circumferentially limiting the passage opening are integrally formed as a single piece.
25. A door arrester for a door of a motor vehicle, comprising: a holder housing having a passage opening for a retaining bar; the holder housing including a fastening portion configured to fix the holder housing onto a part of the motor vehicle; a swinging element pivotable relative to the passage opening toward a narrow surface of the retaining bar, the swinging element comprising an integral rigid pin portion having an axis, the rigid pin portion being rotatably received in the housing; and a spring element contacting the swinging element to urge the swinging element in one rotational direction around said axis against the narrow surface of the retaining bar; wherein the spring element includes a torsion spring having coil sections circumferentially supported in a recess of the housing.
35. A door arrester for a door of a motor vehicle, comprising: a holder housing having a passage opening for a retaining bar; a swinging element pivotable relative to the passage opening toward the retaining bar; a rigid pin portion pivotably received in the housing; and a spring element configured to act upon the swinging element; wherein the spring element includes a torsion spring having two coil sections connected with each other by a spring fork, the spring fork being configured to urge the swinging element toward the retaining bar; wherein the swinging element is fixedly connected to the pin portion to rotate together as a single piece; wherein the swinging element includes a guide portion having a rounded contour configured to guide the retaining bar; and wherein an axial length of the pin portion exceeds a width of the guide portion, and wherein the pin portion protrudes at both ends thereof over the guide portion.
36. A door arrester for a door of a motor vehicle, comprising: a holder housing having a passage opening for a retaining bar; a swinging element pivotable relative to the passage opening toward a narrow surface of the retaining bar, the swinging element comprising an integral rigid pin portion having an axis, the rigid pin portion being rotatably received in the housing; and a spring element contacting the swinging element to urge the swinging element in one rotational direction around said axis against the narrow surface of the retaining bar; wherein the retaining bar includes a plastic coating at least on a surface configured to contact said swinging element.
The receptacle for the swinging element circumferentially supports a cylindrical region thereof, the circumference which is engaged around being approximately 180.degree.. In the event of a larger circumference, a portion of the swinging element which is of cylindrical design at least over part of the circumference is advantageously held in a clamping manner, a clamping, resilient securing means being provided by the choice of plastic material.
The spring element is preferably designed as a torsion spring which has at least two coil sections which are circumferentially supported in each case in a recess of the first housing part, a spring fork, which is in engagement with the swinging element, preferably connecting the two coil sections to each other and those ends of the coil sections which face away from the spring fork as legs which are supported against parts of the housing building up the stress of the torsion spring. The circumferential accommodation of the coil sections means that it is not necessary to provide a pin passing through them; however, it is possible nevertheless to insert cores, preferably made from a lightweight material, in one of the coil sections in each case in order to reduce the torsional stressing of the coil sections or, as an alternative, even to arrange a continuous bearing stud in such a manner that the latter also passes through the pin section of the swinging element, in which case the two parts--the bearing stud and swinging element--are arranged rotatably with respect to each other. In this case, a circumferential support of the swinging element is not required in addition. As an alternative, the cores may be provided as extensions of the pin section of the swinging element. However, the coil section is preferably not filled at all. As an alternative to this, it is furthermore possible to provide two stud-type stumps which both engage, if appropriate, at least partially in the pin portion of the swinging element and thereby both axially secure and also pivotably bear said pin section. This design may preferably also take place by driving the stud-type stumps through the housing and, if appropriate, through the coil sections from the outside. The turns of the coil sections are preferably coiled at a distance in order to avoid the production of noise.
In FIG. 6, an alternative design of the spring support is described, in which an adjustable spring-support element 26' is provided in the manner of a screw in a corresponding thread of the second housing part 5 which can be changed in its position via a hexagon socket or a screwdriver in such a manner that the prestress acting on the torsion spring 14 can be set appropriately.
FIG. 7 shows a further exemplary embodiment of a door arrester 1' according to the invention, in which parts which are the same or are functionally comparable as in the previous exemplary embodiment are referred to by the same reference numbers unless stated otherwise in this regard.
The construction of the door arrester 1' according to FIG. 7 corresponds essentially to that of the door arrester 1 according to FIG. 1, but instead of the control cam 21 and guide section 18 designed in the form of sliders, the design according to FIG. 9(b) is provided, according to which the cam 21' is formed by a roll 21a which is held rotatably via laterally protruding pins 21b in two corresponding bearings 21c of the first plastic part 4, as a result of which the roll 21a can be rotated in the one or other direction with little rotational resistance as the holding bar 2 slides past. The roll 21a may consist either of metal or of plastic, in which case the receptacle in the mounting 21c of the first housing part 4 does not require any lubrication.
The guide portion 18' of the swinging element 15 also has a groove 18a for the spring fork 14c of the torsion spring 14. On the side facing away from the spring fork 14c, a roller 18b is held pivotably via coaxially protruding roller pins 18c in corresponding mountings 18d of the guide portion 18' of the swinging element 15. The retaining bar 2 is guided here along the roller 18b which is rotated by the shifting of the retaining bar 2. The roller 18b may be formed from plastic or from metal, the roll 21a and the roller 18b preferably consisting of the same material and also having identical dimensions, so that the same part can be used as desired on this side and the other side of the retaining bar 2. This advantageously reduces the stock keeping and the susceptibility to installation errors. It has to be understood that the designs 21, 21' of the cam and 18, 18' of the guide portion can also be combined in a crossed-over manner with the designs according to FIGS. 9(a) and (b), i.e. that, for example, the guide portion 18 can be combined with the control cam 21' or the control cam 21 can be combined with the guide portion 18'.
FIG. 11 shows an alternative design of a housing 3' which consists exclusively of a first housing part 4 and is designed without a cover or second housing part. For better illustration, the torsion spring 14 and the swinging element 15 are not shown. In this case, the spring support 26 is formed integrally with the first housing part 4 by being connected, for example in the form of a laterally protruding web, to the wall of the first housing part 4. It can be seen that that lower region of the first housing part 4 which faces the door assembly part essentially remains open, so that the torsion spring 14 and swinging element 15 (which are not illustrated here) can be inserted, it being possible for parts of the cover 5 from FIG. 1 to be replaced by plastic walls produced integrally with the first housing part 4. In this connection, it may be necessary to provide the injection molding process with removable cores in a number of steps.
FIGS. 12 to 14 show a further alternative exemplary embodiment for a housing 3'', in which the single housing part 4 in this case is designed essentially as a cover part which can be placed onto the door assembly part while the region spanning the control cam 21 remains recessed and therefore has an opening facing away from the door assembly part for the insertion of the spring element 14 and swinging element 15.
FIGS. 15 and 16 illustrate a further preferred exemplary embodiment of a door arrester 1'' according to the invention, the construction of which corresponds essentially to that of FIGS. 1 to 5 and in which the same reference numbers therefore refer to parts which are the same or are functionally comparable. Reference is therefore made below essentially to the differences.
The door arrester 1'' likewise has a housing 3 with a first housing part 4 and a second housing part 5, which is designed as a cover, and furthermore a swinging element 15 which can be designed in one of the ways described above. A torsion spring 14'' is held by its coil sections 14a'', 14b'' in corresponding recesses 16a, 16b of the first housing part 4, the spring fork 14c of which torsion spring is supported against the swinging element 15, and its ends 14d'', 14e'' of the coil sections 14a'', 14b'' that face away from the spring fork 14c are supported on corresponding spring supports 26. The coil sections 14a'', 14b'' of the torsion spring 14'' are coiled at a distance in such a manner that the turns arranged adjacent to one another are at a distance from one another which corresponds approximately to the diameter of the spring wire or to the width of a turn. This ensures that no squeaking noises arise during tensioning and relaxing of the torsion spring 14'' due to adjacent turns rubbing against one another. For this purpose, it is advantageously possible to coil the coil sections 14a'', 14b'' at a distance, as a result of which the torsion spring 14 is designed to be correspondingly low in noise even during insertion.
Moreover, in the present case, the first housing part 4 has, in the region of the recesses 16a, 16b, a groove-like, helically designed profiling which, in the concave region in which the coil sections 14a'', 14b'' are circumferentially engaged around, defines grooves 30 for the coils, which grooves are matched to the diameter of the coils and, in the regions in which gaps are provided between adjacent turns, have a protruding web 31 which, in relation to the base of the groove 30, is somewhat higher than half of the thickness of the wire of the torsion spring and thus keeps adjacent coils at a distance. This ensures in a particularly reliable manner that even if the door arrester 1'' is subjected to particularly unfavorable stresses, noise is not produced by the turns rubbing against one another. If cores are inserted into the cavities of the coil sections 14a'', 14b'', provision may likewise be made to design them with an embedded groove for accommodating the coils and with a web running in a raised manner in between in order to separate adjacent coils.
It can be seen in FIGS. 15 and 16 that, in the present case, the coil sections 14a'', 14b'' are coiled three times, and accordingly two web regions 31 protrude in the direction of the interior of the first housing part 4. In the region of the webs 31, as can be seen in particular in FIG. 16, the outer side of the first housing part 4, which consists of plastic and is produced in an injection molding process, is drawn in resulting in a particularly characteristic and aesthetically attractive design of the housing.
A further exemplary embodiment of a door arrester with a stop damper 40' designed in a different manner in comparison with FIGS. 17 to 19 is revealed in FIGS. 20 to 22, in which the same reference numbers as in the previous exemplary embodiments refer to the same or functionally comparable parts.
The impact damper 40' has a respective guide element 42 on two opposite sides, each of the two guide elements 42 being assigned in each case to a wing of the stop 8 of the retaining bar 2. It is possible to design the wall 23 to be higher, so that the dimensions of the end stop can be established taking into consideration the displacement path of the guide element 42 in the direction of the base 43, as in the case of a wall 23 of rigid design.
A third exemplary embodiment of a stop damper 40'' is illustrated in FIGS. 23 to 25, the same reference numbers as in the preceding exemplary embodiments referring to the same or functionally comparable parts.
The stop damper 40'' is likewise formed integrally with the first housing part 4 of the housing 3 in an injection molding process, and has two guide elements which are designed as stop bars 45 and against which the wings of the stop 8 strike. The stop bars 45 are connected to the side walls via two plastic springs 46 which can be folded in twice, are formed from the same plastic as the housing part 4 and the bars 45 and prestress the bars 45 in a raised position.
Three designs of stop dampers 40, 40', 40'' have been described above and they each use different mechanisms for damping an impact. It has to be understood that also two or more of the above-described embodiments can advantageously be combined with one another to the effect that they are realized jointly in one stop damper.
Three designs of preferred stop dampers 40, 40', 40'' have been described above and have each been produced integrally with a first housing part 4. It has to be understood that the stop dampers which have been described can also be produced separately from the housing on a framework part defining a frame, and can be combined with any desired housings of door arresters.
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