Abstract:
An adjustable doorstop is disclosed that mounts on a hinge pin that is inserted into mating hinge leafs. The doorstop has two members that are manually positioned with respect to each other and lock to set how far the door to which they are mounted can open. The doorstop members each have a means that contact only a hinge leaf of a door hinge to prevent a door from opening beyond its manually predetermined point.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    This invention relates to the field of doorstop devices. More particularly, this invention relates to doorstops of the type that are mounted on the hinge pin of a door and prevent the door from being opened beyond a manually preset point to prevent the door from hitting an adjacent wall when it is opened. Even more particularly this invention relates to an adjustable hinge pin mounted doorstop.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Hinged doors must frequently be limited in their movement to prevent them banging walls and furniture. The prior art teaches a variety of solutions, both simple and complex, to limit the distance a door may be permitted to travel to prevent it from hitting walls and furniture and causing damage thereto.  
           [0003]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,724 teaches and claims a hinge pin swing doorstop comprised of a hinge pin replacement shaft that replaces the hinge pin in a hinge associated with a hinged object whose hinged rotation is to be limited. The top of the hinge pin replacement shaft extends beyond the hinge and is bent at a right angle with respect to the replacement shaft and is formed into a Vee shape with the Vee lying in a plane generally perpendicular to the axis of the hinge pin portion in the hinge. The end of the Vee shaped portion furthest from the hinge pin replacement shaft is threaded and has an internally threaded, length extending ferrule and a locking nut co-linearly screwed thereon. The outer end of the ferrule has a shock absorbing bumper mounted thereon. By loosening the locking nut and turning the length extending ferrule the length of the outer end of the Vee shaped portion can be lengthened or shortened to adjust how far a door on which the hinge pin swing doorstop taught in this patent can be opened before the shock absorbing bumper contacts the doorframe and prevents the door on which it is mounted from opening further.  
           [0004]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,998,941 teaches and claims an adjustable hinge pin mounted doorstop consisting of an arm that has an inner end with a hole through which an existing hinge pin is inserted, and the outer end of the arm terminates in a threaded opening. A door hinge pin is removed, inserted through the inner end hole, and back into the hinge leaf holes to hold the hinge leaves together. A threaded post is received in the threaded opening on the outer end of the arm, and the threaded post has a padded, shocking absorbing bumper thereon that contacts the doorframe and prevents the door from opening beyond a certain point. How far the door can open before the bumper contacts the doorframe is set by how far the threaded post is turned through the threaded opening through the outer end of the arm.  
           [0005]    U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,527,303 and 4,858,273 both teach and claim a hinge pin mounted doorstop having multiple mounting holes that are used to adjust how far a door may be opened. A door hinge pin is removed, inserted through one of the multiple mounting holes and back into the hinge leaf holes holding two hinge leaves together in a movable manner as is known in the art. These doorstops each have two shock absorbing bumpers and as the door on which the doorstop is hinge pin mounted is opened to its furthest position, as determined by the doorstop, one of the two bumpers contacts the door and the other of the two bumpers contacts the doorframe. How far the door can be opened before the bumpers contact the door and the doorframe is set by the one of the multiple mounting holes through which the hinge pin is inserted.  
           [0006]    U.S. Pat. No. 5,727,289 teaches and claims a hinge mounted adjustable doorstop, but the entire hinge must be replaced, or an existing hinge must be removed and modified. Thus, this adjustable doorstop is more impractical than others taught in the prior art.  
           [0007]    The problem with all these prior art hinge pin mounted adjustable doorstops is that they must all contact the wood of the door and the doorframe. If the door is not opened carefully, the relatively small rubber bumpers of the prior art adjustable doorstops place a lot of force on the wood. Depressions are caused in the wood and eventually the rubber bumpers break and exposed metal ends more seriously damage the wood of the door and the doorframe. These prior art doorstops also have another shortcoming. They all have a very limited range of adjustability. That is, the angle of adjustment for stopping the travel of a door is limited.  
           [0008]    Thus, there is a need in the prior art for a relatively simple, hinge pin mounted, adjustable doorstop that has no rubber pieces that can wear out and eventually break, that does not contact the wood of a door or doorframe and thereby mar or damage the wood, and that has a wide adjustment range.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0009]    The foregoing need in the prior art for a simple, hinge pin mounted, adjustable doorstop that does not contact the wood of a door or doorframe, and that does not have rubber pieces that can wear out, is satisfied by the present invention.  
           [0010]    The present invention is a small, all metal, adjustable doorstop that easily and quickly mounts on the existing hinge pin of a door hinge and only contacts the metal leaves of the door hinge on which the doorstop is mounted to limit the travel of the door on opening. In addition, the present invention permits providing control of how far a door can be opened that is in the order of ninety (90) percent of the normal travel of the door. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING  
       [0011]    [0011]FIG. 1 shows a top view of a hinge on a closed door;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 2 shows an orthogonal view of my novel adjustable doorstop;  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 3 shows a side view of my novel doorstop mounted on a door hinge pin before the pin is inserted into other change elements to hold them in a rotating orientation;  
         [0014]    [0014]FIG. 4 shows a top view of a closed door with my novel doorstop mounted on the hinge pin; and  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 5 shows a top view of an open door with my novel doorstop mounted on the hinge pin, with the door open as far as the doorstop will permit. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0016]    In FIG. 1 is shown a top view of a hinge mounted on a closed door. As is well known in the art, the hinge consists of a leaf piece  11  which is fastened to one edge of a door  12  using screws (not shown) and a leaf piece  11 A that is screwed to doorframe  13  using screws (not shown). Hinge leaf pieces  11  and  11 A are fastened together with a hinge pin  15  in a well-known manner. Also shown is a molding  14 .  
         [0017]    In FIG. 2 is shown an orthogonal view of my novel, adjustable doorstop that comprises member pieces  16  and  17  that must be oriented as shown when mounted on any hinge pin  15 , as shown in FIG. 3. These two member pieces  16  and  17  are preferably fabricated from metal. Piece  16  has an oval shaped, flat portion  18  having a hole  19  therethrough, and the edges of hole  19  are scalloped, as shown, identical to a multi-point box wrench or a multi-point tool socket. Perpendicular to the plane of flat portion  18  is an elongated member  20 . While member  20  is shown with a circular cross-section, it&#39;s cross-sectional shape may be oval or any other shape as is convenient.  
         [0018]    Piece  17  also consists of an oval shaped flat piece  21  that has an elongated member  22  perpendicular to the plane of piece  21 . There is also a hole through the widest portion of flat piece  21  over which there is affixed a nut shaped element  23 . Element  23  has a smooth hole  24  through its center that has a diameter only slightly larger than the diameter of the shaft portion of a hinge pin  15 . The six tips  25  of nut shaped element  23  fit perfectly inside the scallop shaped hole  19  in the identical same manner as a proper size box wrench or socket fits over a nut.  
         [0019]    In FIG. 3 is shown a side view of my novel, adjustable doorstop mounted on a door hinge pin  15  before the pin is inserted into hinge leaves  11  and  11 A to hold them in a rotating orientation. Once adjustable doorstop member pieces  16  and  17  are fitted together as shown in FIG. 3, they remain in a fixed orientation that can only be changed by removing the nut shaped portion  23  from scalloped hole  19 , as shown in FIG. 2, rotating one or both of the pieces  16  and  17  with respect to each other and reinserting nut shaped portion  23  back into scalloped hole  19 .  
         [0020]    With my novel, adjustable doorstop mounted on the elongated shaft of hinge pin  15 , as shown in FIG. 3, the elongated shaft portion of hinge pin  15  is inserted into the mating portions of hinge leaf pieces  11  and  11 A.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 4 shows a top view of a closed door  12  with my novel doorstop mounted on hinge pin  15 . When door  12  is closed elongated member  22  of piece  17  is positioned generally as shown. At the same time elongated member  20  of piece  16  is positioned up against hinge piece  11 A as shown.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 5 shows a top view of an open door  13  with my novel doorstop mounted on the hinge pin  15 , with door  12  open as far as the doorstop will permit. With elongated member  20  of doorstop piece  16  sitting against hinge leaf  11 A, door  12  can rotate open until its hinge leaf  11  comes into contact with elongated member  22  of doorstop piece  17 . Door  12  can open no further. With this operation there is no piece of my novel adjustable doorstop that comes into contact with the wooden portion of door  12  or doorframe  13 .  
         [0023]    In viewing FIGS. 4 and 5 it will be obvious that doorstop pieces  16  and  17  can be oriented with respect to each other so that door  12  can barely open, or can be oriented with respect to each other so that door  12  can be opened almost all its normal travel when no door stop is provided.  
         [0024]    In alternative embodiments of my invention a hinge pin can be made an integral part of, or permanently attached to, doorstop piece  17  (FIG. 3). Further, thin plastic or rubber sleeves (not shown) may be placed over elongated member  20  of piece  16  and over elongated member  22  of piece  12  (FIG. 2). In addition, the cross sectional shape of elongated members  20  and  22  can be changed to have a flat side that will sit flat on the hinge leaf they come into contact with. Also, the number of points in scalloped hole  19  of hinge piece  16  can be increased to provide a greater number of positions to which my adjustable doorstop can be set.  
         [0025]    While what has been disclosed hereinabove is the preferred embodiment of the invention, it will be obvious to those skilled in the art that numerous changes may be made to my adjustable door stop, including those described in the previous paragraph, without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.