Abstract:
Disclosed is a transport and installation system that serves the purpose of convenient moving doors from the delivery to the place of installation, positioning doors for ease of hinge installation and providing for horizontal, straight vertical and angular position of the doors with the door jam for installation of the hinge mountings. The new and unique air actuator utilizes a base, stationery vertical guides and removable attachment to a hand cart to solve the problem of handling these heavy unwieldly objects.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
       [0001]    Not Applicable 
       STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 
       [0002]    Not Applicable 
       THE NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT 
       [0003]    Not Applicable 
       INCORPORATION-BY-REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC 
       [0004]    Not Applicable 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0006]    The present invention represents a significant step forward in the field of building construction and maintenance involving door installation and repair. Currently marketed hand cart and lifter apparatus sold for the purpose of door transport and installation do not address the problems of a door installer being able to transport wide doors or to lift the door straight up for convenient positioning of the door for hinge installation as well as the freedom to adjust the door position angularly for alignment with the door jam during installation. Recent declines in the price of residential and commercial buildings will increase the downward pressure on construction cost and schedules. This will naturally reduce the presence of an extra set of hands on the construction site when heavy materials have to be lugged into place. The instant invention is aimed at making it easier for a single worker to install a door quickly and with reduced chance of damage to the doors or the building. 
         [0007]    2. Description of Related Art 
         [0008]    The following is art representative of what is published in the field of work holders for doors. U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,418 to inventor Simmons et al. discloses a air actuator that has an air bladder, base and lift platform. However, the disclosure of inventor Simmons et al. lacks a solution to the problems of lateral stability of the object being lifted. 
         [0009]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,492,369 to inventor Pohl discloses a Door Lifting and Centering Device For Hanging Heavy Doors that has a means of lifting a door in the center regardless of width and easy angular alignment of the door to the door jam during fastening of the hinges. However, the disclosure of inventor Pohl lacks a solution to the problems of transporting the door to the work sight, holding the door in position for installation of the hinges and requires separating the hinge into two pieces and tedious inserting the hinge pin to hang the door. 
         [0010]    U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,132 to inventor Wilson et al. discloses a pivotal hand truck apparatus that has a three wheeled hand cart, with an door holding frame and lift platform. However, the disclosure of inventor Wilston et al. lacks a solution to the problems of transporting wide and narrow doors, lifting the door straight up for alignment of the door mountings and ease of angular movement of the door to adjust to door jam orientation. None of the above Patents or Published Patent Applications singly or in combination is seen to describe the present invention as claimed. 
       BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0011]    The present invention is a Door Transporting and Installation System for use in building construction and maintenance. Generally, the instant invention solves the problem of transporting and lifting wide and narrow doors by being removably attached to a hand cart, adjusting to the width of the door to reduce tipping of the door during installation and by lifting the door in a straight upward motion utilizing a pressurized air actuator. In addition to solving these problems added features that transport the door from the delivery to the work site going easily through door ways, placing the door in a position to facilitate attachment of hinges and easy angular alignment of the door to the door jam for fastening are also provided. 
         [0012]    The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides additional unique features by having stationery guides keeping the door moving vertically during lifting and offering a simplified model for work where the doors are separately delivered to the work site. The primary objective of the present invention is to ease the difficult task of positioning a door that can weigh two hundred pounds into a position where screws line up and to reduce the fatigue of transporting these unwieldy objects. 
         [0013]    A further objective of the present invention is to provide two transport devices in one by removing the door lift platform actuator and base from the lift cart when doors are not being transported. 
         [0014]    A further objective of the present invention is to reduce manufacturing cost by utilizing a commercially available lift cart in the product. 
         [0015]    A further objective of the present invention is to reduce handling of the door thereby reducing the opportunities to damage the door finishes. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S) 
         [0016]      FIG. 1 : Is a perspective view of a first preferred embodiment of the present invention for use without a hand cart. 
           [0017]      FIG. 2 : Is a perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention for use with a hand cart. 
           [0018]      FIG. 3 : Is a perspective view of the first preferred embodiment of the present invention in the elevated position. 
           [0019]      FIG. 4 : Is a perspective view of a second preferred embodiment of the present invention installed on a hand cart. 
           [0020]      FIG. 5   a - 5   I : are diagrams of the method steps for using the hand cart attachable door transport and installation system. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0021]    The first preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 1  with base  101  resting on the floor or other essentially horizontal surface. First vertical guide  102  and second vertical guide  103  extend in an essentially vertical direction from the base  101  forming a vertical space there between for guiding an object that is to be transported and lifted. The surfaces of the first vertical guide  102  and second vertical guide  103  may be lined with carpeting or other protective material to reduce the potential for damaging the doors during handling. The hose and pump for pressurizing the actuator and the valve for relieving the pressure on the actuator are (un-shown). 
         [0022]    The second preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 2  with base  201  resting on the floor or other essentially horizontal surface. First vertical guide  202  and second vertical guide  203  extend in an essentially vertical direction from the base  201  forming a vertical space there between for guiding an object that is to be transported and lifted. A clamp actuator  206  applies a pressure on the object (un-shown) to hold the base  101  to the object (un-shown). The hose and pump for pressurizing the actuator and the valve for relieving the pressure on the actuator are (un-shown). 
         [0023]      FIG. 3  shows the first preferred embodiment of the present invention with its base  301  resting on the floor with a door  300  guided in an upward position by vertical guides  302  and  303 . Pressurized fluid actuator  305  is shown inflated raising lift platform  304  to an elevated position. The hose and pump for pressurizing the actuator and the valve for relieving the pressure on the actuator are (un-shown). 
         [0024]    The second preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown in  FIG. 4  with base  401  resting on the floor or other essentially horizontal surface. First vertical guide  402  and second vertical guide  403  extend in an essentially vertical direction from the base  401  forming a vertical space there between for guiding an object that is to be transported and lifted. A clamp actuator  406  applies a pressure on the object (un-shown) to hold the base  401  to the object (un-shown). The hose and pump for pressurizing the actuator and the valve for relieving the pressure on the actuator are (un-shown). 
         [0025]    The advantages of using the door transport and installation system of the present invention is that a door installer (un-shown) can complete an installation without having the lift more than half the weight of the door. This is largely because half of the weight of the door is supported by a corner of the door being supported by the floor when ever the door installer (un-shown) tips the door into the next position. The only time that the entire door  501  is elevated the platform  404  is utilized and lifting is done under the mechanical advantage afforded by the pneumatic lift system. 
         [0026]      FIG. 5(   a ) is a diagram of the first step of using the hand cart attachable door transport system which involves tipping the door  501  onto the door support  502 . FIG. ( 5 ) shows the door  501  being slid into position against the upright of the hand cart  503 . In  FIG. 5(   c ) the operator (un-shown) holding the handles  505  tips the hand cart  503  and the door  501  onto the wheels  504  and transports the door  501  in a position where unlike other hand cart door transporting systems the face of the door  501  is perpendicular to the wheel axles allowing easy egress through door ways that lead to the worksite represented by door jam  506  in  FIG. 5(   d ). At this point the operator (un-shown) tips the hand cart  503  and door  501  so that the handles  505  rest on the floor. At this point the door  501  is supported by two handles  505  and two wheels  504 .  FIG. 5(   e ) illustrates the ease of installing the hinges  507  (typically  3  hinges) onto the door  501 . This is another large improvement with the instant invention where the door installer (un-shown) here to fore has had to install the hinges onto a vertical edge of the door. An optional method at this point is to install half of one or more hinges  507  onto the door  501  and the other half of the one or more hinges  507  on the door jam  506  for re-attachment when the door  501  is lifted into place against the door jam  506 . At  FIG. 5(   f ) the door support  502  us loosened from the cart  503  and is positioned in the center of the bottom of the door  501  in preparation for the door installation. The door is tipped up by means of the handles  505  in  FIG. 5(   g ). At  FIG. 5(   h ) the door support  502  and door  501  are slid off of the hand cart and across the floor into a position where the hinges  507  line up horizontally with the mounting holes in the door jam  506  (note the gap between the top of the door  501  and the door jam  506 ). At  FIG. 5(   i ) the platform in the door support  502  is raised until the mounting holes in the hinges  507  and the mounting holes in the door jam  506  line up vertically (note that the gap at the top of the door  501  has been reduced and a gap has appeared between the door  501  and the floor. At  FIG. 5(   j ) the operator (un-shown has sold the door support  502  to the left and out from under door  501 . The door  501  is fully installed and in a closed position in  FIG. 5(   k ) and the door support  502  has been re-attached to the hand cart  503  in  FIG. 5(   l ).