The Eastern Company

James L Hollingsworth

Lee S Weinerman

Arthur J Kuminski

Scott A Arthurs

Fredrick L Putzier

Robert D Dinallo

A racking resistant door control mechanism for securing a pivoted door employs an elongate lock rod that extends the height of the door, is journaled for pivotal movement about a lock rod axis by door mounted bearing assemblies, and has cam type latch members welded to its opposite ends for engaging keeper members carried by upper and lower parts of a door frame. The cam and keeper members feature novel, compact arrangements of interengageable formations that are located on opposite sides of, but relatively near to, the lock rod axis of the locked door--formations that cooperate in bringing the door to its fully closed position, in securely retaining the door closed, in preventing racking movements of the closed door and its adjacent door frame, and in breaking the door open when ice formations, cold seals or the like resist initial opening movement of the door. Additional racking resistance preferably is provided by utilizing upper and lower end regions of door mounted bearing assembly covers to engage shoulders defined at junctures of the cam members with opposite ends of the lock rod, and to engage opposite end portions of at least one other lock-rod-carried component so that a plurality of lock-rod-carried components are engaged by door mounted components in a manner that is highly effective in resisting relative axial movements of the locked door, the door frame and other lock-rod-connected components.

Racking resistant door control mechanism

A racking resistant door control mechanism for securing a pivoted door employs an elongate lock rod that extends the height of the door and is journaled for pivotal movement by bearing assemblies having steel covers that enclose plastic bearing liners. The lock rod has upper and lower cam-type latch members welded to its opposite ends for engaging keeper members carried by upper and lower parts of a door frame for holding the door closed. The lock rod extends through and is welded to a steel sleeve at a location spaced a short distance upwardly from the lower latch member. If the lock rod is formed from two elongate elements instead of one, the sleeve is welded to both to aid in forming a connection therebetween. Racking resistance is provided by locating the sleeve and the bearing assemblies such that the steel covers of the bearing assemblies are held in engagement with the latch members and with opposite ends of the sleeve. The various metal components of the door control mechanism are protectively coated before being assembled and before being welded, with rigid assembly connections being formed by normally hidden welds of relatively small size that burn through the protective coatings and are, in turn, protectively coated by a zinc rich, polymer containing film applied as a 'touch-up' spray.

Racking resistant door control mechanism and method of fabrication

A handle operated, heavy duty, toggle type draw latch is mountable on one of two members and is operable to selectively engage and disengage a latch-engageable formation connected to the other of the two members. The latch includes a complexly configured operating handle that is pivotally connected near one end to a mounting base for movement relative to the base between closed and open positions, that provides a hand grip near its opposite end, and that, at locations between its opposite ends pivotally mounts a drawbar for movement between extended and retracted positions, and defines not only a plurality of stops but also a catch-engageable formation. One stop engages the base when the handle is closed. Another stop engages the base when the handle is fully open. Still another stop engages the drawbar when the drawbar is retracted. When the handle is open, the drawbar can be pivoted into and out of extended positions for selectively embracing the latch-engageable formation. If the handle is pivoted to its closed position while the drawbar is extended to embrace the latch-engageable formation, the drawbar exerts force on the latch-engageable formation that tends to draw the two members relatively toward each other. A base-carried safety catch pivots between latched and unlatched positions for receiving and releasably retaining the catch-engageable formation of the handle when the handle is closed.

Handle operated heavy duty draw latch with safety catch

A slam-capable rotary latch employs a single rotary jaw that is releasably retained in its latched position by a rotary pawl, with the latch having a pair of spaced housing side plates that sandwich the rotary jaw and the rotary pawl, with the side plates defining aligned first and second U-shaped notches that cooperate with a third U-shaped notch formed in the rotary jaw for concurrently receiving and latchingly retaining within the confines of the first, second and third U-shaped notches a suitably configured strike formation, with housing side plate portions that define a selected one of the first and second U-shaped notches being rigidified and strengthened by the close proximity presence to the selected U-shaped notch of a flange 1) that is formed integrally with the side plate portions that define the selected U-shaped notch, 2) that is connected by a tight radius bend to the side plate portions that define the selected U-shaped notch, and 3) that extends transversely so as to bridge between the pair of housing side plates.

Handle operable rotary latch and lock

Handle operated heavy duty draw latch assembly with lockable safety catch

A slam-capable rotary latch employs a single rotary jaw that is releasably retained in its latched position by a rotary pawl, with the latch having a pair of spaced housing side plates that sandwich the rotary jaw and the rotary pawl, with the side plates defining aligned first and second U-shaped notches that cooperate with a third U-shaped notch formed in the rotary jaw for concurrently receiving and latchingly retaining within the confines of the first, second and third U-shaped notches a suitably configured strike formation, with housing side plate portions that define a selected one of the first and second U-shaped notches being rigidified and strengthened by the close proximity presence of a flange 1) that is formed integrally with side plate portions that define the selected notch and 2) that extends transversely to bridge between the housing side plates at a location near the first and second U-shaped notches. The rotary latch is particularly well suited to be bracket-mounted together with an operating linkage to form a modular assembly that can be installed behind the front wall of the closure of an industrial cabinet by utilizing the same threaded fasteners that are used to hold a flush-mountable paddle handle and housing assembly in place in a mounting opening that is formed through the front wall of the closure. The latch may be 'locked' by positioning a movable locking member to extend into a path of movement of the operating linkage to selectively permit and prevent movement of the linkage along the path of movement.

Growing community of inventors

Middleburg Heights, OH, United States of America

James L Hollingsworth