WO2008047997A1

WO2008047997A1 - Sliding door having two-step slide structure

Info

Publication number: WO2008047997A1
Application number: PCT/KR2007/003461
Authority: WO
Inventors: Keun-Jun Lee
Original assignee: Militec Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2006-10-18
Filing date: 2007-07-18
Publication date: 2008-04-24
Also published as: KR100682631B1

Abstract

Disclosed is a sliding door in which a rail is installed on a doorframe, a pocket frame is fixedly placed in the doorframe, and first and second door bodies slidingly move into and out of the pocket frame to open and close a target space. The sliding door includes a first sliding part in which the second door body is formed to slidably overlap with front and rear surfaces of the first door body, and which is coupled to an upper end of the second door body and is slidably placed on the rail installed on the doorframe; and a second sliding part which is coupled to an upper end of the first door body and is slidably connected to a lower end of the first sliding part so that the first door body can be installed on the second sliding part and slidingly move.

Description

Description SLIDING DOOR HAVING TWO-STEP SLIDE STRUCTURE

Technical Field

[1] The present invention relates to a sliding door.

Background Art

[2] The present invention relates to a sliding door, and more particularly, to a sliding door having a two step slide structure which allows door bodies to safely and stably slide in a pocket frame and is constructed to have high strength for resisting external forces.

[3] A sliding door is one type of door in which a doorframe is securely held in place to form a door for delimiting a space, and a door body is installed in the doorframe to slide leftwards or rightwards to thereby open and close the target space. Specifically, in the sliding door, in order to allow the door body to easily slide in the doorframe, rollers are fastened to the top or bottom surface of the door body, and a rail is secured to the upper or lower end of the doorframe to allow the rollers to be engaged therewith to thereby guide the sliding movement of the door body.

[4] In the conventional sliding door, constructed as mentioned above, it is the norm that the rollers are fastened to the bottom surface of the door body and the rail is secured to the lower end of the doorframe to allow the rollers to be engaged therewith. In this case where the rollers are fastened to the bottom surface of the door body, problems are caused in that the rollers are likely to be broken due to the load applied by the weight of the door body, and the rail projects out of the floor to thus obstruct the movement of a person.

[5] In order to solve these problems, in another sliding door proposed in the art, rollers are fixed to the top surface of a door body and a rail is secured to the upper end of a doorframe. In this type of sliding door, while the likelihood of the rollers being broken is decreased due to the fixing of the rollers to the top surface of the door body, defects are caused in that a gap is formed between the bottom surface of the door body and the lower end of the doorframe, and noise, dust, etc. can be introduced into the space through the gap.

[6] Referring to FIG. 1, still another sliding door in which rollers and a rail are provided to the upper part of the sliding door, as disclosed by the present applicant in Korean Patent Application No. 2002-39758 (hereinafter, referred to as a "prior application"), is illustrated.

[7] In the sliding door disclosed in the prior application, rollers 2 and a guide rail 3 are provided to the upper part of the sliding door, which includes a door body 1 and a doorframe 4. In the construction of this sliding door, the danger of the roller 2 being broken is eliminated, and it is possible to prevent noise, dust, etc. from being introduced into a space through the gap between the door body 1 and the doorframe 4. In particular, the sliding door of the prior application can be easily installed and the construction thereof can be easily modified.

[8] A still further sliding door (a two step sliding door) has been proposed in the art as a development of the sliding door of the prior application. This sliding door is constructed in a manner such that two door bodies are slidably superimposed so that, after a first door body is slidingly moved out of a pocket frame, a second door body can also be slidingly moved out of the pocket frame. Disclosure of Invention Technical Problem

[9] That is to say, the two step sliding door is constructed in a manner such that the two door bodies are slidably superimposed so that, after the first door body is slidingly moved out of the pocket frame, the second door body can also be slidingly moved out of the pocket frame by the first door body when the first door body, moved out of the pocket frame, is pulled further. Hence, in the two step sliding door, means for pulling the second door body out of the pocket frame, such as an engagement member, should be provided between the first and second door bodies. In this regard, the two step sliding door has a drawback in that, when the first door body pulls the second door body out of the pocket frame with the first and second door bodies only partially superimposed, since an unbalanced load is applied to the engagement member, the engagement member is likely to break.

[10] Moreover, when the two door bodies are completely moved out of the pocket frame, the door bodies can be broken relatively easily, even with the application of a small force. This is because the first door body is moved far away from the pocket frame, which provides the supporting force for supporting the entire sliding door.

[11] Accordingly, the present invention has been made in an effort to solve the problems occurring in the related art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a sliding door which allows door bodies to be stably moved out of a pocket frame and is constructed such that a second door body can support both surfaces of a first door body to thus improve the strength of resistance to external forces.

Advantageous Effects

[12] Thanks to the features of the present invention, when taking first and second door bodies out of a pocket frame, the first and second door bodies can be stably moved out of the pocket frame. As a consequence, since the performance of the sliding door can be improved, it is possible to contribute to the manufacture of a sliding door having high quality.

[13] Also, in the present invention, since the second door body supports both surfaces of the first door body to improve the strength of resistance to external forces, the safe use and the reliability of the sliding door can be ensured. Brief Description of the Drawings

[14] FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a conventional sliding door;

[15] FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a sliding door in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

[16] FIG. 3 is a partial front cross-sectional view illustrating the sliding door according to the present invention;

[17] FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view illustrating the sliding door according to the present invention; and

[18] FIGs. 5 through 7 are views illustrating the use of the sliding door according to the present invention.

[19] <Description of Reference Numerals for Main Parts of Drawings>

[20] 10: doorframe 11 : rail

[21] 20: first door body 30: second door body

[22] 40: pocket frame 50: first sliding part

[23] 60: second sliding part

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

[24] In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a sliding door in which a rail is installed in a doorframe, a pocket frame is fixedly placed in the doorframe, and first and second door bodies are slidingly moved into and out of the pocket frame to open and close a target space, the sliding door comprising a first sliding part in which the second door body is formed to slidably overlap with front and rear surfaces of the first door body, and which is coupled to the upper end of the second door body and is slidably placed on the rail installed on the doorframe; and a second sliding part, which is coupled to the upper end of the first door body and is slidably connected to the lower end of the first sliding part so that the first door body can be installed on the second sliding part to slidingly move.

[25] Reference will now be made in greater detail to a preferred embodiment of the invention, an example of which is illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

[26] FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a sliding door in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 3 is a partial front cross-sectional view illustrating the sliding door according to the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a side cross-sectional view illustrating the sliding door according to the present invention.

[27] Referring to the drawings, a sliding door in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention has a basic construction in which a space for installing a door is defined in the wall of a building and a quadrangular doorframe 10 is fixedly placed in the space. A pocket frame 40, into and out of which door bodies 20 and 30 are slidingly moved, is installed in the doorframe 10. Of course, it is to be readily understood that the movement of the door bodies 20 and 30 into and out of the pocket frame 40 is implemented so as to open and close the space in the door frame 10 that is not occupied by the pocket frame 40.

[28] A rail 11 is installed in the doorframe 10 such that the door bodies 20 and 30, in particular, the second door body 30, which is formed to slidably overlap with the front and rear surfaces of the first door body 20, can slide on the rail 11. In the construction as described above, the sliding door includes a first sliding part 50 for coupling the second door body 30 to the rail 11 of the doorframe 10.

[29] The first sliding part 50 comprises rollers 51 and a rail 52. Unlike the rail 11 of the doorframe 10, the rail 52 of the first sliding part 50 is coupled to the upper end of the second door body 30. The second door body 30 is divided into front and rear portions which slidably overlap with the front and rear surfaces, respectively, of the first door body 20. The front and rear portions of the second door body 30 are integrally connected with each other by the rail 52. A rail groove 53 is defined in the rail 52 to extend between the front and rear portions of the second door body 30. The rollers 51 are placed on the rail 52 and are movably placed on the rail 11 of the doorframe 10. In this regard, a bracket 54 is secured to the rail 52, and the rollers 51 are rotatably mounted to the bracket 54. A plurality of roller units, each of which comprises two pairs of rollers 51, is installed in a manner such that the second door body 30 can be supported by the rail 11 via the rollers 51.

[30] A second sliding part 60 comprises rollers 61 which are coupled to the upper end of the first door body 20 such that the first door body 20 can slide into and out of the second door body 30. As in the case of the first sliding part 50, a bracket 62 is secured to the upper end of the first door body 20, and the rollers 61 are rotatably mounted to the bracket 62. As described above, a plurality of roller units, each of which comprises two pairs of rollers 61, is installed in a manner such that the first door body 20 can be supported by the rail 52 via the rollers 61.

[31] In the structures of the first sliding part 50 and the second sliding part 60, the rails

11 and 52 have a rectangular sectional shape, and the rollers 51 and 61 are movably coupled to the rails 11 and 52 so as to be in rolling contact with the bottom surfaces of the rails 11 and 52. To this end, the rails 11 and 52 are defined with respective rail grooves 12 and 53 in the bottom walls thereof to provide paths along which the rollers 51 and 61 of the first sliding part 50 and the second sliding part 60 can be moved.

[32] Specifically, in the respective rails 11 and 52, the rail 11 installed in the doorframe 10 is formed to have a length corresponding to an interval through which the second door body 30 must move, and the rail 52 coupled to the second door body 30 is formed to have a length corresponding to an interval through which the first door body 20 must move. Considering the fact that the first door body 20 is moved out of the second door body 30, the rail 52 coupled to the second door body 30 extends beyond the second door body 30 to guide the movement of the first door body 20.

[33] The reference numeral 70 designates a sealing unit for sealing the gaps between the door bodies 20 and 30 and a floor.

[34] FIGs. 5 through 7 are views illustrating the use of the sliding door according to the present invention.

[35] FIG. 7 illustrates the state in which the first and second door bodies 20 and 30 are fully moved into the pocket frame 40. This state corresponds to the opening position of the sliding door. At this time, while the pocket frame 40 is illustrated in FIGs. 2 and 4 as being exposed to the outside, when actually installing the sliding door, wallpaper or another decorative covering is attached to the outer surface of the pocket frame 40 so that the pocket frame 40 can be hidden with the door bodies 20 and 30 moved therein.

[36] FIG. 6 illustrates the state in which the first door body 20 is moved out of the pocket frame 40. This state can be recognized by observing that the first door body 20 is moved out of the second door body 30. When the first door body 20 is slidingly moved out of the pocket frame 40 or the second door body 30, the rollers 61, mounted to the first door body 20, are guided by the rail 52 coupled to the second door body 30.

[37] FIG. 5 illustrates the state in which the second door body 30 is moved out of the pocket frame 40 by continuously pulling the first door body 20 from the state shown in FIG. 6. At this time, the second door body 30 can be moved out of the pocket frame 40 due to the fact that the rollers 61 coupled to the first door body 20 are engaged with the end of the rail 52 coupled to the second door body 30. Accordingly, when the first door body 20 is moved, since no separate load is generated in the first door body 20, unlike the conventional art, it is possible to prevent an unbalanced load from being applied to the first door body 20.

Claims

[1] A sliding door in which a rail (11) is installed in a doorframe (10), a pocket frame (40) is fixedly placed in the doorframe (10), and first and second door bodies (20 and 30) slidingly move into and out of the pocket frame (40) to open and close a target space, the sliding door comprising: a first sliding part (50) in which the second door body (30) is formed to slidably overlap front and rear surfaces of the first door body (20), and which is coupled to an upper end of the second door body (30) and is slidably placed on the rail (11) installed on the doorframe (10); and a second sliding part (60) which is coupled to an upper end of the first door body (20) and is slidably connected to a lower end of the first sliding part (50) so that the first door body (20) can be installed on the second sliding part (60) to slidingly move.

[2] The sliding door according to claim 1, wherein the first sliding part (50) comprises rollers (51) which are mounted to an upper portion of the first sliding part (50) to be slidingly placed on the rail (11) of the doorframe (10), and a rail (52) which is provided to a lower portion of the first sliding part (50) to allow the second sliding part (60) to be slidingly coupled thereto.

[3] The sliding door according to claim 2, wherein the second sliding part (60) comprises rollers (61) which are mounted to the upper end of the first door body (20) and are slidably placed on the rail (52) of the first sliding part (50) to allow the first door body (20) to slidingly move.