US3833963A

US3833963A - Lockable safety door stop

Info

Publication number: US3833963A
Application number: US00338450A
Authority: US
Inventors: S Waters
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1973-03-06
Filing date: 1973-03-06
Publication date: 1974-09-10
Anticipated expiration: 1991-09-10

Abstract

A door stop comprising a floor plate and a stop member which is releasably securable to the floor plate. The floor plate has a flat upper surface with stop retaining means therein. The stop member has a raised barrier surface and a lower surface. Projection means are provided in the lower surface of the stop member for engagement with the retaining means in the floor plate. A locking mechanism is provided in the stop member to secure the stop member to the floor plate in immovable position when the stop projection means is in engagement with the floor plate retaining means.

Description

nited States Patent 1191 Waters Sept. 10, 1974 [54] LOCKABLE SAFETY DOOR STOP 2,024,588 12/1935 Lesser 70/90 21,8 1 37 M 1 1 Inventor t-vouglas'waters 3250 Forest 23282213 51340 Ba;%;'.'... f T232333 Hill, Montreal, Quebec, Canada [22] Filed: Mar. 6, 1973 Primary Examiner-Paul R. Gilliam [21] APP] No: 338,450 Assistant Examiner-Peter A. Aschenbrenner 52 us. (:1 16/82, 292/343, 292/1310. 15 [57] ABSTRACT [51] Int. Cl E051 /02 A door stop comprising a floor plate and a stop meml l Field of Search ber which is releasably securable to the floor plate. 1 /DlG. 44 91 The floor plate has a flat upper surface with stop retaining means therein. The stop member has a raised [5 References Cited barrier surface and a lower surface. Projection means UNITED STATES PATENTS are provided in the lower surface of the stop member 302,159 7/1884 Reynolds .I 292/302 for engagemeft with the f f 9 the floor 546,186 9/1895 Pierce 292/342 P A lockmg mechamsm 1S Pmvlded the p 1,082,432 12/1913 Mertsheimer 292/010. 15 member to secure the stop member to the floor plate 1,256,132 2/1918 Hillburg 70/DIG. 57 in immovable position when the stop projection means 1,487,558 3/1924 Gorham 292/342 is in engagement with the floor plate retaining means. 1,922,298 8/1933 1,937,548 12/1933 Chambers 292/392 9 Claims, 6 Drawing Figures PATENTED SE? 1 01974 BACKGROUND OF INVENTION a. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a door stop and more particularly to a' floor mounted door stop that will permit a door to be only slightly opened to prevent passage of a person through the slight door" opening.

b. Description of Prior Art Currentlyused secondary security devices, (which permit limited opening of the door while still preventing unauthorized entry), are commonly chain devices mounted on the door trim and the door itself, and are thus-dependent for their successful operation on the tensile strength of the chain and the strength of the two mountings, and can therefore be broken loose by the average adult person. The inherent weakness of chain-type secondary security devices may be circumvented by minimizing, through the wedge principle, the direct force affecting the device, and by distributing the applied load on the door to astructurally sounder member, i.e., the floor.

tion. v

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a feature of the present invention to provide an improved floor mounted door stop which substantially overcomes all of the above-mentioned disadvantages.

It is a further feature to provide a floor mounted, key operated, door stop which can be installed and locked behind a door from the outside of a room thus preventing entry through the door even when the room is vacated.

According to these features, from a broad aspect, the present invention provides a door stop comprising a floor plate and a stop member which is releasably securable to the floor plate. The floor plate has a flat upper surface with stop retaining means therein. The stop member has a raised barrier surface and a lower surface. Projection means are providedjin the lower surface of the stop member for engagement with the retaining means in the floor plate. A locking mechanism is provided in the stop member to secure the stop member tothe floor plate inimmovable position when the stop projection means is in engagement with the floor plate retaining means.v

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a top view of the floor plate;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of FIG. 1 along section lines II-II andfurther including the coverplate;

FIG. 3 is a side view of the wedge member;

FIG. 4 is a fragmented end view, partly exploded, of the wedge member illustrating the locking mechanism;

FIG. 5 is a perspective view illustrating the operation of the door stop; and

FIG. 6 is a fragmented view illustrating a further manner of interconnection of the wedge to the floor plate. I

1 DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to FIGS. 1 to 5, and more particularly to FIG. 5, there is shown generally at 10, the safetydoor stop of the present invention. As illustrated, the 'door stop is secured in the floor 11 in the interior of a room behind the door 13 and in the immediatevicinity of the are of swing of the'outside edge 12 of the door '13. In a preferred embodiment, thedoor stop 10 is secured approximately 6 inches from the door; threshold 14 whereby the door stop may be accessiblefrom both the inside and outside of a room. The door stop may also be secured at any other location behind thev door 13 and may thus only be accessible from the interior of the room.

Referring more specifically to FIGS. 1 to 4, there is shown the construction of the safety door stop 10 and comprising afloor plate 20 of substantially rectangular thereof. The end edges 23 of the opening- Zlare each undercut to define a front undercut recess 24.and a rear undercut recess 25, both of which are of the same width as the opening 21 and define a rectangular area,

The depth of the front recess 24 is deeper than that of the rear recess 25 for a reason thatwill be described later. Adjacent one of the end edges 23 and in the bottom wall 26 of the plate 20, there is provided a locking pin receiving cavity, herein shown a through bore hole 27. Further, holes 28 are provided in the wall 26 for receiving countersunk screws (not shown) thereinto secure the plate 20 to a floor. v

As shown in FIG. 2, the opening 21 maybe closed off by a rectangular cover plate 29 which fits close to the contour of the opening and having an upper flat surface 30 which lies in the same plate as the floor plate under surface 22. An end edge of the cover plate 29,'or a portion thereof, is provided with a groove 31 having an inwardly tapering surface 32 to define a pointed edge 33, spaced from the edge 23, whereby to permit removal of the plate 29 by the use of a persons fingernail or other suitable means.

Referring now to FIGS. 3 and 4, there is shown a stop member or wedge member 40 having a flat rectangular bottom surface 41, a front plate-like lip 42 and a rear plate-like lip 43 constituting projection means, a sloped upper surface 44 sloping upwardly from the front lip 42, a vertical end wall 45 extending upwardly from the rear lip 43 and a top end wall 46 between the end wall 45 and the upper end of the sloped upper surface 44. A vertical bore 47, herein shown as being circular in transverse cross-section, is provided in the wedge member adjacent the end wall 45 and extends from the top wall 46 and upper surface 44 depending on the angle of the sloped surface. Hereinshown, the surface 44 extends at 30 from the horizontal. The bore 47 has a bottom wall 49 having a hole 50 therein. An elongated slot 48 is formed in the end wall 45 and extends to the bore 47 to receive a guide pin 51 secured to the housing 52 of a lock mechanism 53 positioned in the bore 47.

The lock mechanism 53 hereinbelow has a cylindrical lock housing 52 with an actuable locking pin 54 formed integrally and depending centrally from the bottom of the housing 52. A helical spring 55 is positioned within the bore 47 and rests on the bottom wall 49 about the hole 50. The lock housing 52 is positioned in the bore 47 with the pin 54 extending through the spring 55 whereby to retain the housing 52 in the upper part of the bore 47 with the end of the pin 54 resting above the bottom surface 41 of the wedge. The sliding movement of the mechanism 53 into the bore 47 is limited by the length of the slot 48 into which extends the guide-pin 51. The housing 52 is further provided with a spring loaded retractable lock pin 56 movable in and out of the housing 52. When the lock mechanism 53 is pushed downwardly into the bore 47 against the action of the spring 55, the lock pin 56 will be positioned adjacent a locking-hole 57 formed in the inside wall of the bore 47 and lock the mechanism 53 in position within the bore 47 with the locking pin 54 extending beyond the bottom surface 41. A key 38 is insertable in the housing 52 to retract the lock pin 56 and constitutes a lock pin retracting means.

To secure the wedge member 40 to the floor plate 20, the front lip 42 of the wedge is inserted into the plate front recess 24 with the bottom surface 41 of the wedge resting on the bottom wall 26 of the plate opening 21. The wedge 40 is then slid back in the plate opening 21 until the rear lip 43 of the wedge locates within the rear recess 25. As can be seen from FIG. 3, the front lip 42 is substantially longer than the rear lip to ensure that both lips are located in a respective recess. In this position the hole 50 of the wedge and the hole 27 in the wall 26 are substantially aligned. By depressing the lock mechanism 53 into the bore 47 until the lock pin engages in the locking hole 57, the wedge locking pin 54 will protrude through the hole 50 and extend into the hole 27, thus securing the wedge member 40 in immovable position within the floor plate 20.

Referring to FIG. 6, there is shown a further means for engaging the wedge member to the floor plate. Hereinshown, the wedge member 60 is provided with an L-shaped engaging arm 62 projecting from the bottom surface thereof and positioned adjacent each end of the wedge although only one is herein shown. The floor plate 61 is provided with a flat upper surface having a transverse slot 66 adjacent each end thereof, although only one is also herein shown. The plate 61 is further provided with a central longitudinal groove 63 in the bottom thereof to provide an undercut to permit the horizontal arm portion 64 of the arm 62 to be positioned under a portion of the top plate 65. The floor plate 61 is wider than the wedge 60 and secured to a floor along the longitudinal edges thereof on each side of the groove 63. With the arms 62 positioned in their respective slot 66, the wedge 60 is slid back until the arm portion 64 is under the top plate 65. In this position, the hole 50 in the wedge will be in alignment with the hole 27 which will be located in the top plate 65 and the wedge 60 is locked to the floor plate in a manneras previously described relative to the wedge 40 and plate 20.

As shown in FIG. 5, the door stop is secured in the floor 11 behind the door 13 with the sloped surface 44 facing the door. A metal plate may also be secured to the lower edge of the door 13 to protect the door surface portion which comes into abutment with the door stop 10.

The floor plate 20 and wedge member 40 may each be constructed of metal, such as diecast aluminum, or any other suitable rigid material. The plate 20 of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, is 5/16 inch in thickness, 1 /8 inches in width and has a length of 4 l 1/ 16 inches. These dimensions make the plate 20 particularly suited for installment in a parket type hardwood 'floor, such as illustrated at 11 in FIG. 5. By removing two hardwood laths 11' or its equivalent size from portion of other laths, the cavity thus made will permit the floor plate 20 to fit closely therein and flush with the upper surface of the floor as shown in FIG. 5. As mentioned earlier, the door stop 10 is secured preferably in the vicinity of the arc of swing of the outside edge of the door and a short distance from the door threshold whereby the door opening will be restricted by the door stop 10 to prevent a person from entry into a room through the door opening. Also, the location of the door stop will permit it to be fastened and unfastened by a person outside the door and in possession of a key for unlocking the wedge member. This can be done with door only slightly open whereby the door does not interfere with the opening in the floor plate.

It is within the scope of the invention to have only one undercut recess 24 in the plate 20 and only one lip 42 in the wedge member 40 for engagement together. The wedge 40 would flien be immovably secured by modifying the locking pin 54 and hole 50 wherein these two elements would interlock when the lock mecha nism is activated or depressed.

I claim:

1. A door stop comprising a floor plate and a stop member releasably securable thereto, said floor plate having a flat upper surface, said floor plate being securable in a cavity in a floor surface with said upper surface flush with said floor upper surface, said stop mem ber having a raised barrier surface and a lower surface, said flat upper surface of said floor plate having an opening therein to receive said stop member lower surface and at least one undercut recess in said opening, projection means in said lower surface of said stop member for engagement in said undercut recess, a key operated locking mechanism in said stop member to secure said stop member to said floor plate in immovable position when said stop projection means is in engagement with said floor plate undercut recess, and a closure plate having a flat upper surface and adapted to be removably positioned in said opening of said floor plate when said stop member is not secured therein whereby said opening is closed and said upper surface of said floor plate and closure plate lie in a common plane.

2. A door stop as claimed in claim 1 wherein said stop member is a wedge having an upper sloped barrier surface, a lower surface and an end surface.

3. A door stop as claimed in claim 2 wherein said locking mechanism has an actuable locking pin for engagement with pin receiving means in said floor plate to secure said wedge lower surface in immovable position in said floor plate opening.

4. A door stop as claimed in claim 2 wherein said opening in said flat upper surface has opposed side walls, an undercut recess in at least two opposed ones of said side walls, said wedge having opposed projections for engagement in a respective one of said undercut recesses, said locking mechanism having an actuable locking pin, a lock pin receiving hole in said floor plate opening, said locking pin being actuable to project from said wedge lower surface and into said hole to immovably secure said wedge member to said floor plate.

5. A door stop as claimed in claim 2 wherein said upper flat surface of said floor plate has two spaced apart openings therein with an undercut recess formed in a respective edge thereof, said wedge projection means being two spaced apart L-shaped engaging arms projecting from the lower surface thereof, each said arm having a lateral projection for engagement in a respective one of said undercut recess to retain said wedge lower surface against said floor plate upper surface.

6. A door stop as claimed in claim 4 wherein said locking mechanism comprises a housing portion with said locking pin depending therefrom, a retractable lock pin projecting from said housing portion, lock pin retracting means associated with said housing, a removable guidepin projecting from said housing, a bore having a lower wall in said wedge member adjacent said end wall for receiving said locking mechanism therein, a hole in said bore lower wall and aligned with said locking pin, a spring interposed between said housing and said lower wall and about said locking pin, a vertical slot extending through said wedge end wall for receiving said guide pin therein to restrict movement of said housing in said bore and for alignment thereof, and a transverse locking hole in said bore for receiving said retractable lock pin when said housing is depressed in said bore adjacent the action of said spring whereby a portion of said locking pin will project from the lower surface of said wedge member through said hole in said bore lower surface.

7. A door stop as claimed in claim 4 wherein one of said undercut recesses is of deeper width than the other recess, and one of said wedge projections is longer than the other projection, said longer projection being received in said deeper recess to permit both said projections to be engaged in a respective undercut recess.

8. A door stop for mounting in a floor behind a door in the opening direction thereof, said door stop comprising a floor plate having a flat upper surface with stop retaining means therein, said floor plate being sccured in said floor a limited distance behind said door and in the immediate vicinity of the arc of swing of the outside edge of said door, said floor plate upper surface being flush with the upper surface of said floor, said stop member having a raised barrier surface for abutment with said door and a lower surface, projection means in said lower surface of said stop member for engagement with said retaining means in said floor plate, a locking mechanism in said stop member to secure said stop member to said floor plate in immovable position when said stop projection means is in engagement with said floor plate retaining means, and a closure plate having a flat upper surface and adapted to be removably positioned in said opening of said floor plate when said stop member is not secured therein whereby said opening is closed and said upper surface of said floor plate and closure plate lie in a common plane.

9. A door stop as claimed in claim 8 wherein said floor plate is secured in said floor at a predetermined distance behind said door whereby said door will abut said stop barrier surface before said door is sufficiently open to permit entry of a person but sufficient to permit said stop member to be secured and unsecured from the opposite side of the door by a person capable of unlocking said locking mechanism.

Claims

1. A door stop comprising a floor plate and a stop member releasably securable thereto, said floor plate having a flat upper surface, said floor plate being securable in a cavity in a floor surface with said upper surface flush with said floor upper surface, said stop member having a raised barrier surface and a lower surface, said flat upper surface of said floor plate having an opening therein to receive said stop member lower surface and at least one undercut recess in said opening, projection means in said lower surface of said stop member for engagement in said undercut recess, a key operated locking mechanism in said stop member to secure said stop member to said floor plate in immovable position when said stop projection means is in engagement with said floor plate undercut recess, and a closure plate having a flat upper surface and adapted to be removably positioned in said opening of said floor plate when said stop member is not secured therein whereby said opening is closed and said upper surface of said floor plate and closure plate lie in a common plane.

8. A door stop for mounting in a floor behind a door in the opening direction thereof, said door stop comprising a floor plate having a flat upper surface with stop retaining means therein, said floor plate being secured in said floor a limited distance behind said door and in the immediate vicinity of the arc of swing of the outside edge of said door, said floor plate upper surface being flush with the upper surface of said floor, said stop member having a raised barrier surface for abutment with said door and a lower surface, projection means in said lower surface of said stop member for engagement with said retaining means in said floor plate, a locking mechanism in said stop member to secure said stop member to said floor plate in immovable position when said stop projection means is in engagement with said floor plate retaining means, and a closure plate having a flat upper surface and adapted to be removably positioned in said opening of said floor plate when said stop member is not secured therein whereby said opening is closed and said upper surface of said floor plate and closure plate lie in a common plane.