1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for absorbing and dissipating forces generated by swinging doors and for protecting walls and partitions of buildings. The novel device is installed in a wall or partition in a location assuring that a door knob of a door will strike the novel device when the door is swung open with force. The invention is usable both in new construction and in retrofit applications for most residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings wherein doors are not restrained and could damage either themselves or a wall or partition in the way if swung open with excessive force. The invention is particularly suited for repairs of walls and partitions built from drywall, wherein prior contact of a door knob with the drywall has formed a depression or hole therein.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Most doors in residential, commercial, industrial, and institutional buildings are mounted so as to be able to swing about a vertical axis. When the door is opened, if no apparatus is provided to limit swing of the door, the full momentum of the door may be imposed on a wall or partition where the door knob strikes that wall or partition. This will obviously damage the wall, the door, or both. This is a notoriously well known problem which has resulted in prior art attempts to solve the problem.
One approach has been to mount a receptacle within the wall or partition. This approach is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,133,758, issued to Malcolm B. Wells on May 16, 1964. The receptacle of Wells lacks a coil spring disposed to resist momentum of the door and a pneumatic damping chamber, both seen in the present invention. Also, Wells lacks a brace which abuts the side of a hollow wall opposite that in which the novel door knob stop is mounted.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,115, issued to Richard Arens on Mar. 3, 1998, is similar to the device of Wells, and also lacks the coil spring, pneumatic damping chamber, and brace of the present invention.
U.S. Design Pat. No. 324,170, issued to R. Larry Owens et al. illustrates a combined door stop and wall patch which lacks the coil spring, pneumatic damping chamber, and brace of the present invention.
A second approach is to provide a door stop which projects from the wall. This is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,761,766, issued to William E. Basham on Jun. 9, 1998. The door stop of Basham lacks a pneumatic damping chamber and a flush mounting flange, both being features of the present invention. The door stop of Basham lacks the brace of the present invention.
Another device generally corresponding to a door stop is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,806,908, issued to Yong Pyo Kim on Sep. 15, 1998. This device requires one component mounted on one of the members which collide and a second component mounted on the other one of the colliding members. By contrast, the present invention requires only one component. Also, the devices of Kim are surface mounted, whereas the present invention has a flange for flush mounting in a wall. A further difference is that a resilient solid member absorbs energy in the device of Kim, whereas this is accomplished by a pneumatic damper in the present invention. Neither component of Kim's device contacts two supporting surfaces, as do the mounting flange and brace of in the present invention.
None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed.