Mortise Latchset with Dually Biased Cam Assembly
First Claim
1. A mortise latchset comprising:
- a case assembly and cover;
inner and outer operating cams journaled in the case assembly and cover for independent coaxial movement relative to each other;
a pair of coaxially-mounted, independently leveraged cam followers mounted in the case assembly, each cam follower being mounted for engagement with one or more cam operating surfaces of one of the inner and outer operating cams;
a retractable latchbolt supported in the case for movement between projected and retracted positions; and
a latch retractor assembly operable to retract the latchbolt, wherein each of the cam followers is operable to drive the latch retractor assembly into a latchbolt-retracting position.
3 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A mortise latchset has an improved leveraged cam assembly, completely internal to the latchset body, versatile enough to allow the door handles to be rotated in either direction to retract the latchbolt, and robust enough to independently bias each of two lever-type door handles toward a handle-centering position, even when one of the handles is being operated. The mortise latchset uses a pair of coaxially mounted cam followers independently leveraged by a cantilevered spring assembly. The cam followers are located between the operating cams and the latch retracting assembly, and each leveraged cam follower is operable to engage the latch retracting assembly to retract the latchbolt, while the other cam follower biases its operating cam in the handle-centering position.
36 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A mortise latchset comprising:
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a case assembly and cover; inner and outer operating cams journaled in the case assembly and cover for independent coaxial movement relative to each other; a pair of coaxially-mounted, independently leveraged cam followers mounted in the case assembly, each cam follower being mounted for engagement with one or more cam operating surfaces of one of the inner and outer operating cams; a retractable latchbolt supported in the case for movement between projected and retracted positions; and a latch retractor assembly operable to retract the latchbolt, wherein each of the cam followers is operable to drive the latch retractor assembly into a latchbolt-retracting position. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A mortise latchset comprising:
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a mortise latchset body housing a latchbolt; inner and outer operating cams journaled inside the mortise latchset body for independent coaxial movement relative to each other; wherein each of the operating cams is operable to rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise from an intermediate position to retract the latchbolt; trim exterior to the mortise latchset body, including inside and outside door handles coupled to and operable to rotate the inner and outer operating cams both clockwise and counterclockwise from an intermediate, handle-centering position to retract the latchbolt; and a spring assembly housed inside the mortise latchset body operable to spring-load one of the handles while it is being rotated clockwise or counterclockwise, while still spring-loading the other of the handles to maintain it in the intermediate, handle-centering position; wherein the spring assembly has sufficient force to bias the handles toward the intermediate, handle-centering position without any assistance from trim springs. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A mortise latchset comprising:
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a mortise latchset body housing a latchbolt; inner and outer operating cams journaled inside the mortise latchset body for independent coaxial movement relative to each other; wherein each of the operating cams is operable to rotate both clockwise and counterclockwise from an intermediate position to retract the latchbolt; wherein each of the operating cams is configured to be coupled to a lever-type door handle in a manner that enables the door handle to rotate the operating cam both clockwise and counterclockwise from an intermediate position to retract the latchbolt; and a spring assembly housed inside the mortise latchset body operable to spring-load both operating cams toward the intermediate position, when only one of the cams is rotated clockwise or counterclockwise; wherein the spring assembly has sufficient force to bias the handles toward an intermediate, default handle-centering position without any assistance from springs housed within the trim. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification