Track seal for folding doors with aligned seal flaps

Claim 2

A combination track seal and overhead supporting track for a folding panel door having hanger assemblies movably disposed in the track and a rod extending downwardly from each hanger assembly to a panel, said track including a longitudinal entrance slot movably receiving said hanger rods, said slot being defined by a pair of spaced depending channel-shaped portions of the track having upwardly converging surfaces, said track seal comprising sealing means mounted on said track and forming a closure for the entrance slot, said sealing means including a pair of laterally extending flexible sealing flanges bridging the slot with meeting edges disposed in alignment with each other for permitting the rod to pass therethrough while in substantial sealing engagement with the periphery of the rod to substantially prevent entry of air, noise and light into the track, said sealing means including a pair of substantially channel-shaped members constructed of resilient material and each including a bottom web and upwardly converging inner and outer flanges for gripping engagement with said depending channel-shaped portions of the track, said sealing flaps being integral with the channelshaped member and being constructed of flexible plastic material having a high degree of flexibility as compared with the channelshaped member.

Claim 3

The structure as defined in claim 1 wherein the outer upwardly Converging flange is longer than the inner upwardly converging flange with the flanges corresponding to the convergence of the surfaces of the depending channel on the track for snap engagement therewith.

Claim 4

The combination as defined in claim 8 In combination, a supporting track having in-turned edges defining an entrance slot, a plurality of supporting assemblies movably disposed in said track, each assembly including a support rod extending through said slot, a plurality of closure panels each having an end edge connected with a support rod, hinge strip means flexibly connecting side edges of adjacent panels, a continuous seal means along the end edge of said panels, a sealing surface generally flush with the track and engaged by said seal means to provide a seal between the end edge of the panels and the sealing surface, and seal means mounted flush with the sealing surface and closing the entrance slot to the track thereby forming a complete seal for the end edge of the panels, said track seal means including a pair of continuous flexible seal flaps having flexible edges aligned with the entrance slot of the track for enabling passage of and movement of the support rods along the track and substantially sealing the rods in any position thereof, said flexible edges being disposed with the adjacent edges thereof in alignment and tapering to a thin and highly flexible edge to facilitate flexing of the edge around the support rods whereby very little of the adjacent edges spaced from the rods will be held in deflected position by the rods, said supporting track including depending channel-shaped portions defining the in-turned edges thereof and the entrance slot, each depending channel-shaped portion of the track having upwardly converging external surfaces, each of said continuous flexible seal flaps having a channel-shaped mounting structure including upwardly converging flanges of resilient but substantially more rigid material than the seal flaps for frictional clamping engagement with the converging surfaces of the depending channel-shaped portion of the track, said seal flaps extending inwardly from the inner edge of the web portion of the channel-shaped mounting structure.

Claim 5

The combination as set forth in claim 3 wherein the bottom surface of the channel-shaped mounting structure and sealing flaps are substantially flush with the sealing surface engaged by the seal means along the end edge of the panels of the door.