Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
. DOOR, PREFERABLY FOR INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS
This invention relates to a door, preferably for
industrial buildings, and of the type, at which the door
leaf is suspended by means of at least two ropes or the like,
which are attached to the lower portion of the door leaf and
connected to a hoist device, and at its ends is guided in
guide bars attached to the vertical defining surfaces of the
door opening. The invention, more precisely, has the object .. :
. at such a door to produce a device for raising and lowering
the door leaf and thereby for opening and closing the door,
which device is simpler and safer than known devices and,
besides, is of such a nature as to prevent the door leaf~from .
collapsing when the load on any one of the ropes carrying the
door leaf.drops below a predetermined value adjusted to the
dead load of the door leaf. :~
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;) In accordance with one broad aspect, the invention
~i relates to a closure for an opening in a vertical surface, the
closure comprising a leaf or s~eet of flexible material to be
; suspended over the opening by affixing its upper edge and
. 20 beinglopened or closed by raising or lowering its lower edge,
'., the xaising and lowerlng being effected by means of
' two ropes, or the like, which are connected to a ~oist
:. means, each rope extending within a respective separate channel
sectioned guide bar extending along a respective vertical side .
of the opening and each rope being connected to the lower
;- portion of the leaf via a protection means for preventing
: uncontrolled lowering, which protection means, in response to a
.~ predetermined decrease in the load on the respective rope, is
released to lock the lower portion of the leaf to the respective
; 30 guide bar, said protection means comprising a spring urged rod
movable relative to the leaf and connected to the respective : .:
`~ rope, which rod is connected by links to a locking mechanism
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. having jambs pivoted in crosswise arrangement on a common
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shaft, the arrangement being such that under the action of the
spring the rod drives the links so as to cause outward
~ movement of both ends of each jamb into engagement with
:; the lateral flanges of the associated guide bar at any
: position of the lower portion of the leaf relative to the guide
- bars to thereby lock the leaf against movement relative to the
guide bars unless the tension in the rope is of sufficient
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The inventi~n is described in greater detail in the following,
with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which
Fig. 1 is a front view of a door ~rovided with the device -
according to the invention and in closed position,
Fig. 2 is a vertical section through the door shown in Fig.
1 and shows in a schematic way by dash-dotted lines also
the open position of the door,
; Fig. 3 is a section along the line III-III in Fig. 1,
Figs 4 are a lateral view and, respectively, a section along
the line V-V in Fig. 4 of a collapse protection com-
prised in the device according to the invention.
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Referring to the drawings, 1 designates generally the door leaf
r of a door, one or both surfaces of which consist of cloth of
a flexible material, and which comprises several rigid cross-
members 3 of mutually spaced relationship and by means of ex-
ll ternal strips 2 connected to the cloth, which cross-me~bers at
their ends are guided in substantially U-shaped guide bar6 4
attached to the vertical defining surfaces of a door opening.
The upper portion of the door leaf 1 is suspended at a door
box 5 attached to the upper horizontal defining surface of the
r~ ' door eopening, which box includes a hoist means 6 with ropes,
strings 7,8 or the like,which are connected to the lower cross-
, member 3a of the door leaf and by means of which and of the
hoist means 6 the door leaf can be hoisted to the position
indicated in Fig. 2 by dash-dotted lines and be lowered to the
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; position indicated in Figs. 1 and 2 by fully drawn lines for
opening and, respectively, closing the door.
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The two ropes 7 and 8 according to the invention are attached
each to one end of the lower cross-member ~a of the door leaf
and from there extend along the respective guide bar 4 in up-
ward d;rection each to a guide wheel 9 in the door box and
continue to a drum 10, which in common for both ropes is in-
cluded in the hoist means, onto and, respectivey, from which
drum the ropes 7 and 8 are wound and, respectively, unwound
from below, and, respectively, fro~ above, as shown in Fig. 1.
The hoist means 6 at the embodiment shown comprises in addition
to said drum an electrically operated self-locking toothed
gear 11, which is controlled from a coupling and control box
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; 12 comprising a.o. control means for "UP" and "DOWN" movement.
The ropes 7 and 8, thus, are located protected within the guide
l bars 4. In order to prevent the door leaf 1 from damaging the
; ropes by the ends of its cross-members upon its lateral move-
ment, at least some of the cross-members, and preferably all
of them, are provided at their ends with end stop members 13,
which in co-operation with stop members 14 provided in the guide
bàrs limit the movement of the door lea~ in lateral direction
~I to such an extent, that said end stop members 13 never cah come
closer to the wall 15 of the guide bars facing to the vertic- -
al defining surfaces of the opening than a distance which is
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greater than the rope thickness. At the embodiment shown, the
stop members l4 consist of the rear surface of holding bars
16 for sealing strips 17 provided on each side of the door
1~ leaf 1 and extending over the entire height of the door opening.
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For openinv the door, the gear 11 is moved in such a direction,
that the ropes 7 and 8 are wound on the drum 10 and thereby
lift the lowermost cross-member 3a of the door leaf. During the
continued lifting movement, thus, the cross-members 3 are stacked
one upon the other and the clothes are folded together symmetric-
ally. The upper position of the door leaf is determined by upper
limit position units ~8 located on each side of the door. Said
units comprise a so-called interlocked limit switch, which when
being actuated by the upper surface of the upper cross-member
or by another means connected therewith interrupts the current
from the "UP"-control to the gear, which thereby is stopped
and can be started again only by means of the "DOWN"-control.
; Said units~further comprise a main switch, which is switched
on and interrupts the main current to the gear drive motor
only in the case when the interlocked limit switch does not
operate. There are, in other words, double safety devices. Each
limit position unit 18, further, is provided with a slackrope
switch 19, which abuts the rope and interrupts the current to
the gear drive motor when the load on the rope drops and the
rope is slackened.
Owing to the self-locking property of the gear 11, the door leaf
1 can be stopped in any position. When during the lifting or
lowering movement the door leaf or some reason should start
collapsing, a collapse protection device automatically is releas-
ed which safely locks the door leaf against movemen. relative
to the guide bars 4 and holds the door leaf safely locked to
the guide bars until it is subjected to an upward force of a
predetermined size.
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Such a collapse p~otection devi.ce:20 is provided bet~een the
~¦ respective rope 7, 8 and the lo~er cross-member 3a of the door
leaf, and it comprises~, as shown ~n Figs. 4 and 5, a rope
. holder 21 for the rope w~ich by means of nuts 22 is attached
- ad~ustably on a vertical rod 23, and a locking mechanism
,.~7' generally designated by 24, which comprises a plurality of jambs
25 and 26 arranged crosswise and having more or less pointed
ends. Said jambs are supported pivotally on a common shaft 28
located in a housing 27. At the embodiment shown, which com-
prises three such jambs, the two jambs designated by 25 are
interconnected by a pin 29 and pivotally connected to the
;~l lower portion 31 of the vertical rod hy a link 30 supported on
';''7 said pin. The remaining ~amb 26 is located between the jambs
25 and pivotally connected to the lower portion of the vertical
, rod by a link 32, which by a pin 33 is connected to the
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.~, jamb 26. The vertical rod 23 is located movably in the
:,. housing 27 and provided with stop discs 34, 35 located in
spaced relationship on both sides of a partition wall in the
. housing. Said discs limit the rod movement relative to the
. 20 housing. The housing 27 has a width slightly smaller than the
.l distance between the inwardly directed lateral flanges 37 of
the guide bar (see Fig. 3) and is entirely open to said flanges,
with which the jambs 25, 26 are intended to engage in order
~ to stop and lock the door leaf 1 against movement relative to
;.l the guide bar 4 as soon as the load on the rope drops below a
.:l predetermined value, which is determined by a spring 38 clamped .
between the upper stop disc 35 of the vertical rod and the
inside of the upper surface 39 of the housing.
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I At normal load on the ropes-7 and 8 w~'ich:substantiall~ is the
'¦ dead wei~ht of the door.leaf, the vertical ~od 23 abuts with
its lower stop disc the 'partition wall 36 of the housing, At
this posit~on the''jambs 25, 26 are 'located entirely pIvo~ed
'~ into the housing 27, and the door leaf can be 'lifted and lowered
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. without being ohstructed by the locking protections. However,
i~, when one of the ropes 7, 8 breaks, or when the load on a rope
for some reason drops below the force applied by the compressed
' spring 38 in the associated locking protection, the spring
moves the rod 23 relative to the housing 27. Thereby the jambs
25, 26 rapidly are pivoted out of the housing 27 into engagement
with the lateral flanges 37 of bhe associated guide bar and
thereby locks the lower cross-member 3a of the door leaf against
. movement relative to the guide bar. At the same time as the load ~ ;
on the rope drops or ceases entirely, also the slackrope switch .
19 is actuated, which thereby interrupts the current to the . ~
: drive motor of the hoist means 6. . .
i The collapse protection device acts in locking position also as :~:
a lock, which renders lifting and lowering of the door leaf 1'' 20 impossible, because both an upwardly and a downwardly directed
force on the lower cross-member 3a of the door leaf causes the
jambs 25, 26 to additionally pivot outward and thereby bring
about a still safer locking. This stopping and locking effect
can be released only by an upwardly directed force, which acts
i: upon the vertical rod 23 and is greater than the spring force,. for example by stretching thR rope by means of the hoist means
': 6. Even when the door is in entirely closed position, i.e.
~ when the lowermost cross-member 3a of the door leaf with its
lower surface, which may be provided with a clamp protection
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40, entirely abuts the lower horizontal defining surface of
the door opening, the collapse protection devices will operate
as an effective lock for the door, which thereby cannot be
opened unless the hoist means 6 can be started.
Each collapse protection device 20, thus, becomes operative and
locks the door leaf as soon as the rope load is less than the
force applied by the spring 38. By braking or lifting the
lower cross-member of the door leaf, for example manually, it
is thus possible at any desired time to lock the door leaf in
any desired open position.
The present invention is not restricted to the embodiment de-
scribed above and shown in the drawings, but can be altered and
modified in many different ways within the scope of the invent-
ion idea as set forth in the attached claims. The device accord-
ing to the invention, thus, also can be applied in connection
with doors other than here described, if they can be opened;,and
closed by vertical movement along at least a portion of the
vertical defining surfaces of the door opening.
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