VERTICALLY SLIDING FOLDING DOOR

PORTE PLIANTE COULISSANTE VERTICALE

English Abstract

Vertically sliding folding door, which includes a
peripheral frame (1) and a flexible laminate that closes the
inner space defined by the frame. The laminar element has a
series of parallel and equidistant rails, and some of these
rails are fixed by belts to some pulleys, which when they
rotate produce the going up or down and the folding or
unfolding of the laminate, to obtain, respectively, the
opening or closing of the space delimited by the frame. The
upper end (2a) of the flexible laminate (2) is hanging from
some belts (3) which are attached to some pulleys (4) mounted
on a drive shaft (5) which, operated towards one or another
direction, decides the opening or closure of the door on its
upper zone.

Claims

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WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:
1. Vertically sliding folding door, which includes a
peripheral frame (1) and a flexible laminate that closes
the inner space defined by the frame, and such a laminar
element has a series of parallel and equidistant rails, and
some of these rails are fixed by belts to some pulleys,
which when they rotate produce the going up or down and the
folding or unfolding of the laminate, to obtain,
respectively, the opening or closing of the space delimited
by the frame; one of the characteristics is that an upper
end (2a) of the flexible laminate (2) is hanging from at
least one belt (3) which are attached to some pulleys (4)
mounted on a drive shaft (5) which, operated towards one or
another direction, decides the opening or closure of the
door on its upper zone.
2. A door according to claim 1, characterized because a
lower rail (8), mounted on laminate (2) is provided with a
flexible bar.
3. A door according to claim 1 or 2, characterized
because lower rail ends (8) are mounted on vertical styles
(1a) of the frame (1) with a possibility to be removed.
4. A door according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
characterized because first and second intermediate rails
(10 and 12), between upper (2a) and lower (2b) ends of the
laminate are hanging from another at least one belt (13 and
14), respectively, fixed to some pulleys (15), mounted on
an engine shaft (16).

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5. A door according to claim 4, characterized because the
said another at least one belt (13 and 14) that operate the
intermediate rails (10 and 12) have all the same length.
6. A door according to claim 4 or 5, characterized
because the length of said another at least one belt (13
and 14), that operate the intermediate rails (10 and 12) is
similar to the one between the engine shaft (16) and the
second intermediate rail (12), immediately over the lower
rail (8), in the position of closure of the door.
7. A door according to any one of claims 4 to 6,
characterized because said another at least one belt (13
and 14), which operate the intermediate rails (10 and 12),
with the exception of the second intermediate rail (12)
placed immediately over the lower rail (8), are provided
with return pulleys (17), fixed to the respective rails
(12) or to the respective rails and to any of upper
intermediate rails or to an upper style of the frame, and
the running of the drive shaft (16) which decides the
simultaneous up and down movement of the intermediate rails
(10 and 12) and at different rates, while they all reach
the respective positions of maximum closure and opening of
the door.

Description

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VERTICALLY SLIDING FOLDING DOOR
DESCRIPTION
OBJECT OF THE INVENTION
The present invention, as its title shows, is related
to a vertically sliding folding door, which includes a
peripheral frame and a flexible laminar element that closes
the inner space defined by the frame, and such a laminar
element has a series of parallel and equidistant rails, and
some of these rails are fixed by belts to some pulleys, which
when they rotate produce the going up or down and the folding
or unfolding of the laminate, to obtain, respectively, the
opening or closing of the space delimited by the frame.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Nowadays, there are doors in the market which present
a peripheral frame and a flexible laminate in charge of
closing the space defined by the frame, and that flexible
laminate is supplied with some rails which move across by the
action of the belts which roll on the pulleys linked to a
drive shaft and cause the opening and closure of the door
from its lower area.
In these doors, the belts operate on the rail placed
at the lower end of the laminate in a way that, when this
rail goes up, pushes the rest of the rails towards the upper
zone, and obtains the folding of the laminate due to the
pooling of the different rails.
This type of doors is generally used to divide inner
areas and they are operated by means of photoelectric cells,

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which allows the movement of trucks from one zone to another
without the presence of a worker to open and close the door.
These doors are a real important problem when they are
used in areas which neE=_d a considerable ventilation, because
it is necessary to maintain the door opened to obtain this
ventilation, and this 'will let strange peaple to come in or
to observe from outside.
In known doors, rails are rigid and their ends are
guided on the vertical styles of the frame; one of the
problems ocurring with this type of doors is the collision of
a truck with the rails from the bottom part of the door,
because it unoperates t=he door until it is repaired; this is
a frequent accident when the truck goes at such a speed that
prevents the complete apening of the door in the period of
time since the truck is detected by any of the photocells
until it crosses the threshold.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
''0 To solve the above mentioned problems, it has been
created the vertically sliding folding door, object of the
present inventian, which has several advantages against the
known doors.
According to true present invention, there is provided
a vertically sliding folding door, which includes a
peripheral frame (1) and a flexible laminate that closes
the inner space defined by the frame, and such a laminar
element has a serie4; of parallel and equidistant rails, and
30 some of these rail: are fixed by belts to some pulleys,
which when they rotate produce the going up or down and the

CA 02252955 2001-05-14
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folding or unfolding of the laminate, to obtain,
respectively, the opening or closing of the space de limited
by the frame; one o1:: t=he characteristics is that an upper
end (2a) of the flexible laminate (2) is hanging from at
least one belt (3) which are attached to some pulleys (4)
mounted on a drive shaft (5) which, operated towards one or
another direction, decides the opening or closure c>f the
door on its upper zone.
One of the characteristics of this type of door is
that the upper end of the flexible laminate is hanging from
some operating belts fixed on their upper end to some pulleys
assembled on a rotatory shaft, which driven in one or another
direction, decides thle~ opening or closing of the door through
its upper part; this particularity lets open in the upper
part of the door <;rn opening light, a ventilation hole,

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meanwhile the upper end of the laminate goes down, all this
independently of the position of the lower end of the
laminate.
This is an important advantage because it allows the
communication between the areas separated by the door, thanks
to this ventilation hole, and this does not interfere in the
opening and closure of the door.
Another of the characteristics of the door is that its
lower rail is formed by a flexible bar whose ends are mounted
on the frame vertical guides with a possibility to be
removed, and this gives the lower rail freedom to flex
elastically, while their ends get free from the frame guides
or styles.
The intermediate rails between the upper and lower
ends of the laminate are hanging by means of some belts fixed
to some pulleys assembled on an engine shaft, which can be
operated manually or with photoelectric cells.
The belts that drive the intermediate rails have all
the same length, and this length is similar to the distance
between the drive shaft and the rail placed immediately over
the lower rail when the door is in its closed position,
because the lower rail is supported only by the closure
laminate itself and has no operating belts.
Another of the particularities of this door is that
the intermediate rails operated by belts are displaced
simultaneously and at different rates when they are operated
by such belts, maintaining a distance during the operation of
closure and opening of the door and getting progressively

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nearer to each other until the position of maximum opening or
getting progressively away one from the other until the
position of closure of the door. This can be done because the
belts that operate the intermediate rails, except the rail
placed just over the lower rail, seize those rails with the
help of return pulleys fixed to the respective rails or to
some upper rails or to the upper style of the frame, in a way
that every belt will be able to have the necessary returns to
obtain the progressively withdrawal or approach above
mentioned.
This characteristic means an important advantage with
regard to known doors because in case a truck crashes with
its upper part or with the load, against the lower part of
the laminate, because this is in the opening stage, it will
hit the flexible lower rail, removing it from the frame,
without any particular damage; in case the truck also hits
any of the upper inmediate styles, the damages would be lower
than the ones in a conventional door, because in these doors
the rails rest on the lower rail during the opening stage,
and they are not separated as in the case of the door, object
of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In order to complement the description that is being
realized and with the purpose to understand better the charac
teristics of the invention, here there is a set of drawings
enclosed to the descriptive memory, where the following has
been represented with an ill~.strative but not limitative
character:
___ T _._ _

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- Figure 1 shows a perspective view of the vertically
sliding folding door, partially divided into sections and in
the position of closure, where there is only one operating
belt for every rail to simplify the drawing.
PREFERENTIAL EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
As it can be observed in the mentioned figure, the
corresponding door has a frame(1), formed by two vertical
styles (la) and one upper style (1b) and a flexible laminate
(2), which closes the space delimited by the frame (1).
The upper end (2a) of the flexible laminate is hanging
from some belts (3) which are fixed by their upper end to
some pulleys mounted on a drive shaft (5), which in this
example is manually operated by means of the bar (6).
The belts (3) fasten the upper end(2a) of the laminate
as they grip one rail (7) placed on it.
The rotation of the bar (6) towards one or another
direction establishes the winding or unwinding of the belt
(3) on the pulley (4) and therefore the going up of the upper
end of the laminate until the closure position or its going
down; this characteristic lets the upper end (2a) of the
laminate (2) to go down a certain distance, moving away from
the upper style (1b) of the frame, leaving a hole of
ventilation in the upper zone of the door, independently of
the closure or opening position of the lower area of the
door.
The lower end (2b) of the laminate includes a flexible
rail (8) whose ends are introduced in the vertical guides
(la) of the frame with a possibility to displace, giving the

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rail (8) the flexibility for their ends to get free from the
vertical styles in case of a frontal collision.
In the intermediate zone of the laminate(2) there are
some stiffener rails (9, 10, 11 and 12); the rails (10 and
12) are hanging from some operating belts (13 and 14),
respectively, which are attached to the pulleys (15) mounted
on the engine shaft (16), which causes the opening and
closure of the lower zone of the door when rotates.
The lower end of the belt (14) is directly fixed to
the rail (12), meanwhile the belt (13) supports the rail (10)
by means of a return pulley (17) attached to it, and such
belt has a return side (13a) which is fixed to the upper
style (1b) of the frame; this makes that when the engine
rotates (18) in one direction, simultaneously the bars (10
and 12) move towards the upper zone of the door with
different speeds, and those rails (10 and 12) do
simultaneously reach the maximum opening position; when the
engine (18) rotates in the opposite direction, the rails (10
and 12) go down simultaneously at different rates, and they
reach at the same time the respective positions corresponding
to the position of closure, represented in figure 1.
It is not necessary to give more details about this
description because any expert or skilled in the matter will
understand the range of the invention and their advantages.
This memory has been written in some terms that have
to be considered in a vast but not limitative way.
The materials, shape, size and disposition of the
elements will be subjected to any change if this does not
____

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imply an alteration of the basic characteristics of the
invention, which will be then be claimed.

Representative Drawing