AU600450B2 - Improved door operating mechanism - Google Patents

Description

6' U; '7i 5 Z COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA PATENTS ACT 1952 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (Original) FOR OFFICE USE Class Int. Class Application Number: Lodged: Complete Specification Lodged: Accepted: Published: Priority: Related Art: -,-tioll 49 t. d is correct for printliig.

Name of Applicant: NOEL CARROLL Address of Applicant: The Crescent, Sassafrass, in the State of Victoria, Commonwealth of Australia Actual Inventor(s): Address for Service: NOEL CARROLL DAVIES COLLISON, Patent Attorneys, 1 Little Collins Street, Melbourne, 3000.

Complete specification for the invention entitled: "IMPROVED DOOR OPERATING MECHANISM" The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to 1 2- 1 This invention relates to actuating mechanisms for 2 doors.

3 Actuating mechanisms for doors, including sliding 4 doors, are well known in which means is employed to ensure that the mechanism is operated, under certain conditions, to 6 open the door with which the mechanism is used, such as for 7 example where there is a power failure to the mechanism.

8 Such a irechanism is described in Australian Patent 9 Specification 467,591, the disclosures of which are incorporated into the present specification to form part of 11 the disclosures thereof.

12 13 In accordance with this invention there is providad a 14 door operating mechanism having a door memb-r couplable to a door and movable between first and second positions to in 16 use correspondingly move the door between respective open 17 and closed conditions, resilient means operable upon release 18 from a loaded condition to effect movement of the door 19 member to its first position, if not at such position when release occurs, and loading and holding means operable to 21 load said resilient means and maintain the resilient means 22 loaded but decoupled from the door member, said loading and 23 holding means being operable to effect said release, said 24 loading and holding means including an electromagnet operable to hold the resilient means loaded and releasable 26 by interruption of power supply thereto to effect said 27 release, wherein said resilient means comprises a helical 28 compression spring acting between said door member and a 29 fixed portion of said mechanism.

31 It has been found that the provision of the compression 32 spring is advantageous in that the spring then affords 33 greater reliability in use. This factor is of substantial 34 importance when the actuating means is to be responsive in use to potential hazard conditions to move the door member 36 and associated door to an open position. An example of such 7rU 37 hazard condition might be the occurrence of a fire in a 900410,gcpspe.002,63907.86.2 -3- 1 2 3 4 6 7 8 9 11 12 13 14 16 17 18 19 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29 31 32 33 34 36 37 u 38 r< V .y building to which the door mechanism is fitted where the mechanism is thus required to bring an associated door to an open position on the simultaneous occurrence of power failure to the building. Otherwise persons may be trapped inside the building.

9Q041qOCpspe.0o2 63907.86.3 4 The invention is further described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figures 1 and 2 are diagrams of one form of operating mechanism constructed in accordance with the invention and showing the mechanism in respective unloaded and loaded conditions; Figures 3, 4 and 5 are diagrams showing an alternative form of operating mechanism constructed in accordance with the invention and showing the minechanism in respective unloaded, nearly fully loaded and fully loaded conditions respectively; Fig-ire 6 is a perspective view of a latching mechanism incorporated into the operating mechanism of Figures 3 to 5; and Figures 7 and 8 are circuit diagrams showing possible interconnections of the mechanisms of Figures 1 and 2 or Figures 3 to 6 respectively with an alarm device.

In Figure 1, a sliding door 10 is shown having a carriage 12 supported by wheels 14 for lengthwise movement along a track 16. Carriage 12 supports a door panel 18 which is movable to control access through a doorway Carriage 12 is connected to an endless chain which runs around end sprockets 22, 24 at opposite ends of track 16. Sprocket 24 is connected for driving thereof by an electric motor 26. By operating motor 26, sprocket 24 is driven so as to cause chain 20 to run 5 around sprockets 22, 24 whereby the lower run of the chain 20, which is connected to carriage 12, is caused to move lengthwise of track 16. By this means, and by operation of motor 26 in one direction, the carriage 12 can be moved along track 16 so that it and door panel 18 are moved from the open position shown in Figure 1 (where access through doorway 30 is possible) to the closed position shown in Figure 2 (where the doorway 30 is closed to access). By reverse operation of the motor 26, the carriage 12 and door panel 18 are reversely moved to effect movement of these back to the open position.

In normal use of the mechanism 10 motor 26 is controlled by suitable electric control means to be operated as required for opening and closing a doorway 30. For example, the door panel 18 may be normally positioned in the closed position and automatically opened when a person approaches the doorway, panel 18 then being closed again after passing of the person through the doorway Techniques for such control are well known.

Under the emergency condition that power supply to motor 26 is interrupted, it may be undesirable that the door should be in the closed position, since this would prevent emergency access through doorway Accordingly, a helical compression spring 32 is provided which when loaded as described next is releasable to engage carriage 12 and move it and door panel 18 to the open positions thereof if they are not already so positioned.

Spring 32 has one end positioned against a fixed bearing plate 34. The other end of spring 32 is fixed to a movable end plate 36. When spring 32 is in its unloaded or released condition (Figure 1) the plate 36 t< c 6is located towards the right hand side of Figures 1 and 2 and such that on movement of carriage 12 from the open to the closed position plate 36 is engaged by carriage 12 and moved to the left as the door panel is moved to close doorway 30. This movement effects compression and loading of spring 32. As carriage 12 reaches its closed position, pl\ate 36 is engaged by an electromagnet 38. Electromagnet 38 is connected for energization from the same electric supply as the electric control means for motor 26 and is thus in its energized condition during normal operation of the mechanism 10. The plate 36 is made of magnetically attractable material and as the plate 36 contacts the electromagnet, the plate is held by magnetic attraction to the electromagnet. Thereafter, the spring 32 is held in loaded condition by electromagnet 38 even though repeated operation of the mechanism subsequentially occurs by opening and closing movements of carriage 12.

In the event of interruption of electric power supply to mechanism 10, the solenoid 38 is de-energised causing release of the spring 32 and movement of the plate 36 from the left to the right as viewed in Figures 1 and 2. Under such movement, the plate 36 engages carriage 12 and causes it to move to the open position if it is not already so positioned.

The mechanism 40 of Figures 1 to 6 is generally similar to that of Figure 1 in that it includes a carriage 12 supported by wheels 14 which run along a track 16 and which carries door panel 18, the carriage and door panel being movable from the open conditions shown in Figure 3 to the closed conditions shown in Figure 4. Again, the carriage 12 is moved by means of an endless chain 20 to v,iich it is connected, the chain again running around end spTockets 22, 24, 1 -7with sprocket 24 connected for driving from motor 26.

In mechanism 40, there is provided a helical tension spring 44 having one end connected to a mixed part of the mechanism, such as the end stop 45 shown, the other end carrying an end piece 46. End piece 46 is guided in such a fashion that it can move lengthwise of the mechanism but is constrained against up and down and side to side movement by tracks (not shown).

In operation, on a first movement of carriage 12 l0from the open to the closed position, with spring 44 unloaded, the carriage 12 engages the end piece 46 to move this to the left as shown in Figures 3 to 5 so that the end piece is latched by a latching mechanism 48 best shown in Figure 6. Mechanism 48 includes a gate 50 which is for rotation about a horizontal axis transverse to the direction of movement of the carriage 12, being carried by a transverse shaft 52.

G;te 50 hangingly depends from shaft 52 and the shaft 52 is mounted for free rotation about its axis so the gate 52 is correspondingly also freely rotatable about the axis of shaft 52. An electromagnet 54 forming part of mechanism 48 has a plunger 54a arranged horizontally and transversely of the direction of extent of track 16 and, under normal operating conditions, this is positioned immediately behind gate 50 so as to prevent anti-clockwise movement thereof as viewed in Figures 3 to 5. A helical tension spring 56 biases gate against plunger 54a, at which biased position the member 50 extends generally vertically. End piece 46 is such that, as it is carried by carriage 12 to the left as viewed in Figures 3 to 5, with consequent tensioning of the spring 44, the end 1 8 piece abuts (Fig. 4) against a lower portion of gate to cause the gate to pivot in the clockwise direction away from its rest position against bias of spring 56.

Upon further movement of carriage 12, the end piece 46 is carried past the gate 50 which is then restored to its initial position by spring 56. Then, upon subsequent movement of carriage 12 back again to the open condition, during normal continuing operation of the mechanism the end piece 46 is prevented from movement back towards stop 45 by engagement of the end piece with gate the end piece being pressed against the gate 50 tending to rotate the gate 50 in an anti-clockwise direction but with movement of the gate 50 and of the end piece being constrained by engagement of the gate 50 with the plunger 54a. Thus as best shown in Figure 5, as the carriage 12 then returns to its opcii position, it disengages the end piece 46 leaving the spring 44 held in tensioned condition. Subsequent normal operation of the mechanism 40 to move carriage 12 and door panel 18 back and forth between their open and closed positions can then occur.

Electromagnet 54 can be controlled as desired to be operated to withdraw the plunger 54a therewithin so that the plunger clears gate 50 to allow the gate to be pivoted in the anti-clockwise direciton under tension applied by spring 54 via end piece 46 so that the end piece 46 is released from holding by mechanism 48 and moves to the right by resilient bias of spring 44. Then, the end piece 46 engages carriage 12, and if the carriage is not in its open position, the carriage is moved to its open position by movement with end piece 46.

Electromagnet 54 may be controlled as desired to effect release of spring 44 under desired emergency t, 35 or other conditions. For example, Figure 7 shows an r rti 9 alternating current supply 58 connected via normal open contacts 60 of a relay 59 through the winding 54b of the electromagnet 54. The coil 61 of relay 59 is connected in series with a smoke detector 64 operated from a suitable source of electric current, such as a battery 66.

Detector 64 is positioned within the vicinity of door mechanism 10 and, when smoke is detected, operates to energize relay coil 61 from battery 66. Resultant energization of relay 59 causes contarts 60 to be closed to energize winding 54b from supply 58, for operation of the electromagnet 54. Consequent release then occurs of spring 44, as described, to cause it to bring the door operating mechanism to the condition where the carriage 12 and panel 18 are in open conditions.

The mechanism JO may also be adapted to effect release of spring 32 under conditions other than under general power interruption.

Figure 8 shows an electric supply 58 connected for energization of the winding 38a of electromagnet 38, via normally closed contacts 68 of a relay 67. The coil 69 of relay 67 is connected via a smoke detector 64 across a battery 66 as in the arrangement of Figure 7. In this case, then, contacts 68 are normally closed, so that winding 38a is normally energized and electromagnet 38 operates to hold a spring 32 loaded as previously described. Upon detection of a condition of excess smoke, detector 64 operates to energize winding 69 of relay 67 from battery 66 so opening contacts 68 and causing winding 38a to be de-energized so that spring 32 is released as previously described.

The described arrangements are advanced merely by way of explanation. For example, although use of the described mechanisms 10 and 40 with smoke 10 detectors has been described, it will be apprceciated that other kinds of alarm sensor may be substituted there for.

Claims (1)

1. 900410. cpspe.002.63907.86,12