AU2002238544B8 - Electromechanical hinged wing drive - Google Patents

Description

-1- ELECTROMECHANICAL SWING LEAF OPERATOR The invention relates to an electromechanical swing leaf operator having a door closer.

BACKGROUND ART [Mere reference to background art herein should not be construed as an admission that such art constitutes common general knowledge in relation to the invention.] SDE41 24 282 C2 describes an electromechanical swing door operator, in which an 00oO c electrical motor if necessary with an in-line integrated clutch drives a gear, which is CI directly, or with an in-line integrated gear train, connected with a closing shaft of a door closer. In this case, the door closer can be formed as overhead door closer with slide annrm assembly. As the electrical motor acts, via a gear train or several gear trains, directly on the closing shaft of the door closer, additional pulse generators, timing elements, detectors and limit switches controlling the electrical motor are required for the realization of the required opening and closing characteristics.

Furthermore, manually operable overhead door closers with slide arm assembly are known in which a piston, being guided in a housing and leaning against a closing spring, is provided, whereby a toothed pinion arranged at the closing shaft meshes with a toothed rack of the piston.

Compared to traditional door closers, the abovementioned overhead door closers with slide arm assembly, also known as rack and pinion door closers, advantageously do not present an arm assembly protruding uncovered into the room, but they simply present an actuation arm sitting close and flat at the door frame or at the door leaf and cooperating with a sliding member that is slidably located in a slide rail. They do, however, bear the disadvantage that the actuation arm, sitting close and flat at the door frame or at the door leaf, leads to an unfavourable course (or gradient) of forces at the door, in conjunction with conventional, symmetric rack and pinion mechanics.

It is therefore an object to provide an optimal rack and pinion drive, with the intention to achieve, during the opening procedure and closing procedure of the door, a progression of the pinion, as low in friction and smooth as possible, at the associated toothed rack, and therefore of the piston inside the piston housing, which corresponds to an ideal course of the momentum.

Centrically or eccentrically supported pinions are used in known door closers.

A door closer having an eccentrically supported pinion is known from EP 0 856 628 Al, Swherein the teeth of the toothed rack forms a linearly extending pitch line of engagement t having an angle comprised between 4.5' and 7.20 with regard to the moving direction of the piston. The selection of an angle depends on the size of the door closer, and/or the strength of the closing spring. Because of the eccentric support of the pinion and of the n linear course of the toothed rack, an optimal, especially low friction and smooth 00 00, progression of the pinion's teeth at the toothed rack is not guaranteed; there are N, discontinuities or jumps within the course of the momentum curves.

,I 10 A comparable solution applying a linearly extending toothed rack with an angle is described in U.S. Patent No. 633,682.

Furthermore, DE 36 45 313 C2 and DE 36 45 314 C2 reveal an eccentrically supported pinion where a rolling curve, arranged at the pinion, is used, having various lever arms in relation to the rotary axis. Accordingly, the rolling curve of the associated toothed rack extends in an arcuate form.

In a door closer known from DE 82 17 72 C2 and/or from the French Patent Application 96 69 45, the closer shaft is connected to an eccentrically supported elliptical toothed wheel meshing with an inclined toothed rack on the piston side. Up to a certain degree, a transmission, adapted to a desired course of the momentum, is achieved by means of the elliptical gear due to the differently long lever arms of the elliptical toothed wheel.

The pneumatic door closer according to U.S. Patent 1,359,144 presents a circular eccentrically supported pinion which meshes with an non-linear toothed rack at the piston.

The circular pinion is provided with regular teeth on a circular rolling curve, whereby varying lever arms come into effect due to the eccentric support.

Various piston drive embodiments in door closers are described in DE 36 38 353 Al, in EP0207251 A2, in DE94 12 64 and in U.S. 2,933,755, whereby in relation with eccentrically or centrically mounted pinions if necessary with in-line arrangement of a transmitting gear drive a direct force of the closing spring is exerted by means of a crank drive.

Centrically supported pinions are known from EP 0056256A2 as well as from SEP 0 350 568 A2. EP 0 056 256 A2 deals with a door closer, the pistons thereof presenting two symmetrically, diametrically opposite toothed racks, whereby a centrically supported pinion engages, in the closing position, with shortened teeth, in both toothed racks of the N 5 piston.

The door closer according to EP 0 350 568 A2 presents a centrically supported pinion, n which presents teeth extending at the periphery, with progressively increasing depths of 00oO M teeth, which teeth engage between the rods of a correspondingly curve-shaped extending

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Stoothed rack.

N 10 A substantially centrically supported pinion of a drive for a door or for a window is disclosed in DE 44 44 131 Al and DE 44 44 133 Al, wherein the pinion itself has teeth over up to approximately half the periphery thereof, the teeth thereof being disposed at lever arms varying in length and progressing on a correspondingly curved rolling curve of a toothed rack.

It is an object of the invention to provide an improved electromechanical drive for a swing leaf, such as for opening a door,.

Preferably, the closing procedure should not be performed by the electromechanical drive, but by a power storage (power transmission unit), to provide a small and inexpensive swing leaf operator that guarantees the same required opening and closing characteristics as an overhead door closer with slide arm assembly does.

It is a preferred object to optimize the motion sequence of the piston of the door closer during the opening and the closing procedures within the door closer housing, to guarantee especially a jam-free and therefore low friction progression of the pinion at the toothed rack of the piston. By using a pinion having an appropriate rolling curve, the pinion's cost of production should be minimized. Due to the intended low friction, a longer working life and a higher efficiency should be achieved, which allows for using a weaker closing spring.

An improvement of the closing characteristics of the overhead door closer with slide arm assembly can also be achieved by an improved oil exchange from the piston chamber to the spring chamber during the closing procedure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

O

In one broad form, the invention provides an electromechanical swing leaf operator Scomprising: a housing, a piston movable in a piston chamber of the housing between a closing position and an opening position, and a spring housed in a spring chamber of the housing for biasing the piston towards the closing position, the piston having a toothed rack having teeth arranged on an S-shaped rolling curve with a gradient which increases from the closing position up to approximately half the length of the rack and subsequently 00 decreases, the teeth each having a closing side tooth profile and an opening side tooth C, profile having different flank angles, the opening side flank angle of the teeth increasing up to approximately half the length of the toothed rack and subsequently being substantially constant or decreasing, the closing side flank angle of the teeth decreasing up to approximately half the length of the toothed rack and subsequently increasing; a toothed pinion supported for rotation about a rotary axis in the housing and having teeth which mesh with the teeth of the rack, the pinion being eccentrically supported wherein a centre point of a meshing curve of the toothed pinion, in the closing position, is offset from the rotary axis toward the toothed rack and, in the opening position, is offset from the rotary axis away from the toothed rack; an electric motor for driving the pinion via a gear; and a control valve arrangement for slowing the piston as the piston moves toward the closing position.

The electromechanical swing leaf operator may be used either as an arrangement comprising substantially individual modules of a door closer, a gear and a motor, or comprising an entirety, which includes in a housing: a motor, a gear and a power transmission unit, whereby the power transmission unit includes the functions of a door closer. In this case, at the power transmission unit or at the door closer, a toothed rack and the teeth thereof, respectively, are adapted in an optimum way to the course of teeth of a pinion considering the eccentric mounting thereof and the circular rolling curve thereof, such that a smooth transition to each following adjacent tooth is guaranteed, during the opening procedure as well as during the closing procedure. This applies particularly to the portion of the pinion exceeding the rotation of 1800.

When a separate door closer is used, it preferably presents a two-sided axle exit, whereby one axle exit is used for the connection of a lever, which, via a sliding member, cooperates with a sliding rail, and the opposite axle exit, with a power transmission member, is connected, in an already known manner, with the gear of a corresponding motor.

In this case, the gear may be flanged directly or indirectly to the door closer. Furthermore it is conceivable to utilise here a corresponding mounting plate, which allows for forming the individual modules, such as door closer gear and motor, separately positionable in order to guarantee flexible exchange in case of a defect of individual modules.

tn' Furthermore it is likewise possible to accommodate the above described individual modules, such as the door closer, the gear and the motor, in an aggregate bloc, whereby in this case the internal structure of the door closer and the one of the power transmission unit 0 may look alike or may appear equally acting. In this case, it has proven to be advantageous that the opening-side flank angle of the teeth of the toothed rack increases up to approximately half the length of the toothed rack, and subsequently is substantially constant or decreases.

The decreasing course contributes in this case to improve the reduction in friction.

The rotation of the pinion, from the closing position up to the maximum opening position, may amount to more or less than approximately 1800, without having any negative influence on the required effectiveness. The closing-side tooth profiles of the last teeth of the toothed rack in the opening direction, arranged in the portion adjoining the 1800, should be formed with an angle or rounded.

In execution of the invention, basically any tooth forms may be used; i.e. the pinion and/or the toothed rack may present teeth with straight, angled or convex curved tooth profiles.

However, it has proven to be advantageous especially for reasons regarding production techniques to attribute substantially spur teeth to the toothed rack and involute teeth to the pinion.

With the intention to achieve optimized closing characteristics, the invention includes furthermore an improvement of the oil exchange between the piston chambers separated by the piston.

Depending on the application field of the swing leaf operator, different closing phases may be associated to the closing procedure of the connected door. These may include for example two or four closing phases with different speeds of the door leaves. For example four closing phases have proven to be very comfortable.

-6t Accordingly, the closing procedure comprises four closing phases, whereby one closing Sangle, by including a certain tolerance, is associated in an already known manner to each closing phase. The first closing phase, as well as the third one, may be controlled by a single valve by means of the longitudinal groove that is arranged in the skirt of the piston N, 5 such that the attainable low friction course of the pinion at the toothed rack is assisted by an advantageous embodiment of the oil exchange from the piston chamber to the spring chamber during the closing procedure, whereby a commonly required valve for the third tt closing phase can be abandoned.

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A swing leaf operator of this type is considered as opening support, whereby the closing C 10 procedure of the door is realised, for example, by the above described door closer. A door closer, equipped with a cam disc, may be likewise used, the drive motor, however, requires considerably higher performance, which would forcibly involve an increase in price and an increase in the dimension of the swing leaf operator.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into practice, one or more embodiments thereof will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a diagrammatical front view of an embodiment of an electromechanical swing leaf operator.

Figure 2 shows a vertical section through a closer housing.

Figure 3 shows a section according to line A-A according to Figure 2.

Figure 4 shows a plane view onto the piston including two end positions of the pinion.

Figures 5 to 7 show three phases of the course of the pinion at a toothed rack.

Figure 8 to 11 show, in a diagrammatic illustration, four positions of the piston during the delayed closing operation.

Figure 12 shows a second possibility of the delayed closing operation.

t DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT Figure 1 shows the diagrammatical illustration of an electromechanical swing leaf Soperator 100, whereby, in the illustrated embodiment, a drive means is disposed at the door tt leaf 111 and a sliding rail 109 is disposed at a door frame 110. The drive has an electrical motor 102 acting upon a gear 101. The gear has an output shaft 103 connected with a rotary axis D of a pinion 6, not illustrated in Figure 1, (see Figure via a gear I traction 104 in the form of a chain, a rope or a toothed belt.

00 As shown in Figures 2 to 4, the pinion 6 is guided in a piston 4, likewise not illustrated in Figure 1, which is biased by a closing spring 3 disposed in a spring chamber 18. One 10 end 106 of an arm 105 is fixed to the pinion 6, and the other end 107 is guided, by means of a sliding member 108, in a sliding rail 109. It is to be understood that, if the dimensional ratios are appropriate, the sliding rail 109 can be located at the door leaf 111 and the drive can be located at the door frame 110.

As shown in Figures 2 to 7, the closing spring 3 acts on the piston 4 which is guided in a housing 2 of a door closer. As illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, the piston 4 has a toothed rack 5 meshing with the pinion 6, which presents an involute teeth 7. In the region of the center longitudinal axis referenced to with numeral 23, the pinion 6 is eccentrically supported at the rotary axis D, whereby in the closing position of pinion 6, illustrated in Figure 3, a central point M of the rolling circle of pinion 6 is offset in the direction towards the toothed rack 5, and in the opening position, illustrated in Figure 4, the central point M of the rolling circle of pinion 6 is offset in the opposite direction. The rolling curve of pinion 6, as can be seen, is circular.

The teeth of toothed rack 5, generally referenced with numeral 9, have opening-side tooth profiles and closing-side tooth profiles, whereby the closing-side tooth profiles 8 of the last two teeth 9 are formed with an angle. The tooth profiles of all the other teeth 9 have a straight course. The aforementioned measure guarantees that during a movement of piston 4 in the direction of arrow X (opening direction) when the pinion 6 progresses on the toothed rack 5, even in the region in which the pinion 6 has slightly exceeded the rotation about 1800, a low friction meshing of the involute teeth 7 with the teeth 9 of toothed rack 5 is realised. By the way, the rolling curve of the toothed rack 5 is adapted to the eccentric support of pinion 6 and presents correspondingly a slightly S-shaped course -8- Sor wavy path, whereby all teeth 9 of the toothed rack 5 present different flank angles on Stheir opening-side and on the closing-side.

SSeparate positions of pinion 6 are illustrated respectively in Figures 4 to 6. In this case, Figure 4 illustrates the closing position, i.e. when the door is closed, namely the position of the piston 4 and of the pinion 6. In this case, the pinion 6 is located in the right zone of the aperture of piston 4. In this case, the rotary axis D is located on the center longitudinal axis 23. If the piston 4 is moved into the opening direction (direction of arrow the 00 00) pinion 6 will rotate about the rotary axis D. Due to the eccentricity of pinion 6, a position N, arranged almost in a central region can be seen in Figure 5, a position that corresponds to a certain opening position of the door. Due to the progression of pinion 6 at the toothed rack 5, the piston 4 has moved further into the opening direction.

A final position of the pinion 6, corresponding to the maximum opening side of the door, which is not illustrated, is illustrated in Figure 6. These three Figures 4 to 6 clearly show the course of the eccentrically supported pinion with an involute teeth, whereby simultaneously likewise the constant meshing of the teeth 7 of pinion 6 with the toothed rack 5 with its teeth 9 can be appreciated.

As especially shown in Figure 2 and in Figures 8 to 11, three control valves 11, 12, and 13, serving the delayed closing operation, are disposed in the housing walls 10 of the door closer 1, and the functions thereof will be explained hereinafter on the basis of Figures 8 to 11.

It is pointed out, for the reason of completeness, that instead of the door closer 1 another device may be used, for example a power transmission unit having the same or similar operating inner structure as a door closer and/or an overhead door closer with slide arm assembly.

During the start of the closing procedure according to Figure 8, the piston 4 passes an oil outlet duct 14, which, via a duct 19, is connected with a control valve 11 and via a duct with a piston chamber 24. The oil exiting the piston chamber 24, via a longitudinal groove 16 in the skirt of the piston 15 and a radial borehole 17 in the piston 4, can pass over into the spring chamber 18. The ducts 25, 21 and 22, associated with the control valve 12, are arranged in another plane.

-9t In the position shown in Figure 7, the longitudinal groove 16 has passed the duct 14, such that an oil transfer, from the piston chamber 24 to the spring chamber 18, is only possible due to the play between the piston 5 and the housing wall 10, resulting in a strong delay of the closing speed (second phase of the delayed closing operation).

During the third phase of the delayed closing operation, the oil passes again from the piston chamber 24, via the duct 20 and the same control valve 11 as well as the ducts 19 i and 14 into the region of an overflow edge (not specifically illustrated) of piston 4, into the 00 00, spring chamber 18. As the same control valve 11 is involved, the closing speed is identical N, in the first and in the third delaying phase.

NI 10 During the fourth phase of the delayed closing operation (beginning of the closing region) the duct 20 of the valve 11 leading to the piston chamber 24 is closed; in this case the oil coming from the piston chamber 24 passes, via the duct 25, the control valve 12, the duct 21 and the duct 22 via the aforementioned overflow edge, into the spring chamber 18.

The control valve, referenced with the numeral 13, is normally closed during the delayed closing operation; there is, however, the possibility of reducing the delaying period, by corresponding opening of this valve during the second closing phase (during which an oil exchange happens only due to leakage between the piston and the housing walls), whereby the oil exiting the piston chamber 24, in a regulated manner, is guided, via the duct 26, the control valve 13, the duct 27, and the duct 28, into the spring chamber 18.

An alternative embodiment of the arrangement of the oil outlet ducts and the valves for controlling the closing procedure is illustrated in Figure 12. In this alternative embodiment, only two different closing phases are realised, such that a modification with regard to the above described four closing phases is possible. Therefore, only the valves 11 and 12 are required. The oil outlet duct 19 is extended and changes into an oil outlet duct 29 ending behind the overflow edge (not specifically designated) of piston 4 in the region of the toothed rack Besides the above described two embodiments of different closing phases of the connected doors, it is of course possible, within the scope of the invention, to realise a different number of closing phases having various closing speeds.

Throughout this specification, including the claims, where the context permits, the term "comprise" and variants thereof such as "comprises" or "comprising" are to be interpreted as including the stated integer or integers without necessarily excluding any other integers.

SComponent reference numerals 1 door closer 2 housing 00 3 closing spring S 4 piston toothed rack cNI 10 6 pinion 7 involute teeth 8 closing-sided tooth profiles 9 teeth of the toothed rack housing walls 11 control valve 12 control valve 13 control valve 14 oil outlet duct skirt of the piston 16 longitudinal groove 17 radial bore hole 18 spring chamber 19 oil outlet duct oil outlet duct 21 oil outlet duct 22 oil outlet duct 23 center longitudinal axis 24 piston chamber oil outlet duct 26 oil outlet duct 27 oil outlet duct 28 oil outlet duct 29 oil outlet duct -11 100 swing leaf operator 101 gear 102 electrical motor 103 gear output shaft C 5 104 gear train 105 arm 106 free end t 107 free end 00 S108 sliding member 109 slide rail C 110 door frame 111 door leaf M central point of the rolling circle of the pinion D rotary axis of the pinion X direction of the arrow in the opening direction

Claims (4)

12- The CLAIMS defining the invention are as follows: O 1. An electromechanical swing leaf operator comprising: a housing, a piston movable in a piston chamber of the housing between a closing position and an opening position, and a spring housed in a spring chamber of the housing for biasing the piston towards the closing position, O 0 the piston having a toothed rack having teeth arranged on an S-shaped rolling curve N with a gradient which increases from the closing position up to approximately half the N S 10 length of the rack and subsequently decreases, the teeth each having a closing side tooth profile and an opening side tooth profile having different flank angles, the opening side flank angle of the teeth increasing up to approximately half the length of the toothed rack and subsequently being substantially constant or decreasing, the closing side flank angle of the teeth decreasing up to approximately half the length of the toothed rack and subsequently increasing; a toothed pinion supported for rotation about a rotary axis in the housing and having teeth which mesh with the teeth of the rack, the pinion being eccentrically supported wherein a centre point of a meshing curve of the toothed pinion, in the closing position, is offset from the rotary axis toward the toothed rack and, in the opening position, is offset from the rotary axis away from the toothed rack; an electric motor for driving the pinion via a gear; and a control valve arrangement for slowing the piston as the piston moves toward the closing position. 2. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in claim 1, wherein the last teeth of the rack, in an opening direction, have closing-side tooth profiles which are angled. 3. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the teeth of the rack have a tooth head width which substantially increases up to approximately half the length of the toothed rack, and subsequently deceases. 4. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein a rotation of the pinion from the closing position into a maximum opening position amounts to less or more than 1800, and the last teeth of the toothed rack in an

13- opening direction have closing-side tooth profiles associated with the portion of the pinion approaching and exceeding 1800 rotation, respectively, which are angled. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the teeth of the pinion and/or the toothed rack have straight, angled, or convexly curved tooth profiles. 6. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim 0 wherein the pinion has teeth with an involute profile. 7. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim, wherein the control valve arrangement permits closing operations with different characteristics to be obtained. 8. A swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the housing comprises a housing wall in which the control valve arrangement is located, the control valve arrangement comprising at least one control valve associated with two closing phases. 9. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any preceding claim wherein the control valve arrangement comprises a first control valve and a second control valve, the piston being moved in the closing direction in four phases comprising: a first closing phase between approximately 180 degrees and 100 degrees wherein the piston is controlled by the first control valve; a second closing phase between approximately 100 degrees and 70 degrees wherein the functioning of the first and second control valves is cancelled; a third closing phase between approximately 70 degrees and 20 degrees wherein the piston is controlled by the first control valve; and a fourth closing phase between approximately 20 degrees and zero degrees wherein the piston is controlled by the second control valve. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in claim 9, wherein the piston has a skirt with a longitudinal groove which communicates with the spring chamber via a radial bore hole in the piston; and -14- during the first closing phase, an oil outlet duct associated with the first control Svalve communicates with the groove. j 11. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in claim 8, wherein the oil N, 5 outlet duct communicates with the piston chamber via the first control valve. 12. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in any one of claims 9 to 11, 0 wherein during the second phase, pressure compensation between the piston chamber and 00 M€ the spring chamber is obtained through play between the piston and the housing wall. (N 13. An electromechanical swing leaf operator as claimed in claim 10 or 11, wherein the piston has an overflow edge, and during the third closing phase, the piston chamber communicates with the spring chamber via the oil outlet duct, the first control valve and the overflow edge of the piston.

14. An electromechanical leaf operator as claimed in claim 10 or 11, wherein during the fourth closing phase, the oil outlet duct is closed, and the piston chamber communicates with the spring chamber via a second oil outlet duct in which the second control valve is located and the overflow edge. An electromechanical swing leaf operator comprising: a housing, a piston movable in the housing between a closing position and an opening position, the piston having a toothed rack having teeth arranged in a wavy curve, and a spring for biasing the piston towards the closing position; a toothed pinion mounted for rotation about a rotary axis in the housing and having teeth which operatively mesh with the teeth of the rack, the pinion being eccentrically mounted relative to the rotary axis; drive means for driving the pinion; and a control valve arrangement for controlling the closing of the piston in multiple phases.

16. An electromechanical leaf operator substantially as hereinbefore escribed with reference to the accompanying drawings.