DE29600140U1 - Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of a fire - Google Patents

Description

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■&idiagr; The present invention relates to a device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire. Passages between parts of buildings are understood in the context of the present invention to mean, for example, doors between a staircase and a hallway of a building, in particular an apartment building, whereby several individual doors can branch off from this hallway, leading to closed apartments within this floor of the building.

j_Q It also involves doors between a staircase and an anteroom, whereby this anteroom can then lead to a hallway from which several apartment doors lead off. It can also be a door between a staircase and a so-called security gate, which

!g is arranged between a staircase and a corridor. It can also be a door that leads from a room in a building to an elevator. All of these passages in the sense mentioned are therefore passages between two parts of the building that are in a

in the event of a fire, so that smoke or fire cannot penetrate from one part of the building into the other. The present invention relates in particular to buildings with a large number of floors and several apartments on each floor, since there are special fire protection regulations for such buildings, in particular regarding the passages to the stairwells, generally used corridors or elevators.

According to the state of the art, one way of preventing the spread of smoke or the source of fire was to create an overpressure in one part of the building, for example a stairwell, compared to the other parts of the building by means of fans or the like, so that in the event of a fire, when a door from the stairwell to another part of the building is opened, air flows from the overpressure area into the area with lower air pressure, thereby creating an air flow that flows against the source of the fire and thereby prevents further fire and

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This solution prevents smoke from spreading towards the stairwell. However, this solution has the disadvantage that in order to maintain the overpressure in the selected parts of the building, for example the stairwell, when the door from the stairwell to a security lock or an anteroom or corridor is opened, a very high volume of air must be pumped into the area with lower air pressure. In practice, it has been shown that it is hardly possible to pump such a high volume of air towards the source of the fire that the required overpressure can be maintained in the stairwell, for example, and the fire protection system as a whole therefore does not fulfil its function. It is also disadvantageous if fans blow in very high volumes of air, for example at certain points in the stairwell, as relatively strong air turbulence occurs at these points.

If a fireproof door is installed in accordance with the regulations towards the stairwell, this is of no use if the door is opened and remains open in the event of a fire, e.g. by residents fleeing or by extinguishing or rescue measures by the fire brigade, e.g. laying a fire hose. This is where the present invention comes into play.

The object of the invention is therefore to create a device for securing passages between parts of a building in the event of a fire of the type mentioned above, which effectively prevents smoke or a source of fire from breaking through the passage between the parts of the building.

The solution to this problem is provided by an inventive device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of a fire of the type mentioned, with the characterizing features of the main claim. According to the invention, a device is arranged above the passage which creates an air curtain so that air is directed vertically or in a direction slightly inclined to the vertical from

&khgr; flows from top to bottom in front of the passage door and thus, when the door of this passage is opened, prevents smoke or a source of fire from entering the building area thus secured through this air curtain. The air curtain is preferably created in such a way that the air flows from top to bottom in a direction slightly inclined to the vertical, with the inclination being opposite to the side of the passage on which the source of fire is created. In an apartment building, the source of fire will usually be in the living area, so the air curtain is allowed to flow with a slight incline against the side facing the living area. The device according to the invention for generating the air curtain is generally not attached to the apartment doors themselves. Rather, the buildings are constructed in such a way that several apartments lead into a hallway, from which one then reaches the stairwell through another vestibule or a security lock, so that in this case it is sufficient to arrange the air curtain in the passage between the hallway and the vestibule or security lock leading to the stairwell. It is also sensible to create an air curtain between a publicly accessible vestibule or hallway and the passage to an elevator, for example by arranging the device above the elevator door, in order to prevent smoke or a source of fire from the apartment area from entering the elevator shaft and spreading there.

It has been shown that when creating such an air curtain, much smaller volumes of air must be circulated than if, for example, a constant overpressure were to be created in the stairwell. According to a preferred development of a solution to the problem according to the invention, the device for creating the air curtain can be arranged in the area of a lintel above the door and the air can be sucked in from the side, i.e. essentially horizontally, but blown out downwards, i.e. vertically or slightly inclined to the vertical. This prevents the air blown out

-α is sucked in again and thus smoke-free air is always sucked in and blown out again. Since the amount of air required to create the air curtain is smaller, turbulence caused by blowing in is avoided. The fans required to create the air curtain preferably work on a low voltage basis (for example 24 volts), which avoids any danger to the fire-fighting personnel during fire extinguishing operations.

The features described in the subclaims relate to preferred developments of the solution to the problem according to the invention.

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The present invention is described in more detail using embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a schematically simplified floor plan of a

Part of a building with devices according to the invention for generating an air curtain;

Fig. 2 shows a schematically simplified floor plan of an IQ building section with equipment for generating

Air curtains according to a variant of the invention;

Fig. 3 is a schematic simplified side view of a

inventive device for generating an IQ air veil;

Fig. 4 is a front view of the device for generating an air curtain according to Fig. 3.

First, reference is made to Fig. 1. The illustration shows an example of a floor plan for the stairwell and hallway area of a so-called high-rise building with a building height of over twenty-two meters. The illustration shows the stairwell 10, which is preceded by an anteroom 11, which is connected to the stairwell via a door 13 that closes the passage 12 to the stairwell. As can be seen, this anteroom 11 is preceded by a hallway 14, with several apartment doors 15a, 15b, 15c, 15d leading to the individual apartments leading from this hallway 14. From the anteroom 11, one reaches the elevator shaft 16, with the passage between the anteroom 11 and the elevator 16 being designated 17 and being closed by the elevator door not shown here.

Between the anteroom 11 and the hallway 14 there is also a passage 18, which can be closed via the door 19.

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Since the source of the fire is likely to be in one of the apartments, it is important to secure the connection between the publicly accessible hallway 14 and the publicly accessible anteroom 11, which leads to the stairwell 10, so that in the event of a fire in one of the apartments, the source of the fire cannot spread in the direction of the stairwell 10 or the elevator 16 and thus block the escape route. According to the invention, an air curtain 2 0 is therefore arranged in the area of the lintel above the passage 18, so that smoke or fire from the hallway 14 is already prevented from getting into the anteroom 11. In addition, a further device 2 0 for generating an air curtain is preferably arranged above the passage 17, which leads to the elevator shaft 16, i.e. above the elevator door.

A further example is now described in more detail below with reference to Fig. 2. The illustration shows a so-called safety staircase 30, which is connected to a corridor 34 via an intermediate safety lock 31. From this corridor 34, various doors 35 lead off to the individual apartments, similar to the embodiment shown in Fig. 1. According to Fig. 2, in the event of a fire in one of the apartments, smoke or fire should be prevented from entering the safety lock and thus the staircase 30 via the corridor 34. Between the safety lock 31 and the vestibule 34 there is a passage 38 with the door 39, and above the lintel of this passage 38 there is a device 20 for generating an air curtain. The air of the air curtain 2 is blown downwards from above the passage 38, if possible across the entire width of the passage, in a direction slightly inclined to the vertical, with the inclination of the air curtain being directed from top to bottom in the direction of the corridor 34, thus directing smoke or fire towards a possible source of fire.

— The device 20 for generating the air curtain is explained in more detail below with reference to Fig. 3 and 4. Fig. 3 shows the passage 38 with the lintel 32 above it, whereby in the drawing Fig. 3 the security lock 31 is located on the left and the corridor 34 is to the right of the passage 38. The direction from which a fire that is forming and threatens to spread towards the stairwell comes is therefore from right to left in the drawing. Smoke and fire come from the corridor IQ and it is to be prevented that they enter the security lock 31 through the passage 38.

For this purpose, on the inside of the lintel 32, i.e. on the side of the security gate 31, at a distance below the

]_5 The device 20 for generating the air curtain is arranged on the ceiling 33. This device 20 is basically a fan that sucks air in from the side in the direction of the arrow from left to right and expels the air diagonally downwards in the direction of the arrow. This diagonally downward air flow forms an air curtain 36, whereby the air flow is sufficiently strong to close the passage 38 so effectively that smoke cannot pass from the corridor 34 through the air curtain 36 into the security lock 31 shown on the left.

Fig. 4 shows once again a front view seen in the direction of arrow IV of Fig. 3, ie a view looking out of the security lock 31 onto the passage 38 and the air curtain 36.

Claims (7)

-1-Protection claims: 1. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire, characterized in that above the passage a A device is mounted which creates an air curtain, whereby air flows in the region of the passage (18) from top to bottom vertically or at an angle slightly inclined to the vertical and the air flow of the ^O air curtain (20) is sufficiently strong to prevent the passage of smoke or fire through the passage (18). 2. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire according to claim 1, characterized in that the air curtain extends from top to bottom at an angle slightly inclined to the vertical and, viewed from top to bottom, is directed in the direction of the room in which a potential source of fire arises. 3. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the device for generating the air curtain (20) is a fan or the like which is arranged above the passage (18) in the region of the door lintel. 4. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the device for generating the air curtain (20) is a fan which sucks in the air approximately horizontally from the space free of the fire source and expels it vertically downwards or inclined to the vertical downwards in the passage (18). -2- 5. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the air curtain (36) is generated in the passage (38) between a safety room (31) and a corridor (34) connected to it. 6. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire in accordance with one of the IQ claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the air curtain is generated in the region of a passage (18) between an anteroom (11) and a corridor (14) or in the region of a passage (12) between a staircase (10) and a generally accessible room (11, 14) of a building. 7. Device for securing the passage between two parts of a building in the event of fire according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the air curtain is generated in the region of a passage (17) between a generally accessible room (11) of a building and an elevator shaft (16).