EP0539300B1 - Door closure device for insulated containers - Google Patents

Description

The subject of the present invention is a device for closing doors of isolated enclosures, in particular phonetically and / or thermally, for example of land, rail, sea or air transport vehicles, comprising a volume accessible to a person, lockable from the outside.

It will find its application in all industrial sectors where one must have recourse to insulated enclosures comprising a volume accessible to a person, inside of which reigns notably a temperature appreciably different from the temperature of the external atmosphere.

For example, to distribute perishable products such as in particular food products from their place of production to their place of distribution or directly to consumers, cold stores are used inside which the products are transported.

The interior of these enclosures is maintained at a temperature compatible with the preservation of these products.

Generally, depending on the nature of these products, the ambient temperature prevailing inside these enclosures is between + 10 ° and -20 ° C.

To maintain this temperature, the enclosure must be perfectly sealed and thermally insulated. This is the reason why they are generally made of thermally insulating materials inside which a heat transfer fluid circulates.

Access to the interior of these enclosures for loading and unloading of products is carried out by means of doors, the closing of which must be perfect to avoid any heat loss liable to reduce the efficiency of the insulation.

To do this, various closing and locking devices are known, of a more or less complex design and of a more or less easy implementation.

This is how a manual locking device for a closure is currently known, which comprises a handle articulated on a support and biased by a spring in the direction of opening. This spring drives a latch which enters a keeper when the handle is in the closed position.

A pawl hinged to the handle around an axis is biased by a spring, towards a so-called hooking position in which the spout of the pawl is engaged with a lug secured to the frame to lock the handle and the latch in a closed position .

The tenon has a flat directed towards the bottom of the notch of the pawl while moving obliquely away from the axis of rotation of said pawl.

In such a device, either the spout is fully engaged in the post or it slides on the flat and lets the handle reopen. As a result, the handle can never be in a badly closed or badly locked position so that the door is always properly closed.

A device is also known which comprises a handle fixed to the actuating member of the lock which is pivoted on a fixed support. This fixed support is removably fixed in a housing by acting only from the outside by means of a screw engaged in a corresponding hole in the retaining plate.

The actuator is also enclosed from the outside in a housing by an opening and it cooperates with a support element to arrange it in an angular position such that it remains engaged inside said housing.

Such devices, although allowing satisfactory closure of the enclosure doors have the drawback of being only actuable from outside the enclosure.

It follows that if, for an unwanted reason, the enclosure door closes, when the person is inside the enclosure, he is locked up and imprisoned.

It is understood that due in particular to the soundproofing of the enclosure, this person cannot prevent or call another person to his rescue to open the door for him. As a result, she risks serious problems. These disorders are all the more serious as the residence time spent inside the refrigerated enclosure by the person is long and the ambient temperature is low.

To remedy this problem, it has been thought to produce door closing devices which can be opened from inside the enclosure. However, such devices are generally of complex design and expensive. One of the solutions used consists in dissociating the various locking members of the device by multiplying the axes and the movement members of the locking pieces. This multiplication of mechanical organs makes the opening from inside the enclosure more or less reliable depending on the regular and efficient operation of these different organs.

• un boîtier à l'intérieur duquel vient se loger, en position fermée, une poignée accessible uniquement de l'extérieur,
• des moyens pour loger la poignée à l'intérieur du boîtier,
• des moyens pour verrouiller la porte équipés d'un levier pivotant, dissociés des moyens pour loger la poignée, et d'un taquet, apte à coopérer avec ledit levier,
• des moyens pour déverrouiller la porte associés par un organe de liaison à des moyens de commande actionnables par une personne depuis l'intérieur de l'enceinte.

Documents DE-A-2,213,790 and FR-2,584,764 are also known of such devices allowing unlocking from the inside, comprising:

• a housing inside which is housed, in the closed position, a handle accessible only from the outside,
• means for housing the handle inside the housing,
• means for locking the door equipped with a pivoting lever, separated from the means for housing the handle, and with a cleat, capable of cooperating with said lever,
• means for unlocking the door associated by a connecting member with control means actuable by a person from inside the enclosure.

According to document DE-A-2,213,790, this unlocking is authorized by mounting the catch latching lever on a plate movable in translation, actuated by a cam button from inside and pushed back into normal position by a spiral spring.

The reliability of such a system rests on the good sliding of the plate, and the good efficiency of the spiral spring which pushes said plate back into normal position, the reliability of these being in particular a function of corrosion.

According to document FR-A-2,584,764, the lever proper is constituted by a set of two parts articulated around a common axis and cooperating with one another and held against one another by two pin springs. In addition to requiring a construction with multiple parts, there too the reliability depends on the pressure of the pin spring which intervenes for the unlocking from the outside and / or from the inside.

The object of the present invention is to remedy the drawbacks of the devices currently known by providing a door closing device which can be easily unlocked from inside the enclosure.

An object of the present invention is to provide a simple device, easy to implement and of low cost.

• un boîtier à l'intérieur duquel vient se loger, en position fermée, une poignée accessible uniquement de l'extérieur,
• des moyens pour loger la poignée à l'intérieur du boîtier,
• des moyens pour verrouiller la porte équipés d'un levier pivotant, dissociés des moyens pour loger la poignée, et d'un taquet apte à coopérer avec ledit levier,
• des moyens pour déverrouiller la porte associés par un organe de liaison à des moyens de commande actionnables par une personne depuis l'intérieur de l'enceinte,

• est caractérisé en ce que les moyens pour déverrouiller sont constitués par un logement au niveau duquel vient se placer ledit taquet,
• et en ce qu'il comprend des moyens escamotables qui coopèrent avec le logement aptes à bloquer la rotation du levier par le taquet dans une position, et à libérer la rotation du levier dans une autre position, cesdits moyens étant escamotables indépendamment du mouvement de pivotement du levier,
• et en ce que ledit levier présente une butée coopérant avec lesdits moyens escamotables pour être manoeuvrables depuis l'intérieur de l'enceinte.

To this end, according to the present invention, the device for closing a door, intended for isolated enclosures, comprising an interior volume accessible to a person and lockable from the outside, such as for example refrigerated enclosures, comprising:

• a housing inside which is housed, in the closed position, a handle accessible only from the outside,
• means for housing the handle inside the housing,
• means for locking the door equipped with a pivoting lever, separated from the means for housing the handle, and with a cleat capable of cooperating with said lever,
• means for unlocking the door associated by a connecting member with control means operated by a person from inside the enclosure,

• is characterized in that the means for unlocking consist of a housing at the level of which said cleat is placed,
• and in that it comprises retractable means which cooperate with the housing able to block the rotation of the lever by the cleat in one position, and to release the rotation of the lever in another position, said means being retractable independently of the pivoting movement lever,
• and in that said lever has a stop cooperating with said retractable means to be operable from inside the enclosure.

Other objects and advantages of the present invention will emerge from the description which follows, which is however only given for information and which is not intended to limit it.

• la figure 1 est une vue de dessus qui illustre l'ensemble du dispositif selon un premier mode de réalisation de l'invention;
• la figure 2 est une vue qui illustre le fond du boîtier du dispositif de la figure 1;
• la figure 3 est une vue en coupe selon la ligne III-III de la figure 1;
• la figure 4 est une vue en coupe qui illustre les moyens de déverrouillage du dispositif de la figure 1;
• la figure 5 est une vue de dessus qui illustre l'ensemble du dispositif selon un deuxième mode de réalisation de l'invention;
• la figure 6 est une vue qui illustre le fond du boîtier du dispositif de la figure 5 selon l'axe VI-VI de la figure 7;
• la figure 7 est une vue en coupe selon la ligne VII-VII de la figure 5;
• la figure 8 montre un détail de la figure 7 illustrant le levier de verrouillage de la poignée en position fermée, en traits pleins, et en position ouverte, en traits mixtes.

The invention will be better understood from the description which follows, accompanied by the attached drawings, in which:

• Figure 1 is a top view which illustrates the entire device according to a first embodiment of the invention;
• Figure 2 is a view illustrating the bottom of the housing of the device of Figure 1;
• Figure 3 is a sectional view along line III-III of Figure 1;
• Figure 4 is a sectional view illustrating the unlocking means of the device of Figure 1;
• Figure 5 is a top view which illustrates the entire device according to a second embodiment of the invention;
• Figure 6 is a view illustrating the bottom of the housing of the device of Figure 5 along the axis VI-VI of Figure 7;
• Figure 7 is a sectional view along line VII-VII of Figure 5;
• Figure 8 shows a detail of Figure 7 illustrating the handle locking lever in the closed position, in solid lines, and in the open position, in dashed lines.

The present invention relates to a door closing device, intended in particular for refrigerating chambers.

It will find its application in all the industrial sectors in which it is necessary to use insulated enclosures, in particular phonetically and / or thermally, comprising a volume accessible to a person inside which prevails in particular a temperature substantially different from that of the ambient atmosphere.

The device is in particular suitable for closing doors of refrigeration chambers, such as chambers associated with refrigeration trucks intended for the transport of food or perishable products.

Of course, this application is in no way limiting and the device can be used to close doors of other types of enclosures or even doors to access rooms or rooms.

Referring to Figure 1, which illustrates a first embodiment, we see a housing 1 of parallelepiped shape. This case is here made of stainless steel but it could be, depending on requirements, made of any other type of suitable material such as aluminum or hard plastic.

It consists of a bottom 2 delimited by two side walls 3 and 4 and two transverse walls 5 and 6. The size and shape of the housing are of course variable depending on the applications but it will always be sufficient to receive a handle 7 of maneuver which here is of substantially rectangular shape.

In this embodiment, the side walls 3 and 4 and the transverse walls 5 and 6 have a rim projecting perpendicularly intended to allow the establishment of the housing 1 in a corresponding housing of the enclosure door in association with the door operating parts. This installation can be carried out by any suitable technique such as by riveting, bolting, or any other equivalent means.

The operating handle 7 is here made of the same material as that of the housing 1. Of course, in other embodiments, it could be made of other types of material.

This operating handle 7 has at one of the ends 8 an opening 9 allowing the passage of a hand in order to allow its movement from an open position to a closed position as will be described later.

In its middle part 10, the handle 7 comprises a barrel 11 of a conventional type actuated by a key.

The end 12 of the handle 7 has a housing 13. Inside this housing 13, substantially in its middle part, an oblong slot is formed 14. A square-shaped part 15 is fixed by welding points at the base of the housing 13 and passes over part of its width the light 14.

The end 16 of the housing 13 has, in the vicinity of its transverse edge 17 a hinge pin 18 which passes right through the said housing while being subject to each of its ends 19, 20 inside an orifice 21 , 22 formed in the side walls 23, 24 of the housing 13.

On one of the ends 19 of the axis 18 is mounted an elastic member such as a spring 25.

The end 12 of the handle 7 comprises, near the wall 5 of the housing 1, a bearing 26 inside which are placed the means for housing the handle 7 inside the housing 1.

These means for housing the handle 7 are here constituted by a hinge pin 27 passing right through the handle 7 and the side walls 3 and 4 of the housing to come to join the complementary members for operating the door of the enclosure. .

A cover 28 is mounted articulated around the axis 18 and covers the housing 13 and the barrel 11 in the closed position in order to protect it.

Referring to FIG. 2, we can see more particularly the bottom 2 of the housing 1. This bottom 2 comprises two lateral guide rails 30 and 31 intended to cooperate with the lateral walls 4 and 5 of the handle while serving as their housing when that -this is in position closed.

A square piece 32 is secured by welding points opposite the oblong slot 14 so as to come, when the handle is in the closed position, pass through said slot 14 and cooperate with the piece of complementary shape 15.

A stud 33 projecting perpendicularly from rubber material is arranged in the vicinity of the bracket 32 to cushion the handle 7 when it is closed and to come into contact with the housing 13 in the vicinity of the barrel 11 when said handle 7 is in the closed position.

The means for locking the door are constituted on the one hand by a guide rail piece 40 and by a cleat 41 associated with the barrel 11 mounted on the handle 7 and, on the other hand, by a lever 42 mounted pivoting about an axis 43 inside the housing 1.

The means for locking the door of the enclosure are dissociated from the means for closing the handle 7 so that it is possible to operate them independently of one another. It is thus possible to open the door from the inside while leaving the handle 7 in the closed position.

The lever 42 is constituted by a part which has a base 44 and a horizontal apex 45 secured to two symmetrical side walls 46, 47. The front face 48 of each side wall 46, 47 is inclined from top to bottom, constituting a guide ramp which opens into a notch 49 delimiting with the top 45 a housing 50 intended to receive a part of the operating handle 7 in position locked.

The axis 43 passes right through the lever 42 so that the latter is pivotally mounted around this axis 43. This axis 43 is fixed at each of its ends in an orifice 51, 52 formed in each wall 46- 47. Two springs 53, 54 which are placed on either side of a vertical median plane on the axis 43.

These springs 53, 54 are subject at one of their ends to the housing 1 and to the other of their ends at the top of the lever 42 so that they accompany the pendulum movement of the lever 42 by requesting an elastic force.

According to the invention, the means for unlocking the door of the enclosure consist of a housing 50 of the pivoting blocking part of the handle at the level of which the cleat 41 is placed while being held there by retractable means 56 from the inside the enclosure.

These retractable means 56 consist of a spring 57, one of the ends 58 of which is secured to the base of the lever 42 on a stud 59 and the other end of which 60 must cooperate with a stop 61 while being integral with a member link 62 which opens into an orifice 63 formed in the bottom 2 of the housing 1 to be maneuverable by a control device 64 manual or not from inside the enclosure.

Thus, it is possible, as will be described later, by virtue of the invention, to easily open the door of the enclosure from the inside thereof even when this door is closed from the outside.

These means 56 are retractable independently of the balance movement of the lever 42 allowing the release of the cleat 41. This independence and this dissociation of the movement of the retractable means 56 and the movement of the balance of the lever 42 allows the door to be opened quickly and easily from the inside the enclosure.

Of course, other equivalent devices, making it possible by a rotary movement, of translation by a combination of these different movements, to make retractable a member for holding and retaining the cleat 41 in the housing 50 can be used.

The device according to the invention operates in the following manner.

To close the enclosure door, you must first place the handle 7 in the housing 1. To do this, insert your hand inside the opening 9 and rotate the handle 7 around axis 27 from a open position in which it is arranged substantially perpendicular to the housing 1 to a position in which it is substantially inserted inside the bottom 2 of the housing 1.

In this position, the square part 32 enters the oblong opening 14 by coming to cooperate with the complementary part 15.

As soon as the handle 7 is in this position, the door is locked. This door locking operation is carried out in two stages.

First, sufficient pressure is exerted by hand on the handle 7 so that in contact with the guide ramp 40 on the inclined side walls 46, 47 and the lever 42, the springs 53, 54 are biased so that the lever 42 pivots about the axis 43 while rising up to a stop position.

In this position, under the action of the elastic return force of the springs 53, 54, the lever 42 folds down such that part of the opening 9 of the operating handle 7 is placed inside the housing 50.

Then, to completely lock the door, the key must be turned in the barrel 11 to rotate the cleat 41 so that it comes to be housed in the lever 42. In this position, the cleat 41 is placed in the housing 50 while being maintained.

It then only remains to remove the key from the barrel and fold down the protective cover 28.

According to the invention, it is possible to easily and quickly open this door from inside the enclosure.

To do this, it suffices that the person exerts from inside the enclosure by means of the control member 64 such as a handle, a tensile force on the connecting member 62. The connecting member 62 transmits this force to the spring 57 which, by this action, generates a rotation movement of amplitude limited by the stop 61 with which it cooperates in this position.

By this movement, the spring 57 releases the cleat 41 which can then be unlocked here by a pressure force exerted on the base of the lever 42.

Under the action of this force, the springs 53 and 54 are urged so that the lever 42 pivots about the axis 43 to a stop position. In this position, the cleat 41 is released from the housing 50 and the part of the opening 9 of the handle is released so that the door can thus be opened from inside the enclosure.

Of course, other implementations of the present invention could be envisaged without departing from the scope thereof.

For example, Figures 5 to 8 illustrate a second embodiment showing a variant in the operating handle.

There is a housing 101, having a bottom 102 and lateral and transverse walls 103-106, inside of which is housed a handle 107 for operating, having at one of its ends 108 an opening 109 for manual operation.

The system for rotating the handle relative to the housing is similar to the previous mode and its locking is authorized from a key cylinder 111, possibly protected by a cover 128. There is also a hinge pin 127 passing through apart the housing 101 and the handle 107.

The means for locking the door consist, on the one hand, of a guide ramp 140 provided on the handle in its middle part, and formed by a recess of the latter, and a cleat 141 associated with the barrel 111 and, on the other hand , by a locking lever 142 pivotally mounted about an axis 143 inside the housing 101, as illustrated in FIG. 6.

The lever 142 is particularly shown in FIG. 8 in the closed position, in solid lines, and in the open position, in dashed lines. At its upper part, it has a spout 144 which cooperates with the guide ramp 140 of the handle against which it is pressed by the return spring or springs 145.

When the external part is pressed projection 146 of the lever, the spring 145 is compressed and the spout 144 escapes from the guide ramp 140 during the rotation of the lever around the axis 143. This operation is authorized from the outside if the stopper 141 of the barrel is in position unlocked, as shown in phantom in Figure 6.

Indeed, on the contrary if the stopper 141 is in the locked position, as shown in strong lines in FIG. 6, it is not possible to push in the external part 146 thanks to the retractable means 156 of the present invention, but it it will nevertheless be possible to act from the inside on lever 142.

In this regard, the lever 142 has, in its part opposite the cleat 141, a housing 150 provided to cooperate with the cleat and the retractable means, the dimensions of which are greater than those of the cleat, that is to say that the latter can cross said housing. However, in the normal position, this movement is prevented by a pin spring 157 secured to the lever 142 by one of its branches, in particular by a hinge pin 158 and a locking tab 159.

The other branch 160 is supported on either side of the housing 150, as shown in Figure 6, and opposes the rotation of the lever 142, as shown in Figures 7 and 8, if the stopper 141 is superior to him. Indeed, in this case, the branch 160 is sandwiched between the cleat 141 and the outer part 161 of the lever.

That said, the branch 160 can be rotated, as shown in the broken lines in Figure 6, thanks to the control device 164 operable from the inside whose operation allows two successive times.

Said device 164 is for example in the form of a flexible link secured to the end 162 of the branch 160 of the pin 157 then guided in the lever, in particular by the legs 163 and 166, and opens out towards the inside, in particular through the orifice 165 provided for this purpose in the housing 101.

When you pull the link flexible 164, the branch 160 of the hairpin spring will move, as shown in FIG. 6, to release the cleat 141 and allow possible rotation of the lever 142 around the axis 143, then continuing said rotation, the branch 160 will be supported on the tab 163 and create a torque by the tab 166 to rotate the lever around the axis 143 and consequently authorize unlocking from the inside, even if the device is locked from the outside.

Claims (9)

1. Device for closing a door, designed for insulated enclosures, comprising an internal space accessible to a person and lockable from the outside, such as, for example, refrigerating enclosures, including:

   - a housing (1; 101) inside which is accommodated, in closed position, a handle (7; 107) accessible solely from the outside,

   - means for accommodating the handle (7; 107) inside the housing (1; 101),

   - means for locking the door equipped with a pivoting lever (42; 142), dissociated from the means for accommodating the handle, and with a catch (41; 141), suitable for cooperating with the said lever,

   - means for unlocking the door associated by a connection member with control means actuatable by a person from inside the enclosure,

   characterized in that the unlocking means are constituted by a recess (50; 150) in the area of which the said catch (41; 141) takes up position,

   and in that it includes retractable means (56; 156), which cooperate with the said recess, suitable for blocking the rotation of the lever by means of the catch (41; 141) in one position, and for releasing the lever for rotation in another position, the said means being retractable independently of the pivotal movemement of the lever (42; 142),

   and in that the said lever (42; 142) has a stop (61; 163) cooperating with the said retractable means (56; 156) in order to be manoeuverable from inside the enclosure.
2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the means for locking the door are constituted, on one hand, by a guide ramp (40; 140) and by the catch (41; 141) associated with a barrel (11; 111) mounted on the handle (7) and, on the other hand, by the lever (42; 142) mounted pivotally about a pin (43; 143) inside the housing (1; 101), having the recess (50; 150) designed to cooperate with the catch (41; 141) and the retractable means (56; 156) in locked position.
3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the retractable means (56; 156) are constituted by a spring (57; 157) one of the end of which is secured to the lever (42; 142) and the other end (60; 160) of which can, on one hand, cooperate with the said recess (50; 150) and, on the other hand, cooperate with the said stop (61; 163) for manoeuvering the lever by means of a control device (64; 164) from inside the enclosure.
4. Device according to clause 1, characterized in that the means for accommodating the handle are constituted by a hinge pin (27; 127) passing right through the handle (7; 107) and the side walls (3, 4; 103, 104) of the housing (1; 101) to fasten to complementary members for manoeuvering the door of the enclosure.
5. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the handle (7) has, at one of the ends, a recess (13) which has an oblong port (14).
6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that a hinge pin (18) passes right through the recess (13), on which is mounted a cover (28) so as to be mobile, and in that an elastic member such as a spring (25) is secured to the hinge pin (18).
7. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the lever (42) is constituted by a piece having a base (44) and a horizontal top (45) integral with two symmetrical side walls (46, 47).
8. Device according to claim 3, characterized by the fact that the lever (142) is articulated about a pin (143) integral with the housing (101) and has, on one hand, a nose (144) which cooperates with a guide ramp (140) provided on the handle (107) and, on the other hand, the said recess (150) opposite the catch (14), as well as various tabs (159, 163, 166) for holding the spring (157), guiding the control device (164) and forming a support for rotating the lever (142) at the time of unlocking from the inside.
9. Device according to claim 8, characterized by the fact that the control device (164) takes the form of a flexible link secured to a limb (160) of a spring (157) in the form of a pin, emerging towards the inside through an orifice (165) provided for this effect in the housing (101).

Images