EP1706347A2

EP1706347A2 - Operating device comprising an elevator door folding around a vertical axis

Info

Publication number: EP1706347A2
Application number: EP05700324A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Marco Hoerler
Original assignee: Inventio AG
Current assignee: Inventio AG
Priority date: 2004-01-21
Filing date: 2005-01-21
Publication date: 2006-10-04
Also published as: WO2005070807A3; WO2005070807A2

Abstract

The invention concerns an operating device comprising an elevator door (2) folding around a vertical axis during its opening or closing movement. The invention is characterised by the following three characteristics: a) the vertical axis (4, 6) constitutes also the dragging element of the door (2) of the elevator cabin (1), b) the door (2) of the cabin (1) is constantly subject to a tractive force that tends to close it, c) the vertical axis (4, 6) comprises a motor with external rotor and internal stator. The invention allows to realise elevator doors (2) of minimal overall dimension, since they lack the space to be allocated to the motor for dragging the door - as usually necessary -, of easy assembly and of optimal packing and transport conditions.

Description

OPERATING DEVICE COMPRISING AN ELEVATOR DOOR FOLDING AROUND A VERTICAL AXIS

The present invention concerns an operating device comprising an elevator door folding around a vertical axis, as from the preamble of claim 1.

Elevator doors folding around a vertical axis are known from US-A- 6,082,499 and FR-A-2800055.

The present invention refers in particular to an operating device for operating the elevator door.

The operating of the vertical axis around which the folding elevator door is folded or winded is realised, as per the state of the art, by means of a motor, which is external to the axis itself, forming thus an operating unit separated from the axis. In US-A-6,082,499 it can be seen, for example in Figure 1 , how the operating unit is mounted in the upper part of the elevator cabin: it concerns the most obvious solution and used in the practice, whose main disadvantage concerns the fact that it requires space in the upper part of the cabin and therefore it increases the total height of the elevator shaft.

The solution shown in FR-A-2800055 does not foresee a motor assembled on the vertical axis around which the door is folded, since in this case the door is not operated directly from the vertical axis, but it is dragged in its upper and lower parts, in level with the upper and lower guides, thanks to a complex system of small cords that drag the two doors. Apart the complexity due to the door dragging cords, this solution as well requests space for the motor and the gearing-down mechanism, which involves a waste of building space. The present invention aims to eliminate the disadvantages still present in today' s operating systems of elevator doors folding around a vertical axis and mainly to eliminate the requirement of space caused by the presence of a motor for operating the door. The invention intends taking advantage of the most recent knowledge acquired in the field of conveyors being operated from inside.

The above-mentioned purposes are realised thanks to the characteristics of the characterising part of claim 1.

The possibility of adopting a vertical axis made as a motor with external rotor and internal stator, as door operating axis, around which the door is folded or winded, allows to reduce the overall dimension necessary in the previous solutions in order to place the axis operating motor, obtaining, in addition, a full series of other advantages related to the fact that the motor is no more subject to external factors, being fully set inside the axis. So we get a solution of the operating device of an elevator door of great simplicity, high operational reliability and high elegance, aesthetically as well as technically, that takes advantage from the use of "operated and driven rolls" .

The dependent claims concern some particular embodiments of the invention that will be explained more in detail in the following description.

Another purpose of the present invention is to provide a door for elevators that regroups all the wanted requirements for an innovative and efficient door:

- small overall dimension laterally to the elevator cabin and therefore a flexible door able to be rolled up around a vertical axis,

- to be fire-resistant in order to satisfy the strict provisions regarding anti-fire protection currently in force,

- to have sufficient mechanical resistance, when stressed in its centre by a defined horizontal force, and not to exceed the permissible maximal elastic deformation ("bowing"),

- to be of pleasant appearance and therefore satisfying the requested aesthetic requirements defined by the trends of the current architecture.

The above-mentioned aims can be achieved by means of an elevator door folding around a vertical axis in conformity with the characteristics of the dependent claims. They contain the fundamental measures to realize a fire-resistant door, which is either airtight to fire or resisting to fire for the minimal time defined by the laws and regulations in force (that can vary and indeed vary from Country to Country). Such measures are the rigidity around any immaginary horizontal axis and the folding around any vertical axis in order to be able to realise the rolling up of the door around a vertical axis, with a minimal bending radius (r), that is smaller than the tenth part of the thickness (d) of the door.

Concerning the rigidity of the door around any horizontal axis in some Countries a rule exists that the door permissible maximal deformation (its "bowing"), if stressed, as above-mentioned with a force of 30 kg, is 15 millimetres. Such rigidity can be influenced, as it will be explained with the help of various preferred solutions, in different ways, but all available to the man skilled in the art, who is able to choose the most appropriate technical solution in relation to the specific conditions. The invention will be now described in more details by means of some illustrated embodiments. The Figures show:

- Figure 1 : a first form of an elevator cabin with a cabin door and an elevator landing entrance door rolling up around the corresponding axes,

- Figure 2: a second form of an elevator cabin with a cabin door rolling up around an axis and an elevator landing entrance door, which can be deviated of 90° to one of its sides,

- Figure 3 : a more simplified view of ah inventive door type, seen in perspective and partially in section,

- Figure 3a - 3f: various inventive forms of elevator door for with different construction types, which are represented in a section and in a pure schematic way,

- Figure 4: an example of a mechanism to exercise a tractive force on the upper and lower part of the door by means of spring tensioners,

- Figure 5 : the same mechanism of Figure 4, seen in a plan view from above

The Figures 1 and 2 show two forms of elevator cabins to which the present invention can be suitably applied. Two forms of elevator cabins according to the invention are represented in Figures 1 and 2, where in both cases it is a matter of simplified perspective embodiments in which are foreseen, as prescribed today from the laws and regulations, two doors, and that is to say one door directly on the cabin 1 and one door in order to close the landing entrance of the elevator shaft. The door 2 of cabin 1 is the internal one, while the door 3 of the landing entrance turns out to be on the outside. Both such doors 2 and 3 can preferably have the characteristics foreseen by the present invention, even if in principle this same one refers to the construction of an elevator door, being the one of the cabin or the one of the landing entrance. However in order to get the advantages related to the reduction of the overall dimension proposed by the invention it is better that both doors, 2 and 3, as shown in Figure 1 and 2, are of the type proposed in the present invention, that is to say that they are doors folding around a vertical axis, since therefore only in such a way it is possible to eliminate, in an optimal way, the loss of space laterally to the cabin for each elevator halt station. Here, we want to emphasize the fact that the present invention deals with the construction of a folding door for elevators, so we will focus on describing the characteristics of a similar door without entering into the technical details of the general construction of the elevator and/or of its cabin, details that do not play any role in the present invention and that are already known to the man skilled in the art.

The difference between the two cabins of Figure 1 and 2 lies only in the fact that in Figure 1 the two doors, 2 and 3, can be both rolled up (winded) around two parallel vertical axes, and that is to say around the axis 4 for the cabin door 2 and around the axis 5 for the landing entrance door 3, while in Figure 2 the cabin door rolls up (winds) on a vertical axis 6, while the landing entrance door 3 is being deviated, by means of appropriate guides, to 90° around the rolling axis 6 of the cabin door and places itself, once the door itself is being opened, laterally to one of the cabin sides 1. The way of operating the doors 2 and 3, as well as their necessary upper and lower guides, are elements obtainable from the description of the above-mentioned previous patent applications and known in the practice, so that they do not need to be more explained.

What is often important here is the fact that the door 2 and 3 must be "fireproofing", that is to say that they must have the necessary characteristics of airtight closing, that is to say that, in practice, they must be made of an unique continuous surface without holes, passages, fissures, etc. and to be made of a fire-resistant material (metal or fire- resistant plastic etc.), so as to satisfy to the relative norms present in every Country. Such norms vary from Country to Country, but they are known to the man skilled in the art, who does thus know what a fireproofing door means (concept related also to the resistance time of the door against fire and smoke attacks) and he is in a position of choosing the most appropriate materials, respectively material mixtures in order to built a fireproofing door also folding around a vertical axis.

The present invention focus also on the mechanical properties that a similar door must possess for being used as elevator door and as a result realise the above-mentioned advantages as a similar door offers in the elevators field.

It is therefore foreseen that the door 2, 3 is sufficiently rigid around any horizontal axis so as to satisfy to the legal provisions - which have already been mentioned - on the maximal deformability for permissible bending if stressed in its centre, in the closed state, with the horizontal force required from the norm. The door must therefore be rigid in relation to its vertical plan in order not to exceed a permissible maximal "bowing" . This legal provision is made in order to avoid that, in case of excessive filling of the cabin or if a person leans itself heavily against the inner door, this door can excessively bend outwards and jeopardise the elevator functionality. Moreover, it is foreseen that the door 2, 3 must be sufficiently folding around every vertical axis in order to be able to be folded with a bending radius r (see Figure 2) ten times lower than the thickness of the door 2, 3, indicated with d in Figures from 3a to 3f. Here, we specify that with d we indicate the overall thickness of the door 2, 3, that is to say the maximal thickness measured over eventual ribs or reinforcement elements. This second provision gives therefore a precise indication about the radius of the rolling axis 4, 5, 6 and of the deviation of the door - for what concerns the landing entrance door of Figure 2 -.

The characteristics of the inventive elevator door are therefore the maximal folding around every vertical axis and the maximal resistance to bending in respect to every horizontal axis, where then this last characteristic is tied to legal provisions while the first one constitutes a free choice of the inventor and is tied to the constructive conditions that must be guaranteed in order of being able to benefit from the advantage foreseen by the invention.

According to a first embodiment alternative represented in Figures 3b and 3c, it is then foreseen that the continuous surface of door 2, 3 is made of an unique sheet of fire-resistant material, reinforced in at least one of the sides (in Figures 3b and 3c for example reinforced only on the upper side of the Figure) by means of vertical bars arranged at a mutual distance the ones from the others and solidly fixed to the sheet 39 along all their length. It must be specified that when we here speak about "vertical bars" we mean that these bars 3 10 are to be found in this position when the corresponding door 2, 3 is placed in the elevator in a working position.

Clearly if the sheet of fire-resistant material (simple or compound, made for example as sandwich of multiple material layers) has in itself already a sufficient bending resistance in the sense that it does not have (as shown for example in Figure 3a) to be equipped with any reinforcement by means of vertical bars or other reinforcement elements, if it also maintains the necessary folding qualities in order to satisfy the conditions requested by the claims. However, it is not easy to balance the qualities of rigidity concerning the horizontal axes and of folding regarding the vertical axes without providing some reinforcement measures, as foreseen by the solutions of Figures 3b -3f.

According to one alternative solution in Figure 3b it is foreseen that the bars 310 have a cylindrical section shape. This shape is ideal, since it allows the door folding in the winding or deviation point, in practice over all the surface dimension (that would not be the case if the bars 310 had, as an example, a rectangular section and were solidly fixed to the sheet of fire-resistant material along one of their sides).

Another alternative embodiment is represented in Figures 3f and 3e, based on which the continuous surface is made of an unique sheet 39', respectively 39", exhibiting, at regular mutual distances, vertical ribs 3 1 1 obtained by means of sheet pressing in a die (case of ribs 31 1 of Figures 31) or by means of local deformation of sheet 39" (case of ribs 3 1 1 of Figure 3e).

According to another embodiment it is foreseen that the fireproofing continuous surface, that is to say the sheet of fire-resistant material, is made of a metallic sheet, preferably of stainless steel with a thickness comprised between 0,2 and 1 millimetres, preferably 0.3 millimetres. This particular embodiment is particularly suitable in order to realise the solutions shown in Figures 3c and 3e. The advantages related to the use of a foil of metallic sheet and in particular of stainless steel, are more than obvious (fire-resistance, high elasticity coefficient, etc). Such solutions require in any event the employment of appropriate vertical reinforcements as previously described. According to another preferred embodiment, represented schematically in Figure 3a, it is foreseen that the fireproofing continuous surface is made of a sheet of fire-resistant plastic material 39, with a thickness comprised between 2 and 10 millimetres, preferably 3 millimetres. The problem of such a sheet of fire-resistant plastic material, many types of which with different names and brands are today marketed, is the one of the bending resistance that, as wanted by the present invention, must be high around the horizontal axes when the door is assembled into the elevator. In order to palliate to this possible disadvantage of the sheet of fire-resistant plastic material, another embodiment alternative of the invention, represented in Figure 3d, foresees therefore that the same one is reinforced by means of the embedment in its mass of reinforcement bars provided with a high elasticity coefficient, uniformly distanced the one from the other and that, after the assembly of the door in the elevator cabin, they will take a vertical position.

Another embodiment form, which has the advantage of allowing obtaining the maximal reduction of the overall dimension laterally to the elevator cabin, foresees that the bending radius r is comprised between 3 and 20 centimetres.

The folding elevator door can favourably be made as rolling up door or winding door around a vertical axis 4, 5, 6 (Figures 1 and 2) placed on the door opening side or also that the door is folded of 90° from its opening side, as shown with the landing entrance door 3 of Figure 2 and is guided into upper and lower guides 7, 8, which are straight after such bending. In this second event, the handling of the external door will preferably take place via dragging by means of the corresponding cabin door, while in the event of rolling up door, the handling of the door will preferably take place individually, motorising the corresponding rolling axis 4, 5 or 6. These motorisation problems are well known by the man skilled in the art and are today solved mainly by means of chain drive or toothed gearing. Another preferred embodiment foresees that the fireproofing continuous surface, respectively the sheet of fire-resistant material, is textured on its external side so as to improve the aesthetical appearance.

Another preferred embodiment foresees that the fireproofing continuous surface, respectively the sheet of fire-resistant material 39, is provided with an acoustic insulation layer. The sense of this alternative is obvious: to reduce the noises arising from the door opening and closing and possibly due to possible vibrations that could appear during the elevator stroke. This solution must be constructively seen, within the already mentioned sphere of the choice of multilayer sheets of fire-resistant material and is therefore taken into account in this context.

The advantages are, beyond those of the reduction of the overall dimension and of the fulfilment of the legal provisions on anti-fire protection already mentioned, related also to a relevant simplicity of construction of the door, thanks to the possibility of moving it directly through the manipulation of the rolling or winding axis and to its stillness.

As last we should not forget the aesthetical appearance, thanks to which the type of folding door for elevator is suitable for every type of traditional and innovative architecture.

It is for security reasons that the elevator shaft landing entrance door 3 cannot be provided with a proper operating device, but must be opened through a dragging action by the cabin door 2. In this way it is efficaciously prevented that the landing entrance door 3 opens without the elevator cabin 1 being present, which would involve big dangers for the user, who often enters in a hurry into the elevator without assessing if the cabin is there or not. So for example in the case of Figure 5, the rolling axis 5 of door 3 could never be operated through an operating device. Thanks to appropriate devices, the elevators doors, being the one 2 of cabin 1 as well as the one 3 of the landing entrance, must always remain closed and open only for a precise opening order, where then the operating device of door 2 of cabin 1 must be able to overcome the exercised forces, by means of springs or counterweights or others, on door 2 as well as on door 3, tending to close the door.

This is today subject to a detailed legislation on safety in all Countries, to which we refer without entering into details, since it concerns a knowledge known by the man skilled in the art.

The present invention concerns in fact the way of operating an elevator door folding around a vertical axis, i.e., as explained here above, the way of operating the door 2 of the elevator cabin 1 , taking into account that the landing entrance door 3 is only and always dragged in order to be opened and that this is done mechanically from the door 2, while for all the remaining time the door must remain closed and be guarded against the danger of an unintentionally opening.

The upper and lower horizontal guides in which the doors 2, 3 are guided are then indicated with the reference numbers 7 and 8. Therefore the invention concerns specifically the operating of door 2 of cabin I, said door 2 being of a type folding around a vertical axis 4 or 6, with folding meaning that it can be bent around such axis of a certain angle or even, according to a preferred invention form, be rolled up around such axis (solution of Figure 1 and 2 for what concerns door 2 of the cabin 1 ) and is characterised by three fundamental conditions : a) the vertical axis 4, 6 constitutes also the dragging device or respectively the operating device of the door 2 of elevator cabin 1 during its opening. In other words, the axis 4, 6 is a axis properly operated and driven in order to satisfy all safety opening and closing requirements that prevail according to the current safety criteria (arrest in case of an obstruction, return with short pushes etc), b) the door 2 of cabin 1 is constantly subject to a tractive force, which tends to close the door, this being a condition that this today commonly requested and that can be solved in different ways, as we will explain below, c) the vertical axis 4, 6 is made as a motor with external rotor and internal stator. This is the true innovative characteristic of the invention. It is a matter of motorising the axis 4, 6, not as already known from the past by means of an motor external to the axis, as shown in the famous documents mentioned in the introduction (for example US-A-6,802,499 and FR-A-2800055), but with a type of motor totally built-in into the axis 4, 6, as used today for example in order to motorise the conveying rolls of the horizontal conveying belts for the transport of goods. These constructions of conveying rolls are characterised by the fact that they show an internal stator of small diameter, but relatively of a big length and an external rotor of a ringlike shape, also relatively of a small diameter, but of big longitudinal extent. This allows obtaining a torque sufficiently high in spite of the reduced diameter of the construction, torque that, as shown in the practice, is more than sufficient in order to guarantee the perfect functioning of an elevator door. Similar rolls operated with internal stator are commercialised in many embodiment forms, such as for example frequency-driven direct-current motors equipped with controlling electronic systems that allow their rotation within huge fields of number of rotations, from zero to the maximum, with sufficient torques, such as brush or brushless motors or such as motors equipped with gearing-down mechanism, between the rotor and a surrounding shell to the rotor, in order to mechanically reduce the number of rotations of the rotor of the motor to a much lower number of rotations of the rolls shell. All these solutions are contemplated for the realisation of the present invention and are chosen according to the specific conditions of utilisation, taking into account the economic factors (price, maintenance necessity, etc) in addition to the technical conditions to be comply with (speed, torque, dimension). This choice must be carried out by the man skilled in the art based of the market abundant supply in the field of operated conveying rolls. For this purpose, you may have a look at the technical documentation provided by the already-mentioned firm Interroll SA, located in 6592 S. Antonino (Switzerland) that includes all the necessary technical information in order to realise a vertical axis 4, 6 for folding elevator door being in a position of satisfying to the technical conditions set by the present invention.

In order to realise the invention, it is not necessary that the motor with external rotor and internal stator extends on all the length of axis 4, 6, but it is sufficient that it extends only on a part of such length. In fact what is important is the torque exercised on the axis motor 4, 6 that must be sufficient in order to move the door 2 of the cabin 1 with safety, overcoming the force that tends to close the door when the axis is not operated (force that, by the way, is of an amount from 10 to 20 Kg, therefore easily to overcome also utilising an electric motor of small diameter, but of sufficient length). According to a preferred embodiment, it is foreseen that the external diameter of a vertical axis 4, 6, in which is placed the motor, is comprised between 4 and 10 cm and is preferably equal to approximately 5 cm, where then such dimension is suitable in the circumstance where the axis 4, 6 constitutes itself the motor external rotor as well as in the circumstance where between the motor external rotor and the axis a shell is present that contains all the motor. The above-mentioned feature is the one that allows obtaining the better exploitation of the space and is suitable in the circumstance where the door 2 rolls up on the axis 4, 6, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, as well as in the circumstance that foresees that the door 2 is merely deviated around the vertical axis of 90° and then pushed into the upper and inferior guides (solution not shown in the Figures for the door 2, but analogous to what shown for the door 3 in Figure 2).

The Figure 3 shows a door 2 for an elevator cabin in which we can see the door partially opened and therefore partially rolled up around a vertical axis 4. The door has been "sectioned" in the central area, partly in order to allow seeing the axis 4 forming the operating element of door 2, according to the present invention. With 4 it is meant the motor's external rotor as well as a shell connected with the motor's external rotor by means of a movement transmission, such as for example a gearing-down mechanism (not shown), which is however known from the above- mentioned practice of the operated rolls. We do not have to go here into the constructive details of such motors, since these are today available in the market and can be bought by everybody. In this context, here it is enough to refer to the items contained in such objects catalogues, such as for example in the catalogues of the firm INTERROLL, where such different types of motors with their technical characteristics are described in details. It is then clearly the constructor task to choose, taking into account the present conditions (for example the door largeness and configuration - simple door or doubled door -, forces that are taken into account, in particular "closing force", which must be overcome by the motor, price of the motor with all the necessary driving aggregates etc.), the most appropriate solution to this the purpose.

According to another embodiment it is foreseen that the tractive force, to which the door 2 is constantly subject to and that tends to close the door, is applied at least in its upper and lower part. This solution tends to eliminate the danger of embedment of the door, danger that could be quite important if the door 2 were subject to traction only in an asymmetric point, for example only in its upper or lower part. In a similar circumstance, the door vertical edge would tend to set itself in an inclined position in relation to the vertical, since it is withheld more from one side than from the other, what would involve the blocking by j amming also with limited forces.

The situation where the tractive force is essentially applied on the whole door height is clearly ideal, situation foreseen according to another embodiment, not shown, but easily immaginable.

The Figures 4 and 5 show a device to apply the tractive force to an extremity (the upper one in the detail shown) of the door 2.

In such circumstance we can see a traction mean 9 such as, for example, a flexible band that pulls the door 2 towards right, in Figure 4, trying to close it against the hitting 3. The upper side of the door 2 is only represented in Figures 4 and 5, but the same traction mean mechanism is foreseen also on the lower side of the door; therefore the door turns out to be pulled by traction from two traction means (of which only the upper one is shown), in a symmetrical way.

The traction means 9 is deviated on a first pulley 1 1 (of which in Figure 5 only the turning axis can be seen) and passes then on a second pulley 12 in order to get back to the door hitting 10 to which it is fixed. A tractive force, produced, for example, from a tractive spring 13 fixed on the other door jamb 14, acts then on the pulley 1 1. Whatever type of energy accumulator can naturally be employed instead of the spring 13. According to a preferred alternative we may chose a cylindrical worm spring or a spiral spring (both not shown), but it is clearly possible and also favourable for some reasons, to choose as energy accumulator a counterweight. This solution, not represented in the figures, is also of easy understanding for the man killed in the art. But it requires a greater constructive effort than the one of the solution shown in Figures 4 and 5 with a spring energy accumulator, but it allows obtaining that the tractive force¹ exercised on the door 2 is independent from the position more or less opened of the door itself, since it does not depend any more from the spring extension or torsion degree. This advantage of the counterweights system is practically lost in the motorised opening of door 2 by the modern technology of the frequency electronically controlled motors, with which it is possible to adapt also the torque exercised by the motor on vertical axis 4 of door 2, in order to maintain constant, in spite of the force variation exercised from the springs of the traction means 9, the necessary force to open the door 2, whatever is its opening degree. But if we must force the door 2, for whatever reason, to be opened manually, that is to say without the support of the motor of vertical axis 4, the disadvantage that the force to open the door 2 will increase with the opening degree of the door itself in the event of employment of a spring as energy accumulator 9, will become fully manifest.

Important for the realisation it is only that the door 2 is constantly subj ect to a tractive force that tends to close it, independently from the means employed for such purpose.

The use of a motor with external rotor and internal stator as vertical axis 4 or 6 of the door, with the most modern motor driving systems offered today by the control system technologies by means of the electronics, technology already known to the man skilled in the art, allows to optimally solve all problems linked to the handlings of the elevator door. It is enough to think here at the door automatic stop when it meets an obstruction during its closing, at the automatic return one or more times on the obstruction, at the door locking in closed position etc. In relation with the locking it is better to remember that the legal provisions on safety prescribes that the elevator doors are to be closed and locked also with a mechanical system that is schematically mentioned in Figure 4 and 5 with numbers 15 and 16, the first designating a vertical pin and the second designating an elastic deformation lock. Many types of such mechanical locking systems are known that are not worth of being described, since they play a marginal role within the present invention.

The advantages of the present invention lay in the fact that it allows obtaining the maximum saving of overall dimension, since the space to be allocated to the driving motor of the vertical axis, around which folds or rolls up the folding elevator door, lacks here completely. Moreover the elevator door can be supplied as compact pre-assembled unit already equipped with the driving unit (motor) and maybe also with control system unit (electronic) incorporated into the building of the door itself.

The described invention for a door with a single shutter can analogously be realised for doors with two shutters, incorporating the necessary modifications, also in the context of wide doors with three and more shutters. What is important is the necessity that the motorized doors are of a type folding around a vertical axis that constitutes its control system.

Claims

Patent claims

1. Operating device comprising an elevator door (2) folding around a vertical axis (4, 6) during its opening or closing movement, characterised in that - the vertical axis (4, 6) constitutes the dragging or respectively driving element of the door (2) of the cabin (1) during its opening and that - a motor with external rotor and internal stator is placed within the vertical axis (4, 6).

2. Device according to claim 1 , characterised in that the door (2) is guided along its upper and lower parts by means of horizontal guides (7 , 8) that determine its shifting path.

3. Device according to claims 1 or 2, characterised in that the door (2) is rolled up in several layers each upon another around the vertical axis (4, 6).

4. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the door (2) of the cabin (1 ) is constantly subject to a tractive force that tends to close it and this force is preferably applied at least in its upper part and its lower part.

5. Device according claim 4, characterised in that the tractive force is exercised on the door by means of an upper traction means (9) acting on the door upper edge and a lower traction means acting on the door lower edge, both traction means being tensed by means of an energy accumulator (13).

6. Device according to claim 5, characterised in that the energy accumulator (13) is a cylindrical worm spring or a spiral spring.

7. Device according to claim 5, characterised in that the energy accumulator (13) is a counterweight.

8. Device according to one of the claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the door (2, 3) folding around a vertical axis (4, 5, 6) during its opening or closing movement includes a fireproofing continuous surface made of fire-resistant material, and/or that the door (2, 3) is sufficiently rigid around any horizontal axis in order to satisfy to the legal provisions on the maximal deformability for permissible bending if stressed in its centre, in the closed state, with a required horizontal force and/or is sufficiently folding around any vertical axis in order to be able to be folded up with a bending radius r lower than 10 d, d being the thickness of the door (2, 3).

9. Device according to claim 8, characterised in that the continuous surface is made of a single sheet (39) of fire-resistant material reinforced at least on one of the sides by means of vertical bars (3 10) arranged at mutual distances from each other and solidly fixed to the sheet (39) along all their length.

0. Device according to claim 8 or 9, characterised in that the continuous surface is made of a single sheet (39', 39 "), exhibiting vertical ribs (3 1 1) at regular mutual distances, obtained by press forming of the sheet or by means of local deformation of the sheet. 1. Elevator with operating device according to any of the claims 1 to 10.