EP1967668A2 - Smoke extractor device opening by translation - Google Patents

Abstract

The apparatus has lifting mechanisms (2, 3) controlling displacements of a vault element (1) i.e. bulged dome, with respect to a skylight frame. Stabilization units stabilize the element in displacement, by balancing between opposed sides of the element using cables that describe effort demultiplier circuits during displacement of the element. The units have straight and horizontal lateral sides (4, 5) that are driven by deployable mechanisms i.e. articulated rod mechanisms (16) of the mechanisms (2, 3).

Description

The present invention relates to the design and manufacture of smoke extraction apparatus and equipment which are generally associated with them. More specifically, it relates to smoke extraction apparatus of the sunroof member type which can be mounted in vertical translation on a fixed structure.

In general, smoke extraction devices are widely used in the building industry, in particular to evacuate fumes produced during a fire. They operate by opening a flue gas duct which is normally closed by application of the opening element on a cooperating fixed frame. It is on the roof of buildings that they are found most often, at the top of stairwells or other risers in multi-family buildings, or on the terrace above industrial buildings and public buildings. This facilitates opening because the opening element is subjected to the pressure of the hot, smoke-laden air, which tends to rise. It follows that the device can function properly in smoke extraction under the simple effect of natural convection. But the invention does not exclude other situations, nor the use of fans or other means of assistance to the flow of stale air to evacuate.

In smoke devices of the translating roof element type, the opening element, often referred to as a "dome" or "vault", is placed under the control of lifting means which lift it vertically away from it. a receiver frame on which it rests in the closed position. Particularly suitable lifting means involve two similar mechanisms acting on two opposite sides of the arch member. In current industrial practice, cooperating elements, arch element and receiver frame, which are of quadrangular shape, preferably with right angles between the adjacent sides, are considered. It will therefore be admitted here, for the sake of clarity, that the two opposite sides on which the lifting mechanisms act are parallel; and that they are advantageously symmetrical with respect to a median axis of the quadrangular shape. The two sides in question will here be called lateral sides, or lifting sides. They are symmetrical, on either side of the median axis, or longitudinal axis.

In general, the design of the lifting means used to lift the arch member out of its cooperating receiving frame and to let it fall over poses serious difficulties, that the present invention aims to solve better than it does. has been done in the different systems that have been proposed to date.

In particular, any smoke extraction device must be able to open easily at any time, in complete safety, and remain available and ready to perform its duties effectively for many years. However any defect of stability of the element of vault during its displacements is because of vibrations which are likely to cause a blockage of the mechanisms of lifting, from where an incapacity to function correctly thereafter. In addition, it is difficult to ensure that the vault element returns exactly in its rest position on the receiving frame, and the slightest positioning error in the maneuver prevents its return to the closed position of the device outside operating periods in smoke extraction. Even assuming that this handicap can sometimes be tolerated for single-use smoke extraction devices that are triggered only in case of fire and for a complete opening, the problem becomes more acute when it is also desired to be able to use the repetitively in aeration, especially since it is then generally used in an intermediate position of opening.

To meet the requirements of industrial practice, the invention proposes to combine lifting means for controlling the movements of the arch element relative to the fixed curb with means for stabilizing the arch element during its movements. , which all the better complement the effects of the lifting means when they are advantageously of the type with deployable mechanisms acting symmetrically on two lateral sides of the vault element to lift it away from the curb and control its return in closed position on it, as is known per se from a prior art which is illustrated, for example, by the patent document EP 0 801 183 .

The invention proposes to act to do this by balancing between two opposite sides of the vault element, in terms of distance traveled with respect to its receiving structure in the closed position, by using wire elements forced to describe circuits multiplying efforts. By such stabilizing means it is possible to maintain the equality of the distances traveled by these two opposite sides of the arch element during the movements of the latter between its extreme positions, closed position at rest on the fixed receiver frame and open position. after uprising: maximum. These two sides of the vault, which will be described here as balancing, may be the two transverse sides which, in a quadrangular form, are complementary to the two lifting sides between their respective ends, but most often it will be preferable to acting in stabilization of the vault on the same lateral sides of the latter as in uprising, especially since it is advantageous for these lateral sides to be reinforced by means of stiffening which are then not necessary on the transverse sides.

In general, the wire elements are constituted in particular by cables, where appropriate by two different cable sections or by two different parts of the same cable,

Similarly, said stress reducing circuits can be formed on the same closed loop path in which there are two symmetrical parts which are respectively associated with the two balancing sides of the vault element.

In the same concern to improve the operating conditions of the smoke evacuation devices opening by translation of the arch element, the invention also proposes to combine control means of a different nature to, respectively, ensure the lifting by action on the lifting sides and ensure stabilization by acting on the balancing sides. It thus provides, in particular, in preferred embodiments, to act on the former by the effect of fluid pressure, in particular using lifting mechanisms with articulated elements deployable under the control of pneumatic cylinders, and to act on the second directly by mechanical equilibrium displacement means: each of the balancing sides with respect to a fixed reference level can thus benefit at best from the power advantages that it is known to appreciate pneumatic cylinders while overcoming their shortcomings thanks to the fineness of precision that can provide the balancing means constructed and operated in accordance with the present invention.

According to secondary features of the invention, the stabilizing means consist essentially of a wire element, of the cord or cable type, of constant length, which is kept moving on itself on a closed loop circuit comprising two parts. symmetrical respectively associated with the two balancing sides of the vault element, each of said parts being subject to present a fixed point relative to the curb on a vertical component portion of its path. On each of these portions, the circuit imposed on the cable is preferably of the stress reduction type. As a variant, the invention is expressed by the fact that such a wire element is made in the form of two similar cable sections, so that the stabilization means comprise at least one cable section extending between two points. fixed references located respectively on each side of the apparatus by describing multiplier circuits of effort in opposite directions, one having effect in the direction of the rise, the other in the direction of the descent of the element of vault.

In its preferred embodiments, the smoke extraction apparatus according to the invention responds to various secondary characteristics, which apply separately or in combination in the same research to meet the needs of industrial practice, particularly in terms of reliability of construction. and operation of the apparatus as a whole and absence of harmful vibrations during the lift or the vault element.

These characteristics will emerge from the explanations which follow and from the detailed description of an apparatus according to the invention, as illustrated by the figures below, relating to an embodiment which is particularly advantageous for many application cases. although not limiting of the implementation of the invention.

• La figure 1 illustre schématiquement la constitution de l'appareil choisi pour illustrer l'invention, dans une vue en perspective se limitant aux moyens de commande de la translation de l'élément de coûte;
• La figure 2 montre plus particulièrement le circuit du câble qui assure la fonction de stabilisation de l'élément de voûte, en supposant que l'appareil est en cours d'ouverture au départ de sa position fermée, l'élément de voûte s'élevant alors comme illustré par la flèche M ;
• La figure 2A se réfère à la même position fermée que la figure 2 mais elle représente une simple vue de face de l'appareil ;
• La "figure 3 est une vue en perspective comme la figure 2, mais dans la situation inverse où le dôme quitte sa position ouverte pour revenir vers la position fermée, en s'abaissant verticalement comme illustré par la flèche D ;
• La figure 3A est l'homologue de la figure 2A, dans une vue de face de l'appareil supposé en position fermée.

In these figures:

• The figure 1 schematically illustrates the constitution of the apparatus chosen to illustrate the invention, in a perspective view limited to the control means of the translation of the cost element;
• The figure 2 shows more particularly the cable circuit which provides the stabilization function of the vault element, assuming that the apparatus is being opened from its closed position, the vault element then rising as illustrated by the arrow M;
• The Figure 2A refers to the same closed position as the figure 2 but it represents a simple front view of the device;
• The " figure 3 is a perspective view like the figure 2 , but in the opposite situation where the dome leaves its open position to return to the closed position, lowering vertically as illustrated by the arrow D;
• The figure 3A is the counterpart of the Figure 2A , in a front view of the apparatus assumed in the closed position.

The figures all refer to the position of the apparatus when it is mounted on a horizontal terrace constituting the roof of a building The vault element is represented in the form of a dome 1 of conventional shape, around rectangular, and more particularly square, which is movable in vertical translation over a bay formed through the roof and surrounded by a curb complementing the dome. In the rest position, when the device is normally closed, the dome rests on the curb, in waterproof support by its four sides on the four homologous sides of the curb.

There is not shown in the figures the roof on which the smoke extraction apparatus is mounted, nor the fixed receiver frame constituting the curb on which the opening element rests when it is in the closed position. On the other hand, it is clearly represented: this opening, made in the form of the domed dome 1, as well as the two lifting mechanisms associated with it on the figure 1 , the stabilization set that completes them on: Figures 2 and 3 .

The two lifting mechanisms 2 and 3 control the smoke extraction device by vertical translation of the dome.1 in both directions, the opening to move away from the curb by lifting and closing to bring it to rest in a sealed position on it. For this, they each act respectively on a corresponding lateral side 4 or 5 of the dome.

In a preferred embodiment of the apparatus of the invention, which is both the simplest and the most current for operation in vertical translation, the dome 1 covers a rectangular area, or more particularly square, and both opposite sides of the dome (4 and 5) are straight and horizontal, in a symmetrical arrangement with respect to a median axis that will be said here longitudinal. Their orientation remains horizontal during their displacement. The corresponding sides of the receiving frame of the curb (not shown) are therefore also horizontal.

Each lifting mechanism, for example the one on the left bearing the reference 2 on the figure 1 is essentially constituted by a deployable mechanism with articulated rods bearing, on the one hand on the corresponding lateral side 4 of the dome, rigidified for this purpose by an edge iron, and on the other hand on a fixed support 6 (or 7 for mechanism 3 on the right of the figure 1 ). At each end of the mechanism 2, we observe on the figure 1 opposite storage half-boxes, respectively 11 on the edge of the dome and 12 on the support 6. The latter is part as the curb of the fixed structure of the smoke extraction apparatus. It is of course the same for the other fixed support 7, arranged symmetrically in a corresponding situation with respect to the mechanism 3 driving the opposite side 5 of the dome 1.

Between the two half-boxes in which it is stored in the rest position, the apparatus being closed, the deployable mechanism is illustrated on the figure 1 by a realization in double cross of rods articulated between them.

The figure 1 still shows, and there better on the left side than on the right side, a cylinder 14, which is generally embodied by a double-acting pneumatic cylinder whose piston slides vertically in the fixed piston body. The mechanism 2 is deployed or retracted under the action of this jack, whose piston rod is connected to the movable casing 11 in the middle of the side, 4 of the dome; so that it drives the latter and thus controls the movements of the upper case 11 of the articulated rod mechanism relative to its fixed lower case 12.

In a more elaborate embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention, which has not been illustrated by a specific figure, a double cross similar to that of the figure 1 is combined with an articulated parallelogram, by adding two articulated rods to close the parallelogram between two parallel articulated rods respectively from each cross of the double cross. This solution provides better stability in the longitudinal direction of the dome by allowing longer reach supports at both ends of the support articulated structure. In other words, the dome translation control means comprise for each of its lateral sides a deployable structure of articulated rods designed for balanced motion transmission in the longitudinal direction along the corresponding lateral side of the dome. On each side of the apparatus, the mechanism then integrates longitudinal stabilization means of the dome during its movements, the effects of which are advantageously combined with those of the means according to the invention ensuring a transverse stabilization between the two lateral sides of the dome. as it will now be described.

The means of the stabilization device have not been represented on the figure 1 to better show the constitution of the lifting means, while the latter is in itself conventional. It will be noted, however, that we are here in a situation in which, for a dome of rectangular (and more particularly square) right-of-way, the complementary sides to the lifting sides are curved. Therefore, it is also these lifting sides that will play the role of balancing sides for transverse stabilization. Furthermore, there are provided two crosspieces 17 and 18 rigidly connecting the two sides 4 and 5 in a horizontal plane, for questions relating to the strength of the dome and the accuracy of its movement controlled by the two lifting mechanisms.

The FIGS. 2 and 3 are there to represent the stabilization means that complete the lifting mechanisms in accordance with the invention. There is no representation of the deployable mechanisms and we have only symbolically illustrated the dome 1. On the other hand, it was recalled the presence of the two supports 6 and 7, which are fixed under the roof which is equipped with the smoke evacuation device described, because these two support supports of the lifting mechanisms also constitute fixed reference points for the stabilization device.

The means provided herein, according to the invention, for stabilizing the dome during its movements: and to prevent the parts of the smoke extraction device as a whole from suffering from vibration phenomena, comprise two symmetrical parts 8 and 9, which act respectively on the side 4 of the dome for the left part 8, visible on the left of the figures, and on the side 5 of the dome for the opposite right part 9. The fixed support 7 associated with the latter was only mentioned, by dashed lines; to not hide the elements of the stabilization device. These elements are indeed behind the support 7 on this side, while the elements of the left part 8 are visible in front of the fixed support 6.

As illustrated on figures 2 and 2A in the closed position of the smoke extractor and on the figures 3 and 3A for the raised dome in the open position, the stabilizing device consists essentially of a continuous cable 20, which is seen to buckle on itself by describing a closed-loop circuit following a path imposed by two sets of pulleys respectively of the two symmetrical parts 8 and 9. In the case of example chosen to best illustrate the practical implementation of the invention, it is provided on each side of the device to pass the cable around three pulleys, each in free rotation about its axis, but as in a hoist, the pulleys could be more numerous on each portion of circuit thus defined.

Between the two symmetrical parts 8 and 9, the cable 20 passes horizontally from one to the other of the two sets of pulleys along two strands traversing the circuit in opposite directions, passing to the shelter between the two ties 1 T and 18 ( figure 1 ). To receive the two strands of the cable on each side of the dome, each set of pulleys: has two upper pulleys; rotatably mounted about a longitudinal axis integral with the edge iron of the corresponding side of the dome respectively 4 on the left and 5 'on the right The references 24 and 25 have been attributed to the pulleys which guide the strand 21, visible forwards in the figures, between the left part and the right part of the stabilizing device, while the homologous pulleys guiding the rear section 22 carry the references 26 and 27.

In each set of pulleys, the force reduction circuit imposed on the cable is materialized by a third pulley, visible at 28 for the left part of the stabilization device and at 29 for the right part. In each set, the distance between this lower pulley and the upper pulleys is constant, the three pulleys being mounted on the same movable support moving relative to the fixed curb at the same time as the opening of the device. In addition, this distance between the two pulley levels is the same on both sides of the device.

In other words each set of pulleys, as shown in the figures, comprises in the upper part two pulleys in free rotation on axes which are fixed on the edge of the corresponding lateral side of the dome and an intermediate pulley on the cable path that is carried at the lower end of a support bar oriented vertically from the lateral side of the dome and secured to the latter. This is how we represented on Figures 2 and 3 four uprights constituting such supports pulleys, in particular the uprights 31 and 32 visible on the right of the figures. Among them, the rear amount 32 is chosen for example. As it is also visible on the right side of Figures 2A and 3A , it is bent at right angles to its upper end to be welded to the edge iron consolidating the dome on its corresponding lateral side. The corresponding set of pulleys is thus secured to the opening.

In operation, the cable never travels the entire circuit in a closed loop. Its movements on itself are limited to a movement back and forth of each of the two strands, one from a fixed point of its own, the other to another fixed point of its own. . In their part following the transverse direction of the dome, each one moves on itself alternately in one direction and in the other depending on whether the opening dome moves up or down

It is more precisely seen in the figures as in its path between the upper pair of pulleys and the lower intermediate pulley; the cable 20 is fixedly attached to a stud 34 which is provided for this purpose on the wall of the support 6, and that on the other side, it is also fixedly attached to another stud 35, which is integral with the fixed support 7. By the symmetry of the arrangement, the assembly divides the cable 20 into two sections of equal lengths each extending from one to the other of the fixed points respectively following two force reduction circuits, the ascending parts and descendants are distributed in a complementary manner on each side of the moving dome.

It follows in operation a balancing effect of the forces exerted on each side of the dome which is somewhat double, since each cable section works in traction for part down (towards the lower pulley of its circuit) and partly upwards (towards one or the other of the upper pulleys of its circuit). This is how on the figure 2 the rear end of the cable, 22, is pulled down from its fixed point on the pin 34, and then it is translated in the upward direction on the circuit portion: from the lower pulley 28 to upper level of the pulley 25, before describing a new fraction of downhill circuit to the other end peak 35. It is also that, similarly but in opposition, the front strand 21 is pulled into the upward direction from the lower pulley 29 in the right part of the stabilization device, and that it tends to move from the right to the left in the horizontal part of the circuit to follow the relative displacement of the pin 34 which is translated downhill while the dome rises.

The same mode of operation is found, but with a movement in the opposite direction of the cable on each of the circuit fractions, when the dome drops to its closed position on the curb. On the figure 3 as on the figure 2 arrows schematize this movement of the cable 20 in translation on itself.

As already pointed out, the invention is in no way limited by the features which have been specified in the foregoing description. In particular, it would remain within the scope of the invention to designate the apparatus for a purpose other than that of the smoke extraction of the buildings on which it is installed.

Claims (10)

Smoke removal device of the openable arch element type which can be moved in translation relative to a fixed curb on which it rests in the closed position, characterized in that in addition to lifting means (2, 3) for controlling the displacements of the vault element (1) with respect to the curb, the apparatus comprises means for stabilizing the moving vault element acting by balancing between two opposite sides of said vault element, by means of cables describing circuits multipliers of forces during displacements of the vault element. Apparatus according to claim 1, characterized in that said lifting means comprise deployable mechanisms acting symmetrically on two lateral sides of the vault element to raise it away from the curb and to control its return in closed position on the latter. this. Apparatus according to claim 2, characterized in that said opposite sides on which the stabilizing means act are constituted by said lateral sides (4, 5) of the vault element which are driven by the deployable mechanisms. Apparatus according to claim 3, characterized in that said deployable mechanisms are articulated rod mechanisms (16) each designed for balanced motion transmission along the corresponding lateral side of the vault element. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said lifting means act on said lateral sides of the vault element (4; 5) by fluid pressure effect, in particular by deployable mechanisms: under control pneumatic cylinders, while said stabilizing means act by balancing the displacements of said opposite sides with respect to a fixed reference level. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said stabilizing means comprise at least one cable section (21, 22) extending between two fixed reference points located respectively on each side of the apparatus by describing force reduction circuits of opposite directions, one having an effect in the upward direction, the other in the downward direction of the arch member, for a translationally translatable arch member vertical. Apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that said stabilizing means are essentially constituted by a wire element, or cable (20) of constant length, maintained to move on itself on a loop circuit closed gate having two symmetrical portions respectively associated with the two opposite sides of the arch member, each of said portions being subject to present a fixed point (34, 35) with respect to the curb on a vertical component portion of its path. An apparatus according to claim 7, characterized in that in each of said symmetrical portions said cable (20) is held on a force reduction circuit. Apparatus according to claim 8, characterized in that the cable circuit is defined in each of said symmetrical portions by a set of pulleys mounted on a support secured to the corresponding side of the arch member, comprising two pulleys at a higher level and an intermediate pulley at a lower level. Apparatus according to claim 9, characterized in that said cable forms two strands (21, 22) traveling in opposite directions between upper pulleys of the two sets of pulleys and passing from one to the other of said symmetrical portions sheltered from sleepers (17, 18) connecting said opposite sides of the arch member.

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