EP2778337A1 - Passage barrier for moving staircases or walkways - Google Patents

Abstract

The wicket (1) has a barrier (6) fixed on a movable element (7) placed partially inside a post (4) in a housing. The element pivots around a vertical axis (8) such that the barrier is moved between open and closed positions. Mechanical stops limit travel of the element. An end of a travel detection device includes an opening in an upper flange and an axle fixed on the element. The stops and the axle are fusible or retractable or the barrier is folded or the post is pivoted around the axis such that the position is retractable under abnormal effort's effect to allow emergency passage for users.

Description

Technical area

The present invention relates to a gate for controlling access to escalators or moving walkways or the like.

Prior art

Installations such as escalators or moving walkways or similar were, from the 1970s, massively installed in public places such as department stores or subways, to streamline the movement of individuals in these public places.

These facilities operate continuously throughout the day and their components are very busy especially during peak hours. Given these heavy demands, said facilities are frequently stopped for maintenance reasons or following untimely stops related in particular to untimely support on the emergency stop buttons. During these periods of shutdown, it is necessary to prohibit public access to these facilities to allow easy intervention and to avoid any risk of accident including falls during the restart.

Currently, to solve this problem, before the start of any operation, the company responsible for the intervention is obliged to place a person at each end of the installation, on the one hand, to wait and check that it is empty and, secondly, to then prohibit access by the establishment of removable barrier in front of each end.

However, this intervention is cumbersome and restrictive because it requires the presence of at least two people equipped with transceivers radiotelephone. In addition, the barriers in place are typically heavy and cumbersome and make difficult an emergency passage.

Finally, there is already known a passage barrier for an emergency passage such as that described in the patent application. DE 33 08 684 . This passage barrier is such that its pivoting is achieved by means of a friction wheel, which also has the function of slip coupling, so that in case of panic movement the passage barrier can be folded, even if it is in the closed position. However, this barrier is particularly complex to implement because of the position of its engine. In addition, the effort to exert to open the barrier in case of panic is difficult to adjust making the barrier unreliable and unreliable.

Presentation of the invention

The purpose of the present invention is therefore to overcome the aforementioned drawbacks and to provide a manual or automatic gate and remotely controllable to control access to facilities such as escalators, moving walkways or the like without prevent the exit of people between the two ends of said facilities and while allowing an emergency passage ensuring the safety of users, said gate being further robust, reliable, simple to implement and reduced size.

• un poteau fixé à proximité de ladite extrémité,
• une barrière fixée sur un élément mobile disposé au moins en partie à l'intérieur dudit poteau dans un logement délimité par au moins un flasque inférieur et un flasque supérieur et apte à pivoter autour d'un axe de sorte que la barrière se déplace entre une position "ouverte" dégageant le passage afin de laisser l'accès à l'extrémité de l'escalier mécanique et une position "fermée" barrant le passage afin d'interdire l'accès à ladite extrémité,
• un moteur d'entrainement en rotation de l'ensemble élément mobile - barrière,
• un organe d'accouplement du type à embrayage couplé au moteur et apte à coopérer avec l'élément mobile pour l'entrainer en rotation,
• des butées mécaniques limitant la course de l'élément mobile, et
• un dispositif de détection de fin de course comprenant une lumière ménagée dans le flasque supérieur, un axe fixé sur l'élément mobile et traversant ladite lumière, et des microcontacts fixés sur le flasque supérieur au voisinage de chacune des extrémités de la lumière. Ledit portillon est remarquable en ce que les butées et l'axe sont "fusibles" ou escamotables, ou la barrière est apte à se plier ou le poteau est apte à pivoter autour d'un axe sensiblement vertical de manière à ce que ladite position "fermée" soit escamotable sous l'effet d'un effort anormal afin de permettre un passage d'urgence sans risques pour les usagers.

According to the invention, it is therefore proposed a gate to control the access of at least one end of a escalator or a moving walkway or the like comprising at least:

• a pole fixed near said end,
• a barrier fixed on a movable element disposed at least partly inside said post in a housing delimited by at least one lower flange and an upper flange and pivotable about an axis so that the barrier moves between a "open" position clearing the passage to allow access to the end of the escalator and a "closed" position blocking the passage to prohibit access to said end,
• a drive motor in rotation of the movable element - barrier assembly,
• a coupling member of the clutch type coupled to the motor and adapted to cooperate with the movable element to drive it in rotation,
• mechanical stops limiting the stroke of the movable member, and
• an end-of-stroke detection device comprising a slot in the upper flange, an axis fixed on the movable element and passing through said slot, and microcontacts fixed on the upper flange near each of the ends of the slot. Said gate is remarkable in that the stops and the axis are "fusible" or retractable, or the barrier is able to bend or the post is able to pivot about a substantially vertical axis so that said position " closed "is retractable under the effect of an abnormal effort to allow an emergency passage without risk to users.

The coupling member preferably comprises an arm adapted to cooperate with a clevis integral with the movable member.

Advantageously, the abutments are studs screwed or welded to said lower flange, extending towards the movable element and able to come into contact with the yoke of the latter.

According to a preferred embodiment, the microswitches are of the limit switch type.

The stops, light and axis are advantageously positioned symmetrically with respect to an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the escalator.

According to a preferred embodiment, the gate comprises signaling and control equipment selected from the group consisting of light indicators, sound and light warning devices and means for manual control and / or remote opening and the closing of the barrier.

Brief description of the figures

• la figure 1 est une vue en perspective partielle d'un portillon selon l'invention en position "fermée" installé en bas d'un escalier mécanique ;
• la figure 2 est une vue de face du portillon de la figure 1 en position "fermée" ;
• la figure 3 est une coupe verticale du portillon de la figure 2 selon l'axe III-III' de la figure 6 ;
• la figure 4 est une vue d'un premier détail de la figure 3 ;
• la figure 5 est une vue d'un deuxième détail de la figure 3 ;
• la figure 6 est une coupe horizontale du portillon de la figure 2 selon l'axe VI-VI' de la figure 4 ;
• la figure 7 est une coupe horizontale du portillon de la figure 2 selon l'axe VII-VII' de la figure 5.

Other advantages and features will become more apparent from the following description of an embodiment of a gate according to the invention with reference to the appended figures in which:

• the figure 1 is a partial perspective view of a gate according to the invention in the "closed" position installed at the bottom of a escalator;
• the figure 2 is a front view of the gate of the figure 1 in the "closed"position;
• the figure 3 is a vertical section of the gate of the figure 2 along axis III-III 'of the figure 6 ;
• the figure 4 is a view of a first detail of the figure 3 ;
• the figure 5 is a view of a second detail of the figure 3 ;
• the figure 6 is a horizontal section of the gate of the figure 2 along axis VI-VI 'of the figure 4 ;
• the figure 7 is a horizontal section of the gate of the figure 2 along axis VII-VII 'of the figure 5 .

Best way to realize the technical invention

We will describe below the gate installed on a horizontal floor near the lower end of an inclined escalator to move from one level to another in a building for example commercial type. It goes without saying that said gate may also be installed at the upper end of said escalator, but also at the ends of a moving sidewalk or the like or on more or less inclined ground, the terms vertical and / or horizontal will then be to adapt to the inclination of said ground.

With reference to the figure 1 the present invention relates to a gate 1 for controlling access to the lower end 2 of a escalator 3 and having a pole 4 fixed on the ground 5 near said end 2 and a barrier 6 fixed on an element mobile 7 disposed at least partially inside said pole 4 and pivotable about a substantially vertical axis 8 so that the barrier 6 moves between an "open" position clearing the passage to allow access to the end 2 of the escalator 3 and a "closed" position blocking the passage to prevent access to said end 2.

It is well understood that the movable element 7 can pivot about a substantially horizontal axis 8 without departing from the scope of the present invention.

With reference to Figures 2 to 7 , the movable element 7 of the gate 1 is of generally cylindrical shape, disposed inside a housing 9 of the pole 4 and is rotated by means of a motor 10, preferably electrical, the housing 9 of the pole 4 being delimited by a peripheral wall 11 and two separating flanges subsequently named lower flange 12 and upper flange 13.

For reasons of ease of connection electrical, implementation and maintenance, the motor 10 is preferably integral with the lower flange 12.

In addition, for reasons of stability, the movable element 7 is secured to the upper flange 13 via a pivot 14 fixed on said upper flange 13.

To limit the effort to avoid any risk of injury to a user when moving the barrier 6 and allow an emergency passage if necessary even when the barrier 6 is in the "closed" position, the gate 1 comprises a coupling member 15 of the disc clutch type coupled to the motor 10 and preferably having an arm 16 adapted to cooperate with a yoke 17 secured to the movable member 7 to drive the latter in rotation.

The rotation of the movable element 7-barrier 6 assembly is mechanically limited by two stops 18 fixed on the lower flange 12, said stops 18 being advantageously studs screwed or welded to said lower flange 12 and extending towards the movable member 7. These stops 18 are adapted to cooperate with the yoke 17 of the movable member 7 to limit the movement of the latter.

In addition, in order to control the motor 10 and in particular to control the start-up, the direction of rotation and the stop of the latter, the gate 1 comprises a limit-of-travel detection device 19 making it possible to detect whether the moving element assembly 7 - barrier 6 is at one of the extreme positions of its displacement respectively corresponding to the "open" and "closed" positions of the barrier 6. Said end-of-travel detection device 19 comprises a slot 20 formed in the upper flange 13, an axis 21 fixed on the movable element 7 and passing through said light 20 and microswitches 22, of the limit switch type, fixed on the upper flange 13 in the vicinity of each of the ends of the slot 20 and preferably above said upper flange 13. The microcontacts 22 are preferably fixed on removable supports 23 immobilized in position by screws 24, said supports 23 allowing adjustment of the final position of the microswitches 22 with respect to the light 20.

These microcontacts 22 allow, on the one hand, to stop the rotational movement of the motor 10 when the movable element 7 - barrier 6 has arrived at one of its extreme positions and, secondly, to restart automatically rotational movement if the movable element 7 - barrier 6 is moved from one of its extreme positions. These microswitches 22 also serve to send information to the control station.

Furthermore, for obvious security reasons, the "closed" position of the gate 1 is retractable under the effect of an abnormal force to allow an emergency passage without risks for users during a crowd movement by example.

To do this, we can for example provide a barrier 6 adapted to bend or a pole 4 adapted to pivot about a substantially vertical axis, under the effect of an abnormal force. However, according to a preferred embodiment, the stops 18 and the axis 21 are retractable or "fusible" that is to say that they are sized to yield under the effect of an abnormal force. This embodiment is particularly reliable because, the skilled person will have no difficulty to accurately size the stops 18 and the axis 21 according to the desired value of the abnormal effort.

In addition, the gate 1 includes equipment for signaling and control such as for example light indicators 25 informing whether or not access to the escalator 3 is in use, a sound and light device (not shown in the figures) being triggered before any rotational movement of the barrier 6 or means 26 for manual control and / or remote opening and closing of the barrier 6 (Cf. figure 2 ). The remote control means 26 will allow a single person to easily and simultaneously block both ends of the escalator 3.

Finally, in a preferred embodiment, the stops 18, light 20 and axis 21 are positioned symmetrically with respect to an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the escalator 3 so that the same door can be intended for left or right side of said escalator 3.

Similarly, the stops 18 will advantageously be positioned so that the opening direction of the barrier 6 does not oppose the exit of a user who would be between the two ends of the escalator 3.

Possibility of industrial application

The gate 1 according to the invention applies more particularly to escalators or moving walkways or the like, but it can also be used for any other installation which it is desired to prohibit access temporarily such as for example a corridor or a lobby.

Finally, it goes without saying that the examples of gates 1 according to the invention which have just been described are only particular illustrations, in no way limiting the invention.

Claims (6)

Gate (1) for controlling the access of at least one end (2) of a escalator (3) or a moving walkway or the like, comprising at least: a pole (4) fixed close to said end (2), a barrier (6) fixed on a movable element (7) arranged at least partly inside said post (4) in a housing (9) delimited by at least one lower flange (12) and an upper flange (13); ) and pivotable about an axis (8) so that the barrier (6) moves between an "open" position clearing the passage to allow access to the end (2) of the escalator (3) and a "closed" position blocking the passage to prevent access to said end (2), - a motor (10) for rotating the movable element (7) - barrier (6), a coupling member (15) of the clutch type coupled to the motor (10) and capable of cooperating with the movable element (7) to drive it in rotation, mechanical stops (18) limiting the stroke of the movable element (7), and - an end-of-travel detection device (19) comprising a slot (20) formed in the upper flange (13), an axis (21) fixed on the movable element (7) and passing through said slot (20), and microcontacts (22) fixed on the upper flange (13) in the vicinity of each of the ends of the lumen (20), said gate (1) being characterized in that the stops (18) and the axis (21) are " fusible "or retractable, or the barrier (6) is adapted to bend or the post (4) is pivotable about a substantially vertical axis so that said" closed "position is retractable under the effect of 'an abnormal effort to allow a Emergency passage without risk for users. Gate (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the coupling member (15) comprises an arm (16) adapted to cooperate with a yoke (17) integral with the movable member (7). Gate (1) according to any one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that the stops (18) are bolts screwed or welded to said lower flange (12), extending towards the movable member (7). ) and able to come into contact with the latter's screed (17). Gate (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the microswitches (22) are of the end switch type. Gate (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the stops (18), light (20) and axis (21) are positioned symmetrically with respect to an axis perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the escalator (3). Gate (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that it comprises signaling and control equipment selected from the group consisting of light indicators (25), sound and light warning devices and means (26) for manually and / or remotely controlling the opening and closing of the barrier (6).

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