FR2744485A1 - REINFORCED SEALING HANDLING DOOR - Google Patents

Abstract

An industrial door comprising a movable screen (3) for sealing or opening an aperture, wherein said screen is advantageously vertically raisable and has two vertical edges (3D, 3G) defining the screen width (L) and being engageable with respective guides (1, 2). The bottom wall of each guide has a horizontal cross-section defining a first or moving area where the spacing (E) between the bottom walls of the guides is greater than the width (L) of the screen, and at least one second or sealing area where the spacing (E) between the bottom walls of the guides is smaller than the width (L) of the screen. When the screen is moved, its edges do not rub against the guides. When the screen is lowered, the wind pressure exerted on the screen urges the edges into engagement with the narrower portions of the guides.

Description

 The present invention relates to the handling doors, that is to say the doors arranged in industrial buildings: factories, workshops, warehouses, refrigerators or not, etc. which must generally be opened and closed quickly, to maintain the separation, thermal, climatic, bacterial or sound etc, between premises where people are occupied, or goods stored, while allowing passages. The invention has a general application and covers all the doors, ie the means such as a movable screen, rigid or not, to close or release an opening called thereafter bay, allowing communication or isolation In general, these bays are limited by vertical lateral edges and a horizontal lintel, but the invention applies to means for closing and opening clearance of all kinds and of all shapes.

 The invention advantageously applies to vertical bearing doors, in particular but not exclusively, to the doors comprising a flexible screen, which is raised and amassed at the top of the door, by winding or folding. The edges of the screen are guided in two vertical slides.

 On the one hand, we seek to obtain good insulation when the door is closed: the edges of the door are in contact with the frame. On the other hand, to limit the time of opening and closing of the door movement of the door must be fast. Rapid movement with a contact causes wear. If a clearance is left around the screen, to reduce wear, it passes in the closed position a trickle of air, which allows the noise to pass, harms the insulation of temperature, and in the case of doors overlooking a cold exterior, or a cold store, allows icing condensations that can block the door.

 The invention relates to a door which isolates as desired when it is closed, and whose wear is reduced so as to avoid unwanted interventions.

 Known gates of the kind in question (EU Patent No. 0 194 194) which provide for the sealing of the liners arranged on the vertical edges of the screen, which are in permanent contact with the bottom of the slides. These seals seal, compensating for deviations due to manufacturing tolerances. The screen itself is preserved from abnormal wear, but the price of these fillings is not negligible and despite the result obtained wear of the linings causes undesirable and costly service interruptions.

 Also known are devices which apply the edges of the curtain against the edges of the rails (US Patent No. 0 416 961). These devices are quite effective, but are expensive and do not completely eliminate the wear of the edges of the curtain.

 Doors used to insulate a local normal working temperature from a cold space (outdoor in winter or cold room) are exposed to the risk of frost. If the seal is not complete, any airflow filtering between the edge of the curtain and the slide causes condensation that frost. Means have been proposed to limit this risk (US Pat. No. 76,349, US Pat. No. 2,020,096 and US Pat. No. 5,415,159), but these devices are always exposed to risks: imperfect sealing or rapid wear of the edges of the screen, due to inaccuracies due to manufacturing tolerances, or movements of depression or overpressure. Any attempt to increase the seal by enlarging the screen solves the problem of sealing, but at the cost of increased wear.

 To solve these technical problems, the present invention relates to a handling door having a movable screen for closing or clearing a bay, and at least one section disposed in the vicinity of an edge of the bay in which is housed an edge of said screen when the latter is in the closed position, characterized in that the inner surface of the web of the profile has a section or an arrangement such that when the screen is in the closed position, said edge of the screen is in contact with the surface of the core, and when the screen is in position to be moved, said edge is no longer in contact with the surface of the core. By displaceable is also meant windable or collapsible.

 The invention relates to all types of horizontal sliding doors in a vertical plane or in a horizontal plane, but it applies advantageously to the doors in which the screen is vertically liftable and has two vertical edges defining the width of said screen, said vertical edges being each accommodable in a profile forming a slide, the core of each section forming the bottom of the slide, the bottom of each slide having a horizontal section defining a first so-called movement zone or the center distance of a bottom from one slide to the other slide bottom is greater than the width of the screen and at least one second so-called sealing zone or the center distance from one slide bottom to the other slide bottom is less than the width of the screen.

 The invention applies to doors in which the screen is constituted by articulated panels, movable, rollable or collapsible.

 The invention finds particularly advantageous applications when the screen consists of a flexible material, liftable by winding on a roller disposed at the upper part of the bay or when the screen is made of a flexible material foldable to the part top of the bay and is liftable by means of straps rollable on a roller disposed at the upper part of the bay.

 In order to favor the placement of the screen in the movement zone, the lifting roller, the screen or the straps, is disposed with its leading edge of the winding in said first zone or the inter-axis from one slide bottom to the other slide bottom is greater than the width of the screen. Thus, as soon as the winding of the screen is initiated, the screen is brought into the movement zone. The bottom of the screen is immediately off the ground, so that the air pressure on the screen is immediately reduced and the screen is no longer pressed against the edges or the bottoms of the slides, in the area sealing.

 The slide bottom can have in section by a horizontal plane, various forms: it can be oblique with respect to the plane of the screen, have the form of a broken line, or a curve, or a combination of these forms .

 The invention finds a particularly advantageous application for cold space separation doors (cold or cold outside rooms).

 In such an application, each of the two slides advantageously has a composite structure. The slide may comprise externally a metal element, for example a U-shaped iron, internally lined with a coating which may be insulating, whose shape, in horizontal section, defines the inner surface of the core of the slide. The insulating coating may thus have a non-uniform thickness so as to form in the slide a deeper zone, defining a center distance between the bottom of one slide and the bottom of the other opposite slide, greater than the width of the slide. screen, and at least one other area where the center distance is less than the width of the screen.

 Advantageously, the inner surface of the slide promotes sliding, and preferably is also conductive heat. Thus, the inner lining of the iron U may be composite and comprise an inner wall of aluminum, preferably anodized separated from the iron U by insulating material such as glass wool.

 Alternatively, the inner wall of aluminum can have a sufficient thickness to be a carrier, and the iron U can then be replaced by a lighter shell, for example plastic.

 A heating element may be disposed within the insulating coating, preferably against the aluminum, to maintain it at a temperature sufficient to prevent condensation, and hence frost, which could block the screen.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following description, given by way of non-limiting examples with reference to the attached drawings which represent:
Figure 1 a sectional view through a horizontal plane of the two rails of a flexible lift door, and
Figures 2 to 4 similar sectional views of different slides according to alternative embodiments of the invention.

 Figure 1 shows in horizontal section the two sections constituting the two rails 1 and 2 of a door closable by a screen which in this example is a flexible curtain lift. The curtain 3 which can be collected at the top of the door, by rolling on a roll, or folded through straps attached to the bottom of the curtain, which themselves roll on a roll. These provisions are well known and it is not useful to describe them in more detail.

 The internal width of the slides is designated partl'écart, or between-axis between the bottom of a slide and the bottom of the other slide is designated by E. The curtain has two vertical edges 3G and 3D defining the width L of the curtain . According to the present invention, the inter-axis E may have at least two different values, in different zones along the width of the slideways, so that a first zone has an inter-axis E greater than L and a second zone or E <L. The curtain is represented in 3 'in horizontal section in the first zone (bottom in the figure) where we see that E is greater than L and 3 "in the second zone (up on the figure) or we see that E is <L. In this position, the edges of the curtain are applied against the bottoms of the slides.The sealing of the closure is excellent.This result is obtained by forming the bottom of each slide with a relief giving a larger distance between axes in a first zone: the bottoms are further apart, and a smaller center distance in a second zone, the distances between the axes are determined with respect to the width of the curtain.

 In Figure 1, the center distance is reduced in the upper part. The slides are thus arranged so that when the door is closed: that is to say when the curtain is lowered to the ground, the curtain is urged towards the narrow zone (upwards in the figure) by the wind, or by a pressure difference between the spaces separated by the curtain. If the wind, or the pressure differential, may occur in time in either direction, two narrow zones may be provided, one on each side.

 Figure 3 shows in section a slide 4 responding to this situation. In Figure 1, the horizontal section of the slide consists of straight line segments.

In Figure 3, this section is a curved line.

 Figure 2 shows in section through a horizontal plane another form of slide 5 whose bottom SA is constituted by an oblique plane relative to the plane of the curtain.

 When the door is opened, as soon as the bottom of the curtain is off the ground, the opening, which increases rapidly, causes the pressure differential between the two sides of the curtain to drop. It is then advantageous to provide the lifting device so that the curtain, when it is no longer stressed by this pressure differential, hangs in an area where its width is smaller than the distance between the bottom of the rails: <E. This can be done simply by appropriately arranging the curtain winding roller or lifting straps.

 The invention applies advantageously to the doors achieving a separation between a cold space (temperature below zero) and a hot space (temperature greater than zero). This is the case of doors to the outside, when the climate has cold seasons, or the doors of cold storage. In these cases, a leakage is then the cause of a current of air in one direction or the other. The water vapor carried by the hot air condenses on the cooled walls of the door slides and the frosted condensed water turns into ice. This frost can then block the door, no longer open.

 Figure 4 shows in section through a horizontal plane a slideway 6 adapted to a door for cold space. This slide has a composite structure. It has an outer U 7 iron, whose soul, can have any section. The bottom profile of the slide is indeed determined by an insulating lining. This lining comprises a sheet 8, for example aluminum, the shape of which is determined according to the principle of the present invention. Between the iron U and the sheet 8 is disposed an insulator 9 for example glass wool. An aluminum foil, for example anodized, allows a good sliding of the edge of the curtain during the lifting and lowering movements. In addition, this sheet is conductive. It is thus possible, by means of a heating wire 10 going up and down, to heat a zone of small width at the point of contact of the curtain in the closed position, to exclude any risk of frost. .

 Alternatively, the sheet 8 could be carrier, for example have a greater thickness, and the U iron replaced by a plastic shell for example.

 It will be noted that the profile of the slide bottom has a first movement zone 12 and a second sealing zone 13. A third so-called approach zone 14 has been formed here, in which the center distance of a bottom of slide to the other slide bottom has a value substantially equal to or slightly less than that of the width of the screen.

 In these examples, the screen could as well be constituted by a series of rigid panels hinged to each other.

 These devices are known, the panels can wind or fold at the top of the door, or be returned in horizontal slides located above.

 The invention can also be applied to a horizontal displacement door, which slides laterally so that the vertical edge of the door comes to engage for closure in a profile. To seal, said profile may have a horizontal section similar to the shape of the slides described.

 Finally it is possible in some applications that the profile of the slide bottom is variable depending on the height. Indeed, for example in the case of folding curtains at the top of the door, the folded mass of the curtain thickens when it rises. The zone of large inter-axis will thus be able to widen upwards.

Claims (15)

claims  1.- Handling door comprising a movable screen (3) for closing or clearing a bay, and at least one profile (1, 2, 4, 5, 6) disposed in the vicinity of an edge of the bay in which is housed an edge of said screen when it is in the closed position characterized in that the inner surface of the web of the profile has a section or an arrangement such that when the screen is in the closed position, said edge of the screen is in contact with the surface of the core, and when the screen is in position to be moved, said edge is no longer in contact with the surface of the core.  2. A door according to claim 1 wherein the screen is vertically liftable and has two vertical edges (3D, 3G) defining the width L of said screen, said vertical edges being each accommodable in a section (1,2) forming a slide, the core of each section constituting the bottom of the slide, the bottom of each slide having a horizontal section defining a first so-called movement zone or the center distance E from one slide bottom to the other slide bottom is greater than the width L of the screen and at least one second so-called sealing zone or the inter-axis E of a slide bottom to the other slide bottom is smaller than the width L of the screen.  3. Door according to one of claims 1 or 2 wherein the screen is constituted by articulated panels, movable, rollable or collapsible.  4. Door according to claim 2 wherein the screen is made of a flexible material, liftable by winding on a roller disposed at the upper part of the bay.  5. Door according to claim 2 wherein the screen is made of a flexible material foldable to the upper part of the bay and is liftable by means of straps rollable on a roller disposed at the upper part of the bay.  6. Door according to one of claims 4 or 5, wherein the roller is disposed with its leading edge of the winding in said first zone or the center distance of a slide bottom to the other bottom of Slide is greater than the width of the screen.  7.- Door according to one of the preceding claims wherein the bottom of the slide has at least one oblique portion relative to the plane of the screen.  8. Door according to one of the preceding claims wherein the bottom of the slide comprises at least one curved portion.  9.- Door according to one of the preceding claims wherein each slide consists of a profile lined internally with a coating whose shape defines the inner surface of the web of the profile.  The door of claim 9, wherein the interior liner has a sliding-promoting surface.  11. Door according to claim 9, wherein the inner lining has a conductive surface of the heat.  12. Door according to one of claims 10 or 11, wherein the inner lining comprises an insulating layer coated with aluminum preferably anodized.  13. Door according to one of claims 11 or 12, wherein heating means are provided for heating the inner surface of the slide.  14.- Door according to one of claims 2 to 13 wherein the inner surface of the slides, having a first movement zone and a second sealing zone further comprises at least a third so-called approach zone in which the inter-axis of a slide bottom to the other slide bottom has a value substantially equal to or slightly less than that of the width of the screen.  15.- Door according to one of claims 2 to 13 wherein the profile of the slide bottom is variable depending on the height, the large region between axis can expand upwards.