ITBS20090101A1 - SAFETY DEVICE WITHOUT CONTACT DETAILLY FOR VERTICAL SLIDING CLOSING SYSTEMS - Google Patents

Description

DESCRIPTION

â € œCONTACTLESS SAFETY DEVICE

ESPECIALLY FOR LOCKING SYSTEMS A

VERTICAL SCROLLâ €

Field of Invention

The present invention generally relates to vertical sliding closing systems of the type such as sectional doors, rolling shutters, roller shutters and the like, and relates in particular to a safety device with contactless sensors for such closing systems.

State of the art

The doors of the aforementioned type are usually conducted along guide rails and due to their vertical displacements between the opening and closing positions they can be controlled by an electric gearmotor which can be activated by means of a remote control or by other means, such as a proximity, key devices, buttons, the like.

For safety purposes, and in particular to avoid knocks, crushing or damage to persons or things when moving from top to bottom for closing, each of these doors is usually equipped along its lower horizontal edge with a system capable of to detect the presence of bodies or obstacles on the trajectory of movement and then to cause an automatic stop of the door itself. Such a system can include means such as a so-called sensitive edge, infrared optical barriers or the like which, however, are activated and intervened to stop the door only when it physically encounters an obstacle, a condition that can still be dangerous and damage if it is The obstacle is represented by a child, an animal or something fragile and delicate, due to the pressure that comes to undergo from the door before it stops. Furthermore, the sensitive edge or the presence sensors, as prepared up to now, can be ineffective when the lower edge of the door is not in the vertical sliding plane and is therefore not exactly perpendicular to the obstacle as it can happen. , for example, with a vehicle which, being high, can interfere with the lower edge of the moving door when the latter, in starting to pass from the open to the closed position, is still traveling along the curved section.

In an attempt to obviate these drawbacks, safety systems have also been proposed in which an infrared optical barrier, in particular at least one pair of emitting and receiving photocells, is applied to a door by means of arms capable of overturning on one side. or linear sliding on the ground when the door arrives in the lowered closed position. However, these systems are relatively complex and bulky.

Purpose and Summary of the Invention

The main purpose of the present invention is instead to propose a non-contact safety device for sectional and non-sectional doors, equipped with vertical opening and closing movements, particularly simple, efficient and reliable, capable of being placed in a position operating by its own gravity or with the possible help of a spring and to retract to a position away from the door through a composite movement, substantially vertical, when the door reaches the closed position.

Another purpose of the invention is to provide a safety device for doors of the aforementioned type and able to be perfectly positioned in the plane of movement of the door, at the base of the latter, and to detect obstacles at any level in the field of closing stroke of the door and causing an automatic stop in the presence of any obstacle.

Said objects and the evident advantages deriving therefrom are achieved with a non-contact safety device according to claim 1 and where the means suitable for defining the at least one optical barrier are on board parallel cursors each belonging to one of two safety, and these sliders are each susceptible of combined horizontal and vertical translation movements to position the light curtain parallel under the lower side and in the plane of the door during its movements between the opening and closing positions, and parallel at a distance from the internal face of the door when the door is in the closed lowered position and the sliders are resting on the ground.

Brief Description of the Drawings

The invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying indicative and non-limiting drawings and its application to a sectional door. In said drawings:

Fig. 1 shows a view from the inside of a door in the partially open position;

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged view of the safety device seen from the side according to the arrows A-A in Fig.1, in the operative position;

Figs. 3 and 4 show, respectively, two other side views of the device in an intermediate position and in an inoperative position;

Fig. 5 shows a false section of the device according to the arrows B-B in Fig.2.

Detailed Description of the Invention

In said drawings an example of a door 10 sliding by means of rollers in lateral guides 12 each having an approximately vertical straight segment followed at the top by a curvilinear segment joining an upper horizontal segment is shown indicatively.

The door 10 can be moved, by means of a motor unit 1 and in any case in a known manner, along the guides 12 between a lowered closing position, in which its lower side 10â € ™ is close to the underlying floor 13, and a raised position opening, in which it is located almost horizontally between the upper segments of the lateral guides and with its lower side 10â € ™ at the level of the curvilinear section of the guides 12.

The safety device of the invention is applied to the internal front of the door at its lower side 10â € ™ and comprises two opposite safety units 14, parallel spaced, located at the lateral edges of the door. Each of said units 14 is essentially composed of a support element 15 in vertical arrangement, fixed and projecting from the internal face of the door and a slider 16 associated with said support and movable in height relative to the latter and with respect to the lower side. of the door.

More specifically, the support 15 is provided, in the sense of its height, with a guide slot 17 having a curvilinear course or cam with a concavity facing the door. For its part, the slider 16 is coupled in sliding form with this support 15 and is equipped at its lower end with a pin 18 carrying a roller 19.

In the example illustrated - Fig. 5â € "the slider consists of two cheeks 20 connected transversely by a pair of horizontal pegs 21, where the cheeks 20 are on opposite sides of the support 15 and the pegs 21 cross and are led into the arched slot or guide cam 17. The pegs 21 can be coupled with the guide slot 17 directly or, better, each one by means of the interposition of a rolling element - not shown.

In axis with the pin 18 of the roller 19 carried by the cursor of one of the two units 14 of the device there is an infrared emitter 22 aligned with a receiver placed in axis with the pin of the roller carried by the cursor of the opposite unit to define a barrier optics 23 between the two units represented with broken lines in Fig. 1. The infrared emitter and receiver will be conveniently powered and connected to an electronic circuit such as to send a stop signal to the door control motor unit whenever the optical barrier 23 comes to be interrupted.

Thanks to the coupling between the support and the slider, in particular to the trend of the arc or cam slot 17, the slider 16 of each of the opposite units 14 of the device can be moved in height depending on the position of the door , following a combined forced movement of horizontal and vertical translation at the same time.

Precisely, as soon as the door is in a raised position from the floor below, the sliders 16 of the two units 14 move and remain in a lowered position by their own gravity or possibly with the help of a spring - not represented. In this position - Fig. 1 and 2 - their lower extremity, therefore the optical barrier 23, is located below the lower side of the door in the movement plane of the latter and for its entire opening and closing stroke. Then, if the optical barrier 23 is intercepted and interrupted for any cause, for example by a body or an obstacle in the path of the door, this stops automatically and promptly.

On the other hand, when the door is close to the closed lowered position - Fig. 3- the rollers 18 of the two units 14 of the device rest on the floor causing a displacement of the sliders 16 which, following the respective guide slot 17, move at the same time towards the inside of the door and upwards to avoid any interference with the lower side of the door and thus allow it to close completely - Fig. 4.

In practice, the safety device is always active at each level at which the lower side 10â € ™ of the door 10 is located starting from the maximum opening position in which its lower side is at the height of the curved section of the guides 22 to the closed position. Since the resulting optical barrier 23 between the two units of the device protrudes from the lower side of the door, whenever a body or an obstacle interferes with this barrier, the door stops automatically even before and in any case, without its the lower side must rest on the body or obstacle.

However, variations may also be made to the safety device described above without however departing from the scope of the invention. For example, the coupling between the support and the cursor of each unit of the device may be different from the one illustrated, without prejudice to the possibility of the cursor being able to perform combined horizontal and vertical translation movements. Furthermore, means can be applied to each cursor to define not a single, but a double optical barrier in parallel planes at the same or at a different level.

Claims (6)

â € œCONTACTLESS SAFETY DEVICE ESPECIALLY FOR LOCKING SYSTEMS A VERTICAL SCROLLâ € R I V E N D I C A Z I O N I 1. Non-contact safety device, particularly for vertical sliding motorized doors, movable between a lowered closing position in which a lower side of the door is adjacent to an underlying floor and a raised opening position, comprising two opposite safety units (14) applied to the internal face of the door, near its lower side, adjacent to the lateral and bearing edges of the means designed to define at least one optical barrier placed on the movement path of the door and intended to cause the stop of said door in presence of an obstacle, characterized in that said means suitable for defining the at least one optical barrier (23) are on board parallel cursors (16) each belonging to one of said two safety units (14), and in this that said cursors (16) are each susceptible of combined horizontal and vertical translation movements to position the optical barrier parallel to the of the lower side and in the plane of the door during its movements between the opening and closing positions, and at a parallel distance from the internal face of the door when the door is in the lowered closing position and the sliders are resting on the ground. 2. Non-contact safety device according to claim 1, characterized in that each safety unit (14) comprises a support element (15) fixed and protruding from the internal face of the door and in which each slider (16) is associated with said support and movable relative to the latter to the lower side of the door along an obligatory trajectory to pass from the position in which the optical barrier is in the plane of movement of the door to the position in which the optical barrier is moved away from the face inside the door. 3. Non-contact safety device according to claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the support element (15) of each safety unit (14) has a curved or cam-shaped guide slot, and each slider (16) has horizontal transversal pins conducted in said guide slot. 4. Non-contact safety device according to claim 3, characterized in that said curved slot or cam (17) has a concavity facing the internal face of the door, and in what each slider (16) assumes the position in which the optical barrier is in the plane of movement of the door by its own gravity or with the help of a spring. 5. Non-contact safety device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that said means suitable for defining at least one optical barrier comprise an infrared emitter on the cursor of a safety unit and a receiver on the cursor of the other safety unit and aligned with said emitter. 6. Non-contact safety device according to the preceding claims, characterized in that the slider (16) of each safety unit (14) is equipped at the bottom with at least one roller (19) to rest on the ground when the door is in the closed position, and in what the means for defining the at least one optical barrier are aligned with the rollers of the two safety units.