US3758989A

US3758989A - Lift door

Info

Publication number: US3758989A
Application number: US00212068A
Authority: US
Inventors: J Rompa
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1970-12-29
Filing date: 1971-12-27
Publication date: 1973-09-18
Anticipated expiration: 1990-09-18
Also published as: CH538421A; NL7018980A; DE2163706A1; DK128888B; SE374333B; BE777243A; GB1351329A; FR2121082A5

Abstract

Lift door comprising an upper half and a lower half coupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement on one side only, the other side of said door halves being restrained in a direction normal to the door only.

Description

United States Patent 1 Rompa [451 Sept. 18, 1973 LIFT DOOR [76] Inventor: Jozef Johannes Theresia Rompa, 14,

Bredaseweg, Terheyden, Netherlands [22] Filed: Dec. 27, 1971 [2]] Appl. No.: 212,068

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data Dec. 29, 1970 Netherlands 7018980 521 user .L ..49/120',49/70,49/121 51 Int.C1. ..E05c 7/06,E05f17/00 58 Field ofSearch ..49/l2l,l20,ll6,

3,089,203 5/1963 Roselius 1. 49/409 3,479,498 1 H1969 Lasseigne... 240/2 R 630,461 8/1899 Lloyd 49/119 1,544,751 7/1925 Haynes et a1.. 49/1 18 X 2,989,303 6/1961 Mercier 49/122 X 3,240,926 3/1966 Hajnik.... 240/2 R Primary Examiner-Mervin Stein Assistant Examiner-Philip C. Kannan Attorney-Alan H. Levine et a1.

[57] ABSTRACT Lift door comprising an upper half and a lower half coupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement on one side only, the other side of said door halves being restrained in a direction normal to the door only.

3 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PAIENIED SEP 1 a ma sum a nr 3 IIIIHMIIIH INVENTOR: .TozeF IT Romp/1 BY Qg 52/ ATTORNEY PATENTEU I 73 SHEET 3 0F LIFT noon BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a lift or elevator door comprising an upper half and a lower half coupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement. For horizontally sliding doors it is customary to provide operating and guiding means along the upper edge of the door only, whereas the lower edge of the door is free to move, but for vertically sliding door halves one has always used operating and guiding means at both lateral sides of the door in view of the fact that the gravity forces cause a couple on the operating and guiding means.

According to the invention a lift door comprises an upper half and a lower half coupled for simultaneous, opposed, vertical sliding movement on one side only, the other side of said door half being restrained in a direction normal to the door only.

My invention is based on the idea that the couples exerted by gravity on the means for guiding the vertical sliding movement at one side of the door halves can be absorbed by known types of guiding means without any special precaution, so that an operating and guiding means at the second side of the door halves is superfluous. The invention provides a considerable saving of installing cost of the lift doors while it eliminates moreover the difficulty of exactly synchronising the operating means at both sides of the known lift door constructions.

According to a further feature of my invention, a permanent illumination is provided behind the upper and- /or lower edge of the door opening such that the lift car will be illuminated after the door halves have been opened.

SUMMARY OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic front view of an automatically operated lift door according to the invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal section of a lift door according to the invention.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are schematic views of the illumination with closed and opened doors respectively.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The lift door according to the invention comprises an upper half 1 and a lower half 2, mounted above each other in the shaft of a lift and attached at their left side only to a vertical straight line bearing 3. The bearing 3 comprises a vertical bar 4, connected to the door half and having a longitudinal groove 5, 6 at both side edges, which bar can slide in a channel section member 7 mounted in vertical position along one side of the door halves only. The channel section member 7has corresponding longitudinal grooves in both flanges directly opposite the grooves 5, 6 so that the pair of grooves and 8 and the pair of grooves 6 and 9 respectively together form raceways for a straight line of balls 10 or 11 respectively. Thus, the door halves l and 2 are positively guided at one side only for vertical sliding movement in the channel section member 7 by a straight line hearing which allows movement in vertical direction only. The other side edge of each door half I, 2 supports two freelyrotatable wheels 12 guided in a channel section member 13, mounted in vertical position in the lift shaft.

The door halves l and 2 are operated by a pneumatic cylinder 14 mounted vertically to the channel section member 7 of the straight line bearing. The piston rod [5 of the cylinder 14 is directly connected to the upper door half 1 by a transverse member 16, whereas a cable 17 is attached to the member 16 and guided over a sheave l8 rotatably mounted at a certain distance above the upper door half 1, the other end of the cable being attached to a laterally extending part of the lower door half 2. Thus, when the cylinder 14 is pressurized such that the rod 15 moves upwards, the upper door half 1 is pushed upwards and the lower door half 2 descends by gravity over the same amount, whereas the door halves l and 2 are moved towards each other by pressurizing the cylinder 14 in the opposite sense. Preferably, the pressure lines to the cylinder 14 are connected to an automatic control which increases the air pressure after the

door

1, 2 is closed, so that it is not possible to separate the door havles l and 2 manually. Preferably the door halves have a smooth front which does not provide a grip for the hands so that forced manual opening is prevented.

It should be understood, however, that the unilateral guiding of the doors according to the invention can also be used for manually operated doors.

According to FIGS. 3 and 4 a fluorescent tube lamp 21 is mounted within a transparent horizontal casing 20 mounted behind the upper edge of the door opening. The position of the lamp 21 is so chosen with respect to the lower and upper edges of the door half 1 in opened and closed position respectively that in open position of the door, the interior of the lift car 22 (which is then behind the door opening) is illuminated whereas in closed position of the door half 1 the lamp 20 illuminates the closed door opening and also the interior of the shaft, which may be useful for maintenance work.

What I claim is:

1. An elevator door arrangement comprising:

a. an upper door half and a lower door half arranged in the same vertical plane and movable vertically toward and away from each other,

b. means connected to one vertical side of each of said door halves coupling said door halves together and for producing vertical movement of said door halves,

0. guide means along the same vertical side of each of said door halves for permitting vertical sliding movement thereof but for restraining said door halves against both movement in a direction normal to the plane of the door and rotation of the door halves in the plane of the door, and

d. guide means along the opposite vertical side of each of said door halves for restraining said door halves only against movement in a direction normal to the plane of the door but not against rotation of the door halves in the plane of the door.

2. An elevator door arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said guide means (c) includes a stationary vertical channel-section member with respect to which said door halves move, and a vertical bar attached to said one vertical side of each door half, said bar being slidable within said channel-section member, the sides of said bars and the flanges of said channel-section member being formed with opposed longitudinal grooves defining raceways between them, and straight rows of balls being located within said raceways.

a plurality of wheels carried by said door halves and freely rotatable between the flanges of said channelsection member.

Claims

1. An elevator door arrangement comprising: a. an upper door half and a lower door half arranged in the same vertical plane and movable vertically toward and away from each other, b. means connected to one vertical side of each of said door halves coupling said door halves together and for producing vertical movement of said door halves, c. guide means along the same vertical side of each of said door halves for permitting vertical sliding movement thereof but for restraining said door halves against both movement in a direction normal to the plane of the door and rotation of the door halves in the plane of the door, and d. guide means along the opposite vertical side of each of said door halves for restraining said door halves only against movement in a direction normal to the plane of the door but not against rotation of the door halves in the plane of the door.

3. An elevator door arrangement as defined in claim 1 wherein said guide means (d) includes a stationary vertical channel-section member stationary with respect to which said door halves move, the opening of said channel section facing said guide means (c), and a plurality of wheels carried by said door halves and freely rotatable between the flanges of said channel-section member.