DE20012203U1 - Sliding door for escape and rescue route areas - Google Patents

Description

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Sliding door for escape and rescue routes Description

The present invention relates to sliding doors and in particular to sliding doors for escape and rescue route areas.

Doors that can be used along escape and rescue routes (FRW) must meet certain building regulations in order to ensure that people can leave workplaces quickly and safely in the event of an emergency. Normal pivoting doors that are located along escape routes must, for example, be able to be pushed open in the direction of escape and be easy to open from the inside at any time without the need for any external aids. These conditions can be easily met for manually operated pivoting doors, whereas for automatically operated pivoting doors, devices must be provided to interrupt the connection between the operating device, such as a motor, and the door in an emergency.

Since sliding doors cannot be pushed open in the direction of escape without additional measures, either additional effort is required to push them open like normal pivoting doors, or other measures suitable for sliding doors are taken to make them easy to open. Building regulations for sliding doors in escape and rescue route (FRW) areas stipulate that they must be easy to open by hand in an emergency and that, in the case of automatically operated sliding doors, the switch from power to manual operation must be uncomplicated and easily accessible.

There are basically two solutions known for sliding doors that are permissible under building law.

Sliding door systems are automatically operated sliding doors in which a drive is provided to open and close the sliding doors in normal operation. In the first conventional system, the so-called "swing-out" system, the door leaves of the sliding door have additional pivot hinges on their sides so that the door leaves can be pushed open in the direction of escape in an emergency. This means that the sliding door behaves like a swing door in the event of danger. Normally, the door leaves are held in their normal position by catches. Sliding doors of this type are mechanically very complex because specially stable travel frames are required to enable the door leaves to swing open.

The escape and rescue route systems were an improvement over the swing-out systems. These so-called "FRW drives" are also sliding doors with a drive device, whereby a tensioning device, generally a rubber spring, is permanently connected to the door leaves of the sliding door in order to be tensioned and relaxed as the door leaves move back and forth when the sliding door is opened and closed. The elastic band is attached in such a way that the door leaves are pre-tensioned in the direction of the open position of the sliding door. In the event of danger, the door is electromagnetically decoupled from the drive so that the door leaves are pulled into the open position by the elastic band, thus ensuring free passage. The decoupling of the door leaves from the drive is ensured, for example, by an electromagnetic coupling between a motor and a toothed belt drive or by an electromagnet between a toothed belt driver and the door leaves. The dangerous event that triggers the opening of the sliding door in this system includes a power failure, a fault message from one of several self-monitoring, redundant sensors, such as the sensor or the door handle. B. light barriers, motion detectors, etc., and a fault message from a self-monitoring, also redundant control of the sliding door.

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One disadvantage of FRW drives is that they are complex and therefore expensive. In particular, the provision of a redundant, i.e. a duplicate, control system and the expensive redundant peripheral sensors increase the purchase and operating costs of such a sliding door system. However, the increased number of required system elements, such as the redundant control system and the redundant sensors, also increases the susceptibility of this sliding door system to failure, since even a fault message from one link in the entire redundant chain leads to the door failing or triggering the emergency. In addition, the tensioning device on most known FRW automatic sliding doors is designed as an elastic band. In practice, however, it has been shown that these elastic bands are unreliable, since the rubber ages relatively quickly due to the constant alternating loads, i.e. stretching and relaxing when closing and opening the sliding door. As a result, maintenance costs increase, since the elastic band has to be replaced frequently. The permanent connection between the elastic band and the door leaves and the associated constant tensioning and relaxing of the elastic band when closing and opening the sliding door also results in the problem that the drive device must apply the energy to tension the energy storage device, i.e. the spring, with each closing movement.

The current state of the art does not currently offer a solution for manually operated sliding doors that meets the building regulations for sliding doors in FRW areas. The Swiftg-Out system does offer a possible solution for manually operated sliding doors, but additional measures must be taken to prevent the sliding door from remaining in a half-closed position, as the door leaves can only be pushed open in a fully closed position (otherwise the hinges are located within a receiving area for the door leaves in the wall). For automatically operated sliding

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As described above, the disadvantage of state-of-the-art doors is that both the acquisition and maintenance costs are comparatively high.

The object of the present invention is to provide a sliding door for escape and rescue route areas which is less complex than conventional sliding door systems.

This object is achieved by a sliding door for escape and rescue route areas according to claim 1.

The sliding door according to the invention for escape and rescue route areas has a door leaf that can be moved between an open and a closed position. An energy storage device is also provided for storing the energy required to move the door leaf into the open position in the event of a danger. In addition, a device is provided for coupling the energy storage device to the door leaf if a danger occurs and for decoupling the energy storage device from the door leaf if no danger occurs.

According to one embodiment, the sliding door is a single-leaf and manually operated sliding door that has only one door leaf. In this embodiment, the energy storage device is formed by a spring, with a holding device in the form of an electromagnet being provided in addition to keep the spring in a tensioned state during normal operation and to release the spring in the event of danger. The electromagnet is arranged in a fixed position and is operated via a suitable power supply, such as the house power or an approved escape door power supply with release button. The spring has a magnetically attractable driver or a magnetically attractable bolt element at one of its ends and is attached to a holding device at its other end.

The driver is normally magnetically attracted to the electromagnet and thus held in place, so that the spring is normally tensioned between the holder and the electromagnet. The sliding door can normally be moved freely between an open and a closed position. If a dangerous situation occurs, i.e. the current flow through the electromagnet is interrupted, the electromagnet releases the driver of the spring, whereby the driver is pulled back by the spring and engages in a stop element provided for this purpose, which is firmly connected to the sliding door, so that the spring pulls the sliding door into the open position.

According to a further embodiment, the sliding door is an automatically operated sliding door in which the door leaf is coupled to a drive device via a permanent magnet. The permanent magnet preferably has a predetermined maximum holding force so that if the sliding door is blocked by a person, for example, the door leaf and the drive device are decoupled during a closing process.

An advantage of the present invention is that it is possible to use the sliding door according to the invention both as a manually and as an automatically operated sliding door in FRW areas.

A further advantage of the present invention is that a metal spring can be used as an energy store instead of an elastic band, despite the associated noise problems, since the spring is normally at rest. A metal spring also has the advantage of better creep resistance, especially since it is not subjected to constant alternating loads.

Furthermore, the sliding door according to the invention has a high safety standard due to its comparatively uncomplex structure and at the same time high reliability.

and on the other hand, low costs. Maintenance costs, for example, are reduced because the previously mentioned measures, such as replacing the rubber band, are no longer necessary.

In addition, an advantage of the present invention is that since the spring remains tensioned under normal conditions, the force for tensioning the spring only has to be applied once, namely when installing the sliding door, thereby reducing the operating costs of an automatically operated sliding door.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention are explained in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 shows a sliding door according to an embodiment in which the sliding door is designed as a manually operated sliding door, the sliding door being shown in a closed position;

Fig. 2 the sliding door of Fig. 1 in an open position;

Fig. 3 the sliding door of Fig. 1 during an emergency situation; and

Fig. 4 shows a sliding door according to a further embodiment, in which the sliding door is designed as an automatically operated sliding door.

With reference to Fig. 1-4, it should be noted that the sliding doors shown schematically in these figures are normally built into a wall, so that not all elements of the sliding door are normally visible from the outside. However, for reasons of clarity, all elements are shown visible in Fig. 1 4.

Fig. 1 to 3 show a sliding door according to an embodiment in which the sliding door is designed as a manually operated sliding door, the sliding door being shown in a closed position in Fig. 1, in an open position in Fig. 2 and during an emergency in Fig. 3. It is pointed out that all elements of Fig. 1-3 which are located in several figures have the same reference numeral in each of these figures and that in the description of Fig. 1-3 the identical elements are not described more than once.

Referring to Fig. 1, the structure of the sliding door of Fig. 1-3 is first described. The sliding door is a single-leaf sliding door with a door leaf 10, a first side frame element 20, a second side frame element 30 and a guide rail 40. The sliding door 10 has two arms 50, 60 at its upper end, to each of which three rollers 71, 72, 73 and 74, 75, 76 are rotatably attached. The door leaf 10 is mounted on the guide rail 40 so as to be displaceable via the rollers 71 - 76 in order to be able to move between an open and a closed position.
to be laterally movable, in the closed position shown in Fig. 1, the door leaf 10 extends into a passage 80, lying flat against the first side frame member 20. In the open position shown in Fig. 2, the door leaf 10 extends into a receiving area 90 and abuts with the boom 60 against a buffer 100 which is fixedly mounted relative to the guide rail 40. It should be noted that the receiving area 90 is normally not visible, but is normally arranged in a wall so that the door leaf 10 in the open position is substantially completely housed in the receiving area 90. A handle 110 is attached to the door leaf 10, with which it is possible for a user to manually move the door leaf 10 laterally.

The sliding door of Fig. 1-3 further comprises an angle 120 and a boom 125 which are fixedly mounted at opposite ends of the rail 40 relative to the same. In particular, the boom 125 is mounted at the end of the rail 40 which is closer to the receiving area 90, with the angle 120 being mounted at the other end of the rail 40 which is closer to the passage 80. An electromagnet 130 is mounted on the angle 120. The electromagnet 130 is connected via two connecting wires 140, 150 to a transformer 160 which is connected to the house power supply 170. The transformer 160 converts the alternating voltage of typically 230 V of the house power supply into a direct voltage of, for example, 24 V in order to continuously supply the electromagnet 130 with power. A spring 180 is attached to the boom 130 to be tensioned between the boom 125 and the electromagnet 130 in a direction along the track 40 during normal or non-emergency conditions as shown in Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. The spring 180 is maintained in the tensioned state by the electromagnet 130 magnetically attracting a magnetically attractable driver or bolt member 190 attached to the end of the spring 180 not attached to the boom 125. The magnetic attraction force exerted by the electromagnet 130 on the driver 190 is adjusted to be greater than the tension force of the spring 180 so that the spring 180 remains in a tensioned state during normal operation. In the present example, the driver 190 is formed in the shape of a cone 190a, at the tip of which the driver is connected to the spring 180, and to the base of which a ferromagnetic plate 190b is attached, which extends beyond the base. In the normal case, i.e. when there is no danger, the plate 190b lies flat against the electromagnet 130, which magnetically attracts the plate 190b.

The sliding door of Fig. 1-3 also has a stop element

element 200, which in the present example is formed as an angle which is attached to the boom 50, projects upwards into an area between the boom 125 and the electromagnet 130 and has a hole 210 through which the normally tensioned spring 180 extends. The hole 210 in the stop element 200 tapers towards the boom 125 such that the cone 190a and the hole 210 fit together.

The operation of the sliding door according to this embodiment will now be explained with reference to Figs. 1-3. Fig. 1 shows the sliding door in the closed position, in which the door leaf 10 extends into a passage 80 and the door leaf 10 is arranged edge to edge with the side frame element 20. Although it is preferred, and although it is shown in Fig. 1, that the electromagnet 130 which attracts or retains the driver 190 is arranged such that the conical portion 190a of the driver 190 rests in the hole 210 (Fig. 2) of the stop element 200, it is also possible for the electromagnet 130 to be arranged further away from the stop element 125 so that in the closed position the spring 180 extends through the opening 210.

To open the sliding door, the door leaf 10 is displaced laterally along the rail 40 toward the receiving portion 90, as indicated by an arrow 220 in Fig. 2, with the stop element 200 moving along the tensioned spring 180 extending through the opening 210 of the stop element 200, such that the stop element 200 is decoupled from the spring 180. In the closed position, the door leaf 10 is located in the receiving area 90 to allow free passage through the passage 80, with the boom 60 abutting the buffer 100. As can be seen with respect to Figs. 1 and 2, the spring 180 normally remains in its tensioned state, regardless of the position of the sliding door.

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If a dangerous situation occurs, such as a fire, a gas alarm, etc., the power supply to the electromagnet 130 is interrupted, whereby the electromagnet 130 no longer attracts the driver 190 and thus releases it. The driver 190 is pulled towards the stop element 200 by the spring 180 which extends through the opening 210, as indicated by an arrow 2 30 in Fig. . As soon as the driver 190 has reached the opening 210 of the stop element 200, the driver 190 engages the stop element 200 to fit into the opening 210. Consequently, the spring 180 pulls regardless of where the door leaf 10 is currently located, i.e. in a closed or half-closed position, the door leaf 10 via the driver 190, the stop element 200 and the boom 50 in the direction of the open position.

The interruption of the current to the electromagnet 130, which was mentioned above, or the triggering of the emergency situation in the sliding door of Fig. 1-3 can be carried out manually, for example, by operating a switch 240 which is connected between the transformer 160 and the electromagnet 130, in the present case in the connecting wire 150. The switch 240 is preferably an emergency switch approved under building regulations. The emergency situation is also triggered, however, if the power supply 170 fails, which ensures that the required safety is guaranteed even in the event of a power failure or disconnection and the passage 80 is clear.

In order to re-tension the spring 180 after a dangerous situation, the sliding door only has to be moved into the closed position. The energy that the spring 180 stores in normal operation must be supplied to the spring 180 via the door leaf 10, the arm 50, the stop element 200 and the driver 190. Of course, it is also possible to re-tension the spring 180 via additional

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to clamp the clamps using specially designed devices (not shown).

Although a sliding door according to an embodiment of the present invention has been described above, in which the sliding door was a manually operated sliding door, it is also possible to apply the present invention to an automatically operated sliding door. Fig. 4 shows an automatically operated sliding door according to the present invention, wherein the sliding door of Fig. 4 includes all the elements of the sliding door of Figs. 1-3. These common elements have the same reference numerals in Fig. 4 as in Figs. 1-3 and will not be explained again with reference to Fig. 4.

In addition to the elements of Fig. 1-3, the sliding door of Fig. 4 has a motor 300, a drive roller 310, a counter roller 320, a toothed belt 330, a driver 340 and a permanent magnet 350. The permanent magnet 350 is firmly connected to the driver 340, with the driver 340 being firmly attached to the toothed belt 330. The motor 300 is able to drive the toothed belt 330 via the drive roller 310, which is stretched around the drive roller 310 and the counter roller 320. Consequently, the driver 340 or the permanent magnet 350 can be moved laterally along the guide rail 40 by the motor 300.

As can be seen, in the sliding door of Fig. 4, the stop element 200 is extended upwards in comparison to that of the sliding door of Fig. 1-3, so that the stop element 200 protrudes into an area along which the permanent magnet 350 is movable. In the normal case or in normal operation, the stop element 200 is attracted to the permanent magnet 350 via a magnetic attraction force, so that the permanent magnet 350 and the stop element 200 are connected to one another. The stop element 200 consists either of a magnetically attractable or ferromagnetic material, such as iron, or the

Impact element has an attached additional element (not shown) that is magnetically attractable.

The operation of the sliding door of Fig. 4 is now described below. To open the sliding door of Fig. 4, a user can, for example, press a button (not shown) on the door leaf 10, whereupon the motor 300 rotates the drive wheel 310 anti-clockwise (as viewed from Fig. 4) so that the driver 340 or the permanent magnet 350 pushes the door leaf 10 towards the open position. To close the door, which can be triggered automatically, for example, after a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the button has been pressed, the motor 300 drives the drive wheel 310 clockwise (as viewed from Fig. 4) so that the permanent magnet 350 pulls the door leaf 10 into the closed position.

The holding force with which the permanent magnet 350 magnetically attracts the stop element 200 is preferably smaller than a predetermined maximum holding force. This is intended to prevent a person, or a hand or an arm located in the passage 80, from being crushed or injured due to the displacement of the door leaf 10 by the motor 300 during normal operation of the sliding door. Consequently, the holding force is selected to be small enough to prevent people from being crushed. In the event that the door leaf 10 is blocked on the way to the closed position, for example by a trapped hand, the permanent magnet 350 is released from the stop element 200 as soon as the blocking force with which the trapped hand is crushed exceeds the holding force of the permanent magnet 350. This ensures that the motor 300 closes the door leaf 10 with at most the maximum holding force. After such a decoupling event has occurred, it is only necessary to move the door leaf 10 manually towards the closed position in order to re-establish a magnetic coupling between the

permanent magnet 350 and the stop element 200.

In a dangerous situation, as described above, the current to the electromagnet 130 is interrupted, whereby the stop element 190 is released from the electromagnet 130, is accelerated by the spring 180 to the stop element 200 and engages in the stop element 200 or the opening 210 in the same, this state being shown in Fig. 4. In order for the spring 180 to be able to release the permanent magnet 350 from the stop element 200, the holding force of the permanent magnet 350 must be set lower than the tensile force of the spring 180. More precisely, the holding force of the permanent magnet 350 must be smaller than the sum of the impact force of the driver 190 and the tension force of the spring 180. In the situation shown in Fig. 4, the impact force of the driver 190 and the tension force of the spring 180 cause the stop element 200 to detach from the permanent magnet 350, whereby the spring 180 pulls the door leaf 10 via the driver 190 and the stop element 200 into the open position.

It should be noted that in the embodiment shown in Fig. 4, an electromagnet can also be used instead of the permanent magnet. However, a permanent magnet is preferred because it is independent of a supply voltage, does not consume any current, and its magnetization can decrease but not increase during its service life, so that it is guaranteed that the holding force during the service life of the sliding door remains smaller than the holding force set when the sliding door was installed and does not exceed it.

Referring to Fig. 4, it is further pointed out that other devices can be used to achieve decoupling of the door leaf by overload coupling, as achieved above by a permanent magnet.

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For example, it could be provided that the drive device is connected to the door leaf by a mechanical connection, such as a metal wire, which can withstand a maximum tensile force and is replaced if the drive device has become uncoupled from the door leaf, either because the door is blocked or because of an emergency.

With regard to both of the embodiments described above, it should be noted that the specific design of the sliding door of Fig. 1-4 is not important. Instead of the spring 180, for example, a rubber band or an elastic band or another elastic band can be used, although a steel spring is preferred because it is normally at rest and therefore does not cause any noise problems during normal operation, and because it has better durability. It can also be provided that the door leaf 10 is guided by a guide rail both at the top and bottom. It can also be provided that the spring 180 extends below the sliding door and the stop element 200 projects downwards from the door leaf 10. Furthermore, the arm 125 and the angle 120 can be omitted if the electromagnet 130 and the end of the spring 180 opposite the driver 190 are attached in another way, such as to a wall.

Furthermore, it is also possible to use additional devices to trigger a dangerous situation or to interrupt the current to the electromagnet. As with the FRW drive described in the introduction to the description, the dangerous situation can be triggered, for example, by additional sensors or the like.

Furthermore, it is not important for the present invention where the boom 125 is located. What is important is that the boom 125 is located sufficiently far away from the first lateral frame element 20,

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so that the spring 180 is tensioned enough to move the door leaf safely into the open position.

With reference to the embodiments mentioned above, it is also pointed out that other holding devices can be used instead of the electromagnet 130. For example, it can be provided that the spring is held in a tensioned state by an electrical attraction force. The stop element is pretensioned to a certain potential, for example by means of a voltage source, and arranged opposite an oppositely charged metal plate via a dielectric. To release the energy or to release the driver, the metal plate would be discharged or charged with the same polarity as the driver, so that the metal plate and the driver repel each other, whereby the spring can pull the driver towards the stop element. In this case, the function of keeping the stored energy stored in the spring constant and releasing the energy stored in the spring is achieved by an electrical attraction force and not by a magnetic attraction force. It is also possible to use a mechanical locking device for holding constant and releasing the energy stored in the tensioned spring, such as a longitudinally displaceable pin aligned perpendicular to the tensioned spring, which engages in a hole provided in the driver to hold it in place and is pulled out of the hole to release the driver.

It is also pointed out that instead of the spring, another energy storage device can be used. For example, a rope with a weight can be used as an energy storage device, whereby the rope is connected to the carrier at one end, is deflected over a roller, and the weight is attached to the other end. When the carrier is released, the weight pulls the carrier via the rope.

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towards the stop element. In addition, an overpressure source, such as a pressurized cylinder, could be used as an energy storage device. If a dangerous situation occurs, the stored overpressure would drive a piston to push the door leaf into the closed position.

Furthermore, the precise design of the device for coupling and decoupling the energy storage device with or from the door leaf is not essential for the invention. For example, instead of the opening described above, a slot can be provided in the stop element. Furthermore, the driver or the driver element can be in the form of a sliding piece that is guided in a rail and engages with the stop element in the event of danger. It is also possible that the rail that guides the door leaf is used for the sliding piece. In this case, the stop element is formed by the roller that is closest to the driver or by a part of the door leaf itself.

It is also pointed out that, although only single-leaf sliding doors have been described above, the present invention is also applicable to double-leaf sliding doors. In this case, an electromagnet, a spring and a stop element would be used for each of the two door leaves. In addition, the door leaves can also be designed as folding doors with several leaf sections.

Claims (12)

1. Sliding door for escape and rescue route areas with the following features:
a door leaf ( 10 ) movable between an open and a closed position;
an energy storage device ( 180 ) for storing the energy required to move the door leaf ( 10 ) into the open position in the event of danger; and
a device ( 190 , 200 ) for coupling the energy storage device ( 180 ) to the door leaf ( 10 ) if a dangerous situation occurs, and for decoupling the energy storage device ( 180 ) from the door leaf ( 10 ) if no dangerous situation occurs. 2. Sliding door according to claim 1, further comprising: means ( 240 ) for determining whether a dangerous situation exists. 3. Sliding door according to claim 2, wherein the device ( 240 ) for determining comprises a manually operable emergency switch or an automatic emergency reporting device. 4. Sliding door according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the energy storage device ( 180 ) has a tensioning device ( 180 ) which has a stationary end and a movable end, wherein a holding device ( 130 ) is provided for holding the movable end such that the tensioning device ( 180 ) is in a tensioned state, wherein the coupling device ( 190 , 200 ) couples the movable end of the spring ( 180 ) to the door leaf ( 10 ) and releases it from the holding device ( 130 ) if a dangerous situation occurs. 5. Sliding door according to claim 4, wherein the coupling device ( 190 , 200 ) has the following features:
a stop element ( 200 ) which is attached to the door leaf ( 10 ); and
a driver element ( 190 ) attached to the second end of the clamping device ( 180 ) which engages with the stop element ( 200 ) when the second end of the clamping device ( 180 ) is released from the holding device ( 130 ). 6. Sliding door according to claim 4 or 5, wherein the tensioning device ( 180 ) is a spring or an elastic band. 7. Sliding door according to one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the holding device ( 130 ) comprises an electromagnet ( 130 ). 8. Sliding door according to claim 7, wherein the electromagnet ( 130 ) is arranged stationary. 9. Sliding door according to one of claims 1 to 8, wherein the sliding door is manually operable. 10. Sliding door according to one of claims 1 to 8, further comprising the following feature: a drive device ( 300 , 310 , 320 , 330 , 340 , 350 ) which can be coupled to the door leaf ( 10 ) for moving the door leaf ( 10 ) into the open and closed position. 11. Sliding door according to claim 10, wherein the drive device ( 300 , 310 , 320 , 330 , 340 , 350 ) has a permanent magnet via which the drive device is effectively connected to a magnetic part ( 200 ) of the door leaf ( 10 ). 12. Sliding door according to claim 11, wherein the permanent magnet ( 350 ) has a predetermined maximum holding force.