Patent Grant
10385606
This application is the National Stage entry under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2015/074050 filed on Oct. 16, 2015, published on May 6, 2016 under Publication Number WO 2016/066456, which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 of Belgian Patent Application Number 2014/5031 filed Oct. 27, 2014.
The present invention concerns auto-closes suitable for automatically closing a shutter after maintaining it open for a given opening time. It concerns, in particular, intelligent doors able to optimize the opening time as a function of the events history recorded from previous opening/closing cycles.
Automatic doors comprising a shutter are commonly used to shut off openings, particularly to cut off warehouses or industrial halls. These shutters are often made up of large flexible tarpaulins the lateral edges of which comprise beads which slide in guiding rail situated on each side of the opening that is to be closed. Alternatively, they can be made of rigid panels hinged to one another side by side or the shutter can be a rigid panel. Automatic doors are particularly useful when they are used to separate two rooms having different environmental conditions, such as temperature, relative humidity and the like. In such conditions, the time such door remains open must be minimized to preserve the desired conditions on both sides of the door. Doors able to open and close at high speed are also known for these applications and are often referred to as “fast doors”.
One issue with automatic doors, particularly with fast doors due to their high closing speed, is impacts with obstacles accidentally located within the closing trajectory of the shutter. Besides damaging the obstacle (which can be a human) such impact can damage the leading edge of the shutter and also disengage the bead of the shutter lateral edges from the guiding rail. Systems for automatically reinserting a bead thus disengaged are described e.g., in US20100181033, which disclosure is herein incorporated in its entirety by reference.
Since preventing is better than repairing, many automatic door systems are provided with obstacle and/or impact detection devices. A door provided with an obstacle detection device is described e.g., in US20030071590. A door provided with an impact detection device is described e.g., in US20120073200. In the latter, a safety procedure is described in case of an impact, including stopping the closing of the shutter, opening the shutter to a waiting position and maintaining it at such position for a predetermined waiting time after which the shutter is closed again at normal speed, and just before reaching the position of first impact, at reduced speed. In case no obstacle is detected at the first impact position, closing continues at normal speed. If, on the other hand, the obstacle is still present at the first impact position, the shutter is opened again to the waiting position. If the obstacle is still detected upon several such cycles, the shutter is opened permanently, and must be re-activated manually.
For operator's comfort, as well as for optimizing the closing of the area defined by the frame of the door, many door systems are provided with an automatic closing system, sometimes referred to as “auto-close” doors. In such systems, the door can be opened by a signal sent by an operator, but the operator needs not send a second signal to close the shutter, as it will close automatically after a given time, t. Such doors will be referred to herein as auto-close doors. The danger of impacting an obstacle is even higher with auto-close doors than with manually controlled doors, since the closing may happen in the absence of any operator in the direct neighborhood of the door.
US20030071590 discloses an auto-close door provided with an optical obstacle detecting sensor and a timer for controlling the time the door must remain open before closing. The timer is triggered only after the sensor is interrupted for at least three seconds or more by e.g., the passage of a vehicle in case of a garage door. If, during the closing of the door, an obstruction would occur, the door would return to its open position, and cannot be closed again automatically. An operator must trigger the closing of the door which remain closed for one and one-half minutes before the automatic closing mode can actuated again. This system is interesting because it matches the opening time of the door to the time of passage of a vehicle through the open frame. It is not, however, an intelligent auto-close door because it does not learn and adapt the opening time from its events history.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,924,730 discloses a fire door control system able to automatically close the door upon triggering of an alarm, such as a fire alarm. As the alarm is triggered, a timer is started for waiting a predetermined period of time, before releasing the automatic brake release. In case the door hits an obstacle upon closing, then the door will stop for a given time to allow the obstruction to be removed. Then the system the door is pulsed closed again by the clutch. The door will stop each time an obstruction is encountered. If no obstruction is encountered then the door finishes incrementally closing by the pulsating clutch. Again, this auto-close control system is not intelligent as it does not adapt the time the door remains open to the events history of the door.
EP344404 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,001,557 describe a method for controlling the position of an automatically operated elevator door as a function of the presence, number and movement conditions of one or more persons present on a support surface within a predeterminate space extending on a predetermined side of the automatically operated doo. The method provides a clear and unambiguous indication of the presence, the number and the movement conditions of the one or more persons and permit controlling the operation of the automatically operated door consistent with the indicated presence, number and movement conditions of the one or more persons. This method is advantageous for controlling elevator doors as it adapts the door opening time to each stage when the door is open as a function of the presence and movements of persons at said stage. This method is, however, not suitable for fast doors of the type used in warehouses and industrial halls, and the like because the method is designed for scanning one side only of the door, and scanning both sides would render the control of the door quite complex as the processor would have to interpret the images produced by two cameras.
The present invention provides an intelligent auto-close door capable of learning the optimal time said door must remain open prior to closing automatically. Said learning is based on a number of opening and automatic closing cycle repetitions. This and other advantages of the present invention are presented in continuation.
The present invention is defined in the appended independent claims. Preferred embodiments are defined in the dependent claims. In particular, the present invention concerns an auto-close for closing an area at least partially defined by a frame, said auto-close door comprising:
In a preferred embodiment, allowing the shortest opening time best suited to specific use conditions of an auto-close door, step (d) is further defined by:
(i) If n/N<νref,2, wherein, νref,2, is a second control ratio with νref,2≤νref,1, then the opening time, t0, is reduced to a time, t0=t1−Δt0, wherein Δt0>0;
(ii) If νref,2≤n/N≤νref,1, then the opening time, t0, is maintained constant, and
in step (e), the cycle defined by steps (a) to (c) is repeated with the values t0, t1, or t2 determined in step (d).
In a preferred embodiment, a statistically representative number, Nmin, of cycle repetitions defined by steps (a) to (c) must be carried out before the opening time is modified in step (e), and wherein Nmin is preferably comprised between 1 and 30 cycles, more preferably between 10 and 20 cycles.
The shutter of an auto-close door according to the present invention comprises a leading edge linking two lateral edges which are preferably engaged in parallel guiding rails defining two sides of the frame. Such guiding rails define the direction of the movement of the leading edge upon closing and opening the shutter.
Since the learning process of an auto-close door according to the present invention involves undergoing some impacts, it is advantageous if upon detection of an obstacle and/or an impacting event, an emergency procedure is initiated comprising stopping the closing of the shutter and preferably initiating the opening of the shutter to a waiting position, Pwaiting. For example, if the auto-close door further comprises means for monitoring the instantaneous position of the leading edge of the shutter in its closing/opening trajectory in the direction defined by the guiding rails, the following emergency procedure can be applied:
(i) stoppage of the motor, and storage of the event position, Pevent, followed by
(ii) opening of the shutter at a speed v2 as far as a waiting position, Pwaiting, predetermined so as to leave sufficient space for removing the obstacle;
(iii) after a waiting time, Δtwaiting, in the waiting position, Pwaiting, closing the shutter again at the speed, v1, as far as a predetermined position, P3, situated upstream of the event position Pevent, at which point the speed of closing is reduced to the value v3, with 0<v3<v1;
(iv) if upon closing the shutter at the reduced speed, v3, no obstacle is detected at the position, Pevent, increasing the speed of closing to the value v1 until the shutter reaches a desired final position;
(v) if on the other hand upon closing the shutter at a reduced speed, v3, an obstacle is detected once again at the same position Pevent, the cycle defined by steps (i) to (iii) is repeated and step (iv) is executed if the conditions defined therein are fulfilled;
(vi) if after a predetermined number, Nsafe, of repetitions of said cycle the obstacle is still detected, opening the shutter at speed, v2, and stopping of the shutter at a predetermined stop position Pstop, until manual reactivation of the control system.
An auto-close door according to the present invention may comprise means for monitoring the instantaneous position of the leading edge of the shutter selected among the following:
In a preferred embodiment, the auto-close door comprises:
at least one lateral edge of the shutter comprises a bead slideably engaged in an opening of the corresponding guiding rail (7) and which can be extracted therefrom under the action of a defined pulling force directed transversely to the guiding rail provoked for example by an impact upon closing the shutter, and wherein:
the auto-close door further comprises a means for reinserting into the guiding rail opening the bead that has been extracted therefrom, this means comprising a guide member which is positioned facing the guiding rail opening and which is designed so that, while the shutter is being opened, it deflects toward the guiding rail opening the bead that has been extracted from this guiding rail opening, wherein the guide member comprises at least one pair of rollers having fixed axes of rotation which are located symmetrically on each side of the mid-plane of the shutter, in the same plane substantially perpendicular to said mid-plane of the shutter and are directed obliquely with respect to said mid-plane of the shutter so that the rollers converge toward the bottom of the guiding rail opening and roll, as the shutter is moved in the opening direction, along the bead which has been extracted from the guiding rail opening, pushing it into the guiding rail opening.
The shutter and motorized driving mechanism may be selected from:
For a fuller understanding of the nature of the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
As illustrated in
As shown in
A shutter is a surface defined by a leading edge (1L) moving up (β) and down (α), in case of a vertical area (3) as illustrated in
Applying the present invention to a door of this type renders the learning process of the door totally autonomous, since even in case of impact and de-coupling of a lateral edge from the corresponding guiding rail, the door can get auto-repaired and resume its function without any external assistance.
An auto-close door according to the present invention must also comprise one or both of:
Detection cells (5) and impact detectors (6) are well known in the art, and any model available on market can be used in the present invention. For example, detection cells (5) are described in US20030071590, and examples of impact detectors are described in US20120073200. A door according to the present invention preferably comprises at least detection cells (5).
The gist of the present invention is a central processing unit (CPU) programmed to carry out specific operations to teach a door exposed to specific use conditions, after a number of trials, what is the optimal opening time for said use conditions. If the use conditions change with time, the teaching process allows the door to adapt its opening time to said new use conditions. Note that the term “opening time” is defined herein as the time a shutter remains open before automatically closing.
The central processing unit in an auto-close door according to the present invention is programmed to carry out the following operations:
It is preferred that,
The value of the first control ratio, νref,1, can be comprised between 5 and 33%, preferably between 10 and 20%. The value of the second control ratio, νref,2, can be comprised between 1 and 10%, preferably between 2 and 5%, with the condition that νref,2<νref,1.
In order to allow the value of n/N to reach values which are statistically representative of the specific use conditions to which the door is exposed, it is preferred that a statistically representative number, Nmin, of cycle repetitions defined by steps (a) to (c) must be carried out before the opening time is modified in step (e). This additional condition is illustrated in the flowchart of
In the embodiment illustrated in
For example, if the auto-close door comprises means for monitoring the instantaneous position of the leading edge of the shutter in its closing/opening trajectory in the direction defined by the guiding rails (7), an emergency procedure as proposed in US20120073200 can be applied (for the details of the emergency procedure, the disclosure of US20120073200 is incorporated herein by reference). In particular, if the shutter closes at a speed, v1, an emergency procedure comprising the following steps can be triggered upon detection of an obstacle and/or an impacting event:
The number of events detected after said predetermined number, Nsafe, of repetitions of said cycle may be taken into account for the determination of the frequency of events, n/N, used to adapt the value of the opening time.
For example for implementing an emergency procedure as described supra, an auto-close door according to the present invention may comprise means for monitoring the instantaneous position of the leading edge of the shutter. For example, such means may be selected among the following:
An auto-close door according to the present invention is highly advantageous, as it automatically closes a shutter which has been previously opened, after an opening time which varies according to the specific conditions of use of said door. The door is able to adapt the shortest possible opening time adapted to particular conditions of use without any human assistance being required. Furthermore, if the conditions of use of a door vary over time, the door is able to adapt on its own to the new conditions.
The CPU is programmed with the values N, νref,2, νref,1, t1, Δt0, Δt2, listed below:
N=20
νref,2 5% (=1/20)
νref,1 25% (=5/20)
t1 15 s
Δt0 3 s
Δt2 5 s
Starting with an opening time, t1=15 s, and depending on the number of events, n, detected during N cycles, the opening time in the next cycle (21st cycle) will have the value as indicated below.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2014/5031 | Oct 2014 | BE | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/EP2015/074050 | 10/16/2015 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| WO2016/066456 | 5/6/2016 | WO | A |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3285369 | Hornung | Nov 1966 | A |
| 4035702 | Pettersen | Jul 1977 | A |
| 4967083 | Kornbrekke | Oct 1990 | A |
| 5001557 | Begle | Mar 1991 | A |
| 5357183 | Lin | Oct 1994 | A |
| 5752343 | Quintus | May 1998 | A |
| 6075333 | Huddle | Jun 2000 | A |
| 6114956 | Van Genechten | Sep 2000 | A |
| 6469464 | McCall | Oct 2002 | B1 |
| 8341885 | Bostyn | Jan 2013 | B2 |
| 9015994 | Lamb | Apr 2015 | B2 |
| 20040216379 | Gioia | Nov 2004 | A1 |
| 20100181033 | Bostyn | Jul 2010 | A1 |
| 20120073200 | Bostyn | Mar 2012 | A1 |
| 20130227886 | Kurth | Sep 2013 | A1 |
| 20180181033 | Minobe | Jun 2018 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| 101730781 | Jun 2010 | CN |
| 102409920 | Apr 2012 | CN |
| 0344404 | Dec 1989 | EP |
| Entry |
|---|
| 1st Office Action mailed in corresponding CN 201580057992.4 dated Aug. 2, 2018 (7 pages). |
| International Search Report and Written Opinion mailed in corresponding PCT/EP2016/074050 dated Jan. 22, 2016. |
| International-Type Search Report in corresponding Belgian priority application 2014/5031 dated Jul. 24, 2015. |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20170314319 A1 | Nov 2017 | US |
