The invention relates to a door stabilizing guiding method during opening/closing thereof and to a stabilizing guiding assembly using it, for vehicles for transport of persons and/or merchandise. The present invention relates more particularly to semi-plug type doors, that is to say doors able to traverse their frame during opening and closing thereof. In particular aircraft, coaches and heavy goods vehicle cabs are intended to be equipped with such doors.
In the aeronautical field stops installed on the perimeters of the door and its frame enable engagement of the door and retention thereof in its frame, these stops being all the more loaded during flight phases of the aircraft by the pressurization of the cabin. Conversely, when the aircraft is stationary on the ground the stops are disengaged in order to allow opening of the doors. The doors and their opening/closing system are designed to be simple and rapid to manipulate while avoiding damage to the structure of the aircraft—in particular its fuselage—to which they are attached.
A classic type opening kinematic consists in maintaining the door constantly parallel to the fuselage in order for it not to strike the latter in the event of emergency opening or disadvantageous meteorological conditions. The step of disengagement of the stops is therefore effected with the door kept parallel to the fuselage: to this end the door is first raised or lowered to disengage the stops, before applying a circular movement in translation to it in order to remove it from its frame, so that the door remains parallel to itself during its movement while tracing out a circular trajectory.
A major disadvantage related to this system is that the crew have to bear all the weight of the door during the phase of disengaging the stops. Improvements to facilitate this task add weight-compensating mechanisms and additional articulation arms, but these means have the consequence of significantly increasing the total weight of the door.
Another opening system described in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,751,636A enables generation of a door opening/closing kinematic that is not parallel to the fuselage. That kinematic consists in effecting a first pivoting of the door about an axis passing through its vertical median line to disengage the stops, followed by a second circular movement in translation, termed “swiveling”, of the door about an axis coinciding with a vertical edge of the frame. A system of this kind, which makes it possible to dispense with the heavy mechanism and facilitates manipulation of the door, remains of great complexity of execution because it employs a combination of many connecting rods, transmission members and gears, as well as an unlocking lever situated on the frame in the vicinity of the door.
Moreover, the first pivoting to disengage the stops may be replaced by another mechanism described in the patent FR3087189, which has the advantage of being actuated at the mid-height of the door directly by means of the door arm. However, this solution remains equally complex to use.
Generally speaking, whatever the kinematic, the swiveling phase entails risks of instability that lead to difficulties in manipulating the door, lengthy opening/closing times and damage resulting from impacts of the door on the fuselage of the aircraft.
It is known that this problem of door instability during the swiveling phase has been tackled by using two guiding connecting rods mobile in rotation and placed in the upper part of the door. In this embodiment the door remains permanently parallel to the fuselage, in particular during the phase of disengaging the stops, which the invention seeks to avoid so as not to have to raise/lower the door or to increase the total weight. It is moreover necessary to use at least two guiding connecting rods in the upper part of the door because, if only one connecting rod is used, during rotation of the door arm between approximately 110° and 135° the chords of the door arm and of the connecting rod coincide and the kinematic becomes unstable.
A principal objective of the invention is to solve the problem of stability during the swiveling phase in the context of a kinematic entailing exit or entry of the door while it is not parallel to the fuselage, having the advantage of removing the constraint of vertical lifting/lowering, and then to propose a door that is easy to manipulate and represents a saving of weight.
To stabilize the door the invention uses a guiding connecting rod, also known as a stabilizing connecting rod, that connecting rod being free to move in translation on the door during the phase of disengaging the stops and being locked when the swiveling phase begins in order to guide the door and to keep it parallel to the fuselage by means of this guiding connecting rod, which is locked at this time, thus conferring on the door the required stabilization.
To be more precise the present invention has for object a method of stabilizing guiding of a semi-plug type vehicle door during opening/closing thereof, said door being arranged in a vehicle opening defining a door frame structure. This door includes front and rear parts defined relative to a longitudinal axis of the vehicle conventionally oriented between a rear and a front thereof, the vehicle defining interior and exterior spaces. The kinematics of the movements of disengagement of the door relative to its frame and of its complete opening by circular movement in translation, known as swiveling, takes place in a common horizontal plane, characterized in that it includes the following steps in door opening mode:
In closing mode with a reversed kinematic the stabilizing connecting rod is kept locked during a return swiveling phase and is then free to move in horizontal translation at one of its ends relative to the door during a phase of re engagement of the stops at the beginning of which the locking of one of the ends of this stabilizing connecting rod is released, the door no longer being constrained to move in translation relative to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, then re-entering its frame.
Apart from stabilizing the door during opening thereof, the stabilizing connecting rod advantageously does not restrict the free zone space for the door to be totally disengaged from its frame because it does not project from the volume of the arm. Even in the door closed position the stabilizing connecting rod and its locking environment do not project toward the interior of the cabin.
In some preferred embodiments:
The invention also relates to a door stabilizing guiding assembly of an aircraft including a fuselage in which is cut at least one opening for inserting a semi-plug type door equipped with an opening/closing mechanism for executing the method as defined hereinabove if the vehicle is an aircraft. The door frame has stops at the front and at the rear, against which the door bears with its stops when it is closed. A door arm connects the door to the frame. The guiding connecting rod, also known as stabilizing connecting rod, located on a door edge extending parallel to the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is mobile in translation at one of its ends relative to the door in the longitudinal direction of the aircraft during phases of disengagement and of re-engagement of the stops. Between these phases, during swiveling and return swiveling phases, the stabilizing connecting rod is locked on the door by a locking mechanism including a lever adapted to be actuated by the return means between its two operating positions and, during phases of disengagement and of re-engagement of the stops, to remain connected to a control ramp fastened to the door frame and including the locking/unlocking bearing surfaces.
In accordance with some preferred embodiments:
By a phase of disengaging the stops is meant a set of steps that begin with the separation of the frame and door stops, continuing to the door leaving its frame and finishing when the door is again parallel to the fuselage. Similarly, the phase of re-engagement of the stops begins at the end of the return swiveling phase when the door is no longer parallel to the fuselage and is about to re-enter its door frame, to finish when the frame and door stops are in contact on either side of the front and the rear of the frame.
In the present text the qualifier “horizontal” when referring to a plane extent means that that extent is parallel to the ground on which the vehicle stands, in particular on which an aircraft stands when taxiing or stationary. The qualifier “above” when referring to one plane extent relative to another means that said extent is situated at a height greater than the other relative to said ground.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will emerge from the following detailed description of one embodiment without limiting the scope thereof, given with reference to the appended figures that respectively represent:
Referring to the
In this closed configuration the frame stops 7 and the door stops 8 are interengaged at twelve points of contact, six of which are at the front and six at the rear.
The locking mechanism of the upper guiding connecting rod 9 is installed in the median zone 2m of the top of the door.
The accompanying ramp 12 and the control ramp 14 are adjacent to one another and fastened to the door frame 3. The lever support 11 is fixed to the top edge 2h of the door 2. This support 11 consists of a triangular plate having at its base a slideway 6B enabling movement in translation of the stabilizing guiding connecting rod 6 and a horizontal shaft 15C about which a torsion spring 16 is wound (cf.
The lever 15 is fastened to the torsion spring 16 so that this lever 15 pivots about this return spring 16 and the horizontal shaft 15C of the lever support 11, defining two operating positions: a locking position and an unlocking position of the stabilizing connecting rod 6. Moreover, the lever 15 has at one of its ends a finger 15A making contact with the control ramp 14 and at its other end an opening 15B (cf.
As for the control ramp 14, its function is to activate or to deactivate locking of the mobile stabilizing guiding connecting rod 6 by blocking movement in translation of said connecting rod. To this end the control ramp 14 has two parallel horizontal bearing surfaces (14B, 14C) connected by a transition slope 14A. A first bearing surface 14B is positioned at a height such that when the finger 15A of the lever is in contact with it the torsion spring 16 maintains the contact placing the lever 15 in the unlocking position. The stabilizing connecting link 6 is then unlocked and free to move in translation.
The finger 15A of the lever moves on this first bearing surface 14B during the start of the phase of disengagement of the stops (7, 8) until it reaches the transition slope 14A: this phase of disengagement of the stops (7, 8) taking place in a horizontal plane, the torsion spring 16 maintaining constant contact between the finger 15A of the lever and the transition slope 14A until it reaches the second bearing surface 14C, positioned at a greater height than the first bearing surface. Under these conditions, when the lever finger 15A comes into contact the torsion spring 16 then holds the other end 15B of the lever in the position locking the mobile shaft 6C of the stabilizing connecting rod 6.
In fact, when, acted on by the torsion spring 16, the finger 15A of the lever slides on the transition slope 14A from one bearing surface to the other the lever 15 pivots about its shaft 15C. At the end of the second bearing surface 14C the finger 15A of the lever is no longer in contact and the torsion spring 16 keeps the mobile shaft 6C of the stabilizing connecting rod 6 locked during the rest of opening the door.
During the return phase of re-engaging the stops (7, 8) the reverse process is observed: initially the finger 15A of the lever is free and the mobile shaft 6C of the stabilizing connecting rod 6 is locked, after which the finger 15A of the lever comes into contact with the second bearing surface 14C until it reaches the transition slope 14A.
Contact with this slope being maintained, the lever 15 is going to pivot about the shaft 15C and release the mobile shaft 6C of the stabilizing connecting rod 6 when the finger 15A of the lever reaches the first bearing surface 14B: the stabilizing connecting rod 6 being mobile again, the door closing kinematic may be carried out.
In the aforementioned kinematic the door 2 has performed a movement in translation toward the rear and toward the interior of the cabin in the initiation of the first step of the process. The accompanying ramp 12 is particularly suited to this start of the kinematic in order not to impede the movement of the door 2. Consequently, the stabilizing connecting rod 6 is moved in translation toward the front of the door 2 in its slideway 6B.
In
The invention is not limited to the embodiments described and represented. Thus the accompanying ramp 12 of the locking/unlocking mechanism may be eccentric relative to the median zone of the door and thus dissociated from the control ramp. Moreover, the door may feature a plurality of ramps to accompany its opening/closing kinematic: it is then possible to use one of them to constitute this accompanying ramp 12 of the locking/unlocking mechanism and to associate it with the control ramp 14.
Moreover, the stabilizing connecting rod could be fixed to the door and fixed against movement in translation at the level of its attachment to the door frame: the locking mechanism is then offset on the door frame. Finally, the invention applies to any vehicle a door of which is of the semi-plug type and moves in translation during opening/closing thereof.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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FR2100591 | Jan 2021 | FR | national |
This application is a national stage entry of PCT/EP2022/050783 filed Jan. 14, 2022, under the International Convention and claiming priority over French Patent Application No. FR2100591 filed Jan. 21, 2021.
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2022/050783 | 1/14/2022 | WO |