Patent Application
20190145169
The following documents are incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth: German Patent Application No. DE 102017126765.4, filed Nov. 14, 2017.
The present invention relates to a passage control device for persons.
Such a passage control device accordingly comprises at least one housing, at least one blocking element held so as to be movable relative to the housing, a drive, arranged substantially in the housing, for blocking and releasing and/or moving the blocking element, and a control unit for the drive, which acts in combination with a control element for identifying an authorization. The control unit controls the drive in accordance with the authorization, in order either to block or release, and/or to move, the blocking element.
Passage control devices of the present type are in widespread use. They are normally used to monitor and regulate access to protected regions for which a specific authorization is required, such as, for example, access to a works premises, access to sports facilities such as stadiums, swimming pools and the like, for which payment of an entry fee is required, access to safety regions at airports, access to underground railway stations, access to public toilet facilities, and so forth. For this purpose, the passage control device includes a blocking element, which either releases or blocks passage for persons, specifically in dependence on a specific authorization of the respective person. The authorization may be the paying of an entry fee, the showing or placing or entering of a ticket and/or identification card, the identifying of biometric data or the keying-in of a number code.
If the control element for identifying an authorization ascertains that the person standing in front of the blocking element possesses an authorization that entitles the person to pass, the blocking element is released, such that the person can go through; this is usual in the case of turnstiles and rotor gates. If necessary, the blocking element is not only released by the drive, but is actively moved, to allow the authorized person to pass; this is usual in the case of barrier systems and passage control devices having swivelable doors. Accordingly, the drive of the present passage control device may be purely an actuator for blocking and unblocking the blocking element, or also a motor for actively moving the blocking element.
The housing of a passage control device of the present type accommodates the drive and forms the support for the blocking element. Accordingly, it must have a high degree of robustness, such that a blocking element cannot be moved in an unauthorized manner in order to force a passage. At the same time, the housing is normally realized so as to be elongate along a passage direction, such that, together with a housing of a second, adjacent passage control device, or a wall element, a corridor is formed in front of the blocking element. This corridor ensures that persons passing through can only approach the blocking element singly.
The requirements for the robustness of the housing, and the above-mentioned feature intended for it, of forming a corridor, result in the housing taking up a lot of space in comparison with the actual blocking element, i.e. the outer surfaces of the housing have to be comparatively extensive. Since the walls of the housing are usually made from stainless steel, the result is correspondingly high costs for the housing and a disadvantageously heavy weight.
However, in view of the high mechanical surface loads caused by a multiplicity of persons passing through, who are possibly also passing the blocking element with bags and the like, it is scarcely possible to find a replacement for the material stainless steel. This is because plastics or plastic composite materials, with which the stainless steel surfaces could be replaced, still cannot have the inherently robust properties of stainless steel, such that hitherto it has not been considered to produce the housing of a passage control device of the present type substantially from plastic or a plastic composite material.
The present invention is therefore based on the object of developing a passage control device such that the material stainless steel, used hitherto for the housing, can be largely replaced by plastic or a plastic composite material.
This object is achieved with a passage control device having the one or more features of the invention. Preferred designs and developments of the passage control device according to the invention are set forth below and in the claims.
A passage control device according to the invention for persons, which comprises at least one housing, at least one blocking element held so as to be movable relative to the housing, a drive, arranged substantially in the housing, for blocking and releasing and/or moving the blocking element, and a control unit for the drive, which acts in combination with a control element for identifying an authorization, and which is designed such that it controls the drive in accordance with the authorization, in order either to block or release, and/or to move, the blocking element, accordingly has a housing, which is constructed having a frame element of a plastic or a plastic composite material, having a support structure, arranged inside the frame element, for the blocking element and the drive, and having a rear and a front cover plate, which are composed substantially of a plastic or a plastic composite material and fastened to the frame element.
The frame design according to the invention enables the housing to be produced substantially from plastic or a plastic composite material, such that it is possible to dispense with the expensive material stainless steel. Very significant savings in weight result in this case, such that the costs for the transport and construction of a passage control device according to the invention are also reduced. In comparison with a stainless steel housing, a plastic housing additionally offers the advantages of a more pleasant feel, a significantly greater design freedom and easier quality assurance during production. Unlike stainless steel, a plastic or plastic composite material does not undergo any lasting deformations in the case of impact stress, and it has an electrically insulating effect, which is highly advantageous for safety reasons. Not least, plastic surfaces are very much easier to clean than stainless-steel surfaces and, owing to its property as a selective absorber, a stainless steel surface can heat up to such an extent under solar radiation that there is a risk of injury to persons; plastic surfaces do not have this problem.
The frame element provided according to the invention, which, due to the usually elongate, wall-type shape of the housing, preferably circumscribes approximately a narrow, elongate rectangular parallelepiped, is able to ensure the robustness of the housing necessary for guiding the persons passing through. This is because a frame element of plastic can be made so as to be solid and robust, for example having a double-T structural-member cross-sectional profile, which renders the housing as a whole flexurally and torsionally stiff, even if the front and rear cover plates attached according to the invention to the frame element are likewise composed of plastic, and accordingly per se are only slightly flexurally and torsionally stiff.
The necessary robustness of the blocking element, on the other hand, is ensured according to the invention by a support structure arranged inside the frame element. This support structure will normally be composed of metal tubes or metal profiles, which absorb the forces that act upon the blocking element, but which, since they are arranged inside the housing, although they do have to be composed of robust materials, nevertheless do not necessarily have be composed of high-grade materials having insensitive surfaces.
It has thus been identified according to the invention that the robustness requirements of a passage control device of the present type can be modified by separate consideration of the acting forces: on the one hand, forces acting upon the blocking element are passed into the housing, and on the other hand the housing must withstand directly applied forces. These forces can be absorbed by different elements of the housing. Due to the housing structure according to the invention by which, on the one hand, the robustness of the housing per se is achieved by a frame design, and by which, on the other hand, the forces acting upon the blocking element are substantially absorbed by an additional support structure, for the first time it is possible to produce the majority of the housing of a passage control device from plastic or a plastic composite material. This brings considerable cost advantages.
Preferably, the support structure for the blocking element and the drive extends as far as a base of the housing, and can be directly connected there to the floor on which the passage control device according to the invention is installed. The forces that act upon the blocking element are thus passed substantially directly into the floor mounting, and are otherwise absorbed by the support structure, without the forces necessarily being passed into the frame element of the housing.
A further problem in the case of passage control devices according to the prior art consists in that—depending on their purpose—they are sited, without monitoring by personnel, at publically accessible locations of a blocked-off region, and are thus subjected to manipulation attempts. The housing of a passage control device must therefore not be easily opened from the outside without application of force, in particular not with the use of simple tools that are in common use and carried on the person, for example as a pocket knife or multifunctional tool. Housings of known passage control devices are therefore provided in some cases with locks and in some cases with fastening elements that require the use of a special tool; this is because it must nevertheless be possible to open the housing for servicing purposes or in the event of a malfunction.
A preferred development of the present invention simplifies the protection of the housing against unauthorized opening, in that at least one of the rear and front cover plates is fastened by snap-in plug-type connections. Only few secure fastening elements, such as screwed connections, which can more easily be protected against manipulations, are then needed.
A particularly advantageous aspect of the passage control device according to the invention, which is non-dependent on the materials used for the housing, is provided in that the housing does not have any externally accessible connection or locking elements.
This is achieved according to the invention in that the rear cover plate of the housing is fastened to the frame element by circumferentially distributed screw connections, the front cover plate is fastened to the frame element and/or to the rear cover plate by circumferentially distributed snap-in plug-type connections, and a recess for the support structure and/or the drive is provided on the front cover plate. This recess is covered with an additional cover, and in a region of the front cover plate, which is likewise covered by the additional cover, at least one screw connection is provided between the front cover plate and the frame element and/or the rear cover plate, in order to secure the screw connection of the front cover plate. The additional cover, for its part, is fastened to the front cover plate and/or to the frame element by snap-in plug-type connections, and according to the invention it is releasable from this plug-type connection only by application of a force that is predefined in respect of application location and direction, or alternatively by a special tool, which must be positioned at the correct location.
Due to this design of the housing, the outside of the latter is entirely without locks or externally accessible fastening elements, such that it is not evident from the outside how the housing can be opened. It is only after removal of the additional cover, which is only possible for a person who knows where a special tool or a particular force must be applied to enable the cover to be released from its snap-in plug-type connections that the screw connections become accessible to enable the front cover plate to be released.
The housing of the passage control device according to the invention is preferably of a relatively narrow design, the frame element forming the side faces and a top face of the housing, while the front and the rear cover plate leave the side faces and the top face free.
It is preferred in this case if the control element for identifying an authorization is arranged at at least one corner of the housing that connects a side face to the top face. This control element may be, for example, a contactless card reader or a scanner for identifying tickets, identification cards or finger-prints and so forth. It is therefore advantageous if it is arranged at an upper corner of the housing that is approached directly by a person passing through, when the person approaches the passage control device.
In order to increase as required the robustness of the housing of the passage control device according to the invention, it may be advantageous if the frame element is reinforced with at least one metal profile in a region in which the support structure extends as far as the base of the housing. Likewise, it may be advantageous if the frame element is reinforced with at least one metal profile at the top face of the housing.
The passage control device according to the invention is preferably designed as a turnstile, known per se, i.e. the blocking element is a turnstile having three blocking arms attached with a rotary angle spacing of approximately 120°. These blocking arms are arranged in the manner of a tripod going out from the housing, or from the drive, i.e. they span a triangular pyramid, wherein, in a blocking position, one blocking arm projects horizontally into the passage, while the other two blocking arms point downward and are rotated out of the passage. A rotational axis that is approximately 45° to the horizontal enables each of the three blocking arms to be brought into the horizontal position by rotation of the blocking element, wherein at the same time a person present at the previously horizontally positioned blocking arm is let through by a rotation of the blocking element.
Alternatively, the blocking element may also comprise at least one door element, which can be swiveled about a vertical axis, and which can be swiveled by the drive out of a blocking position, in which the door element extends into the passage, into a passage position, and back.
As a further alternative, the blocking element may comprises at least one plate element, which can be swiveled, about a horizontal axis, out of the housing and swiveled back into the latter, and which, if appropriate, is realized in the manner of telescopic fan, known per se.
The frame design of the housing according to the invention enables the housing to be used in a modular manner, such that it can be provided with differently designed blocking elements, which are each known per se, such as the already mentioned turnstiles, door elements or plate elements, as well as barrier systems and so forth. Such a modular design of the housing reduces yet further the costs of manufacturing passage control devices for persons.
An exemplary embodiment for a passage control device designed according to the invention is described in greater detail in the following on the basis of the appended drawings. There are shown:
A first exemplary embodiment of a passage control device designed according to the invention is shown in a perspective representation in
Arranged in a connection region between the front side face 3 and the top face 4 is a control element 10, which in the present case is designed as a contactless near-field card reader. Upon approaching the blocking element 8, a person having a card that gives authorization can hold this card to the control element 10 or place the card on it, whereupon a control unit (not visible here) controls a drive (likewise not visible here) under the additional cover 7, such that the drive releases the blocking element 8. The authorized person can then push away the upper, horizontally extending blocking arm 9 in the passage direction, as a result of which all three blocking arms 9 rotate about the common rotational axis and, behind the person who has passed through, the next blocking arm 9 comes upward into the horizontal position. There, the blocking element 8 is again blocked by the drive, in order to prevent an unauthorized passage.
As already mentioned, the front cover plate 6, like the rear cover plate (which is not visible here), is comprised of polyurethane, and can be produced correspondingly inexpensively. The frame element 2 is also made from a plastic, preferably likewise PU, the top surface 4 being color-coated. The control element 10 may simply be integrated into the frame element 2 or placed on the latter inside the housing 1, such that it is correspondingly protected. Since the frame element 2 is made from plastic, it does not impede wireless communication between the control element 10 and a card brought into the proximity thereof from outside.
As can be seen from this representation, the housing 1 has an elongate shape, and thereby forms a wall element of a corridor for persons wishing to pass through the blocking element 8. This corridor has a corresponding singling effect, such that only the respectively authorized person is let through. The dimensions of the outer faces of the housing 1 are of corresponding magnitude, such that the saving in costs and weight is significant, resulting from the fact that all outer faces of the housing 1 are made from plastic, instead of from stainless steel, as was formerly usual.
As made clear by
This structure of the housing 1 achieves the effect that, in the fully assembled state, the housing 1 does not have any externally accessible fastening elements whatsoever (see
As can be seen from
As also shown by
The support structure 18 is also fastened to the upper spar of the frame element 2, such that a further metal profile 20 is provided there to stiffen the frame element 2. The control unit 17 is seated on a plate that, for its part, is fastened to the support structure 18.
As is furthermore evident from
Finally, it is also made clear by
It is made clear by
Thus, overall, the present invention enables person passage control devices having differing blocking elements, known per se, the functioning and structure of which are known per se, to be manufactured considerably less expensively than hitherto, and at the same time to improve the design and the security.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 102017126765.4 | Nov 2017 | DE | national |
