Safety device for motor-operated doors

• US 6,218,940 B1
• Filed: 09/04/1998
• Issued: 04/17/2001
• Est. Priority Date: 09/09/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: EFAFLEX Tor- und Sicherheitssysteme GmbH & Co. KG
• Original Assignee: EFAFLEX Tor- und Sicherheitssysteme GmbH & Co. KG
• Inventors: Eichstetter, Karl, Rejc, Gabrijel
• Primary Examiner(s): Mullen, Thomas
• Application Number:
  US09/148,311
• Time in Patent Office: 956 Days
• Field of Search: 340/555, 340/556, 340/557, 340/545.3, 340/686.6, 250/221, 318/280, 318/466, 318/256, 318/264
• US Class Current: 340/556
• CPC Class Codes: E05F 15/40 Safety devices, e.g. detection of obstructions or end positions
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 2009/6836 sensing obstacle
• CPC Class Codes: E06B 9/82 automatic

Abstract

A safety device for preferably vertically moving, motor-driven doors such as, for example, segmented doors or rolling shutter doors whose door leaf is capable of being moved in a guided fashion is described. The movement path of a leading door edge is monitored by a preferably optical beam protection, preferably on the basis of infrared beams. The beam protection has at least two, preferably at least three or a plurality of preferably parallel beams which are arranged staggered in the direction of movement of the door and which are emitted on one side of the door and received or reflected on the other side of the door. Furthermore, a safety circuit is provided with which the closing movement of the door is stopped if an obstacle is sensed in the movement path of the door. The beam protection is arranged in such a way that the beam area defined by the beams has at least one line in common with the movement area through which the leading door edge passes, and that the autonomously operating safety device has a beam-state control device which assigns different activation states to the beams as a function of the position and of the movement of the door.

Claims

1. A safety device for externally-operated moving doors having a door leaf selectively moved in a guided fashion to close a door opening, said safety device including:

an optical beam protection assembly for monitoring a movement path of a leading edge of said door leaf, said optical beam protection assembly including a plurality of beam emitters for emitting a plurality of beams from one side of the door opening toward another side of the door opening in a direction generally transverse to said movement path; and

a safety circuit for selectively at least one of stopping and reversing a closing movement of the door leaf upon sensing an obstacle in the movement path of the door leaf, wherein said beams of said protection assembly define a beam area that has at least one line, oriented in a door movement direction, in common with a movement area through which the leading door edge passes and wherein the safety device has a beam state control device that assigns one of a plurality of activation states to each of the beams as a function of the position and the movement of the door leaf.

2. The safety device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the beam area is a plane.

3. The safety device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the beam area coincides with the movement area.

4. The safety device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the beam protection assembly comprises a photoelectric area sensor.

5. The safety device as claimed in claim 1, wherein said beam state control device also determining the position of the leading edge of the door leaf, and wherein the beam-state control device assigns at least the beam which is nearest to the leading edge and is not covered by the door leaf an inactive transition state (ZERO) between an active state (1) and a passive state (X).

6. The safety device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the beam state control device includes a circuit which, as the door leaf crosses, during its closing movement, a said beam which is in the transition state (ZERO), changes a next beam in the direction of closing movement to the transition state (ZERO).

7. The safety device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the number of beams set to the transition state (ZERO) can be changed with the speed of movement of the door.

8. The safety device as claimed in claim 5, wherein a circuit is provided which, as the door leaf crosses, during its closing movement, a said beam which is in the transition state (ZERO), sets to the transition state (ZERO) a beam that is in the active state (1) and is nearest to the leading edge of the door leaf.

9. The safety device as claimed in claim 5, wherein the beams of said plurality of beam that assigned the passive state (X) are sequentially switched into the active state (1) during opening of the door leaf.

10. The safety device as claimed in claim 1 wherein a distance of the beams from one another decreases in the direction of the closing movement of the door leaf.

11. The safety device as claimed in claim 1, wherein the leading door edge of the door leaf moves vertically.

12. The safety device as claimed in claim 1 for monitoring a rolling shutter door or folding door in which at least the leading section of the door leaf is guided in lateral guide structures provided on each side of the door opening, and wherein the components of the optical beam protection assembly are arranged one of on and adjacent the guides.

13. The safety device as claimed in claim 12, wherein the beam protection assembly is a photoelectric area sensor including photoelectric strips, and wherein said photoelectric strips are integrated into the guide structures.

14. A safety device for moving externally operated doors having a door leaf selectively moved in a guided fashion to close a door opening, comprising:

an optical beam protection assembly for monitoring a movement path of a leading door edge of said door leaf and which generates a plurality of beams that are staggered along a direction of movement of the door leaf and are each emitted from a side of the door opening toward an opposite side of the door opening, and

a safety circuit with which the closing movement of the door leaf is reversed or stopped upon sensing an obstacle in the movement path of the door leaf,

wherein the beam protection assembly is disposed so that a beam area defined by the beams has at least one line oriented to intersect a movement area through which the leading door edge of the door leaf passes, and

the safety device has a beam state control device for automatically reducing a door opening area monitored by the beams of the optical beam protection assembly as a function of the progressing obstruction of beams by the door leaf.

15. An apparatus for controlling the movement of a system component along a predetermined movement path, comprising:

a beam emitting assembly including a plurality of beam emitters that emit a plurality of beams from transmitters to receivers, wherein the beams are detected by the receivers for avoiding undesired collision of the moving system component with a foreign object, the plurality of beams being arranged to traverse a movement path of the system component to define a scanning field; and

a safety circuit for selectively at least one of stopping and reversing a movement of the system component upon sensing a foreign object in the scanning field, and wherein the safety device has a beam state control device that assigns one of a plurality of activation states to each of the beams as a function of the position and the movement of the system component, said beam state control device being adapted to automatically assign a passive state (X) to those transmitters, receivers or pairs thereof that the system component has already passed, a transition state (ZERO) to the transmitter, receiver or pair thereof of which the corresponding beam will be crossed next during the movement of the system component, and an active state (1) to remaining transmitters, receivers or pairs thereof in a part of the movement path of the system component into or through which the system component has not yet passed.