GB2388146A

GB2388146A - Device for adjusting doors

Info

Publication number: GB2388146A
Application number: GB0209925A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Roberto Zappa
Original assignee: Sematic SpA
Current assignee: Sematic SpA
Priority date: 2002-05-01
Filing date: 2002-05-01
Publication date: 2003-11-05
Anticipated expiration: 2022-05-01
Also published as: DE20207015U1; GB0209925D0; GB2388146B

Abstract

A door adjustment device comprises a support plate 16, for adjustably supporting lift doors, and adjustment fittings. The plate 16 comprises a generally rectangular plate which, in use, extends along the length of a movement carriage 12 of the lift doors. The plate 16 is attached to the carriage 12 by fixing means inserted in holes 18 in the plate 16. Further holes 20 are provided in the sheet 16 and accept the adjustment fittings such as an eccentric nut 28. The eccentric nut 28 may be formed with an integral, cylindrical projection 30 which is received in the hole 20 and a hole 32 positioned off centre with respect to the projection 30. The nut 28 accepts a screw which also passes though a hole in the movement carriage 12. The position of the plate 16 with respect to the carriage 12 may be adjusted by rotation of the nut 28.

Description

-1 2388146:

DEVICE FOR ADJUSTING DOORS.

This invention refers to a device for adjusting doors.

In more detail, this invention refers to a device for adjusting the door sections that form the doors of lifts, with both central and lateral opening.

It is well known that the assembly of cabin doors to lifts must involve, for correct operation' the accurate positioning of the sections forming the doors themselves. This positioning relates to both the height that the doors must adopt with respect to the guide rails and to their vertical alignment, so that the doors must be parallel with each other and with the lateral posts of the cabin. In order to achieve this the fittings to be connected between them, that is the doors and their respective supports, are provided with suitably sized and located clearance holes, which are machined during the production of the fittings themselves.

This conventional solution however involves considerable inconvenience. In fact errors are often found in the formation of the above-mentioned apertures.

As the tolerances are very small, these errors make the assembly of the sliding doors extremely difficult to say the least, and most of the time call for laborious manual adjustments to be made. As can be imagined this involves an appreciable extension to the installation time with the consequent increase in costs. Moreover manual adjustments of this sort require considerable skill, so they have to be carried out by specialized personnel.

This is also a nuisance when it comes to the replacement of components, as the spare parts may require the same laborious treatment.

This invention seeks to avoid the inconvenience described above.

In more detail, this invention seeks to create a device for adjusting doors, of the type that form the doors of lifts, so as to enable the accurate installation

. ( - 2 -.' ' I'.:,

of the doors themselves in terms of their vertical alignment and at the same time keeping them parallel with the lateral posts...DTD: The invention further seeks to create a device as defined above which enables immediate compensation, without complex and specialist operations, for any machining errors in terms of the size and location of the preset seatings in the fittings to be connected between them at the assembly stage.

The invention further seeks to make an adjustment device available to the users that can guarantee a high level of efficiency, durability, and reliability, that can also be used when components are being repaired or replaced, and that can also be produced easily and economically.

According to the invention, there is provided a device for adjusting door sections forming the doors of lifts, with central and lateral closing, includes a sheet support in the form of an almost rectangular moulded plate, with at least part of the upper and lower edges bent over at 90 in the same direction, provided with clearance holes for attachment by means of screws to the carriage of the lift, and is essentially characterized by the fact that this support has further clearance holes or eyelets for the location of the fittings for adjusting the alignment of the doors with each other and/or with respect to the lateral posts of the cabin of the lift.

The invention will now be described in greater detail, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which: Figure 1 diagrammatically represents the front view of the adjustment device of the invention in a standard position, mounted on the movement carriage of the doors of the lift; Figure 2 diagrammatically represents a side view of the same device;

Àe t::: a: - 3 -,:::,

:,:...

Figure 3 diagrammatically represents an enlargement of figure 1, to show front and side views of one of the components; Figure 4 diagrammatically represents a front view of the same device as in figure 1 in a position after the adjustment that determines the alignment of the doors; Figure 5 diagrammatically represents a side view of the device of figure 4: Figure 6 diagrammatically represents a front view of the development of the sheet support on the side of the device; Figure 7 diagrammatically represents front view of the same sheet support in the final form that it takes after having been subjected to bending operations; Figure 8 diagrammatically represents a cross-section along the line A-A of figure 7; Figure 9 diagrammatically represents a front view of the doors of a lift provided with the device of this invention, to show the initial misalignment of the doors themselves; and Figure 10 diagrammatically represents the same doors accurately aligned after the adjustment carried out using the device of this invention.

With reference to the above-mentioned figures, a door adjustment device of this invention, shown complete as 10 in figures 1 and 2, is fitted to the conventional movement carriage 12 for the doors of a lift, indicated by 14 and 14' in figures 9 and 10, and is made up of a sheet support 16 in the form of a moulded plate provided with clearance holes 18 to the upper part.

The support 16 has a mainly rectangular configuration, with a longitudinal extension equivalent to that of the carriage 12 to which it is attached. This

À. .. À - - 4 -,' 2 À.:,

.. attachment is achieved by well-known methods, for example screws or bolts inserted in the holes 18 that are preferable made as eyelets extended in the horizontal direction...DTD: By means of the holes 18 and the support 16, the sliding sections 14 and 14' forming the doors of the lift are attached to the carriage 12.

This support 16 is traditionally bent over at the edges to provide stiffening, which involves all or part of the upper and lower edges.

According to this embodiment of the invention, the sheet support 16 is provided with further clearance holes or eyelets 20, intended to accept particular adjustment fittings, shown as 22 in figure 3, which will be described later. The clearance holes 20 are ideally positioned in the support 16 in the upper part thereof and outside the eyelets 18, slightly above the latter. The bending of the support 16 involves part of its upper edge and the entire lower edge and provide upper and lower flanges 24 and 26, both facing in the same direction, that is towards the outside front of the support itself, as shown in detail in figure 8.

The flanges 24 and 26 are mostly bent at 90 with respect to the support 16 and their extension is critical, in that the support itself can be used both for lifts with centrally opening opposing doors, an example of which is shown in figures 9 and 10, and for lifts with telescopic doors, i.e. doors which are superimposed upon each other when open. As a result of this requirement, the upper flange 24 must have an overhang of between 8 and 12 mm.

According to a preferred embodiment, the overhang of the upper flange compared with the support 16 is 10 mm. However the upper flange 26 has an overhang of between 15 and 25 mm, preferably equal to 20 mm.

The holes or eyelets of rectangular form with circular corners have a length of between 25 and 30 mm. and a height of between 10 and 15 mm; the preferred values are 28 and 13 mm respectively. Regarding the area above

- 5 - ',,.. '.',;2t the upper edge of the support 16, the horizontal axis of these holes 20 is separated by between 10 and 15mm., preferably 12 mm.

The holes or eyelets 20 of the support 16 accept adjustment fittings 22, suitable constructed from an eccentric nut 28. At least one of the faces of the nut 28 is provided with an integral cylindrical projection 30, corbelled out between 1 and 3 mm. There is a clearance hole 32 in this projection, positioned off-centre with respect to itself and the body of the nut 30. The hole 32 is intended to accept the stem of a screw (not shown) which uses a corresponding drilled hole in the carriage 12.

The diameter of the cylindrical projection 30 of the nut 28 corresponds to the height of the eyelets 20, apart from alignment tolerance. The size of this projection is such that it can fit into the eyelets themselves, from the front of the support 16. For preference there are just two eyelets on the latter for the equivalent nuts 28, corresponding to a configuration of two doors with central opening or of telescopically opening doors.

The operation of the device in this invention, as well as achieving the purposes set out, can easily be understood from the description above and

as demonstrated in particular in figures 1, 4, 9, and 10. Figure 1 shows the device 10 in the standard position, that is neutral, with the nuts 28 not yet adjusted or fixed. In this situation, the doors 14 and 14' are fitted to the carriage 12 by conventional means such as screws or bolts 36, inserted in the holes 18. These screws or bolts abut against the upper edge of the above-mentioned holes. Figure 2 shows the device 10 in the operating position, with the nuts 28 attached to the carriage 12; the cylindrical projections 30 of these nuts are rotated in such a way as to ensure the location of the screws 36 in position next to the lower edge of the holes 18.

Figure 9 shown a typical example of misalignment of the doors with respect to the lateral posts, one of which is shown at 38. This situation corresponds to the standard position of figure 1, in which the device 10 is not operating. The correction to achieve the alignment is shown in figure 10, in which the device

- 6 -,.,:,... .

::. e..

Of the invention, and in particular the nuts 28, are used, in conjunction the screws in the carriage 12, fin the holes or eyelets 20. The ideal orientation of the cylindrical projections 30 of the nuts 28 determines, given the eccentricity of the nuts themselves, the rectilinear alignment of the doors with respect to the posts 38).

The conventional screw that fixes each of the nuts 28 to the carriage 12 is inserted in the hole 32 created in each of the nuts themselves. This alignment can obviously be applied to one of the doors 14 and 14') with respect to the other, or to both the doors with respect to each other and/or the posts 38 at the same time.

The advantages that the invention provides are clear from what has been set out above.

The door adjustment device in this invention enables the doors to be aligned to one another and with respect to the posts of the cabin accurately and immediately, avoiding those laborious manual adjustments that were required to compensate for machining errors in the components to be connected together. A particular advantage derives from the facility to adjust only one of the doors, without altering the positioning of the other, or the possibility of adjusting the two doors independently.

Claims

- 7 - ' ". ",' 2 at;2.

. CLAIMS:..CLME: 1. A door adjustment device, for door sections forming the doors of lifts, with central or lateral opening, made up of a sheet support in the form of an almost rectangular moulded plate, with at least part of the upper and lower edges bent over at 90 in the same direction, provided with first clearance holes for attachment' by means of screws, to the carriage of the lift, wherein this support has further or second clearance holes or eyelets for the location of fittings for adjusting the alignment of the doors with each other and/or with respect to the lateral posts of the cabin of the lift.
2. A device according to claim 1, wherein the adjustment fittings are made up of eccentric nuts that have, on at least one face, an integral cylindrical projection corbelled out a small distance, with a clearance hole positioned off-centre from the projection.
3. A device according to any preceding claim, wherein the said further or second clearance holes or eyelets are in the upper part of the support, outside the first clearance holes and slightly above them.
4. A device according to any preceding claim wherein the number of further or second clearance holes or eyelets in the support are the same as the number of doors with central or telescopic opening.
5. A device according to claim 2 or any claim directly or indirectly dependent therefrom, wherein the off-centre clearance hole of each of the eccentric nuts accepts a screw whose stem fits in a hole drilled in the carriage.
6. A device according to claim 2 or any claim directly or indirectly dependent therefrom, wherein the diameter of the cylindrical projections of

Be: 44e I: ce' c.: - 8 -,: 6:'. ..

.. the eccentric nuts is equal to or slightly less than the height of the further or second clearance holes or eyelets...CLME:
7. A device according to any preceding claim, wherein the 90 bending of the upper edge of the support is partial and creates a flange, the projection of which is between 8 and 12 mm.
8. A device according to any preceding claim, wherein the 90 bending of the lower edge of the support is total and creates a flange the projection of which is between 15 and 25 mm.
9. A device according to any preceding claim wherein the further or second clearance holes or eyelets are rectangular with circular corners and are between 25 and 30 mm long, and between 10 and 15 mm high.
10. A device according to any preceding claim, wherein the horizontal axis of the further or second clearance holes or eyelets is between 10 and 15 mm below the section of the edge of the support above them.
11. A door adjustment device, for door sections forming the doors of lifts, with central or lateral opening substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.