ITPD20070092A1 - DEVICE FOR THE CONTROL OF THE MOVEMENT OF CLOSING ELEMENT. - Google Patents

Description

"Device for controlling the movement of the closing element"

TEXT OF THE DESCRIPTION

It is known that in the field of automatic movement of the closing elements, the moving parts of said elements must have a control during their path and in particular at the ends of said path.

Currently, the simplest existing control devices only provide limit switches at the ends of the stroke of the moving element.

Better automation involves the use, possibly in conjunction with the said limit switches, of special encoders correlated with the number of revolutions of the motors supplying the motion. There are still other control devices whose control signal is however always correlated and / or as a function of the revs of the motor providing the motion.

Currently, therefore, the existing control devices are unable to recognize the position of the element during its path directly, in particular after the power failure - often not backed up by batteries - or following the unhooking of the automation with or without subsequent manual handling.

The drawbacks that occur in the above cases are many: the aforementioned control devices are unable to recognize the position of the moving element and consequently the movement control is inappropriate since it lacks references, in this case at the ends of its path. therefore it is possible to slow down the speed near the limit switches.

In the event of a power failure, according to a practice currently adopted, recovery movements of the uncontrolled type must be carried out, which are difficult to manage in order to maintain compliance with the current safety regulations and in any case dangerous for the user (if not appropriately warned of this dangerous situation).

In the case of manual unlocking of the automation, there are currently no solutions other than to inform the user to wait for the reset cycles.

The use of limit switches and / or encoders also presents the general drawback of possible failure; in particular, the limit switches can move from their position without the control system being able to recognize this change.

Another drawback, in addition to the possible failure of the encoder, must be considered its high installation cost with the drilling of the shells where the shaft comes out, the high cost of wiring the electrical connections that branch off from said encoder.

The purpose of this patent is to overcome the drawbacks listed above and this is done with the use of an electronic accelerometer of the type existing, with different applications, on the market.

Said accelerometer supplies continuous analog or digital signals based on the angular positions assumed by the same element that incorporates the electronic components that characterize it as an electronic accelerometer.

In the following, reference is made by way of example to an overhead door to refer in all generality to a moving part.

By making said accelerometer element integral with the leaf of the overhead door, the different rototranslatory positions assumed by the leaf determine corresponding variations in the angular position of the aforementioned leaf.

Advantageously, this device can be physically integrated into the electronics responsible for controlling the movement if it is integral with the leaf.

The signals emitted by the accelerometer that absolutely identify each of its angular positions allow you to know the precise position in which the door is located.

The signals emitted by the electronic accelerometer transduced with appropriate processing in correspondence with each of its angular position, to the other parameters of the movement, become an integral part of the control automatism for which, for example, the movement speed of the moving element can be controlled, in particularly at the ends of its path (excluding the classic limit switches) without any flapping. The electronic accelerometer used can be of the simplest linear type, where the signals emitted (voltage) refer to two Cartesian axes x and y and whose magnitudes for each angular position are equated to the values relating to the trigonometric sine and cosine.

In the case of the door of an overhead door, the element incorporating the accelerometer is practical to apply it on the same surface as the door, so that the x axis is parallel to the said surface of the door. In these conditions, the x axis with the door closed coincides with the vertical and the signal emitted, being related to the cosine, has the maximum value. Since the variability of the signal emitted for the x axis is proportional to the trigonometric sine of the angle between the position of the leaf and the fixed part, it may be advantageous to use a fixing that maintains an inclination between the accelerometer plane and that of the door: for simplicity, reference will be made to the positioning represented in the drawings of the attached tables.

Since the signals emitted by the electronic accelerometer are relative to its angular position in an absolute manner, they remain so when the power supply voltage is restored if there has been an interruption in the aforementioned voltage. With the use of the electronic accelerometer it is possible to know all the leaf positions from the beginning of the leaf fully closed position (vertical) to the leaf fully open position (horizontal) and vice versa and this is because the electronic accelerometer emits the signals for the entire range of its angular position variations ranging from 0 to 90 degrees being its functions related to the cosine (1 -0).

As previously said, after the power failure or after the automation has been released, in any position the leaf is found, when the power supply is resumed and when it is reattached to the automation, the signal being emitted by the electronic accelerometer for each position angle, transduced with appropriate processing to the other movement parameters, such as the currents absorbed by the motors, the automation restarts from the position in which it was interrupted as if there had been no voltage interruption or restarts from the position in which the leaf it has been positioned with manual movement, as if there has been no release of the automation (and therefore no voltage interruption).

A further advantage connected to the use of the electronic accelerometer consists in the characteristics that these devices on the market still possess today in terms of operating temperature and dynamic response.

It should be noted that what is considered as a reference example for the door of an overhead door that in its movement rotates translating along the guides of the fixed frame, is valid for bar doors which are subject only to rotations (both in the vertical direction and in the horizontal), or for any other element whose movement is also indirectly attributable to a rotation component.

Finally, it should be noted that any other solution is included in the patent in which, instead of an electronic accelerometer (which may or may not replace an encoder, or other equivalent device or system), a detector of its angular positions is used that emits signals with similar functions to those of an electronic accelerometer.

It should also be noted that the position signal obtained by the device can be used for complete control of movement, speed, slowdowns, etc. , performing all the functions currently performed by the encoder and limit switch.

What was previously described is clarified by examining the attached drawings tables.

Fig. 1 schematically represents the leaf of a tilting unit seen in profile in the closed position with an element applied characterized by containing the electronic structuring relating to an accelerometer capable of emitting signals according to the angular position in which it is located. Fig. 1 'ideally schematizes the element relating to the electronic accelerometer made integral with the leaf, highlighting the entity of the signal emitted referred to as the projection of the component that is affected by gravity g on the reference axis.

Fig. 2 is a representation corresponding to fig. 1 where the door of the overhead door is in an intermediate position between the closed and open position and is found to define an angled position with respect to the vertical (different from the value of 0 degrees) which is the same angled position defined by the it integral with the electronic accelerometer.

Fig. 2 'also now ideally schematises the element relating to the electronic accelerometer made integral with the leaf, highlighting that the projection of the component that is affected by gravity g on the reference axis has varied (decreasing) with respect to fig. 1 '.

Fig. 3 is a representation corresponding to fig. 1 where the door of the overhead door is arranged almost horizontally in the open position and is found to define an angled position with respect to the vertical (about 90 degrees) which is the same angled position defined by the element attached to it containing Γ accelerometer electronic.

Fig. 3 'also ideally schematizes here the element relating to the electronic accelerometer made integral with the leaf, highlighting that the projection of the component that is affected by gravity g on the reference axis has varied (towards 0) with respect to fig. 1 '.

According to the schematic representation shown in the drawings, the leaf 1 of an overhead door is applied to the leaf 1, which in the movement rototranslates by means of its pins 2 along the grooved guides of the fixed frame, schematically identified with the vertical of its plane K-K, the element 3 which incorporates the electronic accelerometer with two x and y axes. Element 3 has been mounted so that with leaf 1 closed, the x axis is parallel to the position of the leaf with a vertical arrangement.

The entity of the signals emitted by the electronic accelerometer relative to the x axis is determined according to the projection that the inertial part 4 (symbolically represented with a portion of a rod shaped like a pendulum) with respect to gravity "g" performs on the x axis during the variation of angular position assumed by element 3. Since element 3 is integral with leaf 1, each signal emitted by the electronic accelerometer in correspondence with each of its angular position identifies in an absolute manner the position assumed by leaf 1 during its movement.

In the case of the representations of the various figures being the projections of the inertial part 4 on the x axis, corresponding to the trigonometric cosine, the value of the signal with leaf 1 closed (vertical) will be equal to 1 and with leaf open (horizontal) it will be 0 .

After the foregoing, we note the enormous importance of the inventive capacity of this patent which revolutionizes the currently existing methodology for detecting the positions assumed by the mobile part of an automated window or door (in the case considered, the tilting leaf of a door) during the its movements since the electronic accelerometer made directly dependent on the movement of the mobile part, emits signals corresponding to its various angular positions which are directly correlated to the angular positions (and therefore to the positions assumed) by the said moving part. We do not depart from the inventive scope of the invention for even better solutions that a person skilled in the art could implement if he uses the teachings of the present invention.

Claims (8)

CLAIMS 1) Device for controlling the movement of a closing element whose spatial motion includes a rotation characterized by the fact that the position of the rotation in which the closing element (1) is located is univocally given as a signal directly by an electronic accelerometer ( 3, 4). 2) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to claim 1 characterized in that the position in which the closing element (1) that moves linearly correlated with a component that simultaneously rotates is given as a signal directly from an electronic accelerometer (3, 4) relative to the position of the rotation in which the aforementioned component is located. 3) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to claim 1 or 2 characterized by the fact that said closing element (1) in movement is the leaf of a door. 4) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the electronic accelerometer is directly related to the closing element (1) in movement. 5) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one of the preceding claims characterized in that the signal of the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) is independent of the values of the currents absorbed by the motors during the movement of the closing element ( 1) on the go. 6) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims characterized by the fact that the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) is an electronic accelerometer with gravimetric inertial sensor (4), of the linear type with at least one (x, y) axis with analog and / or digital signal emissions. 7) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that said electronic accelerometer (3, 4) is made integral with the leaf (1), with consequent direct correspondence of the angular positions assumed by the element (3) incorporating the electronic accelerometer (4) and the positions assumed by the leaf (1) during the entire movement path including the end areas. 8) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) provides the exact positioning of the closing element (1) in movement whatever the situation prior to the detection of its signals, in particular in resuming the movement interrupted by manual release or interrupted due to lack of voltage to the system for moving the closing element (1) 9) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims characterized by the fact that the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) is positioned with the x axis not parallel to the position of the leaf so that it emits the signals with the highest values in correspondence with the positions assumed by the leaf of greatest interest. 10) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) replaces the device for detecting the angular position of the closing element (1) in movement that has similar functions (which can be an encoder). 11) Device for controlling the movement of a closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the detection of the angular positions along the path of the movement of a moving closing element (1) is carried out by a position detector angular equivalent to an electronic accelerometer (3, 4) that emits corresponding signals. 12) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterized by the fact that the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) detects the start and end positions of the closing element (1) in handling, carrying out the functionality of the usual limit switches. 13) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to one or more of the preceding claims characterized by the fact that the electronic accelerometer (3, 4) is replaced by an analog type angular position detector. 14) Device for controlling the movement of the closing element according to all the preceding claims, it being understood that what has been described and represented is by way of example according to a preferential solution.