REVOLVING DOOR

Abstract: The revolving door is suitable for the closing of buildings and is of the type wherein the rotating part (4) has a central hollow space of considerable inside diameter. The revolving door is characteristic in that an upwardly-extending bearing housing (6) with at least two bearings (7, 8), in which the revolving door's rotating part (4) is suspended, is supported solely by the floor of the building. The bearing housing (6) can be formed as a lattice construction with at least three columns (9), and have securing means (10, 11) for establishing the connection with the fundament, said securing means (10, 11) being adjustable for height. The bearing housing (6) can also serve either wholly or partly to support the revolving door's ceiling structure, and/or as support for the driving mechanism (12) for operation of the revolving door.

Description: REVOLVING DOOR This invention relates to revolving doors for the en¬ trances of closed buildings. The revolving door in ac¬ cordance with the invention has a specially advantage- ous bearing housing with at least two bearings, wherein the rotating part of the revolving door is suspended, and the bearing housing is supported solely by the flo¬ or of the building, from which it extends upwards in a hollow space in the ' rotating part of the revolving door, Revolving doors have been known for a long time, and for a period found general application as doors in en¬ trances to buildings having a high in-and-out flow of pedestrian traffic. Together with the possibility of free passage, these doors provide the building with the best possible security against the loss of heat (or the loss of cooled air) , draught and the ingress of dust and noise. For a number of years, revolving doors have found less application because of the very low prices of energy, which have made it financially practicable to use the energy economical far more costly air cur¬ tains or sliding doors instead. The price increases within the energy field over recent years have, howev¬ er, once again made the use of revolving doors econom¬ ically attractive. Many types of revolving door cons- tructions are known, and a great many of these provide solutions to the establishing of a way of escape thro¬ ugh the revolving door's opening in the event of a pa¬ nic situation inside the building. Others are provided with motor arrangements for the mechanical operation of the rotating part of the revolving door, and for the control of rotation or to safeguard against too high rotation speed. However, all known revolving doors have the common characteristic that the door's rotating part is suspended in bearings whose housing or housings are supported by the building structure both below on the building floor as well as above, either in the overly¬ ing storey separation or in one or more beams built-in for the purpose over the revolving door's rot ting part and being supported outside that area of the floor swept by the revolving door. It is nevertheless expensive to establish an overlying supporting construction, providing that such a const¬ ruction does not exist at the necessary height, and un- der all circumstances it is time-demanding at the con¬ struction site to position two bearings having no firm connection with each other precisely opposite each oth¬ er. These inconveniences have been relieved either by building the whole of the revolving door housing as a single unit with the bearings built into the ceiling structure and the floor structure of said housing, or by using a vertical central column secured to the str¬ ucture of the building at its top and its bottom., in that bearings on the column support the rotating part of the revolving door. The first solution is inexped¬ ient or inapplicable to revolving doors of larger dia¬ meters. Only conveyances with widths of up to 2.5 m can take place without special traffic arrangements, and large revolving doors existing today often have diameters of up to 5 m. The second solution, with the use of a column which is secured between the floor and the overlying storey separation structure, is also in¬ expedient, among other things because it makes a test erection and test trial at the door's place of manu- facture difficult and thereby expensive. Many build¬ ings, where large revolving doors are used, also have such great ceiling heights that it is necessary, for architectural reasons, to build a special supporting construction in over the revolving door for securing the upper end of such a column . The present invention is characteristic in that the rotating part of the revolving door is suspended in at least two bearings mounted on a central upwardly-ext¬ ending support element which is itself supported sole- ly by the building's floor structure, and which extends upwards from the floor and through a central hollow space in the rotating part of the revolving door. An advantage with this construction is that it is easy to erect the revolving door at its place of production for testing of the mechanical and other. fxxnctions, after which it is easy to dismantle for re-erection on site, thus providing great security that the mechanical func¬ tions wor .-in„an. unchanged and correct manner. A fur¬ ther advantage is that at the place of use, the erec- tion is dependent only on securing in the floor, thus making the erection quicker to carry out, safely- and cheaply. The invention can be characterized by the support el- ement having two bearings, an upper and centrally mounted thrust bearing arranged to support the rotat¬ ing part of the revolving door and at the same time to control the rotation, and a lower radial bearing of large diameter arranged to guide the rotation. This bearing constellation provides a good, smooth and sta¬ ble rotation at a reasonable price, while at the same time ensuring that the support element's bottom can be made with great enough breadth that sufficient rigid¬ ity in the bearing construction is achieved. The invention can also be characterized by the struc¬ ture of the support element being arranged to include at least three columns. With a given use of material, such a structure makes it possible to achieve maximum rigidity in the support element construction, in the same way that with an advantageously small consumption of material, great rigidity is achieved in the constru¬ ction of lattice towers. The invention can further be characterized in that the securing of the supporting element to its fundament, the building's floor structure, takes place at three or four points and with securing means which are adjust¬ able in height. With the use, for example, of founda- tion bolts and spacers, it is possible to position the the support element quickly and easily at precisely the desired level and in the exact vertical position, thus rendering erection inexpensive and safe. The invention can also be characterized by the support¬ ing element further serving as the bearing means for the ceiling structure of the revolving door. It is ad¬ vantageous, particularly with revolving doors of large diameter and installed in buildings with high ceilings, that one can make the ceiling structure of the relev¬ ant revolving door as light and therewith as cheaply as possible. By using the supporting element as the ceil¬ ing structure bearing means central to the revolving door's quarter-walls, a considerable reduction in the dimensions of the door's ceiling bearing means is pos¬ sible. Revolving doors, especially those of large diameter, often have their rotating part mechanically driven. Such revolving doors are frequently built into exist¬ ing buildings as replacements for hitherto used door arrangements. Consequently, they must often be erected as main entrances to buildings which are in use, and it is thus of considerable importance that the erec- tion and adjustment on site can be carried out in the shortest possible amount of time. Finally, the inven¬ tion can therefore be characterized by the supporting element also serving as the supporting structure for the driving machinery. The advantages achieved here- with are, among other things, that the driving machin¬ ery can be placed in a position which is mechanically expedient for the revolving door, namely close to the door's axis of rotation, that the driving machinery is placed above floor level, thus considerably reducing the on-site erection preparation work and, finally, . that the supporting element, bearings and drive mach¬ inery for the rotating part are built together as a transportable module. Whether or not the driving mach¬ inery is placed in the rotating part's central hollow space or above the rotating part, a revolving door of this special embodiment .can easily be tested and ad¬ justed at its place of production, and thereafter dis¬ mantled in a simple .manner to form transportable mod¬ ules. Upon subsequent assembly at the erection site, great security is thus provided that the re-assembled revolving door will function completely satisfactorily without further time-consuming and troublesome adjust¬ ment work. An advantageous embodiment of the invention will now be described in closer detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, where fig. 1 is a perspective, exploded drawing of a re- volving door according to the invention, fig. 2 is a vertical section through the rotating part and the supporting element in the re¬ volving door shown in fig. 1, seen along line B-B in fig. 3, fig. 3 is a horizontal section through the rotat- OM? ing part and the supporting element in the revolving door shown in fig. 1, seen along the line A-A in fig. 2, and fig. 4 is a vertical section corresponding to the upper part of the section shown in fig. 2, but of another embodiment wherein the bear¬ ing housing is the supporting element for the ceiling of the revolving door, and where the driving machinery is overhung in relation to the revolving door's rotating part. The corresponding parts shown in the various drawings have been given the same reference numbers. Fig. 1 shows the revolving door's ceiling 1 with annu- lus 2 and quarter— alls 3 which surround the door's rotating part 4, the centre of which is provided with a hollow space 5. The hollow space 5 surrounds the sup- porting element 6 which supports the rotating part 4 of the revolving door. Fig. 2 shows a vertical section of the supporting ele¬ ment 6 and a part of the revolving door's rotating part 4. The supporting element 6 has columns.9 which are mutually connected with latticework stays. The bearing housing 6 is secured to the floor with founda¬ tion bolts 10, and the height and alignment is adjust¬ ed by means of spacers 11. The revolving door's rotat- ing part 4 is suspended o ' the supporting element in the thrust bearing 7, and is controlled in its rota¬ tion by this bearing and by radial bearing 8. The ro¬ tating part 4 is driven around by a conventional motor arrangement 12 which is supported by the supporting element 6. Fig. 3 shows a horizontal section along line A-A in fig. 2, and the same parts have the same reference num¬ bers. Fig. 4 shows a section corresponding to the upper part of the section shown in fig. 2, but of an embodiment according to the invention of a supporting element which also serves as support for the bearing elements in the revolving door's ceiling. In the figure, S is the supporting element's upper part, and 4 is the up¬ per part of the revolving door's rotating part. From the supporting element 6, support means 13 extend cen¬ trally upwards and bear on their lower part (with cir¬ cular cross-section) the thrust bearing 14. Above this, the load from the ceiling structure 15 is transferred to the supporting element 6 through the support means 13 and, finally, support means 13 also supports the drive machinery 16. The revolving door according to the invention can be built up expediently of parts which can be separated and assembled in a simple manner, for example by means of bolted joints. This makes it possible to erect and test the whole construction at the factory, dismantle the door construction in smaller parts suitable for road transport, and to re-assemble the individual parts quickly and securely at the building site. Since the supporting element is independent of the overly¬ ing structure of the building, the positioning of the supporting element and of the quarter-walls can first be marked out with great accuracy on the floor, after which the supporting element is lifted into place and its level and alignment adjusted by means of the foun¬ dation bolts and spacers. The remaining parts of the revolving door can then be mounted. It will be obvious that the erection work, can be carried out quickly and with great security, the reason being that the charac¬ teristic construction of the supporting element ren¬ ders the assembly independent of the overlying struc- ture of the building.

Claims: C L A I M S 1. Revolving door for a closed building, the rotat¬ ing part (4) of said revolving door having a central hollow space (5) in which it is suspended by means of at least two bearings (7, 8, 14), and which is mounted on a central, upwardly-extending supporting element (β) , c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the supporting element (β) is arranged to be supported solely at its lower end. 2. Revolving door according to claim 1, c h a r a c¬ t e r i z e d in that the supporting element (6) is provided with two bearings (7, 8, 14) , the upper bear¬ ing (7, 14) being a thrust bearing, and the lower bearing (8) being a radial bearing with considerably greater diameter. 3. Revolving door according to claims 1 or 2, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the supporting el¬ ement (6) has at least three columns (9) , i.e., the supporting element is of lattice construction. 4. Revolving door according to claims 1, 2 or 3, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the supporting el¬ ement is arranged for securing to a fundament at three or four, points by means of securing arrangements (10, 11) which can be adjusted for height. 5. Revolving door according to at least one of the claims 1 - 4, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the supporting element (6) , in addition to serving for the suspension of the revolving door's rotating part (4) , is also arranged to serve as the supporting means for the ceiling structure (15) over the revolving door. 6. Revolving door according to at least one of the claims 1 - 5, c h a r a c t e r i z e d in that the supporting element (6) also alone serves to support the driving machinery (12, 16) for mechanical rotation of the revolving door's rotating part (4) .

Inventors: OLESEN JORGEN ERIK
Applicants: BMT BYGNINGSAUTOMATIC AS, OLESEN JORGEN ERIK
Application year: 1982
Main classification: E05D15
IPC codes: E05B15, E06B3