Folding door apparatus for platform for track vehicles

Abstract: [PURPOSE] To provide a door opening and closing driving apparatus for a folding door apparatus for a platform for track vehicles (10,11) which can freely adjust the position at and the width with which doors (24) are to be opened and can vary the direction in and the stroke over which the doors are to be opened and closed.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention This invention relates to a driving apparatus for opening and closing doors which can make an opening operation in conformity with a necessary opening, and particularly to a door opening and closing driving apparatus for a door apparatus for a platform for track vehicles wherein an opening of doors can be made coincide, when a train of any of different vehicle types stops, with an entrance of the track vehicle with regard to the position and the width of the entrance and the directions and the strokes in and by which the doors move are variable. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, a driving apparatus for opening and closing doors of a door apparatus for a platform for track vehicles having folding doors is charcterized in that folding doors wherein two of them makes one set and a plurality of such sets are provided continuously with a mid portion between the two of each set serving as an inflection point, that the plurality of sets of continuous folding doors are provided with a construction which changes over the plurality of sets of continuous folding doors between closed fixed positions in which they are disposed in a serial row along a platform at which a track vehicle stops and another position in which, in order to form an opening at a position corrsponding to an entrance of the track vehicle stopped, each set of the folding doors is moved to inflect and adjacent ones of the folding doors are inflected in accordance with the necessity to form a predetermined opening, that a logic unit having a construction wherein moving directions and moving stroke amounts of the doors are set and controlled in response to information of a position, a width dimension and so forth of the entrance of the track vehicle stopped, said logic unit being provided as the construction for changing over, and that a pair of opening and closing acting bodies are provided for each set of the folding doors corresponding to a necessary opening position while a door opening and closing driving apparatus which can provide a direction and a stroke amount necessary for formation of an opening to the opening and closing acting bodies is provided. According to a further aspect of the present invention, the drifing apparatus for a folding door apparatus for a platform for track vehicles of the construction described above is characterized in that the inflecting direction of the folding doors when they are opened is a direction in which they approach the track vehicle side and the arrangement of the folding doors upon closing is set such that the inflection points of the folding doors in a most inflected condition make approached positions at which the inflectiong points do not contact with the track vehicle, and also characterized in that the inflecting direction of the folding doors when they are opened is a direction in which they move away from the track vehicle side and the positions of the folding doors upon closing are set to approached positions at which the folding doors do not contact with the track vehicle. In the construction as mentioned above, from the doors wherein the plurality of sets of folding doors each consisting of two folding doors are disposed in a serial row, the door opening and closing driving apparatus selects a pair of ones of the folding doors to be opened in response to information of an entrance from a track vehicle and the selected folding doors drive the pair of opening and closing acting bodies to a position corresponding to the position and the dimension of the entrance, and the selected folding doors and/or adjacent ones of the folding doors can be successively inflected to form a predetermined opening. In this instance, in order to move the folding doors in conformity with the entrance of the track vehicle, the door opening and closing driving apparatus of the present invention can execute calculating processing of the logic unit from the information regarding a position and a width dimension of the entrance of the track vehicle to calculate moving directions and moving stroke amounts of the folding doors, control a varying mechanism of the driving apparatus in response to a calculation signal and set an opening position and an opening width of the folding doors in conformity with the entrance of the track vehicle. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.1 a plan view showing an embodiment wherein an opening and closing driving apparatus of the present invention is applied to a folding door apparatus; FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the folding door apparatus shown in FIG. 1; FIG. 3 is a plan view showing another embodiment of a folding door apparatus of the present invention; FIG. 4 illustrates in plan view a relationship between a folding door apparatus and an opening and cosing driving apparatus of the present invention and shows a condition wherein the opening and closing driving apparatus is disposed at a position of folding doors to be opened and closed; FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a condtion before the opening and closing driving apparatus of the present invention selects a particular folding door of the folding door apparatus; FIG. 6 shows a plan view showing a condition wherein the opening and closing driving apparatus from the condition of FIG. 4; FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram for controlling an opening and closing operating section in the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate in plan view and side elevational view a relationship to track vehicles when folding doors are employed as a door apparatus in a door opening and closing driving apparatus of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, reference numerals 10 and 11 denote each a vehicle, and the vehicles 10 and 11 are coupled to each other by means of a coupler 12 to constitute a train. A pair of entrances 13 and 13' are formed on the vehicle 10, and a pair of sliding doors 14 and 14' of the single sliding type are disposed at the entrances 13 and 13' such that they may open and close the entrance doors 13 and 13'. At solid line positions shown in FIG. 1, the sliding doors 14 and 14' are in a condition in which they open the entrance doors 13 and 13' and the sliding door 14' a indicated by a broken line shows a condition wherein it closes the entrance 13'. Entrances 15 and 15' of the vehicle 11 are wide different from those of the track vehicle 10 and accordingly are provided with sliding doors 16 and 16' of the double sliding type. Reference numeral 17 denotes a platform edge of a platform, and folding doors 24₁ to 24₇ and 24₈ to 24₁₆ as doors are disposed continuously in serial row along the platform edge 17. In the drawing, the folding doors in a closed condition are provided with the suffix a like 24 2a , 24 3a , 24 9a , and 24 10a and are indicated by broken lines, and the folding doors in such closed condition make a straight line and the positions of the folding doors will be hereinafter referred to as stationary fixed positions. Upon opening of the folding doors, in order to form openings registered with the entrances 13, 13', 15 and 15' of the vehicles, the folding doors to be moved in order to form openings are driven in predetermined directions by predetermined stroke amounts to the solid line positions having no suffix while inflectiong the folding doors on the opening end sides and successively inflecting adjacent folding doors. Each of the folding doors indicated by the folding doors 24₁ to 24₇ and 24₈ to 24₁₆ is constructed such that it is composed of a set of elements 24a and 24b and a joining point between the set of elements 24a and 24b is made an inflecting point 24c as shown at the folding door 24₁ as an example. The folding doors 24₆ and 24₇ are positioned corresponding to the entrance 13 of the vehicle 10 and similarly the folding doors 24₂ and 24₃ are positioned corresponding to the entrance 13', and as the individual holding doors are inflected at the inflecting points 24c, they are moved leftwardly and rightwardly so as to conform with the openings of the entrances. Meanwhile, the folding doors 24₉ and 24₈ which can be moved in the rightward direction and the folding door 24₁₀ which can be moved in the leftward direction are positioned corresponding to the entrance 15 of the vehicle 11, and similarly the folding door 24₁₃ which can be moved in the rightward direction and the folding doors 24₁₄ and 24₁₅ which can be moved in the leftward direction are positioned corresponding to the entrance 15'. Of the two folding doors 24₉ and 24₈ which are moved in the rightward direction with respect to the entrance 5, the folding door 24₉ on the opening end side is first inflected around the inflecting point 24c until inner faces of the set of elements 24a and 24b are contacted with each other, and further, movement of the folding door 24₉ in the rightward direction inflects the adjacent folding door 24₈ around the inflecting point 24 c in accordance with the amount of movement. Similarly, also operations of the two folding doors 24₁₄ and 24₁₅ which are moved in the leftward direction with respect to the entrance 15' are similar. In this manner, openings conforming to opening dimensions of entrances can be set by the folding doors. The distance indicated by S₁ is a demension between side faces of the vehicles 10 and 11 and the folding doors 24 provided at the platform and is a critical dimension to which the folding doors 24 are approached without contacting with the side faces of the vehicles 10 and 11 which are running, and in the case of the present invention, the position of each of the folding doors 24 is set to such critical distance S₁. A fixed wall 19 is disposed in a common plane with the folding doors between the folding doors 24₇ and 24₈. The fixed wall 19 is a location which corresponds to a connecting portion of a train and normally is free from an entrance, and consequently, there is no necessity of particularly providing a folding door there. The positional relationship between the platform and the train in FIG. 1 is such that the center of the fixed wall 19 and the center of the connecting portion of the vehicles do not coincide with each other, and a condition is shown sherein the train is stopped at a position displaced leftwardly from the platform. Even in case the stopping position of the train is displaed from a regular stopping position of the platform in this manner, openings coinciding with the entrances of the vehicles can be formed by inflecting movement of the folding doors. While, in the embodiment of the present invention described so far, openings equal to the sizes of the entrances described above are formed by inflecting mevement of the folding doors at the positions of the entrances of the vehicles, it is also possible to provide openings wider than the magnitudes of the entrances by controlling movement of the folding doors. FIG. 2 is a side elevational view in FIG. 1 and shows a condition wherein the folding doors are open, and reference numeral 20 denotes a floor of the paltform, 21 a ceiling and closing 22 a door header. Supporting sections and opening a nd closing driving mechanisms for the folding doors are accommodated in the inside of the door header 13. While a predetermined opening is obtained in the embodiment of the present invention described above by inflecting, when an opening is to be formed, the inflecting point 24c of a folding door with respect to the side face of the vehicle in a direction in which the inflecting point 24c moves away from the side face of the vehicle so as to form a concave shape in the arrangement of FIG. 1, in a second embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 3, the form is shown wherein, when folding doors are to form an opening, inflecting points 24c of folding doors 24 are inflected in a direction in which they approach side faces of vehicles, that is, in a direction in which they make a convex shape. Referring to FIG. 3, a vehicle 101A is in a condition wherein a sliding door 105A of the single sliding type is opened to open an entrance 104A, and a plurality of folding doors 119, to 119₇ are provided in a spaced relationship by a fixed distance from a platform edge 108A of a platform in a serial row in a closed condition. In such an open condition as shown in FIG. 3, the sliding doors at the position corresponding to the entrance 104A are inflected. Each of the folding doors includes, as represented by the folding door 119₂, a set of elements 119a and 119b and an inflecting point 119c which is inflected to the vehicle side between the set of elements 119a and 119b. And, an adjacent catcher 114 is provided between adjacent folding doors to connect the adjacent folding doors to each other. Further, a latch 115 is provided at coupling portions of each two adjacent folding doors, and the folding doors hold their fixed positions, which are a horizontal closed condition, by the latches 115. Further, in the set of elements 119a and 119b, projected portion 116 is formed on one element while a hole portion 117 is formed on the other element, and when the folding door 119 is inflected to the maximum, the projected portion 116 is engaged with the hole portion 117 so that the maximum inflected condition is maintained until fixed pulling forces in the reverse direction act as at P₁ and P₂. The folding doors 119₄, 119₅ and 119₆ are in the maximum inflected condition. In particular, the serial line of the folding doors 119₁ to 119₇ is set such that, in a condition wherein the in flecting points 119c of the folding doors 119 are inflected to the maximum to the vehicle side from the array of the serial line which is the fixed positions of the folding doors, a dimension S₂ at which the inflecting points 119c do not contact with side faces of vehicles may be provided. In this instance, the latches 115₁ to 115₇ are provided between adjacent ones of the folding doors composed of the serial line of the folding doors 119₁ to 119₇ and hold the folding doors at the fixed positions until fixed external forces act upon the connecting points of the folding doors. In order to allow the folding doors 119₁ to 119₇ in conformity with the entrance 104A of the vehicle, when fixed external forces indicated at P₁ and P₂ act upon the end portions of the folding door 119₅ and the folding door 119₆, the folding doors on the side on which the external forces act are released from the latches and are moved. While the folding doors are shown in an open condition in the drawing, if the external force P₁ acts in the rightward direction upon the end of portion of the folding door 119₅, the end portion of the folding door 119₅ is released from the latch 115₅ to allow the folding door 119₅ to be inflected to the maximum, and then movement of the folding door 119₅ in the rightward direction inflects and moves the folding door 119₄ positioned rightwardly thereof so as to be inflected to the maximum thereby to further inflect the folding door 119₃ a little, in which condition a predetermined opening dimension is obtained. When the external force P₂ acts in the leftward direction at the end portion of the folding door 119₆, the end portion 119₆ is released from the latch 115₅ to allow the folding door 119₆ to be inflected to the maximum and then inflect the folding door 119₇ to an intermediate degree thereby to obtain a predetermined opening dimension. In the present embodiment, the folding door 119₅ (also the adjacent folding door 119₄) and the folding doors 119₆ positioned at the end portions of the entrance are both in the maximum inflected condition. A pair of protective walls (not shown) are provided on the left and right of each entrance, and the positional relationship between a side face of the vehicle 101A and the folding doors 119 is such that the dimension S₂ of the distance between the side face of the vehicle 101A and the inflecting points 119c projected toward the side face of the vehicle 101A when the folding doors 119 are inflected to the maximum. Consequently, passengers are driven, when they get on or off, in the leftward and rightward directions, which is effective to prevent a danger. When the folding doors are moved from the open condition shown to the closed condition, the folding doors 119₃ and 119₇ which are spaced away from the opening portion and present small inflections are put into a straight condition, and then the folding doors 119₄ and 119₆ adjacent the folding doors are put into a straight condition, whereafter the folding door 119₅ adjacent the folding door 119₄ is extended into a straight condition. An embodiment of an opening and closing driving apparatus for folding doors of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 (plan views). A condition of the opening and closing driving apparatus for folding doors before starting its operation is shown in FIG. 5 and another condition of the opening and closing driving apparatus immediately before the folding doors are opened is shown in FIG. 4, and a relationship between the folding doors forming an opening and the opening and closing driving apparatus is illustrated in FIG. 6. Folding doors 25₁ to 25₆ are positioned in parallel to a platform edge 8A of a platform and holds the position corresponding to an entrance in a closed condition. An opening end of the plurality of folding doors is between the folding doors 25₃ and 25₄, and as the folding doors 25₃ and 25₄ are opened and closed leftwardly and rightwardly, the folding doors are opened and closed. The opening and closing driving apparatus for folding doors is provided with a supporting rail 26 in parallel to the folding doors in the serial arrangement in the closed condition for opening and closing the folding doors, and two opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B are disposed for individual movement in leftward and rightward directions on the supporting rail 26. Each of the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B is provided on the folding doors side with engaging elements 25A and 25B for engaging with a door end 25d of the folding door 25₃ at the opening end as well as a door end 25d of the folding door 25₄, respectively, and is provided on the opposite side to the folding doors with driven rollers 29A and 29B adapted to move the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B and mounted in an integrated condition. For the driven rollers 29A and 29B provided on the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B, opening and closing driving sections 31₁ to 31₆ having driving rollers 30₁ to 30₆ acting with intersecting angles upon the driven rollers 29A and 29B are disposed. The distance between each adjacent ones of the plurality of opening and closing driving sections is set shorter than the length L of the driven rollers 29A and 29B provided on the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B. And, the opening and closing driving sections 31₁ to 31₆ have a construction which can change the intersecting angles of the respective driving rollers 30₁ to 30₆. In the opening and closing driving apparatus for folding doors of the present invention described so far, the driving rollers 30₃ and 30₄ are first rotated by operation of the opening and closing driving section 31₃ and the opening and closing driving section 31₄. Consequently, the opening and closing acting body 27A is moved to the right side while the opening and closing acting body 27B is moved to the left, and by such movements, the folding doors 25₃ and 25₄ are first inflected by way of the engaging elements 28A and 28B so that the folding doors are moved in the opening direction. The intersecting angles of the driving rollers are set in the opposite directions at the opening and closing driving sections 31₁ to 31₃ and 31₄ to 31₆, and with respect to the boundary between the folding door 25₃ and the folding door 25₄, the folding door 25₃ is moved rightwardly while the folding door 25₄ is moved leftwardly. And, by setting the intersecting angles of the driving rollers opposite to each other, the folding doors thus opened can be moved in the closing direction. Naturally, the moving directions of the folding doors can be changed by way of the opening and closing scting bodies by rotating the driving rollers 30 forwardly or reversely. Consequently, the folding doors can be opened and closed by changing the rotating directions of the driving rollers without changing the intersecting angles of the driving rollers at the opening stroke and the closing stroke of the folding doors. Thus, in order to open the folding doors between the folding door 25₃ and the folding door 25₄ from a relationship to an entrance of a track vehicle, the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B at the position of FIG. 5 are moved to the left by a distance of L. Thereupon, the opening and closing driving sections 31₁ to 31₄ are all operated in the leftwardly feeding condition, and the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B are moved by the distance L. After then, the engaging element 28A and 28B are engaged with the door ends 25d of the folding doors 25₃ and 25₄ positioned at the opening ends as shown in FIG. 4 to change the intersecting angles of the driving rollers 30₁ to 30₃ of the opening and closing driving sections 25₁ to 25₃ into the rightwardly feeding direction, thereby completing preparations for opening of the folding doors. The folding doors with which preparations for opening are completed as shown in FIG. 4 are then put into such an open condition as shown in FIG. 6 because the opening and closing acting body 27A starts its movement by the opening and closing driving section 25₃ in order to form a predetermined opening and the folding doors undergo action of both of the opening and closing driving sections 31₃ due to the fact that the lengh of the driven roller 29A is set longer than the distance between two adjacent ones of the opening and closing driving sections. Also the opening and closing acting body 27B undergoes similar action, and an open condition shown is reached. A circuit diagram for controlling the opening and closing driving sections in response to information of entrances of a track vehicle is shown in FIG. 7. From a track vehicle, information 32 regarding positions and widths of entrances of the track vehicle and information 33 regarding a position at which the track vehicle stops are obrained, and the two information 32 and 33 is transmitted to a logic unit 34. The logic unit 34 controls the opening and closing driving sections described above to operate the folding doors to their open positions. In this instance, the logic unit 29 determines if openings corresponding to entrances of the track vehicle can be set "in which directions" and "by what amounts" "the folding doors at which positions" are moved, and controls the individual actuators 35₁ to 35₅ so that intersecting angles of the opening and closing driving sections 31₁ to 31₅ may be obtained in accordance with the determination. As described so far, the logic unit 34 controls the opening and closing driving sections 31₁ to 31₅ so as to move the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 to the predetermined positions, and in addition, plays a role of outputting an instruction to a control line 126 to engage the engaging elements 28A and 28B provided on the opening and closing acting bodies 27A and 27B with the door ends 25d of the folding doors 25₃ and 25₄. A microcomputer or the like may be used as the logic unit. Due to the construction of the invention, it has an effect that, even when a train of any of different vehicle types stops at the platform and the position and the width of the entrance are not fixed, those of the doors constituted from the sliding doors or the folding doors disposed continuously along the platform edge which correspond to the entrance are selected and the thus selected sliding doors or folding doors can be opened in conformity with the entrance by the opening and closing driving apparatus which is composed of an opening and closing driving section and an opening and closing acting body and by which a suitable opening direction and stroke amount are set, and has another effect that getting on and off of passengers is made smooth and safe. Further, the gap formed between a track vehicle and an opening of the platform can be reduced, and the danger that passengers are driven leftwardly and rightwardly of the entrance of the track vehicle, which is superior in assurance of safety.

Claims: A driving apparatus for opening and closing doors of a door apparatus for a platform for track vehicles (10; 11; 101A), having folding doors (24; 25; 119), wherein two of them make one set (24a, 24b; 25a, 25b; 119a, 119b) and a plurality of such sets are provided continuously with a mid portion between the two of each set serving as an inflection point (24c; 25c; 119c), said plurality of sets (24a, 24b; 25a, 25b; 119a, 119b) of continuous folding doors (24; 25; 119) being provided with a construction which changes over said plurality of sets of continuous folding doors (24; 25; 119) between closed fixed positions in which they are disposed in a serial row along a platform at which a track vehicle (10; 11; 101A) stops and another position in which, in oder to form an opening at a position corresponding to an entrance of the track vehicle (10; 11; 101A) stopped, each set of said folding doors (24; 25; 119) is moved to inflect, and adjacent ones of said folding doors are inflected in accordance with the necessity to form a predetermined opening, a logic unit (34) having a construction wherein moving directions and moving stroke amounts of said doors (24; 25; 119) are set and controlled in response to information (32) of a position, a width dimension and so forth of the entrance of the track vehicle (10; 11; 101A) stopped, said logic unit (34) being provided as said construction for changing over, and a pair of opening and closing acting bodies (27A; 27B) provided for each set of said folding doors (24; 25; 119) corresponding to a necessary opening position while a door opening and closing driving apparatus which can provide a direction and a stroke amount necessary for formation of an opening to said opening and closing acting bodies (27A, 27B) is provided. A driving apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the inflecting direction of said folding doors (24; 25; 119), when they are opened, is a direction in which they approach the track vehicle side, and the arrangement of said folding doors upon closing is set such that the inflection points (24c; 25c; 119c) of said folding doors (24; 25; 119) in a most inflected condition make approached positions at which said inflecting points do not contact with the track vehicle. A driving apparatus as claimed in claim 1, characterized in that the inflecting direction of said folding doors (24; 25; 119), when they are opened, is a direction in which they move away from the track vehicle side, and the positions of said folding doors upon closing are set to approached positions, at which said folding doors do not contact with the track vehicle (10; 11; 101A).

Inventors: KAWANISHI ISAMU, UOZUMI YUKIO, KAWANISHI, ISAMU, UOZUMI, YUKIO
Applicants: KAWASAKI HEAVY IND LTD, KAWASAKI JUKOGYO KABUSHIKI KAISHA
Application year: 1992
Main classification: E05D15
IPC codes: E05F15, E05D15, B61B1