Patent GB-736891-A (GB)
Title: Device for operating a door, gate, valve or similar closing means
IPC: E05F15/04
Filed: 1953-03-19
Abstract: 736,891. Door operating appliances; door holders; sliding latches ; fastenings operated from a distance. NAAMLOOZE VENNOOTSCHAP BROWNSWERK. March 19, 1953 [April 24, 1952], No. 7616/53. Classes 44 and 65(1). [Also in Groups XXI and XXVIII] In a door operating device one or more fixed gear wheels are provided co-axially with the hinge axis of the door, and each gear wheel is engaged by a longitudinally movable gear rack carried by the door. As shown in Fig. 1, a fireproof door 1 is hinged at 4 to a wall 3 and carries a fluid pressure cylinder 7 the piston rod 6 of which is formed with a rack co-operating with a gear 5 fixed co-axially with the hinge axis. Admission of fluid to the cylinder is controlled by a valve incorporated in the door hinge and connected to opposite ends of the cylinder by pipes 8 and 9 respectively, the arrangement being such that the valve normally supplies fluid to pipe 8 for urging the door in the closing direction. The piston 14, Fig. 3, has an extension 13 of lesser diameter operating in an extension 16 of the cylinder. Air, which also constitutes the pressure fluid, is compressed in extension 16 during the door-closing stroke of the piston to cushion the movement of the latter, a spring-loaded outlet valve 17 in the extension regulating the maximum pressure in the latter. The pressure in the extension falls below atmospheric pressure towards the end of the dooropening stroke, the minimum pressure being regulated by a spring-loaded inlet valve (not shown), and the arrangement tending to maintain a uniform piston speed. The combined hinge and control valve shown in Fig. 7 comprises a cylindrical block 20 which constitutes a pintle and to the opposite ends of which gears 5 are fixed. The rotatable member 19 of the hinge is formed with the passages 8 and 9. Block 20 is formed with a central bore to the opposite ends of which inlet and discharge pipes 21 and 39 respectively are connected. Said bore contains a slidable valve member formed with lands 26, 27, 28 and 29 which define circumferential grooves 30, 31 and 32. Block 20 is also formed with passages 34 and 35 connecting the central bore with a circumferential groove 36 in block communicating with pipe 8, and with passages 38 and 40 connecting the central bore with a circumferential groove 37 in the block communicating with pipe 9. The valve member is biased by a spring 33 to its uppermost and door-closing position, when air entering by pipe 21 flows via a passage 23 in the valve member, groove 31, passage 34 and groove 36 to pipe 8, passage 35 being closed by land 27; the fluid returning via pipe 9, passage 38 and groove 32 to the discharge pipe 39. If the valve member is moved to its lowest position, air can flow from pipe 21 via passages 23 and 40 and groove 37 to pipe 9, returning via pipe 8, passage 35, groove 30, a passage 41 formed in block 20, and groove 32 to pipe 39. The valve member is connected by a cable to the handle of the door, the arrangement being such that, when the handle is turned to unlatch the door, the valve-member is moved to the door-opening position, and when the handle is released the valve member returns to the doorclosing position. As an alternative to the braking means represented by numbers 13, 16, 17 in Fig. 3, the passages 35 and 38 may be constricted, or the discharge pipe 39 may alternatively be constricted. Releasable fastenings, door holders. The door is latched both in the closed and open position by a pair of sliding bolts 42, 43 situated one above the other and actuated simultaneously by two pairs of handles 46, 47 connected together by a pivoted rod 48. The bolts are formed with flat surfaces on their outer faces and curved surfaces on their inner faces, and enter oppositely facing notches 44, 45, the inner edges of which are offset at a distance "a" equal to the thickness of the bolts. The door, when latched in the open position, may be closed automatically on an outbreak of fire by means comprising a cylinder 51 mounted on the wall above the door handles and containing a piston 50 biased upwardly by a spring 52. The piston rod 49 has a rounded end adapted to depress the handles for unlatching the door when air is supplied to said cylinder. Compressed air is supplied simultaneously to the latter and the control valve through a balancing valve of known construction which permits a flow of air only after a decline in the pressure in the sprinkler system.