Movable or removable closures – Mounted for multidirectional or oblique movement – Initial or terminal movement transverse to sliding movement...
Patent
1985-12-19
1987-11-03
Downey, Kenneth
Movable or removable closures
Mounted for multidirectional or oblique movement
Initial or terminal movement transverse to sliding movement...
49216, E05D 1510
Patent
active
047035854
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
PRIOR ART
The invention is directed to improvements in a device for opening and closing vehicle doors.
Devices for actuating vehicle doors are known in which a door of a passenger vehicle functions as a sliding door by means of pivot levers and slide rails (German Patent No. 1 780 577). These known doors can be operated solely as sliding doors, and at first glance it is not apparent whether they operate as sliding doors or how they are to be operated. However, an important safety factor for a motor vehicle is that it must be possible to open the doors quickly and easily after an accident. If a door operates only by sliding, then its reliable function depends solely on the friction-free sliding of the pivot lever on the slide rails. Even the least deformation of the pivot lever and slide rails prevents sliding of the door. But even if the function is satisfactory, rescuers after an accident may become frustrated, because it is impossible to be sure that everyone will know not only that sliding doors may be present but also how to operate them.
ADVANTAGES OF THE INVENTION
The device according to the invention for opening and closing vehicle doors has the advantage over the prior art that the vehicle door operates in the sliding mode only after being especially activated; without this special activation, the vehicle door is opened and closed by swivelling, like every other vehicle door.
The device according to the invention has the advantage that it can be retrofitted into mass-production vehicles, without requiring substantial changes to the vehicle body. Either both front doors, or only one front door, can be converted. One important application is the equipping of vehicles for the handicapped in a user-friendly way, so that the handicapped persons can for instance approach the vehicle in a wheel chair and then enter the vehicle from the wheel chair and finally store the wheel chair in the vehicle.
The device according to the invention is not only advantageous in vehicles especially converted for the handicapped; it also enables boarding and/or leaving the vehicle in situations where traffic or a lack of space make it impossible to open a swinging door very far. The opportunity of additionally using the door in the sliding mode does not in any way lessen the safety of the vehicle, because even if the parts needed for sliding operation should become deformed, the door can still be actuated like a normal vehicle door. After conversion with the device according to the invention, the vehicle door still engages the same door stops, which are located on the body and are of a standard type. Thus all the structural provisions that are provided as standard equipment for the vehicle contribute to increasing the passive safety of the vehicle. It is accordingly also possible to retrofit safety vehicles, as an example.
The invention is advantageously further developed such that for attaching the elements of the lever system to the body indirectly, an intermediary part is provided, which is engaged by levers of the lever system and which is secured on the body such that it can pivot in the door-opening direction. This feature allows a favorable structuring of the lever system, the lever lengths of which are now no longer dictated by the spacing between the body and the points of engagement on the vehicle door. If the intermediary part is advantageously attached to the parts of the hinged joint for the vehicle door that are already provided in the standard vehicle, then the lever lengths of the lever system can, by structuring the intermediate element accordingly, be dimensioned for an optimal course of movement when the vehicle door is in the sliding mode.
A further advantageous embodiment of the invention provides that a main guide rail is attached to the vehicle door, while a support guide rail is attached to the threshold of the door on the body, these guide rails guiding the guide elements in a longitudinally movable manner; further, for sliding-door operation of the vehicle door, the guide element that cooperate
REFERENCES:
patent: 1992830 (1935-02-01), Mattila
patent: 2557614 (1951-06-01), Schafer
patent: 3201169 (1965-08-01), Scott
Downey Kenneth
Greigg Edwin E.
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