Flexible or portable closure – partition – or panel – Plural strip – slat – or panel type – With mounting or supporting means
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-15
2004-09-14
Johnson, Blair M. (Department: 3634)
Flexible or portable closure, partition, or panel
Plural strip, slat, or panel type
With mounting or supporting means
C474S113000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06789599
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention concerns a door driving-mechanism torque transmission for transmitting torque from a door driving motor assembly, especially a geared motor, to a shaft connected to a door panel. A torque transmission, a door-driving mechanism, and a door of these genera are known from WO 94/00665, which will be discussed in detail hereinafter.
A door panel with a door-driving motor assembly is known from EP 0 405 059 A1. Interposed between its output shaft and a door drive-mechanism torque transmission in the form of a door shaft that secures and/or actuates the panel are a tractioning-means transmission with a driving component in the form of a transmission input shaft and a driven component in the form of a transmission output shaft. Both components are accommodated in an accommodation constituted by a transmission housing. The housing comprises two identical halves fastened rigidly together and accommodating the tractioning-means transmission. The transmission housing and hence the overall transmission on the whole rotate perpendicular as a whole to the parallel axes of rotation of the transmission shafts, the transmission-input shaft and the transmission output shaft, that is, around the axis of the door shaft and can be pivoted subject to reaction forces exerted by the panel being actuated against a shock absorption component and/or a resilient component in the form of a spring. The door-driving motor assembly rests on the transmission input shaft and is accordingly connected to the housing. The initial motion of the door-driving motor assembly generates an impact-like force (torque impact) that is on the whole resiliently accommodated by the pivoting motion of the known door driving-mechanism torque transmission against the resilient component. This pivoting motion is also exploited for an overload disengagement mechanism.
With the prior art disclosed in European Patent 0 405 059 A1 as its point of departure, the aforesaid WO 94/00665 proposes an improvement in the form of a door driving-mechanism torque transmission.
This known transmission is, like the one disclosed in WO 94/00665, a tractioning-means transmission and part of a mechanism for driving a door panel. The panel is provided with a door shaft coupled to it. The output shaft of a door-driving motor assembly accommodated in a driving-mechanism housing is connected to the door shaft by way of the tractioning-means transmission, which is accommodated in a transmission housing. The known door driving-mechanism torque transmission has a driving component in the form of an input shaft connected to the door-driving motor assembly's output shaft and a driven component in the form of an output shaft connected to the door shaft. The axes of rotation of the input and output shafts are separated by a multiple of the radii of gear wheels mounted on the shafts and coupled together by the tractioning means. The driving-mechanism housing of the door driving motor assembly is fixed in position and rotates along with the transmission housing and hence with the door driving-mechanism torque transmission on the whole in such a way that any torque between the door shaft and the door driving motor assembly's output shaft is accommodated as if by a rigid lever.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is accordingly to improve a door driving-mechanism torque transmission with respect to smooth operation, length of life, and frequency of repair.
Instead of a rigid torque-transmission housing that transmits torque like a single-arm lever accordingly, the present invention exploits a bearing assembly with two separate halves, one for the door driving-mechanism torque transmission's driving component and one for its driven component. Since these halves are connected together not rigidly but elastically, they will attenuate any impacts or vibrations in the torque they transmit between the driving component and the driven component. Both components are accordingly elastically connected such that they can move toward or apart from each other and especially pivot in relation to each other at least slightly (a few millimeters, 0.5-5 mm for example) preferably within the plane occupied by at least one.
The torsional impacts exerted on the door-driving motor assembly and its fixtures in the torque transmission in the form of a rigid lever considered especially preferred in WO 94/00665 are admittedly attenuated by being transmitted over a long lever. The impacts, however, must be accommodated by the torque-transmission train as a whole, and this has resulted in breakage of the weakest components therein, like the shaft coupling between the door driving-mechanism torque transmission and the door shaft for instance, which must then be replaced. The door driving-mechanism torque transmission in accordance with the present invention will also run more smoothly than the known transmission, not only when started and with the torsion impact to be expected at that instant but also while the door panel is in motion. The door shafts available in practice, that is, almost never rotate trues, not only because they naturally exhibit considerable imbalance due to the engagement of the torsion spring, the overhead door armor, or similar structures but also because the forces exerted on them vary constantly as the shaft turns. Furthermore, the door shafts available in practice are also absolutely more powerfully inflected. All of these problems result in more or less powerful vibrations both circumferentially and axially, which are accommodated in accordance with the present invention by relatively small unresilient masses (only the driven-component bearing being exposed more or less unresiliently to impacts deriving from the door shaft), and these are in any case transmitted attenuated to the driving-component bearing half and hence to the door-driving motor assembly by way of the elastic attachment.
When torsion impacts occur, accordingly, it is not the door driving mechanism as a whole, comprising, that is, the door driving motor assembly and the door driving-mechanism torque transmission, that yields elastically as at the prior art represented by EP 0 405 059 A1, but only the bearing halves, toward each other, avoiding the drawbacks encountered in the door driving-mechanism torque transmission disclosed in that patent, which are in particular expressed in the difficulties associated with its manufacture and installation. The number of masses that accompany such torsion impacts without being resiliently supported is also much lower in accordance with the present invention than at the aforesaid state of the art, which not only contributes to smooth operation but also helps to prevent damage deriving from impacts against the door driving motor assembly. The present invention accordingly combines all the advantages of the known door driving mechanism torque transmission while lacking its drawbacks.
In one advantageous embodiment of the present invention, both bearing halves can be elastically connected together at any desired distance apart. The door driving-mechanism torque transmission can accordingly be adapted to span various distances between the door-driving motor assembly and the door shaft. This feature increases the range of possibilities for installing the assembly.
When both bearing halves are elastically connected such that they can move straight or at an angle toward and away from each other at least within a plane perpendicular to at least one of the two axes of rotation, especially the axis of the driven component, torsional vibrations around that axis can be attenuated by a relative elastic pivoting motion. A connection that permits such relative angular motions can be established in various ways. The bearing halves can for instance be connected by a pivot or by a joint (even a ball joint), the pivoting motion occurring against some sort of elastic component, a compression or tension spring for example, or a rubber block, a rotating rod, or a torsion spring. When the bearing
Sanke Herr Michael
Schütz Herr Viktor
Fogiel Max
Johnson Blair M.
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