Flexible or portable closure – partition – or panel – Pleating type
Reexamination Certificate
2000-09-01
2003-01-07
Lev, Bruce A. (Department: 3634)
Flexible or portable closure, partition, or panel
Pleating type
C160S084040
Reexamination Certificate
active
06502619
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a safety and protection device for an industrial and/or goods-handling door of the raisable type and that is provided with at least one strap placed against the door.
Industrial and/or goods-handling doors are doors installed in factories, warehouses, all kinds of hangar, supermarkets, public places, etc. for separating spaces and workshops from one another or for isolating them from the outside so as to maintain temperature, avoid propagating drafts, noise, etc. Raisable doors are organized to be opened and then reclosed quickly by being raised and lowered so as to allow people or vehicles of any kind such as trucks, carts, etc. to pass through. These doors are constituted by curtains made up of flexible or rigid panels that are rolled up or that are folded up at the top of the door. Fold-up doors are actuated by straps which lift the panels. Roll-up doors do not use straps for operating purposes, but they can have straps for special functions: detecting obstacles, monitoring tension in the curtain, consolidation, etc.
A strap is constituted by a cable or tape made of textile or other material that is strong and capable of being rolled up on a suitable drum. An object of the invention is to protect straps against accidentally catching on equipment that is traveling too close to the door, or to prevent them from catching on people located too close to the door, since that could be dangerous for such people.
Certain fold-up doors, such as those described in the following publications: CH-A-523 394, FR-A-2 274 775, and FR-A-2 614 924, describe doors each comprising a curtain constituted by two flexible vertical sheets that are parallel and connected together at the bottom of the curtain and at various heights by horizontal stiffener elements. Traction members for raising the curtain, such as straps, are disposed between the two sheets. They are connected to the bottom stiffener, and they pass through holes formed in the other stiffeners. In curtains of that type, the straps are located internally. They cannot be damaged by equipment traveling too close to the door, nor can they catch onto such equipment or onto people located too close to the door.
Nevertheless, there exist very many types of door in which the straps are disposed against one of the faces of the curtains. Such doors are less expensive. However they suffer from those above-mentioned drawbacks: firstly they run the risk of catching on any equipment projecting from a truck or a cart, thereby causing the straps to be damaged or even cut or broken. They can also be damaged deliberately by vandals. Secondly, any person or equipment passing too close, or happening to be location against the door, can be caught by the strap and lifted when the curtain is raised. Curtain raising can be completely unexpected since it can be triggered by a truck approaching the door from the other side. This can rise give to serious accidents, unless some kind of prevention or protection is provided of electrical, mechanical, physical, or other type.
An object of the invention is to remedy those drawbacks and to eliminate such risks with the latter type of door.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a safety and protection device for a raisable-curtain goods-handling door comprising a flexible curtain constituted by a single sheet fitted with at least one raising strap disposed in removable manner against the outside of the curtain, the device being characterized in that it is constituted by an apron designed to be placed against the curtain on the same face of the curtain as the straps, to cover the door from the vicinity of its bottom up to a height that is at least sufficient to provide the desired type of protection, and over a width that is at least sufficient to cover the straps, the apron being capable of being fixed to the curtain in such a manner as to avoid impeding the movements of the strap.
Advantageously, the apron fixing means are selected so as to enable the apron to be removed and put back into place simply and quickly.
The apron can be fixed to the curtain by fasteners including any of: press studs; zip fasteners; strips of hook-and-loop fasteners; snap-fasteners; screws; and the like.
In an embodiment where the curtain of the door is reinforced by at least one horizontal stiffening bar, the apron also has a number of bars corresponding to the number of bars in the curtain over the height that it covers. The bars of the apron are simply attached to the bars of the curtain. If the curtain has a sheath for each bar, the sheath being formed with a cutout to receive a piece for passing the strap, then the apron has a sheath for receiving the corresponding bar, said sheath including a cutout for putting in register with the cutout in the sheath of the curtain, the bar of the apron as uncovered in this way being capable of being attached to said piece for passing the strap by any appropriate attachment means.
Other characteristics and advantages of the invention appear from the following description given with reference to the accompanying drawings, serving to make it well understood how the invention can be implemented.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4700985 (1987-10-01), Whitehead
patent: 4824505 (1989-04-01), Kraeutler
patent: 5072767 (1991-12-01), Kraeutler
patent: 5273096 (1993-12-01), Thomsen et al.
patent: 5547006 (1996-08-01), Auger
patent: 5566734 (1996-10-01), Levy et al.
patent: 5566735 (1996-10-01), Jelic
patent: 5690156 (1997-11-01), Ruggles
patent: 5862850 (1999-01-01), Yang
patent: 6116319 (2000-09-01), Simon
patent: 6257300 (2001-07-01), Brownlie
patent: 523 394 (1972-05-01), None
patent: 2 274 775 (1976-01-01), None
patent: 2 614 924 (1988-11-01), None
Lev Bruce A.
Nergeco S.A.
Sughrue & Mion, PLLC
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