DOOR ARRANGEMENT OF AN ELEVATOR

The object of the invention is a door arrangement of an elevator as defined in the preamble of claim 1.

Elevators generally have different doors at each floor level as well their own doors in the elevator car. The door solution used depends on, among other things, what kind of elevator door suits the layout of each building and the floor levels of it. The door solution used in the elevator also depends on the age of the building and of the elevator. In old elevators swing doors that are opened manually and that open towards the landing are generally used as the doors of the landings. These kinds of elevators do not necessarily comprise a door of the elevator car at all, or e.g. a side- opening expanding grille door can be the door of the elevator car. A problem in swing doors is, however, that when open they take up a lot of space from the floor level or corridor. In newer elevators many different automatically opening doors in use are prior art, which open to the side of the door opening or from the center of the door to both sides . In these types of elevator doors, it is general that the doors at the landings and in the elevator car are essentially similar. Normally only the door of the elevator car is provided with machinery, which is arranged to open and close the door of the car, and the doors of the floor level are arranged to open and close by means of the same machinery such that a so-called door coupler is fitted to the door of the elevator car, which door coupler is arranged to grip the door of the floor level and open or close it along with the' door of the elevator car.

Side-opening doors eliminate the problem caused by swing doors but in turn require a space of at least the width of a door panel at the side or at the sides of the elevator car

and of the landing, into which the doors move when opening. This can cause problems if there is no extra space in the width direction. Shaft space is expensive, so that generally this kind of space is not reserved for the door. Single panel doors, which open to only the one side of the door opening, as well as two-panel doors that open from the center, of which the first door panel opens to the first side of the door opening and the second door panel to the second side, are prior art. A door that opens from the center takes from both sides half of the space that a door opening to one side takes, but neither does this however necessarily suit all the layouts of buildings, but instead requires too much space in the side direction.

The amount of space needed in the width direction can be reduced by using doors that comprise more than one door panel consecutively one after the other in the depth direction. In this case e.g. a two-panel door that opens to one side takes in the width direction only half of the space that a corresponding one-panel door would take. A corresponding three-panel door would, for its part, need only a third of this space. A problem with these kinds of multipanel doors of an elevator is however that although they save space in the width direction, they take more space in the depth direction.

The aforementioned problems are often encountered e.g. when a new elevator is installed in an old building, in which there was previously an elevator provided with swing doors. Old elevator shafts are often too cramped for side-opening sliding doors.

US patent no. US5, 673,770 presents a two-panel and three- panel door of the landing of an elevator. The door solutions are best seen in Figs. 5-10, in which the door structures are illustrated from different directions. The US patent only

presents the door of the landing, but often the door of the car must be made to be similar, so that e.g. the movement of the doors can be synchronized correctly with each other. The door solution according to the US patent is typical with respect to the door panels and corresponds to the cases referred to above as well as to their drawbacks .

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the aforementioned drawbacks as well as to achieve a door arrangement of an elevator that requires less space both in the lateral direction and in the depth direction. The door arrangement of an elevator according to the invention is characterized by what is disclosed in the characterization part of claim 1. Correspondingly, other embodiments of the invention are characterized by what is disclosed in the other claims .

Some inventive embodiments are also discussed in the descriptive section of the present application. The inventive content of the application can also be defined differently than in the claims presented below. The inventive content may also consist of several separate inventions, especially if the invention is considered in the light of expressions or implicit sub-tasks or from the point of view of advantages or categories of advantages achieved. In this case, some of the attributes contained in the claims below may be superfluous from the point of view of separate inventive concepts . Likewise the different details presented in connection with each embodiment of the invention can also be applied in other embodiments. In addition it can be stated that at least some of the subordinate claims can in at least some situations be deemed to be inventive in their own right .

An advantage of the door arrangement of an elevator according to the invention is in particular a construction that saves

shaft space, in which case e.g. the swing doors of the landings of old buildings can easily be replaced with automatic doors. Another advantage is the modularity of the arrangement, which enables e.g. a two-panel, four-panel or six-panel folding door to be made from almost the same parts, according to need. Another advantage is that the folding doors according to the arrangement can be made from generally used parts that are inexpensive and of good appearance. Yet another advantage is that the folding door of the elevator car as well as the folding doors of the landings are essentially similar, as a result of which an advantage, among others, is that the doors are easy to install and the movement of the doors is easy to synchronize. Another advantage of the arrangement is that it can easily be modified. Another advantage is that the folding doors of the elevator according to the arrangement are light, which is an advantage particularly in elevators without counterweight. A further advantage is that the arrangement according to the invention is simple and inexpensive to implement.

In the following, the invention will be described in more detail by the aid of some example of its embodiment with reference to the attached drawings, wherein

Fig. 1 presents a diagrammatic and simplified front view, i.e. as viewed from the landing, of a folding door of an elevator car used in the arrangement according to the invention, Fig. 2 presents a diagrammatic and simplified rear view, i.e. as viewed from the elevator car side, of a folding door of a landing used in the arrangement according to the invention,

Fig. 3 presents a diagrammatic and simplified top view of the folding door of the elevator car and of the

landing used in the arrangement according to the invention when the doors are open, Fig. 4 presents a diagrammatic and simplified top view of the folding door of the elevator car and of the landing used in the arrangement according to the invention when the doors are closed, Fig. 5 presents a top view of one hinge between the door panels used in the arrangement according to the invention and, Fig. 6 presents a top view of the door panel with its hinges of a folding door used in the arrangement according to the invention.

Fig. 1 presents a front view as seen from the landing side of one four-panel folding door 2 of an elevator car 1 applicable to the arrangement according to the invention. The door elements of the door 2 comprise essentially planar and plate- like door panels 3, which are preferably of the height of the whole door and essentially of the same width as each other. Each door panel 3 is jointed to the adjacent door panel 3 essentially for the height of the door panel with a hinge arrangement 4 comprising a plurality of hinges 4d such that no kind of gap remains between the door panels into which e.g. a finger could be accidentally pushed. The hinges 4d of the hinge arrangement can be e.g. hinges that are similar to so-called piano hinges or other similar hinges, which are fitted one above the other alternately in a hinge line onto the hinged door panel 3 that is in the center of them both such that the hinges 4d at the point of each other on adjacent door panels 3 are at a different height to each other at their top ends and at their bottom ends. Thus except for the top end and the bottom end of the hinge line each hinge is always at the point of the two adjacent hinges. The plurality of hinges 4d that are one above the other therefore comprise one hinge arrangement 4 of the height of essentially

the whole door panel 3. The door panels 3 between the hinges 4d can be glass, metal, plastic or some other plate-like material. Likewise their width can be selected depending on the width of the clear opening of the elevator and on the number of door panels.

The folding door 2 is jointed at the bottom of its first side edge to the sill structures of the elevator car and at the top of its first side edge to the support structures of the door of the elevator car 1 with a joint 15. The first hinge line 4a from the first side edge 2a of the folding door 2 towards the center of the door is free at its top end and bottom end. The next, i.e. the second hinge line 4b is on the center line of the four-panel door and the folding door is supported with a suspension roller 11 and is also jointed from this center hinge line 4b at its top end to an essentially horizontal roller race 10 in the support structure of the door of the elevator car, and at the bottom the folding door is supported with the slide guide 14 in the guide rail 13 fixed to the sill structures of the elevator car. The third hinge line 4c from the first side edge 2a of the folding door 2 is a similar hinge line, being free at its top and its bottom end, to the first hinge line 4a. As a general rule each odd hinge line from the first side edge 2a of the folding door 2 is a free hinge line. Finally the folding door 2 is supported essentially at the point of the second side edge 2b with the suspension roller 11- on the aforementioned roller race 10 and at the same time at its top end jointed at the point of the second side edge 2b to the aforementioned roller race 10. Correspondingly from below the folding door is supported at the point of the second side edge 2b with the slide guide 14 in the guide rail 13 fixed to the sill structures of the elevator car 1. The jointing of the folding door 2 in the roller race 10 and in the guide rail 13 is implemented such that when opening and closing the

folding door 2 the center hinge line 4b of the door and the second side edge 2b remain all the time essentially on the same vertical plane, which plane passes via the roller race 10 and the guide rail 13. Correspondingly the first 4a and the third hinge line 4c are fitted to turn towards the inside part of the elevator car 1 when the folding door 2 opens.

The door operator 6 of the door 2 of the elevator car is disposed in the support structure 5 above the folding door. The element in the door operator 6 that implements the opening movement and the closing movement for the door panels of the folding door is an endless cogged belt 7 that functions as a movement transmission element, which the operating motor 6a of the door rotates in two opposing directions. The cogged belt 7 is fitted to pass around both the belt pulley 8 that functions as a traction wheel and also the freely rotating belt pulley 8a at the other end of the belt loop. The folding door 2 is fixed to the cogged belt 7 essentially at the point of its second side edge by means of a fixing bracket 12 extending upwards from the top edge of the door.

In addition the door operator comprises at least a coupling element 9 that opens the lock of the door of the landing when the elevator car 1 arrives at the floor level, which in Fig. 1 is presented in simplified form. If the door of the landing can be opened manually, the switch element 9 opens only the lock of the door of the landing. If, on' the other hand, the door of the landing is automatic, as in the embodiment explained here, the coupling element 9 comprises means, such as a door coupler 9a, for taking the door of the landing along with it when opening the door, in which case the coupling element 9 first opens the lock of the door of the landing and functions after that as a door coupler pulling the door of the landing open at the same time as the folding

door 2 of the elevator car opens. The coupling element 9 can also close the door of the landing when the folding door 2 of the elevator car closes or the closing of the door of the landing can be implemented e.g. with a spring force, or as is presented later in Fig. 2.

The folding door 2 comprises spring elements 20 at the point of the free hinge lines 4a and 4c, which spring elements are fitted to synchronize the opening of the door and to speed up the folding of the door panels 3 against each other when the folding door 2 opens. The speeding up effect of the spring elements is particularly necessary at the start of the opening movement. The spring element 20 can be e.g. a tension spring, the first end of which is fixed to the first door panel 3 and the second end to the second door panel 3 on the other side of the free hinge line 4a. Correspondingly, the first end of the second spring element 20 is fixed to the third door panel 3 and the second end to the fourth door panel on the other side of the free hinge line 4c . When the door is open the spring elements 20 are tensioned. When the need requires it, the spring elements 20 can also be more than one over one hinge line.

Fig. 2 presents a rear view, i.e. as seen from the side of the elevator car, of one four-panel door 22 of a landing applicable to the arrangement according to the invention. The figure is diagrammatic and simplified and chiefly describes the mechanisms of the folding door 22 of the landing, in which case other structures in front of these mechanisms are omitted from it. The door elements of the folding door 22 of the landing comprise essentially the same planar and plate- like door panels 3 as the door elements of the folding door 2 of the elevator car 1. Correspondingly, the hinge arrangement 4, with its hinge lines 4a-4c, of the folding door 22 of the landing as well as the suspension arrangement with its

suspension elements 10-12, guide rail 13a and slide guide 14 and joints 15 are essentially the same and made from the same parts as the corresponding elements in the folding door 2 of the elevator car 1. Also the folding door 22 of the landing comprises spring elements 20 at the point of the free hinge lines 4a and 4c, which spring elements are fitted to synchronize the opening of the door and to speed up the folding of the door panels 3 against each other when the folding door 22 opens.

The folding door 22 of the landing and the support structure 5 of the door comprise a lock structure of the door, which comprises at least a counterpiece 26 of the lock in the support structure 5 as well as a lock catch 27 that moves along with the folding door 22, which is opened when the elevator car 1 arrives at the landing by the coupling element 9 that moves along with the elevator car 1. The end of the lock catch 27 on the left-hand side, in the construction according to Fig. 2 rises clockwise upwards when opening, and thus releases from the counterpiece 26. Additionally, the door structure of the landing comprises a counterpiece 32 of the door coupler for the door coupler 9a in the coupling element 9 in the case of an automatic door.

The door structure of the folding door 22 of the landing further comprises a counterweight 31 that pulls the folding door closed, which is disposed in an essentially vertical pipe 30 and connected to the folding door 22 by means of a pull rope. The door structure comprises a diverting pulley 29, over which the pull rope from the folding door 22 is arranged to pass and then to descend downwards to the counterweight 31. If necessary the counterweight 31 can be suspended with a transmission ratio, in which case the distance of travel of the counterweight 31 is not the same as

the distance of travel of the free side edge 22a of the folding door 22 when the door opens and closes.

Figs . 3 and 4 present a top view of a folding door arrangement of an elevator car 1 and of a folding door arrangement of a landing used in the arrangement according to the invention. In Fig. 3 the folding doors are open and in Fig. 4 closed. The second front edge of the elevator car 1 comprises an expansion part Ia extending outwards from the elevator car in the lateral direction of the elevator car 1, the height of which is greater than the height of the folding door 2 of the elevator car and into which expansion part Ia the folding door 2 of the elevator car is fitted to fold when the folding door 2 opens. When fully opened the folding door 2 is folded completely inside the expansion part Ia, in which case it does not take basal space from the elevator car 1. The expansion part Ia is most suitably on that side of the elevator car 1 which contains e.g. the elevator machinery and the structures connected to it.

The wall of the floor level, the thickness of which can be e.g. 100 mm, is described with the reference number 16 and the clear opening of the floor level is described with the reference number 17. The folding door 22 of the landing is essentially the same type of folding door in terms of its construction as the folding door 2 of the elevator car and it is disposed on the landing as a mirror image with respect to the folding door 2 of the elevator car. The floor of the landing in front of the elevator car comprises a guide groove 13a in the direction of movement of the door, in which the slide guides 14 of the folding door 22 of the landing are fitted to travel and correspondingly above the clear opening of the landing is a support structure containing a roller race on which the folding door 22 of the landing is suspended on suspension rollers in essentially the same way as the

folding door 2 of the elevator car in its roller race 10. Additionally the folding door 22 of the landing is jointed, in the manner of the folding door 2 of the elevator car, at the bottom of its first side edge 22a to the sill structures of the landing and at the top to the support structures of the door of the landing with a joint 15. The second edge of the clear opening 17 of the landing comprises an expansion part 19 extending outwards from the clear opening in the lateral direction of the clear opening, the height of which is greater than the height of the folding door 22 and into which expansion part 19 the folding door 22 of the landing is fitted to fold when the folding door opens. When fully opened the folding door 22 is folded completely inside the expansion part 19 such that the free hinge lines 4a and 4c are outwards from the door line of the landing. In this case some of the length of the folded door panels are disposed inside the wall structure 16 of the landing and some extends from the wall structure towards the elevator lobby. This part extending towards the lobby is protected with a protective wall 18 that is essentially L-shaped in its cross-section as viewed from above, which is fitted to protect the folding door 22, when folded open, of the landing in both the lateral direction and the front direction.

Fig. 5 presents one hinge 4d used in the arrangement according to the invention viewed in more detail from above. The frame of the hinge comprises a hinge part 21, essentially round in its cross-section and comprising a center hole 23 of the length of the hinge, as well as a fixing part 24, at the free end of which is a fixing groove 25 of rectangular cross- section. The fixing part 24 is essentially in the direction of the door panel 3 and correspondingly the hinge part 21 is at an inclined angle with respect to the fixing part, such that the vertical center line of the hinge- part 21 and the vertical center line of the fixing part are on different

vertical planes. The vertical direction means in this context the direction from the viewer towards the figure, i.e. the vertical direction in the normal operating position of the hinge 4d. Thus in this case the vertical center line of the hinge part 21 is on a different vertical plane than the center line of the door panel 3.

Fig. 6 presents one door panel 3 with hinge 4d used in the arrangement according to the invention viewed in more detail from above. This is the center door panel of either four- panel door because both side edges of the door panel comprise a hinge 4d. The hinges 4d are fixed to both the vertical edges of the door panel 3 by pushing the fixing groove 25 of the hinge 4d onto the vertical edge of the door panel 3 so far until the vertical edge reaches the base of the fixing groove 25. To ensure the fixing, e.g. glue is used between the fixing groove 25 and the door panel 3. In the vertical position the hinge parts 21, with their center holes 23, of the hinges 4d on the opposite vertical edges on the door panel 3 are on different sides of the door panel 3 as viewed from above. Thus it is easy to construct different functioning folding door assemblies from the door panels 3.

It is obvious to the person skilled in the art that the invention is not limited solely to the example described above, but that it may be varied within the scope of the claims presented below. Thus, for example, the number of door panels of the folding doors can be other than the four units described above. There can be e.g. also 2 units or 6 units of door panels, or some other even number.

It is also obvious to the person skilled in the art that instead of two folding doors the door arrangement can comprise, depending on the structural solution, e.g. a

folding door as the door of the landing and an ordinary- automatic sliding door as the door of the elevator car.

It is further obvious to the person skilled in the art that the spring elements at the point of the free hinge lines opening the door panels can, instead of tension springs, be some other types of springs, e.g. torsion springs resembling those used in clothes pegs.