Flexible Screen Fast Door Collision Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-speed doors with flexible screens face challenges in managing collisions safely due to the high speed of the screen movement, which can cause harm to people or objects, and existing collision detection systems are unsuitable for high-speed doors, potentially causing injury or damage.
Innovation Solution
A high-speed door design featuring a flexible screen with a weighting element and integrated contact detection means that deform upon collision, triggering a signal to stop or raise the screen without external intervention, ensuring safe operation and minimizing damage.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the screen moves at high speed to improve productivity and reduce heat loss, then the door's efficiency improves, but the risk of harmful collision increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by installing detection means (such as light barriers, infrared sensors, or contact sensors) that can detect the presence of persons or objects in the door's path before the screen arrives. This allows the control system to preemptively stop or reverse the screen's movement, preventing harmful collisions before they occur. The detection system is positioned to identify obstacles in advance, giving the control system time to respond safely.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs feedback mechanisms where sensors continuously monitor the door area and provide real-time information to the control system. When an obstacle is detected, the system receives feedback signals and automatically adjusts the screen's movement by stopping or reversing it. This closed-loop control ensures that high-speed operation maintains safety through continuous monitoring and automatic response to detected hazards.
2Difficulty of detecting and measuring
If a rigid lower bar with feeler is used to detect collisions, then collision detection capability improves, but the feeler itself can cause injury or damage due to counter-support against the rigid bar during high-speed movement
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical feeler system with non-contact or softer detection mechanisms. Options include optical sensors (light barriers, infrared detectors) that detect obstacles without physical contact, or capacitive sensors that detect changes in electrical field. These substitutions eliminate the harmful counter-support force while maintaining collision detection capability, as the detection occurs through field interactions rather than mechanical contact.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the detection system by using materials with lower rigidity or different detection principles. Instead of a rigid bar that creates impact forces, the system uses sensors with detection ranges that allow clearance, or employs materials that deform significantly upon contact to reduce force transmission. This parameter change maintains detection sensitivity while reducing harmful effects to persons or objects.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a flexible sill bar is used to absorb collision energy, then the consequences of collision are minimized, but the ability to detect and prevent collision beforehand is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges multiple functions into a single integrated system. The lower bar is designed to combine both detection functionality and energy absorption capability. Detection sensors (optical, infrared, or contact sensors) are integrated into the flexible bar structure, allowing it to perform both early obstacle detection and safe energy absorption. This unified approach eliminates the need to choose between detection and protection, as both functions coexist in one component.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements multi-functionality by designing the lower bar and associated components to serve multiple purposes simultaneously. The flexible bar provides structural support, guides the screen's movement, absorbs collision energy through deformation, and houses or supports detection sensors. This universal design allows a single component to address both collision prevention through detection and harm reduction through energy absorption, eliminating the trade-off between these functions.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables secure and autonomous management of collisions, reducing the risk of injury or damage to people and objects by automatically stopping or raising the screen upon contact, maintaining productivity without human intervention.
Implementation Method 1
a flexible weighting element positioned above the lower free end of the rectilinear and flexible screen in a vertical plane and in a horizontal plane, capable of deforming and then of resuming its rectilinear shape after contact with a placed object
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~4
Figure 5~6
AI summary
This fast door (1) being able to close off an opening made in a partition comprises: - a structure having notably two vertical uprights (3) in each of which a slide (5) is arranged, and a top horizontal element forming a lintel, and - a flexible screen (12) connected to the structure at the element forming a lintel by electromechanical means controlling the lowering and the raising of the screen (12), - control means for controlling the electromechanical means controlling the movement of the screen (12). According to the invention, at its bottom transverse end, the flexible screen (12) is fitted: - with a ballasting element that is rectilinear and flexible in a vertical plane and in a horizontal plane, capable of deforming and then resuming its rectilinear shape after a contact with an object placed on the trajectory of the screen (12) or encountering the latter, and - contact detection means positioned between the flexible ballasting element (14) and the bottom free end of the screen (12) connected to the control means and having a normal operating state and an abnormal operating state, the detection means being associated with the flexible ballasting element (14), and being capable of switching from the normal operating state to the abnormal operating state when there is a contact of the screen with a static or moving object placed on the trajectory of the screen (12) by a deformation of the flexible ballasting element (14) or of the bottom free end of the screen, the change of state of the detection means being converted into a signal that is transmitted to the control means for the purpose of ordering the stoppage and/or the raising of the screen to its open position by resuming its normal trajectory, and doing this with no external intervention on the flexible ballasting element (14) nor on the control means, nor on the screen (12), nor on the slides (5).