Heated Flexible Door Leaf to Prevent Freezing on Cold Floors
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Solution Overview
Problem
High-speed doors used in cold storage facilities often freeze to the ground due to ice formation, causing operational issues and potential damage during opening.
Innovation Solution
A high-speed door with a flexible door leaf integrated with a heating element, such as an electric heating mat, is designed to prevent freezing by maintaining a temperature above freezing point, with electrical connections integrated into the door leaf and drive mechanism, allowing easy connection to a control system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Speed
If the door leaf is made flexible and rollable to enable high-speed operation, then the door can be quickly opened and closed, but the door leaf may freeze to the floor when closed, preventing opening and potentially causing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is integrated into the door leaf before it contacts the floor, providing preliminary thermal protection that prevents freezing before it occurs. This allows the door to maintain its flexible, rollable design for high-speed operation while eliminating the risk of freezing to the floor through advance thermal intervention.
2Reliability
If a heating element is added to prevent freezing, then the door leaf is protected from freezing to the floor, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is merged with the door leaf structure itself, integrating the thermal protection function directly into the existing door component. This combining approach prevents freezing while minimizing additional complexity, as the heating element becomes part of the door leaf rather than a separate external system.
Solution Approach 2:
The door leaf serves multiple functions: it provides the primary door closure, enables high-speed operation through its flexible rollable design, and incorporates thermal protection through the integrated heating element. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate dedicated heating systems, thereby limiting the increase in overall device complexity.
3Ease of manufacture
If the heating element is integrated into the door leaf, then the heating system can be easily connected to the control system and monitored, but the manufacturing complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The heating element is segmented into a modular component that can be independently manufactured and then integrated into the door leaf. This segmentation allows for standardized production of the heating element with controlled precision requirements, while simplifying the overall manufacturing process through modular assembly rather than requiring high precision throughout the entire door leaf fabrication.
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 effectively prevents the door from freezing to the ground by maintaining a non-freezing temperature, ensuring reliable operation and easy integration of the heating system into the door mechanism.
Implementation Method 1
Due to their electrical resistance, these heating wires heat up when an electric current flows through them
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a high-speed door with a flexible door leaf (2) and at least one rotatable shaft, which is designed for winding and unwinding the door leaf (2) such that in an unwound state the door leaf (2) rests with a support area on the floor (22) and in the wound-up state the support area is spaced away from the floor (22), wherein the door leaf (2) has at least one heating device (24) arranged in the support area.