Overhead Lift-Sliding Door Rail Layout to Avoid Floor Rail Fouling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing slidable lifting doors and windows with floor-mounted rails are prone to dirt accumulation, foreign body entrapment, and require cumbersome, heavy, and aesthetically unappealing movement systems, often lacking electrical options.
Innovation Solution
A movement system for slidable lifting doors or windows that includes guide rails anchored above the leaf, with actuator and movement means positioned on the frame or leaf, allowing low-profile, easy-to-move, and aesthetically appealing operation, featuring manual or electrical control with safety mechanisms to prevent unwanted movement.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a floor-mounted rail is used for slidable lifting doors, then the door can slide smoothly, but the rail occupies the passage, gets dirty quickly, and accumulates foreign bodies causing damage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the rail from the floor and relocates it to the upper frame, eliminating the harmful occupation of passage space and accumulation of dirt/foreign bodies in the floor rail, while maintaining the sliding function through the upper-mounted guide rail
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of mounting the rail on the floor (conventional approach), the patent inverts the arrangement by mounting the guide rail on the upper frame and using a carriage that hangs from above, reversing the traditional gravity-assisted sliding mechanism
2Ease of operation
If a manual actuator with kinematic chain is used for lifting, then the door can be operated manually, but the movement system becomes cumbersome and the leaf thickness increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the actuator from the leaf structure and relocates it to the upper frame, removing the cumbersome kinematic chain from the moving leaf and simplifying the overall movement system while maintaining manual operation capability
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the lifting function from the sliding function, with the actuator handling only vertical lifting and the carriage handling horizontal sliding, allowing each component to be optimized independently and reducing overall complexity
3Device complexity
If the actuator and movement means are positioned on the leaf, then the system is compact, but the leaf weight increases making it heavy to lift and move
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the heavy actuator and movement means from the leaf and relocates them to the stationary upper frame, significantly reducing the weight of the moving leaf while maintaining system functionality through the hanging carriage mechanism
4Strength
If uprights with large thickness are used for the movement system, then the structural strength is sufficient, but the optically transparent portion of the leaf is significantly reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the movement system from the leaf uprights and relocates it to the upper frame, allowing the use of thin, aesthetically pleasing uprights that maximize optical transparency while the frame-mounted carriage provides the necessary structural support
Data Source
AI summary
A system for moving a leaf of a slidable lifting door or door-window between a locked lowered closed position, where the insulating element in the leaf is compressed against the floor and hinders sliding, and at least two unlocked raised closed and open positions, between which the leaf is free to slide, includes a guide rail, which can be anchored to a frame above the leaf; a sliding system slidably engaged in the guide rail; a movement system; and an actuator, which can be controlled by a user and engaged with the movement system so that the user can control the movement of the leaf between the locked lowered closed and unlocked raised closed positions exclusively when the leaf is in such positions. The movement and the sliding systems are operatively connected so that the sliding system slidably supports the leaf when in the unlocked raised closed position.