Horizontally Opening Roller Door Wear-Free Floor Seal
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Horizontally opening roller doors face issues with air permeability, rodent entry, and visual appearance due to a required floor gap, which also leads to high maintenance costs and downtime from worn-out replaceable floor seals, especially in hygienic environments.
Innovation Solution
A wear-free floor seal mechanism where the sealing part only contacts the floor during the closing process, moving vertically to seal the gap without dragging during opening and closing, eliminating the need for lower guide rails and reducing friction and wear.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a floor gap of 5-10 mm is maintained to allow horizontal opening and closing, then the door can operate smoothly on uneven floors, but air permeability increases, rodents can enter, and the appearance is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The floor seal is designed to dynamically change its position: raised during opening/closing operations to avoid contact and wear, and lowered when the door is closed to seal the floor gap. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction by allowing smooth operation without continuous contact while maintaining sealing when closed.
Solution Approach 2:
The floor seal is lowered onto the floor in advance before the door reaches the closed position, ensuring the gap is sealed before the door fully closes. This preliminary action prevents rodents and air from entering through the gap while the door is being operated.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If replaceable floor seals are attached to the curtain, then floor sealing is achieved, but maintenance costs increase and door downtime occurs due to frequent seal replacement
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing function is extracted from the main door structure and implemented as a separate, independently controllable floor seal mechanism. This allows the seal to be lowered only when needed for sealing, minimizing wear during operation and extending service life without requiring frequent replacements.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a lower guide rail is provided to seal the door at the bottom, then animals are prevented from entering, but dirt, bacteria, mold, and vermin accumulate in the guide rail area
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing function is extracted from a fixed lower guide rail structure and implemented as a movable floor seal attached to the door. This eliminates the stationary guide rail that accumulates dirt and bacteria, while still providing effective sealing and animal prevention when the seal is lowered.
Solution Approach 2:
The floor seal automatically raises and lowers based on door operation, requiring no manual intervention for maintenance. The seal serves itself by being retracted during operation to avoid contamination and only deployed when sealing is required, eliminating the hygiene problems associated with fixed guide rails.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
The invention relates to a horizontally opening roller door (1) with at least one infill in the form of a rollable end material (10). The infill is movable between an open position (first end position), in which it substantially opens a wall opening, and a closed position (second end position), in which it substantially closes the wall opening. A wear-free bottom seal is provided by ensuring that a part of the roller door forming the bottom seal can only be brought into contact with the floor or with a sealing counterpart located in the floor at the end of a closing process, and that at the beginning of an opening process, this part of the roller door can be removed from the floor again, or that this part of the roller door and the sealing counterpart can be removed from each other. The invention further relates to a corresponding method for opening or closing a horizontally movable roller door.