Sliding Door Mechanical Release for Power-Failure Privacy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing sliding doors with electric drives cannot be unlocked during power failures, compromising privacy and security when locked from a non-private area.
Innovation Solution
A locking device that allows unlocking the sliding door by displacing the door leaf, using a bolt connected to the door leaf to release the latch, ensuring it can be opened manually from a private room while preventing unlocking from a non-private room, with a spring element maintaining the locked position.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the sliding door is equipped with an electric drive for automatic locking, then the convenience of operation is improved, but the reliability during power failure deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The locking device is segmented into two independent systems: an electric drive system for automatic locking and a mechanical release system for manual unlocking. The bolt (7) can be locked automatically by the electric motor (6) or manually released by pressing the door leaf, ensuring that failure of one system does not compromise the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The door leaf itself serves as the unlocking mechanism. When pressed from the private room side, the door leaf directly actuates the latch (5) to release the bolt (7), eliminating the need for external power or additional manual intervention devices.
2Ease of operation
If the latch is designed to be releasable by pressing the door leaf from either side, then the ease of operation is improved, but the security and privacy are worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The door leaf has different functional zones: pressing in the first space (from private room) triggers unlocking, while pressing in the second space (from non-private room) does not. This spatial differentiation of function ensures that only authorized users can unlock the door.
Solution Approach 2:
The latch (5) and its engagement with the bolt (7) are designed asymmetrically relative to the door leaf pressing directions. The mechanical geometry allows force applied from the private room side to disengage the latch, while force from the opposite side is mechanically blocked from affecting the latch-bolt engagement.
3Reliability
If the bolt is connected to move perpendicular to the door leaf plane, then the locking reliability is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The opening direction of the door leaf and the movement direction of the bolt are merged into a single linear motion. Pressing the door leaf in the opening direction simultaneously unlocks the bolt and begins the door opening process, eliminating the need for separate perpendicular bolt movement mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The bolt movement is transformed from a perpendicular (normal to door plane) direction to a parallel (along opening direction) movement. This dimensional change allows the bolt to be actuated by the same linear pressing motion that opens the door, simplifying the mechanical linkage.
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
Ensures privacy and security by allowing manual unlocking from the private room during power outages and maintaining the locked state from the non-private room, without additional mechanisms.
Implementation Method 1
a static spring element fixed to the latch or the door frame is arranged between the door frame and the latch in such a way that the latch is pressed into its locked position
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3a
Figure 3b
AI summary
The invention relates to a sliding door (2), comprising: - a bar (8), which can be moved in the closing and opening direction (SR) of a door leaf (6) of the sliding door (2), the sliding door (2) separating a first space from a second space when the sliding door is in its closed state; and - a door frame, which comprises a bar catch; wherein, when the door leaf (6) is in its closed state, the bar (8) engages in the bar catch, and the engagement can be released by movement of the door leaf (6), and thus of the bar, in the direction of the normal to the door leaf plane (TE).