SWITCH CABINET WITH A CLOSING ELEMENT PRETENSIONED INTO AN OPEN POSITION

Abstract

The invention relates to a switch cabinet having a housing and a door which is pivotally secured thereto via at least one hinge and has a door leaf, wherein the door leaf has an aperture and a closing element which closes the aperture and is held in a closed position, counter to its mechanical pretension in the direction of its open position, by an electrically controllable locking element.

Claims

1-13. (canceled)

14. A switch cabinet comprising a housing and a door which is pivotally secured thereto via at least one hinge, the door having a door leaf, wherein the door leaf has an aperture and a closing element which closes the aperture and is held in a closed position, counter to its mechanical pretension in the direction of its open position, by an electrically controllable locking element, wherein the pretension in the direction of the open position is provided, at least in a first partial movement section of the closing element from the closed position in the direction of the open position, by a redundant pretensioning device having at least two pretensioning elements which are designed independently of one another, and wherein one of the two redundant pretensioning elements is disengaged from the closing element and the other continues to be engaged with the closing element when the closing element is disposed outside the first partial movement section in a partially open position between the open position and the closed position.

15. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, wherein the pretension in the direction of the open position is provided by at least one compression spring extending in the aperture, preferably by a gas compression spring.

16. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, in which the closing element is a door which has at least one door leaf, preferably two door leaves, which is pivotally fixed to a vertical edge of the aperture via at least one further hinge.

17. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, in which the electrically controllable locking element has at least one electromagnet which projects into the clear opening of the aperture on an inner side of the door leaf beyond a border of the aperture.

18. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, wherein a first of said pretensioning elements comprises a compression spring, preferably a gas compression spring, and a second of said pretensioning elements comprises an elastically deformable spring element, preferably a coil spring.

19. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, in which the aperture is covered by an air-permeable access protection grille on an inner side of the door leaf facing the interior of the switch cabinet, the at least one closing element closing the aperture having at least one door leaf which can be pivoted from the closed position towards the outer side of the door leaf in the direction of the open position.

20. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, in which the door of the switch cabinet can be moved back and forth without pretension between a fully open position and a fully closed position, in which the door leaf bears against the frame of the switch cabinet via a sealing element, and in the closed position is locked to the frame with compression of the sealing element by a push rod lock.

21. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, wherein the door of the switch cabinet either a. has two part doors which move in opposite directions and are hinged to opposite vertical profile sides of the housing, each of which has a door leaf which forms the closing element and is fixed pivotally to an outer one of the two vertical edges of the opening via at least one further hinge; or b. is a door hinged to a vertical profile side of the housing and having two door leaves forming the closing element, the door leaves being pivotable in the same direction, for which purpose a first one of the door leaves is pivotally secured to an outer one of two vertical edges of the opening via at least one further hinge, and a second one of the door leaves is pivotally secured to a vertical central web of the door leaf, which vertical web bisects the opening, via at least one further hinge.

22. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, wherein the aperture extends over a major part of the height and the width of the door leaf, but at least over more than 50% of the height and the width.

23. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, wherein the aperture extends integrally over a major part of the height of the door leaf, but at least over more than 50% of the height.

24. The switch cabinet according to claim 14, in which the aperture is divided in two in the width direction via a vertical central web of the door leaf, while it is uninterrupted in the height direction.

Description

DRAWINGS

[0024] The drawings described herein are for illustrative purposes only of selected embodiments and not all possible implementations, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

[0025] Further details of the invention are explained with reference to the figures below. Thereby:

[0026] FIG. 1 shows a generic switch cabinet according to the state of the art;

[0027] FIG. 2 shows a front view of an exemplary embodiment of a switch [0028] cabinet door according to the invention;

[0029] FIG. 3 shows a perspective view of the switch cabinet door according to [0030] FIG. 2 with the closing element open;

[0031] FIG. 4 shows a detailed view of a horizontal cross-section through a [0032] further embodiment of a switch cabinet according to the invention;

[0033] FIG. 5 shows the embodiment according to FIG. 4 in a partially opened [0034] state of the closing element; and

[0035] FIG. 6 shows a detailed view of a further embodiment of a switch cabinet [0036] door according to the invention with the closing element open.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0037] Example embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the accompanying drawings.

[0038] FIG. 1 shows a section of a switch cabinet 1 as known from the prior art and described in full detail in DE 10 2016 010 360 B3.

[0039] The switch cabinet 1 has a frame 14 to which various flat parts are fixed, for example a side panel, a roof panel and in particular the rear door 5, which in the embodiment according to FIG. 1 is in an open state, is provided on a rear side of the switch cabinet 1 and is designed for emergency opening in the event of an accident, for example in order to provide emergency ventilation of the switch cabinet interior if the switch cabinet cooling system fails.

[0040] For emergency ventilation, the switch cabinet door 5 is pretensioned into its open position shown in FIG. 1 by a closing element 7 designed as a gas pressure spring, while a locking element 8 designed, for example, as a magnetic lock is set up to keep the switch cabinet door in a closed state during regular operation of the switch cabinet system, i.e. i.e. in any case where the emergency ventilation of the switch cabinet interior shown in FIG. 1 is not required, to keep the rear panel door 5 in a closed state, for which purpose the locking element 8 must provide a closing force which counteracts the pretensioning into the open position provided by the gas pressure spring 7, i.e. at least compensates for it and preferably significantly overcompensates for it.

[0041] The embodiment according to FIG. 1 illustrates that, for example, in the event of maintenance, a user who has opened the rear door 5 is not only prevented by the gas spring 7 from gaining trouble-free access to the interior. After maintenance has been performed, the user must overcome the pretensioning force of the gas spring to move the door 5 to its closed position in order to reclose the rear door 5. After he has moved the door 5 into the closed position with the appropriate amount of force, he must activate the locking element 8, for example a magnetic lock, so that the door 5 is held in the closed position against the pretension of the gas pressure spring 7. Furthermore, FIG. 1 shows that in the event that the locking element 8 has been triggered and the door 5 has subsequently been opened, any possibly unauthorized third party has access to the interior of the switch cabinet 1.

[0042] In contrast, FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of a switch cabinet door 5 according to the invention, which has a door leaf 4, which has a row of equidistant hinges 3 or hinge halves on the door side on opposite vertical sides and, on the other hand, a push rod lock 17 on the opposite vertical side, which can be adjusted by means of a toggle lever mounted on the front side of the door leaf 4. In this respect, the switch cabinet door 5 is designed like a standard switch cabinet door, which is not prepared for emergency ventilation, so that the use of identical parts is also possible in this respect.

[0043] According to the invention, the switch cabinet door 5 has an aperture 6, which in the present case is formed in two parts via a vertical web 16 and extends essentially over the entire or approximately the entire height of the door leaf 4. In the width direction of the door 5 perpendicular to the height, the opening 6 has a width which corresponds to at least more than 50% of the width of the door leaf 4. Accordingly, the closing element 7 has two door leaves 10, which are each designed as partial doors 15 hinged on one side.

[0044] The partial doors 15 are held in the closed position shown in FIG. 2 on their vertical side opposite the hinge side by means of three locking elements 8 arranged vertically and equidistantly one below the other, which may be magnetic locks, for example. On a lower side and on an upper side of the partial doors 15, a gas pressure spring 9 is provided for each partial door 15, which are in a compressed position in the position of the door shown in FIG. 2 and accordingly exert a pretension on the partial doors 15 in the direction of the open position shown in FIG. 3. The locking elements 8 overcome this pretension and hold the partial doors 15 in the closed position shown in FIG. 2.

[0045] The locking elements 8 are electrically controllable and can be designed, for example, as magnetic locks which, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, can have an electromagnet 12 which is attached to the door leaf 4 of the switch cabinet door 5 in such a way that it projects into the aperture 6. In turn, the door leaf 10 of the closing element 7 has a magnetic or magnetizable armature plate so that the door leaf 10 can be held in the closed position shown in FIG. 4 by means of an electrical attractive force provided by the electromagnet 12. In the case of emergency ventilation, the electromagnet can be de-energized so that the magnetic attraction force between the electromagnet 12 and the armature plate 19 is interrupted, whereupon the door leaf 10 is pivoted to its open position due to the pretension exerted on it, as shown in FIG. 5.

[0046] In order to exert as high a torque as possible on the door leaf 10 during the transition of the door leaf 10 from the closed position shown in FIG. 4 to the partially opened position of the door leaf 10 shown in FIG. 5, whereby the door leaf 10 quickly reaches the partially opened position shown in FIG. 5, it is provided that, in addition to a gas pressure spring required, for example, for complete opening, an additional pretensioning force is provided with the aid of an elastic pressure spring 13 which, in the present embodiment, is designed as a helical spring. The helical spring also has the function of damping the closing movement of the door leaf 10 generated by the magnetic attraction force when the door leaf is closed again with the electromagnet already activated, thus reducing the risk of jamming, for example.

[0047] A further embodiment of a switch cabinet door 5 according to the invention is shown in FIG. 6. In this case, the aperture 6 is again made in two parts and divided into two equally sized partial apertures by a central web 16 extending vertically over the entire height of the aperture 6. Each of the partial apertures can be closed by a separate partial door 15 and, if necessary, opened with the aid of the compression spring 9 when a magnetic attraction force acting on the armature plates 19 from the electromagnets 12 is interrupted.

[0048] The features of the invention disclosed in the foregoing description, in the drawing, and in the claims may be essential to the invention either individually or in any combination.

[0049] The foregoing description of the embodiments has been provided for purposes of illustration and description. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure. Individual elements or features of a particular embodiment are generally not limited to that particular embodiment, but, where applicable, are interchangeable and can be used in a selected embodiment, even if not specifically shown or described. The same may also be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the disclosure, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the disclosure.