PLATFORM SCREEN DOOR

Abstract

A platform screen door system having a fixed panel and a door panel, wherein the system is provided with a track (11) having a convex surface adapted to support a roller (14), which roller is rotatably mounted on the moving panel and has a concave surface and has two points of contact (17) on the track.

Claims

1. A platform screen door system (1) having a fixed panel and a door panel (3), wherein the system is provided with a track (11) having a convex surface adapted to support a roller (14), which roller (14) is rotatably mounted on the moving panel and has a concave surface, wherein a secondary roller (15) is rotatably mounted on the door panel, which secondary roller (15) in the installed position is spaced from the track (11) and is adapted to hinder the door panel being lifted off of the track.

2. The platform screen door system according to claim 1, wherein the door panel is provided with a support structure (8), upon which support structure the roller (14) and secondary roller (15) are rotatably mounted.

3. The platform screen door system according to claim 1, wherein the roller (14) is profiled such that the roller has two points of contact (17) on the track.

4. The platform screen door system according to claim 1, wherein the track (11) has a C shaped profile in cross section with the open part of the C facing away from the header structure, the outer surface of the C shaped profile (11) providing the convex surface to support the roller.

5. The platform screen door system according to claim 4, wherein the rail is an extrusion.

6. (canceled)

Description

[0012] FIG. 1 shows a platform screen door system;

[0013] FIG. 2 shows a typical J-track design and

[0014] FIG. 3 shows the new concave roller design.

[0015] FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of the door support mechanism

[0016] FIG. 1 shows a platform screen door system with the sliding doors in the closed position on a railway platform comprising a first pair of sliding door leaves 1, 2, adjacent to a respective fixed panel 3,4. A media panel 5, 6 is provided adjacent to the fixed driving panel 3,4. A display panel 7 is located above the door leaves 1,2. A header structure 8 is located above and behind the fixed panels and sliding doors to enclose the drive mechanism to open and close the doors.

[0017] FIG. 2 shows a cross section of the known arrangement of a drive mechanism, in which the door is driven on rollers 32 having a convex profile in a matching J track 31. The roller has a single point of contact 33. Because of the weight of the sliding doors which can be as high as 95 Kg, the J-track is manufactured from 2.5 mm thick material to a precise profile. The known designs suffer from a number of problems, in particular the precise profile required has proved difficult to produce consistently at an acceptable cost. Wear on the rollers also results in the accumulation of dust and debris in the track, which in turn leads to greater wear of the rollers. Replacement of the rollers is difficult during routine maintenance and so the wear may lead to operational problems.

[0018] FIG. 3 shows a partial end view through a fixed panel or header structure and a door leaf. Shown here are the header structure 8 on which a track 11 is mounted. The track comprises a flange 12 which provides the bolted connections 13 for mounting the track on the header structure 8. The track 11 is convex and has a C shaped profile in cross section with the open part of the C facing away from the header structure. The main roller 14, which has an inverted structure, is rotatably mounted on the sliding door and in the installed position shown here sits on the upper surface of the track 11. The roller 14 has a concave cross-section in the plane parallel to the rotational mounting. The angle of curvature of the concave section is such that the roller has two points of contact 17 with the surface of the rail 11. The points of contact are located adjacent to the circular face of the roller 14, the outer diameter of the roller. The sliding door is provided with a secondary roller 15 located, rotationally mounted, below the lower surface of the rail 11. The secondary roller 15 is located with a small clearance below the rail so that in use the secondary roller 15 does not touch the rail 11 but will prevent the door being lifted off of the rail 11 in use.

[0019] FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of a part of the platform screen door system with the door leaf 1 visible. The rail 11 is shown apart from the rest of the header structure. Main rollers 14 are attached to either end of a door trolley 16, which is integral with the door leaf 1. The secondary rollers 15 are shown mounted on the support structure 16 but located lower than the rail 11. A belt drive 18 is provided to impart the drive to the door.

[0020] The adoption of the design of the header extrusion to include nut-running slots on the rear face provides a clear advantage of only having to machine features from one direction which results in a considerable cost saving in both time, effort and accuracy in not having to move a component weighing as much as 85-100 kg and 6.5 metres long part way through the machining process as well as enabling the inclusion of the features enabling the mounting of the track 11.

[0021] The track 11 can be an extrusion allowing for it to be attached to the header extrusion as a slot-in part thereby providing the running surface for the roller whilst also being supported by the header extrusion. One advantage of extruding the track is the provision of a consistent, smooth running surface profile with any imperfections in the surface being in the direction of travel of the roller. This reduces the likelihood of wear compared to the stainless steel J-track of the prior art solutions. Additionally the roller has two points of contact with the track and a larger diameter resulting in a more than halving of the wear rate and at least doubling the maintenance period required between replacement of the rollers.

[0022] The replacement of the roller during routine maintenance is also easier as it can be simply lifted off the track (once the door is supported) rather than having to be maneuvered along to the end of the J-track, and back, to be replaced.