Guiding and actuating device for a sliding door

Claim 1

A guiding and actuating device for a vertical air-tight sliding door for closing an opening formed in a wall and terminating at the level of a horizontal plane which can be the floor, comprising suspension means for guiding the door in a direction parallel to the wall and means for applying said door simultaneously against said wall and against said horizontal plane when it is located opposite to the opening aforementioned, the suspension means being constituted by at least two carriages constrained by guiding means to move horizontally along the wall, each carriage being provided with a first shaft coupled by articulation means to a second shaft fixed to the door, and means for locking the articulation means being provided in order to prevent the movement of the second shaft when the door is not located opposite to the opening, wherein both shafts have vertical axes and wherein the articulation means are so arranged that the second shaft is permitted at the time of release of the locking means to carry out a movement having a component parallel to the direction of the common axis of both shafts, the locking means comprising a roller having a vertical axis mounted on a component of the articulation means and applied against a rectilinear roller track which is rigidly fixed to the wall in order to prevent said component from undergoing a rotational displacement accompanied by the second shaft, a gap being formed in the roller track in order to permit release of the roller and unlocking of the device, the first shaft being elbowed and rotatably mounted on a bent plate which is pivotally coupled to the second shaft by means of a ball-joint assembly, the closing movement of the door being carried out by rotation of said bent plate.