The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 21, 2006
Filed:
Mar. 20, 2003
James J. Fitzgibbon, Batavia, IL (US);
Andrew Gavel, Huntington Bay, NY (US);
William Gioia, Winfield, IL (US);
James J. Fitzgibbon, Batavia, IL (US);
Andrew Gavel, Huntington Bay, NY (US);
William Gioia, Winfield, IL (US);
The Chamberlain Group, Inc., Elmhurst, IL (US);
Abstract
Movement of a movable barrier () such as, for example, a vertically-dropping fire door, can be controlled in an informed manner and with greater flexibility regarding the manner of movement via, in one embodiment, use of a motor () as a generator to resist the downward movement of the barrier. One or more dummy electrical loads () can be used in combination with the generator mode of operation to influence the degree of braking proffered by the motor. In various embodiments, one or more sensors () can be used to detect local and remote conditions of interest to thereby at least partially inform the barrier movement decision process. A display () (or displays) can serve to provide various kinds of information to authorized personnel and an operator control () can serve, at least under some operating circumstances, to permit a person to locally cause a closed barrier to move to at least a partially opened position.