WO2009043701A1

WO2009043701A1 - Sliding door adapted to close co-planarily

Info

Publication number: WO2009043701A1
Application number: PCT/EP2008/062127
Authority: WO
Inventors: Luciano Sandrin
Original assignee: Alufim S.R.L.
Priority date: 2007-10-01
Filing date: 2008-09-12
Publication date: 2009-04-09
Also published as: ITPN20070070A1

Abstract

Doors capable of sliding relative to each other, and adapted to be arranged alongside of each other on a common vertical plane, comprising sideward sliding means, a pair of lower and/or upper runners having different lengths, extending parallel to each other and curving at the respective terminal portions thereof, as well as oriented in a common direction and with differing radiuses of curvature; rolling means adapted to slide on said runners; support means engaging said doors relative to said rolling means, which comprise as resting plate placed on a horizontal plane and firmly joined to a respective one of said doors; a first pair of parallel wheels provided on a common axis at the sides of a first one of said runners; a first connecting member connecting each one of said wheels; a pin rotatably connecting said connecting member to said resting plate; a second pair of wheels, along with a respective second connecting member and a respective second pin connecting said second connecting member to said resting plate.

Description

SLIDING DOOR ADAPTED TO CLOSE CO-PLANARILY

DESCRIPTION

The present invention refers to an improved kind of sliding door for cabinet-like pieces of furniture, provided with sliding means adapted to enable the door to slide sideward and at the same time perform a rotation about a vertical axis so that the same door is capable of being shifted from an initial position thereof, in which it is typically closed, to a final position thereof, in which it is typically open, on a plane extending parallel to the plane of the initial position, but shifted in an direction running orthogonally to said two parallel planes.

For greater convenience, use will be made in the following description of the terms "forward" and "backward", which are prompted by the circumstance that said door is usually arranged in the vertical direction, so that they shall be understood as being referred to the position taken by the operator when handling, i.e. closing and opening such door; however, the door itself shall be readily appreciated as being able to be arranged on any plane whatsoever, regardless of the orientation thereof.

Largely known are doors adapted to close cabinet-like furniture pieces, which open/close with a sliding motion and a concurrent rotation, wherein, when brought into the closed position thereof, two doors are arranged alongside of each other on a common vertical plane, so as to convey the impression that they are formed of a single continuous wall.

These doors are provided with sliding means that enable a door to be caused to slide and rotate with just a single action - and under application of a substantially tangential pushing, i.e. driving force - so that, at the end of the handling by the operator, said door is in a position in which:

- it is shifted laterally, i.e. sideward on a plane lying parallel to the initial plane thereof, as well as

- translated in an orthogonal direction relative to the two initial/final planes thereof, so that the same door ultimately comes to be positioned almost exactly in front of the door provided alongside thereof.

The purpose of such doors is to enable them to be opened/closed by a single and basically simple handling, thereby doing away with the need for doors to be used, which - although parallel to each other - lie on two distinct planes, which would certainly be felt as undesired from an aesthetic point of view.

For such working mode of the sliding door to be made possible, a number of solutions have been devised hitherto.

So, for example, the Italian patent application no. UD91A000039 to VERARDO S.p.A. discloses a solution, in which the doors are provided with two lower and/or upper runner means, and are shifted in a direction that is orthogonal to the prevailing direction, and with respective members guided by said runner means, which enable them to lie above each other, and which are curved in the same direction, i.e. either forward or backward, at the respective end portions thereof, wherein the curvature at the end portion of the outer runner is less marked than the corresponding curvature at the end portion of the inner runner.

Such solution, while effective from a theoretical point of view, and fully capable - as a result - of enabling the doors to slide sideward so as to ultimately become positioned on a same plane, without any mutual interference, proves however scarcely practical and operable in actual use, since the guided members alone are far from being able to ensure any adequate support in the presence of possible oscillations or waving of the door relative to a vertical plane.

In turn, the Italian patent application no. BL2003A0004 (to Bortoluzzi Mobili S.p.A.) discloses a solution, in which there is provided a kind of door formed of mutually opposing panels, the closing motion of which is consistent with the teaching of the above-cited VERARDO patent, but the support means of which are effective in ensuring the vertical stability of the mutually opposing panels of the doors by making use of devices that are adapted to slide relative to each other and engage appropriate rails provided by properly applying two profile sections along the width of the compartment due to be closed by said doors.

Although fully effective and reliable, such solution, however, demands a considerable construction complexity and a far from negligible use of expensive materials and component parts, such as in particular rolling bearings and a certain amount of medium-accuracy machining to be done on metal cast parts.

It would therefore be desirable, and it is an object of the present invention, actually, to provide an improved kind of co-planar sliding doors for cabinet-like furniture pieces that is such as to effectively enable said doors to work in the desired manner, so as to ensure that they slide sideward in such manner that - when reaching the closed position thereof - they eventually come to be positioned on a same plane by following a motion path that avoids any mutual interference, said doors being further free of all afore-cited drawbacks of construction complexity and high production costs.

According to the present invention, these aims, along with further ones that will become apparent from the following disclosure, are reached in a kind of sliding doors for cabinet-like furniture pieces that incorporates the features and characteristics as defined and recited in the appended claims.

Features and advantages of the present invention will anyway be more readily understood from the detailed description that is given below by way of non-limiting example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

- Figures 1 to 4 are respective see-through views in a planar projection on a horizontal plane of a door according to the present invention, as represented in four operative positions thereof, respectively;

- Figure 5 is a symbolical, plane vertical sectional view along the section A-A in Figure 1 of the door according to the present invention;

- Figures 6a and 6b are a simplified, schematical view of the kind of mutual positioning of two component parts of the door according to the present invention, corresponding to the representations in Figures 1 and 4, respectively;

- Figure 7 is a symbolical see-through view, similar to the one shown in Figure 1 , of an improved embodiment of the door according to the present invention;

- Figure 8 is a see-through view corresponding to the section B-B in Figure 7;

- Figure 9 is a perspective, elevational exploded view of the door shown in Figures 7 and 8, wherein the door, however, is in the fully open position thereof;

- Figures 10 and 11 are views of the improved embodiment shown in Figure 7, wherein the door panel is shown displaced into the most extended opening and closing positions thereof, respectively;

- Figures 12 and 13 are views of a further improved embodiment of the doors, wherein the door panels are shown displaced into the most extended opening and closing positions thereof, respectively;

- Figures 14 and 15 are views of a last improvement of the embodiment of the door according to the present invention, showing representations corresponding to the ones in Figures 1 and 4, respectively.

With reference to Figure 1 , the present invention applies to a pair of doors arranged to slide relative to each other and consisting of a pair of respective door panels 1 and 2 adapted to be positioned alongside of each other on a common vertical plane p when brought into the closed position thereof. When they are open, one 1 of said door panels is translated, i.e. shifted translatorily and rotated so as to move:

- from an initial, typically open position thereof (see Figure 1 ), in which it extends on a plane n lying parallel to said common vertical plane p, to a final, typically closed position thereof (see Figure 4), in which it extends on said common vertical plane p,

- by performing a translational motion in an orthogonal direction relative to said common vertical plane,

- and displacing into a position in which it comes to lie substantially alongside of, i.e. in a side-by-side arrangement with the other door panel 2, which on the contrary stands still, as this is shown in Figure 4.

These doors are provided with sliding means that enable either one of or both door panels to be displaced in the above-explained manner through a combined motion consisting of:

- a sideward sliding motion, and

- a concurrently occurring slight rotation about a vertical axis translating synchronically with said sideward sliding motion,

- as followed by an equivalent counter-rotation by an equal angle about said same translationally moving vertical axis.

Described above has anyway been a kind of sliding doors and a related opening and closing movement as they are substantially known as such in the art.

According to the present invention, however, said sliding means comprise:

- a pair of lower and/or upper runners 3, 4 applied in a stable manner to the support surface (referred to as simply "base" hereinafter), which are arranged so as to extend substantially parallel to each other along the respective intermediate sections, while curving at the respective terminal portions 3A, 3B and 4A, 4B; these runners have different lengths and the respective terminal curvatures are oriented in a common direction, i.e. on a same side, which shall be generally referred to as the inner side hereinafter.

In this connection, it is important to notice that the longer runner 3 is arranged so as to face the inner side of the shorter runner 4.

The curvature of the terminal portion 3A of the longer runner 3 has a radius R3 that is greater than or equal to the corresponding radius of the terminal portion 4A of the shorter runner 4.

In addition, the starting point of the curvature of the terminal portion 3A precedes - in the inward-to-outward direction - the starting point of the curvature of the terminal portion 4A.

Said door panels 1 , 2 are provided with respective rolling means, which are adapted to slide in a guided manner on said runners, and which comprise (Figures 1 to 5):

- a resting plate 5 arranged on a horizontal plane and firmly joined to the lower side or the upper side of a respective one 1 of said door panels, so as to also act as a support member thereof, wherein it can namely even be the sole support member of the same door panel;

- a first pair of wheels 6, 7 aligned on two vertical pins 6A and 7A, respectively, which are provided at the sides of a first one 3 of said runners so as to engage respective opposite side grooves 33, 34 thereof;

- a first connecting member 8, which is engaged by two respective pins 6A and 7A that are associated to said wheels 6 and 7, respectively;

- a first vertical pin 9 that rotatably connects said first connecting member 8 to said resting plate 5;

- a second pair of wheels 16, 17 aligned on two vertical pins 16A and 17A, respectively, which are provided at the sides of a second one 4 of said runners so as to engage respective opposite side grooves 43, 44 thereof;

- a second connecting member 18, which is engaged by said second pins 16A and 17A;

- a second vertical pin 19 that rotatably connects said second connecting member 18 to said resting plate 5.

As it appears from the illustrations in Figures 1 to 5, when the door panel 1 is in the central position thereof, the above-described items and parts are so sized and positioned relative to each other as to ensure that also said resting plate 5 is engaged by said pins 9, 19 and the respective connecting members 8, 18, which in turn support the two pairs of wheels 6, 7 and 16, 17 that are guided along the respective runners 3 and 4 in the respective side grooves thereof, so that said door panel 1 eventually comes into the position shown in Figure 1 , i.e. is shifted into the open position thereof.

When said door panel 1 is on the contrary in the closed position thereof, as this is shown in Figure 4, the two pairs of wheels shall meet following two conditions, i.e.:

- the distance D1 , as measured between said pins 9 and 19 orthogonally to the plane n of the door panel 1 in the open position thereof, is equal to the distance existing - again in the transversal direction - between the same pins when the door panel 1 is completely closed, as this is best illustrated in Figures 1 and 4;

- the distance D2, as measured between said pins 9 and 19 in a direction parallel to the plane n of the door panel 1 in the open position thereof, is similarly equal to the distance existing - again in said direction parallel to said plane n - between the same pins when the door panel 1 is completely closed (see Figures 1 and 2).

In other words, as this is schematically represented in an absolutely synthetic manner in Figures 6a and 6b, the angle a1 forming between the line L1 , which connects said pins 9 and 19, and the reference plane n is equal - when the door panel 1 is open - to the angle forming between the line L2, which connects - when the door panel 1 is closed - said pins, and the same reference plane n.

However, it can be most readily appreciated that between said two all-in and all-out positions there exists a sequence of intermediate positions, which are aggregated into two distinct and subsequent phases, i.e. a first phase, illustrated in an exemplary manner in Figure 2, in which the wheels 6, 7 engage the curved terminal portion 3A of the longer runner 3 prior to the wheels 16, 17, and the related pin 19, coming to engage the curved terminal portion 4A of the shorter runner 4.

Owing to such circumstance, the support, i.e. resting plate 5 and the door panel 1 associated thereto start to rotate in a clockwise direction as desired, as this is shown in the same Figure 2.

As the closing movement goes on, as this is best shown in Figure 3, the above-defined second phase is then entered upon, in that even the wheels 16 and 17 run - along with the related pin 19 - into the curved terminal portion 4A of the shorter runner 4.

Owing to the curvature of said portion 4A being - as already noted hereinbefore - more marked, i.e. sharper than the curvature of the portion 3A

(owing to the radius thereof being smaller), even the wheels 16 and 17 move towards said inner side at a greater speed than the speed at which the wheels 6 and 7 displace towards the same inner side following the respective runner 3.

Due to these different speeds relative to the direction running orthogonal to the plane p, the resting plate 5 and, as a result, also the wheels start rotating in an opposite direction with respect to the preceding rotary motion, so that the door panel, which is now returned into its closed position, takes again an alignment on the plane p that is parallel to the starting plane n in the open position thereof.

The desired continuous rotation and counter-rotation movement of the door panel is in this way obtained during both the opening and the closing movement thereof, exactly as this is required, actually, wherein this is anyway achieved with the aid of particularly simple and effective means.

A basically simplified embodiment of the present invention has been exemplarily described hitherto, since, when implemented in practice, the two door panels are not only supported by said two runners 3 and 4 and said two pairs of wheels and related means associated thereto, as described above, but also by further guide means located on the opposite side, i.e. typically at the lower end portion of the door panels, when the above-described two pairs of wheels are provided on top.

The purpose of said further guide means will anyway be most readily appreciated by those skilled in the art; in fact, they are so provided and arranged as to be able to support the two door panels at the two end portions thereof, i.e. at the upper and lower ones, thereby preventing any undesired backward and forward flagging or swaying effect from occurring as in the case that such door panels were only supported on a single side.

It will also be most readily appreciated that said further guide means must be embodied and provided in a manner that is substantially compatible with the operation and, therefore, the structure of the main guide means described afore; anyway, considering the fact that this manner of embodiment should basically be within the usual abilities of those skilled in the art, for reasons of greater simplicity and brevity it shall not be represented or explained here to any further extent.

So as described above, the present invention allows for a number of further advantageous improvements, wherein a first such improvement consists in providing said sliding means with a third pair of wheels 26 and 27 engaging one of said runners, e.g. the longer or inwardly located runner 3, and also slidably engaging - horizontally - said resting plate 5, as this is best shown in Figures 7 and 8.

This third pair of wheels is by no way involved in driving the plate 5 into the practical movement thereof, but is rather assigned the sole function of contributing to the stabilization of the balance of the same plate and, as a result, of the related door panel.

As a result, these stabilizing wheels 26 and 27 may also be positioned on and provided to engage the shorter runner 4, instead of the longer runner 3, as this is represented in the Figures. It may however be readily appreciated that this will be each time properly selected based on a number of different design criteria, such as compactness requirements, overall aesthetics, and the like, which have no relevance at all as far as the present invention is concerned.

Anyway, for them to be able to perform in the desired manner, said wheels 26 and 27 must be paired up with each other, i.e. arranged in a pair on the selected runner in a manner that is fully similar to the one that has been described afore in connection with the pairs of wheels 6, 7 or 16, 17.

Therefore, these wheels shall be placed at the opposite sides of the either longer or shorter runner, which they are associated to, and shall as a result be linked on two respective pins 26A and 27A that are in turn placed on and linked to a respective third connecting member 28 causing said third wheels 26 and 27 to engage the same, but respective side grooves 33 and 34 of the runner 3, exactly as in the case of the wheels 16 and 17 and related pins and connecting members associated therewith.

However, as opposite to the preceding case, the above-cited third connecting member is not - either fixedly or pivotally - linked to said resting plate 5, but is rather provided so as to be able to slide superficially relative thereto.

In practice, such third connecting member 28 is in turn provided with a guide pin 30 directed towards said resting plate 5 and capable of slidably engaging the latter and, in particular, a through-groove or slot 31 provided therein and so sized as to enable such guide pin 30 to pass and slide therethrough.

For the proper contour of said through-slot 31 to be identified and selected so as to ensure that the latter will enable the pin 30 to slide horizontally relative to the plate 5 during the opening/closing movements of the door panel 1 , the fact must be duly considered that the position of said third wheels 26 and 27 shall be able to vary, i.e. change in the horizontal direction relative to the plate 5, since they do not drive or guide the plate, but are rather driven by it, while however supporting it vertically.

As this can be most easily ascertained, said third connecting member 28 will move tangentially to the plate 5 when the latter is shifted.

As a result, in said resting plate 5 said through-slot 31 will be engraved or, better, hollowed out so as to be just as wide as exactly required in order to allow said guide pin 30 to slidably pass therethrough; finally, on said third connecting member 28 there is caused to rest said plate 5, so that the above-described parts are enabled to practically form the third and definitive resting and balancing point of both the plate 5 and the related door panel (see Figures 9, 10 and 11 ).

In this way, said through-slot 31 acts as guide that forcedly causes said vertical guide pin 30 and, as a result, said third connecting member 28 and also said third wheels 26, 27 to displace relative to said plate 5 according to a pre-determined trajectory, whose pattern shall be better described and explained below.

The contour of such through-slot 31 must of course be determined by the horizontal trajectory followed by said guide pin 30 relative to the plate 5 when the door panel 1 is shifted into opening or closing.

In fact, when said plate is shifted sideward, it moves according to a definite movement pattern on the horizontal plane, which is determined by said first and said second pairs of wheels 6, 7 and 16, 17 being engaged in the afore-described manner. As a result, such through-slot 31 drives, i.e. carries said vertical guide pin

30 with it.

However, since such plate is rotated and counter-rotated due to the wheels 6, 7 and 16, 17 mutually engaging the respective runners 3, 4, such rotary movement of the plate causes the position of the vertical guide pin 30 to displace, i.e. shift horizontally relative to the same plate 5 and, as a result, this horizontal displacement defines the contour of said elongated through-slot 31.

As a result, owing to the door panel 1 and the plate 5 being so shifted sideward, the same plate is able to freely displace also rotatably, owing to its being allowed to do so by the contour of the elongated through-slot 31 that allows said vertical guide pin 30 to freely slide and move along the horizontal plane, while the same plate 5, however, keeps resting on said third connecting member 28, thereby ensuring full resting stability to the same plate and, as a result, the related door panel 1.

During the movement of the door panel 1 , said plate 5 is of course resting on the connecting member 28, so that, owing to its having of course to displace relative to the latter, it has to move by rubbing thereagainst, if no appropriate measures are taken in this connection.

In order to prevent any excessive friction from taking place between said means 5 and 28, therefore, said plate 5 is advantageously provided with two concave and preferably rectilinear guide members 38, 39 extending parallel to each other along the lower side thereof, and said connecting member 28 is correspondingly provided with two pairs of horizontal-axis rollers 40, 41 and 42, 43, each such pair of rollers being adapted to engage a respective one of said guide members 38, 39.

The shape, the kind of association and the sizing relative to each other of said members are selected so that, when the plate 5 weighs downwards or upwards, the corresponding force is transferred on to said guide members 38, 39, which are themselves adapted to glide relative to said pairs of rollers, so that they allow a rotary-type mutual movement to take place relative to said third connecting member 28, thus ultimately giving rise to just a rolling kind of friction.

With reference to Figure 5, the grooves 33, 34, 43 and 44 of said runners 3 and 4 are advantageously provided so as to show hollows that run substantially symmetrically on respective horizontal planes; in this way, the afore-defined wheels are able to also orientate horizontally, so as to be able to fit into and engage said grooves, thereby positively preventing said wheels - once they are so engaged - from being capable of being pushed or forced off the respective runners 3 and 4 by an either downward-directed or an upward -directed force.

With reference to Figures 12 and 13, the present invention allows for a further advantageous improvement; in fact, the simplicity in the general construction and embodiment of such runners 3 and 4 enables them to be provided in a most easy and low-cost manner with a curved, rather than rectilinear contour, at least along the intermediate portions thereof.

Such possibility would be precluded, actually, by both the high costs and the manufacturing complexity involved in giving a curved contour to the rails (59) of the afore-cited patent application no. BL 2003A0004.

Therefore, thanks to this possibility for said runners 3 and 4 to be easily given a curved contour, the possibility also arises - with just a few easily made design and construction adaptations that are well within the abilities of those skilled in the art - for the door panels 1 and 2 to be also provided with a correspondingly curved contour having the same or a similar radius of curvature.

As a result, a combined contour of the door panels 1 and 2 is in this way provided, which - thanks to its having the same or a similar radius of curvature - enables them to be not only brought exactly one above the other, wherein one door panel at the front conceals the other door panel standing behind, when the cabinet door is opened, but also - when the cabinet door is on the contrary closed - to come to lie along a same arc of circumference, so as this is shown in Figure 13, without any undesired discontinuities and interruptions in the overall final aesthetical appearance.

The present invention can advantageously be further improved in view of improving the handling convenience in using it. As a matter of fact, with the afore-described embodiments of the present invention, the door still has a typically found drawback that is likely to be prejudicial to its convenience in practical use; such drawback derives from the fact that - when the door panel approaches the closed position - it does not move alone into closing, i.e. does not cover autonomously the last distance into the closed position, but needs rather to be guided and pushed by hand into complete closing.

Such need affects - at least to a certain extent - both the convenience in the use of the door and the image of quality and technical completeness thereof, with obvious negative implications and consequences on a marketing level.

In view of doing away with such drawback, and with reference to Figures 14 and 15, between a point 51 of said resting plate 5 and a point 52 of said third connecting member 28 there is provided an extension spring 50.

The location of said points 51 and 52 relative to each other shall of course be selected so that, when the two pairs of wheels 6, 7 and 16, 17 engage the curved terminal portions of the respective runners 3 and 4, the direction of attraction of said spring 50 is such as to cause said resting plate 5 to be pushed toward the closed position of the panel.

Since said spring 50 works in a tensile mode, i.e. by traction, for such spring to be able to work in the desired direction, it must necessarily be arranged so that it retracts, i.e. becomes shorter during said closing movement of the panel, and this in turn means that the two points 51 and 52 cited above shall be positioned so that they approach each other during said closing movement.

This condition is reached when the point 51 of the resting plate substantially is in a still outer position than the outermost extremity being able to be reached by said point 52 of the third connecting member 28; in fact, when said pair of wheels 6, 7 starts engaging the curved terminal portion 3A of the runner 3, said plate 5 starts in turn displacing with a slight rotary motion. For said spring 50 to be able to work by getting shorter, the need arises for said point 51 on the plate 5 to be always located in an outer position relative to the point 52 on said third connecting member 28, wherein the term "outer", as used here, shall be understood as referring to the (just dashed) area lying outside the line 1 passing through said point 52 and running parallel to said line p.

In addition, in view of preventing the door from bumping abruptly into closing, as this occurs automatically due to the action of said spring 50, between said two same points 51 and 52 there is provided an appropriate shock-absorbing member 55.

On the other hand, such shock-deadening member may be easily implemented with the use of any of a variety of means generally known in the art, e.g. with the use of a shock-damping piston provided with an adequately long stroke or a rack bar working on the teeth of a rotating and appropriately braked pinion, as shown in the Figures.

Since such shock-absorbing member can be easily selected and installed by those skilled in the art, for reasons of simplicity and brevity - and also considering its basic irrelevance to the purposes of the present invention - it shall anyway not be the subject of any more detailed description here.

Claims

1. Sideward sliding door adapted to be shifted from a first vertical plane (p) to a second vertical plane (n) extending parallel thereto, and comprising: a) one or more horizontally sliding vertical door panels (1 , 2), b) sliding means adapted to enable said door panels to:

- slide sideward and, at the same time,

- perform a slight rotary motion about a vertical axis that shifts translatorily in synchrony with said sideward sliding motion,

- as followed by an equivalent counter-rotation about said same vertical axis, so that said door panel is capable of moving from an initial, typically opened position thereof to a final, typically closed position thereof on a plane (n) lying parallel to the vertical plane (p) of said initial position, but moved translatorily in an orthogonal direction relative to said initial vertical plane, said sliding means comprising:

- a pair of lower and/or upper runners (3, 4) arranged to extend substantially parallel to each other along the respective intermediate portions thereof, and curved at the respective terminal portions (3A, 3B, 4A, 4B) thereof, said runners having a different length and the terminal portions thereof being curved so as to be oriented in a common direction, wherein the curvature of the terminal portion (3A) of the longer runner (3) has a greater radius (R3) than the curvature of the corresponding terminal portion (4A) of the shorter runner (4), - rolling means adapted roll along said runners in a guided manner, characterized in that:

- said longer runner (3) is located on the inner side relative to the shorter runner (4), and in that said rolling means comprise: - a resting structure or plate (5) located on a horizontal plane (BASE) and secured in a firmly joined manner to a respective one (1 ) of said door panels,

- a first pair of wheels (6, 7) having respective parallel and preferably vertical axes and engaging a first one (3) of said runners at the opposite sides (33, 34) thereof,

- two respective first vertical pins (6A, 7A),

- a first connecting member (8), which joins said two first vertical pins (6A, 7A) stably together,

- a first pivoting means (9) arranged vertically and rotatably connecting said first connecting member (8) to said resting plate (5),

- a second pair of wheels (16, 17) having respective parallel and preferably vertical axes and engaging a second one (4) of said runners at the opposite sides (43, 44) thereof,

- two respective second vertical pins (16A, 17A), - a second connecting member (18), which joins said two second vertical pins (16A, 17A) stably together,

- a second pivoting means (19) arranged vertically and rotatably connecting said second connecting member (18) to said resting plate (5).

2. Sliding door according to claim 1 , characterized in that the position at which said first wheels (6, 7) start engaging the curvature of the terminal portion (3A) of the respective first runner (3) precedes the position at which said second wheels (16, 17) start engaging the curvature of the terminal portion (4A) of the respective second runner (4), in the sideward moving direction of the respective door panel (1 ).

3. Sliding door according to claim 2, characterized in that it comprises a means for the stabilization of said door panels in the vertical balance thereof, and in that said means slidably engages both said resting plate and one of said runners (3, 4).

4. Sliding door according to claim 3, characterized in that said stabilization means is provided with:

- a third pair of wheels (26, 27) having respective parallel and preferably vertical axes and engaging one of said runners (3, 4) at the opposite sides (33, 34) thereof,

- two respective third vertical pins (26A, 27A),

- a third connecting member (28), which joins said two third vertical pins (26A, 27A) stably together,

- a through-slot (31 ) extending through the thickness of said resting plate (5),

- a third pivoting means (30) connected vertically to said third connecting member (28) and adapted to slide, preferably horizontally, within said through-slot

(31 ).

5. Sliding door according to claim 4, characterized in that said resting plate (5) is firmly joined to at least two preferably concave guide members (38, 39), and in that said third connecting member (28) is provided with rolling means (40, 41 , 42, 43) adapted to rotatably engage said concave guide members (38, 39).

6. Sliding door according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that said runners (3, 4) are curved, and in that said door panels (1 , 2) are also curved according to a curvature contour corresponding to the curvature contour of said runners.

7. Sliding door according to any of the preceding claims, characterized in that between a definite point (51 ) on said resting plate (5) and a definite point (52) on said third connecting member (28) there is provided an elastic means (50).

8. Sliding door according to claim 7, characterized in that said elastic means (50) is an extension spring working in a tensile mode, and in that said definite point (51 ) on said resting plate (5) is located in an outer position relative to said definite point (52) on said third connecting member (28).

9. Sliding door according to claim 7 or 8, characterized in that between said definite point (51 ) on said resting plate (5) and said definite point (52) on said third connecting member (28) there is provided a shock-absorbing means (55).