Method and apparatus for breakaway mounting of security gate to drive mechanism

A security gate operating mechanism, comprising:

• a security gate drive arm having a first end and a second end, with the first end pivotally attached to a security gate at a pivot point, having a pivot axis, by a pivotal attachment member;
• a drive mechanism connected to the drive arm and adapted to drive the drive arm for movement of the pivot axis through an arc of movement of the security gate through the application of a force to the security gate by the drive arm generally in a plane perpendicular to the pivot axis and generally aligned with a tangent to the arc of swinging movement of the pivot point at any given point of swinging movement of the security gate;
• a breakaway mounting, included as part of the pivotal attachment member and responsive to application of a force either outside of the swinging plane or unaligned with the tangent of the arc of swinging movement of the pivot point at any given point of swinging movement of the security gate, adapted to disconnect the security gate drive arm from its attachment to the security gate;
• and,
• a security gate drive arm retractor connected to the security gate drive arm, having a retractor mechanism, and responsive to the disconnection of the security gate drive arm from its connection to the security gate, adapted to retract the security gate drive arm in a direction away from the attachment member.

A security gate operating mechanism, comprising:

• drive means, including a drive arm, having a first end and a second end;
• a security gate attachment means for connection to a security gate;
• actuating means, operatively connected to the drive arm, for moving the drive arm along a predefined path in relation to the actuating means in response to operation of the actuating means;
• releasing means for releasing the connection of the security gate attachment means from the first end of the drive arm in response to the application of a force to the security gate attachment member greater than a predetermined force such that the releasing means before and after the act of releasing is structurally the same.

A security gate operating means, comprising:

• a security gate drive arm having a first end and a second end;
• a drive means connected to the drive arm for driving the drive arm for movement of the pivot axis through an arc of movement of the security gate through the application of a force to the security gate by the drive arm generally in a plane perpendicular to the pivot axis and generally aligned with a tangent to the arc of swinging movement of the pivot point at any given point of swinging movement of the security gate;
• breakaway mounting means, included as part of the pivotal attachment member and responsive to application of a force either outside of the swinging plane or unaligned with the tangent of the arc of swinging movement of the pivot point at any given point of swinging movement of the security gate, for disconnecting the security gate drive arm from its attachment to the security gate;
• and,
• security gate drive arm retractor means connected to the security gate drive arm, having a retractor mechanism, and responsive to the disconnection of the security gate drive arm from its connection to the security gate, for retracting the security gate drive arm in a direction away from the attachment member.

A method of operating a security gate, comprising:

• driving the security gate with a security gate drive arm having a first end and a second end, with the first end pivotally attached to the security gate at a pivot point, having a pivot axis, by a pivotal attachment member;
• actuating the drive arm by driving the drive arm for movement of the pivot axis through an arc of movement of the security gate by the application of a force to the security gate by the drive arm generally in a plane perpendicular to the pivot axis and generally aligned with a tangent to the arc of swinging movement of the pivot point at any given point of swinging movement of the security gate;
• disconnecting, responsive to application of a force to the drive arm, either outside of the swinging plane or unaligned with the tangent of the arc of swinging movement of the pivot point at any given point of swinging movement of the security gate, the security gate drive arm from its attachment to the security gate;
• and,
• retracting the security gate drive arm, responsive to the disconnection of the security gate drive arm from its connection to the security gate.