The present invention regards a wind-up screen, according to the preamble of the main claim.
The wind-up screen of the present invention is intended to be advantageously used for covering, in an adjustable manner, the openings of buildings such as windows, doorways, skylights and the like or for closing balconies, porches or other spaces that require protection from the wind, from the sun and more generally from the outside environment. The aforesaid screen is preferably of fall type, i.e. intended to close the opening by sliding with vertical movement within guides starting from a winder placed at the top of the opening.
It is therefore intended to be inserted in the industrial field of the production of home accessories, in the field of doors/windows/shutters and in the field of the production of sheets for sun protection, mosquito nets and similar applications.
Wind-up screens are known on the market for the covering of doorways, windows or other similar openings of building, balconies or porches, provided with a cloth in flexible sheet form, which can be wound on a rotatable roller housed in a collection box arranged above the opening of the building.
The sheet is usually made of fabric or of synthetic material and it can be transparent (e.g. made of transparent plastic material), e.g. in order to protect from the air, or dark, e.g. for screening part or all of the sunlight.
More in detail, the sheet is fixed with its upper end to the rotatable roller, and with its lower end to a transverse bar for the user's grip.
Each side edge of the sheet carries a flexible thickening element associated therewith, usually obtained with a flexible toothing, which is able to slide within a longitudinal guide of a corresponding rail.
More in detail, the wind-up screen is also known to comprise two vertical uprights, which are rigidly mounted on the inner walls of the opening, for example by means of screw means.
Each upright has a cross section shaped substantially like a U, with its opening facing the other upright, and it houses a corresponding rail internally between its arms.
The rail is usually retained in the upright by means of suitable removable listels, mechanically and fittedly connected to the arms of the U-shaped upright. The aforesaid listels simultaneously perform the function of retaining the rails and guiding the ends of the transverse grip bar.
In practice, the wind-up screen of the type described above does not lack drawbacks. In particular, given the high number of components it is very complex to install and difficult to achieve.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, a wind-up screen was recently developed composed of a very limited number of components, since the removable listels were substantially eliminated for the benefit of greater mounting convenience. Such screen, described in particular in the patent application
The aforesaid wind-up screen also comprises a second half-guide, complementary to the first, for the sliding of the transverse grip bar.
By assembling the two above-indicated profiles of the L-shaped upright together with the two I-shaped panels, via suitable joining means, one obtains a structure that accomplishes the three required functionalities, i.e.: laterally retaining the rail in the guide; defining an end stop with shoulders facing the rail which prevents the outward exit thereof from the guide; guiding the terminals arranged at the ends of the transverse grip bar.
Even if it has facilitated mounting, the aforesaid wind-up screen of known type has the drawback of not offering sufficient mechanical seal guarantees; it is also hard to maintain since in the case of wear of the grip guide bars or of the rail holding abutments, it is necessary to dismantle the entire frame formed by the aforesaid wall-fixed uprights and by the panels in order to substitute the worn parts with new ones.
In addition, the fixing means between the upright and the panel necessarily allow clearances and displacements between the two parts, which involve an imprecise obtainment of the guides that they constitute.
Also known, from the patent
The latter also has a cross section with U shape, and is equipped with two parallel second arms which together define, inside the rail, a seat in which a corresponding end terminal of the transverse bar of the wind-up screen is slidably inserted.
In particular, the rail is perfectly inserted inside the corresponding upright, with each second arm of the rail arranged with its outer surface adhering to the inner surface of one of the first arms of the upright, in order to prevent transverse movements of the rail inside the same upright.
Also the latter wind-up screen of known type does not lack drawbacks. In particular, such wind-up screen is not capable of ensuring a firm retention of the rail in the corresponding upright due to tolerances of the dimensions of the upright and of the rail connected with the production process of the latter.
In this situation, the problem underlying the present invention is to provide a wind-up screen which allows easy maintenance of its components that are most subjected to wear.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a wind-up screen which is simple and quick to install.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a wind-up screen which is structurally simple to achieve and fully reliable operationally.
These and still other objects are all attained by the wind-up screen according to the enclosed claims.
The technical characteristics of the finding, according to the aforesaid objects, are clearly described in the contents of the claims reported below, and the advantages of the same will be more clearly evident in the following detailed description, given with reference to the enclosed drawings, which represent two merely exemplifying and nonlimiting embodiments thereof, in which:
With reference to the enclosed drawings, the wind-up screen that is the object of the present invention is indicated in its entirety with 1.
The present wind-up screen 1 is intended to carry out the closure, in an adjustable manner, of an opening A, such as in particular a doorway, a window or the like, obtained on a building wall or on another load-bearing structure, e.g. a porch, a veranda, a terrace or other similar structures.
It comprises, in a per se fully conventional manner, a flexible sheet 2, made of fabric or plastic material, of dark or transparent type, depending on the function that the flexible sheet 2 is intended to perform, such as for example for protecting an area from the sun and/or from the wind and/or, more generally, from the atmospheric conditions of the outside environment.
The opening A is defined by two side walls, e.g. masonry, by an upper wall and a lower wall, such as a windowsill; otherwise the opening can be defined as a function of the specific application of the wind-up screen 1, also by columns, uprights or crossbars of a metal framework.
Above the opening A, for example on the upper wall of the masonry, a roller is mounted (not illustrated), rotatably housed inside a collection box 3. The roller is able to wind-up and unwind the flexible sheet 2, allowing its extension to a different extent in an adjustable manner, for the partial or total closure of the opening A.
For such purpose, the roller can be driven to rotate by means of a motor or manually, e.g. through the use of a command rod engaged through an articulated joint to the roller shaft.
With the term "flexible sheet" 2, it is intended below an element in the form of a flexible sheet, able to be wound on the roller and unwound from the roller.
The flexible sheet 2 has a preferably rectangular shape and is provided, in a manner per se known to the man skilled in the art, with an upper end mechanically associated with the roller; with a lower end 4 mechanically associated with a transverse bar 5; and two side edges 6 guided to slide at the side walls of the opening A as will be specified below.
More in detail, the transverse bar 5 is obtained with an extruded profile, preferably made of aluminum, equipped with a longitudinal slot parallel to the extension of the same transverse bar 5, open towards the outside by means of a longitudinal slit suitable to receive a thickening prearranged at the lower end 4 of the flexible sheet 2. Advantageously, such thickening is obtained with a pocket made at the aforesaid lower end 4, at whose interior a rod is housed with diameter slightly less than the slot; in such a manner, the rod can be inserted inside the slot once it is inserted in the pocket, with the flexible sheet 2 arranged to cross through the aforesaid slit of the slot.
At the lateral ends of the transverse bar 5, two terminals 7 are mounted, for example by means of screws or other analogous fixing means, which are able to close the ends of the transverse bar 5, and in particular of the aluminum extrusion, and slide in a guided manner along the side walls of the opening A, as will be better specified below.
Each of the side edges 6 of the flexible sheet 2 is in turn provided with a flexible flap 8 capable of sliding in a guided manner along the side walls of the opening A, as will be better specified below.
The wind-up screen 1 also comprises two uprights 9, which are intended to be vertically fixed starting from the collection box 3, on the side walls that define the opening A covered by the sheet 2 and in positions facing each other.
Each upright 9 has a rail 10 mechanically associated thereto, and such rail defines a longitudinal groove 11 having a slit 17. The longitudinal groove 11 is capable of slidably receiving, at its interior, the flexible flap 8 of one of the two side edges 6 of the sheet 2 with the latter arranged to cross through the slit 17.
According to the idea underlying the present invention, the wind-up screen 1 also comprises two guide profiles 12, each of which mechanically fixed to a corresponding upright 9 through first fixing means 13, e.g. constituted by screws or dowels as indicated in the enclosed figures. Each guide profile 12 is also obtained in a single body, preferably via extrusion in aluminum, and has a cross section shaped substantially as a U. Such shape of the guide profile 12 is obtained with two substantially parallel arms 12A, 12B, connected to each other by a bottom 12C. The two arms 12A, 12B define at their free ends, on the side opposite the bottom 12C, a through opening 14 of the flexible sheet 2. This latter opening 14 faces that of the other guide profile 12 fixed to the facing upright 9 in order to maintain the planarity of the flexible sheet 2.
In addition, according to the present invention, each guide profile 12 defines, by means of the outer surfaces of its aforesaid arms 12A, 12B, a track 15, in which a terminal 7 of the transverse bar 5 is slidably engaged. Each guide profile 12 also internally defines a seat 16, which is partially closed at its through opening for the sheet 14 and in which the corresponding rail 10 is housed in a holding relationship.
Advantageously, the two terminals 7 are provided with two guide wings 30, parallel to each other, laterally projecting as an extension of the transverse bar 5, and able to be employed outside the arms 12A and 12B of the guide profile 12. For such purpose, the distance D1 between the inner surfaces of the aforesaid two guide wings 30 is slightly greater than that between the outer faces D2 of the two arms 12A and 12B (in order to define the sliding clearance).
The guide profile 12 presents the through opening for the sheet 14 with a reduced width D3 with respect to the distance D4 between the inner faces of the two arms 12A, 12B (internal width of the seat 16). This in order to retain the rail 10 inside its seat 16 in a holding relationship, such rail 10 having size greater than the opening 14 but less than the seat 16.
Advantageously, such through opening for the sheet 14 has reduced width by means of the two terminal portions 12A' and 12B' of the arms 12A, 12B folded inwardly, as is clearly seen in
The rail 10 is then advantageously mounted in the seat 16 of the guide profile 12, by making it slide starting from one end thereof as can be inferred from the embodiment of
The width D5 of the rail 10 is advantageously slightly less than the width D4 of the seat 16 in order to limit the forward/backward movements of the rail 10 orthogonal to the surface of the sheet 2, allowing the seat 16 to maintain the rail 10 with the flexible sheet 2 in a substantially median and centered position with respect to the opening 14 of the guide profile 12.
Such rail 10 can assume different forms, so that it can be coupled in a sliding relationship with different embodiments of flexible flaps 8, available on the market, fixed to the side edges 6 of the flexible sheet 2.
In accordance with a first embodiment illustrated in
Such damping dowels 18 at the same time allow compensating for possible shrinkage of the sheet 2.
In accordance with a different second embodiment illustrated in the enclosed
The two guide profiles 12 thus advantageously define a seat 16, which is shaped such to receive at its interior different types of rails 10, in turn shaped to be connected in a slidable engagement relationship with different corresponding flexible flaps 8.
Such versatility is achieved by means of a guide profile 12 according to the present invention, which does not require internal tabs or other means for the composition of the guides of the rail or for its fixing to the upright, as is instead provided in the solutions of the prior art. The guide profile 12 can thus act as a connector element, of substantially multipurpose type, between the different types of rails 10 and the upright 9, defining seats 16 capable of housing different types of rails 10.
As is clearly explained above, the mechanical connection of the guide profiles 12 to the uprights 9 indeed occurs, according to an advantageous embodiment of the present invention, by means of tabs 19, 20 and with first fixing means 13 which are outside the seat.
Advantageously, the seat 16 of the two guide profiles 12 is defined by the inner faces of the two arms 12A, 12B which have flat and parallel surfaces. Due to such characteristics, the seats are able to receive different types of rails 10, conferring to the guide profiles 12, and thus to the wind-up screen object of the present invention, a versatility of use that cannot be found in any other wind-up screen known up to now. For such purpose, the inner faces of the two arms 12A, 12B are extended in flat form for at least a majority section of the height L1 of the two arms 12A, 12B and preferably also of the height L2 of the connection wall 9A of the upright 9.
Preferably, the inner faces of the two arms 12A, 12B are flat for their entire extension. The seat 16 is thus defined, as indicated above, by a bottom 12C orthogonal to the two arms 12A, 12B, it too having a flat inner surface.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, each upright 9 is provided with a cross section shaped substantially as an L. Such L shape is obtained with a connection wall 9A, intended to be anchored, with its inner face, parallel on the outer face of the first arm 12A of the guide profile 12, and with a base wall 9B, which is obtained in a single body with the connection wall 9A. On the latter wall 9B, the through holes of the screws 40 are advantageously obtained, such screws aimed to fix the upright 9 to the side wall that defines the opening A to be covered.
The anchorage between the parallel opposite faces of the connection wall 9A of the upright 9 and the first arm 12A of the guide profile 12 is obtained by means of coupling between the first and second tabs 19 and 20 obtained on the aforesaid opposite faces. Preferably, the first fixing means 13 comprise a third tab 21, extended as a projection from the base wall 9B and shaped with the free end folded towards the same base wall 9B in order to define an abutment portion 21'; the means 13 also comprise a fourth shaped tab 22, extended outside the guide profile 12 at its bottom 12C (i.e. preferably, and more precisely, at an edge between the bottom 12C and the second arm 12B) and able to define with the base wall 9B at least one recess 23 for the insertion of a fixing dowel 24 suitable for locking the guide profile 12 to the upright 9, with the connection wall 9A anchored to the first arm 12A.
More in detail, the aforesaid fourth shaped tab 22 of the guide profile 12 is provided with a foot 22', able to abut against the abutment portion 21' of the third tab 21 of the base wall 9B when the fixing dowel 24 is inserted under pressure inside the recess 23, so as to firmly anchor the guide profile 12 to the upright 9.
Advantageously, the aforesaid fixing dowel 24 is obtained by means of a seal made of elastically deformable material, inserted along the entire extension of the recess 23 which is equal to the extension of the upright 9.
In accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the wind-up screen 1 also comprises a coating cover 25, advantageously obtained with a further aluminum extrusion, intended to be anchored with its inner face parallel to the outer face of the second arm 12B of the guide profile 12.
The anchorage between the parallel opposite faces of the coating cover 25 and of the second arm 12B of the guide profile 12 is obtained by means of the coupling between fifth and sixth tabs 26 and 27 obtained on the aforesaid opposite faces.
Preferably, the coating cover 25 is provided with a seventh shaped tab 28, which is interposed between the fixing dowel 24 and the fourth tab 22 of the guide profile 12. In this manner, the insertion of the fixing dowel 24 in the recess 23 causes the fixing not only of the guide profile 12 on the upright 9, with the connection wall 9A anchored to the first arm 12A, but also the fixing of the coating cover 25 on the second arm 12B of the guide profile 12.
For the mounting of the wind-up screen 1 at an opening A, it is necessary to first fix the uprights 9, below the collection box 3 on the side walls that define the opening A that one wishes to close with the sheet 2.
Previously, the ends of the uprights 9 were closed with suitable plugs, preferably made of plastic.
The plug 31 intended to be fixed below the collection box 3 is provided with a slit 32 for allowing the passage of the side edge 6 of the flexible sheet 2 and with alignment abutments 33 (e.g. shaped as projections) able to be coupled in form relationship with corresponding abutments (e.g. shaped as recesses) obtained below the collection box 3 in order to allow the positioning of the upright 9 in the correct position on the side wall that defines the opening A.
Furthermore, the upright 9 is mounted with its base wall 9B aligned with the side wall of the collection box 3 in order to also ensure a correct lateral positioning of the upright 9.
Therefore, the flexible sheet 2 is defined in its final position due to the correct positioning of the uprights 9 and without the need for any adjustment thereof.
Once the uprights 9 are centered below the collection box 3, they are fixed by means of screws or dowels to the side wall.
The rail 10 is then inserted in the seat 16 of the guide profile 12, and the flexible sheet 2 is then partly lowered, with the transverse bar 5 mounted on its lower end 4, moving it from the vertical in order to allow its facilitated insertion in the longitudinal groove 11 of the rail 10.
At this point, the guide profile 12 is positioned on the upright 9 with its first arm 12A anchored on the inner face of the wall 9A of the upright 9. The two parts are fixed together by inserting the fixing dowel 24 in the recess 23 and in such a manner locking the guide profile 12 to the upright 9.
Advantageously, before inserting the fixing dowel 24 in the recess 23, it is possible to also arrange the coating cover 25 by anchoring it on the outer face of the second arm 12B of the guide profile 12, such that the insertion of the dowel 24 causes the fixing not only of the guide profile 12 on the upright 9 but also the fixing of the coating cover 25 on the second arm 12B of the guide profile 12.
The wind-up screen 1, object of the present invention, allows through a single component constituted by the guide profile 12 to limit the movements of the rail 10 and hence of the sheet 2, in particular achieving the abutment end stop for the movements of the rail 10 towards the opening 14 of the guide profile 12, as well as achieving the guide for the terminals 7 of the transverse bar 5.
Unlike the wind-up awnings/curtains of known type which require assembling the guides for the transverse bar and for the sheet, according to the present invention such guides are obtained without any assembly of parts, with the single component constituted by the guide profile 12. Since the latter is made of a single body, there is no risk of clearances between its parts, which could compromise the precision of its guides. In addition, the wind-up screen 1 that is the object of the present invention is particularly simple to assemble, since the flexible sheet 2 is easily inserted in the rail 10 in turn inserted in the seat 16 of the guide profile 12 which, being a rigid section, can be easily fit on the upright 9 and then be easily fixed with the fixing dowel 24.
The finding thus conceived therefore attains the pre-established objects.
This list of references cited by the applicant is for the reader's convenience only. It does not form part of the European patent document. Even though great care has been taken in compiling the references, errors or omissions cannot be excluded and the EPO disclaims all liability in this regard.