EP0989281A1 - Mounting device for a curtain with a fixed shaft for rollable closing devices - Google Patents

Abstract

The system consists of a supporting bracket (20) mounted on a plate (8) on the surrounding frame of the opening covered by the roller shutter. The bracket has lateral retaining bolts (32a, 32b) for the end of the shaft (3) and a vertical slot (43) for an inverted U-shaped locking pin which has one end passing through holes (30a, 30b) in the bracket and shaft to prevent the shaft rotating. When it is necessary to release the shaft and rotate it to give access to the shutter in the event of counterweight or compensating spring failure the pin is lifted in the slot from the back of the plate, e.g. using a hollow bar engaging with its end.

Description

The present invention relates to a device for fastener for roll-up closure with curtain with fixed shaft, said fixing device being intended to join reversibly one of the ends of said shaft fixed to the frame of said closure winding.

It should be noted that throughout this text, the built term very generally means any support on which can be assembled the various parts constituting the closure. It can thus be, by example, a specific independent coaching or more directly from the edges of the opening to be blocked.

The invention finds an application particularly advantageous in the field of fixed shaft winding closures, equipped with anti-fall devices capable in each case of block the curtain lowering in the event of a failure of one of the elements of the winding mechanism.

In the case of a fixed shaft closure, the winding of the curtain is traditionally carried out around at least one coil mounted mobile in rotation around said fixed shaft. Each coil is also connected to the fixed shaft by means of a spring balance type, wound inside even of said coil. As the name suggests, this elastic return means is responsible for counterbalancing at least partially the weight of the curtain, restoring energy during the opening phase stored as a couple during the closing. As such, the compensation spring is the most stressed and therefore the most fragile element of the system. This is why it is advantageous to couple each compensating spring with a fall prevention device likely to prevent the curtain from falling in the event breakage or simply shedding of said spring compensation.

In either case, blocking in descent of the curtain is obtained by securing the faulty coil with the fixed shaft, under the action of corresponding anti-fall device. This function can also be filled with very different structures and implementations.

When the break or load shedding occurs while the curtain is fully extended, the troubleshooting the closure presents no problems individuals. The faulty coil is indeed perfectly accessible.

However, in almost all cases for which are only partial, part curtain remains wrapped around the different coils on the fixed shaft. This situation prohibits any direct intervention on the deficient compensation spring. Access to the coil can only be restored after dismantling the curtain, when it is not completely closed. The difficulty of the conditions of intervention makes everything extremely complicated, and therefore time-consuming troubleshooting and expensive.

To remedy this type of inconvenience, the request EP 0 768 445 describes the use of a unlocking device allowing unwinding curtain manual after actuation of the fall prevention device, that is to say despite the solidarity of the faulty coil with fixed shaft. Concretely, the unlocking device is designed to release the rotation of the fixed shaft around its axis longitudinal. It is then enough to accompany manually the complete unfolding of the curtain to be able to easily access the faulty coil and proceed to change the compensation spring.

Structurally, the unlocking device described in the prior art is composed of a sleeve non-circular section positioned at the end of the shaft, as well as a sheet metal support intended to be secured to the frame of the closure. The support also includes two housings side by side and communicating with each other via their Respective upper openings. The sleeve can thus be involved indifferently in one or the other dwellings with very different sections, since one is complementary to that of said sleeve and that the other is circular. So therefore, according to the slot in which it is inserted, the sleeve is blocked in rotation or mobile in rotation; the tree supporting the coils therefore respectively in normal operating position or in the unlocked position.

However, this unlocking device has serious drawbacks that are due as much to its structural complexity as difficulties in its implementation in action. Indeed, the support consists of a machined sheet metal part, relatively complex in shape and therefore costly to carry out. The tree must also be arranged to receive the sleeve, which increases even more the overall cost of the device. Finally, the implementation of this system is impractical since it is necessary to raise the curtain to change accommodation, and therefore to move from the position locked in the unlocked position. This imperative can even become crippling when the curtain presents high mass, as is the case in most cases.

Also, the technical problem to be solved by the object of the present invention is to provide a fixing device for curtain with fixed shaft winding closure, intended to secure reversibly one end of said tree at frame of said roll-up closure, device for fixing which would avoid the problems of the state of the art by being of a low price of comes back, while being of an extremely implementation easy.

The solution to the technical problem posed consists, according to the present invention, in that the device for fixing comprises support means suitable for immobilize the tree so that the position of its longitudinal axis is constant, as well as locking means capable of immobilizing the shaft in rotation with respect to its longitudinal axis.

The function of the support means is not completely immobilize the tree since it retains axial rotation mobility that only locking means are able to block. Although the support means and the means of lock are perfectly complementary and that's their combined action which makes it possible to make the tree totally fixed.

The support provided by the support means is materializes by an absolute stability of the position of the longitudinal axis of the tree. The tree is seen like this immobilized, both in radial translation by relative to its axis only in rotation with respect to an axis distinct from said longitudinal axis. In other words, the causes the positioning of the longitudinal axis to be constant means that any displacement of the tree, other than an axial rotation, is not allowed. We obviously do not take into account here axial translations which are impossible by construction, since the ends of the tree are blocked either by the support frame or by the edges of the opening to condemn.

The locking means are independent here support means in the sense that they are distinct, contrary to what we find in the system of the prior art previously described. Their function is to condemn the last mobility of which the tree remains provided when supported by the support means, that is to say the axial rotation on itself. Once the locking means used, the shaft is thus immobilized in rotation relative to its axis. Combined with that of the support means, the action of locking means contributes to achieving fixity complete of the tree.

The invention as thus defined presents the advantage of being extremely simple to set up artwork. The fact that the locking means are independent from the support means allows indeed to pass indifferently from a so-called position locked, in which the shaft is completely fixed, in a so-called unlocked position, in which the shaft is movable in axial rotation. Contrary to what's going on in the prior art it's not here no question of manipulating the curtain to pass from one position to another.

The locking means are intended to block the axial rotation of the shaft reversibly. Also, it is particularly advantageous to mount them mobile in movement between a so-called engaged position, wherein said locking means are in able to immobilize the rotating shaft relative to its longitudinal axis, and a so-called disengaged position wherein said locking means are in the inability to achieve such immobilization. The displacement of the locking means can be effected following any trajectory such as that corresponding to a translation, a rotation or a more or less complex combination of these two types of movements. The important thing is that the means of lock can be moved in one direction or in the other between the two extreme positions mentioned above.

Easy installation of the fixing device constitutes one of the primary objectives of the invention. This is why, according to a particular feature of said invention, the locking means are designed and arranged so that they can be operated from a place outside the space intended to be occupied by the curtain, and this whatever the level winding of the latter.

In all cases, it is important to ability to always have access to locking means even when the curtain is wrapped around the tree. When the locking means are more particularly mounted mobile on the move, their part used to control the movement which must above all be accessible and therefore not be in the interior space delimited by the rolled up curtain.

It is possible to design a fixing according to the invention, in which the cooperation between the locking means and the shaft takes place independently of the support means. he However, it appears particularly advantageous that immobilization in axial rotation of the shaft either made directly by joining the end from said shaft to the support means. Also, the means of lock are designed to specifically ensure this blocking function, the support means having only a support and maintenance role.

This feature simplifies the maximum the structure of the fixing device, in accordance with one of the essential objects of the invention which is to get the lowest cost possible. She consequently also increases the reliability of the system since a minimum of parts is required in this configuration.

According to a feature of the invention, the securing of the tree with the support means is carried out by inserting the locking means to both in at least one bore formed through said shaft and in at least one bore through said support means. The blocking thus achieved allows to immobilize the shaft in axial rotation since the support means are integral with the frame of the roll closure.

The following description next to the drawings attached, given by way of non-limiting examples, will understand what the invention is all about and how it can be done.

Figure 1 is an exploded view showing the different components of a fixing device according to the invention.

Figure 2 illustrates the cooperation between different components of the fixing device shown in figure 1.

Figure 3 is a view of the device fixing of Figure 2, in a direction substantially opposite.

For reasons of clarity, the same elements have have been designated by identical references. Likewise, only the essentials for understanding the invention have been shown, and this without respect scale and schematically.

In the particular embodiment illustrated in Figures 1 to 3, the fixing device 1 is intended to fasten the end reversibly 2 of a shaft 3, to the frame 4 of a winding closure 5 of fixed shaft type. As is however partially visible in Figure 3, it is necessary obviously imagine that tree 3 carries a succession compensating coils 6 regularly spaced, around which a curtain 7 of flexible structure.

The frame 4 is here an integral part of the closure 5 since it is he who supports them different component parts, regardless of edges of the opening to condemn. He presents himself here in the form of flanges 8 coming to position orthogonally to each end of the shaft 3. So to be bolted or screwed to part of the structure defining the opening, each of these flanges 8 is provided with several fixing bores 9, 10 distributed over its entire surface. It is to highlight that each edge 11 extends in the plane of the slide, not shown, who is responsible for guiding unilaterally the translation of the curtain 7 along the opening. From this point of view, Figures 1 to 3 should be considered as rear views of the roll-up closure 5.

We can observe in the different figures that the fixing device 1 is provided with means for support 20 and locking means 40 including the combined action makes it possible to completely immobilize shaft 3, so that it is perfectly fixed during normal operation from closing to winding 5. In accordance with the invention, the means support 20 are able to prevent, on the one hand, any translation of the shaft 3 perpendicular to its axis longitudinal, and on the other hand, any rotation around an axis distinct from said longitudinal axis. The rotation axial of shaft 3, only mobility not prohibited by the support means 20, is in turn controlled by the locking means 40 which, according to their position, are able or not to secure the end 2 of said tree 3 means support audits 20.

In this particular embodiment, the support means 20 consist of a U-shaped piece 21 on which two abutment members are secured 22a, 22b presented here in the form of two bolts. The role of the U-shaped part 21 and that of stop members 22a, 22b are perfectly complementary since they consist in ensuring keep in perpendicular directions one compared to each other. Their combined action allows thus immobilizing the axis of the shaft 3 in a constant position.

The part 21, forming a support, is intended to be secured to frame 4 via its part central 23. This is advantageously for this purpose provided with two through bores 24a, 24b, suitable for cooperate by blocking with two fixing screws 25a, 25b previously inserted in two lights rectangular 26a, 26b formed through the flange 8.

Due to its U shape, the part 21 has two parallel fins 27a, 27b which extend horizontally, respectively above and below from the end 2 of the shaft 3, in order to maintain vertically said shaft 3. It is also provided many bores 28a, 28b, 29a, 29b, 30a, 30b, 31 whose usefulness and formal characteristics will described later. Anyway, the whole is completely symmetrical so that the U-piece 21 is perfectly reversible.

The two stop members 22a, 22b are arranged transversely between the two fins 27a, 27b, of on either side of their distal ends respective. Their position is such that they are then able to maintain horizontal support for the shaft 3 when the end 2 of it rests substantially in the center of the U-shaped part 21.

In the chosen embodiment, each stop member 22a, 22b consists of a screw 32a, 32b coming to engage in a first through bore 28a, 28b formed in one of the corners of the end distal of fin 27a, then in a second bore crossing 29a, 29b arranged identically in the corresponding corner of the distal end of the fin 27b, before coming to cooperate by screwing with a nut 33a, 33b.

According to an advantageous alternative embodiment, the screws 32a, 32b and their respective nuts 33a, 33b are replaced by bent pins at their upper parts to be retained on the support 20 by its own inertia.

The joining of the support means 20, on the frame 4 of the roll-up closure 5, is carried out in two times since the U-piece 21 is first of all bolted only on one side to the flange 8. The goal is here not to obstruct, even partially, the space required for the lateral introduction of the end 2 of the tree 3. The latter is indeed dimensioned so that each of its ends 2 come flush with the internal face of the central part 23 of the corresponding U-shaped part 21. This absence of games advantageously allows prohibit any axial translation of the shaft 3.

Concretely, the joining of the U-shaped part 21 on the flange 8 begins with the installation of the fixing screw 25b. It is inserted successively in the rectangular light 26b and in the circular bore 24b, then cooperate by screwing with a nut 35b. In order to properly stabilize the U-shaped part 21 which is then fixed in only one point, moreover offset from where it supports the end 2 of the shaft 3, it is provided a positioning tab 34 arranged at the other end of the central part 23 relative to said attachment point. This positioning tab 34 is able to cooperate by interlocking with the other light rectangular 26a, thus immobilizing the part 21 in rotation around the screw 25b.

The end 2 of the shaft 3 can then be engaged without problem between the fins 27a, 27b, since neither the end of the screw 25a, nor the nut 35a, do not protrusions on the internal surface of the central part 23. Once this operation is completed, the second screw of 25a fixing can then be put in place and so supplement the action of the positioning tab 34.

In this particular embodiment of the invention, the locking means 40 are constituted by a U 41 section pin circular, suitable for joining the end 2 of the shaft 3 to the support means 20. For this, its end active 42 is shaped so that it can cooperate by blocking, on the one hand, with two coaxial bores 30a, 30b formed respectively through each fin 27a, 27b of the U-shaped part 21, and on the other hand, with two equally coaxial bores 35 arranged at through end 2 of shaft 3 to allow an integration from side to side. The distance between each bore 30a, 30b of the central part 23 corresponds substantially to that existing between each bore 35 and the distal end 36 of the shaft 3, so that all of these bores 30a, 30b, 35 are able to be collinearly aligned. The oblong shape of bores 30a, 30b guarantees the existence of an axial clearance likely to facilitate coaxial positioning of different bores 30a, 30b, 35 and therefore the insertion of the active end 42 of the pin 41.

It was previously stated that he was advantageous that the locking means 40 are movable mounted moving between a position engaged and a disengaged position, in which said locking means 40 are respectively able and unable to immobilize the axial rotation of tree 3. In this case, these two positions extremes correspond to the facts that the means of lock 40 are able or not to secure the end 2 of the shaft 3 to the support means 20.

Concretely, the pin 41 is mounted movable in translation in a guide light 43 formed vertically through the flange 8, in the same plane that the oblong bores 30a, 30b carried by the fins 27a, 27b of the U-shaped piece 21. Thus, when the end 2 of the shaft 3 is placed between the fins 27a, 27b and that the pin 41 is driven when moving, the active part 42 is able to insert successively into the first oblong bore 30a, in the two circular bores 35, then in the second oblong bore 30b, thus achieving the locking in axial rotation of the shaft 3. It should be noted that the height of the guide light 43 corresponds substantially at the length of the active end 42, so as to allow the perpendicular introduction of the pin 41 through the flange 8.

According to a characteristic particularly advantageous of the invention, the means lock 40 can be operated from a position outside the susceptible space to be occupied by curtain 7, whatever the level winding of said curtain 7. This means that in the in this case, the displacement of the pin 41 cannot not be ordered from a localized point, no only in the space reserved for winding the curtain 7, but also inside said space. In the example chosen, the implementation of the means of locking 40 is carried out from outside the rolling closure 5, since the pin 41 is shaped so that its passive end 44 can be accessed at the external face 45 of the flange 8. Obviously, many other configurations equivalents can be adopted to allow this remote implementation of the blocking performed by locking means 40.

The two circular bores 31, 46, supported respectively by the U-piece 21 and by the flange 8, are intended to be positioned coaxially one relative to each other when the support means 20 are secured to the frame 4. They are then arranged to their turn substantially coaxially with respect to the hollow shaft 3, which allows the passage of the wires power supply and / or release cable in the case where the winding closure 5 has a motor central.

When it becomes necessary to carry out a intervention on the winding closure 5, following the joining of one of the compensation coils 6 on tree 3, it is simply necessary to unlock said shaft 3 to make it mobile again in axial rotation and thus allow an unwinding curtain manual 7. To do this, just order the vertical displacement of the pin 41 upwards, using for example a hollow tube 50. The use of the latter is fully justified when the passive part 44 of pin 41 is not directly within reach of the convenience store. The tube 50 has for this purpose an internal diameter substantially complementary to that of the part passive 44, so it is possible to fit momentarily and reversibly the end of the pin 41 in that of the tube 50.

The upward translation of the pin 41, directed at all times by the guide light 43, causes the progressive disengagement of the part active 42. This will indeed slide in the different bores with which it cooperates by blocking, and thus disengage successively from the oblong bore 30b, circular bores 35 and the oblong bore 30a. Once this operation finished, pin 41 is no longer able to prevent the axial rotation of the shaft 3. This one can then turn on itself and thus allow the unwinding of the curtain 7, which is preferably supported by the convenience store during all this maneuver.

Claims (9)

Fixing device (1) for tree curtain fixed winding closure (5), intended for reversibly secure one end (2) of said shaft (3) to the frame (4) of said closure winding (5), characterized in that said device fixing (1) comprises support means (20) able to immobilize the shaft (3) so that the position of its longitudinal axis is constant, so that locking means (40) able to immobilize the shaft (3) rotating relative to its axis longitudinal, and operable from a position located outside the space likely to be occupied by the curtain (7), whatever the level winding said curtain (7). Fastening device (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that the locking means (40) are mounted movable in displacement between two extreme positions in which said means of lock (40) are respectively suitable and unsuitable to immobilize the shaft (3) in rotation relative to its longitudinal axis. Fastening device (1) according to any one claims 1 to 2, characterized in that the locking means (40) are suitable for securing the end (2) of the shaft (3) to the support means (20). Fastening device (1) according to any one claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the locking means (40) are able to cooperate by blocking with at least one bore (30a, 30b) provided at through the support means (20) and at least one bore (35) formed through the shaft (3). Fastening device (1) according to any one claims 1 to 4, characterized in that the locking means (40) consist of a pin (41) mounted movable in translation in a guide light (43) carried by the frame (4) of the winding closure (5), one of the ends called active (42) of the pin (41) being able to be inserted in the different bores (30a, 30b, 35) provided respectively in the tree (3) and in the means of support (20), when said bores (30a, 30b, 35) are positioned coaxially. Fastening device (1) according to claim 5, characterized in that the height of the light from guide (43) is substantially equal to the length of the active end (42) of the pin (41). Fastening device (1) according to any one claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the support means (20) comprise, on the one hand, a U-shaped part (21), the fins (27a, 27b) of which are arranged horizontally are able to hold vertically the end (2) of the shaft (3), and on the other hand, two abutment members (22a, 22b) capable of holding horizontally said end (2) of the shaft (3), the U-shaped part (21) being integral with the frame (4) of the winding closure (5), and the stop members (22a, 22b) being positioned transversely between the fins (27a, 27b), on either side of their respective distal ends. Fastening device (1) according to claim 7, characterized in that the U-shaped part (21) is removably secured to the frame (4) of the winding closure (5). Fixing device (1) according to one of claims 7 or 8, characterized in that each stop member (22a, 22b) is integral so removable on the U-shaped part (21).

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