AU2005100077A4 - Improved rainwater trough operating mechanism - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION INNOVATION PATENT IMPROVED RAIN WATER TROUGH OPERATING MECHANISM The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me: 0 IMPROVED RAWWMATER TROUGH OPERATING MECHANISM The devices described here are intended for the power operation of the roof waler Trough mounting system the subject of Innovation Patent #2003 100926 and should be o read having a knowledge of this application.

This application describes a method of operating gutteing: trough brackets remotely.

This fills a need when the rain water trough on a building is too high or too long for manual operation. Mnother situation is where manual operation is impeded by the S steepness or roughness of terrain or the location of bush or shrubs in the area& In practice manual operation of the mentioned mounting system is limited to a o 5 maximum run length of approximately 12 metres. Beyond that length 2 or more o operators are required to compensate for the torsional deflection undergone by the guttering trough, The powering device described is a practical means of causing the guttering trough to rotate on its said mounting brackets for cleaning.

Pneumatics was selected because of its simplicity, low cost and safety. High torques are required to perform the operation of rotating the gutter trough, Pneumatics can readily supply the force and the mechanics described convert this force to torque for application to a rotatable point.

The conversion of force to torque is performed by a cable and drum method. By sizing the cable drum and cylinder stroke length, natural limits are set by the mechanism and therefore require no limit controls.

Because of the movement of the guttering trough, a limiting zone is established for the location of any fixed equipment. Compactness for aesthetics is considered but is not discussed here.

Central to the mechanism is the rotatable arm on the said mounting bracket described in the referred innovation patent. This has shown to be the most practical point for the application of force to cause the bracket to go through its operation., (The rotatable arm is also the point where force is applied to a manually operated bracket).

To enhance understanding of thew invention it may be considered as a powered conversion of a manually operated roof water trough mounting bracket The operation is described a cable pulley is affixed to the rotatable arm. It is sized to be the maximum allowable diameter to fit into the available zones bounded by the movement of the guttering trough.

Positioned at one point on the pulley is a means to hold a cable so it may not move lengthways relative to the circumferal surface of the pulley. There are several loops of cable around this pulley as a practical operational requirement The cable is arranged in a loop with both ends fixed to the frame of the bracket.

2 In Acting on the cable is a series of cable pulleys arranged to take up some cable in its o run between the fixed ends of the cable and the fixed point on the cable drum or c-i pulley fixed on the rotatable arm. This action causes the pulley on the rotatable arm to rotate. The embodiment described is a travel doubler method that allows a cylinder to be used that has only half the stroke length of the cable movement required- In another embodiment the stroke of the cylinder selected is equal to the o length of the cable movement required. In this embodiment both ends of the cable are fixed to a moveable block that is directly driven by the cylinder.

The cross sectional area of the cylinder for the doubler system is approximately twice that of the direct system.

o In operation it has been found that the majority of materials contaminating the guittering trough simply fall out when the trough is rotated forward to its down or o 65 cleaning position. To ensure a more effective cleaning the guttering trough may be o fitted with a flushing pipe. This is commercial UV stable tubing fixed to the rear wall of the guttering trough with cable clips. The tubing is drilled at intervals along its length. These form jets when water is introduced to the tubing. These jets are directed to the base of the ducting to cause a transverse flushing of the debris.

Complete removal of the debris is not necessary to allow satisfactory operation of the ducting. Inspection of the cleaning operation will be possible in some cases but not all.

It is envisaged that fully automatic programmed cleaning of roof water ducting is possible. Connection between the fixed water line and the flushing pipe is performed by either a pair of rotatable connectors or a suitable flexible section of hose.

A detailed explanation of the improved operating mechanism follows The disclosed mechanism is a linear to rotary motion drive.

It is intended for adaptation to a roof water trough mounting bracket of inovation Patent #2003100926.

Figure 1 is an isometric sketch of the preferred embodiment of the improved rain water trough operating mechanism.

The mechanism is shown without the supporting bracketry which will be obvious to those skilled in the art.

There is a pneumatic cylinder its body is fixed to the supporting bracketry (not shown). Its piston rod has a double pulley rotatably attached to it This may be two independent pulleys. Shown are three fixed idler pulleys They perform aligrnent and positioning duties for the mechanism.

Item is a cable drum or pulley and arm centred on the pivoting point for a rotatable arm- Shown is a cable attachment point to prevent relative movement between the cable drun and the flexible cable There is a cable turning post (10) and two cable binding and tensioning posts (11) To assist understanding only these can be likened to the tensioning devices on a stringed musical instrument kC) 100 In operation of the device in this embodiment compressed air is introduced into one o end or the other of the pneumatic cylinder to cause it to operate.

ri From the position shown in the sketch the piston rod will be driven toward the tensioning post This will cause some length between the binding post (11) and the tangential contact point of the cable drum to be taken up.

105 Simultaneously some of the cable length between binding post (12) and the tangential o contact point of the cable drum will be freed. This will cause the cable drum and its attached arm to rotate in a clockwise direction on the face shown- This action takes place to the full stroke of the pneumatic cylinder to cause the cable drum and its attached arm to rotate approximately 1800 and reach a natural h- HtO limit defined by the stroke of the pneumatic cylinder (1) o The operation of the mechanism is reversed by the release of compressed air to the o end of first application on the cylinder and introduction of compressed air to the opposite end of the pneumatic cylinder o) 115

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Claims (4)

1. A mechanism that is a function specific linear to rotary drive

2. A linear to rotary drive as claimed in claim 1 where the mechanism has self limiting rotational end points.

3. A linear to rotary drive as claimed in claims that is a non-ignition power source.

4. A linear to rotary drive as claimed in claims to that is adaptable to a roof water trough mounting bracket of Innovation Patent #2003100926. A transverse flush debris removal system for use with roof water troughing mounted on systems fitted with linear to rotary drives in claims to aiam E Thoms 15/12/04