AU2015249099B2

AU2015249099B2 - Motor-driven roller system

Info

Publication number: AU2015249099B2
Application number: AU2015249099A
Authority: AU
Inventors: John Charles Hodges; Timothy Mark White
Original assignee: Hodge Systems Pty Ltd
Current assignee: Hodge Systems Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2015-10-28
Filing date: 2015-10-28
Publication date: 2021-08-19
Anticipated expiration: 2035-10-28
Also published as: AU2015249099A1

Abstract

A motorized roller system for a roller shutter is provided which comprises a motor driven roller that is mountable to a cabinet opening to frictionally engage a shutter door. Rotation of the motor-driven roller moves the shutter door rearward to close the 5 cabinet opening or forward to close the cabinet opening. The motorized roller system further comprises a reawardly mounted winding roller onto which the shutter door is wound. 1/6 so S t400 14- 100 -2 140 420 400 330 320 340 Figure 1

Description

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TITLE MOTOR-DRIVEN ROLLER SYSTEM FIELD THIS INVENTION relates to a motor-driven roller system for a roller shutter as typically used in cabinets, cupboards and other storage enclosures. BACKGROUND Roller shutters are commonly used in openings of cabinets, cupboards, storage rooms, pantries, vanity units and other storage enclosures. Roller shutters provide ready access to the contents of storage enclosures such as described above and, when closed, neatly hide the stored contents within the storage enclosure. Typically, a roller shutter comprises a roller mounted by way of brackets in the door opening, onto which is mounted a shutter, such as a tambour door comprising a plurality of slats, or any other door or screen that can be wound around the roller. An example of this typical system is provided in Australian patent 672562 where a support roller is mounted forward of the roller. The support roller is mounted to a bracket which also has locating zones that allow rearward placement of a rear-mounted winding roller at a desired vertical location in the cabinet. In some cases, the rear-mounted winding roller may be motorized and operable by an electronic remote control. Typically, the roller shutter comprising the motorized, rear-mounted winding roller and the support roller is installed so that the shutter door cannot be raised above a preset upper limit. A problem with this type of roller shutter assembly is that if there was an obstruction of the roller shutter during operation, this could override the preset upper limit, with the result that when using the electronic remote controlled motor, the roller shutter may be raised beyond the upper limit, thereby damaging the shutter door, cabinet and motorized roller. In some cases, the shutter door wound onto the rear roller may loop and sag, which also results in defective operation of the roller shutter. SUMMARY The invention is therefore broadly directed to an improved motorized roller shutter assembly and/or components thereof and/or method of installing same that alleviates or ameliorates at least some of the difficulties associated with installation. In one aspect, the invention provides a motorized roller system for a roller shutter, said system comprising a motor-driven roller that in use is mountable at or near an opening of a cabinet to engage a shutter door and which is capable of rotation in one direction to thereby move the shutter door rearwardly of the opening and in another direction to close the opening. In another aspect, the invention provides a motorized roller shutter assembly comprising the motorized roller of the first-mentioned aspect and a shutter door. The motorized roller shutter assembly may further comprise opposed side tracks that slidably receive respective, opposed edges of the shutter door. In yet another aspect, the invention provides a cabinet with the motorized roller shutter assembly of the second-mentioned aspect mounted thereto. According to the aforementioned aspects, the motor-driven roller may suitably comprise a motor integral with the roller that drives rotation of the roller, In an alternative embodiment, the motor-driven roller may comprise a separate or remote motor that drives rotation of the roller by way of a coupling such as a belt, meshed gear or the like. Suitably, the motor-driven roller is not manually rotatable. In a preferred embodiment of the aforementioned aspects, the motorized roller is capable of frictional engagement with the shutter door to facilitate movement of the roller door in a first direction rearwardly of the opening and in a second direction to close the opening. In a particular embodiment, the motorized roller may comprise a surface coating or a material applied or mounted thereto that facilitates frictional engagement between the motorized roller and the surface of the shutter door. In an embodiment, the motorized roller system further comprises a winding roller locatable rearwardly of the motorized roller, onto which the shutter door is wound. Suitably, the winding roller comprises an internal spring which facilitates tensioning of the winding roller. Suitably, the motor-driven roller and, optionally the winding roller, are mountable to said mounting brackets. In one embodiment, each of the mounting brackets is unitary. In another embodiment, each of the mounting brackets is segmented. In one particular embodiment, each mounting bracket comprises a first mounting bracket segment and a second mounting bracket segment. In a particular embodiment, the first mounting bracket segment and the second mounting bracket segment in use co-operate to form an aperture to facilitate mounting of the motorized roller. In other embodiments, the motor-driven roller and, optionally the winding roller, are mountable to unitray or segmented mounting brackets that comprise one or a plurality of locating zones. Typically, the winding roller may be selectively positioned in any one of the plurality of locating zones. Throughout this specification, unless otherwise indicated, "comprise", "comprises" and "comprising" are used inclusively rather than exclusively, so that a stated integer or group of integers may include one or more other non-stated integers or groups of integers. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The present invention will now be described with reference to non-limiting embodiments disclosed in the accompanying drawings, wherein: FIG. 1 shows a side view of a motorized roller assembly mounted to a cabinet; FIG. 2 shows a plan view of a motorized roller assembly mounted to a cabinet; FIG. 3 is a side view of a mounting bracket; FIG. 4 is a side view of a motorized roller and mounting bracket during mounting to a cabinet; FIG. 5 is a side view of a motorized roller assembly mounted to a cabinet during tensioning of the winding roller; and FIG. 6 is a side view of a motorized roller assembly mounted to a cabinet and connected to a power source. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The preferred embodiment disclosed herein is described with reference to a tambour door as a non-limiting example of a shutter door. It will be appreciated that in other embodiments the shutter door could be a hinged door, splashback or panel or any other door which is moveable between an open and closed position driven by rotation of the motorized roller. It will also be appreciated that while components of the roller shutter assembly will be referred to in singular terms for convenience, more than one such component may be present (e.g. one or a plurality of mounting apertures, recesses, fasteners etc) as would be well understood by persons skilled in the art. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG 2, motorized roller shutter assembly 1 comprises motorized roller system 10 comprising motorized roller 100 and winding roller 200, tambour door 300 and mounting bracket 400. In this embodiment motorized roller shutter assembly 1 is mounted to cabinet 20 comprising opening 21 and walls 22A, B having opposed tracks 500A, 500B mounted inside opening 21 to walls 22A, 22B, so that laterally opposed edges 311A, B of tambour door 300 slidably engage opposed tracks 500A, 500B. Pelmet assembly 30 may be provided comprising pelmet members 31A, B, C. Motorized roller 100 comprises rotatable roller body 110, friction surface 120, front spindle 130 and an internally-located motor (not shown) electrically connected to connector 140, such as a Molex connector. Winding roller 200 comprises roller body 210 rear spindle 220 and an internally-located spring (not shown) for tensioning. Motorized roller 100 is removably mounted to front portion 410 of mounting bracket 400 via front spindle 130 and winding roller 200 is releasably mounted to rear portion 420 of mounting bracket 400 via rear spindle 220, rearwardly of motorized roller 100. In this embodiment, the shutter door is tambour door 300 which comprises a plurality of interconnected slats 310 and backing plate 320 (typically aluminum), a portion thereof wound onto winding roller 200 and another portion extending over front roller 100 in contact with friction surface 120, thereby closing cabinet opening 21. Limit stop arms 330A, B mounted to tambour door 300 interact with limit stop 510 in opposed tracks 500A, 500B to limit vertical travel of tambour door 300. FIG. 3 provides a view of mounting bracket 400 comprising front portion 410 comprising fastening apertures 411A, B, C and recess 412 and rear portion 420 comprising fastening apertures 421A, B, C, nose 422 and mounting slot 423 for rear spindle 220 of winding roller 200. Nose 422 and recess 412 co-operate to form aperture 430 to receive front spindle 130 of motorized roller 100 for mounting motorized roller 100. As shown in FIG. 4, front portion 410 of mounting bracket 400 is initially mounted inside cabinet opening 21, motorized roller 100 positioned so that front spindle 130 sits within recess 412. Rear portion 420 of mounting bracket 400 is then mounted to wall inside cabinet rearwardly of motorized roller 100. Referring now to FIG. 5, winding roller 200 with tambour door 300 wound thereupon is mounted to bracket 400 by way of rear spindle 220 engaging mounting slot 423. Winding roller 200 is then spring tensioned by rotating winding roller 200 in the direction of the solid arrow shown in FIG. 5. Note that rear spindle 220 is non- rotatably mounted in mounting slot 423 to allow rotation of winding roller body 210 to thereby enable this spring-tensioning. This removes and further prevents any sagging in the portion of tambour door 300 wound onto winding roller 300. Figure 6 shows motorized roller system 10 mounted to cabinet 20 and electrically connected to power source 600. Tambour door 300 is partly unwound from winding roller 200 and guided over motorized roller 100 so that laterally opposed edges 311 slidably engage respective, opposed guide tracks 22. Handle 340 and backing plate 320 are then fitted to tambour door 340. In use, such as shown in FIG. 6, motorized roller 100 is electrically controllable to rotate in either the first or second direction shown by the double-headed curved arrow in FIG. 6. Tambour door slats 310 are frictionally engaged by friction surface 110 of rotatable roller body 110, whereby motorized rotation of rotatable roller body 110 drives movement of tambour door 300 to either wind tambour door 300 on or off winding roller 200 as desired. Control of motorized roller body 110 is typically performed using a remote control (not shown). Thus tambour door 300 is not wound onto motorized roller 100 but instead is frictionally guided onto spring-tensioned winding roller 200 which thereby at least reduces, if not eliminates, sagging of the portion of tambour door 300 wound onto winding roller 200. Another advantage is when lowering the tambour door 300 (i.e to close the cabinet opening 21) is blocked by an obstacle, such as an appliance typically found in cabinet 20. In prior art motorized roller systems, the rearwardly-mounted winding roller is motorized, in which case continued, motorized rotation of the winding roller occurs to thereby wind the tambour door off the winding roller. Resetting the roller system to "take up the slack" in the tambour door while resetting the open and closed positions can be extremely difficult in such a situation. Furthermore, if tambour door 300 encounters an immobilizing obstacle during raising, because tambour door 300 only frictionally engages motorized roller 100 and is not wound onto it, motorized roller 100 may continue to rotate or "freewheel" even though the tambour door 300 remains immobile, without damaging the motorized roller 100. In prior art motorized roller systems, the rearwardly-mounted winding roller is motorized, in which case continued rotation of the roller is opposed by the immobile tambour door, which can lead to damage of the roller motor.

Throughout this specification, the aim has been to describe the preferred embodiments of the invention without limiting the invention to any one embodiment or specific collection of features. Various changes and modifications may be made to the embodiments described and illustrated herein without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the invention. Preferred embodiments of the invention are defined in the paragraphs below. According to a first embodiment, there is provided a motorized roller system for a roller shutter, said system comprising: a motor-driven roller that in use is mountable at or near an opening of a cabinet to engage a shutter door and which is capable of rotation in one direction to thereby move the shutter door rearwardly of the opening and in another direction to close the opening, wherein the motor-driven roller is capable of frictional engagement with a surface of the shutter door to facilitate movement of the shutter door, and wherein the motor-driven roller is capable of rotating even if the shutter door is immobilised; and a winding roller locatable rearwardly of the motor-driven roller, onto which the shutter door is wound, wherein the winding roller comprises a spring which facilitates tensioning of the winding roller. According to a second embodiment, there is provided a motorized roller shutter assembly comprising the motorized roller system of the first embodiment and a shutter door. According to a third embodiment, there is provided a cabinet with the motorized roller system of the first embodiment mounted thereto. According to a fourth embodiment, there is provided a cabinet with the motorized roller shutter assembly of the second embodiment mounted thereto.

Claims

1. A motorized roller system for a roller shutter, said system comprising: a motor-driven roller that in use is mountable at or near an opening of a cabinet to engage a shutter door and which is capable of rotation in one direction to thereby move the shutter door rearwardly of the opening and in another direction to close the opening, wherein the motor-driven roller is capable of frictional engagement with a surface of the shutter door to facilitate movement of the shutter door, and wherein the motor driven roller is capable of rotating even if the shutter door is immobilised; and a winding roller locatable rearwardly of the motor-driven roller, onto which the shutter door is wound, wherein the winding roller comprises a spring which facilitates tensioning of the winding roller.

2. The motorized roller system of Claim 1, wherein the motor-driven roller comprises a motor integral with the roller that drives rotation of the roller.

3. The motorized roller system of Claim 1 or 2, wherein the motor-driven roller is not manually rotatable.

4. The motorized roller system of Claim 1, 2 or 3, the motor-driven roller comprising a surface coating or a material applied or mounted thereto that facilitates frictional engagement between the motor-driven roller and the surface of the shutter door.

5. The motorized roller system of Claim 4, wherein the motor-driven roller comprises PVC strips circumferentially located around an outer surface of the motor-driven roller.

6. The motorized roller system of any one of Claims 1 to 5, wherein the winding roller comprises an internal said spring which facilitates tensioning of the winding roller.

7. A motorized roller shutter assembly comprising the motorized roller system of any one of the preceding claims and a shutter door.

8. The motorized roller shutter assembly of Claim 7, further comprising a plurality of mounting brackets to which the motor-driven roller, or the motor driven roller and winding roller, are mountable.

9. The motorized roller shutter assembly of Claim 7 or Claim 8, further comprising a plurality of opposed tracks that respectively, slidably receive opposed edges of the shutter door.

10. The motorized roller shutter assembly of Claim 7, 8 or 9, further comprising a remote control for the motorized roller system.

11. A cabinet with the motorized roller system of any one of Claims 1-6 mounted thereto.

12. A cabinet with the motorized roller shutter assembly of any one of Claims 7-11 mounted thereto.