CA1225924A

CA1225924A - Heat-insulating curtain

Info

Publication number: CA1225924A
Application number: CA000452575A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Rolf-Diether Weiblen
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1983-07-26
Filing date: 1984-04-24
Publication date: 1987-08-25
Also published as: DE3460261D1; AU562072B2; ATE20616T1; EP0132497B1; ZA842350B; AU2629684A; JPS6040490A; DE8321452U1; EP0132497A1

Abstract

ABSTRACT

Heat-Insulating Curtain The heat-insulating curtain comprises at least two mutually spaced curtain webs (30,31,32,33) insertable into a curtain aperture (3) and lateral guide elements (9) to receive the lateral borders of the unwound curtain webs. The curtain webs are unwindable in common from a roll (4) via guide elements (6) and have loading weights (7) at their ends averted from the roll. A slotted box (11a, 11b) arranged at the upper and/or lower end of the curtain aperture (3) contains slots for the passage of the individual curtain webs (30 to 33) the extension of the box in longitudinal direction o the curtain webs (30 to 33) being as large as to receive simultaneously the non-intercon-nected ends of the curtain webs (30 to 33) unwound to different extents.

(Fig. 1)

Description

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Heat-Insulatin~ Curtain The invention relates to a heat-insulating curtain comprising at least two mutually s~ace~d curtain webs insertable into a curtain aperture and lateral guide rails to receive the lateral borders of the unwound curtain webs which are unwindable in common from a roll via guide elements and which have loading weights at their ends averted from the roll.

A high percentage of heat losses ln buildings is caused by the windows. While the outer walls form good heat insulation, heat losses at windows, even if provided with insulating or multiple glass are many times higher. Therefore, it is a general tendency of building technique to provide window surfaces ensuring a high transmission of light by day and which, subject to weather conditions, act as a shielding or collecting means for heat radiation, while, by night, vice versa, e.g. ln winter, heat-insulation will be effected. Said wide ran~e of duties cannot be performed by window surfaces only, but specific curtain technics are applied to this effect which are suitable for window surfaces or whole building fronts and which allow a maximum adaptation to the climatical conditions.

If use is made of curtains having several webs wound on a roll, the length of the individual we~s can be always adapted to only one position of the curtain.

In a known rolling window curtain (German Patent 29 34 674) made of a thick soft foam web lined with fabric or sheet, and of a decorative curtain web which is wound up on a roll in common with the soft foam web, the length of the webs is adapted exactly only to the unwound condition.

- 2 _ ~2Z5924 When the curtain is wound up, the web disposed farther outward relative to the roll axis is wound up more quicklv because the respective roll diameter is always larger than that for curtain webs situated more in-wardly. Thus, the total curtain can be wouna up only to the point at which the curtain web wound up most of all - i.e the decoration curtain web in the instant case - is going to slide out of the upper guide ele-ments or to abut against a stop. At that moment, the soft foam web is not yet completely wound up, and, moreover, due to its thickness, it is distorted in vertical direction for the reasons stated above so that its lower broad border does not form a straight seam.

It is the object of the invention to provide a curtain of the above mentioned type in which an accurate seam-ing border is realised in both its final positions within the range of the curtain aperture.

To solve said problem, it is provided according to the invention that a slotted box arranged at the upper and/or lower end of the curtain aperture contains slots for the passage of the individual curtain wehs, the extension of the box in longitudinal direction of the curtain webs being as large as to receive si~mul-taneously the non-interconnected ends of the webs unwound to different extents.

Due to the slotted box, the unavoidable unequal seam-ing borders of the individual curtain webs wound up in common can be advantageously lined so as to become invisible in one of the extreme positions of the cur-tain.

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In case of an unequal seaming border of the ends of the curtain webs in a wound-up condition of the cur-tain, the slotted box provided at the upper end of the curtain aperture is so dimensioned that the end of the curtain web wound up the least is situated completely in the slotted box while the end of the curtain web wound up most of all is just in the upper final position.

On the one hand, it is possible with such a slotted box to receive the ends of the curtain webs, as they are still guided by the guide rolls, and, on the other hand, the curtain web is allowed to pass on for being wound on the roll.

In case of an unequal seaming border of the ends of the curtain webs in unwound condition, the slotted box provided at the lower end of the curtaln aperture is so dimensioned that the end of the curtain web unwound the least is situated in the slotted box while the end of the curtain web unwound most of all is in its lower final position. By this means, delicate curtain wehs cannot be scratched or kinked.

The slotted boxes may contain separating walls extending in parallel to the stretched curtain webs and forming slotted box chambers separate from each other for the individual curtain webs. This ensures a convective separation by way of a labyrinth packing between the latter in the slotted boxes.
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In a preferred embodiment of the invention is charac~
terized in that the slotted box is sealed and that at least the respective outer slots of the slotted box and the outer guide rails contain sealing elements disposed over the total slot width and over the total rail length resp. to adjoin bilaterally the res~ective curtain webs. Due to the sealing of the slotted box, the individual curtain webs form in common with the slotted box and the guide rails a closed airtight chamber which is o~ a particularly insulating effect because of the inhibited air exchange. All of the slots and guide elements may contain sealing elements to form several separate air chambers, or only the respective outer slots and guide elements are fitted this way. If so, one common air chamber is subdivided by the curtain webs. However, it is important that said air chamber is closed to the outside by the sealing elements in the outer slots and guide rails.

According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the slots contain over their total width cleaning and/or antistatic elements which bilaterally adjoin the respective curtain webs to protect them effectively against dirt.

According to another embodiment of the invention, the guide rails are hollow profiles and the loading weights at the curtain web side edges projecting into the guide rails are mounted near the lower ends. As a result thereof, the loading weights for the perfect curtain drape are so covered that the viewer will not :

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see them.

Preferahly, the inner guide rail chambers communicate with the inner chamber of the slotted box. This ensures that the curtain webs are safely conducted also in the slotted boxes,in particular in the one arranged at the upper end of the curtain aperture, without causing any feeding problems at the point of transition between the guide rails and the slotted box.

In addition, the loading weights can be inter-connected by a stiffening rail to distribute unformly the tractive load at the individual webs to act over the total curtain width and to facilitate the passage of the curtain webs through the sealing lips of the slots into the slotted boxes.

Embodiments of the invention will be now explained in more detail with reference to the enclosed drawings.

Fig. 1 is a cross section of a bent heat-insulating curtain with a slotted box which is provided at the curtain side opposite to the roll, Fig. 2 is a cross section along line II-II of Fig. 1, Fig. 3 is a scaled up illustration of detail A
of Fig.l, Fig. 4 is a cross section of a bent heat-insulatin~
curtain including a slotted box near the roll, Fig. 5 is the same view as Fig. 4, the curtain being in wound-up condition, - 6 - ~2~

Fig. 6 is a cros.s section of another embodiment in-cluding two slotted boxes and Fig. 7 is a cross section according to Fig. 6, the slottea boxes containing separating walls.

In Figures 1,4,5, 6 and 7, a window 1 limited by an outer wall 2 of a building is shown. Inside the building, behind the window, the heat-insulating curtain consisting of several parallel, sheet-like and transparent webs 30,31,32,33 is mounted in the curtain aperture 3, the webs being windable in common in superimposed condition on a roll 4 which is provided at the upper end of the curtain aperture 3, and its ends are supported by a holding means 5 which simul-taneously forms a box to receive said roll 4. Said box is secured to the wall or ceiling of the room.

The holding means 5 designed as a box contains a slot-ted bottom 14 with slots for the passage of the webs 30 to 33. Above said slots, guide rolls 6 in the orm of pivoted cylinders serve for redirecting each of the respective webs 30 to 33. The axes of the guide rolls 6 extend in parallel to the axis of the roll 4. They are as long as the roll 4 and positioned beside the latter, however, slightly offset in downward direction with respect thereto.

In stretched condition of the curtain webs 30 to 33, the lateral web edges within the range of the curtain aperture 3 are guided in vertical guide rails 9 which close at the end-sided edges the air chambers formed by the curtain webs in bent condition, and which include edge sealings 10 adjoining the curtain webs from opposite sides. As a result, the air chambers are con,ined by the curtain webs and by the edge sealings, ~;~2S924 and thev may be sealed additionally at the upper and lower ends of the curtain aperture. The insulating effect of the air chambers is particularly high due to the missing or hardly existing air exchange.
In Fig. 1, the guide rails 9 extend linearly from the holding means 5 forming the upper limitation of the curtain aperture 3 to a slotted box 11 which forms the lower limitation of the curtain aperture.Seen in cross section, said guide rails 9 are hollow profiles which contain a longitudinal slot confined by sealing elements 10 and through which projects the lateral end of the respective web into the hollow profile thus positioning the web edges inside the guide rails 9.
The lateral web guidance is performed between the seal-ing elements 10 which consist for inst. of brushes or flexible sealing lips 10 adapted to conform in shape to the walls of the guide rails 9. The four guide rails 9 at each side of the curtain are made of a one-piece profile with two adjacent guide rails having one separating wall only. Thus, the air chambers are laterally closed to retain the air so as to form a stationary air cushion in each chamber.

In Fig. 1, the slot-ted box 11 is arranged at the curtain end opposite to the roll 4. Said slotted box 11 comprises a slotted upper wall 12 containing slots to 23 substantially adapted to the width and length of each respective curtain web 30 to 33.
~ccording to Fig. 2, sealing elements 13 adjoining bilaterally the respective curtain webs 30 to 33 are disposed over the total width of slots 20 to 23. Said sealing elements 13 consist also of brushes or flexible sealing lips. It may be sufficient to only provide them in the respective outer slots. By this means, all of the air chambers are sealed to the out-, .

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side. As evident from Fig. 1, the slotted box 11 is as high as to prevent the end of the curtain web 33 unwound most of all from accumulating at the bottom of the slotted box 11 if the end of the curtain web 30 unwound the least is still outside the slotted box 11 .

The lower ends of the curtain webs 30 to 33 are provided with a loading weight which consists of two weights 7 at the lateral edges of the curtain webs 30 to 33 and of a stiffening rail 8 extending at the end of the curtain webs over their total width to cause a straight-lined seaming border of the lower edge of the curtain webs and to interconnect rigidly the two weights 7 which move within the guide rails so as to be invisible. Moreover, they may slide freely into the slotted box without the need of piercing at the entrance point the sealing elements 13 at the slots 20 to 23 which only extend as far as to the sealing elements 10 of the guide rails 9. Due to the stiffening rail 8, an accurate alignment of the cur-tain webs 30 to 33 and their troublefree disappearing in the slots 20 to 23 of box 11 is ensured, The sealing elements 13 yield to the influence of the weights to allow the passage of the stiffening rail, and upon the passage of the curtain web end, they sealingly adjoin bilaterally the respective webs 30 to 33. ~ach of the weights 7, seen in vertical cross section transversely to the curtain web forms a hexagon in which the sides parallel to the curtain webs are longer than the re-maining four inclined sides of identical length.

The stiffening rail 8 is U-shaped and clamped with the curtain web end. Preferably, the lower edge of the stiffening rail is ~-shaped to facilitate opening and folding of the sealing lips over the total width of ~ 9 ~ ~2~59Z4 slots 20 to 23 when the curtain webs disappear in the slotted box 11.

As obvious from Figs. 4 and 5, a slotted box 11 is arran~ed ln the upper region of the curtain aperture.
The lengths of the individual curtain webs are so harmonized mutually that in stretched condition, they end in one and the same plane. The ends of the in-dividual curtain webs 30 to 33, when wound up, not ending at the same height, the slotted box 11 is pro-vided at the upper end of the curtain aperture. The loadin~ weights 7 are not visible in Fig. ~ because they are inside the guide rails 9.

Fig. 5 shows the wound-up curtain. The slotted box 11 of this embodiment is mounted directly beneath the holding means 5. In this case, the slots may be sealed alternatively in the slotted upper wall 12 or in the slotted bottom 14. The respective other slotted por-tion, i.e. either the slotted upper wall 12 or the slotted bottom 14, may receive cleaning and/or anti-static elements which extend over the total slot widthof the individual slots. The slotted box 11 is as high as to completely house the end of the curtain 33 wound up the least, if the end of the cxurtain web 30 wound up most of all is just wound up completely.

The embodiment of Fig. 6 illustrates two slotted boxes lla and llb of which box lla is mounted at the upper end and box llb at the lower end of the curtain aperture. As compared to one sole slotted box, the height of two slotted boxes each may be considerably reduced because the difference in length of the in-dividual curtain webs 30 to33 can be received and lined at both ends of the curtain aperture 3.
The guide rails 9 of this embodiment extend as far as ~ .

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into the slotted boxes lla, llb. The airchambers formed by the curtain webs 30 to 33 in common wlth the guide rails 8 are universally sealed at the upper ancl lower curtain ends by sealing elements 13 in the slots of the slotted boxes lla and llb.

The embodiment of Fig. 7 shows separating walls 34, 35 extending in the slotted boxes lla and llb in parallel to the stretched curtain webs 30 to 33 and forming separate slotted box chambers 36,37 in which the in-dividual curtain webs 30 may disappear when they tra-verse slots 20 to 23. By this means, the chambers between the curtain webs disappearing in the slotted boxes lla, llb are kept separate from one another by way of a labyrinth packing so that a convective air exchange is not possi~le in the slotted boxes lla, llb. The embodiment of Fig. 7 is, therefore, not fitted with sealing elements 13 at the slots 20 to 23.

Claims

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property of privilege is claimed, are defined as follows:

1. A heat-insulating curtain apparatus for insertion into a curtain aperture which comprises first and second box members disposed in the respective upper and lower end portions of the curtain aperture, said first and second box members containing a plurality of opposing slots for the passage of curtain webs therethrough said opposing slots being defined by elements which are not displaceable with respect to each other, thereby defining fixed slots and said first and second box members being dimensioned to completely house the longest and shortest curtain webs of said plurality of curtain webs when in their rolled-up or completely extended position, a roll member disposed in said first box, said roll members containing a plurality of curtain webs wound thereon, said plurality of curtain webs being unwindable in common from said roll members and extending through said opposing slots of said first and second box members in mutually spaced-apart relationship across said curtain aperture, said first and second box members being sufficiently long to simultaneously accommodate all of the free ends of said plurality of curtain webs which exist in different lengths in the wound and unwound state, and lateral guide rails extending between the first and second boxes for receiving the lateral borders of the unwound curtain webs, said guide rails being provided with edge sealing elements which extend the entire length of the curtain aperture and the slots in the boxes are provided with slot sealing elements which extend across the entire width of the curtain aperture.

11 The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 1 wherein weight members are attached to the free ends of said curtain webs.

3. The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 1 wherein the box members contain separating walls which extend between adjacent curtain webs to form, in common with the box members respective chambers mutually separated from one another for accommodating each of the individual curtain webs.

4. The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 2 wherein the slot sealing elements are flexible sealing lips which permit the passage of the weight-containing free ends of the curtain webs, sealing the boxes after the passage of said web through the slot.

5. The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 1 wherein the slots in the box members are provided with cleaning and/or antistatic elements which bilaterally adjoin the respective curtain webs.

6. The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 2 wherein the lateral guide rails are hollow profiles and the weight members are disposed at the lower side edges of the curtain webs which project into the guide rails.

7. The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 6 wherein the hollow profiles of the lateral guide rails communicate with the inner space of the box members.

8. The heat-insulating curtain apparatus of claim 6 wherein the weight members are interconnected at the lower edge of the curtain webs by a stiffening rail which extends across the width of the curtain webs.