EP0692588A1 - Guardgrid for gutters - Google Patents

Abstract

The grille comprises plastics mesh mats (12) which are convexly curved to fit elastically pretensioned onto the gutter. The width (B) of the mesh mats matches the internal width (w) of the trough (11) measured between the gutter edges (17,18) in the plane in which the gutter edges with a convex curvature adjoin smooth against the concave trough (11). Thus B = .(w/2)+2 DELTA B, where DELTA B marks the width of the strip edge areas (13,14) of the mats with which they are supported radially against the areas of the trough sleeve adjoining the gutter edges. DELTA B is between B/20 and B/10. Anchorage elements (16) fixed on the mats can be brought into force locking engagement by hooked free ends engaging over the free long edges (31,32) of the curved gutter edges (17,18). <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a protective grille for gutters, which consists of plastic mesh mats, which can be attached to the gutter in a concavely arched gutter trough between the edges of which spans a convex arching arrangement and, under elastic prestressing, are held in a force-fitting manner on the gutter .

Such a protective grille is known from German utility model G 92 13 325.8.

The known protective grille is designed as a grid pipe made of plastic cut along a surface line, which is inserted into the gutter trough and in this, under a prestress, which leads to a tendency of the pipe cross section to widen, in the gutter trough in a force-fitting manner depending on the radius of curvature of the gutter trough, the cut edges of the tubular casing have a slight positive or negative overlap. A prerequisite for the fact that the grid pipe, which is under elastic pretension, cannot jump out of the gutter trough, is, however, either that the gutter trough the grid pipe, seen in the direction of its central longitudinal axis, on a peripheral region encloses by more than 180 °, or that immediately above the convex curvature of the gutter trough jacket area of the grid pipe, for example, stops formed by the upstream ends of the rafters are present, which reliably prevent the grid pipe from jumping out of the gutter. If there is no such arrangement of the rafters, suitable stop elements must be provided on the eaves or on the gutter.

Because of the design described so far, the known protective grille has at least the following disadvantages:
The material requirement for the plastic grid mats is large, and in addition to the arched overvoltage - covering - of the gutter trough, they form a largely complete inner lining of the same and are associated with correspondingly high material costs.

For a reasonably convenient handling of the grid when inserting it into the gutter trough, it is necessary that the grid is already largely "tubular" in the initial state, ie the azimuthal width of the gap between the longitudinal cut edges is not significantly greater than 90 °, so that Grid can be pressed into the gutter with relatively little effort. In the resulting shape of the grid elements, however, they have one for the storage unfavorably large space requirement, which practically corresponds to that of self-contained pipes.

From a functional point of view, it is also disadvantageous in the case of the known protective grille that this leads to a not inconsiderable reduction in the cross-section of the trough, in particular in the case of gutters with a relatively small clear width of the trough, and because of the lattice structure present in the interior of the trough, the deposition of fine-grained dirt particles such as sand or also fixing favored by moss, so that despite effective protection of the gutter against contamination by leaves or branches, cleaning work is required relatively often, which require the protective grille to be removed.

The object of the invention is therefore to provide a protective grille of the type mentioned at the outset, which has an increased protective effect, can be produced more cost-effectively with considerably less material, and can be implemented in a configuration which is space-saving for the storage of its elements.

This object is achieved by the characterizing features of claim 1.

The advantages achieved by the protective grille according to the invention are at least the following:
The plastic material requirement is reduced to a little more than half compared to the known protective grille. Apart from the gutter edges immediately adjacent, practically perpendicular edge areas of the trough, there are no wavy or crossing structures within the gutter trough that could favor the attachment of fine dirt particles within the trough, so that such fine dirt particles also reliably flow out of the water Gutter trough to be washed out.

Prefabricated protective grid elements can be designed as flat or only flatly curved grid mats, which lie against one another over their entire surface and can be stacked in a relatively large number in a limited space, which is of considerable advantage for both the processing tradesman and the building materials dealer.

Due to the features of claim 2, the basic form of a simple design of the anchoring elements required for fixing the mesh mats to the gutter is specified, which ensures both a load-resistant, secure fixing of the anchoring elements to the respective mesh mat and a secure fixation of the same to the gutter and also for attaching the protective grid elements to the gutter is ergonomically favorable.

The same applies mutatis mutandis to the alternative design of anchoring elements, outlined by the features of claim 3, which in the design specified in more detail by the features of claim 4 is also adapted in a simple manner exactly to the predetermined shape of the gutter edges and thereby fixed particularly securely to them can be. In combination with such easily deformable anchoring elements, optionally by hand, the features of claim 5 provide a design of prefabricated protective grid elements which is particularly favorable for space-saving storage.

Alternatively to such, e.g. Anchoring elements made of copper sheet can also be provided, designed as injection molded plastic parts, which are expediently only attached to the mesh mats and attached to them when the number of protective mesh elements provided for a gutter cover is prepared for laying on the roof becomes.

The type of attachment of the anchoring elements to the lattice mats provided according to claim 7 is equally expedient both for anchoring elements consisting of metal and for plastic.

If the externally arranged transverse webs of the protective grille, as provided according to claim 8, run obliquely to the longitudinal webs, they form for from the roof in water flowing out of the fall line, additional flow obstacles which, as it were, brake a powerful water flow and promote its quantitative introduction into the gutter.

The protective grille in the design specified by the features of claim 8 also has the advantage in terms of production technology that its longitudinal and transverse webs can be produced jointly by extrusion of a lattice tube at a single extrusion station, which encloses a fixed extrusion head for the extrusion of the longitudinal webs and a coaxial one , rotatable extrusion head for the extrusion of the crossbars.

Within the dimensioning limits specified by the features of claim 9, free passage cross sections of the protective grille elements can be achieved, which amount to between 75% and 50% of the base area of the trough spanned by the protective grille.

In the design of the lattice mats outlined by the features of claim 10, for these parallelogram-shaped to diamond-shaped clear cross-sections of the passage openings with free opening areas between 1 and 1.5 cm².

Fig. 1

einen Teil eines Gitter-Elements eines erfindungsgemäßen Schutzgitters in perspektivischer, teilweise abgebrochener Ansichtsdarstellung;

Fig. 2a

einen Abschnitt eines als ebenes Gitter vorgefertigten Schutzgitterelements zur Erläuterung seiner Gitterstruktur,

Fig. 2b

eine Ansicht des Schutzgitterelements gemäß Fig. 2a in Richtung des Pfeils II derselben,

Fig. 3a

eine perspektivische Ansicht eines aus biegbarem Blech bestehenden Verankerungselements des Schutzgitters gemäß Fig. 1 und

Fig. 3b

eine Perspektivische Ansicht eines zu dem Verankerungselement gemäß Fig. 3a funktionsäquivalenten Verankerungselements, das als vorgefertigtes Kunststoff-Spritzgußteil ausgebildet ist.

Further details of the protective grille according to the invention result from the following description of a specific exemplary embodiment and possible ones Design variants of the same based on the drawing. Show it:

Fig. 1

a part of a grid element of a protective grid according to the invention in perspective, partially broken view;

Fig. 2a

a section of a protective grid element prefabricated as a flat grid to explain its grid structure,

Fig. 2b

2 a in the direction of arrow II of the same,

Fig. 3a

a perspective view of an existing anchoring element made of bendable sheet metal of the protective grille according to FIG. 1 and

Fig. 3b

a perspective view of a functionally equivalent to the anchoring element according to FIG. 3a anchoring element, which is designed as a prefabricated plastic injection molded part.

The overall designated in FIG. 1 with 10 protective grille for a gutter represented only by a short portion of its trough 11 has the purpose of protecting the gutter against contamination by leaves, small branches or the like, which are otherwise washed into the gutter and whose - not shown - drain could clog.

The protective grating 10, for the explanation of which reference is also made to the illustrations in FIGS. 2a and 2b, consists of a number of prefabricated grating elements 15, each of which comprises an elongated rectangular, flexible elastic grating mat 12 and anchoring elements 16 fastened to the strip-shaped longitudinal edges 13, 14 thereof , by means of which blunt or with overlap along the gutter 11 attachable grid elements 15 predetermined, overall adapted to the length of the gutter length on the eaves-side and the outer longitudinal edges 17 and 18, which connect smoothly with a convex curvature to the concave trough 11 , spanning these with convex curvature, can be anchored in a force-fitting manner.

In a typical design of the grid mats 12, these have a width B which is approximately 2 cm larger than the value π xw / 2, with w denoting the - horizontal - clear width of the gutter trough 11 measured between the curved gutter edges 17, 18 . Within this width, the lattice mats 12 comprise a number n, for example twelve, longitudinal webs 19 which run parallel to the longitudinal edges of the lattice mats 12 and are each arranged at equal distances a from one another. The transverse webs 21 crossing these longitudinal webs 19, which run parallel to one another in a flat configuration of the grid mat 12, in the case of a curved configuration of the grid mat 12 in mutually parallel planes, close with the longitudinal webs 19 Angle α or the complementary angle 180 ° - α, the acute angle α in the embodiment shown in FIG. 2a having a value of 45 °, but can have values between 40 ° and 60 ° depending on the design of the grating .

The transverse webs 21 can be seen, like the simplified side view illustration of FIG. 2b, on the one side, according to the illustration of this FIG., Of the longitudinal webs 19 and fixedly connected to them at the respective crossing points 22.

The lattice mats 12 of the lattice element 15, from which the protective lattice 10 can be composed, consist of a polyethylene or polypropylene stabilized against UV radiation and are extruded as a tubular lattice which, prior to the cooling and solidification of the plastic material, along a surface line running between two longitudinal webs 19 cut open and then smoothed into substantially flat paths, which may still have a slight "residual" curvature after cooling of the plastic material, but whose radius of curvature is much larger than in the state of the protective grille 11 attached to the gutter 11 - Extrusion of the longitudinal webs 19 and the transverse webs 21 takes place by means of an extruder, not shown, which has a central, externally circular-cylindrical extrusion head, the extrusion nozzles from which the plastic strands forming the longitudinal webs 19 emerge during extrusion in a small A stood from the free, downward-facing end face of the extrusion head still open to the outside in the area of the cylindrical outer circumferential surface thereof, as well as a rotatable extrusion head coaxial with the central extrusion head, in which the mouth openings of the nozzles, from which the plastic strands forming the transverse webs emerge during extrusion , are arranged directly above the nozzle openings of the central extrusion head and can be limited on the inside with part of the circumference of the mouth region by the central extrusion head, which forms the shaft for the rotatable extrusion head, so that the plastic strands emerging from the two extrusion heads inevitably come into contact with one another and merge with one another at the intersection points 22, the fusing of the extruded strands forming the longitudinal webs 19 and the cross webs 21 also by blowing the still tubular grid with hot air ft can be favored.

In a typical design of the protective grille 10 for a gutter 11, the trough of which has a clear width w of 80 mm, the grating mats have twelve longitudinal webs 19 and a width B of approximately 14 cm, within which the longitudinal webs are arranged at equal distances a. The transverse webs 22 are also arranged at equal distances from one another, which, seen along the longitudinal webs 19, have the value b.

gegeben ist, d.h. bei einem Abstand a von etwa 10 mm eine Dicke der Längsstege 19 und der Querstege 21 von etwa 3 mm. Gittermatten mit einer solchen Dicke der Längs- und Querstege 19 und 21 sind bei hoher Stabilität gleichwohl noch gut biegbar, um mühelos von Hand in die die Dachrinne gewölbt umspannende Form gebracht und in die Dachrinne eingesetzt werden zu können. Durch Verringerung der Dicke der Längsstege 19 und der Querstege 21 auf die Hälfte des vorgenannten Wertes kann der Anteil der lichten Durchtrittsflächen der Gitteröffnungen 23 an der Gesamtfläche der Gittermatten 12 auf etwa 75 % gesteigert und gleichwohl noch eine genügende Stabilität der Gittermatten 12 gewährleistet werden.For the configuration of the Lattice mats 12, in which the lateral distance a of the longitudinal webs 19 is equal to the measured along this distance b of the transverse webs 21, then results under the additional condition that the clear surfaces of the lattice openings 23 through which water can flow into the gutter 11, at least are as large as the surface areas, as seen in the planar projection in FIG. 2a, of the longitudinal webs 19 and the transverse webs 21, and on the assumption that the longitudinal webs 19 and the transverse webs 21 should have the same thickness d for them a maximum amount through the relationship $$\text{d ≦ ax (1 - √2 / 2)}$$

is given, that is, at a distance a of about 10 mm, a thickness of the longitudinal webs 19 and the transverse webs 21 of about 3 mm. Lattice mats with such a thickness of the longitudinal and transverse webs 19 and 21 are still very flexible with high stability, so that they can be effortlessly placed by hand into the shape spanning the gutter and inserted into the gutter. By reducing the thickness of the longitudinal webs 19 and the transverse webs 21 to half of the aforementioned value, the proportion of the clear passage areas of the lattice openings 23 in the total area of the lattice mats 12 can be increased to approximately 75% and nevertheless sufficient stability of the lattice mats 12 can still be ensured.

Anchoring elements provided for fixing the grid element 15 shown in FIG. 2a to the gutter 11 16 are formed in a simple design of the same as free end portions 16 of a narrow sheet metal strip 16 'projecting beyond the longitudinal edges 13 and 14 of the lattice mat 12 of the lattice element 15, which in the central region of the lattice mat and / or in its edge regions 13 and 14 on the lattice mat, for example is fixed by rivets 20. The free end portions of this sheet metal strip 16 'forming a pair of anchoring elements 16 are dimensioned sufficiently long that they can be formed into hook-shaped anchoring members by bending. Such anchoring elements 16 are provided at least at the ends of the grid elements 15 and can also be arranged at regular intervals therebetween.

To explain further possible designs of anchoring elements 16, reference is now also made to the relevant details of FIGS. 3a and 3b:
The anchoring element 16 shown in FIG. 3a is designed as a U-profile, which can be fixed to the protective grille 10 in a short section of the respective longitudinal edge 13 or 14 of an element of the protective grille 10, for example by rivets 20 indicated by dashed lines, which the grille mats Cross between the two outer eaves-side longitudinal webs 19₁ and 19₂ or the outside longitudinal webs 19₃ and 19₄. The inside leg 24 of the anchoring element 16, that on the inside of the respective mesh mat 12 comes to rest, ie on the longitudinal webs, 19 has a width, measured between the yoke 26 of the U-profile and its free longitudinal end edge 27, which corresponds approximately to the distance a between two adjacent longitudinal webs 19 and is preferably somewhat larger than this. The outer profile leg 28, which adjoins this inner leg 24 of the U-profile via its yoke 26 with a smooth curvature, has a tongue-shaped extension between lateral edge sections 28 'and 28'', the width of which corresponds to that of the inner leg 24, the length l of which is about 1 / 3 to 1/2 is greater than the length of the development of the convex channel longitudinal edges 17 and 18, so that this extension in the shown in Fig. 1, clinging to the convex curvature of the channel edges 17 or 18, the free Longitudinal edges 31 or 32 encompassing and behind an edge area configuration can be bent.

Here it is assumed that the anchoring element 16 is made of a metal, e.g. a 0.5 to 1 mm thick copper or brass sheet, which on the one hand is easy to bend and maintains a deformation assumed by bending.

Anchoring elements 16 with the design described with reference to FIG. 3a can already be attached to the grid mats 12 at the ends and at regular intervals between them during the manufacture of the elements of the protective grid 10 and are only attached when they are attached of the protective grid 10 is bent into the anchoring configuration shown in FIG. 1. As long as the tongue-shaped extensions in their originally stretched state lie flat against the portions of the crosspieces 21 near the edge, they do not impair the stackability of protective grid elements which are in stock, since they are only slightly applied.

Anchoring elements 16, which from the outset have the anchoring configuration that can only be achieved by bending processing in the anchoring element according to FIG. 3a, can, as illustrated by FIG. 3b, also as prefabricated parts made of a flexible plastic material, e.g. the thermoplastic material also used for the manufacture of the grid mats 12. Such anchoring elements are expediently kept in stock separately from the grid mats 12 and are only attached to the grid mats 12 provided for this purpose in the most favorable arrangement when a protective grid 10 is being prepared.

The use of "separate" anchoring elements 16 is expedient if protective grating elements 15 which are in standard lengths of e.g. 2m, 2.5m and 3m are prefabricated, cut to a different length and must be provided with anchoring elements 16 again at the end of the section.

A protective grille with - essentially - based on the 1 and 2a, the structure and function described can also be realized with lattice mats which are designed in the manner of a rib-expanded metal, for example consisting of copper.

Claims (11)

Protective grille for a gutter, which protects it from soiling from leaves, branches or the like, consisting of plastic mesh mats, which can be attached to the gutter in an arrangement spanning the concave arched gutter between its convexly arched edges and, under elastic prestressing, can be fixed in a force-fitting manner on the gutter, characterized in that the width (B) of the grid mats (12) corresponds to the clear width (w) of the trough (11) measured between the gutter edges (17 and 18), measured in that plane, in which the channel edges (17, 18) with convex curvature smoothly connect to the concavely curved trough (11), so that their amount (B) is related $$\text{B = πw / 2 + 2 ΔB}$$

is sufficient, in which ΔB denotes the width of strip-shaped edge regions (13, 14) of the grid mats (12) with which they are supported radially on the regions of the trough shell adjacent to the channel edges (17, 18), ΔB between B / 20 and B / 10, and that on the lattice mats (12) anchoring elements (16) are fastened, which embrace the free longitudinal edges (31, 32) of the curved channel edges (17, 18) with hook-shaped free ends can be brought into positive engagement with these. Protective grille according to claim 1, characterized in that the anchoring elements (16) are formed by the free end sections of narrow sheet-metal strips (16 ') crossing the grille mats (12) and projecting beyond their longitudinal edges, the free ends of which in the anchoring configuration which encompasses the gutter edges in a form-fitting manner are bendable. Protective grille according to claim 1, characterized in that the anchoring elements (16) are designed as U-profiles, the sections of the free longitudinal edges of the mesh mats (12) are fastened to them, the hook-shaped free ends of the anchoring elements (16) as extensions of the outer U-profile leg (28) of the anchoring elements (16) are formed. Protective grille according to claim 1 or claim 3, characterized in that the anchoring elements are designed as isosceles U-profiles (24, 28) bent from sheet metal strips, preferably copper-sheet metal strips, the longer profile legs (28, 29) of which extend into the channel edge (17 or 18) overlapping and its free longitudinal edge (31 or 32) encompassing anchoring configuration, maintaining it, can be brought. Protective grille according to claim 4, characterized in that in the case of prefabricated protective grille elements provided for laying on the gutter (11), the U-profiles (24, 28) of the anchoring elements (16) with their legs (24 and 28) running parallel to the inside and are arranged adjacent to the outside of the grid mat (12). Protective grille according to claim 3, characterized in that the anchoring elements (16) are designed, for example, as injection-molded, resilient plastic parts which can be brought into their anchoring configuration which conveys the form-fitting fixing of the mesh mats (12) to the gutter (11) by elastically widening their hook-shaped anchoring ends. Protective grille according to one of Claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the anchoring elements (16) are fastened to the grille mats (12) of the protective grille elements by rivets (20). Protective grille according to one of claims 1 to 7, in which the transverse webs cross the grille parallel to the longitudinal edges of the longitudinal webs on the convexly curved outer side of the grille in the assembled state and are firmly bonded to the crossed longitudinal webs at the crossing points, characterized in that that the transverse webs (21) extend obliquely to the longitudinal webs (19) such that the acute angle (α) enclosed by the longitudinal and transverse webs (19 and 21) has a value between 30 and 60 °, preferably a value around 45 ° has. Protective grille according to claim 8, characterized in that given values of the lateral distance (a) of the longitudinal webs (19) and the distance (b) of the transverse webs (21) measured in the direction of the longitudinal webs (19) and the same thickness (d) of the longitudinal - And the crossbars (19 and 21) this thickness (d) of the following relation is sufficient $$\text{(a + b - √}\overline{{\text{a}}^{\text{2nd}}{\text{+ from + b}}^{\text{2nd}}}\text{) / 2 ≦ d ≦ (a + b - √}\overline{{\text{a}}^{\text{2nd}}{\text{+ b}}^{\text{2nd}}}\text{) / 2}$$

Protective grille according to one of Claims 1 to 9, characterized in that the number of longitudinal webs (19) of the grate mat (12) of the respective protective grille element, which are arranged at equal distances (a) from one another within the width B thereof, is between 10 and 16 , and that the distance (b) of the transverse webs (21) measured in the direction of the longitudinal webs (19) has a value between the distance (a) of the longitudinal webs and 1.5 times this distance. Protective grille for a gutter, which protects it against contamination by leaves, branches or the like, consisting of mesh mats that in an arrangement spanning the concavely curved gutter trough between its convexly arched edges can be attached to the gutter and can be fixed in a force-fitting manner to the gutter, in particular according to one of claims 1 to 10, characterized in that the mesh mats are formed as expanded copper mesh mesh preferably made of copper are.

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