EP3804555B1

EP3804555B1 - Automatic opening/closing device for the cover frame of an umbrella

Info

Publication number: EP3804555B1
Application number: EP20200438.8A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Guido Roman
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Roman Alberto; Roman Filippo; Roman Gaia; Roman Giulio
Priority date: 2019-10-08
Filing date: 2020-10-07
Publication date: 2023-05-24
Anticipated expiration: 2040-10-07
Also published as: HRP20230855T1; PT3804555T; EP3804555A1; ES2951390T3; IT201900018257A1

Description

The present invention relates to an automatic opening/closing device for umbrella, according to the general part of claim 1.
It is known that the term umbrella means a device provided with a support element, consisting in most cases of a simple pole supporting a cover which can be opened or closed, depending on the specific needs of the user.
In particular beach umbrellas are known which have a very simple structure and which are, in most cases, manually opened and closed by the user.
Many of these umbrellas are obviously provided in bathing establishments; in the most structured bathing establishments, the number of umbrellas can be of few hundreds, therefore the beach guard or, in most cases, a plurality of beach guards, provides for opening the cover of the umbrellas actually used by customers, once the user has reached its specific location, where generally chairs or deckchairs are also positioned.
It goes without saying that beach guards also have to provide for closing these covers in case of strong wind to prevent umbrellas from flying away with the danger of hurting people.
Furthermore, beach guards must obviously provide for closing umbrellas also in case of rain and anyway at the end of each day.
It is clear that opening and closing umbrellas is a rather simple operation in itself; however, some people, especially aged people, children or disabled people, have problems in carrying out these operations.
Furthermore, it must be noted that, in case of a relevant number of umbrellas, these operations may take a long time, considering that users generally occupy seats granted them on the beach at the same time.
In order to overcome these drawbacks, some solutions were conceived, among which the device described in the Italian patent application MO1999A000161 , which provides a device where an electric motor is present acting on a steel wire, which in turn acts on the cover frame such to allow automatically opening and closing it. Obviously, it is essential to exactly determine the wire position. In fact, if the wire is run insufficiently, an unsatisfactory opening of the cover is produced. By contrast, in case the wire is run more than necessary, the wire is excessively stretched and this can also result in breaking the cover or the members associated thereto.
In order to avoid these drawbacks, in some devices the position of the wire is detected by means of a potentiometer system that is mounted directly on a specific circuit board. Such potentiometer is difficult to be calibrated. Furthermore, the potentiometer tends by its nature to modify its calibration over time, which involves a change in the position of the end-stop, thus resulting, especially after continuous use of the umbrella, into often unacceptable opening/closing solutions.
However, the most important document of the state of the art is US 2005/072451 A1 , wherein a device for automatically opening/closing umbrellas is disclosed, of the type provided with an electric motor by means of which a spool system operates which provides a wire connected to the cover frame, determining the opening and closure thereof. US 2005/072451 A1 discloses an automatic opening/closing device for the cover frame of an umbrella according to the preamble of claim 1.
Other devices of the state of the art are:
US 2019/0069653 A1 , US 2017/0332749 A1 , US 2009/0223541 A1 and US 2005/0016571 A1 , CN 201312604Y .
The devices described in such documents relate to different methods for determining the opening/closure of the cover element; however, they do not consider providing means to finely adjust the cover position and therefore do not solve in any way the mentioned problem encountered in the previously described device.
The main object of the present invention is defined by claim 1 and is to provide a device for automatically opening/closing umbrellas, which is able to overcome the remarkable above mentioned drawbacks, as it provides means adapted to allow a continuous and efficient control of the positioning of the means determining the opening/closure thereof, enabling in particular an efficient functioning of the device as time goes by.
A further object of the invention is to provide a device of such type which provides means adapted to allow an efficient positioning of the spool wherein such wire is collected in the device, both when the umbrella is in the open position and in the closed position.
A further object is to provide a practical and efficient solution to arrange the various elements constituting the device.
Still, another object of the invention is to provide an efficient and practical power supply for the electric motor enabling the opening/closure operations of the umbrella cover.
These and further characteristics of the invention will now be described in detail hereinafter with reference to some particular embodiments thereof, given solely by way of non-limiting example, with the aid of the attached drawings, wherein:

in figs. 1 and 2 two overall perspective views of the device according to the invention are shown;
in figs. 3, 4 and 5 three section views, along a vertical plane, of the device of the invention are shown, seen from various positions;
in fig. 6 a further section view of the device according to the invention is shown, taken along a horizontal plane;
in fig. 7 a complete exploded view of a particular embodiment of the device according to the invention is shown;
in fig. 8 a view of an inner part of one of the two half-shells enclosing a portion of the device according to the invention is shown, wherein the seat for housing the spool of the wire that carries out the opening/closure operations is present;
in fig. 9 the electric motor present in the device according to the invention is shown, as well as some of the movement transmission elements of the aforesaid, for moving the wire, as well as the circuit board which allows, in particular, the control of the device itself.

As visible in figures 1 to 5, the device according to the invention comprises a container consisting in a base 18, closed at the top by a lid 21. A guide wire jacket 17 projects out of the lower portion of the base 18, within which a wire 4 slides, advantageously made of steel-based material; it must be understood that wires made of strong materials, for example plastic, may be provided.
The whole assembly of the devices present inside the structure delimited by the base 18 and the lid 21 is well shown in figure 7; in particular in such figure two opposite half- shells 19, 20 are visible, within which, in particular, the electric motor 9 is arranged, on whose shaft a worm gear 11 is fitted, which transmits the movement to a plurality of gearwheels 12, 24. The kinematic chain terminates with a last gearwheel 25', which is integral to the spool 25, around which the wire 4 is wound and that, as previously stated, is arranged inside the guide wire jacket 17.
In figure 7 a battery of rechargeable cells 5 is further visible. In principle, it may be provided any assembly of rechargeable batteries adapted to supply the motor with direct current; the presence of the rechargeable batteries 5 makes it possible to avoid connecting the device to a power grid, with obvious advantages in terms of simplicity, considering that, in the adverse event, each single umbrella would require to be connected to the power grid by means of a specific electric wire.
In the same figure 7 it can advantageously be seen that, at the upper portion of the lid 21, a photovoltaic cell 27 is present and connected, in known ways, by an adhesive element 15, to a seat present at the top of said lid 21. It is thereby clear that rechargeable batteries will be electrically charged thanks to the electric power obtained by sun radiations captured by the photovoltaic cell 27.
According to the invention a device 40 is housed in the spool 25 (see figures 7 and 9), that is advantageously composed of a magnet, whose position is detectable by a first sensor 26, capable of accurately determining the number of revolutions performed by said spool 25. In particular, in a card 1, a permanent electronic memory of the maximum positions of maximum exit and entry of the wire 4 in the spool 25 is provided; it is further provided that the predefined end-stops during the device installation step are positioned within said two positions of maximum exit and entry of the wire 4 in the spool 25.
In figure 9 it can also be seen the card 1 controlling the whole mechanism. In said card 1 a sensor 50, advantageously of the Hall-effect type, is present, that is able to accurately detect the revolution of the electric motor 9; for this purpose it is expressly provided the presence of an encoder 10 that is integral with the drive shaft, provided with two magnets capable of determining the creation of two pulses for each revolution of the shaft itself.
From an operative point of view, the combined presence of said two sensors is able to simply and efficiently solve the problem encountered in the devices of the known type and in particular in those previously mentioned, which consists in precisely determining the specific opening and closure point of each single umbrella. In fact, this makes it possible to avoid breaks or malfunctioning encountered in the devices of the known type, which are susceptible of jeopardizing the functioning of the umbrella opening device.
It must also be noted that, advantageously, in the device of the invention, inside the two half- shells 19, 20, a housing for a command cam of a seasonal switch 6 is provided, which is driven at the end of the season; such seasonal switch interrupts permanently, though obviously reversibly, the electric connection between the rechargeable batteries 5 and the card 1 driving the electric motor 9, removing completely the power consumption during the winter season, when umbrellas are obviously stored in a storage room.
According to the invention, a device is also provided that is capable of avoiding problems occurring while winding the wire 4 around the spool 25. It is in fact clear that, during the opening step of the umbrella, the weight of the umbrella always keeps such wire 4 in "tension" and consequently there are no substantial problems in unwinding it; vice versa in the closing step, the weight of the umbrella, which is in any case irrelevant, but which can also sometimes be rather significant for big-size umbrellas, eases indeed the rotation of the spool 25. However, this causes the overlapping of the wire 4 which tends to be wound untidily, thus possibly jeopardising the device functioning. In order to overcome this drawback, the seat 51 of the spool 25 within one of the two half-shells 19, 20 (see figure 8) is shaped in a particular way, so as to avoid the wire to overlap during the closing step of the umbrella.
In fact, as it can be seen in said figure 8, the inner surface of such seat 51 has some ribs 52 intended to get into contact with the spool 25 at some operation steps of the device.
It must also be noted that, advantageously, the mutual contact between the spool 25, the card 1 and the two half- shells 19, 20, adapted to contain the whole gearmotor, is obtained by means of suitable gasket means 23, such as O-rings or the like known to the state of the art, thus avoiding powders, sand and the like from entering.
Another very important characteristic according to the invention consists in that, advantageously, the card 1 is provided with a transceiver, which is adapted to constitute a bidirectional communication network with a control unit which will be installed nearby. In the typical case of an umbrella installed in a bathing establishment, the manager of the aforesaid establishment will be in charge of installing and controlling the control unit. The latter is able to generate an independent wi-fi network which can be connected both to the management system of the bathing establishment manager and the Internet. With this expedient, it is possible to determine the opening and closure of umbrellas, either alone or all together, or for instance, by row or column, or in any case with different pre-set scenarios.
In particular, the device according to the invention will be controlled by a specific App.
It must also be noted that, thanks to the presence of this communication network, the electronics of every single device, arranged on the card 1, sends to the control unit, and therefore to the management system (Web Server), several important data for monitoring and for the correct functioning of the device. For merely exemplary purposes, it is possible to send the daily value of the photovoltaic cell charge, the voltage value of the electrical current delivered by the accumulator battery, the number of daily openings and closures performed, the average time taken to open/close, the average electrical current used to carry out a continuous working cycle, the maximum current absorbed by the motor during the opening. Possible malfunctioning alerts can also be sent indicating, for example, that the device is blocked, that the solar cell does not charge, that the battery has a voltage level below a safety threshold, and in any case other signals in case of anomalies.
It must be said that the device according to the invention is adapted to be installed both on new umbrellas and on pre-existing ones.
It is clear from what hereinbefore described that the device according to the invention is indeed capable of solving the previously set forth objects.
The present invention shall also be implemented with forms and features that differ from what previously shown and described, it being understood its essential characteristics, as far as all this falls within the scope of the enclosed claims.

Claims

AUTOMATIC OPENING/CLOSING DEVICE FOR THE COVER FRAME OF AN UMBRELLA, the automatic opening/closing device comprising an electric motor (9), a spool (25) and a wire (4) connectable to the cover frame of the umbrella, the electric motor (9) acting on the spool (25) to wound the wire (4) on the spool (25) for opening and closing the cover frame of the umbrella,
said automatic opening/closing device being characterised in that it further comprises:
- a first sensor (26),

- an electronic card (1) having a permanent electronic memory of the positions of maximum exit and entry of the wire (4) in the spool (25), two end-stops are positioned within said two positions of maximum exit and entry of the wire (4) in the spool (25),

- a second sensor (50) adapted to detect the number of revolutions of the electric motor (9),

wherein in the spool (25) a device (40) is housed, advantageously consisting of a magnet, the position of which is detectable through the first sensor (26), capable of accurately determining the number of revolutions performed by said spool (25);

and wherein the spool (25) is housed in a seat (51) consisting of a cylindrical cavity, being provided that its inner surface, which is placed at the outer surface of the spool (25), has ribs (52) intended to get into contact with the wire (4) wound in said spool (25), when the wire (4) is partially or totally wound on the spool (25) itself.
Automatic opening/closing device according to claim 1, characterised in that at least one of the two sensors (26, 50) is of the Hall-effect type.
Automatic opening/closing device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that the electric motor (9) is part of a structure that constitutes a gearmotor with a plurality of gearwheels (12, 24) for transmitting the motion imparted by the electric motor (9) to the spool (25), which is made of a single element with the last gearwheel (25') of the chain of the gearmotor.
Automatic opening/closing device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that the entire gearmotor, as well as the seat of the spool (25), around which the wire (4) is wound that moves the umbrella cover, and the card (1) of command and control, are placed in a casing composed of two half-shells (19, 20) which, once placed side by side and closed reciprocally, make their contents inaccessible and protected.
Automatic opening/closing device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that the electric motor (9) is powered by a battery of rechargeable cells (5).
Automatic opening/closing device according to claims 4 and 5, characterised in that the battery of rechargeable cells (5) is recharged by means of a photovoltaic cell (27) integral with the casing.
Automatic opening/closing device according to one or more of the claims 4 to 6, characterised in that in the seat a seasonal switch (6) is present, operable by means of a specific command cam for disconnecting the battery of rechargeable cells (5) from the electric motor (9), by completely cancelling the energy consumption when said seasonal switch (6) is operated.
Automatic opening/closing device according to one or more of the preceding claims, characterised in that it provides a card (1), equipped with a radio transceiver, adapted to constitute a bidirectional communication network with a control unit that generates its own independent Wi-Fi network and connected both to the management system of the administrator and to the Internet, making such device advantageously controllable through a special App.