FI91620C - membrane Construction - Google Patents

Description

1 91620

The present invention relates to a membrane structure, such as, but not limited to, a sail or a roof 5. In particular, it is a question of the co-operation of the membrane and the rigid support structure so that the support structure can be dimensioned considerably lighter than usual. The invention can be used in a number of applications, e.g. in the aforementioned sail and in providing a roof projection.

10

The current practice is to build and support rigid masts and booms or beams first and then tension the membrane on them. It is common to attach rigid floors to the film to provide rigid, straight or curved parts. If these strips extend 15 to the edge of the film, the edge of the film can be formed as a convex or angular projection.

When it comes to triangular sails, a known solution for increasing the size of a mainsail is a Kah-20 brother boom added near the top of the mast. However, its disadvantage is that the high, heavy moving boom is difficult to control, especially in waves. Another known way is a toe sail, where the rod leaves the base of the mast next to the sail to its rear corner. However, the toe rod tends to buckle and adversely affects the shape of the sail with the second beam. There is still a known way to enlarge a mainsail by making a series of passes that create a curved rear end, the perch back. However, such a sail is expensive, heavy and difficult to handle if the increase in surface area is significant.

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Little is known about increasing the size of a triangular foresail. These are a raw sail which is ill-suited for creation, and the solution places in the pocket passing through the sail a rigid, curved boom running approximately perpendicular to the bow crank from its rear corner, which the side arm attached to its base rotates about 180 degrees about its longitudinal axis. This solution provides only a slight increase in surface area with respect to the triangle, as the bow fork can only have a slight bend of 2,91620 at the boom head (usually near the bottom of the sail). This solution requires a very rigid and thus heavy and expensive boom.

5 To provide the cantilever beam, tensile and compression members are required, as well as a structure that maintains the distance between them. In addition, it is necessary to prevent movement following shear forces. In the case of a beam supporting a protrusion of a film-like surface, it is the pressing member which is the largest and most expensive of the above-mentioned bodies, since it requires a high rigidity to prevent it from buckling.

A film structure has now been developed which makes it possible to considerably lighten the structure of the pressing member from known structures and still achieve an unbreakable result. In addition, the invention achieves an otherwise easy and usable structure.

The lightened structure and other advantages of the present invention are provided as set forth in the appended claims.

The invention will now be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows the basic structure of the invention;

Figure 2 shows its application as a sailboat sail;

Figure 3 shows the use of the invention as a canopy and in particular as a protruder 30 thereof;

Fig. 4 also shows an application as a sail structure of a sailboat, now intended to increase the sail area of a sailboat when using a conventional mast and a mainsail boom; and 35

Fig. 5 shows a schematic view of a structure in which the stiffening of the film is realized in a different way from the previous embodiments.

II

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The invention shown in Fig. 1 is based on the fact that the pressing member 1 is supported by the membrane 2 itself. The pressing member is attached to the membrane in a suitable manner, e.g. with a tubular pocket 3, at a position in the membrane where its position is stable under load. Such a site 5 is typically in the membrane piercing AC. The film thus provided retains its concave almost planar shape when suitably tensioned from the free corners D and B, as shown by the arrows starting from the corners B and D in Fig. 1.

A rod 1, the bending strength of which is dimensioned only according to its own weight and the weight of the film and the buckling length is a few percent of its total length, is sufficient as a pressing member 1 placed on the film, even if the structure is loaded with a larger wind, snow or similar load.

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Figure 2 shows a rigging of a sailboat 4 made in accordance with the invention, which is substantially lighter and cheaper than the structures in use. Mast 5 only needs to be half as high as in a normal rigging. In addition, it is not necessary to apply 20 bending forces at intermediate heights. The full rigging pressing member 1 to be placed inside the sail 2 is only of the order of 20% of the weight of a conventional mast.

If a boom 6 is used, it must be placed higher than the normal solution 25, but on the other hand it can be a light Wishbone boom (as in windsurfers).

The sail may, of course, be of other shapes and, in addition to the protruding portion typically described herein, includes additional surface portions in its lower portion 30 that are tensioned between the described portion and members attached to the boat deck.

: The membrane structure shown in Fig. 2, used as a sail, is supported by a float 7 from the top of the structure to the bow part of the boat 4, from the bottom 35 to the boat structures and by the float 9 from the boom 6 to the boat structures. By means of the coil 9 it is possible to change the position of the sail in the desired way so that it is in the optimum position with respect to the wind.

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Figure 3 shows the use of the structure according to the invention as a canopy. According to the invention, the canopy can be constructed on only two columns 10, 10 of a stretched film 2 and a clamping member 1 attached thereto. In addition, only the armrest 11, 11 or clamping rod between the columns 5 is needed,

This figure also shows how the film 2 also forms a height-10 distance between the pressing member 1 and the edge portions of the film (concavity) and how they cannot move in a detrimental manner relative to each other.

Figure 4 shows a membrane structure according to the invention fitted to a conventional system of mast 13 and boom 14 15, with which it is possible to considerably increase the conventional sail area of the boat 4. Normally, triangular sails, a mainsail 15 and a front sail 16 are used, but now by using the film structure according to the invention as a sail, it has been possible to substantially influence the shape of the sail and thus to increase the sail area in a very significant amount.

In the above-mentioned increased sail size, an increase in the area has been achieved by placing the pressing member 1 according to the invention "angularly" with respect to the mainsail 15 and also the front sail 16, in which way the increase in sail area has been increased by about 75%.

The pedestaling of the front sail obtained as shown in Fig. 4 is easy to perform, because when adjusting the angle of attack of the sail to the wind 30, it is not necessary to tension its fabric, as is done in conventional sails. Even in this solution, the sails may have additional parts which are otherwise tensioned.

Figure 5 shows an alternative solution for the pressing member 1.

In this embodiment, the pressing member is formed by a flat rod 17, the outer edges of which are provided with longitudinal grooves 18 which are such that they are clearly wider than the edge part in their part towards the center of the member 17. This provides that by making the edges of the film 2 thicker than the normal film material, the edge of the film 2 can be threaded into the groove widening and thus an overall solution is obtained in which the pressing member 17 supports the .

The shape of the rod or rod 17 is not tied to that shown in Figure 5, but may be round or angular as required. It is also possible that there is only one groove and that the thickenings 19, 19 in both parts 2, 2 of the film 10 are in the same groove. It is further possible that the parts of the film are attached by binding or in some other way to a rod or rod acting as a pressing member. Of the foregoing, the attachment of a two-part film to a pressing member of course also applies to a uniform film.

In addition to those disclosed herein, the invention may have numerous other uses. The film used in the invention may be a soft material such as a fabric, fabric or plastic film. The film can also be a combination of the above and other structures, for example a thermostat. On the other hand, it is also possible to use a material which is rigid but still too weak to work alone in a large structure, such as sheet metal (sheet metal) or reinforced concrete, etc. Of course, the film does not have to be uniform, but can be reinforced with different materials.

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The shape of the structure according to the invention may be different from that shown here. The basic shape of the film may be other than the parallelogram 30 shown here. There may be more than one pressing member, although only one member is shown in the drawings by way of example and clarity. The small shape or elongation of the film may be such that the pressing member acquires some desired shape, for example it may be straight. Furthermore, a concave shape perpendicular to the film pressing member 35 can be radiated, for example, by attaching rigid supports to the film.

The structure provided by the invention can be made adjustable in size and / or easy to transport, for example by arranging the pressing member 1 to rotate about its longitudinal axis and to roll the film 2. Another alternative is that the film 2 is shortened in the longitudinal direction of the pressing member 1, for example by reaching the central part of the film 5 and shortening the pressing member 1 or the part acting as a pressing member, respectively.

The materials to be used according to the invention are selected according to the application and the criteria to be set for the application. The compression member used in the Kek-10 cinnamon may be, in addition to the aforementioned rod or rod, also another member, for example a gas or liquid pressure-stiffened hose or a double part of the membrane. Likewise, the fastening of the pressing member can take place in other ways than by threading into the sewn-in slot or, as also described above, by threading the edges of the film into the grooves of the pressing member. However, the basic principle is that the film itself supports the pressing member.

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Claims (15)

A film structure comprising a film (2) or at least two sub-films and a support structure thereof, characterized in that it comprises at least one elongate member (1), the frame being fixed under load in a concave shape, supported on its edges and on opposite sides of the elongate member 2) or on the bottom of the sub-membranes so that the membrane / sub-membranes [2) support the elongate member (1) in a non-deflating state. 10 Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the elongate member (1) is a rod-shaped or rod-like member, the rnica being supported on a concave part (3) in the film (2). Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the elongate member is a rod-like member (17), in the grooves (18) of which the thickened edges of the films (2) are supported. Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the elongate member (1) is a rod-shaped or rod-shaped member in which a thickening in the film (2) is supported. Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the film (2) has a substantially parallelepiped-shaped shape and an elongate member (1) is attached to it by a diagonal rod, the film being tensioned free from the corners. « Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the shape of the film (2) is other than parallelogram and there are one or more elongate members (1). Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the elongate member (1) is a gas- or liquid-pressure-stiffened hose or a double part of the film. 35 7 91620 Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the film (2) is a soft fabric, fabric or film or a combination thereof. „91620 O Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the film (2) is rigid but nevertheless too weak to function alone in a structure of the size in question, such as a metal sheet or reinforced concrete or the like. Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the elongate member (1) is attached to the film in such a way that the surface area of the film (2) can be adjusted by rotating the elongate member (1) so that the film rolls around it. Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that the film (2) is movable relative to the elongate member (1) in such a way that it is possible to adjust the surface area of the film (2) by shortening the elongate member and extending the central part of the film. 15 A membrane structure according to claim 1, characterized in that it is used as a sail for a sailboat. Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that it is used, without the need to change the mast or boom, as a mainsail (15) and / or a forward sail (16) which increases the sail area of the sailboat (4). Film structure according to Claim 13, characterized in that the mainsail (15) is square or parallelepiped and the front sail (16) is trapezoidal. Film structure according to Claim 1, characterized in that it is used as a roof structure or canopy. 30 9 91620