DE29802245U1 - Roller shutter rod - Google Patents

Description

PATENT ATTORNEYS .·. .i.*"..*.:!.* !!* *..· D-33330 Gütersloh, Vennstraße

Telephone: (0 52 41) 1 30 54

Dipi.-ing. Gustav Meldau

Dipl.Phys. Dr. Hans-Jochen Strauß Date: 10.02.98

Dipl.-Ing. Hubert Flötotto Our reference: H 2233 j S

Mister

Johann Henkenjohann

Oesterwieher Strasse 80

D-33415 Verl

RoI1adenstab

The invention relates to a roller shutter rod with an inner cavity, in particular a closing rod for roller shutters.

Roller shutters are used to protect building openings, they serve to close gate, door or window openings. The roller shutter curtain is made up of individual roller shutter bars that are connected to one another in an articulated manner, with the last of these roller shutter bars forming the final bar for the roller shutter, and these bars are guided in rails on both sides of the building opening. When the roller shutter curtain is lowered, the winding means are released and the roller shutter curtain lowers under its own weight to an additional level.

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A drive that facilitates lowering is generally not used. To facilitate unhindered sliding of the bars in the guide rails on both sides, a steel profile with a rectangular cross-section is inserted into the end bar of the roller shutter. This weighted bar disturbs prefabrication in the workshop or any adjustments to local conditions that may be necessary on the construction site.

This is where the invention comes in, the task of which is to overcome these disadvantages and to further develop the known roller shutter slats or end slats for roller shutters in such a way that they are weighted without impairing their ability to be cut to length, whereby the production of such a roller shutter slat should be economically possible and its use should be simple and safe.

This problem is now solved according to the invention by the features of the main claim; advantageous further developments and preferred embodiments are described in the subclaims.

The weight is formed by a soft metal insert provided in the inner cavity. Such an insert ensures the weight necessary for unhindered lowering of at least the lowest of the roller shutter bars or the end bar of a roller shutter curtain, so that inhibiting friction forces in the side guides can be overcome by the weight of the roller shutter curtain. Such soft metal inserts also do not require any special tools to be able to cut them to length.

Such a soft metal insert can consist of soft iron, lead, copper, tin, antimony or bismuth or alloys of these metals. All of these metals have such a density that they are able to apply the desired or necessary mass despite the (relatively) small volume of the inner cavity of a roller shutter rod or a closing rod.

This soft metal insert is in one embodiment as in

3H2233

a compact molded part inserted into the inner cavity is formed. In another embodiment, these soft-metal substances are used in powder form, which are filled into the profile during a manufacturing process and then secured with a plastic that is then filled into the profile of the roller shutter rod or end rod. This plastic can advantageously be foamed, so that the powdery substances filled in are firmly embedded by the foaming, with the foaming thus created acting as an insulating agent in a manner known per se. In an alternative embodiment, these powdery substances are suspended in the foamable plastic itself and thus filled in together with the plastic in order to be secured in the foam after foaming.

This procedure is particularly suitable for roll-formed steel or aluminum profiles. Here, the form is largely completed in the roll former. The part of the roll former that closes the form contains the filling station for the powdery substances and the plastic or for the plastic containing the powdery substances in suspended form. Since foaming usually takes place under the influence of air humidity, this foaming begins (relatively) quickly, but by selecting the feed rate and the distance, the time at which the mold is closed can be set so that foaming is already underway, but forces acting against the closing as a result of the mold being filled with foam do not yet occur.

The essence of the invention is explained in more detail using the embodiment of a roller shutter shown in Figures 1 and 2; showing:

Fig. 01: Roller shutter rod with weight (cross section):
Fig. 02: End bar for roller shutter (cross section).

Figure 1 shows a cross-sectioned end bar 1 of a roller shutter, the outer contour of which is rolled in a known manner from thin sheet metal and is closed in the area of the upper hook 2. The profiling 3, intended to accommodate a (not shown in more detail here)

The sealing strip (presented) is formed by roll forming, whereby it is unimportant for the purposes of this invention how this profile was manufactured. The cavity 4 located inside this profile is filled with a plastic foam 5 in which heavy metal particles 6 are embedded.

Figure 2 shows these same conditions for one of the many individual bars 10 of the roller shutter curtain with its (in contrast to the end bar) curved outer contour. This bar made of thin sheet metal is also roll-formed, with the upper, hook-shaped ends 12 interacting with the hook receptacles 13 provided in the lower ends in such a way that successive roller shutter bars are connected to one another by means of these hooks, with the bars lying close to one another when closed and having a distance from one another given by the hook 12 and the hook receptacle 13 when opened, and thus a play that also allows rolling up. The inner cavity of this profile of the individual bar 10 formed in this way is also filled with a plastic foam 14 in which heavy metal particles 15 are embedded.

The only thing that matters with the metallic particles used for weighting is their density; even if these metals are difficult to work with as compact metals, this is not important here, as they are pressed into the (relatively) soft foam during processing and thus do not interfere with processing, for example when cutting to length. However, lead is advantageous here, as its high density offers good weighting even when using material sparingly, and its ductility does not hinder processing. Lead particles are also easy to produce; their production is known from the production of shotgun pellets and is widely practiced, so no new production technology is required here.

Claims (1)

PATENT ATTORNEYS J^ .\. '*..'.1*·. * !!*"..' D-33330 Gütersloh, Vennstraße Telephone: (0 52 41) 1 30 54 Dipl.-lng. Gustav Meldau Dipl.Phys. Dr. Hans-Jochen Strauß Date: 10.02.98 Dipl.-lng. Hubert Flötotto Our reference: H 2233 jS Protection claims 01. Roller shutter rod with inner cavity, in particular end rod for roller shutters characterized by a heavy metal insert (6; 15) provided in the inner cavity as a weight. 02. Roller shutter rod according to claim 1, characterized in that an insert (6; 15) made of soft metals, in particular soft iron, lead, copper, tin, antimony or bismuth or alloys of these metals is provided as the heavy metal weight. 03. Roller shutter rod according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the soft metal insert (6; 15) is designed as a compact molded part inserted into the inner cavity. 04. Roller shutter rod according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the soft metal insert (6; 15) is designed as a powdery substance filled into the inner cavity, which is fixed in the inner cavity of the rod (1; 10). 05. Roller shutter rod according to claim 4, characterized in that the powdery substance filled as a soft metal insert (6; 15) into the inner cavity of the rod (1; 10) can be fixed with foamable plastic (5; 14) further filled into the inner cavity of the rod (1; 10). 06. Roller shutter rod according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the powdery substance of the heavy metal insert (6; 15) is suspended in the foamable plastic filled into the inner cavity of the rod (1; 10) and can be filled with this in the inner cavity of the rod (1; 10) and can be fixed there during foaming.