JP7776122B2 - Shielding material opening and closing device - Google Patents

Description

This invention relates to a curtain opening and closing device that uses a belt or wire, etc., looped within a rail and equipped with a leading runner connected to the belt or wire, etc., to automatically close or open the curtain after it has been opened or closed by winding up the shaft on one side using the restoring force of a spring.

For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a curtain opening and closing device that uses a power spring to wind up a wire installed between a window frame, curtain rail, etc., and a side-opening curtain, and that semi-automatically opens and closes the curtain using a reel that uses a power spring. The curtain opening and closing device described in Patent Document 1 opens and closes a single curtain using a single curtain opening and closing device. It includes an opening and closing reel device that winds up a long object such as a string, rope, or belt using the action of a power spring, and a connecting part (hanging device) that links the curtain and the long object is attached to the curtain, thereby semi-automatically opening and closing the single curtain. When closing a curtain, this curtain opening and closing device is designed so that the free end of the long object is pulled down, moving the connecting part to close the curtain. When opening the curtain, the long object is wound up by the stored power of the power spring, and the connecting part moves the curtain, opening the curtain.

The curtain opening and closing device disclosed in Patent Document 1 can also simultaneously open and close a pair of left and right curtains with a single curtain opening and closing device. That is, the curtain opening and closing devices are arranged along almost the entire length of the curtain rail, and a reel device using a spiral spring located at the left end, for example, semi-automatically opens and closes the pair of left and right curtains. A long object such as a string, rope, or belt is folded back at the folded portion at the other end of the curtain rail and hangs down from the guide section. When the tip of the long object is pulled, the long object is unwound and the curtain closes. The force stored in the spiral spring of the reel device winds up the long object, automatically opening the curtain.

More specifically, the curtain opening and closing device described in Patent Document 1, as shown in Figure 8, is equipped with an opening and closing reel device 21 at one end (the left end in this example) of a curtain rail 24 extending in the left-right direction, which uses the action of a built-in spiral spring to wind up a long body 22 such as a string or wire rope onto a reel. A folded portion 25 of the long body 22 is located at the other end of the curtain rail 24, and a curtain 20 is attached to a connecting portion 26 provided on the long body 22. The free end of the long body 22 is folded back at the folded portion 25 located at the other end of the curtain rail 24 and hangs down vertically from a horizontal position via a guide portion 28 provided at the left end of the curtain rail 24. Reference numeral 27 denotes a gripping portion for the long body 22, which always hangs down from the guide portion 28.

In a curtain opening/closing device with this configuration, when the long body 22, which is always hanging down from the guide portion 28, is grasped by the gripping portion 27 and pulled against the spiral spring of the opening/closing reel device 21, the long body 22 is unwound and the curtain 20 closes. The spiral spring of the opening/closing reel device 21 then winds the long body 22 onto the opening/closing reel device, causing the curtain 20 to open. Therefore, the long body 22, which controls the opening and closing of the curtain 20, always hangs down on one end of the curtain 20, making it visible to the user. This not only detracts from the aesthetic appeal of the indoor installation location of the curtain, but also poses problems such as the risk of injury if the hanging long body comes into contact with the body, etc., as the long body swings, or damage to the glass door or the interior walls of the room.

Patent No. 6463164

The present invention was made to solve the problems of the prior art described above. It aims to provide a shielding opening and closing device that utilizes the restoring force of a spring to wind up a long operating element installed between a building (e.g., a window frame, curtain rail, etc.) and a shielding material (e.g., a curtain). By employing a mechanism that can stop the long operating element at any position without pulling it out of the shielding material rail, the present invention provides a shielding opening and closing device that is safe and does not detract from the aesthetic appearance of the indoor location where the shielding material is installed.

The shielding material opening and closing device of the present invention is characterized by a structure in which the long shielding material operation body is looped without being pulled out from the shielding material rail, eliminating sagging when pulled out, and is equipped with a mechanism that can semi-automatically close the shielding material with a single action, and by employing a free-stop mechanism that can stop the shielding material at any position on the shielding material rail, the long shielding material operation body is not exposed to the outside.

That is, the shielding material opening and closing device according to the present invention loops a long body for operating a shielding material between loop reels installed at both ends of the opening and closing operation device side end and the drive device side end in a shielding material rail, opens and closes a shielding material having a leading runner that is connected and fixed to the long body for operating a shielding material at a shielding material opening and closing reference position of the long body for operating a shielding material by rotating the axis of the loop reel on one side using the restoring force (power) of a spring, and is provided with a free stop mechanism that can stop the long body for operating a shielding material at any position on the shielding material rail , and the free stop mechanism is and a manual position control device that moves and stops the leading runner at any position, wherein the manual position control device is a ratchet mechanism installed on the drive unit at one end of the shielding material rail, and the ratchet mechanism rotates freely on the side that winds up the drive spring that constitutes the drive unit, and when the operating string of the opening and closing operating device is pulled out, the rotation rotates freely, and when the pulled out operating string is returned, the ratchet gets caught and stops at that position, and by repeating this action any number of times, the leading runner can be stopped at any position.

Furthermore, the shielding material opening/closing reference position of the shielding material operation elongated body is a position synchronized with the position of the leading runner when the shielding material is fully closed, and one shielding material opening/closing reference position is defined for each shielding material. That is, this is a shielding material opening/closing device characterized in that one shielding material opening/closing reference position is defined when the shielding material is a single-wing type, and two shielding material opening/closing reference positions are defined when the shielding material is a double-wing type.

Furthermore, when the operating cord installed on the opening/closing operating device is pulled , the side that winds up the drive spring rotates freely and the shielding material moves, and when the operating cord is returned, the winding action of the drive spring stops and the shielding material also stops, making this a shielding material opening/closing device.

According to the present invention, the free stop means allows the curtain to be stopped anywhere, solving the problems mentioned above. In addition, the curtain can be operated by simply pulling back the operating cord on the spot, which solves the problem of the long body hanging down too long, and has the advantage of eliminating the need to move around to open and close the curtain.
Furthermore, it is possible to perform semi-automatic "closing" or "opening" with a single action.

1A and 1B are diagrams showing an outline of the structure of a shielding opening and closing device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and are schematic diagrams of a single-wing type shielding material in a fully open state, with (a) being a top view and (b) being a plan view. 1A and 1B are schematic diagrams illustrating a fully closed state of a single-opening type shielding material of the shielding opening and closing device, in which FIG. 1A is a top view and FIG. 10A and 10B are diagrams showing an outline of the structure of a shielding opening and closing device according to a second embodiment of the present invention, and are schematic diagrams of a double-opening type shielding material in a fully closed state, with (a) being a top view and (b) being a plan view. 4A and 4B are schematic diagrams showing a fully opened state of the double-opening type shielding material of the shielding opening/closing device shown in FIG. 3, in which (a) is a top view and (b) is a front view. 2 is an enlarged front view showing the entire structure of the shielding material opening and closing device shown in FIG. 1 with a part cut away. FIG. FIG. 2 is an external perspective view of a device part illustrating the components of the shielding material opening and closing device shown in FIG. 1 . 1A and 1B are cross-sectional views illustrating the structure of the free stop mechanism of the shielding material opening and closing device according to the present invention, in which (a) shows the state when the stopper is activated and stopped, and (b) shows the state when the stopper is released. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional curtain opening and closing device.

1 to 7, in the shielding material opening/closing device according to the embodiment of the present invention, reference numeral 1 denotes a shielding material rail, 2 denotes a long body for operating the shielding material such as a string or wire rope, 3 denotes an opening/closing operation device that rotates and stops the loop-shaped long body for operating the shielding material 2 by the action of a power spring, 3-1 denotes a loop reel on the opening/closing operation device side (operation side), 3-2 denotes an operating string, 3-3 denotes a clutch mechanism, 3-4 denotes a string retraction spring, 3-5 denotes a connecting gear, 3-6 denotes a reduction gear, 3-7A denotes an upper case of the opening/closing device, and 3-7B denotes a lower case of the opening/closing operation device. Also, reference numeral 4 denotes a drive device, 4-1 denotes a loop reel on the drive device side (drive side), 5 denotes a free stop mechanism, 5-1 denotes a leading runner that constitutes the free stop mechanism, 5-2 denotes a ratchet mechanism that constitutes the free stop mechanism, 6 denotes shielding material, and 7 denotes a shielding material suspender (runner).
1 and 2 show a single-wing type shielding opening/closing device, with Fig. 1 showing the case where the shielding material is fully open and Fig. 2 showing the case where it is fully closed. Also, Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 show a double-wing type shielding opening/closing device, with Fig. 3 showing the case where it is fully closed and Fig. 4 showing the case where it is fully open.

The long body 2 for operating the shielding material is used in a loop shape, and a drive device 4 is arranged at one end, which rotates the long body 2 for operating the shielding material via a drive device side loop reel 4-1 by the action of a spring, and at the other end is an opening/closing operation device 3 which has an opening/closing operation device side loop reel 3-1 which supports the long body rotatably horizontally, and the long body for operating the shielding material 2 is arranged between the drive device side loop reel 4-1 and the opening/closing operation device side loop reel device 3-1 which is provided on the shielding material open position side of the other end of the shielding material rail on the opposite side.
The opening and closing operation device 3, which uses a method in which the long body 2 for operating the shielding material is rotated by the action of a power spring via a loop reel 4-1 on the drive device side, is equipped with a loop reel 3-1 on the opening and closing operation device side that pulls out and pushes out the long body 2 for operating the shielding material by the action of a built-in power spring (not shown), and further has a front runner 5-1 that is connected and fixed to the long body 2 for operating the shielding material, and is configured to semi-automatically open and close the shielding material 6 suspended via a shielding material hanging device (runner) 7.

The opening/closing operation device 3 and the drive device 4 will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS.
5 is an enlarged front view, partially cut away, showing the overall structure of the shielding material opening/closing device according to the present invention. In this invention, a loop-shaped long element for operating a shielding material (hereinafter simply referred to as "long element") 2 is arranged inside the inverted recess of a shielding material rail 1 having an inverted concave cross section so as not to be visible from the outside. Both ends of the loop-shaped long element are hung on a loop reel 3-1 on the opening/closing operation device side and a loop reel 4-1 on the driving device side, and are maintained in a stretched state. The loop reel rotates between the loop reels in accordance with the operation of the loop reels. At this time, a leading runner 5-1 is provided for each shielding material 6, at the position of the long element for operating a shielding material 2 synchronized with its leading position, i.e., the shielding material opening/closing reference position.

This shielding material opening/closing reference position is provided in one location for single-swing types (see Figure 2), and in double-swing types, there is a reference position for each shielding material, for a total of two locations (see Figure 3). Additionally, behind the leading runner 5-1, there are shielding material suspenders (runners) 7 for suspending the shielding materials 6, the number of which matches the length of the shielding material rail 1.

FIG. 5 shows a drive system that combines an opening/closing operation device 3 and a drive device 4 to rotate the elongated body 2 in its length direction.
The opening/closing operation device 3 operates the built-in clutch mechanism 3-3 by "pulling" and "releasing" the operating string 3-2, which rotates the long body 2 and causes the opening/closing operation device side loop reel 3-1 to spin freely and stop, thereby moving or stopping the long body 2. The clutch mechanism operates by utilizing the power of a "string retraction spring 3-4" which is connected to the clutch mechanism 3-3 and serves as its drive source; when the operating string 3-2 is pulled, the clutch mechanism operates the clutch, and when the operating string 3-2 is released, the clutch is released and the opening/closing operation device side loop reel 3-1 spins freely.

On the other hand, the drive unit 4 incorporates a drive spring 4-2 that serves as a drive source for rotating the elongated body 2, and the stored force is generated by the rotation of the elongated body 2 that accompanies the opening and closing of the shielding material 6. Reference numerals 4-4A and 4-4B denote drive unit cases that can be separated into upper and lower parts and that house the drive spring (see Figure 6).
In addition, in the drive device 4, a drive device side loop reel 4-1 that rotates the elongated body 2 is attached to the shaft of the drive spring.

Furthermore, a free stop mechanism 5 is provided that can position the shielding material 6 at any position on the shielding material rail 1.
This free stop mechanism 5 includes a leading runner 5-1 connected and fixed to the elongated body 2, a ratchet mechanism 5-2 installed on the top surface of the drive spring 4-2, and the ratchet mechanism includes a ratchet (stopper) 5-2a and one or more case-side projections 5-2b (see Figure 7).

The operation of this free stop mechanism 5 is such that the ratchet 5-2a installed in the drive device 4 at one end of the shielding material rail 1 allows the drive spring 4-2 to rotate freely on the winding side, and when the winding operation is stopped (the operating cord 3-2 of the opening/closing operation device 3 is returned), the ratchet 5-2a gets caught and stops at that position. By repeating this operation any number of times, it can be stopped at any position.
On the other hand, to release the stopper, rotate the ratchet 5-2a slightly in the winding direction (by pulling the operating cord of the opening/closing operating device) and then release your hand, which will reverse the direction of the ratchet 5-2a and release the stopper.

In the shielding material opening/closing device configured as described above, when the shielding material 6 is opened from a completely closed state, the operating cord 3-2 is grasped and pulled downward, which activates the clutch and rotates the looped elongated body. When the operating cord 3-2 is returned due to the force of the cord rewinding spring, the clutch is released and the loop reel 3-1 on the opening/closing operating device side spins freely. In this way, by repeatedly "pulling and rewinding" the operating cord 3-2, the looped elongated body 2 can be rotated in one direction, and the shielding material 6 connected to it can be operated.
During this opening operation, the drive spring 4-2 constituting the drive device 4 is "wound up" and energy is stored in the spring. This action occurs every time the shielding member is opened, and energy is stored in the spring, providing the propulsive force for self-closing.
On the other hand, when closing the shielding material 6, the force stored in the drive spring is released by releasing the ratchet 5-2a, and the shielding material 6 closes semi-automatically.

The shielding material opening/closing device of the present invention is a shielding material opening/closing device that uses the restoring force of a spring to rotate the long shielding material operating body that is installed between the shielding material rail and the shielding material, as described above. By adopting a free-stop mechanism that allows the long shielding material operating body to be stopped at any position without being pulled out from the shielding material rail, not only is the shielding material opening/closing operation easy and quick, but it also has the advantage of being a shielding material opening/closing device with a sleek appearance, with only the short operating cord that operates the shielding material and the drive devices and opening/closing operation devices at both ends housed in a case exposed near the shielding material rail.

1 Shielding material rail 2 Shielding material operation long body 3 Opening/closing operation device 3-1 Operation side loop reel 3-2 Operation string 3-3 Clutch mechanism 3-4 String retraction spring 3-5 Connecting gear 3-6 Reduction gear 3-7A Opening/closing operation device case upper part 3-7B Opening/closing operation device case lower part 4 Drive device 4-1 Drive device side loop reel 4-2 Drive spring 4-3 Spring adjustment groove 4-4A Drive device case upper part 4-4B Drive device case lower part 5 Free stop mechanism 5-1 Leading runner 5-2 Ratchet mechanism 5-2a Ratchet (stopper)
5-2b Case side protrusion 6 Shielding material 7 Shielding material hanging tool (runner)
20 Curtain 21 Opening and closing reel device 22 Long body 24 Curtain rail 25 Folding portion 26 Connecting portion 27 (of long body) Holding portion 28 Guide portion

Claims (3)

The long body for operating the shielding material is looped between loop reels installed at both ends of the side end of the opening/closing operation device and the side end of the drive device within the shielding material rail,
The shielding material is provided with a leading runner that is connected to and fixed to the elongated body for operating the shielding material at the shielding material opening/closing reference position of the elongated body for operating the shielding material, and the shaft of the loop reel on one side is rotated using the restoring force of a spring as power to open and close the shielding material,
a free stop mechanism that can stop the shielding material operation elongated body at any position on the shielding material rail;
The free stop mechanism is
The front runner ;
a manual position control device that moves and stops the leading runner at any position,
the manual position control is a ratchet mechanism mounted on the drive at one end of the shielding rail;
The ratchet mechanism rotates freely on the side that winds up the drive spring that constitutes the drive device, and when the operating string of the opening and closing operation device is pulled out, the rotation rotates freely, and when the pulled out operating string is returned, the ratchet gets caught and stops at that position, and this operation can be repeated any number of times to stop the leading runner at any position . The shielding material opening/closing reference position of the shielding material operation elongated body is
At the corresponding position of the shielding rail synchronized with the position of the leading runner when the shielding material is fully closed,
When the shielding material is a one-sided swing type, one shielding material opening/closing reference position is defined,
2. The shielding material opening and closing device according to claim 1, wherein when the shielding material is a double-opening type, two shielding material opening and closing reference positions are defined. When the operating string installed on the opening/closing operation device is pulled , the rotation of the side that winds up the drive spring rotates freely, and the shielding material moves,
3. The shielding material opening and closing device according to claim 1, wherein when the operating string is returned, the winding operation of the drive spring is stopped and the shielding material is also stopped.