IT202300002076U1 - Anti-lifting system for roller shutters - Google Patents

Description

Description

In support of an application for a utility model entitled:

?Anti-lifting system for roller shutters?

The present invention relates to an anti-lifting system for roller shutters, applied to a terminal strip of any sheet, which allows, once the sheet is completely lowered, to block the last hinged strip that makes up the roller shutter sheet in the lateral guides, in a completely automatic manner, thus preventing the sheet from being lifted from below in the event that a criminal were to try to force the opening with a crowbar or any other lever used for burglary.

As is known to those in the industry, a roller shutter is made up of a sheet formed by a multitude of strips, generally made of wood, plastic or metal, characterised by a substantially rectangular section.

Joined together, the strips form a sheet that can be wrapped around a roller or unfolded from the roller itself thanks to a manually operated mechanism, with a belt or crank, or an electric one with the aid of an electric motor.

The awning slides along special guides (tracks) on each side of the wall which allow it to slide and therefore go up and down easily.

The roller shutter not only prevents the sun from entering, but also represents a second closure compared to the glass of the windows. Depending on the material with which it is made, it can therefore represent an additional protection for the house or any other inhabited environment.

For this safety function, it is possible to find on the market tarpaulins made mainly of steel strips which further exceed the resistance of the lighter aluminium ones.

Obviously, it would make little sense to equip yourself with a super roller shutter if you could then lift it with a simple burglary lever.

To solve this problem, roller shutter "bolts" were designed, safety locks that should prevent the lifting of the canvas.

These mechanical devices act on the sides of the awning, literally "nailing" it to the guides so that it cannot be lifted.

Some types of deadbolts are installed inside the hinges and have a slider that engages a hole in the side guide. Others are mounted near the guides and have a pointed slider that wedges itself between one hinge and the other, preventing their upward movement.

However, these solutions require active commitment from a person who, after having completely closed the roller shutter, must operate the latches in block, so as to avoid any possible lifting of the roller shutter.

The above is especially true if the roller shutter is of the manually-lifted type, as applying bolts to a motorized roller shutter poses a different problem.

In fact, if the lifting command were given to a motorized roller shutter blocked by traditional bolts, it would be put under stress, with the risk of causing serious damage to the roller shutter itself and to the sliding guides.

For these reasons, to block the roller and consequently the raising of the motorized shutters, an anti-lifting locking system is used, also called an "anti-burglary device", which includes a series of articulated joints, hooked to the winding roller, designed in such a way as to block when the shutter fabric is raised without the traction of the motor.

The result of using levers to force the lifting will be that the entire roller shutter fabric will instantly block, preventing the intruder from entering.

To unlock the system, simply press the up button and the roller shutter, moving upwards, will disengage the previously locked links.

Other systems use special pulleys perforated with snap-lock pillars that fit into the pulley holes, preventing it from rotating.

There are also small electronic devices to be applied to the roller shutter that emit a loud acoustic signal when they detect its movement. However, these micro alarms do not claim to replace a real anti-intrusion system, but should be considered as an electronic bell suitable for when we are at home. More effective, but expensive, are the alarm systems equipped with "Roller Shutter Sensors". This type of sensor detects the movement of the roller shutter fabric, alerting an anti-theft control unit.

At that point the burglar alarm control unit will give an audible alarm with powerful sirens supplied and possibly make an emergency communication to the phones in the address book. This alternative offers significantly greater safety performance and more flexibility of use even if it is particularly expensive.

These electronic systems are passive, audible safety systems that do not help prevent the awning from lifting, but assist the active safety systems that operate to ensure that the awning remains closed and locked.

Many of the solutions mentioned and available on the market have been the subject of a patent over time and among these the patent BO2013A000125 concerns a locking group, with application for awnings, sliding walls, roller shutters, mosquito nets and the like. The system includes a bracket, to be fixed overlapping a strip of the canvas in which a transverse pillar slides which, thanks to the aid of a spring, can advance in steps on a toothed plate before being inserted inside a special shaped slide fixed with screws astride one of the walls of the lateral sliding guides. A limitation of this system is represented by the fact that the slide cannot be inserted into those guides which are recessed. Furthermore, since the slide is visible and fixed with two simple screws, it is easily breakable, making the closure guaranteed by the transverse pillar useless. This system is not automatic, it is particularly suitable for manually-lifted roller shutters, therefore it requires the intervention of a person to operate the system.

Patent DE2521183A1 refers to a self-closing safety device. The device features a special latch that is automatically operated by levers connected with two wires to the upper part of the roller shutter. When the roller shutter is raised, the wires pull the latch, freeing it from a milled groove in the sliding track. When the roller shutter is completely lowered, the wires are no longer in tension and it is the weight of the levers that, when lowered, push the locking latch into the milled groove in the roller shutter guide track. While such a system is completely automatic, not requiring the intervention of a person who remembers to operate the latches, the force exerted by the small levers provided is rather small and the system, equipped with simple wires at rest, does not guarantee high safety against the lifting of the roller shutter.

Patent EP0930417A2 provides for an automatic locking system for a roller shutter by means of locking units built inside the lateral guides. When the roller shutter is completely lowered, the weight of the shutter allows, by means of a complex system of plates and bars pivoted at the ends of the penultimate and last strips that make up the shutter, the pantograph opening of a small frame which, when opened, would encounter the obstacle of the locking units built into the lateral guides and would prevent the entire shutter from being lifted from below. This system is complex to build, with the possibility of various frictions or, worse still, jamming of the shutter inside the sliding tracks if the frame does not open or close completely. Patent EP1728965A2 provides for the creation of an automatic lock for roller shutters by means of two plates pivoted between two strips of a roller shutter. The two plates, with the canvas completely lowered, open "scissors" inside locking holes made in the sliding guides. The system is made between two overlapping strips whose profile requires special processing and shaping to ensure the functioning of the scissor opening of the anti-lift bars.

Patent RM2013A000292 provides an anti-lifting system for roller shutters by installing a perforated pulley on its winding roller to replace the classic full-face pulley, in addition to the use of reinforced fixing brackets both for attaching the sheet to the winding shaft and for supporting the winding shaft itself. A spring mechanism inside the perforated pulley allows a locking pillar to snap into the holes, a plate that is made to come out of the holes by reversing the direction of rotation of the pulley during unlocking. Such a system is expensive, difficult to make and not easily applicable to roller shutters that have already been made.

Well, all the devices and systems covered by the above-mentioned patents present a series of critical issues. The various manual roller shutter blocks that act directly on the roller shutter slats are inconvenient to insert, complicated to install, ineffective, unsightly, but above all they require the intervention of an operator to operate them.

Even the well-known automatic blocks that act on the roller are too sophisticated, expensive, difficult to install and above all not immediately feasible and applicable to existing roller shutters.

The purpose of this system is to overcome the critical issues of the known art through a simple system that allows for easy construction and installation, making it easily adaptable to all roller shutters already made by simply replacing the last hinged strip that makes up the roller shutter fabric, inside which a double "T" profile is inserted that, when the fabric is completely lowered, activates hooks made in a special sliding cap in such a way as to hook and keep the roller shutter fabric locked in common lateral tracks equipped with simple notches.

The present model will now be described, for illustrative purposes, according to a preferred embodiment thereof which is not to be considered in any way limiting, with particular reference to the figures and drawings attached, taking into account that all the embodiments used, while maintaining their functionality, may vary in size, numbers and shape without this being able to limit the present invention:

- figure 1 shows an exploded view of the automatic anti-lift system with all its components;

- figure 2 shows a perspective view of the strike plate on which the system is installed;

- figure 3 shows a perspective view of the double ?T? extruded profile;

- figure 4 shows a perspective view of the end cap of the striker strip;

- figure 5 shows a perspective view of the end cap with the curved arms assembled inside;

- figure 6 shows a front view of the curved arms;

- Figure 7 shows a perspective view of a lateral sliding guide with grooves;

- figure 8 shows a perspective view of the striker plate with end cap during assembly;

- figure 9 shows an altered view of the strike plate with the strike profile inserted and the curved arms superimposed in the unlocked position;

- figure 10 shows an altered view of the strike plate with the strike profile inserted and the curved arms open in the locked position;

- figure 11 shows a perspective view of the automatic anti-lift system completely lowered and the open arms on the side guide slots are shown in transparency.

Based on the figures, in which the invention is represented by way of example, it is highlighted that the present system A is characterised by a terminal stop strip 101, to be installed on any sheet X, composed of an upper attachment flap 102, which allows attachment to the upper stops of the sheet X, and by two non-communicating internal cavities 103 and 104, separated by a dividing partition 105. Three housings 106, 107 and 108 are made inside the cavity 103, while inside the cavity 104, in proximity to the dividing partition 105, two support steps 109 are made on the walls which create a connection space 140 and two limit steps 110 which delimit an opening 111 below which there is a stop tab 112.

Inside the opening 111, a double "T" extruded profile 113 is inserted and slid along the entire length of the stop strip 101, characterised by a plate 114 with a thrust head 115. The double "T" extruded profile 113 is characterised on the sides of the plate 114 by two arms 116 which, once installed, prevent the double "T" extruded profile 113 from exiting the cavity 104 of the stop strip 101.

Furthermore, at the base of the plate 114 there is an inverted U-shaped support base 117 which prevents the plate 114 from completely retracting into the cavity 104 present on the stop strip 101, when the sheet X is completely lowered.

The inverted "U" shaped support base 117 creates a housing 118 for a possible gasket not covered by the present invention which must match the support surface underneath the sheet X when it is completely lowered.

Thus constructed, the double "T" extruded profile 113, inserted into the cavity 104 of the stop strip 101, has a vertical movement range given by the distance between the limit switches 110 and the inverted "U" shaped support base 117.

The stop strip 101 is closed at the ends by an end cap 119 characterised by a plate 120 equipped with flared holes 121 and 122, corresponding to the holes 128 and 130, and by support reliefs 125. The end cap 119 is also characterised by a box-shaped section 126 with an appendix 127 characterised by the presence of a hole 129 and an elastic flap 131 equipped with a coupling base 141.

The appendix 127 creates, with the plate 120 and the support reliefs 125, a position 132 in which two curved arms 133 with hooked ends 134 and holes 135 are housed.

The system also includes two lateral sliding guides 137, each equipped with brush holder guides 138 and two notches 139 created inside the guides 137 near the contact surface of the roller blind X.

The system is therefore created by first inserting into the striker strip 101, more precisely into the housing 107, a steel stiffening pillar 136, which serves to strengthen the structure, and then, the double "T" extruded profile 113, more precisely the thrust head 115, into the cavity 104.

Subsequently, the end cap 119 is fixed, on which the curved arms 133 are placed, to the ends of the stop strip 101, blocking the steel stiffening pillar 136 inside the hole 129 and ensuring that the elastic flap 131 equipped with the coupling base 141 is inserted into the housing 140 of the stop strip 101.

The whole thing is blocked by the threaded screws 123 and 124 which pass through the holes 121 and 122 of the end cap 119 and then are fixed into the housings 106 and 108 of the stop strip 101. The system thus created must then be inserted into the lateral sliding guides 137.

By completely lowering the sheet X, using all its weight, the double "T" extruded profile 113 is pushed upwards inside the cavity 104 of the stop strip 101. The pushing head 115 is thus inserted between the curved arms 133, each of which opens laterally from the position 132 and, resting firmly on the support reliefs 125, intercepts the notches 139 with the hooks 134, thus preventing any possible lifting from below with any lever or force which, if applied from below, on the double "T" extruded profile 113, blocks the curved arms 133 even better inside the notches 139, preventing the lifting of the roller sheet X.

When the X sheet is completely lowered, the inverted U-shaped support base 117 is completely hidden and protected by the stop tab 112, avoiding any possible forcing intervention on the double T-shaped extruded profile 113.

By lifting the sheet X, by gravity, but also automatically thanks to the pressure of the elastic flap 131, the double "T" extruded profile 113 and its pushing head 115 are moved away from the curved arms 133 which gradually return to overlap, releasing themselves from the notches 139 and then rearranging themselves inside the position 132 of the end cap 119.

The present invention has been described in relation to its functions for illustrative but not limitative purposes and it is therefore to be understood that the realization of the system as described may be susceptible to small variations and/or modifications without thereby departing from the relative scope of protection.

Claims (5)

Claims 1- Anti-lifting system for roller shutters, characterised by: a) a terminal stop strip 101, composed of an upper attachment flap 102, which allows attachment to the upper strips of sheet X, and two non-communicating internal cavities 103 and 104, separated by a dividing partition 105 in which three housings 106, 107 and 108 are made inside the cavity 103, while inside the cavity 104, in proximity to the dividing partition 105, two support steps 109 are made on the walls which create a connection space 140 and two limit steps 110 which delimit an opening 111 below which there is a stop tab 112. b) an end cap 119 of the stop strip 101 characterised by a plate 120 equipped with countersunk holes 121 and 122, corresponding to the holes 128 and 130, and by support reliefs 125 and by a box-shaped section 126 with an appendix 127 with the presence of a hole 129 and an elastic fin 131 equipped with a coupling base 141 in which the appendix 127 creates, with the plate 120 and the support reliefs 125, a position 132 in which two curved arms 133 with hooked ends 134 and holes 135 are housed. c) a double ?T? extruded profile 113 characterised by a plate 114 with a push head 115 characterised on the sides of the plate 114 by two arms 116 which prevent, once installed, the exit of the double "T" extruded profile 113 from the cavity 104 of the stop strip 101 and in which at the base of the plate 114 there is a support base in the shape of an inverted "U" 117, which creates a housing 118 for a possible gasket and which prevents the total reentry of the plate 114 into the cavity 104 present on the stop strip 101, when the sheet X is completely lowered. d) two lateral sliding guides 137, each equipped with brush holder guides 138 and two notches 139 made inside the guides 137 near the contact surface of the roller blind X. 2) Anti-lifting system for roller shutters, as per claim 1, wherein the double "T" extruded profile 113, inserted into the cavity 104 of the stop strip 101, has a vertical movement range given by the distance between the limit switches 110 and the inverted "U" shaped support base 117. 3) Anti-lifting system for roller shutters, as per previous claims, wherein system A is created by first inserting into the stop plate 101, more precisely into the housing 107, a steel stiffening pillar 136, which serves to strengthen the structure, and then, the double "T" extruded profile 113, more precisely the push head 115, into the cavity 104, subsequently fixing the end cap 119, on which the curved arms 133 are placed, at the ends. of the stop strip 101 and then locking the steel stiffening pillar 136 inside the hole 129 and ensuring that the elastic flap 131 equipped with the coupling base 141 is inserted into the housing 140 of the stop strip 101, the whole thing locked by means of the threaded screws 123 and 124 which pass through the holes 121 and 122 of the end cap 119 and then are fixed into the housings 106 and 108 of the stop strip 101. 4) Anti-lifting system for roller shutters, as per previous claims, wherein when the sheet X is in the completely lowered position the double "T" extruded profile 113 is pushed upwards inside the cavity 104 of the stop strip 101 and the pushing head 115 is thus inserted between the curved arms 133 which each open laterally from the position 132 and rest firmly on the support reliefs 125, they intercept the notches 139 with the hooks 134, thus preventing any possible lifting from below with any lever or force which, if applied from below, on the double "T" extruded profile 113, blocks the curved arms 133 even better inside the notches 139, preventing the lifting of the roller shutter sheet X. 5) Anti-lifting system for roller shutters, as per previous claims, in which, when the sheet X is completely lowered, the inverted "U" shaped support base 117 is completely hidden and protected by the stop tab 112, avoiding any possible forcing intervention on the double "T" extruded profile 113.