ROLL SCREEN SYSTEM

The present invention relates to a roller screen system comprising manually or electrically operated entrance-giving means for a roll screen or a sliding screen door provided with cloth or wire gauze .

The present invention furthermore relates to a roll screen or a sliding door provided with such a roller screen system.

At present such roller screen systems are generally known. In particular roller screen systems for windows or doors are well-known, which systems are usually manually opened or closed.

A drawback of the known systems is that they usually cannot be placed or fixed in a position other than the starting position or the end position - viz. completely open or completely closed. In addition, opening and closing said systems is not always possible in a simple and safe manner, for example for handicapped persons or persons suffering from rheumatism or multiple sclerosis.

The object of the present invention is to provide a safe roller screen system that is readily accessible to anybody.

In order to accomplish that object, the roller screen system according to the invention is characterised in that it further comprises: a winding drum for the cloth, wheel/pulling means connected to a free end of the cloth, and spring means engaging between the wheel/pulling means and the winding drum, which spring means maintain a bias between the winding drum with the cloth wound thereon and the free end of the cloth.

The advantage of the roller screen system according to the invention is that the spring-loaded cloth is capable of moving along irrespective of the position of the cloth, in which position the passage may be at least partially open, therefore, when a force is exerted on the gauze or cloth material in a direction perpendicular thereto. This is true independently of the fact whether the system is manually operated or works automatically, and this has a positive effect as regards the safety in case of calamities, whilst in addition it prevents the cloth material from being damaged.

Another advantage is the fact that, unlike the situation with known roller screen systems, in which a spring is present in the hollow winding drum of the cloth, the force that is to be exerted during the closing of the screen is constant along the entire path of movement thereof. Moreover, the system according to the invention will not spring back to the starting position when the screen is released while being closed, but it will remain stationary - with the cloth in the tensioned condition. These aspects, viz. the fact that the screen remains stationary and does not spring back, helps to increase the level of safety and prevents damage to the roller screen system.

Furthermore, manual opening and closing of the rollers screen system according to the invention requires only a minimal effort, which is especially advantageous for people afflicted with rheumatism or multiple sclerosis, for example. In addition, the use of end switches at the starting position and the end position of the screen is not necessary in the case of an automatically operating version of the roller screen system, because it can readily be derived from the increased force that is required when the screen is stationary in either one of said positions that said positions have been reached.

In possible variants, the spring means may be integrated and accommodated in the wheel/pulling means and/or the winding drum, which will be hollow in that case, in order to obtain a compact structure of the roller screen system.

In order to obtain an increased stability level, another embodiment of the roller screen system according to the invention is characterised in that an insert member is mounted in the hollow winding drum, in which insert member the rotatable wheel/pulling means are supported.

Another embodiment of the roller screen system according to the invention is characterised in that the insert member is an inner shaft that extends through the hollow winding drum to each of the ends thereof.

An advantageous aspect of this is that the inner shaft, which extends completely through the hollow winding drum in that case, synchronises the movements on either side of the winding drum, thereby preventing the cloth from being pulled out of true on the winding drum.

The roller screen system according to the invention can readily be used on and be integrated in new and existing entrance-giving means, such as doors, sliding French doors, revolving doors and the like.

Advantageous embodiments of the roller screen system according to the invention are defined in the dependent claims and will be explained in more detail hereinafter.

The roller screen system according to the present invention will now be explained in more detail with reference to the figures below, in which like parts are indicated by the same numerals.

- -

Figure 1 is a cutaway top plan view of a preferred embodiment of the roller screen system according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a front view of the roller screen system of figure 1;

Figure 3 is a schematic representation of a system according to figures 1 and 2 in mounted condition; and

Figure 4 is a detail view of respective left-hand upper or lower portions of the view of figure 1.

Figures 1, 2 and 3 show a roller screen system 1, which may for example be used with a door or a window, generally referred to as entrance-giving means 2. Hereinafter, only the designation roll screen 2 will be used for the sake of brevity. The roller screen system 1 comprises operating means 3 for opening and closing the roll screen 2 to order, as well as a motion detection circuit 4 configured as a radar detection system, which is connected to the means 3. The circuit 4 monitors and registers the presence and/or the movement of one or more objects in a monitored area, in this case separately indicated at Gl, G2, and G3. The system 1 is computer (μ) controlled and may or may not be programmed by remote control, so that also the various control functions can thus be made easily and flexibly adjustable. In practice it will often be preferred to make the system electrically operable and obtain the electricity from the mains of from a battery, although in principle the roll screen 2 might also be pneumatically or hydraulically operated and/or controlled.

The radar detection system 4 may comprise remote control means, for example infrared means, for opening and closing the roll screen 2 by remote control, if desired. When configured as a Doppler circuit 4, the system can detect motion in the areas Gl, ... , G3. The electromagnetic waves generated thereby, which reflect from

the object that moves about in the areas G, provide the information on the basis of which the speed of the object can be determined, possibly in each of the areas. The location of the object may be determined by electronic integration of the speed, if desired, whilst the acceleration thereof may be calculated by differentiation.

The automatic system, which responds to motion, may be switched over or be extended with remote control means to be operated from a wheelchair or a walker, if desired, so that it will be suitable for use in the home or for example in a care institution, for giving entrance to kitchens in a restaurant or for opening and closing sunshades and the like, for example.

The figures show an embodiment with a single motor mounted on the right-hand side (in this case) . To make it possible to open and close the screen door 2 quickly without slip, a spring-loaded toothed belt 8 extends between the opposing left-hand and right-hand sides, which belt passes over toothed wheels 9 mounted at the ends of the winding drum 10 and the drive shaft 6.

Cassettes Cl, C2 and C3 are present on the jambs, on the circumferential edge of the roll screen 2, in this case on the left-hand side and the right-hand side of the doorway, in which cassettes the components of the system 1 are mounted. In the cassettes, the required electronic components and the drive unit are accommodated in a maintenance-friendly, concealed manner, whilst comprehensive structural alterations are not necessary for installing the system 1 in an existing room on account of the fact that the cassettes are mounted to the door jambs.

Figure 4 shows a detail both of the left-hand upper corner portion and of the left-hand bottom corner portion of the view of the roller screen system 1 of figure 1. Spring means 5 are integrated in the hollow (in this case) winding drum 10. It stands to reason that it is also readily possible to incorporate the spring means 5 at least

partially in the toothed wheel 9 or in the chain, the rope or the toothed belt 8. The spring means, which are under a mechanical bias, engage the toothed wheel 9 on the one hand and the winding drum 10 on the other hand. As a result, the winding drum 10, and in particular the cloth 71 thereon, are pulled in one direction, whilst one of the two parts of the toothed belt 8 is pulled in the opposite direction. The final result obtained by using the spring means 5 is that the cloth 7 is stretched taut in every position of the screen, but also during movement of the screen. This is achieved in that the biased spring means 5 engage and thus move along with, in this embodiment, the rotating toothed wheel 9 and the rotating winding drum 10.

It is also possible to use a detection system, if desired, such as a TEC system that is known per se, for identifying people, animals or objects such as wheelchairs, for clearing the passage in case of positive recognition of identification data being communicated, usually by wireless means, to the computer.