Sag-free retractable awning

Abstract

A retractable awning having one edge of an awning canopy fixed and a movable opposite edge with the opposite edge being secured to a rotatable roll bar includes a floating mounting for the roll bar so that a bias on the roll bar urging the roll bar to rotate toward a retracted position of the awning permits the wrapped fabric on the roll bar to remain in engagement with an engagement wall of a mounting chassis so that the roll bar is prevented from sagging along its length regardless of the number of wraps of fabric about the roll bar.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0001]1. Field of the Invention[0002]A retractable awning includes a roller about which an awning canopy can be wrapped and unwrapped with the roller mounted in a housing so as to be floating whereby tension placed on the canopy pulls the awning roller against a fixed surface along the entire length of the roller to prevent sagging of the roller.[0003]2. Description of the Relevant Art[0004]Retractable awnings have been commonly used for many years with some being manually driven between extended and retracted positions and others electrically driven between the same positions. Awnings have been used as coverings for doorways, windows, and in more recent years on the sides of recreational vehicles, motor homes, and the like. Some such recreational vehicles and motor homes include a slide-out unit which is a box-like structure, which can be selectively extended from the side of the vehicle to increase useful space within the vehicle when the vehicle is park...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0007]While the present invention is disclosed in different embodiments with an embodiment showing a roll bar for a retractable awning that is rotatably mounted on a support surface and other embodiments showing a roll bar mounted to be extended away from the support surface, the roll bars are rotatably mounted between end caps where the ends of the rollers are supported. The roll bar has attached thereto one edge of an awning sheet or canopy while the other edge of the awning sheet or canopy is connected to the support surface or a lead bar extendable away from the support surface depending upon whether or not the roll bar is mounted on the support surface or is part of the lead bar. A conventional coil spring is positioned within the roll bar so as to be tensioned as the roller is rotated to unwrap the awning sheet therefrom whereby the tension in the coil spring will assist in retracting the awning while wrapping the awning sheet around the roll bar. The coil spring therefore maintains a tension in the awning sheet and also a pulling force on the roll bar regardless of the position of the roll bar in a fully extended or retracted condition inasmuch as even in the retracted condition when the spring is least tensioned, it has a pre-tension placed thereon.

Problems solved by technology

When the awning roller sags, the awning fabric, if it is extended, will form a depression which will undesirably accumulate rain water, which could cause damage to the awning and certainly an inconvenience to the user of the awning.

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