Louvered Closing Device for Slope-Free Water Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing closing cover devices for buildings, such as those in winter gardens and greenhouses, face issues with water infiltration due to significant slope requirements, ineffective sunlight modulation, complexity, high cost, and safety concerns.
Innovation Solution
A closing device comprising elongated rectangular slats with side handling means, including pantograph mechanisms and motorized pulleys, allowing for tilting and rotation to achieve almost null sloping, effective water management, adjustable shading, and safe operation for horizontal, vertical, and sloped installations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If closing cover devices are installed with significant slope to prevent water infiltration, then water infiltration is prevented, but the device cannot be used on horizontal or vertical openings and requires complex installation
Solution Approach 1:
The closing device incorporates movable slats that can dynamically adjust their orientation and position. The slats are connected through articulation points allowing them to tilt and rotate, transforming from a static rigid structure to a dynamic adaptable system that can conform to different installation surfaces including horizontal, vertical, and sloped configurations while maintaining water infiltration prevention
Solution Approach 2:
The closing device is divided into multiple independent slat elements rather than a single rigid panel. Each slat can move independently relative to others, allowing the segmented structure to adapt to various installation angles and surfaces. This segmentation enables the device to maintain its water sealing function across different orientations by adjusting individual slat positions
2Device complexity
If closing cover devices use fixed slat arrangement to ensure structural simplicity, then device complexity is reduced, but sunlight modulation capability is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The slats are designed with articulation points that enable them to tilt and rotate relative to each other and to the support structure. This dynamic capability allows the slats to adjust their angles independently, providing variable sunlight modulation from fully open to fully closed positions without requiring complex mechanical drive systems, maintaining relative structural simplicity while gaining functional versatility
3Adaptability or versatility
If closing cover devices are designed with complex mechanisms to achieve versatile functions, then functionality is improved, but device complexity, cost, and safety risks increase
Solution Approach 1:
The closing device utilizes passive elements such as springs, gravity, and elastic deformation to assist in the operation and positioning of slats. The articulated connections allow slats to self-adjust and self-lock into position through mechanical advantage and elastic recovery, reducing the need for complex active control mechanisms and thereby lowering overall device complexity while maintaining functional versatility
Data Source
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AI summary
A closing device for compartments or rooms comprising a plurality of elongated and roughly flat slat means (3), whose side ends are connected to respective side handling means (5) that move the slat means (3) from a closed condition (C), wherein said slat means lie on a closure geometric plane, to an opened condition (A), wherein said slat means are tilted with respect to said closure geometric plane and each other placed side by side in mutual contact or nearly, and vice versa; wherein each slat means (3) has a first longitudinal edge (11) that in the closed condition (C) is facing to the opening direction and a second longitudinal edge (13) which, in the closure movement, comes first the correspondent first edge and wherein each slat means (3) has a first main face (15) and a second main face (17) that in the closed condition are facing respectively outside and inside the respective compartment or room. A first longitudinal border strip (21) of the slat means (3) comprising the first longitudinal edge (11) of each slat means (3) is offset or bended with respect to the remaining portion of the slat means (3) in such a direction that in the closed condition (C) the first longitudinal border strip (21) is internal and in that in the closed condition (C) the handling means (5) put the slat means (3) at a mutual distance smaller then the width of a slat means (3) causing the overlapping of a second longitudinal border strip (25) comprising the second longitudinal edge (13) of a slat means (3) at the first longitudinal border strip (21) of a slat means (3) adjacent, wherein the first longitudinal border strip (21) is inside compartment or room with respect to the second longitudinal border strip (25).