This invention relates to hurricane shutters and more particularly to a hurricane shutter that protects requisitely against storm-borne objects, wind and rain while also venting buildups and bursts of pressure and vacuum that react on buildings from hurricanes and other severe storms.
Devastation from severe hurricanes has resulted in storm-area legal requirements and personal interest in adequate storm protection that also is attractive, convenient and, if possible, also low cost. Numerous storm-protective shutters have occurred as a result. None, however, vent buildups and bursts of pressure and vacuum that react on buildings from hurricanes in addition to providing requisite protection against storm-borne objects, wind and rain in a manner taught by this invention.
Examples of most-closely related known but different devices are described in the following patent documents:
The Foster et al., Iacovoni, and Sipos et al. shutters do not provide weld guides to keep shutters from turning in during hurricane forces as taught by this invention. The Poma et al. shutter requires a removable rigid support for requisite protection. Shutters described by Ney, Milan et al., Ensminger, Berg and Schoen do not have pressure venting as taught by this invention. The Sassano patent does not disclose shutters, but rather a shutter operating mechanism. The Economou shutter teaches slidable slats not requiring weld guides for support.
Objects of patentable novelty and utility taught by this invention are to provide a pressure-vent hurricane shutter which:
vents damaging buildups and bursts of pressure and vacuum that react on buildings from hurricanes;
provides legally requisite protection against storm-borne objects, wind and rain;
can be made attractive in a variety of structural styles; and
can be cost-effective for the level of protection provided.
This invention accomplishes these and other objectives with a pressure-vent hurricane shutter having preferably at least legally-requisite strength of framework encompassing slatted-louver apertures for protection against storm-borne objects, wind and rain in addition to venting damaging buildups and bursts of pressure and vacuum that react on buildings from hurricanes. The framework includes structural beams to which ends of slanted slats are attached rigidly and to which inward edges of the slanted slats are attached to the back wall of a slat-support guide and the outward edges of the slanted slats are attached to the front wall of the slat-support guide. The framework is hinged with the requisite strength to at least one side of a building aperture in accordance with desired shutter style and structure which include top-hinged Bahama and sides-hinged Colonial styles.
This invention is described by appended claims in relation to description of a preferred embodiment with reference to the following drawings which are explained briefly as follows:
Listed numerically below with reference to the drawings are terms used to describe features of this invention. These terms and numbers assigned to them designate the same features throughout this description.
1. shutter framework
2. face walls
3. edge walls
4. slatted-louver apertures
5. slanted slats
6. inward edges of guides
7. slat-support mullions
8. bahama shutters
9. colonial shutters
10. top hinge
11. build out frame
12. wooden structure
13. concrete build out frame
14. shutter hinge
15. colonial build out frame
16. frame hinges
17. structure wings
18. frame wings
19. shutter-hinge bolt
20. hang structure
21. outward edges of slats
22. hold down tab
23. metal plate
24. window jamb
25. rib
26. side wall of slat-support guide
27. front wall of slat-support guide
28. back wall of slat-support guide
29. slot
Referring to
The substantial equivalent can be a ferrous alloy that is preferably stainless and rustproof with either an adequate coating or content of nickel, chrome, aluminum or other stainless constituent.
The shutter framework 1 encompasses slatted-louver apertures 4 having slanted slats 5 with slat ends affixed to the shutter framework 1. The slanted slats 5 have inward edges 6 and outward edges 21 that are oriented horizontally and attached to slat-support guides 7. The slat-support guides 7 are oriented vertically with ends attached to horizontal portions of the shutter framework 1. Both the inward edges of the slats 6 and the outward edges of the slats 21 are orthogonal to the slat-support guides 7. The inward edges of the slats 6 are attached to the back wall of the slat-support guide 28. The outward edges of the slats 21 are attached to the front wall of the slat-support guide 27. The slats 5 feed through the slots 29 located on the side walls of the slat-support guide 26.
The shutter framework 1 also encompasses hold down tabs 22 located on the horizontal portions of the shutter framework 1. The hold down tabs 22 on Bahama Shutters 8 are located on the bottom horizontal shutter framework 1. The hold down tabs 23 on Colonial Shutters 9 are located on the top and bottom horizontal shutter framework 1. A quarter-inch screw is inserted through the hold down tab 22 into a metal plate 23 correspondingly mounted onto the window jamb 26. The hold down tabs 22 hold the shutter framework 1 to the window jamb 26 to keep the shutter framework 1 from blowing open during a storm. Shutter hinges 14 with ribs 26 are located on the shutter framework 1 to keep the shutter framework 1 from hitting the window jamb 26.
The slatted-louver apertures 4 includes an entire slatted enclosure of a plurality of apertures between the slanted slats 5 and the shutter framework 1. The plurality of apertures individually are slanted with preferably about one-half inch of distance of slant orthogonally between surfaces of the slanted slats 5. The slanted slats 5 are preferably flat aluminum bar stock about one-quarter inch thick and one inch wide. Between bottoms and tops of adjacent slanted slats 5, there are horizontal apertures about one-eighth inch high and having a length that is a length of the slanted slats 5, less a width of the slat-support guides 7. The slat-support guides 7 have two side walls 26, a front wall 27, and a back wall 28. The slat-support guides 7 are attached to the inward edges of the slats 6 as well as the outward edges of slats 21 to keep the slanted slats 5 from turning in and maintaining proper separation and angle when under pressure from high winds. The slat-support guides 7 have the appearance of mullions so as to give a more aesthetic appearance.
A pressure-vent object of this hurricane shutter is to allow predeterminedly slight passage of wind and rain horizontally straight through slatted-louver apertures of the shutter framework 1 and slightly more directional-change passage while also providing structural strength to prevent breakage by storm-borne objects, wind and rain of hurricanes. Allowing directional-change passage of hurricane-force wind and rain while stopping large storm-borne objects and directional-change diversion of small objects like sand and small debris eliminates directly damaging aspects of hurricanes more effectively and much more cost effectively than by totally stopping the hurricane-force wind and rain. Completely blocking strong hurricane forces requires much stronger building structure and subjects the building structure to hurricane bursts of pressure and vacuum that react on buildings.
Included on fronts of slatted-louver apertures 4 of Bahama Shutters 8 shown in
Referring to
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The Colonial build out frame 15 is shown in two size and structural options that include two inside horizontal portions of the shutter framework 1 shown in
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As shown in
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The structure wings 17 and the frame wings 18 of the shutter hinges 14 are made preferably of structural aluminum alloy 6063-T5, 6061-T6 or a substantial equivalent. As for other metallic components, the substantial equivalent can be a ferrous alloy that is preferably stainless and rustproof with either an adequate coating or having suitably alloyed content of nickel, chrome, aluminum and/or other stainless constituent.
A new and useful pressure-vent hurricane shutter having been described, all such foreseeable modifications, adaptations, substitutions of equivalents, mathematical possibilities of combinations of parts, pluralities of parts, applications and forms thereof as described by the following claims and not precluded by prior art are included in this invention.
This is a division of application Ser. No. 10/647,673, filed on Aug. 25, 2003 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,996,934, which is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 09/966,622 filed Oct. 1, 2001, now abandoned.
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
1939781 | Kelsey | Dec 1933 | A |
2923027 | Bury | Feb 1960 | A |
3020951 | Graulich | Feb 1962 | A |
3440786 | Weaver | Apr 1969 | A |
4431044 | Bruneau | Feb 1984 | A |
5307858 | Turner | May 1994 | A |
5737874 | Sipos et al. | Apr 1998 | A |
6536174 | Foster et al. | Mar 2003 | B1 |
6996934 | Briscoe et al. | Feb 2006 | B1 |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20060027345 A1 | Feb 2006 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
---|---|---|---|
Parent | 10647673 | Aug 2003 | US |
Child | 11222114 | US |
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09966622 | Oct 2001 | US |
Child | 10647673 | US |