Patent Application
20220307214
The present invention relates to a flood-protective ventilation louver, and more particularly to a flood-protective ventilation louver that automatically shuts up during flooding and exhibits an excellent effect of flood protection.
The recent trend of extreme deterioration of weather causes occurrences of abnormal weather events, such as droughts and heavy rains, from time to time. This significantly affects the living of people and even cause change to the living habits of a lot of people.
Metropolitan residents may not be susceptible to droughts, but storms and heavy downpours may cause immediate and great influences to them. The urban drainage systems may be immediately responsive to storms and heavy downpours, and flooding may thus occur. Consequently, buildings in a low-lying area are often installed with water-blocking gates and such water-blocking gates are used to provide protection for handling potential flooding caused by storms and heavy downpours. A lot of water-blocking gates that are available in the market are effective in protection against flooding and are increasingly popular.
However, the known water-blocking gates are generally designed for doors and driveway gates of buildings and are not applicable to ventilation louvers that are provided for ventilation purposes for basements and underground parking lots. To reduce the cost of construction, most of the ventilation louvers are installed on a ground level outside a building, and as such, although the installation of water-blocking gates does block outside flooding from invading the building through the main gates or the driveway gates, in case that heavy raindrops cause water accumulation to exceed the height of a ventilation louver, such water ma flow through the ventilation louver into the basement and underground parking spaces to make indoor flooding in the basement, which may cause casualty of lives and properties and may make vehicles parked in the underground parking spaces drowned.
Up to date, ventilation louvers that are designed and constructed for ventilation of basements and underground parking lots are generally not provided with any measure for handling flooding. One commonly adopted solution is to manually shut up and close the louver as a responsive operation to heavy downpours. Heavy downpours may not necessarily cause flooding intrusion and in such a case, shutting up the louver would sacrifice the designed function of the louver for ventilation. In case that flooding intrusion may potentially occur, manual operation of shutting up and closing the louver may be sometimes too later or may be simply neglected, eventually causing actual occurrence of flooding intrusion and undesired potential risk to lives and properties. Thus, the commonly adopted way of manual operation to shut up and close a ventilation louver is apparently not a secured way and such an operation involve many hidden uncertain factors that may eventually lead to dangers.
The present invention provides a food-protective ventilation louver, which helps overcome the concern that the known ventilation louvers constructed in and used with basements and underground parking lots do not include a flood protection solution and do not automatically close and do not exhibit an excellent effect of water blocking.
For such a purpose, the present invention aims to provide a flood-protective ventilation louver. The flood-protective ventilation louver according to the present invention comprises a window frame assembly, slat assemblies, a transmission mechanism, and a buoyance switch assembly.
The window frame assembly comprises a bottom frame member, two side frame members that are corresponding to and opposite to each other, a top frame member that is corresponding to and opposite to the bottom frame member, and a plurality of positioning frame members.
The slat assemblies are provided as multiple ones that are combined with the window frame assembly. Each of the slat assemblies includes a slat in the form of an elongate plate. The slat has an upper end that is extended to form a neck in a manner of slightly inclining and tapering to gradually reduce the thickness thereof. The neck is further connected to a pivot axle. The pivot axle has an outer circumference of which a cross section is formed in a configuration of an elongate circular hole. The slat has one side into which a constraint bar is penetrating and mounted to. Each of the slats has two sides each including a closure piece. Each of the closure pieces is provided, at an outer side thereof, with a positioning piece. The positioning piece includes an axle, and the axle extends through a hollow mounting ring of the closure piece to extend into the pivot axle.
The transmission mechanism comprises a connecting piece and a moving piece and is mounted to the window frame assembly to drive the slats of the slat assemblies to move. The connecting piece is formed as an elongate plate and includes a flat plate portion and a pair of wing portions. The moving piece is formed as an elongate body and includes a sliding channel into which the wing portions of the connecting piece are received to penetrate therethrough. The moving piece further includes a plurality of slot openings that are arranged at intervals.
The buoyance switch assembly comprises a bottom box, a float, a trigger seat, and a surface cover. The buoyance switch assembly is disposed in the receptacle portion of the bottom frame member to drive the transmission mechanism to move.
The efficacy that the present invention may achieve with the above-described structure is that during flooding, external water passes through the bottom frame member to get into the buoyance switch assembly, so as to cause the float of the buoyance switch assembly to move upward, releasing the link bar of the buoyance switch assembly from retaining engagement with the arresting piece, and consequently, the arresting piece is no longer retained by the link bar, and thus, the moving piece of the transmission mechanism is not constrained by the arresting piece to allow the moving piece to drive the slats of the slat assemblies to move. As such, due to the moving piece being no longer constrained, the slat of each of the slat assemblies oscillates downward to achieve an effect of automatic closing, by which the efficacy of flooding protection is realized.
A flood-protective ventilation louver according to the present invention at least comprises a window frame assembly 1, slat assemblies 2, a transmission mechanism 3, and a buoyance switch assembly 4.
Firstly, reference being had to
The bottom frame member 11 comprises a hollowed elongate body, of which the body defines a receptacle portion 111 that is opened to face upward. A plurality of through holes 112 are formed in a side wall of the bottom frame member 11, and a raised portion 113 is provided on an opposite side of the bottom frame member 11. The raised portion 113 has a side wall on which a water-resisting strip 114 is arranged alongside.
The two side frame members 12 are respectively mounted and fixed to two opposite ends of the bottom frame member 11. The two side frame members 12 each include a recessed channel 121 extending in a vertical direction and a plurality of seats 122 mounted to and arranged along one of the side portions thereof that are outside of the recessed channel 121. The seats 122 are provided with water-resisting strips 123 mounted thereto.
The top frame member 13 comprises a hollowed elongate body, of which two ends are respectively corresponding to and fixed to the two side frame members 12. The top frame member 13 includes a bottom protrusion portion 131 mounted to one side thereof to correspond to the raised portion 113 of the bottom frame member 11. The bottom protrusion portion 131 includes a curved channel 132 extending along an axial direction thereof and in a partly opening form. Preferably, the curved channel 132 has a cross section that comprises a horizontal elliptic configuration having an opening of which upper and lower edges each form a projection that is slightly raised and extending towards an interior of the channel. The lower edge of the curved channel 132 is provided with a water-resisting strip 133 mounted thereto and screw holes 134 formed at two ends of the water-resisting strip 133.
The plurality of positioning frame members 14 are arranged such that each of the positioning frame members 14 comprises an elongate body located between the bottom frame member 11 and the top frame member 13. Each of the positioning frame members 14 has two ends that are mounted to and fixed to the two side frame members 12 by fastening elements. Each of the positioning frame members 14 is provided, in one side thereof, with a curved groove 141 extending along an axial direction thereof and in a partly opening form. Preferably, the curved groove 141 has a cross section that comprises a horizontal elliptic configuration and a water-resisting strip 142 is provided at location adjacent to each of upper and lower edges of the curved groove 141. The lower edge is provided with screw holes 143 at two ends thereof and adjacent to the water-resisting strip 142.
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The bottom box 41 is made open in a top and two ends thereof and corresponds, in size, to the receptacle portion 111 of the bottom frame member 11, so that the bottom box 41 is disposed in the receptacle portion 111 of the bottom frame member 11.
The float 42 has an end pivotally connected through a pin 423 to the bottom box 41. An opposite end of the float 42 is provided with a mounting base 421. The mounting base 421 includes a cruciform groove 422.
The trigger seat 43 includes a shell base 431, a link bar 432, and an arresting piece 433.
The shell base 431 has two sides respectively including a first hollowed area 4311 and a second hollowed area 4312 that are open to the outside and also includes a through hole 4313 formed beside the second hollowed area 4312 and penetrating therethrough in a vertical direction.
The link bar 432 has an end to which a cross bar 4321 is mounted. A peg 4322 is fit over the link bar 432. The peg 4322 has an upper end that includes a head part 4323 larger, in diameter, than a bar portion thereof. The peg 4322 is formed with an elongate penetration slot 4324 through which the link bar 432 extends. In an embodiment, the peg 4322 is first inserted through the through hole 4313 of the shell base 431, and then the elongate penetration slot 4324 receives the link bar 432 to extend therethrough, and then, the cross bar 4321 is mounted to the link bar 432 for assembling and fixing. An opposite end of the link bar 432 is curved upward, slightly, in a warped form, to form a curved-up segment 4325. The curved-up segment 4325 is formed, on an upper side thereof at a location adjacent to an end thereof, with a projecting block 4326. Preferably, the projecting block 4326 is formed with a slope edge for at least one of outside surfaces thereof that is made inclining. The curved-up segment 4325 receives a pin 4327 to penetrate therethrough for connecting the link bar 432 and the shell base 431 to each other.
The arresting piece 433 is formed as an elongate block that has an upper portion that is mounted inside the shell base 431 by a pin 4336 penetrating through two opposite lateral side surfaces thereof The arresting piece 433 is provided, on one of end sides thereof, with a stage 4331 projecting therefrom. The arresting piece 433 has a lower side of which one corner is formed as arc rounded corner 4332 as a circular arc and an opposite corner is formed as a sloped corner 4333 having an outside surface that is made inclined. A spring 4334 is arranged on an end side of the arresting piece 433.
The trigger seat 43, as being formed through proper assembling of the components, is such that the link bar 432 extends out through the second hollowed area 4312 of the trigger seat 43, and the cross bar 4321 at an end of the link bar 432 is fit into the cruciform groove 422 of the mounting base 421 of the float 42, making the cross bar 4321 and the float 42 fit to and coupled with each other and also allowing the cross bar 4321 to rotate in the cruciform groove 422 of the mounting base 421 to thereby connect the float 42 and the link bar 432 to each other through pivotal connection, and also allowing the link bar 432 to move through rotation of the cross bar 4321 in the cruciform groove 422 of the mounting base 421 to thereby enabling the link bar 432 to oscillate up and down and also allowing the peg 4322 that is fit outside the link bar 432 to be located in the through hole 4313 of the shell base 431. Further, the stage 4331 of the arresting piece 433 is also slightly projecting out of the first hollowed area 4311 of the shell base 431, and the spring 4334 is supported between the arresting piece 433 and the shell base 431, such that the arresting piece 433 is biased and pushed by the spring force of the spring 4334. Preferably, the arresting piece 433 is provided with a joining piece 4335 for fixing and supporting the spring 4334, and the shell base 431 is also provided with a joining piece 4314 for fixing and supporting the spring 4334, in order to improve security and stability of the spring 4334. Further, upon being properly assembled, the sloped corner 4333 of the arresting piece 433 is in abutting engagement with the slope edge of the outside surface of the projecting block 4326 of the link bar 432.
The surface cover 44 is in the form of a thin plate and includes a plurality of hollowed portions 441 and at least one extending-through hole 442 extending through a body thereof and is positionable on and covering the receptacle portion 111 of the bottom frame member 11 and can be mounted to the bottom frame member 11.
Finally, the float 42 and the trigger seat 43 so assembled are disposed in the bottom box 41, and the surface cover 44 is set to cover the top side of the bottom box 41. Under such a condition, the extending-through hole 442 of the surface cover 44 is at a location exactly corresponding to the peg 4322 of the link bar 432, allowing the head part 4323 of the peg 4322 to project outside the extending-through hole 442 of the surface cover 44. This completes assembling of the buoyance switch assembly 4.
Further referring to
Assembling of the transmission mechanism 3 to the window frame assembly 1 is then performed. With further referring to
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In the operation of the present invention, as shown in
Further referring to
Following the above description, with the water level increasingly heightening, the external water of flooding brings an increased water pressure, making each of the slats 21 supporting and acted upon by an increased inwardly pushing force. Since the pivot axle 23 of the slat 21 has a cross section that is of a configuration of an elongate circular form, in combination with the partly open curved channel 132 of the top frame member 13 that is in an elliptic form and the partly open curved groove 141, which is in an elliptic form, at the side of the positioning frame members 14, when the slats 21 take an increased inward pushing force, the pivot axles 23 of the slats 21 would further, slightly, displace in a direction toward the interior of the partly open curved channel 132 of the top frame member 13 and the partly open curved channel 141 of the positioning frame members 14, and consequently, the slats 21 would achieve and provide even more tight engagement with the water-resisting strips 114, 123, 142, 133, providing each of the slats 21 with an improved effect of flooding protection that is sufficient to resist an increased water pressure.
When the flood recedes, the plurality of through holes 112 formed in the bottom frame member 11 may allow water to drain, so that the water entering the bottom frame member 11 may flow out of the through holes 112 to drain with the receding flood. After the draining is completed, the operation of moving and opening the slots 21 may be performed to exhibit an open condition to restore the function of air flowing and ventilation.
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