This application is a U.S. national phase application filed under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2015/073704, filed Oct. 13, 2015, designating the United States, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference in its entirety for all purposes.
The invention relates to a shading device of a vehicle, in particular of a water vehicle.
Such a shading device is known from practice and may in particular be employed in a boat or in a yacht as a sun shade or as a sun protection installation, which can be realized like an awning.
It is the object of the invention to create a shading device which has a simple design and which is safe and easy to use.
According to one aspect, this object is attained by a shading device of a vehicle, in particular of a water vehicle, comprising a roller blind web, a winding unit, onto which the roller blind web can be wound up or from which the roller blind web can be unwound and which, in relation to a longitudinal center plane of the roller blind web, is borne on both sides so as to be rotatable, and comprising, in relation to the longitudinal center plane of the roller blind web on each of its two sides, a telescopic tube arrangement having a bearing tube that is fixed relative to the vehicle and having at least one first pull-out tube and one second pull-out tube, which are displaceable between a slid-in position, the roller blind web having been wound up onto the winding unit when being in said position, and a pulled-out position, the roller blind web having been unwound from the winding unit when being in said position, wherein at least one of the telescopic tube arrangements is provided with a drive unit, which directly drives the first pull-out tube, a rope arrangement converting a relative movement of the first pull-out tube vis-à-vis the bearing tube into a relative movement of the second pull-out tube vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube.
Hence, the essence of the invention is that at least one of the telescopic tube arrangements comprises a drive unit, which only takes effect on the first pull-out tube. The second pull-out tube is displaced vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube in a positively controlled fashion with the aid of the rope-operated arrangement, which converts a relative movement of the first pull-out tube vis-à-vis the bearing tube into a relative movement of the second pull-out tube vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube. The roller blind web is in particular joined to the second pull-out tube, such that its position is determined by way of the unwinding length of the roller blind web.
Preferably, the first pull-out tube is the pull-out tube that immediately adjoins the bearing tube, whereas the second pull-out tube immediately adjoins the first pull-out tube. However, it is also conceivable that further pull-out tubes are arranged between the first pull-out tube and the bearing tube, each of which further pull-out tubes is provided with a separate drive unit, such as a spring, or that further pull-out tubes abut on the second pull-out tube, said further pull-out tubes likewise being displaceable with the aid of a rope-operated arrangement where appropriate. The second pull-out tube is always borne in the first pull-out tube.
In a preferred embodiment of the shading device according to the invention, the drive unit comprises or is a spring unit which takes effect in the pull-out direction, and which directly takes effect on the respective first pull-out tube, pretensioning the same in the direction of its pull-out position, wherein the winding unit is provided with a self-locking actuating unit, whose holding force is greater than the effective spring force of the spring unit. In this embodiment, the roller blind web is thus always pretensioned in the direction of its unwound position. The length of the section of the roller blind web having been unwound from the winding unit is predetermined by an actuation of the self-locking actuating unit. When the actuating unit is not actuated, a holding force takes effect, which prevents the roller blind web from unwinding further from the winding unit on grounds of the spring force of the spring units. When the roller blind web is being wound up onto the winding unit, the actuating unit takes effect against the spring force of the spring units taking effect in the pull-out direction. When the roller blind web is being unwound, the spring force supports the actuating unit. The spring-loaded telescopic tube arrangements, which automatically follow the unwinding length of the roller blind web, always hold the unwound region of the roller blind web under tension in the longitudinal direction of unwinding direction.
In order not to subject the spring force of the spring units to significant changes, independently of the position of the pull-out tubes vis-à-vis the bearing tube, the spring unit, in a special embodiment of the shading device according to the invention, comprises or is a gas pressure spring.
In an alternative embodiment of the shading device according to the invention, the drive unit for the respective telescopic tube arrangement comprises an electric motor. For example, the electric motor drives a drive cable which is rigid in compression, and which displaces the first pull-out tube vis-à-vis the bearing tube, or also a threaded spindle, which engages with a screw thread of the first pull-out tube.
In order to realize the positive control of the respective second pull-out tube when the first pull-out tube is being displaced, the rope arrangement, in a special embodiment of the shading device according to the invention, includes a rope, which is fastened to the bearing tube and to the second pull-out tube and is guided via at least one deflection unit, which is arranged at the first pull-out tube. Said rope may be a wire rope or also a plastic rope. In the context of a simple deflection at the first pull-out tube, the advancing path of the second pull-out tube vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube corresponds to the advancing path of the first pull-out tube vis-à-vis the bearing tube.
A deflection of the rope with particularly little friction is achieved when the deflection unit is a pulley. The pulley may directly be borne at the first pull-out tube. When resorting to a gas pressure spring as the drive unit for the telescopic arrangements, the deflection unit may also be arranged at the face side of a dip tube of the gas pressure spring, which tube is fixedly connected to the first pull-out tube.
In order to give high ease of use to the shading device according to the invention, the actuating unit of the winding unit is a drive motor in a preferred embodiment.
The drive motor may be an electric motor, which drives the winding unit via a gearing, which may be provided with a worm wheel and/or also with belt wheels. Such an arrangement is in particular suitable for a configuration in which the roller blind web is wound up onto a curved winding tube of the winding unit, said tube in particular being adapted to a boat design. It is conceivable to drive the winding unit on both sides with the help of a corresponding electric motor. With a worm wheel gearing, which is configured so as to be self-locking by way of a correspondingly small angle of inclination of the worm, a high moment of torsion can be introduced into the winding unit. In addition, the winding speed can be monitored easily and hence the unwinding length of the roller blind web can precisely be set in each intermediate position.
Alternatively, the drive motor may also be a so-called tubular motor, which is inserted into a winding tube of the winding unit. Said embodiment is particularly convenient in terms of installation space since no separate installation space has to be held available for the drive motor.
In order to guarantee a synchronous dislocation of the pull-out tubes being arranged on both sides, vis-à-vis the bearing tubes, the roller blind web, in a preferred embodiment, with its edge facing away from the winding unit, is joined to a transverse strut, which connects the second pull-out tubes of the two telescopic tube arrangements to one another. Hence, the risk of a so-called drawer effect when actuating the shading device is minimized.
In order to also realize a synchronism of the first pull-out tubes being arranged on both sides, a second transverse strut may be envisaged, which connects the two first pull-out tubes of the telescopic tube arrangements to each other and over which the roller blind web reaches, whereby sagging of the pulled-out section of the roller blind web is also countered.
According to a second aspect, the object is attained by a shading device of a vehicle, in particular of a water vehicle, comprising a roller blind web, a winding unit, onto which the roller blind web can be wound up or from which the roller blind web can be unwound and which, in relation to a longitudinal center plane of the roller blind web, is borne so as to be rotatable on both sides, and comprising, in relation to the longitudinal center plane of the roller blind web on each of its two sides, a telescopic tube arrangement having a bearing tube that is fixed relative to the vehicle and having at least one pull-out tube, which is displaceable between a slid-in position, the roller blind web having been wound up onto the winding unit when being in said position, and a pulled-out position, the roller blind web having been unwound from the winding unit when being in said position, wherein the winding unit, as its drive, includes at least one electric motor and the telescopic tube arrangements are pretensioned in the direction of their pull-out position with the aid of a spring unit.
According to a special embodiment, the electric motor drives the winding unit via a worm gearing.
Between the worm gearing and the winding unit, a drive belt, in particular a toothed drive belt, can be arranged, engaging with a drive wheel, which is connected to the winding unit for co-rotation.
In order to drive the winding unit symmetrically with respect to the longitudinal center plane of the roller blind web, it is preferred that the winding unit, on each of its two sides, is driven by a respective electric motor.
In an embodiment, by which the needed installation space can be reduced, the electric motor can be a tubular motor, which engages a winding tube of the winding unit.
In order to adapt the design of the shading device to the design of the respective vehicle, the winding unit can comprise a curved flexible winding tube, which reaches around a curved bearing bow.
As described above in connection with the first aspect, each of the telescopic tube arrangements of the shading device of the second aspect can comprise at least one first pull-out tube and one second pull-out tube, wherein at least one of the telescopic tube arrangements is provided with a drive unit, which directly drives the first pull-out tube, and in that a rope arrangement converts a relative movement of the first pull-out tube vis-à-vis the bearing tube into a relative movement of the second pull-out tube vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube.
The rope arrangement preferably comprises a rope, which is fastened to the second pull-out tube and is guided via at least one deflection unit, which is arranged at the first pull-out tube.
The deflection unit can be a pulley.
In order to prevent undesired unwinding of the roller blind web, it is preferred that a holding force is applied onto the winding unit in the unactuated state, said holding force being greater than the effective spring force of the spring unit. For instance, the holding force can be applied by the worm gearing, if the angle of inclination of the worm is sufficiently small.
Further advantages and advantageous configurations of the subject-matter of the invention can be taken from the description, from the drawing and from the claims.
Exemplary embodiments of a shading unit according to the invention are illustrated in a schematically simplified way in the drawing and will be explained in more detail in the following description. In the figures:
In
The shading device 18 comprises a roller blind web 20 forming a shading element and being made from an non-transparent foldable textile material, said roller blind web being fastened, with a bow-side edge in relation to the orientation of the hull 12, to a winding tube 22 constituting a winding unit, onto which tube it can be wound up for uncovering the deck 16 or from which it can be unwound for shading the deck 16.
The winding tube 22, in relation to a vertical longitudinal center plane of the roller blind, is borne at a bearing tube 24 of a respective telescopic tube arrangement 26A or 26B so as to be rotatable on both sides. The two telescopic arrangements 26A and 26B are fastened on the yacht superstructure 14 via the bearing tubes 24.
In order to actuate or to rotate the winding tube 22, which, in the present case, is realized so as to be curved and flexible and surrounds a bearing bow 23, the shading device 18, as an actuating unit, includes a drive motor 28 at each of the two bearing tubes 24, said motor being realized as an electric motor. Via one worm wheel 29 in each instance, the drive motors 28 drive a driving toothed wheel 30, which drives the winding tube 22 (cf.
Each of the two telescopic tube arrangements 26A and 26B comprises a first pull-out tube 36, which is slidably borne in the bearing tube 24, and a second pull-out tube 38, which is slidably borne in the first pull-out tube 36. Hence, each of the telescopic tube arrangements 26A and 26B is displaceable between a slid-in position, in which the pull-out tubes 36 and 38 are accommodated by the bearing tube 24, and a pulled-out position, the pull-out tubes 36 and 38 having been pulled out of the bearing tube 24 when being in said position.
In order to bring the telescopic tube arrangements 26A and 26B from the slid-in position into the pulled-out position, each of the telescopic tube arrangements 26A and 26B includes a gas pressure spring 40, whose piston 42 is fixed to the respective bearing tube 24 via a piston foot 44. The piston 42 is guided in a dip tube 46, which, with a dip tube foot 48, is fixed to the face-side end of the first pull-out tube 36 facing the piston foot 44. The dip tube 46 of the gas pressure spring 40 reaches through the first pull-out tube 36 and engages the second pull-out tube 38. With the aid of the gas pressure spring 40, the first pull-out tube 36 is pretensioned in the pull-out direction.
In order to convert a relative movement of the first pull-out tube 36 vis-à-vis the bearing tube 24 into a relative movement of the second pull-out tube 38 vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube 36, each of the two telescopic tube arrangements 26A or 26B includes a rope 50 which forms a rope arrangement, and which is realized as a wire rope and is fastened, with one end, in the region of the piston foot 44, to the bearing tube 24, is guided via a deflection unit 52 being realized as a pulley, which is borne so as to be rotatable at a face side of the dip tube 46 facing away from the dip tube foot 48, and is fastened, with its second end 54, to the second pull-out tube 38 after deflection, namely to the face-side end of the second pull-out tube 38 facing the piston foot 44. Hence, the two pull-out tubes 36 and 38 have a dependent pull-out or slide-in behavior. If, for example, a pressure is exerted onto the pull-out tube 38 in the direction of the bearing tube 24, the first pull-out tube 36 is shifted vis-à-vis the bearing tube 24 by the same amount as the second pull-out tube 38 vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube 36.
In order to synchronize the movement behavior of the telescopic tube arrangements 26A and 26B being arranged on both sides, the second pull-out tubes 38 being arranged on both sides are connected to each other via a transverse strut 56, which forms the face-side end of the shading device 18 and to which the edge of the roller blind web 20 facing away from the winding tube 22 is fastened. In addition, the two first pull-out tubes 36, in their face-side end regions, are connected via a further transverse strut 58, over which the roller blind web 20 reaches. Moreover, the bearing tubes 24 are connected to each other via a transverse strut 60, which forms a trailing edge for the roller blind web 20 and increases the inherent rigidity of the shading device 18.
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The rope 50 which forms a rope arrangement, and with the aid of which a movement of the first pull-out tube 36 is converted into a movement of the second pull-out tube 38 vis-à-vis the first pull-out tube 36, is likewise fixed to a bearing pin 66, which is configured so as to be identical to bearing pin 62, but is held, with its end sections having a smaller diameter, in holes, in particular in keyholes 68, whose respective tapered region faces the dip tube 46 of the gas pressure spring 40. The tensile force being exerted by the rope 50 onto the bearing pin 66 holds the same in position. The rope 50 is deflected at the deflection unit 52 being realized as a pulley and is fastened to the second pull-out tube 38 with its second end.
For guiding the gas pressure spring 40 in the second pull-out tube 38, a slide 70 is fastened to the front face side of the dip tube 46 of the gas pressure spring 40, said slide being guided at guide ribs 72, which are realized at the inner side of the second pull-out tube 38 and extend in the longitudinal direction thereof.
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Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/EP2015/073704 | 10/13/2015 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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WO2017/063679 | 4/20/2017 | WO | A |
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20110290170 | Russikoff | Dec 2011 | A1 |
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20150122169 | Russikoff | May 2015 | A1 |
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3146169 | May 1983 | DE |
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Entry |
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International Search Report for PCT/EP2015/073704 dated Jul. 22, 2016 and English translation submitted herewith (5 Pages). |
Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority (6 Pages). |
International Preliminary Report on Patentability issued against International Application No. PCT/EP2015/073704 dated Apr. 17, 2018. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20180257745 A1 | Sep 2018 | US |