RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims priority from Australian Provisional Patent Application No. 2017904402 filed 30 Oct. 2017, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to architectural structures, such as roofs and walls, and in particular, to a retractable roof/wall structure comprising a plurality of louvres that are moveable and retractable to open/close and retract as desired.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Modern architecture generally seeks to combine indoor and outdoor living in away that maximises the enjoyment of sunshine and light but which also provides a degree of privacy and protection from the elements. It is the ability to provide a degree of control over the amount by which outdoor elements can be permitted into an indoor space which provides the most successful combination of such spaces.

Many homes and offices seek to make use of outdoor spaces by building pergolas or decks which are generally exposed to the elements but which may incorporate retractable roofing or walls which can be employed to provide a degree of protection from the elements if desired. Similarly, such spaces often employ louvres or shutters to enable a degree of control over the amount of sunlight that may enter the structure to provide a desired degree of comfort for those enjoying the space, whilst maximising a view or exposure to sunlight.

Thus there have been proposed wall and roof structures which incorporate moveable louvres to control the amount of light that passes therethrough and which can be fully retracted to open a space as desired. However, many such proposals have incorporated a variety of complicated and intricate control mechanisms to collectively move the louvres and to control the angle of the louvres which are difficult to maintain and expensive to manufacture. Due to the intricate control required to collectively control the state of each louvre present in such a structure, it is common from many structures to fail to open/close correctly over time, resulting in the need for constant servicing and replacement of moving parts.

Thus, there is a need to provide a system for providing enhances control of such structures incorporating movable and retractable louvres and which is simple and effective to operate.

The above references to and descriptions of prior proposals or products are not intended to be, and are not to be construed as, statements or admissions of common general knowledge in the art. In particular, the above prior art discussion does not relate to what is commonly or well known by the person skilled in the art, but assists in the understanding of the inventive step of the present invention of which the identification of pertinent prior art proposals is but one part.

STATEMENT OF INVENTION

The invention according to one or more aspects is as defined in the independent claims. Some optional and/or preferred features of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.

According to a first aspect, the present invention provides an architectural structure comprising retractable and moveable louvres comprising:

a frame having a rear end, a front end and a pair of side walls connecting the front end and the rear end;

a plurality of louvres extending substantially between the side walls, at least one end of the louvres being mounted to a gearbox member for controlling the angular orientation of the louvre, each gearbox member is mounted upon a track extending substantially along a length of at least one side wall and at least one of the gearbox members is mounted to a belt driven by a drive pulley to move said at least one gearbox member along said track;

wherein, each gearbox member is attached to an adjacent gearbox member by way of a connector with a length of the connector extending between adjacent gearbox members being constant such that when the louvres are in an extended position, the spacing between the louvres is maintained at a predetermined distance.

In one embodiment, the connector is a belt and the pitch of the belt extending between adjacent gearboxes is controlled to maintain the spacing between louvres when in the extended position at a predetermined distance.

Each gearbox member may be mounted to the track so as to facilitate longitudinal movement of the gearbox along said track and rotational movement of the gearbox about the longitudinal axis of the track. The track may be substantially circular in cross-section and each gearbox may be mounted to the track by way of at least two opposing V-wheels which engage with the track. In one preferred form, each gearbox may be mounted to the track by way of three V-wheels, two of the V-wheels being laterally disposed to engage with an upper surface of the track and one V-wheel engaging with a lower surface of the track.

Each of the louvres may be mounted at one common end to an operational gearbox that is controllable to vary the angular orientation of the louvre and at the other end to an idler gearbox that supports the louvre and facilitates angular movement of the louvre under action of the operational gearbox.

Reference throughout this specification to ‘one embodiment’ or ‘an embodiment’ means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the present invention. Thus, the appearance of the phrases ‘in one embodiment’ or ‘in an embodiment’ in various places throughout this specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, or characteristic described herein may be combined in any suitable manner in one or more combinations.

