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Vibe-Killer Roller
Shutter Drive Towards Design Award
Local soundproofing know-how has
contributed to the innovations claimed for a powered
window roller shutter drive by its South Australian
maker, OZRoll, whose revolutionary development might
well earn it an Australian Design Award later in
the year.
OZRoll's conceptual masterstroke
of powering the Smartdrive by rechargeable cells
instead of 240 volts AC had overwhelming benefits
with only one apparent drawback, which thankfully
was easily solved by Sydney-based Soundguard.
The drawback sprang from the need
to develop, from the relatively low voltage available
from nickel-metal-hydride batteries, quite high
torque to open and close window roller shutters
reliably. The torque boost needed is achieved by
using a high-speed DC motor geared down from 17,000
to 16 rpm, and these dynamics induced vibration
noise in the headbox housing the drive.
Soundguard's solution involved mounting,
onto the end-plate of the headbox, a noise-pad of
Soundpad V2SC vibration-damping material. Soundguard
provides this to OZRoll die-cut to shape for easy
installation by means of the product's peel-and-stick
layer.
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Extensively used in
air-conditioners, white goods, vehicles,
sinks, generator enclosures and metal
deck roofs, Soundpad V2SC is designed
to stop tinning and ringing noise in
light-gauge metal, timber and plastic.
Its use has enabled
OZRoll to confidently answer the Australian
Design Award submission's "innovation"
judging criterion with: "innovation
in the motor and gearbox has provided
highly effective and quiet operation
in a compact package with far fewer
parts than conventional tube motors."
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Pre-cut
Soundpad mounted into the headbox during
assembly (inset) quietens the high speed
DC motor as it works to close the shutter
under direction from the controller.
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OZRoll's Andrew Churchett admits
that electric drives for window roller shutters
have been around for some time "but are expensive
and typically require 240 volt power to each window.
And they don't operate when the power fails, which
might be critical in an emergency situation such
as a house fire or bushfire."
The Smartdrive costs little more
than manual systems and far less than AC systems
and is less obtrusive than either.
"The compact soundproofed controller
snaps into a wall-plate wired to the headbox. The
neat 180 x 75 x 30 mm controller houses the efficient
day-rechargeable power cells plus all the smart
electronics needed to operate the gear drive, including
self-adjusting electrical end-stop sensing in place
of complex and unreliable mechanical sensors," says
Andrew.
"You simply connect the unit to
the wall plate at any window and press a button
to quietly open or close the shutter."
A month after Smartdrive was launched
in mid 2004, it was reportedly already accounting
for 80 per cent of national sales of the Modern
Group of retail shutter companies.
For further information contact:
Pyrotek
Address: Girraween, NSW, 2145
Phone: 02 9631 1....
Fax: 02 9896 7....
Web: www.soundguard.com.au
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