Slat opening/closing drive mechanism in shutter equipment

Abstract

In a shutter equipment having a shutter for opening and closing an opening portion such as a building entrance, window or the like the shutter being composed of plural slats positioned in a vertically adjacent relation when the shutter is closed, the slats being wound up and pulled down continuously to stow the slats and close the opening portion, respectively; a slat opening/closing mechanism substantially composed of vertical guide rails disposed vertically on both sides of the opening portion; a box positioned on top of the vertical guide rails to stow the slats transversely in parallel in a vertically suspended state; a pair of right and left endless chains which are movable from the vertical guide rails into the slat stowing box and to which are secured through shafts both end faces of the upper portion of each slat; a vertical slat drive mechanism for winding up and pulling down the chains to raise and lower the slats in a suspended state from the vertical guide rails toward the upper portion of the box and reversely from the latter toward the former; sprockets engaged with the chains for controlling the extended state and bent state of the chains smoothly in both the opening portion opening/closing state in which the slats go up and down along the vertical guide rails and the stowed state with the slats stowed in parallel in the box; and a chain-sprocket disengaging mechanism for disengaging the sprockets and the chains from each other.