Patent ID: 7624783
Filing Date: 2009-12-01
Classification: A47H,E06B,G02B

Abstract:
1. A curtain system for a side of a shelter for domestic farm animals, wherein the side is generally open except for (a) a restraining grid for the animals, (b) the curtain system and (c) a facing arrangement that holds the grid, the curtain system comprising a tube having an elongated axis, the tube adapted to be horizontally mounted outside the restraining grid, the tube having an elongated slot extending in the same direction as the elongated axis of the tube, the tube carrying a shaft extending in the same direction as the elongated axis of the tube and about which an elongated curtain is wound, the tube carrying the shaft so the shaft is inside the tube, the curtain having a horizontally extending end protruding through the slot, a first drive directly connected to the tube for raising and lowering the tube relative to the open side of the shelter, a second drive directly connected to the shaft for winding and unwinding the curtain about the shaft so that the winding and unwinding of the curtain cause the curtain to be raised and lowered relative to the open side of the shelter, the first and second drives being such that the raising and lowering of the tube and the winding and unwinding of the curtain are independent of each other, a restraining structure for causing the tube and curtain to be between the restraining structure and the grid and proximate the grid, the tube being divided into plural elongated sections, the elongated sections of the tube being coupled together end to end, the shaft being divided into plural elongated sections, each of the elongated sections of the shaft having a length approximately equal to the length of a corresponding section of the tube in which a particular elongated section of the shaft is located, and a coupler connecting adjacent ends of the shafts of the elongated shaft sections to each other, the curtain including a continuous piece of fabric extending across a plurality of the couplers and wound on a plurality of the plural elongated sections of the shaft, the curtain end extending through aligned slots in a plurality of the elongated sections of the tube and the couplers.