Roller shutters or roller shutters: from selection to DIY installation

Recommendation points

• What’s inside: we analyze it using the example of market leaders
• Wind resistance of roller shutters
• Solutions for reliability and economy
• Opening mechanisms
• Roller shutter automation
• Measurement, installation and adjustment

Over time, roller shutters have become the main means of protection against damage and illegal entry. It is impossible to choose the right roller shutters without knowledge of the hardware, in particular, it concerns strength, resistance to wind loads and features of the technical device of protective shutters.

What’s inside: we analyze it using the example of market leaders

It is believed that quality products must be available to the average consumer. Today, this is true: complex automation of production has eliminated the factor of human skill and ensured consistency of quality, while maintaining a reasonable cost of the product. Therefore, although roller shutters from various manufacturers may have minor technical differences, their design and general principle of operation remain unchanged for decades..

As an example, we propose to consider two series of protective roller shutters from ALUTECH. This manufacturer has firmly established itself in the domestic market, has its own production facilities of a rather impressive scale. But the main thing is that ALUTECH demonstrates a responsible and comprehensive approach to its work, providing its customers with products that fully justify their own cost..

Roller shutters design: 1 – protective box; 2 – side covers; 3 – octagonal shaft; 4 – guide tires; 5 – control system; 6 – roller shutter profiles; 7 – end profile

So, the main element of roller shutters is specially shaped lamellas, from which the canvas is formed. Here the most important criterion is the constancy of the profile geometry and the strength of the material, which are necessary for the free movement of the hinged locks, which allow the curtain to roll up. The best indicators are characterized by aluminum lamellas of the extrusion type: they do not form local stresses, in contrast to those made by rolling, and a sufficiently large thickness provides an advantageous ratio of weight and strength.

However, one should not assume that rolled steel lamellas are not viable: with proper quality control, using steel strip of the appropriate thickness (from 0.4 mm) and careful observance of the geometry, they are only slightly inferior to extruded ones. For example, the average difference in strength between these two types of canvases produced by ALUTECH does not exceed 15–20%. The only drawback is susceptibility to corrosion, which somewhat reduces the maximum possible service life.

Inside, the lamellas are filled with polyurethane foam, which provides additional strength, sound and thermal insulation. The outer coating of the lamellas is a primer and several layers of paint, applied by high-temperature sintering. The presence of several layers on the ALUTECH lamellas, baked separately, ensures abrasion resistance of at least 5 thousand cycles.

The lifting mechanism is a shaft with a spring or direct action mechanism, which is worthy of separate consideration. Most manufacturers preferred an octagonal (octagonal) shaft instead of a round one due to the higher axial and lateral stiffness, in this matter ALUTECH is no exception. The third functional part of the roller shutters are guides, which provide a tight rebate of the curtain and its easy sliding.

Wind resistance of roller shutters

In the closed position, the roller shutters represent a fairly strong curtain, which is not always possible to break through with a stone, but even to open it with a mount. But these structures are most vulnerable to pressure over the entire area and pulsating vibrations arising from the wind..

The resistance of roller shutters to wind loads is ensured in two ways. The main one is to increase the strength of the lamellae and form a special locking profile with minimal backlash. This is achieved by increasing the thickness of the walls, uniform filling of the lamellas with foam, and the presence of stiffening ribs on the inner side. And, of course, production of parts on equipment with a high class of accuracy.

The second way to ensure wind stability is to strengthen the guide rails. For different strength classes for wind loads and burglary (from P1 to P5), tires with a wall thickness of 1 to 5 mm can be provided. These are mainly profiles made by extrusion, their strength characteristics are much easier to control..

In each specific case, the wind resistance of roller shutters depends on the size of the opening, the area of ​​wind loads and, naturally, the strength class of the products. The good news is that the buyer does not have to stir up the regulatory documentation to perform the calculations on his own. Thanks to the AluRoll software, it is possible to independently determine the suitability of a particular system for specific climatic conditions, perform a cost calculation and quickly obtain a bill of materials.

Solutions for reliability and economy

The range of components for roller shutter systems is quite wide even from local manufacturers. In “ALUTECH” for the implementation of projects of varying complexity, a dozen different standard sizes of lamellas of rolling and extrusion types are provided, with half a dozen varieties of guide rails. Well, there are even more varieties of opening systems, drives and protective boxes..

In order not to mislead the buyer, the manufacturer offers two main series of products that, over a long history of sales, have demonstrated the greatest popularity and suitability for universal use in different conditions..

The first type is Classic systems, suitable for use in any conditions of the domestic climate. The second series of Economy roller shutters has a slightly lower cost due to a decrease in material consumption of products. Unlike the systems of the first type, Economy is not able to close such large openings with the same wind pressure. Also, the key difference is the poorer color gamut – only 5 colors versus 30 for Classic systems, as well as a slightly looser color tolerance.

The end user should be aware of the following: the Economy series is designed for use in commercial real estate, where even such a slight reduction in the final cost can play an important role. For yourself and your home, it is better to use the basic Classic configuration: the difference in cost does not go beyond reasonable limits, but the customer has a freer choice and high color consistency, full wall thickness of the lamellas and guide rails.

But the main advantage is compliance with a wide range of construction and production standards, including international ones. Both series are manufactured on the same production base, but the characteristics of Classic products are confirmed by a series of mandatory tests carried out on ALUTECH’s own equipment.

Opening mechanisms

The manual method of opening and closing roller shutters, which is familiar to many, by lifting the curtain is provided by a spring rolling mechanism. The stiffness of the spring and its tension are selected individually for the weight of a particular blade. This solution is standard for roller shutter systems and is included in almost every set: the spring provides easy movement of the blade in any position.

In some cases, the standard opening mechanism can be equipped with an additional manual drive. It can be a cardan shaft, passed through the wall into the room, a ring chain or a block with a crank. There is nothing tricky in these mechanisms, they transfer the force to the shaft directly, the spring performs only a supporting function and facilitates the movement of the blade. An additional opening mechanism is convenient to use where access to the outside of the opening is closed, for example, on the upper floors of buildings.

The most advanced in technical terms are electric drives. They allow you to lock tightly and in intermediate positions, excluding shifting due to the high gear ratio of the geared motor. Electric drives are convenient for a large number of openings protected by roller shutters. Technically, the electric drive system can be supplemented with limit switches, electric locks, a manual release mechanism and automatic control.

Roller shutter automation

For many, any home automation remains an unnecessary excess, but in the case of roller shutter systems, it only helps to maximize the potential of the product. To begin with, we will list the main tasks that are assigned to roller shutters: it is protection from bad weather, heating the premises in summer from the sun, protection from heat leaks in winter, additional noise insulation..

Now think about how convenient it is to lower all the roller shutters in the house before leaving, how often they will have to be manually adjusted during the day and how likely it is that they will all be lowered at night, providing protection against burglary, street light and noise. Also keep in mind that windows are the primary pathway for heat leakage: even premium insulating glass units do not have the same high containment capacity as walls. Therefore, the more often the roller shutters are lowered in winter, the more heat will remain in the house..

Automatic control of roller shutter systems can be tied to the central control unit with different program scenarios that take into account the time of day, the presence of people in the house, the level of illumination. Interaction with the security system, smart home is possible, as well as an easier way to control from any multimedia device.

Measurement, installation and adjustment

In conclusion, it is worth mentioning, perhaps, the most important advantage of ALUTECH roller shutter systems. Unlike many foreign products, ALUTECH delivers its solutions assembled and ready for installation, which can be performed by 2-3 people without special qualifications. ALUTECH installation instructions are described in many video reviews and consist of several simple and understandable steps for everyone..

Let’s start with the fact that according to the installation method, roller shutter systems can be mortise and overhead. In both cases, the same complete set of roller shutters is used, but a tie-in is possible only before external finishing. Otherwise, in the project for the construction or repair of the facade, appropriate technological cavities and grooves for the guides must be provided. In fact, the hidden installation process does not differ from the invoice, except for the fact that after the cut-in, a decorative facade finish is applied over the box and guides.

The size of the assembled roller shutter system cannot be less than the opening, the width of the guides on both sides and the box in the upper part. The deviation of surfaces from the vertical and horizontal is allowed no more than 1.5 mm / m and no more than 5 mm in general. The difference in the diagonals of the opening is also normalized, it should not exceed 5 mm. Local curvatures of the plane, bumps and slugs of plaster are highly undesirable. If available, they are cut or framed with additional slats of variable thickness, leveling the curvature of the facade plane.

Installation begins with the preparation of the elements. The guide bars are drilled 10–20 cm from the edges, then the required number of holes for fastening along the entire length with equal indents of no more than 40 cm are placed. fastener caps. A box with a cover plate is also drilled for the diameter of the rivets used. You need to drill in those places where the reinforced tabs of the side covers are located.

After preparation, the box with the shaft assembly is inserted with plates into the cavities of the guides, then the entire frame is tried on to the opening and shifted with uniform indents on the sides. The preliminary fastening starts from the top of one rail, then the box is adjusted in the horizon and the top of the second tire is fixed. After that, the guides are vertically aligned and fastened at other points..

Both the shaft and the sheet from ALUTECH are factory assembled, it remains only to correctly hang the roller shutters. Before that, the spacer rings are put on and evenly distributed along the length of the shaft, then wrapped with the remnants of the packaging material, excluding accidental scratching of the surface. The web is thrown over the shaft in compliance with the rolling direction and immediately enters the grooves of the guides. When the canvas is thrown up to half, the traction springs are put on the lock of the upper bar, due to which the upper lamella is attached in the holes on one of the edges of the shaft. Before fixing, the shaft must be turned against folding by a certain number of revolutions, approximately one for every 20-25 cm of the blade length, setting the required degree of tension to the spring mechanism. Once secured, the blade can be easily detached from the shaft to increase or decrease the spring tension.

After that, it remains only to complete the installation. The plugs are installed on the tires, the box cover is attached to rivets, the handles are screwed on. After the final assembly, the roller shutter must be raised and lowered several times, fixing in different positions, check for friction in the guides, extraneous noise and jamming in the drive mechanism.