Support members and gear drive for shutter and awning devices

Claim 1

In a protective shutter assembly for an opening in a wall or the like comprising an articulated curtain of a plurality of interlocked elongated rigid slats assembled hingedly relative to each other, a drive mechanism for raising and lowering said articulated curtain, said drive mechanism comprising a shaft having an axis of rotation disposed substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of said slats, and support members for rotatably supporting said shaft at each end for winding said curtain about said shaft, the improvement comprising one of said support members being an open-ended enclosure having a pair of substantially parallel long sidewalls interconnected by a pair of substantially narrow sidewalls, support bracket means for supporting said enclosure from a wall with said relatively long sidewalls substantially perpendicular to the axis of said shaft, bearing means mounted on the end of said shaft and rotatably supported in a first aperture through one of said long sidewalls, a U-shaped saddle member having a second aperture providing a journal for a portion of said bearing means, a worm wheel mounted and coupled to said shaft within said U-shaped saddle member, a worm gear tangentially meshing with said worm wheel, said worm gear being mounted on and coupled to a drive shaft rotatably supported by said saddle member, wherein said saddle member has a partially cylindrical recess in supporting engagement with said drive shaft, and fastening means for attaching said U-shaped saddle to the inside surface of said long sidewall with said apertures substantially aligned.