Control wand for coverings for architectural openings

Flexible or portable closure – partition – or panel – Plural strip – slat – or panel type – Venetian blind type

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C160S17610R, C074S089100

Reexamination Certificate

active

06298897

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
a. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to retractable coverings for architectural openings and, more particularly, to an improved easy to manipulate wand for adjusting such coverings.
b. Description of the Relevant Art
Retractable coverings for various architectural openings such as windows, doorways, archways, and the like typically include a retractable barrier which might be a drapery, miniblind, vertical blind, or the like. Such retractable coverings have control systems that may be operated by pull cords or wands with wands typically being used in coverings having vertical or horizontal vanes or slats which are tilted or pivoted about their longitudinal axes by rotation of the wand.
The use of wands in coverings for architectural openings are desirable in that they avoid problems associated with endless loop cords such as children having body parts caught in the cord. Of course, with wands, accidents of this type cannot happen but wands have the disadvantage of sometimes being difficult to manipulate by individuals with arthritis or other infirmities in their hands. Wands are typically of a small diameter (less than ½″) and since they must be rotated about their longitudinal axis, the operator of the covering of necessity needs to grip a relatively small rod and rotate that rod with the use of the fingers which becomes increasingly difficult with age.
Attempts to overcome the aforenoted problems are evident in several patented references such as U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,398 issued to Renee. The patent to Renée discloses an operating system for a venetian blind wherein a wand is made of an extruded synthetic resin and is, by way of example, hexagonal in cross section. The wand has been caused to assume a helical shape so that all six surfaces of the wand are helical. An operating element is slidably disposed on the wand and includes a portion that interfaces with the helical faces of the wand so that upon linear sliding movement of the operating element along the length of the wand, the wand is caused to rotate thereby negating the necessity of an operator having to twist the wand. A drawback with the system disclosed in the Renee patent resides in the fact that the entire length of the wand is helical and the control element slides along the total length of the wand which may be an undesirable feature of the system from an expense and aesthetic standpoint.
A system similar to the Renée system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,476,132 issued to Jacobson only in this system, there are two helical wands with controlling elements slidable along the length of the wands to operate the system. This patent, of course, compounds the expense and aesthetic problems mentioned in connection with the Renée system.
Swedish Patent No. 153,833 issued to Bierlich discloses still another system for rotating a wand wherein a portion of the wand has been twisted to form helical surfaces and an outer tube is longitudinally slidable relative to the twisted wand. The outer tube has an interior partition with a square opening therethrough so that as the helical surface of the wand is advanced through the square opening the wand is forced to rotate relative to the outer tube which is held by an operator and slid axially of the twisted wand. This device has the disadvantage of requiring a pitch on the helically twisted rod that is very steep in order to make the device operate with a reasonable sliding force thereby requiring a number of reciprocating asses of the tube relative to the wand in order to affect an operation of the device. It further as a complex and thus expensive gear and brake mechanism to facilitate its operation.
It is to provide a device that makes a wand easy to manipulate and that overcomes the shortcomings in the prior art that the present invention has been developed.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The control wand system of the present invention includes longitudinally slidable component parts, one of which includes a relatively short helical guide path and the other a compact follower adapted to move along the guide path so as to establish relative rotational motion between the two parts. The follower has been designed to have a low friction relationship with the guide path so that the pitch of the helical guide path can be very shallow so that slats or vanes in a covering for an architectural opening can be desirably pivoted with a very short linear stroke of one component part relative to the other.
In one embodiment, an outer elongated but compact shell has a helical path formed along an internal wall and an elongated rod has a follower formed thereon having a portion of a helical rib which interfaces with the helical path in the outer shell so that a smooth sliding interface is established between the rod and the outer shell. In this manner, the shell and the rod can be moved axially or linearly relative to each other while generating a relative rotational movement of one of the members about its longitudinal axis. The member that is to be rotated is coupled to a rotatable shaft in the control system for the covering for the architectural opening so that linear movement between the rod and the shell effects a desired rotation of the rotatable shaft in the control system. Two different arrangements of this embodiment are illustrated with one arrangement having the outer shell coupled to the rotatable shaft of the control system, while in the other arrangement, the rod having the follower thereon is coupled to the rotatable shaft for unitary rotation therewith.
In another embodiment, a drive rod is coupled to the rotatable shaft of the control system and the drive rod is of non-circular cross section having been twisted to define a plurality of generally flat helical surfaces along a portion of the length of the rod. An outer hollow compact shell surrounds the helical portion of the drive rod and an intermediate hollow shell is positioned between the drive rod and the outer shell. The intermediate shell is axially and linearly movable relative to the drive rod and the outer shell and carries thereon a plurality of rotatable bearing members which utilize the drive rod as an inner race and the outer shell as an outer race so that the intermediate shell is easily linearly movable relative to the drive rod and imparts a rotating motion to the drive rod upon relative axial movement. The bearings, of course, provide a low friction interface between the two axially movable members so that a relatively shallow pitch can be provided to the helical surfaces to achieve the desired rotation of the drive rod in a very short linear stroke of the intermediate shell.
In still another embodiment, a drive rod is coupled to the rotatable shaft of the control system for unitary rotation therewith and has a helical guide surface formed on a portion thereof. An elongated shell surrounds the helical guide path of the drive rod with the shell being anchored to a support surface adjacent to the architectural opening. The elongated shell has a vertical slot formed therein and a drive pin slidably disposed within the slot is adapted to selectively engage the guide path on the drive rod so that vertical sliding movement of the drive pin within the slot of the shell effects a rotation of the drive rod which, in turn, rotates the rotatable shaft of the control system.


REFERENCES:
patent: 1025982 (1912-05-01), Johnson
patent: 2575479 (1951-11-01), Wilt et al.
patent: 4759398 (1988-07-01), Renee
patent: 4817698 (1989-04-01), Rossini et al.
patent: 5476132 (1995-12-01), Jacobson
patent: 5787953 (1998-08-01), Jacobson
patent: 6044890 (2000-04-01), Renee
patent: 6089303 (2000-07-01), Metcalf et al.
patent: 629107 (1961-10-01), None
patent: 153833 (1956-03-01), None

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