Flexible or portable closure – partition – or panel – Plural strip – slat – or panel type – Strip or slat structure
Patent
1991-03-18
1994-04-26
Bell, James J.
Flexible or portable closure, partition, or panel
Plural strip, slat, or panel type
Strip or slat structure
428225, 428229, 428257, 428258, 428259, 428288, 428296, 428373, 139420R, E06B 312
Patent
active
053058135
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This application is a PCT application.
This invention relates to window blinds and to a method of making window blinds. The invention relates in particular to window blinds comprising yarn-based fabrics which are given a heat treatment to improve their shape stability, the heat treatment melting a first component but not a second component.
Window blind fabrics require to be shape stable. This is difficult to achieve. It is particularly difficult to achieve with louvre blinds, in which the blind comprises a number of narrow vertical strips of fabric. If the fabric lacks stability the strips of fabric will twist or curve. Shape instability of window blind fabrics is aided by the high temperatures adjacent to windows. For this reason window blind fabrics, in particular louvre blind fabrics, are generally coated, to stiffen them, typically using polyvinyl chloride or polyvinyl alcohol. The result is a fabric which feels like a synthetic polymer rather than a textile product. Futhermore, the coating process is expensive, the capital outlay on a production coating machine being very large. Moreover, the process is not always wholly successful; the blinds frequently have to be weighted at the bottom to additionally hinder twisting or curving.
Conventional blind fabrics of the type described are not readily cleanable; they cannot be machine washed or dry cleaned. The synthetic coating may degrade in the light conditions, causing yellowing.
According to the present invention there is provided a window blind comprising a fabric, wherein the fabric comprises a monofilament yarn and/or a yarn made up of a plurality of staple fibres or filaments, said yarn providing a low melt component of the fabric, which low melt component melts at a temperature of at least about 1100.degree.C., the fabric further comprising a high melt component which is stable against melting or degradation at the temperature at which the low melt component melts, the fabric having been subjected to a temperature above the melting point of the low melt component but below the melting or degradation point of the high melt component, so as to cause the low melt component to adhere to the high melt component.
The fabrics of the window blinds in accordance with the invention are shape stable and stiff, relative to equivalent untreated fabrics, and resistant to humidity, but retain a textile feel rather then the feel of a synthetic polymer, which results from the present coating processes which are required with existing fabrics.
Fabrics used for window blinds of the invention are generally water washable under normal domestic or commercial conditions, without shrinkage or stretching. Boil washing may generally be carried out without damage to the fabrics.
To ensure the stability of the high melt component at the temperature at which the low melt component melts, the temperature at which the high melt component melts or otherwise degrades is preferably at least about 20.degree. C. above the temperature at which the low melt component melts, more preferably at least about 50.degree. C. higher.
Suitably, the temperature at which the low melt component melts is about 110.degree. C. to about 210.degree. C., preferably 130.degree.C. to about 190.degree.C., most preferably about 150.degree. C. to about 180.degree. C.
The low melt component in a window blind fabric in accordance with the invention may be comprised by a yarn constituted substantially entirely by the low melt component. Such a yarn may be made up of staple fibres of the low melt component, filaments of the low melt or be a monofilament thereof. Simalarly, the high melt component in the fabric may be a yarn composed substantially entirely of high melt fibres, filaments or a high melt monofilament. Yarns made up of a plurality of staple fibres or filaments are preferred. Preferably the fabric comprises a yarn which in itself has a low melt component and a high melt component.
In one embodiment the yarn for the fabric comprises a plurality of staple fibres or filaments in which the high melt comp
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Adams, III W. Thad
Bell James J.
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