Flexible or portable closure – partition – or panel – Plural and/or with rigid closure – Plural strip – slat – or panel assemblies
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-17
2001-10-23
Johnson, Blair M. (Department: 3634)
Flexible or portable closure, partition, or panel
Plural and/or with rigid closure
Plural strip, slat, or panel assemblies
C160S113000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06305454
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates to venetian type blinds which can have slats that can be tilted from an open horizontal position to a closed tilted position and further can have groups of slats tilted at different angles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Venetian blinds consist of a plurality of horizontal slats. These slats rest on ladders made of cord, fabric tape, or flexible sheets of sheer material. Blinds have a headrail and bottomrail, the bottomrail being either one solid rail or two parallel rails connected by a cord. The blinds have a lift cord or cords, traditionally connected from the bottomrail through route holes in the slats, to a lift mechanism or cord lock in the headrail. In some venetian blinds the lift cords are placed proximate to the front and rear edges of the slats, and tiny notches or slots are made in the slats for the lift cords to pass through from the bottomrail into the headrail. Blinds are raised to stack slats at the top by pulling the lift cords through a cord lock, which locks into place by pulling the lift cords laterally to catch the lock and then back to set the lock. Alternatively, an axle driven cord collection system may be used for one or more sets of lift cords in place of a cord lock. In this type of blind, as in most venetian blinds, when the blind is lowered all of the slats can be in an open, horizontal position, or in a closed tilted position or some intermediate position. The blind cannot have one portion that is open and another portion which is closed unless the owner turns the slats individually. Yet, there has been a demand for other types of window coverings in which the upper half of the window is uncovered while the lower half of the window is covered. This feature allows the consumer to look out the top of the window with a clear view to the outside without having intense sunlight on the furniture and people that are ordinarily adjacent the lower half of the window. It also affords privacy to the people inside the building wherever ground level is lower than the window.
One type of blind which has been offered to meet this demand is the so-called bottom-up blind. In this type of blind the slats are stacked on the bottomrail, which typically rests adjacent the sill and has lift cords which run up to the headrail. A moving rail is placed on top of the slats and is connected to lift cords which run through the headrail. Pulling the lift cords raises moving rail and the slats from the bottomrail. Examples of this type of blind are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7408 to Bohrer, 12,695 to Rose, 2,223,640 to Kwon and U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,108. to Levert et al. These blinds tend to be very bulky and can be awkward to operate because the moving rail is constantly changing position relative to the operator. Also, the two sets of lift cords are confusing. None of these blinds allows some of the slats to be in an open horizontal position while other slats are in a closed tilted position.
Laborda et al. in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,116,356, Graham in 2,719,856 and Ewing in 2,427,266 disclose blinds in which the lower set of slats can be titled to a position different from the upper set of slats. All of these blinds have full length ladders that extend from the headrail to the bottomrail. Tilt cords are attached to the rear rails of the ladders at a point between the headrail and the bottomrail. Pulling the tilt cords moves the lower portion of the rear ladder rails relative to the front ladder rails tilting the lower slats. These blinds are more expensive to make and the additional tilt cords attached to the ladder rail detract from the appearance of the blind and require a means in the headrail and descending to the operator to tilt the lower portion. Again, the double headrail controls are often confusing and the lower slats are limited in the angles that they can be tilted. Finally, titling these blinds can actually shorten their length which compromises the desired features of privacy. Consequently, there is a need for a venetian blind which has separately tilting slat sections, but does not require additional cords and/or controls. Ideally, this blind will require a minimum of additional hardware and have the appearance of an ordinary blind. Also the blind should be able to utilize cord ladders, fabric tape ladders, or sheer material sheet ladders. Overall, there is still a need for an easily operated, neat-looking venetian type blind with several cording style options wherein the upper slats can be open while the lower slats are closed, or vice-versa, or some intermediate combination.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
We provide a venetian type blind that has a bottomrail, a headrail positioned above the bottomrail, a pivot slat positioned between the headrail and the bottomrail and a tilt slat located immediately below the pivot slat. A set of upper ladders extends from the headrail to the pivot slat and carries a set of upper slats. A set of lower ladders extends from the bottomrail to the tilt slat with each lower ladder being connected to a pivot member on the pivot slat. The lower ladders carry a set of lower slats. This arrangement allows the lower slats to be separately tilted to a different position from the upper slats.
To change the lower slats to a position different from the upper slats an operator turns the tilt slat or the bottomrail. Since the rails of the lower ladder are attached to the tilt slat this will cause the front rail and the rear rail of each lower ladder to move in opposite directions causing the lower slats which are carried on the lower ladder to change position. The tilting slat thereby enables the user to place the blind in any of the extreme positions when the blind is fully or partially lowered. All of the slats may be in a closed position front edges down or back edges down; all of the slats may be in an open position; the slats on the upper ladders may be open while the slats on the lower ladders may be closed with front or back edges down; and the slats on the upper ladders may be closed with front or back edges down while the slats on the lower ladders may be open. To simplify the explanation only the extreme tilt positions are described, but any of the intermediate positions can be used in various combinations.
The ladders are typically made of cord, but the hardware of this blind will also accommodate fabric tape or sheet ladders. The lift cords can run along the edges of the slats or pass through route holes in the slats.
There are several distinct advantages of this Venetian type blind which set it apart from those attempted earlier. All of the components except the pivot slat and the tilt slat are off the shelf items that are used in existing venetian blinds. Furthermore, the pivot slat and the tilt slat can easily be made by modifying existing slats. Therefore, this blind can be used for all types of existing venetian type blinds. One could make this blind by simply modifying two of the slats in a prior art venetian blind to be the pivot slat and the tilt slat and cutting the ladders at the location of the pivot slat to form upper ladders and lower ladders. To make this type of blind, a manufacturer will not need to produce or purchase a new and expensive hardware system or components that need to be color matched. This is a very large consideration because venetians typically come in over 100 colors. Furthermore, this type of blind can be made with standard equipment that every blind maker should have. The blind is installed in the same manner as existing venetian type blinds.
Other objects and advantages of this venetian type blind will become apparent from the description of certain present preferred embodiments thereof which are shown in the drawings.
REFERENCES:
patent: 7108 (1850-06-01), Bohrer
patent: 12695 (1855-04-01), Rose
patent: 330936 (1885-11-01), Sorlie
patent: D. 372828 (1996-08-01), Sticker
patent: 2089464 (1937-08-01), Wood
patent: 2214539 (1940-09-01), Reinike
patent: 2276425 (1942-03-01), Slattery
patent: 2283640 (1942-05-01), Kwon
patent: 2579485 (1951-12-01), Ferguson et al.
pat
Judkins Ren
Ross Ludwig Nicholas
Buchanan Ingersoll P.C.
Johnson Blair M.
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