CA1059424A - Blind set for a window or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE

A blind assembly for a window or the like, of the type having a drop-roller that moves along as the sheet of the blind is extended or contracted. The assembly includes hold-ing means, preferably of the type of a rod closely spaced from and parallel with the drop-roller. The holding means engages the surface of the extended sheet to hold the lower margin of the sheet against the window frame to prevent warm room air from entering the space between the blind and the window pane.
In a preferred embodiment, the periphery of the sheet is pro-vided with a fastener of the type of complementary strips of hooks and adhesive pile, for releasably securing the periphery of the extended sheet about the window frame, to thus further improve the separation of the window pane from the interior of the room. The advance in the art resides in providing a simple, relatively inexpensive, yet extremely effective thermal in-sulation of the window. The sheet can be made of non-trans-parent, fully transparent or partly transparent material.

Description

A BLIND ASS-EMBLY POR A ~IN3~iF ~R q~E LI:K5 The present invention relates to a blind assembly for a window or the like, of the type including a generally rectan-gular flexible sheet that can be selectively extended or con-tracted to cover or uncover the window. The blinds of this type can be u~ed either as ordinary blinds, i.e. for the pur-pose of actual blinding of the window, or the sheet can be made of a transparent material, the ~heet of the second alter-native serving more or less strictly the purpose of thermal insulation of the window pane area.
The present invention is particularly directed to the art of blinds whose margins are provided with one half of a suitable fastener, the other half being more or le88 fixedly ~ecured to the window fr~me or to its immediate environment.
- Many blinds of different structure, generally corres-lS pondlng to tho above type, have been proposea in prior art.
Roference may be had to U.S. patent 1,959,136 issued M~y 15, 1934 to R.I. Niller and di w lo~ing a window screen wound on a roller which i8 secured for rotatlon near the u~per part of the window. When the blind or screen is extended, slide fastoners are engaged on the side margin thereof to more or less fixedly secure the sheet of the screen to a window frame. The drawback of this arrangement is particularly in that it requires two separate ooerations, one closing the blind and the other clo~ing the respective fastener~. Moreover, it is believed that slide fasteners are unsuitable for thiQ part-icular type of operation since the engagement of the re~pec-tive sliders may be relatively comp}ex if one reali~es that it 1"5942~4 may be desirable to extend the screen or flexible sheet to different lengths.
Another kn~wn device of this type is shown in U.S. pat-ent 1,887,646 issued November 15, 1932 to L.C. Jonathan, where-in two upright sides o~ a window frame are convexly curvedsuch as to form an inwardly convex surface of the blind when same is in extended state. This particular arrangement is provided with a blind of the "travelling roller" type. ~he upright sides are relatively heavy additional pieces that must be secured to the window at an accurate spacing in-order to achieve perfect match with the mechanism of the travelling roller. A still further prior art arrangement is disclosed in West German Auslegeschrift 1,261,290 issued February 15, 1968 to G. Rieper. Rieper recognizes the usefulness for the above purpose of so-called Velcro ~Trademark) fasteners. One half of the fastener is proposed to be fixedly secured to the respective edges of the blind sheet, while the other half is of the type of an endless belt travelling along the respective side of the window. The roller of the blind is mounted near the top of the window. As the blind is pulled down to close the window, it engages a portion of the respective endless belts which then move simultaneously with the blind sheet as the latter is being extended. This arrangement, presenting a relatively recent improvement in the art, is expensive to produce and may be sub~ect to fre~uent damage as there are too many moving parts.
A still further prior art device of the above type is shown in U.S. patent 1,997,912 issued April 16, 1935 to G.A.
Ph~nn. In this device, each side of a blind having a ~tra-velling" roller, has an extended, resiliently tenæioned cordwhich engages pulleys at the ends of the travelling roller to maintain the roller close to the window frame and to thus pre-vent the flapping of the extended curtain or the li~e. Again, the device is relatively complex to produce, not to mention that no particular provisions are made to seal off the lower-most edge of the sheet when the curtain is in its extended position. A separate retainer device is proposed to be dis-posed generally centrally of the height of the curtain to ' . : ~ ' - :',: ;'. .' . . :

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10594'~4 press side margin portions against the window frame The mech-anism of the "drop" roll is of the type utili~ing a series of control ropes which rely strictly on the weight of the storage roll to obtain appropriate drop of!same Such arrangement would be unsuitable if used with any kind of self-engaging fastener or the like along the sides, for instance of the type disclosed in the aforesaid German Auslegeschrift 1,261,290 It is an object of the present invention to produce an improved blind of the above type which would not-only--be at least as effective as any of the aforesaid prior art embodi-ments but would also have an improved reliability, and would be relatively simple and thus inexpensive to produce In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, _ a ~lind set is provided for a window or the like, of the ~ _ type including a gener~lly rectangular flexible sheet having a first, normally upper end margin, a second, normally lower end margin and two opposed side margins, an outer surface and an inner surface, the latter normally facing the interior of a room when the blind is in use; mounting means for fixedly securing sa$d first end margin to an upper portion of a win-dow frame such that the portion of said outer surface coinci-dent with the first end margin,is turned toward said w$ndow fr~me portionS ~aid second end margin being fixedly secured to the p-riphery of a wind-up roller whose axial length gen--25 erally corre-ponds to the width of said sheet; said wind-up roll r being mounted for rotation in a pa$r of bracket~ dis-po-ed ne~r the re~pective axial ends thereof; spring me~ns operatively associated with ~aid roller for re~iliently urg-ing the roller to rotate relative to said bracket- such as to wind up the sheet thereon; lock means for selecti~ely locking said roller relative to said brackets to prevent rotation of the roller relative to the brackets; a generally rod-~haped, linear, straight holding means whose length generally corres-ponds to the width of said sheet, said holding means being adapted to engage said inner surface along an engagement line generally parallel with ~ut spaced from said second margin to thus urge the part of the sheet coincident with said en-,,, , .. , . ,, . . - --: :-: .: , - :. .-:
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., iO59424 gagement line in a direction generally perpendicular to the sheet, from said second surface to said first surface; and support means adapted to releasably engage said holding means for urgin~ same against said inner surface along said engage-5 ment line.
In a preferred embodiment, the holding means is an elong-ate, generally rigid rod fixedly secured to said bracket at a radial spacing from said roller, the spacing being in excess of a maximum diameter of the roller when said sheet is fully wound on same. It is also preferred that the assem~ly be of the type wherein the length of said rod is greater than the spacing between said brackets, the arrangement of the rod rel-ative to said brackets being such that a relatively short end portion of the rod extends beyond each bracket. Said support means is preferably a pair of hooks adapted to be fixedly sec-ured relative to a window frame near a lower portlon thereof, e.g. to a wall, each of said hooks having a concave opening complementary with cro~s-sectional configuration of the res-pective end portion of said rod.
According to a still another fe~ture of the present in-vention, the outer ~urface of the sheet is provided with a pair of first fastener portions, each of said fir~t fastener portion- extenting along the re~pective one of said side mar-gln~, said asYembly further including a pair of Qecond fast-2S ener portions adapted to ~ecome fixedly secured relative to said window frame along side~ thereof, for engag~ng and diQ-engaging the respective first fastener portion as the roller i~ mov d to extend or contract ~aid sheet resp-ctiv-ly. The assembly of the preceding type may further compriso a normal-ly horizontal first faYtener portion secured to said outersurface along a normally horizontal line generallv parallel with but spaced from said second end margin, and an addition-al ~econd fastener portion adapted to become fixedly secured relative to said window frame along a lower portion thereof.
The normally horizontal line is preferably generally coinci-dent with said engagement line, whereby ~aid hold~ng means can . . .

assist in maintaining the normally horizontal first fastener portion in engagement with said additional second fastener portion.
Furthermore, it is preferred that the lock means be man-ually releasable bolt means adapted to interlock the rollerrelative to one of said brackets, rather than the known lock arrangement used in the blind rollers and releasable by the rotary movement of the roller. The present invention is part-icularly useful in combination with a fastener known as ~Velcro"
~Tradem~rk) fastener of the type of a pair of strips inter-locking or adhering to each other. Thus, an embodiment of the present invention comprising this particular type of fastener is also among preferred embodiments of the present invention.
The invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying simplified drawings wherein like numerals are used to designate the same parts of the as-sembly. It is to be appreciated at this point that the draw-ings are simplified for the sake of more clearly showin~ the features of the present invention, while omitting certain parts that are not necessary for understanding the princ$ple of the invention, even though they may be comprised in the product. For instance, those skilled in the art will readily appreciate from the following discu~sion that the "drop" rol-ler ref-rred to hereinafter has a spring disposed interiorly 2S thereof as the roller is of the type of a spring-urged blind roller of ordinary type. Yet, such spring is not shown in the drawings as it i8 an element notoriously known in the art.
In the drawings:
Figure 1 is a ~implified per~pective view of a blind Qet of the pre6ent invention showing the blind in a half-ex-tended states Figure 2 is a view similar to that in figure 1 but show-ing the blind in a fully extended state, covering a window;
Figure 3 is a schematic end view of a detail III as 35 marked in figure 1, indicating the principle of locking the roller relative to its bracket; and Figure 4 is a rear view of a blind sheet as shown in figure 2 at a state immediately preceding that of figure 2, - . .. .
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10594Z~ -when the blind is being closed.
Reference numeral 10 designates an interior wall of a room in the immediate vicinity of a window. DisDosed over the window is a sheet~ll of a ~lind. Th sheet has an upper end edge 12, a lower end edge 13 (visible in Figure 4), a right-hand side edge 14 and a left-hand side edge~l5. The outer or exterior surface of the sheet 11 is marked with reference numeral 16, ~hile its inner surface facing the interior of the room is designated with rëference numeral~i7. t A flat rod 18 is used in fixedly securing the upper mar-gin of the blind sheet, by way of screws~l9, to an upper por-tion 20 of a frame of the window.
As best seen from figure 4,the lower margin portion adjacent to the lower end edge 13 is fixedly secured to a wind-up roller 21 of a well known configuration generally corres-ponding to the known blind rollers and including a cylindric shell 22 (Figure 3) which is pivotable about an end çap 23, normally coincident with ~he axial end III as designated in Figure 1. As best seen in figure 3, the end cap 23 is gener-ally integral with a flattened pin 24. The end ap 23 has,in the embodiment shown in the dr~wings, two radial depressions ~5 adapted to receive a reciprocating looking pin or bol~ ~26 pa~sing through the end portion of the cylindric shell 22.
Th- pin and th recei~ing peripheral depressions 25 are shown in a schomatic way only, it being understood that the pin 26 i8 normally urged to stay in the position as shown in Figure 3, thu- rendering the shell 22 pivotable abDut the end cap 23.
For the sake of simplicity, means for maintaininq the Pin 26 in its ~released~ position is not shown.
The roller 21 is pivotally secured to ~ ~r~c~et 27 ~ ~YaY
of another end cap (not shown in detail) having a journal or the like for allowing pivotal movement of roller 21 relative to bracket 27. The opposite end (right-hand end of figure 1 or 2) has a similar bracket 28, through which passes the flat-35 tened pin 24, which is fixedly secured to same, for instance ~-by an adhesive or the lile, in a suitablv shape~ slot Provided in bracket 28. The opposite ends of the respective ~rackets 27, ' ~0S94Z4 ~7-and 28 are secured to a handle rod~2~, also referred to as "holding means". It will be appreciated from figures l and 2 and also from figure 4 that the axial length of the handle rod 29 generally corresponds to the axial length of roller 21.
The handle rod 29 is secured to the respective brackets 27, 28 such that suitable extension pins 30,- 31 protrude each axiallv away beyond the respective bracket 28, 27.
~ ~ ~~ - -A~pair of-hooks~32, 33 is fixëdly sëcured to the wall lO
in proximity of a lower portion 34 (figure 1) of the window frame. It will be appreciated from figure 2 that the hooks 32, 33 are shaped such as to receive the pins 30, 31, res-pectively,such that when the pins 30, 31 engage hooks 32, 33, the rod 29 is generally parallel with the lower portion 34 of the window frame and thus parallel with further parts thereof lS as referred to hereinafter. _ __ _ __ The arrangement of the preferred embodiment of the present invention utilizes a fastener of the type known as VELCR0 (trademark) fastener. As is well known, the VELCR0 fastener iY generally comprised of a pile portion ana of a hook portion, the two engaging each other for a relatively strong but rel-easable connection.
Reference is now to ~e had to figure 4 which sho~8 onlv the blind 11 in an extended state. Fixedly secured to the res-pective margin~ generally coincident with edges lS, 14, are 2S pile strips of the VELCR0 fastener, the ~trips being referred to w~th reference numerals 35 and 36 respectively. Another pile ~trip of VELCRO fastener extends horizontally across the she t 11 at a spacing from the low~r edge 13 of the sh-e~ at 37.
The hook strips of the VELCRO fa~tener co-acting with the aforesaid strips 35, 36 and 37, are arranged to be fixedly secured to the window frame to provide a right-hand side hook strip 38, left-hand side hook strip 39 and a horizontal, trans-verse hook strip 40. It will be appreciated on comparison of figures l and 4, that the hook strip 40 is not only generally coincident with the line defined by strip 37 but is also gen-erally coincident with the line defined by the axis of rod 29 when same is engaged in hooks 32, 33, as shown in figure 2.
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` 10594Z4 With reference to the terminology introduced herein-before, it will thus be appreciated that the side strips 3~, 39 of the VELCRO fastener are arranged to ~e or are fixedly secured, for instance bv an adhesive, vertically along the right-hand side portion of the window frame~2 and a left-hand Side 43 of the frame, respectivelv,as indicated in figure 1.
Figure 4 also indicates in a sim~lified, schematic way that the interior of the roller 21 comprises a coil spring ~ of a well known general configuration adapted to urge the roller 21 to rotate such as to wind u~ the sheet 11 thereupon.
In operation and assuming that the pin 26 is disengaged from a respective depression 25, with the roller now being near the top of the sheet generallv covering the flat rod 18, the operator pulls on rod 29 thus unwinding the sheet from the rol-ler 21 and simultaneously engaging the respective verticalstrips 35, 36 of the blind sheet 11 with the corresponding hook strips 38, 39. When the handle rod 29 is pulled te its extreme low position (generally coincident with the condition of figure 4), the pile strip 37 of the blind sheet 11 engages the hook strip 40 secured to the hottom portion 34 of the window frame. Thereupon, the rod is turned on top and engaged in hooks 32, 33, bv its end protrusions 30, 31, as shown in figure 2. In this position, the rod 29 presses against the interior surface 17 of the sheet 11, thus maintaining the portion corresponding to the line between hooks 32, 33 in a releasable but firm engagement with the bottom portion 34 of the window frame and, if the bottom portion is provided with VELCRO fastener strips,assists in a firm engagement between the two.
The pin 26 is manipulated into a locking arrangement with the respective depression 25 before turning the rod 29 upwards as indicated in figure 2.
Thus, it will be appreciated that a firm but releasable connection is established between the blind and the window frame which may contribute substantially to thermal insula-tion between the interior of a room and the window pane.
Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that many further embodiments exist which may differ from the em-.

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' 1059424 g bodiment described above. Thus, the arrangement and t~e of fastener may differ from that shown in the preferred embodi-ment. It is also prossible to avoid the horizontal low-er strip of the VELCRO fastener as the com~ressing force of the rod 29 mav prove to be sufficient to generally prevent escapement of a warm heated air from the room into the space between the blind sheet 11 and a window pane. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the wind-up roller mav be of a regular "self-locking" type, even though it is be-lieved that a manually operable locking mechanism shcemati-cally shown in figure 3 is preferable.
The shown blind sheet 11 is a coated sheet, it being understood that semi-transparent or transparent sheets, used str~ctly for the ~ake of thermal insulation, are no less ap-lS plicable.
It follows from the above examples of dificationsthat many different embodiments may exist departing from the disclosed embodiment, without departing from the scope of the present invention as recited in the accompanying claims.

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Claims (9)

1. A blind set for a window or the like, of the type including a generally rectangular flexible sheet, having a first, normally upper end margin, a second, normally lower end mar-gin and two opposed side margins, an outer surface and an inner surface, the latter normally facing the interior of a room when the blind assembly is in use;
mounting means for fixedly securing said first end margin relative to an upper portion of a window frame such that a portion of said outer surface coincident with the first end margin is turned toward said upper portion of a window frame;
said second end margin being fixedly secured to the periphery of a wind-up roller whose axial length generally corresponds to the width of said sheet; said wind-up roller being mounted for rotation in a pair of brackets disposed near the respective axial ends thereof;
spring means operatively associated with said roller for resiliently urging the roller to rotate relative to said brackets such as to wind up the sheet thereon;
lock means for selectively locking said roller rel-ative to said brackets to prevent rotation of the roller rel-ative to the brackets;
an elongate, straight holding means whose length gen-erally corresponds to the width of said sheet, said holding means being adapted to engage said inner surface along an engagement line generally parallel with but spaced from said second margin to thus urge a part of the sheet coincident with said engagement line in a direction from said second sur-face to said first surface; and support means adapted to releasably engage said holding means for urging same against said inner surface along said engagement line.

2. A set as claimed in claim 1, wherein said holding means is an elongate, generally rigid rod secured to said brac-ket at a radial spacing from said roller, the spacing being in excess of a maximum diameter of the roller when said sheet is fully wound on same.

3. A set as claimed in claim 2, wherein relatively short holding portion extends beyond each bracket generally axially away from said rod.

4. A set as claimed in claim 3, wherein said sup-port means is a pair of hooks adapted to be fixedly secured relative to a window frame near a lower portion thereof, each of said hooks having a concave opening generally complementary with cross-sectional configuration of the respective holding portion of said rod.

5. A set as claimed in claim 4, wherein the outer surface of the sheet is provided with a pair of first fast-ener portions, each of said first fastener portions extending along the respective one of said side margins, said assembly further including a pair of second fastener portions adapted to become fixedly secured relative to said window frame along the sides thereof, for engaging and disengaging the respective first fastener portion as the roller is moved to extend or contract said sheet,respectively.

6. A set as claimed in claim 5, further compris-ing a normally horizontal first fastener portion secured to said outer surface along a normally horizontal line generally parallel with but spaced from said second end margin, and an additional second fastener portion adapted to become fixedly secured relative to said window frame along a lower portion thereof.

7. A set as claimed in claim 6, wherein said norm-ally horizontal line is generally coincident with said engage-ment line, whereby said holding means can urge the normally horizontal first fastener portion into engagement with said additional second fastener portion.

8. A set as claimed in claims 1, 4 or 7, wherein said lock means is manually releasable bolt means adapted to interlock the roller relative to one of said brackets.

9. A set as claimed in claim 5, 6 or 7, wherein said first and second fastener portions are respective strips of a fastener of the type having one of said strips formed of tiny hooks, the other of said portions having a complementary surface of an adhesive pile.