Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds

Abstract

The Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds allows for independent operation of an upper portion of said blinds and a lower portion of same. This invention pertains to venetian and mini blinds as are used to provide shade and cover for windows and openings to allow light and access in buildings. Traditional blinds allow for filtering and blocking of light in said openings. This, however, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of allowing a portion of the blinds to be selectively operated and another portion of said blinds to be independently operated.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention pertains to venetian and mini blinds as are used to provide shade and cover for windows and openings to allow light and access in buildings. Traditional blinds allow for filtering and blocking of light in said openings.

This, however, leaves a lot to be desired in terms of allowing a portion of the blinds to be selectively operated and another portion of said blinds to be independently operated.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds allows for independent operation of an upper portion of said blinds and a lower portion of same in a unique and useful manner.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention reference should be made to the DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION below in addition to the drawings contained in the following figures:

FIG. 1 is a front facing view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top facing view of the present invention.

FIG. 3 through 9 are front facing views of the present invention.

FIG. 10 through 18 are isometric views of components of the present invention.

FIG. 19 through 20 are isometric views of the present invention.

FIG. 21 through 22 are isometric views of the top of the present invention.

FIG. 23 through 38 are isometric views of an embodiment of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the present invention with a traditional rope ladder for suspending traditional blind slats and running the full length from top to bottom of said blinds. Also shown in this figure is a Traditional Drawstring used to raise and lower the blinds in the traditional manner. Also shown is an Added Rope Ladder running parallel to the Traditional Rope Ladder but only for the first few slats. This Added Rope Ladder has Rope Cross Members only for every other slat in the top portion of the assembly. The Upper Opening Drawstring is used to lift and lower every other slat in the top portion of the blind assembly in such a manner that every other slat can be pulled up to rest against the slat above it and move in unison with it.

FIG. 2 shows a top view of the upper right portion of the present invention with a Traditional Gear mechanism for gripping and releasing the Traditional Drawstring. Also shown here are the Upper Opening Drawstring and Traditional Drawstring.

FIG. 3 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the present invention with Upper Opening Drawstring and Traditional Drawstring and every other slat in the upper portion of the blind assembly pulled up against the slat above it.

FIG. 4 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the present invention with the Upper Shade Portion in the open position and the Lower Shade Portion in the closed position.

FIG. 5 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the present invention with the Upper Shade Portion in the closed position and the Lower Shade Portion in the closed position.

FIG. 6 shows a front view of the upper right portion of the present invention with the Upper Shade Portion in the open position and the Lower Shade Portion in the open position.

FIG. 7 shows a front view of another embodiment of the present invention with a Slat Clip used to hold two adjacent slats together.

The present invention works by using left, right and potentially center Added Rope Ladders to lift and lower every other slat from a group of slats so that same can be held close against the slat directly above it. Then, when the traditional mechanism used to rotate all slats (generally a rod that can be rotated along its longitudinal axis) is twisted, the slats that are held in place to the slats above them rotate also and allow light to enter the top portion of the blind system only. This provides extra light without compromising privacy.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides a Slat Clip as shown in FIG. 7, said Slat Clip can hold two adjacent slats together firmly and when used on the left, right and potentially center of a pair of adjacent slats, allows those slats to be physically connected to one another in the manner shown in FIG. 7. Now, when the traditional Twisting Rod is rotated to open or close the blinds, an opening is again left for light to pass through where adjacent slats are physically connected via a plurality of Slat Clips. This embodiment provides a very low cost means to provide a useful feature to an existing traditional set of blinds. It also allows the user to select at will the slat pairs they would like to have function in this manner.

Another embodiment of the present invention provides for two pairs of magnets as shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, said magnet pairs can hold two adjacent slats together firmly and when used on the left, right and potentially center of a pair of adjacent slats, allows those slats to be physically connected to one another in a manner similar to said slat clips in FIG. 7. Now, when the traditional Twisting Rod is rotated to open or close the blinds, an opening is again left for light to pass through where adjacent slats are physically connected via a plurality of magnets. Additionally, every other slat below said magnet pairs, for a limited number of slat pairs, can be connected together and activated via added rope ladders as shown in FIG. 1. This means a user need only pull together slats 5 and 6 in FIGS. 8 and 9 in order to lift all connected slats below slat 6 in order to provide a plurality of openings for light to pass through. Similarly, the user need only pull said slats 5 and 6 apart in order to block light through these slats. This provides a very cost-effective means to implement the Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds.

Another embodiment of the present invention uses a light gauge chain as shown in FIG. 10 in combination with a slat lifter as shown in FIG. 11. The large diameter slat hooks on the light gauge chain are spaced to align with every other slat and be placed into the existing slat holes on the blind assembly. The top hook of the light gauge chain hooks into the arm loop of the slat lifter and as the blinds are rotated, the longer arm of the slat lifter causes the chain to be raised more (relative to the plurality of slats) in the up direction and lowered more in the other direction. This causes the light gauge chain and attached every other slat to be raised to produce the result of FIG. 3 where every other slat is raised up to the underside of the slat immediately above it. The light gauge chain and slat lifter combination are placed at least two points along the axis horizontal to the blinds (the same plane as the slats). This implementation provides light through in one twist of the blinds (say clockwise) and no light in the other twisting direction. This is a valuable feature of the present invention.

FIGS. 12 through 18 reveal several prototype models I used to develop working models of the invention. Most of these were fashioned using CAD design tools and 3D printing methods.

FIGS. 19 through 21 show another embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 19 I show a cradle 193 that accommodates a horizontally rotating drum 190 with left cord puller 191 and right cord puller 192 affixed thereto. Said rotating drum 190 rests in said cradle 193 such that it can rotate about the horizontal axis when resting in left cradle rest 195 and right cradle rest 194. This is shown also in FIGS. 20 and 21.

FIG. 20 additionally shows a new slat raise cord 203 and existing, traditional slat cords 204 and 208. Said slat raise cord 203 is threaded through holes in the cradle 193 and secured via a knot as shown at the top of said cradle 193 in FIG. 20. This keeps the slat raise cord 203 firmly secured to said cradle 193. The slat raise cord 203 is pulled via the left cord puller 191 and right cord puller 192 upwards against the right cradle stay 199 when the square rotating rod 206 is rotated counter-clockwise—such that the left cord puller 191 and right cord puller 192 move upwards against the slat raise cord 203. This in turn raises the outer length 214 of the slat raise cord 203. Since the outer length 214 of the slat raise cord 203 is selectively attached to one edge of at least one blind slat as shown in FIG. 21, this raising accelerates the raising of these slats relative to the other slats. This accomplishes the same effect as seen in FIG. 4 via rotation of the rotating rod 206. Conversely, rotating the rotating rod 206 in the opposite direction allows all of the slats to fall down closed.

With this embodiment, a user need only twist the existing twist rod or pull the existing pull cord in one direction for all slats to be in the closed position. A user can also twist the existing twist rod or pull the existing pull cord in the opposite direction for all slats to be in the closed position except for the ones attached to the outer length 214 of the slat raise cord 203. Rotating towards the middle from either direction leaves all slats open and pulling all slats upwards towards the ceiling is not interfered with.

FIG. 22 shows a variant of the embodiment of FIGS. 20 and 21. In this FIG. I show a left tilt cord section 221 and a right tilt cord section 222. These allow the worm screw shaft 223 and worm screw thread 224 to be rotated in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions. This in turn allows the master cord 226 to be pulled inwards and gathered around the shaft as indicated when the cord attached to the left tilt cord section 221 and released as the right tilt cord section 222 cord is pulled down. The master cord 226 in turn is physically connected to the left slat raise cord 227 and the right slat raise cord 228. The left slat raise cord 227 and the right slat raise cord 228 in turn lift or lower the selected blind slats as before, based on whether the left tilt cord 221 or right tilt cord is pulled in the downwards direction.

FIGS. 23 through 34 show yet another embodiment of the present invention. With this embodiment, slat rests as shown at 23001 in FIG. 23 are attached to a vertical pole 23003 with adhesive pad holder 23005 and adhesive pad 23007 adhered thereto. The entire slat assembly, shown generally at 23009 is fixed in place to the existing venetian blind rail housing at 27001, as shown in FIG. 27. This procedure is repeated for both left and right rope ladders and can also be done for multiple ladders in between the left and right rope ladders to prevent sagging of the suspended blind slats.

Referring now to FIG. 25, the scored shaft section 25001 of the lower slat pole 25009 and upper slat pole 25007 allows the entire upper and lower slat poles to be snapped in two. The notches 25003 can then engage and lock with the holes 25005 in the hollowed out split cylinder 25015 to form a longer slat pole as shown in FIG. 26. This allows for six slats to be used to allow light in instead of just three.

The procedure described above allows an unmodified set of venetian blinds to be easily retrofitted, without the use of tools or the need to remove the existing blinds and allow for the incorporation of the present invention. The resulting invention features can be seen in use in FIGS. 31 through 34.

Another embodiment of the present invention is shown generally in FIG. 36. The slat rests 36001 are secured to the window sides as shown in the figure. This is done on both left and right sides of the window frame and provides the features of the present invention as shown in FIGS. 35, 37, and 38.

While the principal features of the present invention are described herein, it is understood that variations of the invention can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention.

Claims

1. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds wherein at least two adjacent slats are physically connected in such a way that the upper face of the lower slat rests and is held against the lower face of the upper slat, said slats then constrained to move as a single slat for at least part of the rotational travel through a first fully closed position to a fully open position to a second fully closed position.

2. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein said means to raise and lower said slats is via an Added Rope Ladder that is shorter than the Traditional Rope Ladder and functions in the same way as said Traditional Ladder except that is operates on only a subset of every other slat in said blind system.

3. A Partial Opening Venetian Blind System as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closed by a drawstring mechanism that lifts and lowers a subset of slats in said Blinds System.

4. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closed by using Slat Clips to connect an immediately below blind slat to the blind segment immediately above it.

5. A Partial Opening Venetian Blind System as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closed by twist rod or pull cord mechanism that lifts, and lowers said subset of blinds.

6. A Partial Opening Venetian Blind System as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closed by a lever, button or switch mechanism that lifts and lowers said subset of blinds.

7. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closed by using Magnets to connect an immediately below blind slat to the blind segment immediately above it.

8. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein said subset of the total number of blinds is opened and closed by using any means to physically connect an immediately below blind slat to the blind segment immediately above it and rope ladders or other means to selectively raise and lower a subset of all blind slats by connecting them to the topmost connected blind slat in said subset of blind slats.

9. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein means to selectively raise and lower a subset of slats is controlled via a cradle and drum arrangement as described in the specification.

10. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein means to selectively raise and lower a subset of slats is controlled via a slat pole and slat rest arrangement as described in the specification.

11. A Privacy Adapter For Venetian Blinds as recited in claim 1 wherein means to selectively raise and lower a subset of slats is controlled via a slat rest arrangement as described in the specification.