This application is a national stage entry of PCT/NL2017/050375, filed Jun. 7, 2017, which claims priority to Netherlands Application No. 2016918, filed Jun. 8, 2016, the entire contents of both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.
The invention relates to a venetian blind according to the introductory portion of claim 1 and to a method for manufacturing such a venetian blind. Such a venetian blind is known from WO2015/088349. In an example of a blind according to this document, the carriers are equipped with spacers, so that an accurate spacing between successive slats 2 is obtained. It is also described that the slats may be supported by supports that are attached to carriers such as cords, for instance by clamping. If no spacers between successive supports are provided and the carriers are flexible, the slats may be pulled up to a relatively compact configuration, for instance by pulling up cords running alongside the carriers and attached to the lowermost slat or to a bottom bar. However, manufacturing such blinds efficiently and accurately is complicated and costly.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a venetian blind that can be manufactured and transported efficiently.
According to the invention, this object is achieved by providing a venetian blind according to claim 1. The invention may also be embodied in a method according to claim 9 for assembling such a venetian blind.
Because the carriers are in the form of flexible strings provided with stoppers permanently fixed to the string in positions at a uniform pitch in longitudinal direction of the carrier between each pair of successive stoppers and the stoppers and the openings in the slats are dimensioned such that the carriers including the stoppers can be threaded through the openings in the slats, the venetian blind can be assembled in a simple manner by threading each of the carriers through openings in successive ones of the slats, wherein a number of the stoppers passes through a number of openings in the slats, arranging each of the supports on one of the strings and positioning each of the supports against one of the stoppers, and bringing the stoppers in engagement with associated ones of the slats for carrying the associated slats. In particular, the invention allows the use of carriers with pre-mounted stoppers, such as roller blind beaded chain cord, which is manufactured automatically and available at low cost, and threading the string with the stoppers through the openings in the slats, while the stoppers can carry the slats via the supports engaging both the stoppers and the slats.
Particular elaborations and embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
Further features, effects and details of the invention appear from the detailed description and the drawings.
First, an example of a venetian blind according to the invention is described in operative condition with reference to
The stoppers 7 and the openings 4 in the slats 2 are dimensioned such that the carriers 3 including the stoppers 7 can be threaded through the openings 4 in the slats 2. In operative condition, each support 5 is carried by one of the stoppers 7.
For assembling such a venetian blind 1, the following items are provided:
Then, as is illustrated by
Since carriers 3 with pre-mounted stoppers 7, such as roller blind beaded chain cord which is manufactured automatically and available at low cost, can be used, and the cord 6 with the stoppers 7 can be threaded through the openings 4 in the slats 2, the blind can be assembled easily and quickly and at low costs. Since the stoppers 7 can carry the slats 2 via the supports 5 forming an interface between the stoppers 7 and the slats 2, the stoppers 7 can nevertheless be used for determining the horizontal positions of the slats 2.
Mounting the supports to the string can be achieved in many ways, for instance by connecting support halves to each other with the string in-between. As is best seen in
In operative condition, each passage 8 accommodates at least a portion of one of the stoppers 7, at least that portion of the stopper 7 and the side opening 9 being dimensioned such that the stopper 7 is prevented from escaping sideways out of the passage 8. Thus, after the stopper 7 engages the support 5, the cord 6 can no longer slip out of the opening 8.
For a particularly reliable positioning of the stoppers 7, it is preferred that the stoppers 7 are injection moulded to the cord 6.
As is shown in
A particularly efficient construction is obtained if the pull-up cords 12 are each guided through a vertical row of the supports. To this end, the support shown in
The openings and the supports are preferably arranged for providing stable support for each of the slats in at least two, mutually distinct positions as is disclosed in WO2015/088349, so that the slats can be turned individually or in subgroups into a number of predefined orientations.
While in the described example cords are used for carrying the slats and pulling-up the slats, also belts or other types of flexible pulling strings may be used.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2016918 | Jun 2016 | NL | national |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
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PCT/NL2017/050375 | 6/7/2017 | WO | 00 |
Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
WO2017/213501 | 12/14/2017 | WO | A |
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Number | Date | Country |
---|---|---|
2015088349 | Jun 2015 | WO |
Entry |
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International Preliminary Report on Patentability and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority dated Dec. 11, 2018 issued in corresponding International Application No. PCT/NL2017/050375. |
International Search Report and Written Opinion of the International Searching Authority dated Sep. 25, 2017 issued in International Patent Application No. PCT/NL2017/050375. |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20190309572 A1 | Oct 2019 | US |