This Nonprovisional application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119(a) on patent application Ser. No(s). 093203863 filed in Taiwan, Republic of China on Mar. 12, 2004, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a window blind and more particularly, to a window blind having fabric slats.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional window blind having fabric slats, as shown in Taiwan Patent Publication No. 547056, which is the corresponding patent application of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2004/0103994, is known comprising a headrail fixedly fastened to the top side of a window, a bottom rail suspended below the headrail, a plurality of fabric slats horizontally arranged in parallel between the headrail and the bottom rail, each fabric slat having two opposite long sides respectively supported with a stiff support rod with at least one coupling portion, and a plurality of ladder tapes connected between the headrail and the bottom rail, each ladder tape having a plurality of vertically spaced retaining devices respectively fastened to the coupling portions of the support rods of the fabric slats.
The retaining devices can be loops, C-clamps, retaining rods. When loops are used, the user must stretch open each soft loop with one hand and then insert the support rod through the soft loop. This complicated installation procedure needs much time and labor to achieve. When C-clamps and retaining rods are selected, special molds must be used to make the designed C-clamps and retaining rods, resulting in a high manufacturing cost and lowering market competition power.
The present invention has been accomplished under the circumstances in view. It is the primary objective of the present invention to provide a window blind having fabric slats, which employs a weaving method to make ladder tapes for the insertion of support rods to join fabric slats.
To achieve this objective of the present invention, the window blind comprises a headrail, a bottom rail and a plurality of fabric slats arranged in parallel between the headrail and the bottom rail. Each fabric slat has two stiff support rods disposed at the two opposite long sides thereof. A plurality of ladder tapes are symmetrically connected between the headrail and the bottom rail and located respectively at the two opposite long sides of the fabric slats. Each ladder tape is formed of a plurality of strands by weaving and has a plurality of through holes in the netting structure thereof for the insertion of the support rods of the fabric slats so as to join the fabric slats to the ladder tapes between the headrail and the bottom rail at different elevations.
Further scope of the applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein:
Referring to
The bottom rail 20 is horizontally spaced below the headrail 10.
The fabric slats 30 are made of opaque or semitransparent fabric that provides a predetermined light shading effect, and horizontally arranged at different elevations at an equal pitch between the headrail 10 and the bottom rail 20. Each fabric slat 30 comprises a narrow, elongated, rectangular fabric slat body 31 and two support rods 32. The fabric slat body 31 has two pockets 33 longitudinally extended along the two opposite long sides thereof. Each pocket 33 has two transversely extended crevices 34. The support rods 32 are stiff rod members having an outer diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of the pockets 33 and a length approximately equal to the length of the pockets 33. Therefore, the pockets 33 can accommodate the rod members 32, as shown in
The ladder tapes 40 are arranged into two symmetrical pairs and vertically set at the two opposite long sides of each fabric slat 30 corresponding to the crevices 34, each having one end, namely, the top end fixedly fastened to the headrail 10, and the other end, namely, the bottom end fixedly fastened to the bottom rail 20. The ladder tapes 40 each have a plurality of through holes 41 vertically spaced at an equal pitch. The ladder tapes 40 are respectively engaged into the crevices 34 of the longitudinal pockets 33 of the fabric slats 30, and then the respective rod members 32 are respectively inserted into the longitudinal pockets 33 of the respective fabric slats 30 and the through holes 41 of the respective ladder tapes 40 to join the fabric slats 30 to the ladder tapes 40, keeping the fabric slats 30 vertically spaced at an equal pitch and horizontally arranged in parallel between the headrail 10 and the bottom rail 20 (see
As shown in
When making the two longitudinal ropes 42, 43 to form one ladder tape 40, the two longitudinal ropes 42, 43 must be transversely linked. As shown in
As indicated above, the ladder tapes are respectively formed of two longitudinal ropes by weaving. Therefore, a weaving machine can be used to fabricate the ladder tapes rapidly, lowering the manufacturing cost. This weaving design enables the ladder tapes to bear a high pull force in longitudinal direction, and the through holes have certain stiffness for easy insertion of the support rods. The aforesaid weaving method is simply an example of the present invention but not a limitation. Other kinds of knots, bends, slices, etc., may be employed to make strands into two longitudinal ropes, and at least one strand of one longitudinal rope is extended sideways and linked to the other longitudinal rope, and blank areas are left for the desired through holes during weaving.
Further, the ladder tapes are shaped like a flat belt. The spirit of the present invention is the formation of equally spaced through holes in flat tapes. By means of the support of the two stiff longitudinal ropes and the support of the strands around the through holes, the through holes of the ladder tapes are kept open for easy insertion of the support rods. According to the aforesaid preferred embodiment of the present invention, the through holes are formed in the ladder tapes by weaving. Alternatively, stiff through holes can be formed in the ladder tapes by any of a variety of conventional methods.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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93203863 U | Mar 2004 | TW | national |
Number | Name | Date | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
2187121 | Graves | Jan 1940 | A |
2275273 | Taylor | Mar 1942 | A |
2304534 | Burns | Dec 1942 | A |
3256928 | Hensel | Jun 1966 | A |
3916973 | Schuppler et al. | Nov 1975 | A |
5829506 | Zorbas | Nov 1998 | A |
6854504 | Nien | Feb 2005 | B1 |
20040103994 | Nien | Jun 2004 | A1 |
Number | Date | Country |
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547056 | Aug 2003 | TW |
Number | Date | Country | |
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20050199351 A1 | Sep 2005 | US |