Patent Application
20120233817
The invention relates to the field of window coverings. More specifically, the invention is a system that will allow fabric and woven wood shades to be made in a manner that incorporate additional safety measures.
Window coverings are made for functional usages of blocking sunlight, or creating privacy, and for a decorative purpose. There are quite a number of styles and variations of window coverings which are commercially available. Traditional fabric curtains or drapes, plastic or wood mini-blinds, Roman shades, vertical blinds, etc, are all the commonly seen choices.
A traditional Roman shade can be made of fabric or woven wood material and typically consists of a head rail or track system, a lift system, which can be a semi-automatic spring loaded mechanism, a manual cord lift mechanism or even a remotely controlled motorized lift system. These lift systems all rely on the inherent cords that descend vertically through or from the head rail or track system to lift the shade. These shades will also contain several horizontal pleats, or folds, created at regular intervals along the vertical length of the shade. These exposed, cord-based systems present a danger to children, though consumers continue to desire the decorative nature of a Roman or Woven Wood shade.
FIGS. 1-a, 1-b and 1-c show a typical prior method of fabricating a roman shade. This roman shade has a decorative forward facing shade material extending from the head rail to the bottom rail with a plurality of cords passing through rings, loops or other cord connectors attached to the rear facing side of the decorative material. This shade can also comprise a blackout or dim out liner that is affixed to the rear of the forward facing decorative material where the liner has holes cut out so that the rings, loops or other cord connectors are exposed to the rear of the shade. In either embodiment of this prior method of fabricating a roman shade, the plurality of lift cords descend from the head rail and its lift mechanisms through the rings, loops or other cord connectors to be attached to the bottom rail. This method has been deemed unsafe by consumer safety groups in that the operating cords are exposed to the rear of the shade allowing a child to easily grab hold of the exposed cords and create a loop large enough to be considered dangerous as illustrated in
FIGS. 3-a, 3-b and 3c shows another typical prior method of fabricating a roman shade. This roman shade has a decorative forward facing shade material extending from the head rail to the bottom rail with a plurality of cords passing through rings, loops or other cord connectors attached to the rear facing side of the fabric layer. This method incorporates a blackout or dim out liner that is affixed to the rear of the forward facing material, but unlike the construction shown in FIGS. 1-a through 1-c, the cords run through rings, loops or other cord connectors that are between the two distinct layers of material. This embodiment, while eliminating the exposed cords, still poses a safety concern in that a child could easily separate the two layers of material to access the operating cords and pull to generate a loop as shown in
FIGS. 5-a and 5-b show yet another prior method of fabricating a roman shade. This roman shade has a decorative forward facing shade material extending from the head rail to the bottom rail with a plurality of cords passing through rings, loops or other cord connectors attached to the rear facing side of the fabric layer. This method also incorporates a blackout or dim out liner that is completely affixed to the forward facing decorative material by sewing the outer left and right edges of both materials together, in effect creating a sewn pocket in which the operating cords are inaccessible. Although this method addresses the safety concern, it creates an unsightly shade when in the raised position. When the two layers of material are sewn in this fashion, the individual pleats are not allowed to create the desired fold or hobble affect. This method bunches upwards in a fashion similar to that shown in FIGS. 6-a and 6-b.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a winder shade that is aesthetically pleasing, functional and cost effective while incorporating multiple unique safety features.
It is yet another objective of this invention to provide a winder shade that by design reduces if not eliminates the likelihood of the operating cords from being pulled outwards from the shade and becoming a safety hazard.
It is yet another objective of this invention to provide the window coverings industry with a shade system that is simple to fabricate and cost effective as it is designed to operate ideally with the current proven low-cost cord lift systems.
It is yet another objective of this invention to create a shade system that allows for the fabricator to continue to provide the consumer with roman shades using the multitude of woven fabrics, non-woven fabrics, woven woods and films available to suit their individual preferences.
Additional objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from a description of certain present preferred embodiments thereof shown in the drawings which follow.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate prior methods and the preferred embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
A brief description of the drawings is as follows:
FIGS. 1-a, 1-b and 1-c show a typical prior method of fabricating a roman shade with or without a liner. This method has exposed cords to the rear of the shade.
FIGS. 3-a, 3-b and 3-c show another prior method of fabricating a roman shade with a liner. This method has cords which descend vertically between the layers of material.
FIGS. 5-a and 5-b show yet another prior method in which the two layers of material are sewn on the left and right edges generating an envelope effect. This method encases the operating cords.
FIGS. 6-a and 6-b show the same prior method as FIGS. 5-a and 5-b, but show the unsightly affect that this method creates in the raised position. The individual pleats bunch up as opposed to creating the typically roman shade hobble or fold.
As shown in
A two-cord lift/connect system 40 is built to the left side and right side of the Roman shade 10, wherein one of the two cords is a lift cord 41 and the other one of the two cords is a connector cord 42.
The top of said Roman shade is a head rail 12 which forms the first horizontal piece from where the front fabric 51 shade drapes down and the two-cord system 40 also extend down from said head rail 12 on the two sides of said Roman shade.
In actual implementation of present invention, said head rail 12 can use the same rib piece 2 as those the form the folds below.
On the left and right side along the horizontal length of each of said rib pieces 2, there are two adjacent holes 61 and 62, allowing the lift cord 41 and connector cord 42 to thread through vertically. The two adjacent holes are made along the length-wise direction of the rib pieces 2.
A V-lock component 7 is made to have two holes, with a bigger hole 71 made to have a tapered V shape pointing towards the other smaller hole 72, which is generally round shape. At time of installation, the smaller hole 72 on the V-lock component 7 will be fitted to the outside hole 62 of the two adjacent holes near the outside edge of said rib piece 2, while the V-shaped hole 71 of the V-lock component 7 will be fitted to the other bigger hole 61 of the two-adjacent holes, which will be closer to the horizontal mid-point of the rib piece 2.
A short length of protruding lip 76 is made from one side (treated as bottom side) of each of the two holes 71/72 on the V-lock component 7, so that the protruding lip 76 will be matching to the diameter of the two adjacent holes 61/62 on the rib pieces 2 when said V-lock component 7 is installed to the rib piece 2.
The lift cord 41 is threaded through the V hole 71 of the V-lock component 7 and the corresponding bigger hole 61 on the rib piece 2.
The connector cord 42 is threaded through the smaller hole 72 on the V-lock component 7 and the corresponding (smaller) hole 62 on the rib piece 2.
In actual products and models, the protruding lips 76 from the V-hole 71 and the smaller hole 72 of the V-lock component 7 will easily guide the correct installation as the protruding lips 76 are sized to match the two adjacent holes 61/62 on the rib piece 2.
In between every two rib pieces 2, a safety connector 25 is fixed roughly to the mid-point along the vertical length of the fold created by the rib pieces 2, where the lift cord 41 and the connector cord 42 are fixed onto said safety connector 25. Said safety connector 25 limits the amount of lateral tugging and free play of the lift cord 41, due to the structure of the V-hole 71 on the V-component 7, as explained below.
When fully installed and operational, a Roman shade 10 of present invention will stop the free tugging and pulling out of the lift cord 41, due to the fact that the V-hole 71 is pointing towards the outside of the rib piece 2 and when the lift cord 41 is being pulled outward, the tapered end of the V-hole 71 will catch the lift cord 41, preventing it from any further free-play or tugging away and creates a safety feature that does not allow tangling of a child's head to the lift cord 41.
An alternative implementation of the safety feature is for said additional V-lock component 7 to combine to said safety connector 25. Said safety connector 25 is made to have two holes matching the two protruding lip 76 of the V-lock 7, so that that lift cord 41 and connect cord 42 go through the holes on the V-lock 7 and the two holes on the safety connector 25, where V-lock 7 is attached to the top of safety connector 25.
A further safety feature of the Roman shade 10 is a pocket-controlling safety mechanism. This “pocket” 80 refers to the opening on the side formed by the front fabric 51 and back fabric 52 and in between an upper rib piece 2 and a lower rib piece 2.
Refer to
For the “pocket” 80 on the very top, the upper rib piece 2 would be the headrail 12; however, the structure and operation for the mechanism of each pocket 80 will be the same whether the upper rib piece 2 is the head rail 12 or other rib pieces 2 horizontally placed to create the folds of the wavy pattern on a Roman shade 10.
A plurality of rib pieces 2, serving as the segmented horizontal division for the folds on a Roman shade 10, are made to contain a “C” opening 3 on the forward-facing and rear-facing sides, for receiving fabric material either directly or by a ball ring structure 8 that can press or squeeze some portion of the front fabric 51 into the “C” opening 3.
The rib piece 2 with the “C” opening is shown on
From the side, a “pocket” 80 will form between a front layer fabric 51 and a back layer fabric 52 draping down from a head rail 12 and as segmented by an upper rib piece 2 and lower rib piece 2. So, each “fold” on the Roman shade is a “pocket” 10 when looking at it from the side.
A plurality of ball-ring structure 8, as shown in
The ring portion 81 of the ball-ring structure 8 will then be attached or sewn to the front fabric 51.
The use of the ball-ring structure 8 allows the formation of the “folds” on the front fabric 51 to appear more flowing and creates a desirable wavy pattern.
The lift cord 41 and the connector cord 42, or any lifting mechanism for the Roman shade 10 will be placed inside the two layers of the fabric and is thus not easily reached by children.
The illustration and explanation in the present application for the lifting mechanism as detailed herein can be both manual and any motorized system, as the teaching in this regard is not limited to either implementation.
The “pocket” 10 on the side will have limited size and is not sufficient for a human head to go into the pocket 10, thus promoting the safety standards on a Roman shade pursuant to the teaching herein.
