Vertical Venetian Blind Construction

Vertical venetian blinds have come into considerable prominence in recent years, both as a substitute for the more common horizontal type, and for use in installations which are wholly unsuited for horizontal type blinds. One relatively expensive construction employs a horizontally oriented worm which drives a separate pinion on each slat to simultaneously vary the adjusted angle of the slat between open and closed positions. A construction of substantially lower cost involves the suspending of each slat at an upper end thereof by a clamp member having an upstanding pintle terminating in a hemispherically shaped member which rides upon the edges of a horizontally oriented slot in a supporting element fixed to the upper horizontal portion of a window frame, wall or ceiling. These slats may be drawn by pulling ball chains linking the slats together, and rotation about a vertical axis by pulling other ball chains linking these slats, depending upon the desired direction of rotation. In constructions of this type, because of the difficulty of meeting close commercial tolerances, equal angular rotation of each slat with a pair of chains is not readily obtained, resulting in the rotation of the slats to relatively closed overlapped relation in an uneven manner, with accompanying unsatisfactory appearance and light control.

Briefly stated, the invention contemplates the provision, in a device as above described, of means of assuring a uniform closing action in each of a plurality of vertically oriented blind slats, by providing a pair of oppositely disposed flat surfaces on either side of the hemispherical surface of the individual slat clamp or supporting members which ride in the above mentioned horizontally oriented slot, which surfaces, under the action of gravity cause a camming action tending to rotate an associated pintle supported by the slot to a predetermined angular position. Thus, should a degree of slack exist between two adjacent vertically oriented slats, which is greater than in that portion of the chain linking other adjacent slats, each slat will be rotated to an approximately closed condition, following which the camming action provided by the oppositely disposed flat surfaces continues the rotation motion to bring the slat to proper closed orientation.

In the drawing, to which reference will be made in the specification, similar reference characters have been employed to designate corresponding parts throughout the several views.

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary side elevational view, partly in section, of an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a horizontal sectional view thereof as seen from the plane 2--2 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a horizontal sectional view, as seen from the plane 3--3 in FIG. 1.

FIG. 4 is a side elevational view of an individual slat support element forming a part of the disclosed embodiment.

FIG. 5 is an end elevational view of a slat support element.

FIG. 6 is a top plan view thereof.

FIG. 7 is an enlarged sectional view showing the engagement of a slat support element with a supporting track element in a first opened position thereof.

FIG. 8 is a similar enlarged sectional view thereof showing a second closed position.

In accordance with the invention, the device, generally indicated by reference character 10 (FIG. 1), comprises broadly a generally horizontally oriented blind supporting track element 11, a plurality of individual vertically oriented slats 12, and ball chain tilting means 13.

The track element 11 may be of any convenient configuration, and is commonly of an extruded metallic type. It includes an upper wall 17 adapted to be screwed to a horizontal portion of a window frame (not shown) in well known manner, first and second side walls 18 and 19, respectively, and a bifurcated lower wall 20 forming a continuous longitudinal slot 21, the upper edges 22 of which form a track supporting the slats 12.

The slats 12 include individual slat members 28 of cloth, aluminum or rigid vinyl having folded upper edge portions 29, each being engaged in clipped relation with a slat support element 30 (FIGS. 4 to 6, inclusive). Each element 30 includes a horizontal base wall 31 bounded by an upper surface 32, a lower surface 33, longitudinal edges 34 and 35, as well as end edges 36 and 37. Extending vertically from the upper surface 32 are pairs of ball chain engaging studs 39 of known type and a centrally disposed vertical shaft 40, the upper end 42 of which is engaged with a hemispherically shaped enlargement 43. The enlargement 43 is bounded by a downwardly extending spherically surface 44 having a pair of oppositely disposed angularly positioned flat surfaces 45 extending inwardly from the spherical surface. Depending downwardly from the lower surface 33 are a plurality of clip members 46, 47 and 48, each having a laterally extending flange 49 adapted to clip the folded portion 29 of the cloth slat member 28, as is known in the art.

The tilting means 13, as has been mentioned, includes first and second ball chains 53 and 54 having clip means 55 which engage the studs 39, again, as known in the art. The end portions 57 and 58 may be entrained over horizontally oriented guides 59, or any other convenient mechanism to permit manual imparting of tension selectively on either end to result in simultaneous rotation of each of the slats 12.

FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 disclose the device 10 in relatively closed condition in which the slats 12 overlap each other for effective light control and the presentation of a substantially uniform appearance to a viewer. In this condition, the flat surfaces 45 become aligned with the edges of the slot 21, and as seen in FIG. 8 in the drawing, the weight of the individual slats 12 cause these surfaces to exert a camming action in which the shaft 40 descends slightly with respect to the element 11. The weight of the individual slats in descending provides sufficient work to overcome any frictional forces involved, and when the shaft 40 has fully descended, a detenting action takes place which requires positive effort imparted to one of the ball chains 54-55 in order to dislodge the slats from detented condition. When this latter operation has been accomplished, the enlargement 43 has been rotated to a degree sufficient to bring the spherical surfaces into contact with the edges of slot 21, at which point the shaft 40 rises slightly, permitting the individual slats to be rotated to any desired degree while riding on the spherical surface.

I wish it to be understood that I do not consider the inventon limited to the precise details of structure shown and set forth in this specification, for obvious modifications will occur to those skilled in the art to which the invention pertains.