ROLLER BLIND SYSTEM AND BRACKET

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention concerns a roller blind system and brackets which form part of the system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Roller blinds are useful for blocking light or at least controlling the portion of a glazed area which admits light. Such blinds are reliable in operation and are simple to motorise

and therefore automate.

When the glazed area in front of the blind is wider than about 3 m it becomes advisable to span such a width with two and preferably three blinds. A single span blind of this width cannot be made stiff enough to rotate truly. Consequently ripples form in the fabric which are not aesthetically pleasing to consumers. While it is easy to build blinds which roll and unroll smoothly because they remain straight, a disadvantage remains. The brackets which mount the roller blinds end to end ensure that a gap is seen between the vertical edges of adjacent blinds.

Such gaps transmit light at full intensity made more noticeable by the total blockage of the light by the sheet material of the blind itself. Strips of light admitted by adjacent blinds are annoying to the eye and in some users cause migraines. They fall across TV's, monitors and computer screens, preventing full vision.

Japanese Patent Application 2005-68828 describes a pair of mutually parallel roller screens which overlap at their lateral edges in order to exclude light and these achieve some light suppression by placing one roller lower than the other and displacing the plane of one of the blinds by use of a axial guide to allow the planes of the vertical screens to stay close together. The rollers rotate in a common direction so that as the blinds unwind the separation between the blinds does not change. However this arrangement allows considerable ingress of light due to the limitations of the geometry of the mounts and brackets and the direction of rotation of the rollers.

US 2,139,580 describes roller blinds which offer shading or weather protection to the interiors of schools. Overlap at the lateral edges is achieved by mounting one roller blind beneath the other. This requires a central area between two spaced blinds to be bridged by a third blind supported in brackets fixed to the central area.

US 2,879,965 describes a multiple double shade roller mounting and considers the provision of a mount which fits inside a window opening. Back to back connections of the overlapping ends of the brackets is described.

US 3,420,487 deals with simplification of the installation of overlapping roller blinds by provision of a stepped bracket in which the step offers overlap in the lateral edges of two side by side blinds, however as the blinds unwind the separation between the blinds increases.

Efficient exclusion of light remains a problem and this invention is concerned with this aspect and the treatment of rooms with windows which meet at a corner.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One aspect of this invention provides a C-shaped overlap roller support bracket for a supporting roller end, having a'spine, an arm and a leg, the leg having means to mount the end of a roller, the spine having a 90° flange for mounting the bracket on a support surface, the space defined by the spine, arm and leg being intended to accommodate the remaining roller when a twin blind assembly is installed.

Preferably the means to mount the end of the roller is a splined coupling for supporting the ends of two roller blinds mounted end to end.

• A further aspect provides an overlap roller support bracket for a twin roller blind assembly, comprising a spine, an arm projecting from the spine with a portion capable of fixing to a support surface, an upper roller blind end mount depending from the arm between the spine and the portion, and a leg extending from the spine with means to mount one end of a lower roller on an axis parallel to the upper roller such that the planes of the blinds suspended from the rollers lie adjacent and parallel.

Another aspect provides an intermediate overlap roller support bracket for a twin blind assembly, comprising a spine, an L-section head with a flat portion having two opposite sides and two opposite ends and a support portion extending from one end, a spine depending from the opposite end and terminating in a leg, means to mount one. end of a lower roller in the leg, and an upper roller end mount depending from the opposite side of the flat portion enabling the roller axes to be parallel and overlapping.

The spine may depend from one side of the flat portion and the width of the flat portion determines the overlap.

The spine may depend from an end of the flat portion intermediate the two sides.

The roller and support may be the roller end mounts are mutually spaced to impose a separation between the planes of the blinds of 5-15mm.

Preferably the roller end mounts are mutually spaced to impose a separation between the planes of the blinds of 5- 15mm. Though the mass of the blinds and motors is not large alignment is important. The brackets may be fabricated from sheet metal strengthened by one or more flanges.

The brackets allow the provision of long installations as may be found in schools and hospitals.

The invention thus provides an overlapped blind assembly for reducing light entry from a window or light source, comprising a first and second roller blind supported in mounts beside the window or light source, the rollers being co-linear and-mutually spaced by a gap, a third roller blind supported in mounts across the gap and being parallel to the first and second rollers while allowing both blinds to rise and fall, the first and second rollers being coupled for rotation in unison.

Some rooms have windows which meet at the corner. This prevents a different light entry problem.

The invention further provides a corner assembly of overlapping roller blinds, comprising a first roller blind assembly further comprising a series of upper rollers which overlap a series of lower rollers, these being supported by an end bracket and at least one intermediate bracket, a second roller blind assembly further comprising a series of upper rollers which overlap a series of lower rollers, these two being supported by an end bracket and at least one intermediate bracket, wherein the endmost upper roller of the first

assembly and the endmost lower roller of the second series are themselves supported at one end in a corner bracket, whereby the planes of the blinds supported by the corner bracket meet.

For this purpose there is also provided a corner bracket for a pair of roller blind assemblies, one roller being disposed transversely to the other roller, comprising a spine with a perpendicular arm for connection to a support surface, a first roller support located in the spine, a leg extending from the spine parallel to the arm, with a second roller support depending from the leg and providing a second roller axis transversely to the first roller.

This bracket wraps around the end of one of the roller blinds allowing two blinds to substantially meet orthogonally and thereby exclude light effectively.

The rollers may be driven by one or more electric motors. Instead of motorised operation, it is convenient to fix a pulley on the end of each blind and to rotate them by hand using a pendant loop of beaded line.

In sites where there are ranch slider doors, French doors, sashless windows which prevent a width of 3m or more then three blinds each 1200mm wide are selected. A centre roll may bridge a pair of end rolls. The end rolls may share a common manual or electric roller drive. The brackets accordingly provide a drive coupling which allows a drive rod to cross the gap created by the intermediate roller blind.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

One embodiment of the invention is now described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective of an example of prior art.

Figure 2 is a plan of a roller blind assembly utilising three blinds.

Figure 3 is a plan of a roller blind assembly utilising four blinds.

Figure 4 is a perspective of an intermediate bracket.

Figure 5 is a side view on 2-2 of Figure 1.

Figure 6 is a front view of the bracket with a drive coupling with the front of the pelmet removed for clarity.

Figure 7 is a perspective of the bracket in Figure 5.

Figure 8 is a perspective of the brackets arranged to make a corner assembly.

Figure 9 is an exploded view of an end bracket.

Figure 10 is an exploded view of an intermediate bracket capable of supporting a bearing as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 11 is an exploded view of the intermediate bracket of Figure 10 from the opposite direction.

Figure 12 is a perspective of the corner bracket.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION WITH RESPECT TO THE DRAWINGS

Prior Art

Referring firstly to Figure 1, wall 2 takes stepped steel bracket 4 which has a bend 6 at 90°, an overlap portion 8 and a bend 10 again at 90° to wall 2. Bend 6 has a bearing 12 for proximal roller 14. Bend 10 has a bearing 16 for distal roller 18. Both rollers are wound with light-impervious blind material. The overlap portion 8 is 100mm long and bend 6 separates the overlapping ends by only a few millimetres when the blinds are fully

wound.

As the blinds unwind the roll diameter diminishes and the separation increases. This creates a considerable gap which allows light entry. Even if the rollers are rotated in the same direction the gap will be of the order of 50mm and will remain at 50mm as the blinds drop.

Mounting the rollers side by side, though possible, does not give the effect given by the embodiments shown in Figures 2-12 which illustrate the invention.

In Figure 2 the L-shaped brackets 20 support a pair of proximal rollers 14 while brackets 22 with a reach of 10mm move support distal roller 18 above the proximal pair 14 so that the roller centres are 10mm nearer the wall than roller 18. When roller 18 unwinds the fabric overlaps the ends of proximal rollers 14 by 60mm.

A 150 watt motor 22 drives the distal roller through a reduction gearbox.

^■ A like motor 24 drives both proximal rollers. The drive is shown more clearly in Figure

3 where a pair of distal rollers 18 lie 10mm in front of a pair of proximal rollers 14. This arrangement of four rollers can cover a glazed area 4m wide. Motor 24 drives both distal rollers through a drive shaft 28 which bridges the gap closed by proximal blind 14.

Likewise motor 26 drives both proximal blinds through shaft 30.

Sheet metal pelmet 32 masks the uneven height of the roller pairs and the various motors.

Although the rollers can be supported by standard L-shaped fixing brackets used by the window and curtain industry, a channel shaped bracket 34 shown in Figures 4 and 5 is useful in that the width of the baseplate can be selected to give the desired width of overlap.

In Figure 4 base plate 36 has an upper distal bend 10 and a lower proximal bend 6. When these bends support rollers in the axes which are indicated by broken lines, the

arrangement of Figure 5 is achieved. It will be seen that as both rollers unwind the separation between the drops remains constant, preferably 10mm.

Figure 5 is a practical embodiment. L-shaped bracket 20 is screwed to the top of pelmet 32. Flanged bracket 37 is likewise screwed to the top and serves also to support the front wall of the pelmet. The positions of the brackets are selected to bring the separation between the blinds to about 10mm and the separation of blind 14 from the adjacent glass to about 10mm.

The effect when viewed from the front is that of a continuous blind extending across to full width of the glazed area. As light intensity diminishes with the square of the distance, an overlap of 30-60mm is sufficient to suppress the sideways ingress of light to an acceptable level.

In Figures 6 and 7 the intermediate brackets 38 function not only to support the ends of the blinds but also to transmit the drive to the shafts 28, 30. For this purpose C-shaped bracket 38 has a bearing 40 which allows a moulded coupling 42 with internal splines 44 to take the splined ends 46 of shaft 28 and roller spindle 44. These brackets are cut and folded from 1.6mm mild steel sheet and then powder coated.

Figure 8 illustrates two forms of brackets not described in previous embodiments. These are fabricated from mild steel by folding and tack welding in order to be directly attachable to walls. The brackets can support the roller pairs and a pelmet.

Bracket 50 has a spine 52 strengthened by flange 54. Leg 56 has three slots 58 for the reception of the motor plate (not shown) of a drive motor 24 (see Figure 2). Arm 60 is L-shaped consisting of a horizontal plate 62 and a vertical plate 64 strengthened by flange 66. Plate 64 is slotted for screwing to a wall. Plate 62 is slotted for screwing to a pelmet or ceiling. Depending from one side of horizontal plate 62 is stepped roller mount 68. Brackets 50 support the free or driven ends of the top roller 14 and bottom roller 18 of a pair. Intermediate brackets 38 shown in Figure 6 assist in supporting the pair.

If the building has a corner column at the position indicated by C at the corner of a room, two glazed areas admit light to that room at 90° and the assembly in Figure 8 is intended to allow overlap which will effectively exclude most of the entering light.

For this, bracket 50 is useful. This has a spine 52 from which extends leg 56 with a depending roller mount 68. Arm 60 is flat but strengthened by flange 72. In corner bracket 70 the top roller mount is provided by the spine 52. Bottom roll 16 stops at bracket 50 leaving a gap 74 at the corner.

Bottom roll 16a extends into gap 74 and is supported at its end by corner bracket 70. Top roller 14a stops at bracket 50a. hi use the distance from window/wall to the blind is less than 25mm and the blind to blind separation is 20mm and can be less so the blinds can meet.

The Figure 5 installation makes use of an L-shaped bracket 20 and flanged bracket 37 but in Figure 9 these are combined into a composite bracket with preselected overlap. Spine 76 is curved to form leg 78. The top of the spine is folded to attach an L-section arm 80. The horizontal plate 82 can support a pelmet while the vertical channel 84 is for wall fixing. Stepped roller support 86 depends from plate 82. Apertures 88 locate moulded bearings for the roller shafts.

The Figures 10 and 11 bracket are of like welded construction but the roller support 90 is enlarged to receive and retain bearing 40. These are intermediate the end brackets of Figure 9.

The bracket 70 in Figure 12 is three dimensional in that the spine 52 is bent to form perpendicular leg 56 which is further bent to form batten roller support 68. Arm 60 is strengthened by flange 72. Bores 92 receive the spindles of the roller blinds. The arm 60 and leg 56 wrap around the end of the top roller.

We have found the advantages of the above embodiment to be:

1. Any width of glazed area can be serviced with a blind assembly as described.

2. Overlap gives an acceptable level of light exclusion to the room occupants and computer activity and home theatre activity is made more comfortable.

3. Control can be managed with an I-r remote.

It is to be understood that the word "comprising" as used throughout the specification is to be interpreted in its inclusive form, ie. use of the word "comprising" does not exclude the addition of other elements.

It is to be understood that various modifications of and/or additions to the invention can be made without departing from the basic nature of the invention. These modifications and/or additions are therefore considered to fall within the scope of the invention.