OBJBUrOFTHEINVE- TlON

The invention disclosed herein relates to a system of slats adjustable by rotation, characterised in that the rotation is made possible by the slat incorporating a shaft provided with engagement or friction elements such as a pinion which, engaged to a rack, turns the motion of the slat relative to the rack into a rotation of the slat.

When the blind is raised or lowered, the slat body and rack elements move together, hbwever, the action of a series of tabs located along the path of the parts incorporating the rack can block its descent, while the slat body can continue descending enough so that the engagement or friction between the slat shaft and the rack makes the slat body rotate.

The slat shaft is free to move along a groove attached to the rack which acts as a guide for saidshaft.

BACKGROUND OFTHEI NVENT10N

Venetian type blinds in which the rigid slats can be adjusted to allow more or less light to pass are widely used.

Several sol ut i ons have been devel oped t o all ow a slat adj usti ng possibility to exist in roller blinds. However, none present the technical solution disclosed herein.

As long ago as 1964, Patent E296295 described a swivelling device for rolling blinds of tilting adjustable slats, in which the slats have a pi voting attachment on their ends to side chains that allowed the slats to swivel and are also attached to front chains that transmit the swivelling motion from some diving slats to the remaining driven slats, wherein the slats are permanently connected to the front chains that transmit the osd II at ory motion between them.

More recently, utility model 1038677 also discusses adjusting the slats of blinds by a series of tensioning elements that connect them to one another.

In addition, Patent EB2043131 discloses a rolling blind with adjustable slats wherein t he s! at sare connected by a dri ve chai n and an adjust i ng chain .

This system of slats connected to one another by drive elements and orientation adjusting elements is present, among others, in patents E2162571, E2153463 and ES2196936, each of which provides specific solutions that overcome certain drawbacks or make improvements to the prior art.

SDme patents, such as E2241 58, incorporate means for automating the slat guiding when opening them that basically consist of additional elements which, when the blind is raised or lowered, receive a series of extensions of the drive slats and guide them, changingtheir orientationand, by the dependency between them, changingthe orientation of the remaining slats. However, these systems allow adjusting the slat orientation only when the height of the drive slat is the same as the aforementioned additional guide elements.

DESCRIPTION OFTHEINVtENTlON

To solve the drawbacks described above, an adjustable slat system is proposed whose rotary motion is not caused because of a slat present in the bind assemby, normally referred to asthe driving slat, which transmits the rotation to the other slats. Instead, the system object of the invention comprises a slat provided with suffident elements which, in combination with other structural elements of the installation of the blind, can make it rotate individually, with no drawbacks preventing this type of slat from being combined with others in a blind.

The adjustabeslat system proposed comprises the foil owing elements:

1 . At least one slat that rotates about aspecific shaft, which comprises:

a. The slat body itself, constituted byan elongated laminar element. b. Ashaft about which the slat body revolves together with the shaft and that incorporates engagement or friction elements referred toasa pinion. c. Abearing crossed by the shaft that moves up and down together with the main body of the slat, referred to asthe linkof the first chain. d. The end of the shaft receives a part that incorporates a guide groove for said shaft, a rack on its inner face and a linear ratchet on its outer faces, referred to asthe linkof the second chain.

2. Abraking system for the linkof the second chain, comprising:

a. A U-shaped rail

b. An also U-shaped casing internal to the aforementioned rail.

c. B ements t hat i mmobi lise or rel ease t he I i nk of t he second chain . d. Means for chang ng the posit ion of said elements. I n a syst em t h u s conf i gu red , t h e body of t h e slat wi 11 r otate , d u e t o t he act i on of t h e pi nion on t he rack, when t here is a relat i ve displ acement of t he shaft on t he rack.

During the blind raising or lowering operations, the link of the first chain and the I i n k of t he second chai n wil I be rai sed and/ or I owered t oget her wit h i t .

In the path of the link of theseoond chain, coinciding with the ratchet, are disposed a series of tabs t hat can bl ock t he descent of t he parts incorporat ing t he ratchets.

When the descent of these parts is blocked, the body of the slat can continue to descend slightly, the shaft being guided by the groove present in the link of the second chain.

This descent of the slat body and its shaft with respect to the link of the second chai n makes t he body of t he slat rotate due to t he act ion of t he pi ni on on t he rack.

For the slat body to return to its position perpendicular to the ground, it must be raised slightly so that the action of the pinion on the rack again causes the slat body to rot at e, t h is t i me i n t he opposi te sense.

When the slat body is perpendicular to the ground, the tabs, due to the action of a pi at e, wil I change t hei r posit i on and release the rat chet , allowingthe slat body and t he f i rst and second I inks to move up or down with it . BH E3= DESCRIPTION OFTH EDRAWINGS

FIGURE 1 is an exploded view of the main elements of the slat, showing the slat body (1 ), acover (2) at the end of the slat body in which the shaft (3) is inserted, the link of the first chain that acts as a bearing (4), the pinion (5), the link of the second chain (6) in which can be distinguished the part that receives the groove (18) in which the shaft is inserted, and which is internally provided with the corresponding rack and a lug (20), and the part that has the ratchet (7) and the means for connecting each slat to the one immediately above and below it (8).

FIGURE 2 shows the same elements as FIGURE 1 from the opposite perspective, thereby revealing a groove (19) on the most distant face of the link of the first chain in which runs a lug (20) that protrudes from the innermost face of the link of the first chain.

FIGURE3 shows two slats when they are in a position perpendicular to the ground, showing the slat body (1 ), the end of the slat body (2), with the shaft concealed and passing through the link of the first chain (4), being inserted in the link of the second chain (9), both of which are flush.

FIGUFE4 shows two slats assembled, wherein as the lowering operation has begun for the slat body and the corresponding link of the first chain, which are no longer level with the link of the second chain, a partial rotation of the slat body is caused due to the engagement of the shaft and the rack.

FIGUFE5 shows the inside of the blind boxwithout showing the blind, specifically one of the lids of the box revealing the roller, shown incomplete, on which the blind (10) is rolled, the funnel (1 1 ) that leads the blind to the rail (12) and, in this rail and resting on an internal casing (17) in the position locking the motion of the blind, the tabs (13) disposed on either side of the rail, each one pivoting about a shaft (14) and changing their position by the action of a plate (15) that moves up and down by the action, in this case, of an electromagnet (16).

FIGUFE6 shows a view identical to FIGURE 4 except that the plate (15) has moved up due to the action of the electromagnet (16), chang ^' ng the position of the tabs (13) which are now shown out of the path of the blind.

FIGURE 7 shows an exploded view of all of the aforementioned elements, thereby showing the bodies of the slats (1 ) that now conform a blind, the links of the first chain (4), the links of the second chain (6) incorporating the ratchet, the rail (12) and the internal casing of the rail (17), the plate (15), the electromagnet (16).

DESCRIPTION OF AN BVIBCOM B\ITOFTHEINVB\ITION

The invention disdosed herein can be embodied in many different ways, one of which has been selected here for which tests have been performed, without ruling out ot her embod ments t hat share the techni cal solut ions dai med i n t he present embodiment .

The proposed invention relatesto a rotary adjustable slat system comprising:

1 . At least one slat that rotates about aspecific shaft, which comprises:

a. The slat body itself, constituted byan elongated laminar element. b. A shaft about whi ch t he slat body revol ves toget her wi th t he shaft and t hat incorporates engagement or friction elements referred toasa pinion. c. Abearing crossed by the shaft that moves up and down together with the main body of the slat, referred to as the I ink of the first chain. d. The end of the shaft receives a part that incorporates a guide groove for said shaft, a rack on its inner face and a linear ratchet on its outer faces, referred to as the link of the second chain.

Abraking system for the linkof the second chain, comprising:

a. A U-shaped profile body referred to as a rail .

b. Acasing internal to the aforementioned rail .

c. Tabsthat immobilise or release the ratchet.

d. Means for chang ng the posit ion of the tabs. The union of several slats conforms a blind that will rdl or unroll on the upper roller, making it move up or down.

In its upward or downward motion position, theslat is perpendicular to the ground, as shown in FIGURE 2, and the shaft (3) stops against the top part of the groove (18) of the link of the second chain, the first and second chain and the slat body moving up and down together because the bind is pulled by the first chain, while in this position the second chain rests on the shaft.

In the raising or lowering operations, the slats, and specifically the links of the second chain, run freely in the side rails, asthe tabsare not in their way.

To turn the slats, the position of the tabs is changed by the mechanical action of a plate that is moved byan electromagnet disposed in the bind box

This change in the position of the tabs makes the second chain immobile, as the ratchets incorporated in its links are caught.

Despite the links of the second chain being immoblised, both the shaft and the links of the first chain and the slat body cont inue t o move down al ong t he groove (18) made in the links of the second chain.

As there is a rack engaging the pinion inside the links of the second chain, the downward motion of the shaft on the fixed rack makes the shaft turn, and therefore makes the slat body turn.

To return the slats to their initial position, perpendicular to the ground, they must be raised to cause the inverse rotation due to the engagement of the pinion.

When the shaft again reaches the upper part of the groove incorporated in the links of the second chain, the position of the tabs is changed by the action of a plate that runs in the rail and is moved up or down by an electromagnet, allowing to raise or lower the blind.

To prevent the first and second chain to be destabilised when rolling the blind on the top shaft, a lug (20) is provided on the links of the second chain that can move in a groove (19) made in the outermost face of the I inks of the first chain.