Window frames formed from hollow sections are increasingly prevalent in many houses, and frames formed from plastics material (such as PVC) have overtaken wood as the most common material used to construct them.

This is because amongst other reasons plastics windows improve thermal efficiency and require significantly less maintenance.

A problem frequently encountered with plastic windows is the difficulty in affixing curtains to the frame. Whilst full hanging curtains can be fixed to the wall above a window, some hangings such as net curtains need to be fixed to the frame, possibly at points intermediate to the height of the window.

Net curtains are a popular addition to many frames because of their aesthetic value, and also because of the privacy such curtains allow the home owner without cutting out light. Such curtains are very easy to put up on wooden frames because all that is required is to screw a couple of rings to each side of the frame, stretch a wire therebetween and hang the curtain on that wire.

However this cannot be done securely with hollow frames, especially those constructed from plastics, because the frame is formed from hollow sections that have outer skins so thin that a screw cannot find sufficient purchase or bite to grip firmly. Previous hanging systems have tried either screwing a rigid curtain rail into place or attaching it using an adhesive. Both of these systems have proved to be unreliable as the screws still fail to hold properly and they damage the integrity of the frame, and the fixing degrades during use. The adhesives are also unreliable as they wear out over time and the strength of such adhesive joins are usually only quite limited.

In the present invention it has been appreciated that it is highly desirable to provide a modular curtain-hanging systems that can easily and securely be mounted on a hollow section frame, which system will remain secure despite long term use.

Also, prior attempts to provide a mechanism for hanging the curtains have failed to adequately address the provision of a system for multi-part windows such as bay-windows. The present invention provides a modular solution for a continuous hanging rail that can be attached at different angles around a bay or other multi-component windows without the need to provide separate fixings for each end of each rail segment.

Therefore according to the present invention there is provided a hanging system for attaching a curtain to a window whose frame is formed from hollow sections, said hanging system comprising two brackets that are attachable to the frame, each bracket having a hanging pin extending therefrom and a spigot adapted, when the bracket is connected to the window, to extend through a first hole formed in the frame to the hollow interior thereof, a rod that extends across the window between the brackets, two couplings that are connectable to the ends of the rod and which locate over the hanging pins to support the rod between the brackets, and expansion means which cause each spigot to expand such that removal of each spigot from its respective hole is prevented.

Generally only one spigot is required per bracket, but multiple spigots can be employed on each bracket. The brackets are advantageously further provided with a projection extending from the rear thereof that locates into a second hole formed in the frame. Such a projection will prevent the rotation of the bracket around the fixing of a single spigot.

It is preferred that the hanging pin is generally cylindrical and further that it is arranged generally vertically. The use of a cylindrical hanging pin allows the couplings to adopt a range of rotational positions relative to the bracket. The vertical orientation of the hanging pin allows the couplings to remain located thereon under gravity without additional fixing means, although these could be supplied if needed.

The rod may be formed from a length of hollow tube, and whilst it may be in a variety of configurations, it is preferably generally oval in cross-section, and may be formed from a plastics material extrusion. If further tensile strength is required, the rod may be formed from a suitable metal such as aluminium. In order that a range of different window widths may be covered using the same system it is preferred that the rod be supplied longer than required and is cut to a desired length to extend between the brackets once they are positioned.

The couplings may be attached to the rod by any suitable means, but it is preferred that the rod has hollow ends and the couplings are attached to the ends of the rod by insertion of a portion thereof into the hollow ends of the rod. When a length of hollow rod is used, the cutting of a suitable piece will always ensure that a hollow end is revealed for the insertion of coupling.

The couplings may each have a loop or ring which is adapted to locate over the hanging pin of the bracket. The couplings may also be provided with a portion adapted to engage with the rod, such as a plug that locates snugly in to the hollow end of the rod.

It is preferred that each bracket has a base plate, with a rear side that is adapted to lie against the frame when connected thereto, and an opposed front side that is directed away from the frame. The spigot will usually extend from the rear side of the base plate, as the projection usually will when present, and the hanging pin may extend from the front side. The hanging pin may be mounted on an arm that extends generally horizontally from the base plate. The hanging pin may in turn be mounted generally vertically on that arm and at right angles thereto.

Expansion of the spigot may be achieved in a variety of ways.

However, it has been found convenient to provide each spigot with a tapered channel extending through the spigot, and to use expansion means consisting of a cylindrical plug that may be inserted into the channel once the bracket is correctly positioned thus causing a radial expansion of the spigot at the tapered end of the channel. Access to the tapered channel from the front face

of the bracket is provided such that the cylindrical plug may be inserted into the channel once the bracket is positioned on the frame.

An important feature of the present invention is that multiple rods can be arranged around a multipart window such as a bay window. To assist this, the brackets are preferably able to each support two couplings, such that one bracket may carry the end of two adjacent rods. This could be achieved by providing multiple hanging pins, but it is highly preferred that this is achieved by providing a hanging pin which is long enough to permit the connection of the loops of two couplings one on top of the other. To ensure that adjacent rails are supported at the same height, despite the coupling of one being located above the coupling of the other, it is preferred that two couplings mounted on a single bracket are adapted to form a halving joint. This may be achieved by having the loop portion on each coupling only extending half the height of the rod, such that by positioning one coupling one way up and the other the reverse way, both can sit on the same hanging pin and be the same height as the rod. It is further preferred that the halving joint formed is articulated such that each of the rods may be positioned at different angles relative to each other. The use of a cylindrical hanging pin and circular loops assists in this.

The present invention aims to provide a system that can hang multiple rods, as well as just one. Therefore it is preferred that three or more brackets, two or more rods and sufficient couplings are provided. For a system intended to hang two adjacent rods, at least three brackets and four couplings will be required. For a system intended to hang three adjacent rods, at least four brackets and six couplings will be required, and so on.

The system may further include a middle support bracket that can be attached to the frame and to the rod at a point intermediate the ends thereof.

Such a bracket will be useful if a wide span is needed or if a heavy curtain is to be hung, as it will prevent droop or sag in the rod. Such a middle support bracket may be provided with similar means for connection to the frame as those on the end brackets, i. e. one or more expandable spigot and optional other projections that locate in holes in the frame. The middle support bracket

may connect to the rod by a releasable clip or other grasping mechanism, that locates at least partially around the rod.

The system may also include a joining piece that allows the connection of two rods to form a longer rod. This would permit the creation of an extended rod if the span to be crossed were wider than the available rods.

If the rods are hollow the joining piece may be adapted such that it may be inserted into one end of each rod. The joining piece would preferably be as concealed as possible when the rods are connected together.

To assist in the connection of the system to a window, it is preferred that an assembly tool is also provided, which assembly tool is used to mark the position for the holes that are to be formed in the frame and/or assist in the connection of the couplings to the rod. The assembly tool may be temporarily connectable to the rod to act as a guide to ensure that the ends of the rod are cut square. The assembly tool may also be provided with datum points that mark the position of the first and, if present, second holes relative to the rod. Therefore by positioning the rod as desired, the assembly tool can be used to mark the position of the holes prior to drilling or otherwise forming those holes. The assembly tool can also be used to mark the position of holes for the middle support bracket, and it can be used to hold the couplings whilst they are attached to the rod ends.

The brackets at the end of the rods can be made suitable for use at either end of the rod, or can be appropriately handed to particularly suit either a left or right hand end of the rod. Therefore it is preferred that there is provided at least one left handed bracket and at least one right handed bracket in the system.

It is preferred that the majority (if not all) of the components in the hanging system, in particular the rod (s), brackets, middle support bracket (s), couplings, joining pieces and assembly tool are formed from plastics material.

The rod (s) may also be formed from a suitable metal, such as aluminium.

According to the present invention there is also provided a bracket for a curtain hanging system for attachment to the hollow frame of a window, which bracket comprises a base plate which is arranged in a vertical plane

when the bracket is attached to the frame, and which base plate has a rear side that abuts the frame, a front side that faces away from the frame; an arm that extends horizontally from the front side; a hanging pin extending vertically upwards from the arm; an expandable spigot that extends from the rear side to locate in a first hole formed in the frame; means to expand the spigot once it is located in the first hole ; and a projection extending from the rear side that locates in a second hole formed in the frame.

The bracket can be either right or left handed, and wherein in the right handed version the arm extends from the lower right corner of the base plate as viewed from the front side thereof when connected to the frame, and in the left handed version the arm extends from the lower left corner of the base plate as viewed from the front side thereof when connected to the frame.

The or each spigot can have a hollow centre and may be separated into a plurality of sections by splits along its length. These sections may move apart radially during expansion of the spigot. Access to the hollow centre of the spigot may be gained through an aperture formed through the base plate, and the expansion means may comprise a pin that is inserted through the aperture into the centre of the spigot to cause separation of the sections and expansion of the spigot.

The projection extends into the second hole in the window frame and this may serve to prevent rotation of the bracket about the spigot.

According to the present invention there is yet further provided a method of providing a curtain rod on a window formed from hollow sections, comprising the steps of: - providing two brackets that are attachable to the frame, each bracket having a hanging pin extending therefrom and an expandable spigot adapted, when the bracket is connected to the window, to extend through a first hole formed in the frame to the hollow interior thereof and a projection adapted to locate in a second hole in the frame; - marking the position of the first and second holes for the first bracket on one side of the frame and marking the position of the first

and second holes for the second bracket on an opposed side of the frame, and forming holes at the marked locations; - locating the first bracket and the second bracket on the window by insertion of their spigots and projections into the respective first and second holes ; - causing the expansion of the spigots to prevent removal of the brackets; - providing a generally hollow rod, and cutting that rod to the desired length so that it extends across the window between the brackets; and - attaching a coupling to each end of the rod, which couplings will locate over the hanging pins of the first and second brackets to support the rod therebetween.

When more than one rod is to be hung the method may include the following additional steps, before the hanging of the curtain: - providing a third bracket similar to the first and/or second brackets; - marking the position of the first and second holes for that third bracket on the frame at a position relative to the first or second bracket, and forming those holes ; - locating the third bracket on the frame by insertion of the spigot and projection into the respective first and second holes ; - causing the expansion of the spigot to prevent removal of the third bracket; - providing a generally hollow second rod, and cutting that second rod to the desired length so that it extends across the window between the third bracket and the first or second bracket; and - attaching a coupling to the each end of the second rod, which couplings will locate over the hanging pin of the third bracket and the hanging pin of the first or second brackets to support the rod therebetween.

In order that it may be understood, but by way of example only the present invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 shows a window frame with a bracket, rod and coupling attached thereto; Figure 2 shows how the bracket is attached to the window frame; Figure 3A shows a cross section from above of a bracket located on the frame; Figure 3B shows a similar view to Figure 3A but with the spigot expanded; Figure 4 shows a rear perspective view of a bracket showing the spigot and projection; Figure 5 shows a rod and couplings assembly, and how a rod may be formed from several sections; Figure 6 gives a plan view of a mounted rod; Figure 7 shows a perspective view of a window frame and attached rod, similar to Figure 1, but with a middle support bracket holding the middle of the rod; Figure 8 is a perspective view of the middle support bracket; Figure 9 is a perspective view of two rods connected around a corner between adjacent window frames; Figure 10 shows a plan view of two rods hung on one bracket at a right angle corner; Figure 11 shows a plan view of two rods hung on one bracket at an obtuse angle such as might occur in a bay window; Figure 12 is a plan view of the system as attached to an entire bay window; Figure 13 shows a perspective view of an assembly tool ; Figure 14 shows the assembly tool in conjunction with a rod for when marking the position of the holes in the window frame; and Figure 15 shows a side view of the assembly tool as it is used to insert the coupling into the end of a rod.

In Figure 1 there is shown the corner of a window frame generally indicated 20, this frame is formed from hollow section plastics material by conventional techniques. The inner surface 21 of that frame 20 is formed of plastics material and is relatively thin.

A bracket 24 is attached to the inside face of the window, and one end of a rod 25 (only one end of which is shown) is hung from the bracket, and although not shown, extends across the window to a similar (but possibly oppositely handed) bracket provided on the other side.

As shown in Figures 2-4, the bracket 24 comprises a base plate 26 which is generally rectangular, and an arm 27 which extends at an angle from one end of the plate 26. A generally vertical hanging pin 28 extends upward from the outer part of the arm 27. To mount the bracket 24 on the frame 20 two holes 30 and 31 are formed through the inner surface 21 of the frame into the hollow therebehind. As best shown in Figure 4, the rear face of the plate 26 is provided with a projection 34 and a spigot 35. The spigot 35 is expandable and is formed from four portions defined by splits along the length of the spigot 35. Each portion may move independently of the others in a radial direction.

Mounting of the bracket involves insertion of the spigot 35 through the first hole 31 and simultaneous insertion of the projection 34 into the second hole 30. This achieves a position as shown in Figure 3A. The centre of the spigot 35 is a hollow channel 37 and an aperture 38 in communication with the hollow channel 37 is formed through the base plate 26. The channel 37 tapers towards the outer end of the spigot such that insertion of an expansion pin 40 of a diameter equivalent to that of the aperture 38 through the aperture 38 will cause the outer ends of the sections of the spigot 35 to be forced radially outwards, thereby expanding the spigot and preventing its removal from first hole 31. Figure 3B shows the spigot as thus expanded such that the bracket may not be removed from the frame 20. The projection 34, which inserts into second hole 30, prevents rotation of the bracket about the spigot 35 thereby ensuring the bracket is securely attached to the window frame 20.

Referring now to Figure 6 there is shown a truncated plan view of a rod hung adjacent a window by two brackets. A left-handed bracket 24 identical to that previously described is attached to the frame 20 at the left-hand side thereof. A right-handed bracket 42, which is effectively a mirror image of the left-handed bracket 24, is connected to the frame 20 at the right-hand side thereof. The rod 25 is suspended between the two brackets 24 and 42 by couplings 44, which locate in the open ends of the generally hollow rod 25 and over the hanging pins 28.

Figure 5 shows a rod 25 and the construction of that rod and attachment of the couplings. As can be seen, the rod 25 is formed from a first length of hollow rod 46 and a second length of hollow rod 47. These two pieces are interconnected using a double-ended joining piece 48. This joining piece 48 has generally oval projections 49 extending on each side which are adapted to locate snugly in the hollow end of each rod section 46 and 47.

The engagement of the joining piece with the rod ends is such that they are a tight fit and assembly may only be achieved by imparting a suitably strong force. The outer ends of each rod section 46 and 47 are connected to couplings 44. These couplings each comprise a plug section 50 which is a resilience fit into the open ends of the rod sections, and a loop 51 which is adapted to locate over the hanging pins 28. As can be seen, the loop portions 51 are only half the height of the rod and each coupling may be inserted either in the orientation as shown or upside down (rotated by 180° about the axis of the rod). This half-height loop 51 ensures that a second coupling may be located over the same hanging pin 28 (as discussed in more detail later on) to ensure that the overall level of two adjacent rods is consistent.

Figure 7 shows a view similar to that shown in Figure 1, however a middle support bracket 60 is also shown connected to a middle part of the rod 25. As best shown in Figure 8, the middle support bracket has two rearwardly directed spigots 61 which locate in holes (not shown) in the frame 20 and can be expanded in a similar way to the spigots in the bracket 24. The middle support bracket also defines two locating troughs 62 into which the rod 25 will

locate, the rod is held into those locating troughs by a resiliently deformable finger 63 which projects over the rod 25.

The present system provides a mechanism by which multiple rods can be supported on multi-component windows, with each rod either being a linear extension of the next rod or being at a relative angle thereto. Figures 9,10, 11 and 12 show a variety of views of multi-rod systems. In Figure 9, a perspective view of a corner shows two rods 70 and 71 at substantially 90° to each other. The one end of rod 70 that is shown and one of the ends of rod 71 each hang over the same hanging pin 28 of a first bracket 72. The other end of the rod 70 would be supported by another bracket, however this is not shown. The other end of rod 71 is supported on the hanging pin 28 of a second bracket 73. As can be seen, the two couplings locating over the hanging pin 28 of the first bracket 72 are arranged with one one-way up and the other the alternate way up. In this way the couplings form a halved joint such that the rods remain the same height as each other.

A plan view of the corner arrangement shown in Figure 9 is shown in Figure 10. In this embodiment it is clear that the first bracket 72 is a left- handed bracket in which the arm 27 extends to the left-hand side of the base plate 26. This ensures that the centre of the hanging pin 28 corresponds with the apex of the corner. A similar effect could be achieved by the use of a right-handed bracket, but this would need to be mounted on the other side of the corner to the bracket as mounted in Figure 10.

Figure 11 shows a left-handed bracket 75 and two rods 76 and 77 mounted at an obtuse angle. As shown in Figure 12, five rod sections 78 can be jointed at such obtuse angles to extend around a bay window.

Figure 13 shows an assembly tool which can be utilised to assist in the mounting of the brackets and the rods. The assembly tool generally indicated 80 has a pair of locating troughs 81 and 82 on one side and a second pair of locating troughs 83 and 84 on the other side. Each pair of locating troughs is adapted such that they will receive a rod and hold the assembly tool relative thereto. When the rod 25 is to be cut to the required length it can be placed

between troughs 81 and 82 or 83 and 84 to ensure that the end of the rod is square cut.

Marking holes 85 are formed through the assembly tool such that when a rod 25 is located in the first pair of locating troughs 81 and 82 (as shown in Figure 14) the location of the first and second holes relative to the rod can be marked. Subsequently, removal of the assembly tool allows the holes to be formed using a drill or other such mechanism and the brackets can then be connected such that it will support the rod at the height it adopted when the holes were marked. Each pair of locating troughs 81 and 82, or 83 and 84, can be used when marking the position for a left-or a right-handed bracket.

The assembly tool 80 is also provided with a rebate 87 and an upstanding abutment 88. The loop end of a coupling may be located into the rebate 87 and a different part of the coupling 44 rests on the abutment 88.

This will securely hold the coupling 44 whilst a rod 25 is connected thereto by the insertion of the plug 50 into the open end of the rod.

It will be apparent to a man skilled in the art that various other modifications of the present design could be adopted to adapt it to various situations. Such modifications obviously form part of the scope of this Application and should be treated as part thereof.