Battery-operated hand-held winder for concertina-fold blinds - uses motor-driven winding shaft, inserted in socket in blind end-frame, to rotate opening and closing pulley

The object of the present invention is, as a new industrial product, an operation of new or existing pleated blinds using a cordless electric crank.

A transmission device fitted to all the pleated blinds of an installation is driven by a single crank which can be plugged into each of the blinds to operate them.

This process has been studied for pleated blinds with vertical descents and ascents, but finds all its optimization for horizontal blinds or with a certain angle of inclination and tending to follow in parallel an underside of a veranda roof.

To date, the state of the art makes it possible to operate the blinds thanks to an electric motor contained in each of these, or most frequently encountered a single launcher tube makes it possible to close or open several blinds.

The motorized version practically unused because of its cost price, we will discuss the use of the launching rod, the present patent application for which improves the system.

Using this principle, the operator hooks the load bar using the launcher and takes a sufficient number of steps to cross the width of the veranda by pushing each pleated blind, the user therefore follows the progress of the blind on the ground. ceiling without having the right to deviate from the central axis of the movement of the blind ”since the launcher is hooked in the middle of the load bar.

These blinds having a width of 0.90 m to 1.50 m, it is common to have a veranda equipped with 4 or 6 blinds} the opening or closing operation is to be carried out for each of the blinds that are used. decided to move.

The disadvantage of this principle is generated by the presence of furniture which obstructs the operator's walk each time the blind (s) are handled.

The combination of means, object of the present invention is remarkable in that it comprises a single wireless electric crank, which can be plugged in mechanically to operate several blinds one after the other.

The modularity of closing or opening of each blind is therefore preserved, despite the use of a single electric motor contained in the crank assembly.

This results in easier handling owing to the fact that the user no longer has to ensure a step between the furniture forming an obstacle: he only had to plug his crank into each blind that he decided to move.

Compared to the state of the art, each blind managed by its motor, it results in a lower cost price due to the use of a single crank to manage the animation of 8 blinds for example, compared to 8 motors controlling 8 blinds. It should be noted that the greater the number of blinds to be managed, the more the cost per blind decreases due to the use of a single motor to operate XX blinds.

The crank, one of the elements of the combination of means, is equipped with a DC low voltage motor with bi-directional rotation thanks to a double switch reversing the supply polarities.

A rechargeable battery for electrically powering the motor is contained in the crank; its charge is supplied to it by electrical connection during the time it is not in use.

In operation, the electric motor of the crank drives an axis via a calibrated torque limiter, or variable torque limitation so as to drive a greater or lesser load, depending on the weight depending on the surface of the blind to move.

This drive axis will be more or less long, depending on the installation height of the traction assembly part transforming a vertical rotary movement, the axis of the crank, into an act of horizontal traction moving the blind forward or backward.

The crank axis ending in a hexagonal male, all the operator has to do is plug it in by an upward vertical movement and keep it pressed into the female receiver, contained in the traction assembly, during the time or the blind will be manipulated.

The hexagonal female receiver placed in the traction assembly is an integral part of a 90 ° angle transmission, which transforms the vertical rotation of the crank into a horizontal rotation on which a pulley is wedged.

This V-shaped groove pulley located in the full center of the awning has for mission to advance or reverse a traction cable, which has one of its ends attached directly to the load bar, and the other passes in return by a pulley. free in the profile opposite to the traction assembly before being fixed to the load bar, which allows the pleated fabric of the blind to play its open or closed role.

When the operator operates his awning and it comes to a stop, awning open or closed, the torque limiter of the crank disengages the rotation which prevents the pulley of the traction assembly from wearing out or from wearing out. wear out the traction cable? this pulley and cable assembly being placed in each blind of an installation.

One form of the invention is described below by way of indication and in no way limiting with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a view of a veranda roof pleated blind and its propulsion crank.

FIG. 2 is a view of the schematic principle of the traction cable ensuring the movement of the load bar.

The device for operating new or existing pleated blinds using a wireless electric crank is composed according to Figure 1 of a pleated blind, but it is understood that the electric crank has the power to move several identical ones. to the one shown and a mobile wireless crank that can be used in each of the blinds of a set, such as a veranda or any other room.

The components of the blind being identical to those used by the state of the art of the launcher pleated blind we note that there is indeed only the traction part which is to be observed in this new idea.

Figure 1 comprises in 1 the traction assembly, in 2 the load bar which by moving drives the folds 4 of the blind and in 3 the profile opposite to the traction assembly.

The pleated fabric of the blind is fixed in accordance with the usual methods, in fig. 1 to bar 2 and 3 which makes the blind going down from top to bottom, it could just as well be attached to bar i and 2 which would give us a blind rising from bottom to top.

Profiles 1 and 3 must be mechanically fixed so as to follow the slope of the veranda roof, while maintaining sufficient air space for the awning to be very effective. By design, this same principle can be used in front of a vertical glass wall, but in this case the traction assembly will be fixed at the top, and the ends of the fabric of the blind will be fixed both on this assembly and on the bar. dump. The bar opposite the traction assembly being fixed in the lower part of the bay to be hidden.

The suspension cables 5 must be quite numerous depending on the width of the blind; the traction cable 6 located in the center of the awning which is adjusted taut to fulfill its mission, will therefore also have a role of suspending the folds of the awning, like the cables 5.

In the present principle, only one traction cable 6 is used, it remains possible to have two or more, especially if it is desired to make blinds with a width greater than 1.50 m. For the sake of aesthetics, this cable 6 passes twice through holes 7 drilled in the folds of the blind, but it could have passed all or part of the outside of the pleated fabric.

In fig. 2 the path of the traction cable appears the profiles 1,2,3 are shown in thin lines so as not to overburden the drawing, we notice that the traction cable is fixed when it starts from point 13 and comes out of the load bar 2 through a perforation 15, it then passes through the thickness of the pleated fabric (not shown) and enters the profile 3 through a perforation 16 to be returned by a free pulley 6 in the opposite direction by which it arrived. It crosses the perforation 16 of the bar 3 again, crosses the pleated fabric again, goes back into the perforation 15, passes right through the load bar 2 and comes out of the latter through the perforation 17. It enters the traction assembly 1 through the perforation 18 and is housed in the V of the traction pulley 9, spring from the latter passes through the perforation 18, re-enters through the perforation 17 of the bar 2 and comes wedging on the axis of a fine adjustment tensioner 14, piano wire tensioner type or any similar tensioning means so as to adjust with precision when laying the ideal length of the cable.

Perforations 15-16-17-18 can be fitted with eyelets placed by the rolled method which will act as an anti-wear for the traction cable.

The pulley 9 pulls and releases according to the direction of rotation the cable 6 which pulls or lets the load bar 2 move away, which ensures the unfolding or folding of the blind.

This pulley 9 is propelled by the axis 10 which itself comes out of the angle transmission 11, this assembly turns when the operator pushes the end of the crank (19 fig.l) into the key 12 of the angle transmission 11 and gu'il actuates it in rotation.

The crank consists of fig. 1 of an accumulator 24 which releases its charge when the operator presses one of the two control buttons 23 to supply a direct current motor 22. The latter rotates according to the direction of the current depending on the button on which the operator pressed. The two knobs cause current to flow through the motor in the opposite direction to each other. It is preferable that these two buttons 23 are provided with a mechanical locking which prevents actuation of them at the same time.

The rotation of the motor 23 passes through a torque limiter 21 before driving the rod 20 which ends with the polarizer 19 which can be plugged into each of the blinds.

The torque limiter will act as a limit switch when the blind is at one end, open or closed, the motor will run as long as the operator presses one of the buttons 23 while the rod 20 of the crank, the return of 'angle 11, the rod 10 and the pulley 9 will be stationary because of the cable 6 which will no longer be able to drive the load bar 2 which will be in abutment. This torque limiter will therefore have an anti-wear role.

The battery charger 25, transforming the voltage 220 volts into low charging voltage for the accumulator 24 contained in the crank, will be connected by the socket 26 to the latter during its moments of non-use.

Due to intensive use, a crank will operate eight blinds in very good conditions; it remains understood that in normal uses, the charge of the accumulator T would make it possible to manage a larger number of blinds.

However, users of this principle may at will acquire a complementary crank if they deem it useful.