Electrically operated venetian blind

United States Patent

[“J 3,603,372

<td> [72]</td><td> Inventor</td><td> Werner Dietzsch Oldenburg, Germany</td>

<td> [21]</td><td> Appl. No.</td><td> 803,210</td>

<td> [22]</td><td> Filed</td><td> Feb. 28,1969</td>

<td> [45]</td><td> Patented</td><td> Sept. 7,1971</td>

<td> [73]</td><td> Assignee</td><td> Firms Justin Huppe Oldenburg, Germany</td>

<td> [32]</td><td> Priority</td><td> Sept. 18,1968</td>

<td> [33]</td><td></td><td> Germany</td>

<td> [31]</td><td></td><td> H 63 830/</td>

<td> [56]</td><td colspan="3"> References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS</td>

<td> 2,231,778</td><td> 2/1941</td><td> Swanson.......................</td><td> 160/DIG. 17</td>

<td> 3,204,690</td><td> 9/1965</td><td> Nyc..............................</td><td> 160/DIG. 17</td>

<td> 3,240,484</td><td> 3/1966</td><td> Klamp..........................</td><td> 49/358 X</td>

<td> 3,374,823</td><td> 3/1968</td><td> Ford.............................</td><td> 49/358 X</td>

<td> 3,310,099</td><td> 3/1967</td><td> Hunter et al..................</td><td> 160/171</td>

Primary Examiner—Peter M. Caun

Attorney—Olsen, Trexler, Wolters &amp; Bushnell

[ 54 ] ELECTRICALLY OPERATED VENETIAN BLIND 8 Claims, 5 Drawing Figs.

[52] U.S.C1........................................................ 160/168,

160/170, 160/178

[51] Int.CI......................................................... E06b9/30

[50] Field of Search............................................160/166-178,

DIG. 17; 49/358

ABSTRACT: An electrically operated slatted or Venetian blind including a headrail in which the motor and other electric components are mounted. The electric components are interconnected by plug and socket connections for easy replacement. Two limit switches in the headrail respectively limit the uppermost and the lowermost positions ofthe blind.

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3,603,372

ELECTRICALLY OPERATED VENETIAN BLIND

This invention relates to mountings for electrically driven slatted blinds and particularly to those having limit-switches for the electric motor drives.

Electric motor slatted blind drives have become increasingly popular in recent years. However, their widening use is hindered by the fact that the fitting and maintenance of slatted blinds with electric motor drives have hitherto involved the work of an electrical installation engineer to wire up the circuit and connect it to the mains after the mechanical components of the slatted blind have been incorporated. This is expensive, time wasting and unsatisfactory.

The invention is therefore directed to the problem of so simplifying the electrical installation of a slatted blind with electric motor drive that it can be connected to the mains even by the person who carries out the mechanical work of fitting the slatted blind.

Broadly according to the invention, this problem is solved by mounting the switch and plug and socket connections for the switch leads and motor leads on a common baseplate held in the headrail.

Thus according to the present invention, an electrically driven slatted blind mounting comprises a headrail carrying an electric motor for raising and lowering the lifting members of the slatted blind, a common baseplate held by the headrail and carrying both a switch adapted to be operated by a lifting member and plug and socket electrical connections for the switch leads and motor leads.

The switch or switches and all the electrical connections, on the one hand to the mains and on the other hand to the driving motor and the remaining circuit elements condenser such as the motor may thus be carried by the one baseplate, making it easier both to connect up the slatted blind electrically for the first time and to replace parts of the electrical drive which have become faulty. Thus for example motor replacement requires only that the associated plug on the common baseplate be released and the corresponding plug link of a new motor be introduced; the plugs are preferably so shaped as to prevent different plugs from being confused or incorrectly plugged in. In the same way, the whole baseplate may be removed after the plug connections have been released if for example one of the switches fastened to the baseplate should have failed.

In order to make it even easier to replace the baseplate or other elements of the electric motor drive, the baseplate is preferably held by a cover plate which bears externally against the headrail and which expediently has apertures for guiding a lifting member and for the actuating means of another switch which is arranged to come into action when the slatted blind is fully raised. This second switch serves to switch off the electric motor drive when all the slats of the blind have been raised, even though the operator is still holding the manually actuated switch closed.

The invention will be more readily understood by way of example from the following description of a slatted blind mounting in accordance therewith, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. I shows a perspective and partially cutaway view of one end of a slatted blind and mounting,

FIG. 2 is a section on the line Π—II of FIG. 3,

FIG. 3 is a side elevation of the mounting with both the headrail and the switch housing partially broken away,

FIG. 4 is a section corresponding to FIG. 2 but with the lifting and driving elements in another position, and

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the mounting, omitting the headrail and the driving members.

The headrail 1 of the mounting carries, as shown in FIG. 1, a driving shaft 2 and spools 3 for the lifting belts or tapes; the carrying tapes for the slats 5, by which the inclination of the slats 5 can be varied are mounted in a known manner. The shaft 2 is driven by an electric motor 6.

A baseplate 7 (FIG. 3) is mounted over a cutaway in the bottom of the headrail 1 in the region of one of the lifting tapes. The baseplate 7 is held in position by an overlying cover plate 8 which bears externally against the bottom of the headrail 1 and is secured to the baseplate by screws. The socket members 9 of plug and socket connections are secured to the upper side of baseplate 7, and receive plugs 10-12, the plug 10 being connected to the mains by a lead 10α, the plug 11 to the motor 6 by a lead 11α, and the plug 12 to the motor condenser (not shown) by a lead 12α.

Besides carrying the plug and socket connections, the baseplate 7 is shaped to form a housing 13 which surrounds limit-switches 14 and 15 which respectively cut off the motor drive when the blind has been fully raised and lowered. The limit-switches are appropriately electrically connected between the sockets 9 of the switches 10 to 12. The operating stud 16 of the switch 15 is engaged by an actuating lever in the form of a stirrup 17 which is pivoted at 18 to the housing 13, and which is spring biased in the direction of the arrow 19 (FIG. 5). The stirrup 17 passes adjacent the tape 4 as best shown in FIG. 5; as long as the slatted blind is not fully lowered, the stirrup 17 is held against its bias in the inoperative position illustrated in FIG. 2. When however the blind is fully lowered so that the tape 4 no longer runs tangentially off the drum 3, as in FIG. 2, but instead hangs down vertically below the drum 3 as in FIG. 4, the stirrup 17 is permitted to pivot under the bias into the operating position shown in FIG. 4 and as a result switch off the motor 6 when the slatted blind is in its bottom limiting position.

A segment-shaped actuating lever 21, which is also mounted in the housing 13 of the baseplate 7, protrudes downwards through a correspondingly shaped aperture 20 in the cover plate 8. The lever 21 is forced upwards by the engagement of the topmost slat and acts on the operating stud 22 of the switch 14, when all the slats 5 of the blind are fully raised in the course of the upward movement. The switch 14 thus represents the top limit-switch of the slatted blind.

Besides the cutaway 20 for the actuating lever 21 of the switch 14, the cover plate 8 has a further cutaway 23 for the lifting tape 4. Both the baseplate 7 with the housing 13, and the cover plate 8 are expediently moulded from synthetic material and provided with the required reinforcing ribs and the like.