Method and apparatus for manufacturing blind material
AssigneeHunter Douglas Inc.
InventorsWendell Colson, Paul Swiszcz
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and apparatus for manufacturing cellular blind material and in particular honeycomb blind material. A material feeding means moves along and parallel to a stack supporting means. The material feeding means feeds a layer of blind material onto the stack and a hot melt adhesive attaches the layer to the stack.
Claims20
Method of manufacturing an expandable integral blind mat having a plurality of longitudinally extending superimposed cells of predetermined length, from a supply of strip-like material, by stacking of subsequent layers of the material in direct face-to-face contact and adhering said layers comprising the steps of:
- (a) applying a first layer of said strip-like material to a stack supporting means;
- (b) applying a second layer of said strip-like material to the first layer by:
- (i) positioning and holding a first portion of said second layer onto a first portion of the first layer at an end of the stack;
- and
- (ii) applying the remainder of said second layer on face-to-face contact with the remainder of the first layer by relative movement between a supply means for the strip-like material and said stack supporting means in a direction extending parallel to the length of said first layer;
- (c) adhering the first layer to the second layer;
- (d) repeating the steps to produce a required member of subsequent layers;
- and
- (e) cutting individually the second and each subsequent layer to length after each said layer is applied.
Method of manufacturing an expandable integral blind mat having a plurality of longitudinally extending superimposed cells of predetermined length, from a supply of strip-like material having folded over portions extending longitudinally of the strip-like material to form the cells of said mat by stacking of subsequent layers of the material in direct face-to-face contact and adhering said layers comprising the steps of:
- (a) applying a first layer of said strip-like material to a stack supporting means;
- (b) applying a second layer of said strip-like material to the first layer by:
- (i) positioning and holding a first portion of said second layer onto a first portion of the first layer at an end of the stack;
- and
- (ii) applying the remainder of said second layer in face-to-face contact with the remainder of the first layer by relative movement between a supply means for the strip-like material and said stack supporting means in a direction extending parallel to the length of said first layer;
- (c) adhering the first layer to the second layer;
- and
- (d) repeating the steps to produce a required number of subsequent layers.
An apparatus for fabricating expandable blind material comprising:
- (a) supporting means for supporting a first layer of expandable blind material having an upper surface and first and second ends separated by a predetermined length;
- (b) material supply means for laying a second layer of blind material on said first layer including:
- (i) material feeding means mounted for movement relative to said supporting means in a direction extending along the length of the first layer and parallel thereto;
- (ii) guiding means on said material feeding means for guiding said second layer onto said first layer;
- and
- (iii) adhesive applying means on said material feeding means for adhering said first and second layer in face-to-face contact;
- and
- (c) cutting means for cutting said second layer of expandable blind material to a length compatible with said predetermined length.
An apparatus for fabricating expandable blind material of predetermined length comprising:
- (a) a pair of spaced walls having face-to-face parallel inner surfaces defining an elongated slot therebetween for guiding a stack of blind material therethrough;
- (b) a construction at a lower part of said slot narrowing the spacing of said inner surfaces to provide restriction of movement of said blind material therethrough;
- (c) a pair of movable flaps extending perpendicularly to said inner surfaces above said slot in spaced relation to define an elongated opening above said slot, said elongated opening being narrower than said layer of blind material when said flaps are in a first position to support said layer of blind material along side portions of a bottom surface of said layer of blind material and means for moving said flaps to a second position;
- (d) material supply means for guiding and positioning said layer of blind material onto an upper surface of said flaps in said first position while a central portion of said bottom surface contacts the top of the stack of blind material;
- (e) an applicator for applying adhesive material to at least one of the top of the stack and the layer of blind material as said layer of blind material is guided and positioned by said material supply means to thereby adhere said layer of blind material to the top of said stack of blind material;
- and
- (f) a cutter to cut the layer of blind material to said predetermined length.
Method of manufacturing an expandable integral blind mat having a plurality of longitudinally extending superimposed cells of predetermined length, from a supply of strip-like material, by stacking of subsequent layers of the material in direct face-to-face contact and adhering said layers comprising the steps of:
- (a) applying a first layer of said strip-like material to a stack supporting means;
- (b) applying a second layer of said strip-like material to the first layer by:
- (i) positioning and holding a first portion of said second layer onto a first portion of the first layer at an end of the stack;
- and
- (ii) applying the remainder of said second layer in face-to-face contact with the remainder of the first layer by relative movement between a supply means for the strip-like material and said stack supporting means in a direction extending parallel to the length of said first layer;
- (c) material supply means supplying material from two sources of strip-like material and a first source is used for applying in a first direction along the first layer and a second source is used for applying in a second direction;
- (d) adhering the first layer to the second layer;
- and
- (e) repeating the steps to produce a required number of subsequent layers.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.