Venetian blind tilt wand connector

A window venetian blind having a headrail, a series of tiltable horizontal slats, a tilt wand, a gear assembly in said headrail and operable by said tilt wand, a tilt shaft extending from said assembly and a connector for torque-connecting said tilt wand to said tilt shaft;

• wherein said tilt shaft includes a gear at an upper end in geared engagement with said gear assembly and a wire-receiving aperture below said gear;
• said connector comprising a generally U-shaped stiff wire having at least one end insertable into said wire-receiving aperture;
• means on said tilt wand for mounting an opposite end of said wire in non-rotative relation to said tilt wand;
• means associated with said wire and said wand for releasably disengaging said tilt wand from said tilt shaft by axial break-away movement of said tilt wand;
• and
• wherein the U-shaped stiff wire is a snap link having distal free ends, each free end being removably engageable in and disengageable from oppositely spaced wire-receiving apertures in said tilt shaft.

A window venetian blind having a headrail, a series of tiltable horizontal slats, a tilt wand, a gear assembly in said headrail and operable by said tilt wand, a tilt shaft extending from said assembly and a connector for torque-connecting said tilt wand to said tilt shaft;

• wherein said tilt shaft includes a gear at an upper end in geared engagement with said gear assembly and a wire-receiving aperture below said gear;
• said connector comprising a generally U-shaped stiff wire having at least one end insertable into said wire-receiving aperture;
• means on said tilt wand for mounting an opposite end of said wire in non-reactive relation to said tilt wand;
• means associated with said wire and said wand for releasably disengaging said tilt wand from said tilt shaft by axial break-away movement of said tilt wand;
• wherein the U-shaped stiff wire has at least one distal free end fixed in said wire-receiving aperture and wherein said means for mounting an opposite end of said U-shaped stiff wire includes a snap cap fixed on a bight end of said U-shaped stiff wire for receiving an upper tip of said tilt wand, said snap cap having a distal end bore including means in said snap cap bore for preventing relative rotation with said tilt wand while transmitting torque from rotation of said tilt rod to said snap cap, to said stiff wire and to said tilt shaft;
• and
• wherein said means in said snap cap bore includes a series of internal ribs extending longitudinally of said bore and wherein said tilt wand upper tip includes a series of external ribs extending longitudinally of said wand upper tip interfitting with said cap bore ribs to prevent relative rotation of said cap and said tilt wand.

A window venetian blind having a headrail, a series of tiltable horizontal slats, a tilt wand, a gear assembly in said headrail and operable by said tilt wand, a tilt shaft extending from said assembly and a connector for torque-connecting said tilt wand to said tilt shaft;

• wherein said tilt shaft includes a gear at an upper end in geared engagement with said gear assembly and a wire-receiving aperture below said gear;
• said connector comprising a generally U-shaped stiff wire having at least one end insertable into said wire-receiving aperture;
• means on said tilt wand for mounting an opposite end of said wire in non-rotative relation to said tilt wand;
• and
• means associated with said wire and said wand for releasably disengaging said tilt wand from said tilt shaft by axial break-away movement of said tilt wand;
• wherein the U-shaped stiff wire has at least one distal free end fixed in said wire-receiving aperture and wherein said means for mounting an opposite end of said U-shaped stiff wire includes a snap cap fixed on a bight end of said U-shaped stiff wire for receiving an upper tip of said tilt wand, said snap cap having a distal end bore including means in said snap cap bore for preventing relative rotation with said tilt wand while transmitting torque from rotation of said tilt rod to said snap cap, to said stiff wire and to said tilt shaft;
• wherein said means in said snap cap bore includes a series of internal ribs extending longitudinally of said bore and wherein said tilt wand upper tip includes a series of external ribs extending longitudinally of said wand upper tip interfitting with said cap bore ribs to prevent relative rotation of said cap and said tilt wand;
• in which said means for releasably disengaging said tilt wand comprises means in said snap cap bore and said tilt wand upper tip for snap connecting said tilt wand to said snap cap;
• and
• in which said means for snap connecting comprises an interfitting groove and detent on respective interfitting surfaces of said wand upper tip and snap cap bore.