Lift cord anchor for coverings for architectural openings
AssigneeHunter Douglas Inc.
InventorsBrent Collum, Byron Morgan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An anchor for securing the lower end of lift cords to the bottom rail of a vertically retractable covering for architectural openings includes features enabling the anchor to be wedged into a blind hole formed in the top surface of the bottom rail. The anchor can be one piece or two pieces and in the event of a two-piece anchor, a main body has spreadable legs and is engaged by a cam member to spread the legs after the anchor has been inserted into the blind hole. In the case of the single-piece anchors, there are legs or fingers engageable with the side wall of the blind hole upon insertion of the anchor into the blind hole to wedgingly secure the anchor in position.
Claims6
A covering for an architectural opening comprising in combination:
- a retractable cover including a bottom rail with a top surface, and
- a control system for moving the cover between extended and retracted positions, said control system including flexible lift elements secured to said bottom rail for raising and lowering said bottom rail when moving the cover between said retracted and extended positions,
- wherein said bottom rail has at least one blind hole in said top surface having a surrounding wall and an anchor in said blind hole connected to a flexible lift element to secure the lift element in the blind hole in the bottom rail,
- said anchor including a semi-rigid, expandable base member and a cam member movable into engagement with said base member to expand the base member into gripping engagement with said surrounding wall, said flexible lift element extending slidably through said base member and supporting said cam member by itself such that said lift element can raise said cam element into expanding engagement with said base member, said base member being made from a flexible material having an inverted U-shaped configuration with a pair of spaced side walls defining a pocket therebetween to receive said cam member and a pair of flat semi-circular legs projecting in diametrically opposite directions from the lower edges of said side walls.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.