Cordless blind and operator device
OwnerRen Judkinsinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A cordless blind contains a lift mechanism, such as one or more spring motors, one or more cord collectors and a lock mechanism. An operator device such as a cord or wand is connected to the lift mechanism and is movable relative to the bottomrail. When the bottomrail is a selected distance from the headrail a portion of the cord or wand will move away from the bottomrail. The selected distance corresponds to the height of the bottomrail at which it is difficult for an operator to reach the bottomrail. The released cord or wand will enable the user to operate a lock mechanism in the bottomrail or move the bottomrail.
Claims20
An improved cordless blind of the type comprising a headrail, a bottomrail, window covering material connected between the headrail and the bottomrail, and a cordless lift mechanism having at least one spring motor for moving the bottomrail relative to the headrail, the improvement comprising:
- an operator device connected to the lift mechanism and moveable relative to the bottomrail such that when the headrail and the bottomrail are a selected distance from one another, movement of the bottomrail toward the headrail will cause a portion of the operator device will move away from the bottomrail.
A cordless blind comprising:
- a. a first rail;
- b. a second rail;
- c. a window covering material connected between the first rail and the second rail;
- d. a plurality of lift cords each attached to the first rail and passing into the second rail;
- e. at least one cord collector about which at least one of the lift cords is wound;
- f. a spring motor connected to the at least one cord collector;
- and
- g. a lock mechanism connected to at least one of the cord collector, the spring motor and the plurality of lift cords, the lock mechanism having a locked position, wherein at least one of the plurality of lift cords are restrained from at least one of being collected on the cord collector and being removed from the cord collector, and an unlocked position that allows the cord collector and plurality of lift cords to move freely, the lock mechanism having a lock activator which, when acted upon by a force will change the lock mechanism from the locked position to the unlocked position and when acted upon by a force again will change the lock mechanism from the unlocked position to the locked position, the lock mechanism remaining in the locked position or unlocked position after the force is removed;
- and
- h. an operator device connected to the lock mechanism, the operator device being moveable relative to the second rail such that when the first rail and the second rail are a selected distance from one another movement of one of the first rail and the second rail toward the other of the first rail and second rail will cause a portion of the operator device will move away from the second rail.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.