1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for mounting for a roller of an architectural opening and parts of the system.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
Various blinds are known for selectively covering architectural openings. Many of these include rollers that are rotatably mounted, usually in a horizontal orientation, for instance across the top of an architectural opening. To facilitate installation of the roller, an arrangement may be provided whereby a pair of brackets is mounted on opposite ends of a top frame of an architectural opening. The roller is than fitted between the two brackets. Several ways of fitting a roller between brackets are possible. The ends of the roller may be provided with co-axially extending end plugs with axial holes for receiving a tab-like projection from the brackets Or the ends of the roller may be provided with co-axially extending end plugs and the end plugs being provided with axially projecting tabs or noses for insertion into an opening in a bracket. Or, in the case where roller blinds are mounted side by side, the central shaft of the roller blinds may be coupled together end the end plugs may be provided with such shaft coupling means to be mounted to an intermediate bracket.
For a roller to be secured in place between two brackets, the distance between the ends of the roller must be greater than that between the brackets. Providing a roller with at least one telescopically movable end plug, solves this problem. Retracted or depressed, such an end plug reduces the effective length of the roller and the distance between the two ends of the roller, extended the end plug restores the roller to its original length. Additional locking means preventing inadvertent retraction or depression of the telescopically movable end plug and thus inadvertent disengagement of the roller from the brackets are often also provided and are described in GB 2 310 878 A and in GB 2 313 143 A.
In this respect GB 2 310 878 A describes an end plug (20) for a roller blind including a telescopic movable drum (6) biased to an extended position by spring (30). The locking means comprises a spring C-clip (40), positionable about the projecting portion (7) of the telescopic movable drum (6) between the roller end (23) and the end (8) of the drum (6), and prevents the telescopic member (6) from moving axially into end plug (20). This solution has as drawback that the C-clip (40) needs to be dimensioned in relation to the blind for which it is used. If it is to long, exceeding the length of the projecting portion of the telescopic member of the end plug, it will not fit.
GB 2 313 143 A describes a locking ring (100) for placement about a telescopic movable spigot (54), which is biased to an extended position by a spring. The locking ring (100) is placed about the spigot (54), is pushed until it makes contact with the roller end (10) remote from the bracket (80), and is locked in place with a grub screw. The ring has a radial through hole (102) with the grub screw (104), which when tightened locks the ring (100) in place. The ring (100) prevents depression of the spigot (54) and thus prevents accidental removal of the blind from its brackets. This solution has as drawback that while positioning of the ring, attention has to be paid to the reachability of the grub screw (104) as well. Accordingly an object of the invention is to provide a roller mount system with a end plug module which overcomes or ameliorates the disadvantages of the end plugs of both GB 2 310 878 A and GB 2 313 143 A.
Another problem associated with mounting a roller to a surface is to get it mounted levelly. If a roller is mounted to un-levelly placed brackets or to brackets mounted onto a lopsided surface, this will lead to an unsightly situation. Although the fact that a roller is not level is often not immediately apparent to the naked eye, it will be once the blind material is unrolled. Subsequently, when the blind material is wound about the unlevel roller it will skew and may get damaged by being improperly supported by roller. The sides of the blind material may ride against the sides of the architectural opening, get in the way of the operating mechanism or even squeeze between the bracket and the roller. In case the blind includes side guides, which is often the case for insect screens and black-out roller blinds, the screen or blind material edges will not keep to the side guides. As a result insects and/or light will enter the building.
Generally the blind is leveled by using the oblong mounting holes in the brackets of the blind. After-adjustment of the bracket's position, requires nimble hands and/or dismounting of the roller from the brackets to facilitate reaching and manipulating it. It generally is a cumbersome process. Another solution is to use brackets with integrated leveler means that act directly or indirectly on the roller of the blind. Such brackets are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,508 and DE 103 51 336 A1.
In this respect U.S. Pat. No. 6,196,508 describes a roller blind bracket with a centrally located cut out portion (11) with slidably located a vertically adjustable glide (4) which rests on a threaded leveling screw (5). The threaded leveling screw (5) can be accessed from the bottom of the bracket. Alternatively, for a motorized shade, the glide (4) is omitted and the leveling screw (5) acts directly on the steel rod of the motor. By adjusting the leveling screw (5) the entire roller shade (13) can be adjusted.
DE 103 510 336 A1 describes a insect screen roller blind with a leveler (22) in a roller bearing (14) which includes a cut out portion (28) and a leveling screw (34) acting on the roller spigot (30). These levelers are integrated with the brackets.
Alternatively U.S. Pat. No. 7,051,782 describes a leveler which is not integral with the bracket but is assembled thereto starting from two separate plate-like members 158, 160. Fasteners 46 are used to attach plates to the bracket, on of the plates being fixed and the other operable to move relative to the fixed plate. This is essential for any leveler, each leveler necessarily includes a base to be anchored to a fixed surface such as a bracket and an operator connected to that base, movable between two positions, and acting either directly or indirectly on a roller end in order to move the roller between these two positions.
The use of the known prior art levelers requires either a preordained choice of using a bracket with integral leveler, or leads to a very cumbersome after-installment of the leveler once it is needed after all.
Thus another object of the invention is to provide a leveler module for the roller mount system which does not have these drawbacks and is easy to manipulate.
Another problem associated with mounting a roller to a surface are the brackets. When a roller blind is mounted to a roof window or sunroom window that is slanted, the bracket will cause the blind to be at an angle to the window unless a specially shaped bracket is used which cancels out the window frame angle. Such a bracket is described in EP 0 784 145 A1, this bracket includes adjusting means that can cancel out the angles of the window relative to that of the blind. Also it is often necessary to choose different modules for a roller system often require different brackets, e.g., an intermediate bracket in a compound roller system having at least two rollers mounted next to each other, is often of different configuration from the outer bracket.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds