Shutters having horizontal louvres or blades adjustably movable, by tilting upwardly or downwardly between open and closed positions are well known in the art. Shutters utilizing a control bar attached to the louvres or blades for facilitating the opening and closing of the louvres are also well known.
In the past methods of attaching a control bar to each louver or blade have included simple wood fastenings such as screw eyelets and wire hooks, or even a pair of linked staples, in many cases. The eyelets or staples were fastened in the louvre or the control rod and were looped together. The hooks, eyelets or staples were linked together to provide a crude somewhat loose hinge link.
This staple system has been in use up to the present time. For example such a staple connector system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,923 B1 Jul. 31, 2001, H S Lee.
This staple connector system had several disadvantages. While this system allowed for some degree of simultaneous movement of the louvres, it did not move the louvres uniformly. There was a considerable amount of slack between the control rod and the louvres, which caused a staggered movement of the louvres as the slack was taken up on each louvre. There was no defined location for the pivot axis of the connectors. The degree of slack meant that, when closing the louvres, the pivot axis of each connector moved inwardly, up against the edge of the louvre. Shutters in which the control bar is loosely connected to the louvres have a further disadvantage. To accomplish complete shutting of the louvres using this system, due to the slack and the sloppy movement of the connectors, the control rod had to be pushed up against the edges of the louvres or blades to ensure complete closure. This required recesses to be routed in the frame of the shutter to accommodate the control rod. Such recesses are shown in the above noted U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,923 B1. Routing of rod receiving recesses in the top and bottom frames was a costly process in both skilled labour and equipment. It was suitable in general, only for shutters having wooden components. In addition, over time and use, the control rod fastenings would loosen in the wood and sometimes fall out.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,896 February 1993 issued to Ross shows a form of connection system for connecting a pull bar to hollow plastic louvres. This system was time consuming to assemble, and required maintenance if the parts failed. In addition there was some free play or slack built in to the system where the connectors nested in the interior of the louvres. There was no defined pivot axis, which was maintained at all times. The end of the single link extended loosely inside the louvre, and did not prevent the control rod from contacting the louvres. Furthermore it was not suitable for use with shutters having wooden components. U.S. Pat. No. 5,548,925, Aug. 27, 1996, issued to Shade-O-Matic Ltd, discloses a shutter formed of an extruded plastic material.
Louvres formed of hollow plastic extrusions were attached to a control rod utilizing connectors with two ends. The first end of each connector was rigidly attached to the control rod and the second end was rotatably inserted into a louvre. Thus movement of the control rod causes rotation of the louvres about the second ends of the connectors as the louvres are opened or closed. However, even in this system the control rod ends and the louvres were still in loose association with each other. Furthermore this system was not adaptable to wooden shutters, and was not entirely suitable for shutters made of aluminum.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,028, issued Jul. 13, 1999 issued to Shade-O-Matic Ltd. discloses a shutter formed of extruded plastic material. This system utilizes a hollow plastic louvre having end caps fitted into each end of the louvre. The end cap at one end is designed with a recess designed to be connected to the control rod. The control rod was fitted with connector stubs at intervals. The stubs could interconnect with the end cap recesses on the individual louvre blades. In this way the shutter was provided with a pull bar or control rod located along the side frame of the shutter. However although this system did eliminate the slack and did provide a defined pivot axis, the axis was located inwardly of the edges of the louvres. This system also was not adaptable to wooden shutters. It was also somewhat time consuming to assemble, and required some skill.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,041,547 issued Mar. 28, 2000 to Shade-O-Matic ltd, discloses a system somewhat similar to the '028 patent above. The louvres were hollow plastic, with end caps. One of the end caps was formed with an inwardly located recess for connection with a control bar. Connectors were rigidly attached to a control bar at intervals. The connectors linked with the recesses, inwardly of the edges of the louvres, so as to provide a pull bar controlling all the louvres, located down one edge of the side frame.
Again this system was not adaptable to wooden shutters, and was somewhat time consuming to assemble. Also since the pivot axis of each of the connectors was located inwardly of the louvres, it limited the freedom of movement of the control bar.
It would be desirable to provide a system for connecting the louvres with the control rod member that reduces the amount of free play between the control rod and the louvres and allows for smooth opening and closing of the louvres. Preferably it will not require recesses in the frame to accommodate the control rod. In addition it is desirable to provide a system that is easy to assemble, and is adaptable to shutters made of wood, or of plastic, or in some cases of metal such as aluminum.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds