Levolor, Inc.

Newell Operating Company

Sandra K Young

David C Burns

John F Schaefer

Don S Minami

Charles Robert Wolfe

Douglas J Warner

Randall J Meppelink

John F Schaffer

Paul A Renault

Tablecloth with magnetic retainers

A venetian blind slat or coil of venetian blind slat substrate, such as aluminum, is first coated with a conductive primer. An anti-static conductive coated is applied thereover. The resultant coated finished blind slat and its associated spaced horizontal slats have sufficient conductivity to resist airborne dust particle accumulation with reductions in dust accumulation of from 36% to about 82% being attained, as compared to colored paint insulative coating on standard venetian blinds. An inorganic, inert conductive additive such as stannous oxide is employed in the anti-static conductive coating, resulting in coating conductivities of less than 10.sup.6 ohms per square and, in a preferred embodiment, from about 10 ohms per square to 10.sup.5 ohms per square.

Anti-static coated venetian blind slat and method of preparation thereof

Venetian blind

Window blind headrail

Connector for wand and actuating mechanism

Window blind grip

The Venetian blind which has a headrail, a series of slats and an extruded bottom rail includes a longitudinal resilient bumper positioned in a bottom longitudinal slat of the bottom rail and extending from the bottom of the rail. Resilient end caps having the same transverse contour as the bumper close the rail ends and together with the bumper, seal the bottom rail from light transmission between it and a window sill and a window vertical edge. An extruded aluminum or plastic headrail with resilient end pieces has spaced tangs extending from a tilt and left mechanism-supporting horizontal bottom wall forming an inverted U-shaped open compartment. This compartment receives the top portion of the uppermost blind slat in a slats tilted closed position to block out light transmission and sight lines under the headrail. A resilient flipper seal obstructs light at the top of the headrail. The bottom rail may also include a storage volume for replacement slats. A resilient sleeve is placed over the tilt wand-to-tilt operator connection to prevent wobbling and rattling of the wand. Each of the resilient bumper, end caps, end pieces and flipper seal all contribute to a black-out blind having improved anti-rattling and anti-abrasion performance.

A window blind headrail mounting a Venetian blind or pleated blind includes a headrail enclosure, preferably of extruded aluminum construction, having integrally spaced headrail hooks and a hook keeper extending from the enclosure edges. A pair of or more universal mounting brackets are alternatively attachable to either a horizontal surface at the top of a window opening or to a vertical wall or vertical top surface of a window frame, dependent upon the type of installation. The brackets thus can be mounted horizontally or vertically on these respective surfaces. The mounting bracket includes a hook extending from each end of a base portion fixed to a window-adjacent surface. One of the hooks of each bracket contains a discrete wave-like leaf spring. After the brackets have been mounted adjacent the window, the headrail is positioned by an installer to have an integral headrail hook guided into the spring-containing bracket hook to compress the spring and allow the other headrail hook or the headrail hook keeper, dependent on whether the brackets are mounted horizontally or vertically, to clear a distal end of the other bracket hook. Upon a slight tilting of the headrail to essentially a horizontal position and the release of the compressed spring, the resultant spring force clamps the first headrail hook to the spring-containing bracket hook and either the other headrail hook or headrail hook keeper to the other bracket hook, again dependent on whether the brackets are mounted horizontally or vertically.

Window blind headrail and mounting bracket

Growing community of inventors

Newport Beach, CA, United States of America

Sandra K Young