Fabric Roller Blind Handle Bar Terminal Alignment via Guide Chains
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing fabric roller blinds face issues with non-alignment of handle bar terminals during movement, leading to uneven fabric stretching, potential breakage, and increased maintenance needs, especially for high-height installations, and require factory modifications or recalibration, limiting on-site adaptability and aesthetics.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves using upper and lower guide chains with adjustable connections within the handle bar to maintain vertical alignment of terminals, allowing for easy on-site installation and adjustment, ensuring reliable operation and alignment without periodic maintenance, even for high-height applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If the handle bar is gripped at a non-centered position during movement, then the user can operate the blind more easily, but the handle bar terminals become misaligned causing uneven fabric stretching and potential breakage
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces guide chains as intermediary elements that connect the handle bar terminals to the fixed supports. These guide chains ensure that during handle bar movement, the terminals remain vertically aligned by constraining their motion paths, thereby preventing uneven fabric stretching while allowing flexible user operation.
2Reliability
If alignment means are housed inside the handle bar to maintain terminal alignment, then the fabric is protected from breakage, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the alignment function from the handle bar interior and implements it through external guide chains that run alongside the handle bar. This extraction reduces the complexity within the handle bar structure itself while maintaining the alignment function through the simpler external guide chain mechanism.
3Manufacturing precision
If the blind requires factory modifications or recalibration for proper operation, then the alignment and operation are optimized, but the adaptability and ease of on-site installation are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs adjustable connection means for the guide chains that allow on-site adjustment of the handle bar terminal alignment. This dynamic adjustment capability enables the blind to be adapted to different installation conditions without requiring factory modifications, while still achieving proper alignment through field-adjustable mechanisms.
4Reliability
If periodic maintenance and recalibration are required for proper operation, then the alignment is maintained over time, but the maintenance needs and operational interruptions increase
Solution Approach 1:
The guide chain mechanism is designed to maintain terminal alignment automatically during handle bar movement without requiring periodic maintenance or recalibration. The self-aligning feature eliminates the need for time-consuming maintenance interventions while ensuring continuous operational reliability.
Data Source
Figure 1A
Figure 1B
Figure 2
AI summary
Fabric roller blind, which comprises a handle bar (6) which is fixed to a lateral edge of a fabric (5) wound on a take-up roller (4) housed in a rolling-shutter box of a lateral upright (21). The blind (1) also comprises synchronization means (9) for synchronizing the advancement of the terminations (7, 8) of the handle bar (6) during its movement between an open position and a closed position. Such synchronization means (9) comprise an upper guide chain (10) provided with a first internal end (10A) slidably housed inside the handle bar (6), and with a first external end (10B) connected to the upper margin of a lateral abutment element (22) opposite the lateral upright (21) with the take-up roller (4) associated therewith. The upper guide chain (10) enters into the cavity of the handle bar (6) with a first concavity (12) directed towards the lateral abutment element (22). The synchronization means (9) also comprise a lower guide chain (11) provided with a second internal end (11A) slidably housed inside the handle bar (6) and with a second external end (11B) connected to the base of the lateral upright (21). The lower guide chain (11) enters into the cavity of the handle bar (6) with a second concavity (13) directed towards the lateral upright (21). The first and the second internal end (10A, 11A), respectively of the upper guide chain (10) and of the lower guide chain (11), are mechanically and adjustably connected to each other in order to be jointly moved within the handle bar (6).