Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02726854 2010-12-03
Title
BLIND SLATS AND THE MANUFACTURING METHOD THEREOF
Technical Field
The present invention relates to a Venetian blind, and more particularly to
blind
slats and the manufacturing method thereof, wherein the fabric is processed to
be
hardened, so as to be capable of serving as a blind slat to manufacture the
Venetian blind.
Background Art
At present, there are many kinds of Venetian blind slats on the market. The
slats
are usually made of hard materials, such as aluminum alloy, wood, bamboo and
so on.
Aluminum alloy is light in weight and water-proof, but the equipment for
producing the
aluminum alloy slat is quite expensive. In addition, the nonferrous metal is
becoming less
and less, so that the cost of the aluminum alloy slat is going to rise.
The producing procedures of the wood and bamboo slat are too many. The
wood and bamboo slat is difficult to process, is not waterproof and easily
gets
transformed. Furthermore, the wood and bamboo slat has problems of short
service life,
simple boring vision and lack of decorative effect. The wood used as slat is
basswood
which is identified as an endangered species. In addition, slather use of wood
damages
environment and is adverse to global development. So a low cost and good
performance
substitute is desired to be developed.
The Venetian blind slat made of plastic or resin is developed. However, when
this kind of Venetian blind slat exposed to sunlight, it gets aged quickly,
which will
affects its quality level and outer appearance. Furthermore, the used or
deterioration
Venetian blind after service is not easy to process and is not environmentally
friend. So,
the kind of blind slat will fall into disuse gradually.
The above mentioned hard materials serving as Venetian blind slats have an
important but unnoticed drawback. Because the blind slat is hard material, the
width of
the blind slat is predetermined during the production. When the window of the
customer
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is not standard size, these predetermined blind slats can not be used. The
cost of ordering
Venetian blind for customers is very high, and at the same time, the
transportation cost of
the blind slats is high too.
The blind slat made of hard material now has another drawback of having a pair
of slits at both edge portions of the blind slat for a rope passing through to
connect all the
blind slats. These slits will allow the sunlight passing therethrough, which
will affect the
shading effect of the Venetian blind.
It is generally agreed that soft materials such as fabric are not suitable for
manufacturing blind slat, because the blind slat must have a certain degree of
hardness.
Moreover, the fabric does not have the advantages of waterproof, flame
retardant,
ultraviolet screener and etc, which also causes that the fabric is unable to
be applied to
Venetian blind.
Contents of the Present Invention
An object of the present invention is to overcome the character of softness of
the fabric and reinforce the hardness of the fabric, so as to make the fabric
suitable for
applying to the Venetian blind slat.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fabric blind slat,
which
has advantages of water proof, flame retardant, ultraviolet screener,
antisepsis and etc,
which conform the international standards.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fabric blind slat,
whose
width can be determined by the customer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a fabric blind slat,
which is
convenient for transportation, store, manufacture and use.
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Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of
manufacturing
a fabric blind slat, which can harden the fabric, so as to make it suitable
for serving as a
blind slat.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of
manufacturing
fabric blind slat, wherein the blind slat has advantages of water proof, flame
retardant,
ultraviolet screener, antisepsis and etc,.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of
manufacturing
Venetian blind with the blind slat of present invention, according to this
method , the
width of Venetian blind can be determined by the customer.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of
manufacturing
a Venetian blind with the blind slat of present invention. According to this
method, there
is no need to open a pair of slits on both edge portions of the blind slat, so
as to enhance
intercepting light.
Accordingly, in order to accomplish the above objects, the present invention
provides a method of manufacturing fabric blind slat, including:
(a) weaving an elongated strip of fabric, wherein two longitudinal edges are
double-layered or multilayered, so as to form an elongated strip of internal
space ;
(b) immerging the elongated strip of fabric into a hardening agent, wherein
the
elongated strip of fabric passes through the hardening agent at a
predetermined speed;
(c) squeezing the soaked fabric for evenly distributing the hardening agent on
the elongated strip of fabric;
(d) drying the soaked elongated strip of fabric at a temperature between 100-
180
Celsius degree;
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(e) flattening the ovendried fabric at high temperature, so as to serve as a
transverse or vertical blind slat;
wherein the elongated strip of fabric further includes two or more rings set
on one of the said longitudinal edges.
The present invention also provides a fabric blind slat wich is manufactured
according to the above-mentioned method.
These and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present invention
will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying
drawings, and the appended claims.
Description of the Figures
Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a method of manufacturing a blind slat according
to the
present invention.
Fig. 2 is a schematic view of the elongated strip of fabric according to the
present
invention.
Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a blind slat according to the present invention.
Detailed Description of the Preferred Embodiment
Referring to Fig. 1, the present invention provides a method of manufacturing
fabric blind slat to reinforce the hardness of the fabric, and to manufacture
a kind of
fabric blind slat that possesses special characteristics which do not exist in
those blind
slats made from normal hard materials. The said method includes the following
steps
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( a ) weaving an elongated strip of fabric 1, wherein two longitudinal edges
11
are double layered or multilayered, so as to form an elongated strip of
internal space 12;
(b) immerging the elongated strip of fabric 1 into a hardening agent 2,
wherein
the elongated strip of fabric 1 passes through the hardening agent 2 at a
predetermined
speed;
(c) squeezing the soaked fabric for evenly distributing the hardening agent on
the elongated strip of fabric.
(d) drying the soaked fabric 1 at a temperature between 100-180 Celsius
degree;
(e) flattening the ovendried fabric 1 at high temperature, so as to serve as a
transverse or vertical blind slat.
The temperature for flattening the elongated strip of fabric in the step ( e )
is
controlled between 80-200 Celsius degree.
As shown in Fig. 2, the elongated strip of fabric 1 can be woven to any
length,
and is rolled to be stored, so as to save space. When manufacturing the
Venetian blind,
the blind slat can be cut to any length according to the requirement, so as to
make a
Venetian blind with an appropriate width.
The material of fabric used for the elongated strip of fabric 1 is polyester,
polypropylene fiber and/or chinlon, wherein the polyester includes polyester
filament
yarn, polyester low elastic filament, polyester high elastic filament,
polyester network
filament. The polyester has high intensity, resists to ageing and resists to
high
temperature ( up to 180 Celsius degree ) . In addition, the polyester is
waterproof and
mildewproof. Therefore, the polyester is an ideal material to produce Venetian
blind slat.
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The transverse length of the blind slat made of the fabric is 2-15cm, the
knitting
density is 3-40 lines per centimeter, and the thickness of the knitting is 0.1-
2mm. The two
longitudinal edges 11 are woven to be double layered, so as to form an
elongated strip of
internal space 12. As shown in Fig.3, there is a hard pole 3 in each elongated
strip of
internal space 12, so as to further harden the blind slat used in the Venetian
blind.
Furthermore, two longitudinal edges of the elongated strip of fabric can be
multilayered, so as to harden the Venetian blind without inserting hard pole.
In addition, the material of fabric can be dyed to any color, so that the
fabric
blind slat can be of various colors. Likewise, the fabric can be predetermined
patterns
thereon, such as weaving or printing different patterns, which makes the
Venetian blind
not stay in a single color any more. This will not be achieved by traditional
blind slat.
As shown in Fig.2 and Fig.3 , the elongated strip of fabric 1 further includes
two or more rings 13 which are set on one of said longitudinal edges. In this
way ,
the elongated strip of fabric 1 can be connectted through rings set on one of
said
longitudinal edges, instead of those traditional slits on the surface of every
blind slat.
This innovation enhance the performance of blind slat on intercepting light.
The
rings are woven directly or sewed onto the elongated strip of fabric 1. The
diameter
of said rings is 1-30mm and the density is 1-10 rings per meter.
The above steps (a) (b) (c) (d) (e) may be proceeding at the same time. Also
the steps (b) (c) (d) (e) may be proceeding at the same time, after step (a)
is done, i.e.
the elongated strip of fabric is woven. As shown in Fig. 1, the steps (b) (c)
(d) (e) are
proceeding at a speed of 2-50m/s at the same time.
In step (b), the hardening agent 2 is resin, hardness polyacrylic ester latex
or
polyacrylic acid water base adhesive. As shown in Fig 1, a hardening agent
container
21 contains the hardness polyacrylic ester latex, and the elongated strip of
fabric 1
passes through the container 21 at a predetermined speed, so as to ensure the
polyacrylic ester latex to be fully penetrated into the elongated strip of
fabric 1.
The step (c) can be realized by squeezing rollers 22, the elongated strip of
fabric 1 is squeezed by a pair of squeezing rollers 22. When the soaked
elongated
strip of fabric 1 passes through a space between the pair of squeezing rollers
22, the
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extra hardening agent 2 is extruded and the hardening agent is distributed
evenly on
the elongated strip of fabric.
In step (d), the hardening agent is dried in a drying oven 4 having a
temperature 100-180 Celsius degree. The fabric is padded with polyacrylic
ester
latex, then cross linking sufficiency so as to cohere among fabric fibres in
the yarn
and form fabric a hardening agent layer on the fabric fibers. Thereby the
fabric can
form feelings of hardening, thickness and plumping fabric. It is worth
mentioning
that the hardening agent 2 does not contain Formaldehyde, and will not release
Formaldehyde.
In step (e), the elongated strip of fabric after step (c) is flattened by
passing
through a pair of flattening rollers 5, and the temperature for flattening is
controlled
between 80-200 Celsius degree, so as to flatten and serve as a transverse or
vertical blind
slat.
Preferably, before step (e), the method of manufacturing fabric blind slat
according to the invention also includes steps of:
(dl) immerging the elongated strip of fabric 1 into a finishing agent 6,
wherein
the elongated strip of fabric 1 passes through the finishing agent 6 at a
predetermined
speed;
(d2) squeezing the elongated strip of fabric 1 for extruding the extra
finishing
agent 6 and evenly distributing the finishing agent 6 on the elongated strip
of fabric
1;
(d3) drying the soaked elongated strip of fabric 1 after step (d2) at a
temperature between 100-180 Celsius degree.
The finishing agent 6 includes Fluorinated Compounds which can form a layer
of material on the fabric so that the primary high energy surface becomes a
low energy
surface, thereby prevent liquid water from passing through the fabric
capillary and reach
the waterproof object fabric The Fluorinated Compounds also lower the surface
tension,
so as to prevent oil. The said Fluorinated Compounds are organic fluorine
compounds.
The Fluorinated Compounds do not contain PFOA, which is forbidden by EU.
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The finishing agent 6 further includes a flame retardant agent, such as
bromine,
antimony or phosphorus compounds and so on. The flame retardant agent will
melt under
a high temperature and cover the fabric to block the air flow, which will
prevent the
combustible gas produced in the fabric diffusing outwards, or decompose non-
combustible gas to dilute the combustible gas, or lower the melting
temperature of the
fabric, so that the fabric drops while melting.
The finishing agent further includes an ultraviolet absorber agent, which can
absorb the ultraviolet to transform harmless radiation wave, or reflect the
ultraviolet
outwards.
The finishing agent further includes sun screen furnishing coating agent. The
coating agent contains titanium oxide, black carbon, paint and so on.
In step (dl), an finishing agent container 61 contains the finishing agent 6 ,
and
the elongated strip of fabric 1 passes through the container 61 at a
predetermined speed,
so as to ensure the finishing agent 6 to be fully penetrated into the
elongated strip of
fabric 1. In step (d2), the elongated strip of fabric 1 is squeezed by a
second pair of
squeezing rollers 62. When the elongated strip of fabric 1 passes through a
space between
the second pair of squeezing rollers 62, the extra finishing agent 6 is
extruded. In step
(d3), the elongated strip of fabric 1 is dried in a second drying oven 7
having a
temperature 100-180 Celsius degree.
Further preferably, after step (d3) and before step (e), the method of
manufacturing fabric blind slat further includes steps of.
(d4) immerging the elongated strip of fabric 1 into antimicrobial, wherein the
elongated strip of fabric 1 passes through the antimicrobial at a
predetermined speed;
(d5) squeezing the elongated strip of fabric 1 for extruding the extra
antimicrobial and evenly distributing the antimicrobial on the elongated strip
of
fabric 1;
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(d6) drying the soaked elongated strip of fabric 1 after step (d5) at a
temperature between 100-180 Celsius degree.
The antimicrobial includes othiazolone-like compounds, and/or clabendazole-
like compounds. Clabendazole-like compounds is antibacterial, and othiazolone-
like
compounds is moldproof and anticorrosion.
After step (e), the method of manufacturing fabric blind slat further includes
a
step of. (f) winding the elongated strip of fabric to form a roll of elongated
strip of fabric,
so as to be easily stored. As shown in Fig. 1, the elongated strip of fabric
is rolled up by a
winding machine 8.
It will thus be seen that the objects of the present invention have been fully
and
effectively accomplished. One skilled in the art will understand that the
embodiment of
the present invention as shown in the drawings and described above is
exemplary only
and not intended to be limiting. Its embodiments have been shown and described
for the
purposes of illustrating the functional and structural principles of the
present invention
and is subject to change without departure from such principles. Therefore,
this invention
includes all modifications encompassed within the spirit and scope of the
following
claims.
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