Guide rail assembly

A guide rail assembly has a serial arrangement of linked carriages movable by pull cord or string along the rail and provided for the fixing of hanging parts such as blind slats. At least two carriages serve as pull carriages and each has a locking receptacle, whereas the pull cord is provided with at least one locking part fixed thereon. Each locking receptacle for the locking part forms a locking fit transport-fixed in both pulling directions of the pull cord, but detachable by a pulling force instantaneously exerted on the pull cord.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The invention relates to a guide rail assembly comprising a guide rail and 
carriages carrying hanging parts such as curtains, slats of blinds or the 
like and guided along the rail attached to a solid base such as a wall, a 
ceiling or the like. The carriages are jointly movable in both rail 
directions by means of a pull cord running along the rail. 
Onto the carriages or travellers of such a guide or assembly rail are hung 
in particular strip-like slats, in order to form a slatted curtain, panel 
drapes or vertical blinds for windows, for separating or dividing up room 
areas, etc. For opening such a curtain the carriages that form a set or 
pack of slats are moved together at one rail end on one side of the 
curtain, whilst for a partial opening position or closed position of the 
curtain the carriages are moved along the rail in unitary spaced 
positions. By means of a known reversing or turning mechanism on the 
carriages, the slats can be brought into an angular, specifically a 
perpendicular, position relative to the curtain surface (open position) or 
a position parallel to the curtain surface with slightly overlapping slat 
edges (closed position). Apart from curtain slats, the guide rail 
carriages can also carry hanging elements such as decorative strips, 
pictures, design elements, electric light fittings, display parts for 
advertising purposes, etc., so that said hanging parts can be grouped on 
one side of the rail or can be arranged in distributed, spaced manner 
along the rail and about the same. 
2. Description of the Related Art 
In order to produce a set or pack formation of a vertical blind with slats 
either at the right- or left-hand end of a guide rail, it is known (DE-OS 
31 51 682) to connect a carriage arranged at each end of a guide rail by 
means of a screw either to a pull cord to form a pull carriage or to the 
rail to form a fixing element. Thus, a pack of slats can only be arranged 
in areas defined by the rail ends, and installation work using a 
screwdriver is required. After one of the carriages has been fixed to the 
rail, the pack of slats can only be drawn up in one direction. Thus, the 
known guide rail must be designed and fitted for the specific type of 
intended use right from the outset. For final installation the movement 
and/or pack areas desired for the slats must be known and measured. These 
areas are e.g. bound by the opening area of casements or by the size of 
window openings. As a result of the predetermined slat pack arrangement, 
it is also necessary to use a rail precisely adapted to the intended use 
and/or to provide a position of the pull cord pertaining to the specific 
requirements. Thus, the assembly or installation work is relatively 
time-consuming. When operating the known vertical blind, the user is bound 
by the pack position set up at one end of the guide rail, so that the 
slatted curtain cannot at all be adjusted o is not readily adjustable to 
instantaneously occurring and changing spatial circumstances, light 
conditions, glare and/or vision protection positions. 
Another known guide rail (EP-A-O 166 625) is provided for operating at the 
same time a longer guide rail portion and a shorter guide rail portion of 
a two-part curtain. For this purpose a bulge is positioned on a pull or 
draw cord at a specific distance from a pull carriage, so that only after 
covering that predetermined distance does the bulge reach the pull 
carriage and move it in one direction. In order to bring curtain portions 
with different guide rail lengths against one another in the closed 
position, according to another embodiment disclosed by EP-A-O 166 625, 
fixing parts of a pull carriage or bulge parts are arranged in frictional 
or sliding engagement with a pull cord and movable against the latter. It 
is also known from EP-A-O 166 625 to arrange a pull cord bulge between the 
walls of a pull carriage, so that in this way the cord is firmly and 
durably connected to the carriage. 
Another known vertical slatted curtain (WO-A-8704057) comprises a guide 
rail with slides guided along the same. The slides are fixed to an elastic 
cord, so that when the curtain is open the slides are closely juxtaposed 
in a lateral pack, whilst being movable out of the pack position at 
identical and uniformly enlargeable spacings. 
With the known vertical slatted curtains according to EP-A-O 166 625 and 
WO-A-8704057 the packs of slats are always provided in an end region of a 
guide rail and the slides or carriages of each set are only moved apart in 
one closing direction. For each particular purpose a specially designed 
rail and therefore specially related measuring and installation work are 
required. The user is bound by the pack position installed once and for 
all. The pack areas and the movement area of the slat slides or carriages 
of a mounted guide rail cannot be adapted to modified wishes and/or use 
situations, or alternatively this requires extensive reequipping and 
installation work. 
3. Objects of the Invention 
A major object of the invention is to provide a guide rail for hanging 
parts, which is of relatively simple construction and can be easily 
installed. Another essential object of the invention lies in that hanging 
part carriages or travellers guided by the rail can be moved, grouped 
and/or positioned optionally within desired sections of the rail in a 
controlled manner by operating pull cord. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
In a guide rail assembly including at least one serial arrangement of 
carriages guided along the rail and designed for attaching hanging parts 
thereto, which carriages are interlinked in such a way that they are 
jointly movable in both directions thus acting as passive carriages by 
means of an elongated pull cord or the like extending along the rail, the 
pull cord, for transporting the carriages, being designed to engage a 
carriage serving as an active pull carriage and terminating the carriage 
serial arrangement, the pull cord otherwise passing in an unobstructed 
manner the remaining carriage, which thus act as passive carriages. The 
above objects are achieved according to the invention in that each of at 
least two carriages operated as pull carriages comprises a locking 
receptacle, and the pull cord is provided with at least one locking part 
fixedly arranged thereon. The pull cord is movable in an unobstructed 
manner relative to each locking receptacle, so that the latter forms a 
locking fit for the locking part. The locking fit is transport-fixed in 
both pull cord pulling directions, but is detachable by a pulling force 
instantaneously exerted on the pull cord, whilst the locking part is 
arranged to move in an unimpeded manner relative to the passive carriages. 
Thus, according to the invention, by control by means of the pull cord, as 
required, one of at least two pull carriages is either moved by the 
locking part or element or remains stationary at a desired point. The 
passive or travelling carriages are moved against a stationary pull 
carriage or away therefrom with another pull carriage locked for this 
purpose by means of the pull cord. Depending on its respective condition, 
the locking element or part engages or disengages the pull carriage 
locking receptacle through instantaneously increased pulling force on the 
pull cord. Consequently, a pull carriage either stops through unlocking 
with the pull cord, or it is transported by locking therewith. At desired 
positions or portions along the rail it is possible to provide carriage 
packs, groups or sets formed by carriages pushed together and/ or to use 
carriage movement areas, so as to e.g. provide slat sun protection, slat 
vision protection, specific hanging part decoration or room arrangements, 
according to individual desires and requirements. In general, the grouping 
and/or movement area of hanging parts of a mounted guide rail can be 
adapted easily by operating the pull cord to changed requirements of 
decoration or use. This universal design possibility is brought about by 
one and the same guide rail assembly according to the present invention, 
so that there is no need to arrange, fit, keep available and/or design 
different guide rails. A single guide rail, can be equipped for different 
uses with a unitary, standarized pull cord system. 
According to a particularly expedient embodiment of the invention, a basic 
construction of a guide rail assembly comprises a serial arrangement of 
the carriages comprising a plurality of normal passive carriages and two 
pull carriages, in which the passive carriages are arranged between the 
pull carriages terminating the serial arrangement at both ends. In 
particular there are two such serial arrangements, which can be operated 
by an endless, i.e. continuous pull cord, so as to be able to 
simultaneously form in each one of two areas of a guide rail a single 
hanging part pack, e.g. a pack of slats of a blind. Depending on the 
specifically intended use there can also be more than two carriage serial 
arrangements for forming carriage groups or packs along the guide rail. 
Pull cords can be associated with individual carriage serial arrangements, 
respectively, or a single pull cord can be associated with a plurality of 
carriage serial arrangements, so that carriage groups can be formed by 
operating several pull cords or one single pull cord, only. It is also 
possible to provide on a pull cord several locking elements arranged in 
distributed manner along the guide rail, so that a grouping of carriages 
is always possible if there is one of the locking elements in the 
detachable arresting seat or fit with the locking receptacle of a pull 
carriage. Thus, group formations can be obtained selectively and 
intermittently on moving the pull cord over only a section of the total 
length thereof and carriages of a desired sequence can remain unchanged in 
their positions along the rail. It is evident that, through the number of 
pull carriages having locking receptacles, the number and spacings of the 
locking elements formed on the pull cord and/or the number of pull cord 
systems, it is possible to obtain a plurality of operating and arrangement 
possibilities for the transport or grouping of carriages. Therefore, 
numerous different designs for the arrangement of hanging parts become 
possible. 
According to another embodiment of the invention the locking receptacle of 
a pull carriage is constructed as a through hole, through which the pull 
cord is passed in an unobstructed manner and which forms a fixed, but 
detachable clamping or friction fit for the locking element. The locking 
receptacle can be constructed with a stop blocking the passage of the 
locking element through the locking receptacle, so as to ensure that the 
pull cord locking element is only movable along the guide rail on one side 
of the pull carriage and can be unobstructedly moved pass the travelling 
carriages located in this area. 
It is particularly advantageous to construct the locking receptacle in the 
form of a groove or slot and to construct the locking element as a 
resilient spring or key for firmly, but detachably engaging the groove or 
slot. The invention is not restricted to the construction of such a 
mechanical locking position. According to the general aspect of the 
invention, the locking element and locking receptacle can be constructed 
in the form of a clamping or snap fit or lock and can cooperate in this 
form, so as to engage or disengage the locking element and locking 
receptacle in the case of an instantaneously higher or abrupt pull force 
on the pull cord. A detachable arresting fit can also be in the form of a 
burr or Velcro closure wherein a barb-possessing pull cord locking element 
can be engaged with or disengaged from a similar barb-possessing wall or 
surface of the lockforming receptacle. According to a further embodiment 
of the invention the locking fit or closure is formed so that the locking 
element is formed by a magneticizable member or element attached to the 
pull cord, and so that the pull carriage locking receptacle comprises a 
permanent magnet, so that the detachable locking position can be brought 
about by means of a magnetic connection of the locking element and the 
locking receptacle. Of course, the locking element can also be constructed 
as a permanent magnet, and the locking receptacle may be designed with 
magnetizable parts, surfaces or portions. 
According to an expedient development of the invention the arresting fit is 
constructed in that the locking receptacle has a cage-like space, as well 
as a hole, slot or gap-like recess being elastically resilient along at 
least one edge and that the locking element is constructed as a preferably 
spherically raised part on the pull cord, the raised part being adapted to 
pass through the recess for reaching the locking position in or for being 
released from the cage space under instantaneous pulling force on the pull 
cord and against a resilient giving way of the recess edge. 
With respect to very simply fitting with universally usable components and 
therefore a cost-saving, compact construction of the guide rail assembly, 
the locking receptacle can be arranged on a carriage part, which is formed 
in one piece with a passive carriage. The carriage part with the locking 
receptacle is firmly connected to the passive carriage in particular in 
modular construction by means of slot and key or groove and tongue 
elements by plug connection. In particular there is a plug module, which 
is inserted into a cord passage opening of a conventional or standard 
travelling (passive) carriage. A through hole is provided in the plug 
module for the return of a pull cord. 
For the operation of one or more serial carriage arrangements from one end 
of the guide rail assembly, a guide pulley or roller can be, provided in 
the region of the opposing guide rail end, and by means of which the pull 
cord is moved as a continuous pull cord backwards and forwards along the 
guide rail. 
According to the general aspect of the invention and taking into account 
the various possibilities of the application, the pull cord may be formed 
differently. In particular, it may be provided by way of a string, a rope, 
a ribbon, a flat band or also in the form of a chain having links. Such 
cord elements will, for the purposes of the invention, carry at least one 
locking element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
In a guide rail assembly designed according to the present invention, and 
as shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, a guide and carrier rail 1 is formed by an 
elongated element of U-shaped profile of suitable material, which profile 
is open on one side and by Which hanging parts such as a curtain, slats of 
a blind or the like are carried. The U-shaped profile forms a housing 11 
with guides 12 on the profile opening edges. Carriages 21, 22, 23 
extending over the profile cross-section each have a pair of wheels or 
slide elements, which run or slide on the guides 12. The guide rail 
assembly comprises several travelling or passive carriages 21, which are 
arranged between two pull carriages 22, 23 laterally terminating an 
overall carriage serial arrangement 3 of the assembly. 
The passive carriages 21 are constructed in a se known manner forming 
narrow bodies when seen in a direction parallel to the guide rail 1. On 
its underside each passive carriage 21 is provided with a hook or lock 9, 
to which is fixed a hanging part not shown. The hanging part lock 9 is 
carried by a pinion shaft 81, which is driven by a worm gear fixed to a 
reversing shaft 8 to rotate therewith and arranged within passive carriage 
21 in the region of a through bore 80. The reversing shaft 8 extends over 
the length of the guide rail 1 and is rotatably mounted with its shaft 
ends on end caps or covers 13, 14 frontally closing the profile of the 
guide rail 1. Through rotating the shaft 8, the locks or hooks 9 are 
jointly rotated in the same direction, so as to bring curtain slats 
suspended thereon into positions either transversal to or planar with the 
(imaginary) curtain surface. 
Each passive carriage 21 is provided with a passage 50 for a continuous 
and/or endless pull cord 5 extending over the entire length of the guide 
rail 1 and deflected by means of a guide pulley 6 located close to or at 
the end cap 14. The pull cord 5 is led downwards out of the other end cap 
13 and is operated, like the reversing shaft 8, on the side of the guide 
rail end cap 13 (operating side 7). 
Between two neighbouring passive carriages 21 is provided a carriage 
connecting and spacing member in the form of a metal strip 24 (FIG. 1) or 
240 (FIG. 3). Such a metal strip is fixed by one end to a carriage 21, 
whilst passing through an opening 241 of an adjacent passive carriage and 
is provided at its free end with a blocking edge 242 blocking the passage 
through the opening 241. The metal strips 24, 240 lead to a chain or link 
connection of the guide rail carriages 21, 22, 23 in such a wa that the 
carriages can be moved together and successively to virtually a zero 
spacing, whilst being movable between two carriages to a fixed and in 
particular equal spacing, the complete row of linked carriages being drawn 
and optionally transported along the guide rail by a pull carriage 22, 23. 
The guide rail according to FIG. 1 and a position diagram according to 
FIG. 4 show the carriages in uniformly spaced apart positions. 
The carriage serial arrangement 3 in FIG. 1 is laterally terminated by the 
pull carriages 22 and 23. Each of the pull carriages includes a passive 
carriage 21. The latter is in each case fixed to a pull carriage portion 
220 or 230 facing the carriage row. The carriage portions 220, 230 are 
integral, one-piece components the pull carriages 22, 23 respectively. It 
is in particular appropriate to construct the carriage portion 220, 230 as 
a plug modular component not shown in detail in the drawing, so as to 
produce in the fitted state of the guide rail 1 a firm plug connection 
with the passive carriage 21. 
The pull carriage portion 220, which corresponds to pull carriage portion 
230, is shown in FIG. 2. Its body contours correspond to those of a 
passive carriage 21 and it is also provided with a runner or slide element 
pair 20 guided by the rail edge guides 12. The reversing shaft 8 passes in 
unimpeded manner through a passage bore 82. In place of a passage 50 of a 
passive carriage 21, there is a locking receptacle 40, which surrounds a 
cage-like inner area 41. The latter is bounded by a slot 42 in a lateral 
direction, i.e. to the sides of carriage 21. At least the slot 42 facing 
the row of passive carriages 21 is provided with at least one elastically 
resilient edge, projection or web portion 420. Thus, the locking 
receptacle 40 forms a fixed, but detachable locking seat or fit for a 
spherical pull cord locking element 4. The spherical portion thereof 
arranged on pull cord 5 or in the pull cord path constitutes a thickening 
compared with the pull cord cross-section, which is dimensioned in such a 
way that it can only pass by jerky or instantaneous action under an abrupt 
pulling force exerted on the pull cord 5 through the slot 42, accompanied 
by a slight spreading apart of its spring portion 420. The pull cord 5 
passes in unimpeded manner through the slots 42 of the pull carriage 
portion 220. If the locking element 4 comes to rest within the cage 41 
(FIG. 1), the pull cord 5 is adequately firmly connected thereto for the 
transport of the pull carriage 22. However, the locking element 4 can be 
released from its locking position again by a briefly increased (abrupt) 
pulling force, or jerk, on the pull cord 5, and will pass through the 
spring slot 42. The passages 50 of the passive carriages 21 have an 
internal overall width which, in each direction, is larger than the 
cross-section of the locking element 4, so that it traverses the passive 
carriages 21 in unobstructed manner. The pull carriage portion 220 is 
provided with a passage opening 54 for the passage of a pull cord 
counter-run 52. 
By pulling the pull cord counter-run 52 on the operating side 7 of guide 
rail 1 in FIG. 1, the pull carriage 22 is moved in the direction of the 
pull carriage 23, which engages stops 15. The carriages of the serial 
arrangement 3 are moved uniformly together until a pack of carriages 
positioned with no spacing is formed in front of the pull carriage 23. 
The locking element 4 can also be freed from cage 41 of the pull carriage 
22 (FIG. 1) by abrupt pulling on the pull cord run 52 and then without 
changing the positions of the carriages of the serial arrangement 3 can be 
moved with the pull cord 5 to the pull carriage 23, where it is arrested 
by means of a locking receptacle 40 constructed as for pull carriage 22. 
The carriages of the serial arrangement 3 can then be shoved together 
towards operating side 7 by pulling the pull cord run 51. Thus, also on 
the operating side a tightly juxtaposed carriage pack or group can be 
formed. In addition, groups of a carriage pack are possible at random 
positions along the guide rail 1. This is made clear by the principal 
diagrams according to FIGS. 4 to 7 for carriage positions and groups. 
FIGS. 4 to 7 show carriage serial arrangements 3 of a guide rail profile 
11, in which the carriages, as described relative to FIG. 1, can be moved 
and grouped from one operating side 7 with a continuous pull cord 5 and 
with pull carriages 22, 23 which can be fixed thereon selectively. 
The locking receptacle 40 for the pull carriages 22, 23 is designed as a 
bore passing through each pull carriage. It comprises a spherical locking 
pocket 41, which forms the resting locking seat for the spherical portion 
of locking element 4 of the pull cord 5. An entry portion 42 of the 
passage bore is so constructed and dimensioned that the locking element 4 
can only be passed in resilient manner under pulling force through this 
portion 42, which is partly restricted with respect to the cross-section 
of the sphere, so as to pass into or out of the cage 41. On the inner 
walls of bore portion 42 can be provided resilient leaf springs, 
projections or similar spring elements curving into the same. It is 
particularly appropriate to form the walls of the bore portion 42 from an 
elastic plastic. The pull carriages 22, 23, also in the embodiments 
according to FIGS. 1 and 2, are entirely made from plastic. 
According to FIGS. 4 to 6 the bore 40 comprises a through hole 43 issuing 
into the cage 41 and which has a much smaller diameter than locking 
element 4 and only permits the unobstructed passage of pull cord 5, whilst 
blocking the passage of locking element 4 by forming a cage-side stop 44. 
The pull cord spherical locking element 4 is brought out of the position 
shown in FIG. 4 into the cage rest position A. so that, whilst pulling on 
the cord run 52, the carriages can be brought into the pack/ group 
position according to FIG. 5. After freeing the locking element 4 from 
cage 41 of carriage 22 (by briefly increased pulling force on the cord run 
52), the locking element 4 passes, accompanied by free passage through the 
recesses 50 of the passive carriages 21, into a position B within the cage 
41 of pull carriage 23 (also by temporarily increased pulling force on run 
52). Thus, by pulling on the cord run 51, the carriage pack of FIG. 5 can 
be moved in closed form in the direction of the operating side 7 into an 
intermediate position according to FIG. 6. By means of the pull cord 5 the 
locking element 4 is brought into the locking position A of FIG. 6. The 
carriage pack can then be moved, e.g. to another intermediate position 
along the guide rail profile 11. Accompanied by pulling on the cord run 
51, the carriages can be drawn apart from there to the operating side 7, 
the pull carriage 23 initially remaining stationary due to its own weight 
or to the weight of a hanging part fixed thereto After obtaining fixed 
spacings brought about a carriage chain link not shown, the serial 
arrangement with such spaced carriages can be moved uniformly to the 
operating side 7, whilst pulling on the locked pull carriage 22. 
The locking receptacles 40 of each one of the pull carriages 22 and 23 
according to FIG. 7 comprise on both running direction sides of the pull 
carriage springelastic bore portions constituting a clamping/ friction 
passage for the spherical part forming the locking element 4. Thus, the 
locking element 4 can be fixed in or freed from the cage 41 in both cord 
run directions. It is possible to provide along the pull cord 5 several 
locking elements 4, a closed transport as well as a drawing apart or 
moving together of a carriage pack always being possible if one of the 
spherical parts is located in a locking cage 41. It is possible to provide 
along the guide rail profile 11 additional correspondingly constructed 
carriage serial arrangements, not shown, that with the same pull cord 5 it 
is possible to position and move different carriage serial arrangements. 
It is, of course, possible to provide a guide rail 11 with oppositely 
movable carriages and/or packs, so as to be able to operate with a single 
pull cord a curtain subdivided into two sections. 
As becomes apparent from FIG. 8, a particularly advantageous embodiment of 
a pull carriage 22 or 23 is obtained by inserting a modular or plug 
component 231 into the through recess 50 of a conventional passive 
carriage 21 through an opening 210 on the carriage side having the lock 9. 
Component 231 is provided with a locking receptacle 40 forming the 
detachable arresting fit for a locking element 4. The plug component 231 
also comprises a through hole 54 for the unobstructed passage of a pull 
cord counter-run. In the assembled state, the preferably plastic-made plug 
component 231 is in clamping or frictional fit in recess 50. 
A special embodiment of the spherical locking element 4 comprises, as shown 
in FIG. 9, a spherical hollow component having a slot 46, which is pressed 
onto the pull cord 5. The hollow component is resiliently compressible, at 
least partly brought about by the material of the pull cord 5 and 
accompanied by the constriction of slot 46. Thus, the locking fit can be 
produced in a locking receptacle by resilient-elastic force of the locking 
element 4. 
According to yet another embodiment of the invention, the walls of the 
bores 40 are made from magnetizable materials, or, while the locking 
element material and spherical part 4 is magnetic. There is not need in 
this embodiment for locking rockets 41 and the reception diameters of the 
bores are dimensioned in such a way that they permit and entry or passage 
of the spherical locking element 4 not impeded by mechanical spring parts. 
However, the locking element 4 is held in each bore 40 by magnetic force 
in locking fit detachable by the pull cord.