Abstract:
A roller-shade winding roman style shade is provided. A technical feature thereof is to utilize an actuating member of a cord or a band-shaped long strip of fabric to connect a blind material and a roller shade. Thus, as the roller shade rises, the parts where the blind material and the actuating member are connected are pulled up sequentially from the bottom up, and when reaching the top end, the points where the blind material and the actuating member are connected are kept at approximately the same height, such that the roman style shade is in a retracted and folded state. The blind material of the whole roman style shade can be folded up or dropped down merely through connection of the actuating member between the blind material and the roller shade, the roller shade has diversified applications and is more flexible in use and pleasant to look at.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of China Patent Application No. 201020503054.7, filed on Aug. 23, 2010, which is hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes as if fully set forth herein. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    1. Field of Invention 
         [0003]    The present invention relates to a roller winding roman style shade, and more particularly to a technology that a roman style shade can be controlled by a roller shade to achieve a rise-up or drop-down action with a simple structure and low production cost. 
         [0004]    2. Related Art 
         [0005]    A roman style shade is also referred to as a “vertical folding shade”. As the name suggests, the roman style shade can be folded layer by layer, to achieve a stronger stereoscopic appeal and luxurious feeling than a full-face roller shade. Moreover, a variety of material or fabric can be chosen for roman style shade and roller shade, which facilitates the matching with the color systems and textures of interior decorations such as the bedding, mounted fabric, and sofa. 
         [0006]    The roman style shade can be categorized into a blind/shade structure that needs to use a cord to manually control the winding and unfolding actions thereof and a cordless roman style shade that realizes winding and unfolding with an automatic winding wire grip (including an electric-control elevation mode). 
         [0007]    Chinese Patent No. CN201433692Y titled “BLIND USING ROLLER SHADE FOR WINDING ROMAN STYLE SHADE” discloses a blind/shade structure of a double-blanket roman style shade. A technical feature thereof is to dispose more than one limit device at a rear side of a fabric screen, a fixing device located below the last limit device, and an auxiliary beam disposed at an end of the fabric screen. The roller shade includes a shaft rod disposed below a major beam and a screen. An end of the screen is disposed inside the shaft rod, and the other end penetrates the multiple limit devices at the rear side of the roman style shade and is fixed on the fixing device. The limit device generally has more than one limit rod fixed at the rear side of the fabric screen at intervals, two double-snap rings, and an auxiliary rod. The limit rod is opened with a groove, and the fabric screen is fitted in the groove and retained thereby. Two end portions of the limit rod are respectively installed with one double-snap ring. Each double-snap ring is opened with a first groove and a second groove, the first grooves are respectively clamped at the two end portions of the limit rod, and the auxiliary rod is used for positioning by penetrating the second grooves of the two double-snap rings, so that an extending space for the roller shade to pass through is formed between the auxiliary rod and the limit rod. 
         [0008]    However, although the technical structure as described above makes it easy for a user to wind or unfold the roman style shade, the technical structure is complicated and many limit devices are needed for positioning, so that not only the overall weight of the roman style shade is increased, but also the fabrication cost is greatly increased, and meanwhile, more elements are adopted, which indicates that the technical product is not environmentally friendly. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    Therefore, in order to solve the disadvantages above, an objective of the present invention is to provide a new type of roller- winding roman style shade, which uses at least one cord, tape or band to connect a front-side roman style shadeand a rear-side roller shade together, and as the roller shade rises, the parts where the front-side roman style shade is connected to the cord (or tape or band) are pulled up sequentially from the bottom up, thus achieving a simple structure and a low fabrication cost and also satisfying the purpose of environmental protection. 
         [0010]    To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides a roller winding roman style shade. The roman style shade includes: a blind material serving as a front side of the roman style shade, in which the blind material is capable of being folded up layer by layer and unfolded by drop-down; and a roller shade serving as a rear side of the roman style shade, in which an upper end of the roller shade is installed and fixed on a shaft rod and correspondingly connected to the blind material. At least an actuating member is disposed between the blind material and the roller shade, and as the roller shade rises, the parts where the blind material and the actuating members are connected are pulled up sequentially from the bottom up through the actuating members, such that the blind material is in a retracted and folded state. 
         [0011]    The actuating member can be a cord, tape, band or a long strip of fabric, and may also be other devices capable of actuating the blind material in actual implementation, as long as the wound state of the roller shade is not affected. In practice, the plurality of actuating members on the same vertical line may be connected to the roller shade at the same position, or connected to the roller shade at equal intervals, or connected to the roller shade with intervals gradually increasing from the bottom up. 
         [0012]    The roller shade may instead be formed of multiple rolling strips of fabric, and each of the rolling strips of fabric is disposed with the actuating members connected to support rods of the blind material, so as to add design applications of the roller shade with the peripheral space. 
         [0013]    An advantage of the present invention is that the roman style sande of the present invention utilises the actuating members of the cord or the band-shaped long strip of fabric to connect the blind material and the roller shade, so that as the roller shade rises, the lowermost support rod is firstly pulled up with the roller shade, then in sequence the lowermost actuating member is pulled tight to actuate the intermediate support rod to move upward, and fmally the uppermost actuating member is pulled tight to cause the uppermost support rod to move upward, until the roller shade is pulled to the top, and a folded retraction effect is realized. The roller shade of the whole roman style shade can be folded up or dropped down merely through connection of the actuating members between the blind material and the roller shade, so that the roman style shade has a simple structure and lower element cost than commercially available double-shade roman style shade, and moreover, since the fewest elements are used, the roller shade has diversified applications and is more flexible in use and pleasant to look at, and environmental protection objectives in production and use are also satisfied. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0014]    The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given herein below for illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention, and wherein: 
           [0015]      FIG. 1  is a schematic three-dimensional view according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0016]      FIG. 2  is a schematic front view according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0017]      FIG. 3  is a side view according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0018]      FIG. 4  is a side view of a wound state according to an embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0019]      FIG. 5  is a schematic view of a roman style shade according to another embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0020]      FIG. 6  is a schematic view of a cord according to another embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0021]      FIG. 7  is a schematic view of a roller shade according to another embodiment of the present invention; 
           [0022]      FIG. 8  is a schematic three-dimensional view of electric-winding according to the present invention; and 
           [0023]      FIG. 9  is a schematic three-dimensional view of manual bead-chain winding according to the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
       [0024]    The detailed illustration and technical contents of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
         [0025]      FIGS. 1 and 2  are respectively a schematic three-dimensional view and a schematic front view according to an embodiment of the present invention. A roman style shade  10  of the present invention utilises a roller shade to wind a blind material. In actual implementation, the roman style shade  10  is installed on a wall at an inner side of a top edge of a window, and includes a blind material  30  serving as a front side of the roman style shade  10 , and a roller shade  40  serving as a rear side of the roman style shade  10 . Usually, a beam frame  20  is laterally disposed on the wall. One end of the blind material  30  is fixed at a side of the beam frame  20 , and a plurality of support rods  311 ,  312 , and  313  (three support rods are provided in this embodiment for illustration, but not limited thereto) is disposed at the rear side of the blind material  30  to support the unfolding of the blind material  30 , and enable the blind material  30  to be folded up or dropped down while staying close to the window. One end of the roller shade  40  is installed and fixed on a shaft rod  21  inside the beam frame  20 , and the other end is joined to the lowermost support rod  313  of the blind material  30 . In practice, in addition to the lowermost support rod  313  of the blind material  30 , the rest of the support rods  311  and  312  of the blind material  30  are respectively disposed with at least one actuating member  411  and actuating member  412  connected to the roller shade  40  in a horizontal plane thereof. That is, one end of the actuating member is connected to the support rod, and the two ends of the actuating member are respectively connected to the corresponding surfaces of the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40  in a horizontal plane thereof; moreover, the length of the actuating member may be longer than a distance between the corresponding surfaces of the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40 . 
         [0026]    In addition, in one embodiment, the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40  may be made separately; however, in one embodiment, the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40  may be formed by a continuous same piece of material or fabric. 
         [0027]    The actuating members  411  and  412  may be a flexible material with an adequate length such as cords, long strips of fabric, or other band-shaped materials that can be connected to the blind material  30  and actuate the same, as long as the wound state of the roller shade is not influenced in actual implementation. The actuating members  411  and  412  may also have one end connected to the blind material  30  through some safely detachable mechanisms, so as to form a safety mechanism of automatic detachment, thus avoiding winding incidents caused by the actuating members  411  and  412 . Further, as shown in the figures, an embodiment is given in which one of the actuating members  411  and  412  is disposed in the same horizontal plane, and in other implementations, more than two actuating members may be respectively disposed in the same horizontal plane by taking the width and the overall weight of the blind material  30  into consideration. 
         [0028]    Referring to  FIGS. 3 and 4 , the beam frame  20  may be made of wood or formed through aluminum extrusion, and is disposed and fixed on the wall in a horizontal direction. A long groove rail  22  is provided at a side of the beam frame  20 . A fixation segment  32  at an end of the blind material  30  can be fixed inside the long groove rail  22  through a fixing device  23 , thereby fixing a corresponding relation between the beam frame  20  and the blind material  30 . 
         [0029]    The actuating members  411  and  412  at the same vertical line may be connected to the roller shade  40  at the same position (as shown in  FIG. 3 ), or connected to the roller shade  40  at equal intervals (as shown in  FIG. 6 ). In addition, the actuating members  411  and  412  may also have unequal intervals, for example, the intervals increase in sequence from top to bottom, so as to form a step-like folding which is pleasant to look at. 
         [0030]    In the implementation of the roman style shade  10 , a tail blind material  33  can be disposed below the lowermost support rod  313  of the blind material  30 , and it can be selected whether to dispose a balance weight lever (not shown) below the tail blind material  33 , the major function of which is to form a drop-down state at the end of the blind material  30 . Alternatively, the blind material  30  has a form without the tail blind material  33  (as shown in  FIG. 5 ), and instead the end of the roller shade  40  is directly disposed at the end of the blind material  30 . Through such joint mode, the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40  may be formed by the same piece of material or respective by two pieces of material, and a total drop-down length of the blind material  30  depends on the height of the window opening, which is generally greater than or equal to the height of the window opening. 
         [0031]    Moreover, an automatic winding device (not shown) is provided inside the shaft rod  21  within the beam frame  20 , so as to actuate the shaft rod  21  to wind and unfold the blind material  30 . In the implementation, when the roman style shade  10  is in a fully-shaded state, the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40  are dropped down completely, and in operation, the blind material  30  and the roller shade  40  are connected through the actuating members  411  and  412 , so the blind material  30  rises as the roller shade  40  is actuated by the shaft rod  21  (as shown in  FIG. 3 ). Firstly, the lowermost support rod  313  is pulled up with the roller shade  40 , and then in sequence the lowermost actuating member  412  is pulled tight to actuate the intermediate support rod  312  to move upward, and finally the uppermost actuating member  411  is pulled tight to actuate the uppermost support rod  311  to move upward. When the blind material  30  is pulled to the top end, the three support rods  311 ,  312 , and  313  of the blind material  30  are kept at approximately the same height, so that the whole blind material  30  is in a retracted and folded state (as shown in  FIG. 4 ), thus realizing a folded retraction effect. 
         [0032]    In practice, when the user intends to wind the blind material  30  of the roman style shade  10 , the user can directly hold the lowermost support rod  313  of the blind material  30  with the hand and apply a force upward, so that through the automatic winding function of the automatic winding device, and pulled upward through the roller shade  40 , the blind material  30  is synchronously pushed upward to a fold-up state (as shown in  FIG. 4 ). In addition, when the user intends to unfold the blind material  30  of the roman style shade  10 , likewise, the user holds the lowermost support rod  313  of the blind material  30  with the hand and applies a force downward, and thus the blind material  30  is unfolded under the actions of the automatic winding device together with related means. 
         [0033]    Furthermore, in the implementation, the roller shade  40  may be formed of more than two rolling strips of fabric  42  and  43  (as shown in  FIG. 7 ). The rolling strips of fabric  42  and  43  are respectively disposed with the actuating members  411  and  412  connected to the support rods  311  and  312  of the blind material  30 , thus increasing matching applications of the roller shade  40  with the peripheral space based on different interior decoration designs. Similarly, the actuating members  411  and  412  at the same vertical line are connected to the rolling strip of fabric  42  or  43  at the same position, or connected to the rolling strip of fabric  42  or  43  at equal intervals (as shown in  FIG. 7 ). In addition, the actuating members  411  and  412  may also have unequal intervals, for example, the intervals increase in sequence from top to bottom, thus forming a step-like folding which is pleasant to look at. 
         [0034]    In addition, to accommodate for different user habits, in the implementation of the present invention, an electric winding device  50  may be disposed at a side of the shaft rod  21 , as shown in  FIG. 8 , and thus another roman style shade  10  that the roller shade  40  can be electrically operated to wind the blind material  30  is provided, for example, through remote operation. Alternatively, as shown in  FIG. 9 , a manual bead-chain device  60  is disposed at a side of the shaft rod  21 , so as to form a roman style shade  10  that the roller shade  40  can be manually operated to wind the blind material  30 . 
         [0035]    Although the present invention is already disclosed above with reference to preferred embodiments, it should be understood by persons skilled in the art that the embodiments are merely used to describe the present invention, and should not be construed as limits to the scope of the present invention. It should be noted that the changes and replacements equivalent to the embodiments shall fall within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention should be as defined by the following claims.