JP6420164B2 - Electric blinds - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electric blind.

  In the electric blind, a ladder cord suspended from the head box supports a plurality of slats so as to be rotatable with the rotation of the electric motor, and the lifting cord suspended from the head box is rotated by the electric motor. Along with this, there is one in which the bottom rail is supported so as to be movable up and down by being wound or unwound on a winding shaft disposed in the head box (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2008-127890 A

  In Patent Document 1, it is always checked whether the lower limit is operating during the bottom rail lowering operation, and control is performed to stop the lowering operation when it is determined that the lower limit is operating. . In Patent Document 1, the lower limit is operated based on whether the lifting / lowering cord is slack or not, but according to the present inventors' verification, the bottom rail reaches the lower limit or the bottom rail is an obstacle. It has been found that the lower limit may detect a slack and the descent operation may be stopped erroneously even though there is no event such as collision with the lower limit.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and there is no event that the bottom rail reaches the lower limit or the bottom rail collides with an obstacle during the lowering motion of the bottom rail. Regardless, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electric blind that can prevent the bottom rail lowering operation from being erroneously stopped.

  According to the present invention, the slats of a plurality of stages are rotatably supported by the slat support cords suspended from the head box as the electric motor is rotated, and the lifting cords suspended from the head box are connected to the electric motor. In the electric blind configured so that the bottom rail is supported so as to be movable up and down by being wound or rewound on a winding shaft disposed in the head box in accordance with the rotation, the rotation of the electric motor is controlled. And a slack detecting unit for detecting slack of the lifting / lowering cord, and the control unit detects that the slack detecting unit is in the lifting / lowering code during the rotation of the slat after starting the lowering operation of the bottom rail. Even if slack is detected, the rotation of the electric motor is not stopped, and the slack detection unit is moved forward after rotation of the slat is completed. Configured to detect the slack of the lift cord rotation of the electric motor so as to control the electric motor to stop, electric blind is provided.

  As a result of investigating in detail the cause of the bottom rail lowering operation being erroneously stopped, the elevating cord was caught by the slat during the rotation of the slat after the start of the bottom rail lowering operation, and the elevating cord was lifted. As a result, it was found that the lifting / lowering cord is slackened, and the slackness is detected by the slackness detecting unit, so that the bottom rail lowering operation is erroneously stopped. Based on this knowledge, during the rotation of the slat after the start of the lowering motion of the bottom rail, even if the slack detection unit detects the slack of the lifting / lowering cord, the electric motor is prevented from stopping. It has been found that by controlling it, an erroneous stop of the bottom rail lowering operation can be suppressed, and the present invention has been completed.

Hereinafter, various embodiments of the present invention will be exemplified. The various embodiments described below can be combined with each other.
Preferably, the elevating cord is inserted through an insertion hole arranged at a position biased to one side in the front-rear direction of the slat.

The electric blind 1 of one Embodiment of this invention is shown, (a) is a front view, (b) is a right view. FIG. 2 is an enlarged view showing a configuration in the vicinity of a leftmost drum unit 19 in FIG. (A) is a cross-sectional view seen from above the uppermost slat 7, (b) is a cross-sectional view seen from above the second slat 7, and (c) is a three-tier view from above. It is sectional drawing seen from the top of the slats 7 after the eyes. In (a) to (b), the slat presser 31 is omitted. (A)-(b) is AA sectional drawing in FIG.3 (c), (a) shows a normal fully closed state, (b) shows a reverse fully closed state. It is explanatory drawing of the principle which the slack detection switch 36 operate | moves, (a)-(b) shows the state in which tension | tensile_strength is applied to the raising / lowering tape 11, (c)-(d) is the state which the raising / lowering tape 11 slackened. Indicates. (A) and (c) are schematic views of the BB cross section in FIG. 2, and (b) and (d) are the slider 35 and slack detection switch of (a) and (c), respectively. 36 shows a state viewed from above. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the control part 20 and the member connected to this. It is AA sectional drawing in FIG.3 (c), and is a figure for demonstrating the principle which slack arises in the raising / lowering tape 11 when the slat 7 rotates. It is a flowchart which shows the control after the downward movement of the bottom rail 9 is started. 4 is a graph showing a relationship between an elapsed time after the control unit 20 receives a lowering command for the bottom rail 9 and the rotational speed of the electric motor 2.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. As for various features in the embodiments described below, the invention is independently established and can be combined with each other.

  The “elevating cord” in the claims is a cord used for raising and lowering the bottom rail, and its cross-sectional shape is not limited. Therefore, the “elevating cord” may be either a thin and wide tape-like elevating tape or a string-like elevating string. Further, the “winding shaft” in the claims may be any of a winding drum for winding up the lifting tape and a winding cone for winding up the lifting string in a spiral shape. In the following embodiment, a horizontal blind of a type in which a lifting tape is wound around a winding drum will be described as an example. However, a horizontal blind of a type in which a lifting string is wound up spirally around a winding cone is also basic. In general, similar effects can be achieved.

Hereinafter, an electric blind 1 according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
As shown in FIG. 1, the electric blind 1 includes a head box 3, a ladder cord 5 suspended from the head box 3, and a lifting tape 11. As shown in FIG. 3, the ladder cord 5 includes a plurality of wefts 5b between a pair of warp yarns 5a. A slat 7 is supported on each weft 5b. The ladder cord 5 is fixed to the uppermost slat 7 and the next slat 7 by a slat presser 31. The ladder cord 5 corresponds to a “slat support cord” in the claims. The structure of the “slat support cord” is not limited as long as it can support and rotate the slat 7. For example, the slat support cord includes two warps separated from each other, and one warp is provided on one edge of the slat. A configuration may be employed in which the other warp is attached to the other edge of the slat. The elevating tape 11 is a thin and wide tape shape.

  As shown in FIG. 1, in the head box 3, the electric motor 2, the motor bracket 33, the motor joint 34, the drive shaft 23, the drum unit 19, the upper limit switch 4, the encoder 38, and the power supply board 41 and a control board 43 are arranged.

  A switching power supply circuit is mounted on the power supply board 41, and this circuit converts AC power input from the external power input unit 42 into DC power. Various parts (the electric motor 2, the control board 43, etc.) of the electric blind 1 are driven by the converted DC power. An electronic circuit for configuring the control unit 20 shown in FIG. 6 is mounted on the control board 43. As shown in FIG. 6, the control unit 20 is realized by the CPU 25 executing various processes according to a program stored in the storage unit 26. The CPU 25 drives the electric motor 2 via the motor drive circuit 2a. The CPU 25 is communicably connected to the encoder 38 via the encoder connection circuit 38a. Further, the CPU 25 is communicably connected to the upper limit switch 4 and the slack detection switch 36.

  The control unit 20 is configured to be able to receive commands from the wired remote controller 46, the infrared remote controller 47, the wireless remote controller 48, or the PC (personal computer) 49. The controller 20 communicates with the infrared remote controller 47 through the infrared light receiver 47a, and communicates with the wireless remote controller 48 through the wireless receiver 48a. Examples of commands that can be received by the control unit 20 include a start command for raising or lowering the bottom rail 9, a slat rotation command in the normal fully closed direction or the reverse fully closed direction, and an operation stop command.

  The electric motor 2 is fixed to the head box 3 via a motor bracket 33. The rotation of the electric motor 2 is transmitted to the drive shaft 23 via the motor joint 34. The upper limit switch 4 is a switch that detects whether or not the slat 7 is pulled up to the upper limit. The switch 4 has a protruding portion a that protrudes downward from the head box 3. When the uppermost slat 7 pushes up the protruding portion 4a of the switch 4, the switch 4 outputs a detection signal. The control unit 20 is configured to stop the rotation of the drive shaft 23 when receiving the detection signal from the switch 4.

  The encoder 38 is configured to be able to detect the rotation angle of the drive shaft 23. Specifically, the encoder 38 outputs a pulse signal every time the drive shaft 23 rotates by a predetermined angle. The control unit 20 detects the rotation angle of the drive shaft 23 by counting the number of pulses. The control unit 20 can control the electric motor 2 to rotate the drive shaft 23 at a preset speed by using the pulse signal from the encoder 38.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the drum unit 19 includes a support member 21 fixed to the head box 3, a ladder cord suspension member 27 and a winding drum 29 that are rotatably supported with respect to the support member 21, and a support member. 21 includes a slider 35 slidably supported with respect to 21 and a slack detection switch 36 fixed to the support member 21.

  One end of the pair of warp yarns 5a of the ladder cord 5 is attached to the ladder cord suspension member 27, and the inclination angle of the slat 7 is caused by the rotation of the ladder cord suspension member 27 as the drive shaft 23 rotates. Is configured to change. The ladder cord suspension member 27 is accompanied by the rotation of the drive shaft 23 until the slat 7 is in the normal fully closed state as shown in FIG. 4A or the reverse fully closed state as shown in FIG. After that, the drive shaft 23 is idled with respect to the ladder cord suspension member 27. The other ends of the pair of warp threads 5 a of the ladder cord 5 are attached to the bottom rail 9. As shown in FIG. 4A, the normal fully closed state means a state in which the slat 7 is rotated in the direction in which the outside of the room of the slat 7 is lowered until the drive shaft 23 is idle. The closed state means a state in which the slat 7 is rotated in the direction in which the outside of the room of the slat 7 rises as shown in FIG.

  The lifting tape 11 has one end attached to the bottom rail 9 and the other end attached to the winding drum 29. When the take-up drum 29 rotates with the rotation of the drive shaft 23, the elevating tape 11 is taken up or rewound from the take-up drum 29, whereby the bottom rail 9 is raised and lowered.

  The slider 35 is supported by the support member 21 so as to be slidable in the front-rear direction of the head box 3. In the state where the bottom rail 9 has not reached the lower limit, as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5B, the lifting tape 11 is tensioned, and the force F1 of FIG. The protruding portion 36a is pressed. In this state, no detection signal is output from the switch 36. On the other hand, when the bottom rail 9 reaches the lower limit or the bottom rail 9 collides with an obstacle while the bottom rail 9 is descending, the lifting tape 11 is slack as shown in FIGS. As a result, the force F1 is reduced, so that the urging force F2 applied to the slider 35 by the protrusion 36a becomes larger than the force F1. As a result, the slider 35 is pushed by the protrusion 36a and moves in the arrow DF direction as shown in FIG. 5D, and a detection signal is output from the switch 36. The control unit 20 is configured to stop the rotation of the drive shaft 23 when receiving a detection signal from the switch 36 while the bottom rail 9 is descending. The slider 35 and the switch 36 constitute a “sagging unit” in the claims.

  As shown in FIG. 3, three lifting tapes 11 are provided so as to be separated in the longitudinal direction LS of the slat 7. As shown in FIGS. 3A to 3B, the two lifting tapes 11 at both ends are suspended along the edge 7f inside the room of the slat 7 with respect to the slat 7 at the uppermost stage and the next stage. As shown in FIG. 3C, the third and subsequent slats 7 from the top are inserted through insertion holes 7a provided in the slats 7. The insertion hole 7a is disposed at a position that is biased toward the inside of the room of the slat 7 (one side in the front-rear direction). Specifically, the insertion hole 7 a is disposed in the vicinity of the edge 7 f inside the room of the slat 7. With such a configuration, the two lifting tapes 11 at both ends are arranged at positions deviated to the inside of the room from the center of the slat 7 in the front-rear direction. The insertion hole 7 a has an elongated shape, and is arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the insertion hole 7 a is parallel to the longitudinal direction LS of the slat 7. Since the insertion hole 7a is arranged in this way, as shown in FIG. 4 (a), when the slat 7 is in a fully closed state, the insertion hole 7a is shielded by the slat 7 on the near side, and external light Since S is prevented from entering the room through the insertion hole 7a, light leakage in the fully closed state is reduced.

  As shown in FIG. 3A, the central lifting tape 11 is inserted into the insertion hole 7c provided in the slat 7 with respect to the uppermost slat 7, and as shown in FIG. The slat 7 of the step is suspended along the edge 7b outside the room of the slat 7, and the slats 7 of the third and subsequent steps from the top are provided on the warp 5a of the ladder cord 5 as shown in FIG. The inserted annular portion 5c is inserted. In addition, the raising / lowering tape 11 does not need to be penetrated to the cyclic | annular part 5c provided in the position corresponding to all the slats 7. FIG. In this embodiment, the elevating tape 11 is not inserted into the annular portion 5c at the position corresponding to the first to fifth slats 7, and the annular portion 5c provided at the position corresponding to the slat 7 at the sixth step transition is inserted. The elevating tape 11 is inserted. The insertion hole 7c of the uppermost slat 7 is disposed at a position biased to the outside of the room of the slat 7 (the other side in the front-rear direction). Specifically, the insertion hole 7 c is disposed in the vicinity of the edge 7 b outside the room of the slat 7. With such a configuration, the central lifting tape 11 is disposed at a position that is biased to the outside of the room from the center of the slat 7 in the front-rear direction. The insertion hole 7 c has an elongated shape, and is arranged so that the longitudinal direction of the insertion hole 7 c is parallel to the longitudinal direction LS of the slat 7. Since the insertion hole 7c is arranged in this way, when the slat 7 is in the fully closed state, the portion of the insertion hole 7c overlaps the second-stage slat 7, so that the light that has passed through the insertion hole 7c Reflected by the slats of the step. For this reason, since the external light S is prevented from entering the room through the insertion hole 7c, light leakage in the fully closed state is reduced.

  Next, the raising / lowering operation | movement of the electric blind 1 is demonstrated. The initial state of the electric blind 1 will be described below assuming that the bottom rail 9 is at the lower limit position and the slat 7 is in a horizontal state as shown in FIG.

  When the control unit 20 receives a command to raise the bottom rail 9 in the state of FIG. 1, the control unit 20 rotates the electric motor 2 so that the drive shaft 23 rotates in the direction of arrow U in FIG. 2. Then, the raising operation of the bottom rail 9 is started. When the drive shaft 23 rotates in the direction of the arrow U, the winding drum 29 and the ladder cord suspension member 27 also rotate in the direction of the arrow U, and the winding of the elevating tape 11 is started. 4 (b) is rotated in the reverse fully closed direction indicated by the arrow RT. When the ladder cord suspension member 27 is rotated until the slat 7 is in the reverse fully closed state, after that, the drive shaft 23 rotates idly with respect to the ladder cord suspension member 27 and the rotation of the slat 7 is completed. . Thereafter, only the take-up drum 29 rotates and the elevating tape 11 is taken up by the take-up drum 29 and the bottom rail 9 is raised. For example, when the control unit 20 receives a command to stop the rotation of the drive shaft 23 when the bottom rail 9 is raised to the vicinity of the center in the height direction, the control unit 20 stops the rotation of the electric motor 2.

  Next, when the control unit 20 receives a command to lower the bottom rail 9, the control unit 20 rotates the electric motor 2 so that the drive shaft 23 rotates in the direction of arrow D in FIG. Start the descent operation. When the drive shaft 23 rotates in the direction of the arrow D, the winding drum 29 and the ladder cord suspension member 27 also rotate in the direction of the arrow D, and the rewinding of the elevating tape 11 is started. 4 (a) is rotated in the fully closed direction indicated by the arrow NT. When the ladder cord suspension member 27 is rotated until the slat 7 is in the fully fully closed state, the drive shaft 23 is idled with respect to the ladder cord suspension member 27 thereafter, and the rotation of the slat 7 is completed. . After that, only the winding drum 29 rotates, the lifting tape 11 is rewound from the winding drum 29, and the bottom rail 9 is lowered.

  When the slat 7 is rotated from the reverse fully closed state shown in FIG. 4B to the normal fully closed state shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the elevating tape 11 may be caught by the edge 7a1 of the insertion hole 7a and lifted upward. In such a case, slack occurs in the lift tape 11, and the slack detection switch 36 detects the slack and outputs a detection signal. In the prior art, since the electric motor was stopped based on this detection signal, the bottom rail did not occur even though the bottom rail reached the lower limit or the bottom rail collided with an obstacle. The descending movement of was erroneously stopped.

  The phenomenon that the lifting / lowering tape 11 is caught by the slat 7 and lifted when the slat 7 rotates can occur regardless of the arrangement method of the lifting / lowering tape 11. In the case where the elevating tape 11 is inserted into the elongated insertion hole 7a arranged at a position biased to one side in the front-rear direction of the slat 7, like the elevating tape 11 of the elevating tape 11, the elevating tape 11 in the insertion hole 7a is inserted. Since the clearance of the insertion hole 7a is small and the lifting tape 11 is pressed against the edge 7a1 of the insertion hole 7a, the above phenomenon is particularly likely to occur, and means for suppressing erroneous stop of the lowering operation of the bottom rail 9 is adopted. The need is particularly great.

  In the present embodiment, in order to solve the above problem, even if the slack detection switch 36 detects the slack of the lifting tape 11 during the rotation of the slat 7 after the start of the lowering operation of the bottom rail 9, the electric motor 2 Control is performed so as not to stop the rotation. Hereinafter, the control of this embodiment will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  First, when the control unit 20 receives an instruction to lower the bottom rail 9, in step S1, the control unit 20 rotates the slat 7 by rotating the electric motor 2 at a rotational speed V2, as shown in FIG. And the rewinding of the elevating tape 11 is started.

  Next, in step S2, the control unit 20 confirms whether or not the rotation of the slat 7 is completed. When the rotation of the slat 7 is completed (Y in step S2), the process proceeds to step S5. When the rotation of the slat 7 is not completed (N in Step S2), in Step S3, the control unit 20 confirms whether or not the slack detection signal of the lifting tape 11 is output from the slack detection switch 36. When the slack detection signal is not output (N in step S3), the process returns to step S1. On the other hand, when the slack detection signal is output (Y in step S3), the process moves to step S4. In step S4, the slack detection signal is ignored. Therefore, the lowering operation of the bottom rail 9 is not stopped until the slack detection signal is output until the rotation of the slat 7 is completed. For this reason, even if the raising / lowering tape 11 is caught in the slat 7 during rotation of the slat 7 as shown in FIG. Note that steps S3 and S4 may be omitted, and if the determination in step S2 is N, the process may move to step S1.

  When the rotation of the slat 7 is completed (Y in Step S2), in Step S5, the control unit 20 increases the rotation speed of the electric motor 2 to V1 and rewinds the lifting tape 11 as shown in FIG. Continue.

  Next, in step S <b> 6, the control unit 20 confirms whether the slack detection signal of the lifting tape 11 is output from the slack detection switch 36. When the slack detection signal is output (Y in step S6), the control unit 10 stops the electric motor 2 in step S9. Thereby, when the bottom rail 9 reaches the lower limit or the bottom rail 9 collides with an obstacle, the rewinding of the elevating tape 11 can be stopped. On the other hand, when the slack detection signal is not output (N of step S6), in step S7, the control part 20 confirms whether the bottom rail 9 has reached the preset lower limit setting position. The “lower limit setting position” is a position set by software, and when the lowering of the bottom rail 9 is to be stopped at a position above the physical lower limit position determined by the length of the ladder code 5, “ "Lower limit setting position" is set. When the bottom rail 9 has reached the lower limit setting position (Y in step S7), the control unit 10 stops the electric motor 2 in step S9. On the other hand, when the bottom rail 9 has not reached the lower limit setting position (N in Step S7), in Step S8, the control unit 20 confirms whether a stop command for stopping the lowering movement of the bottom rail 9 is input. When a stop input is input (Y in step S8), the control unit 10 stops the electric motor 2 in step S9. On the other hand, when the stop input is not input (N of step S8), the process returns to step S5.

  As described above, in the present embodiment, the rotation of the electric motor 2 is stopped even when the slack detection switch 36 detects the slack of the lifting tape 11 while the slat 7 is rotating after the bottom rail 9 starts to descend. Since the electric motor 2 is controlled to stop the rotation of the electric motor 2 when the slack detection switch 36 detects the slack of the lifting tape 11 after the rotation of the slat 7 is completed, the bottom rail 9 The electric motor 2 can be stopped when the bottom rail 9 reaches the lower limit or the bottom rail 9 collides with an obstacle while suppressing erroneous stop of the descending operation.

In addition, this embodiment can be implemented also in the following aspects.
In the present embodiment, the bottom rail when the slat 7 is rotated by making the rotation speed V2 of the electric motor 2 during rotation of the slat 7 lower than the rotation speed V1 of the electric motor after completion of rotation of the slat 7. 9 is suppressed, but V2 and V1 may be the same.
As the slack detection unit, as disclosed in Patent Document 1, a rotation lever that rotates by detecting slack of the lifting tape and a switch that outputs a detection signal based on the rotation of the rotation lever You may use what is comprised.

1: Horizontal blind, 2: Electric motor, 3: Head box, 4: Upper limit switch, 5: Ladder cord, 7: Slat, 9: Bottom rail, 11: Lifting tape, 19: Drum unit, 21: Support member, 23 : Drive shaft, 25: CPU, 26: storage unit, 27: ladder cord suspension member, 29: winding drum, 31: slat presser, 33: motor bracket, 34: motor joint, 35: slider, 36: slack detection Switch, 38: Encoder

Claims (2)

A plurality of slats are rotatably supported by the rotation of the electric motor by the slat support cords suspended from the head box, and the elevating cords suspended from the head box are supported by the rotation of the electric motor. In the electric blind configured to be supported so that the bottom rail can be raised and lowered by being wound or rewound on a winding shaft disposed in the box,
A control unit for controlling the rotation of the electric motor;
A slack detection unit for detecting slack in the lifting cord;
The control unit does not stop the rotation of the electric motor even when the slack detecting unit detects slack of the lifting / lowering cord during the rotation of the slat after the start of the bottom rail lowering operation, and An electric blind configured to control the electric motor to stop the rotation of the electric motor when the slack detecting unit detects the slack of the lifting / lowering cord after the rotation of the slat is completed. 2. The electric blind according to claim 1, wherein the elevating cord is inserted into an insertion hole arranged at a position biased to one side in the front-rear direction of the slat.