US3693210A

US3693210A - Wrap-around valance finial

Info

Publication number: US3693210A
Application number: US179913A
Authority: US
Inventors: Walter J Macfarlane; Lawrence P Feer
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Newell Companies Inc
Priority date: 1971-09-13
Filing date: 1971-09-13
Publication date: 1972-09-26
Anticipated expiration: 1989-09-26

Abstract

A generally rectangular telescoping cafe traverse rod has a longitudinal slot on the back wall thereof and end finials decorating its ends. The end finials are wrap-around valance-type finials having a flat front face suited for custom home decoration by the application of fabric or paper, extend toward each other a limited distance in front of the rod, and are spaced forwardly of the rod to permit the passage of the ring glides between them and the rod. A tongue on each end finial is positioned in the slot and other projections provided by the finial engage the front, bottom, and back walls of the rod to non-rotatably support and resiliently clamp the end finials to the rod and reinforce the rod.

Description

United States Patent MacFarlane et al.

[ 51 Sept. 26, 1972 WRAP-AROUND VALANCE FINIAL Inventors: Walter J. MacFarlane, Kensington, Conn.; Lawrence P. Feer, Cazenovia, N.Y.

Assignee: Stanley Judd, Wallingford, Conn.

Filed: Sept. 13, 1971 Appl. No.: 179,913

US. Cl. ..l6/87, 16/94, l6/87.2 Int. Cl. ..E05d 13/02 Field of Search ..l6/87, 87.2, 87.4, 87.6, 87.8,

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,644,961 2/ 1972 Hachtel 1 6/94 D Primary Examiner-Francis K. Zugel Assistant Examiner-Peter A. Aschenbrenner [5 7] ABSTRACT A generally rectangular telescoping cafe traverse rod has a longitudinal slot on the back wall thereof and end finials decorating its ends. The end finials are wrap around valance-type finials having a flat front face suited for custom home decoration by the application of fabric or paper, extend toward each other a limited distance in front of the rod, and are spaced forwardly of the rod to permit the passage of the ring glides between them and the rod. A tongue on each end finial is positioned in the slot and other projections provided by the finial engage the front, bottom, and back walls of the rod to non-rotatably support and resiliently clamp the end finials to the rod and reinforce the rod.

5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENTED I973 3.693.210

Q ATTOR N EYS WRAP-AROUND VALANCE FINIAL This invention relates to traverse rod assemblies for supporting flexible downwardly depending drapery panels and is particularly concerned with such an assembly having. decorative end finials and ring glides which are visible above the drapery panel.

One object of this invention is to provide an improved drapery rod having valancetype.end'finials.

Another object of this invention is to provide a drapery traverse rod assembly wherein valance-type end finials are mounted by the ends of the rod'and project a limited distance toward each other in front of the ends of the drapery rod. Included in this object is the provision of means for fixedly mounting valance-type end finials in such a manner as not to interfere with the mounting of the draperies and the movement of the ring glides to the end of the rod.

Still another object of this invention. is to provide a decorative'end finial suitable for use at each end of a traverse rod which is one of a pair of such rods mounted across a pair of windows which span the corner of a room.

A further object of this invention is to provide a traverse rod having wrap-around valance-type end finials fixedly secured on the rods wherein the end finials and the rod are suited to be selectively covered with fabric or paper for custom home decoration.

Other objects will be in part obvious and in part pointed out more in detail hereinafter.

The invention accordingly consists in the features of construction combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which is exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the invention is set forth in the appended claims.

In the drawing:

FIG. 1 is a fragmentary perspective view of a pair of traverse rods spanning a pair of corner windows of a room and illustrating a preferred form of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged exploded perspective view illustrating the finial mounting arrangement of the illustrative embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional view taken along lines 33 of FIG. 4;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary top view of the finial mounting arrangement.

Referring now to the drawing in detail, there is shown in FIG. 1 a preferred embodiment of the invention wherein a pair of identical cafe traverse rods l0, 12 are shown as being mounted in end abutting relationship as, for example, where used with a pair of windows which span the corner of a room.

Traverse rod is shown as being generally rectangular in crosssection and comprises an inner rod 14 and an outer rod 16 of similar configuration assembled in telescoping fashion so that the traverse rod may be adjusted for varying lengths. The traverse rod 10 is supported by a pair of support brackets 18 of the type shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,370,819, which issued Feb. 27, 1968 and is assigned to the assignee of the present invention.

A flexible downwardly depending panel, such as drapery 20, is supported by the traverse rod 10 by a master carrier (not shown) which may be of the type disclosed and claimed in copending U. S. Pat. application Ser. No. 85,394 which was filed Oct. 30, 1970 and is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and a suitable number of ring glides 22, mounted for longitudinal sliding movement in a longitudinal slot 24 formed in the rear wall of the traverse rod 10. Ring glides 22 are shown as being aligned one with each set of pleats in the header of the drapery 20 and may be of the type shown in U. S. Pat. No. 3,521,318 Johnson which issued July 21, 1970 and is assigned to the as signee of the present invention. A pull cord 26 is shown as being provided for shifting the master carrier and the ring glides to open and close the drapery 20 in the usual manner.

A decorative end finial 30 which is preferably formed of a plastic molded one-piece material, is mounted at each end of the drapery rod 10.

In the past, the usual end finial has been mounted to project beyond the end of the rod which has precluded the use of such a finial in certain applications as for example at the right end of a rod, such as rod 10 as viewed in FIG. 1, which abuts a second rod, such as rod 12, at a comer of a room. This produces a lack of aesthetic symmetry. This invention overcomes this disadvantage of the prior art by providing a fold-back or valance-type end finial 30 which extends a limited distance reversely along the front of the rod from the ends thereof. Further, in accordance with another aspect of this invention, the reversely directed portion 32 of the fold back or valance type finial 30 is spaced forwardly of and parallel to the longitudinal axis of the rod and is disposed above the pleats of the draperies 20 so that the ring glides 22 are free to pass behind the folded back or reversely directed portion 32 of the finial when the drape 20 is opened or drawn and thereby accommodates the use of ring glides 22 to the full end of the rod to give a fully tailored and symmetrical appearance to the traverse rod.

As shown in FIG. 1, traverse rod 12 which is identical to rod 10 is provided with a similar wrap-around valance finial 32 at the left end thereof it will be seen that the finial 30 thereof and the adjacent finial 30 of traverse rod 10, when placed in abutting relationship, allow the edge of the drapery 20 and the adjacent edge of drapery 36 to be positioned close together so that their abutting edges may contact without an unsightly gap therebetween.

It is within the purview of this invention that the front face of valance portion 32 of each finial is flat and it is apparent that it may be decorated with surface treatments and colors, which match or mix with those of the traverse rods 10, 12, or may be covered with fabric or paper to provide for custom home decoration.

As best shown in FIG. 4, the finials 30 are cantilever mounted by the traverse rods 10 and 12, respectively. In order to prevent the relative rotation of the rod with respect to the finial 30 as well as to position and provide mutual support with the traverse rod, the mounting wall 40 of the finial 30 is shown as being provided with a polarity of inwardly directed projections or

shoulders

42, 44, 46, and 48 (FIG. 2).

As stated above, the rod 10 is noncircular in configuration and cooperates with

projections

42, 44, 46, and 48 to locate, support, and frictionally secure the finial 30.

The mounting wall 40 of the end finial 30 is provided with a centrally disposed horizontal tongue 42 which is sized and positioned to be closely received in the slot 24 formed in the back wall of the traverse rods and 12.

A pair of

walls

44 and 46 vertically span the tongue 42 and are spaced at distances so as to engage the upper surface and the lower surface respectively of the traverse rod 10 as best shown in FIG. 2. In this regard it will be observed that the back wall of the rod is nonplanar and, as shown, is provided with a pair of longitudinally extending grooves 52 and 54 to provide a resiliency which exerts a limited but positive biasing force between the groove 24 and the tongue 42. This arrangement further provides for any manufacturing variations and tolerances of the parts as well as to retain the desired cross-sectional configuration of the otherwise unconfined end of the traverse rods 10 and 12 by the mutual reinforcement between the end of the rod and the end finial.

A reinforced front wall 48 is provided to engage the front face of the traverse rod. By virtue of the angular disposition and spacing of wall 44 and front wall 48, and the resilience provided by longitudinal groove 50, a limited biasing force is applied to fix the finial laterally (as viewed in FIG. 3) of the rod. The wall 48 is parallel to the front portion 32 of the end finial and serves to locate and position the portion 32 parallel to and spaced from the front face of the traverse rod 10 by the desired spacing to accommodate the passage of the ring glides 22 therebetween. Moreover, the walls 46 and 48 engage noncircular portions of the traverse rod so that the finial is held against rotation with respect to the rod.

As best shown in FIG. 1, the end wall 40 of the finial 30 serves to close the open end of the traverse rod, and, as will be apparent, the flat surface of this end wall may also be decoratively treated to provide a traverse rod having a wrap-around valance.

From the foregoing, it will be apparent that the novel wrap-around valance type end finials of this invention and their mounting means provide a traverse rod design in which the symmetry resulting from the use of finials at both ends of the rod may be achieved in any application without interfering with the movement of the glide rings to the ends of the rod. In addition to the other advantages which will be apparent, the use of the wraparound end finials of this invention fully accommodates custom home decoration of the rods and the finials to provide a tailored design.

As will be apparent to persons skilled in the art various modifications and adaptations of the structure above described will become readily apparent without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention.

We claim:

1. A cafe traverse rod assembly comprising a traverse rod having ring glides carried thereby, end finials nonrotatably mounted by the ends of the rod and having portions projecting toward each other for a limited distance in front of the rods substantially parallel thereto, said projecting portions being spaced forwardly of the rod a distance sufficient to accommodate the passage of the ring glides.

2. The assembly of claim 1 in which each end finial is proyided with an end wall disposed at an an le to the pro ecting portion, said end wall covering t e end of the traverse rod.

3. The assembly of claim 2 in which the angled wall is provided with projections which overlap the end of the rod to locate and secure the end finial and thereto.

4. The assembly of claim 3 in which the rear wall of said traverse rod defines a longitudinal slot, and one of said projections is closely received within said slot and other of said projections resiliently grip the end of the traverse rod to confine and reinforce the rod.

5. The assembly of claim 4 wherein the end finial presents a substantially flat face suited for custom home decoration.

Claims

1. A cafe traverse rod assembly comprising a traverse rod having ring glides carried thereby, end finials non-rotatably mounted by the ends of the rod and having portions projecting toward each other for a limited distance in front of the rods substantially parallel thereto, said projecting portions being spaced forwardly of the rod a distance sufficient to accommodate the passage of the ring glides.

2. The assembly of claim 1 in which each end finial is provided with an end wall disposed at an angle to the projecting portion, said end wall covering the end of the traverse rod.