Flexible sheet fixing device

A device for stretching and fixing flexible sheets over a skeleton framework to enclose the framework, said device comprising, in combination, an elongated channel having a substantially flat base and outwardly extending flanges converging toward each other to define, with said base, an outwardly opening groove which has a dovetail shape in cross-section;

• said base being arranged to be secured to a skeleton framework so that plural such channels can be secured to the framework to extend longitudinally thereof in spaced parallel relation to each other;
• an elongated, undulating zig-zag spring resiliently engageable in said dovetail groove adjacent said base;
• and a pressing plate in the form of an elongated channel member having a base and flanges extending outwardly from said base, said elongated channel member being sufficiently flexible laterally for pressing of the same into the dovetail groove of said channel with the flanges of said channel member resiliently pressing outwardly against the flanges of said channel;
• whereby, after a flexible sheet has been stretched transversely over said channel and into the dovetail grooves thereof, a respective pressing plate may be pressed into the dovetail groove of each channel so that the sheet is retained between the interior surfaces of the channel and the exterior surfaces of the pressing plate, and a respective said zig-zag spring may be inserted into each pressing plate to firmly compress the flexible sheet between the exterior surfaces of the pressing plate and the interior surfaces of the channel.