Shade and method for the manufacture thereof

A pleated shade that may be raised and lowered comprising:

• a headrail;
• a bottomrail;
• a piece of material having a plurality of sections of material, each two adjacent ones of said sections meeting at a pleat preformed therein, alternate pleats projecting towards the front and back of said material, said piece of material being connected at one end to said headrail and at the other end to said bottomrail;
• means for securing together the two sections of material forming each of said back projecting pleats along substantially the entire width of the material to form a narrow tab projecting from the rear of each of said pleats;
• at least one cord hole formed in each of said tabs, each of said cord holes having a diameter no greater than twice the diameter of the cord that will pass through it, corresponding cord holes in each of said tabs being accurately aligned one on top of the other, each of said holes having a center which is closer to the forward edge of its tab than to the rear edge of the tab;
• and
• a cord extending from said headrail through corresponding cord holes in each of said tabs to said bottomrail, said cord being adapted, when operated, to control the raising and lowering of said shade.

A pleated shade that may be raised and lowered comprising:

• a headrail means;
• a bottomrail means;
• two pieces of material, each of which is formed from two or more segments spliced together and each of which has a plurality of sections of material, each two adjacent ones of said sections meeting at a pleat preformed therein, alternate pleats of each piece of material projecting toward the front and back of said material;
• means for connecting one end of each of said pieces of material to said headrail means and to the other end of each of said pieces of material to said bottomrail means;
• means for securing together the two sections of material forming the alternate pleat of each piece of material which pleat is projecting toward the other piece of material along substantially the entire width of the material to form a plurality of narrow tabs on each piece of material which tabs are facing each other;
• means to invisibly splice said segments to each other by forming narrow tabs with the ends of connecting segments at the splice joint similar to the tabs formed at each alternate pleat;
• at least one cord hole formed in each of said tabs, and
• at least one cord extending from said headrail through the cord holes for each of said tabs to said bottomrail, said cord being adapted, when operated, to control the raising and lowering of said shade.

A pleated shade that may be raised and lowered comprising:

• a headrail means;
• a bottomrail means;
• two pieces of material, at least one of which has a plurality of sections of material, each two adjacent ones of said sections meeting at a pleat preformed therein, alternate ones of the pleats for a given piece of material projecting toward the front and back thereof;
• means for connecting one end of each of each of said pieces of material to said headrail means and the other end of each of said pieces of material to said bottomrail means;
• means for securing together the two sections of material forming the alternate pleat of at least one piece of material which pleat is projecting toward the other piece of material along substantially the entire width of the material to form a plurality of narrow tabs on the piece of material which tabs are facing the other piece of material;
• at least one cord hole formed in each of said tabs, each of said cord holes being located as far as possible from the free edge of its respective tab and still being completely formed within said respective tab;
• and
• cord means adapted for controlling the raising and lowering of said shade, said cord means including a cord passing through at least one cord hole in each of said tabs, the cord holes passed through by said cord being substantially aligned.

A shade comprising:

• a headrail means;
• a bottomrail means;
• a front and a rear piece of material, each of which has a plurality of sections of material, each two adjacent ones of said sections meeting at a pleat preformed thereon, alternate pleats of each piece of material projecting toward the front and back of said material, the sections of material for the rear one of said pieces being shorter than the section for said front piece;
• means for connecting one end of each of said pieces of material to said headrail means and the other end of each of said pieces of material to said bottomrail means, said pieces of material being hung with corresponding pleats on each sheet adjacent each other;
• means for simultaneously securing together the corresponding rear projecting pleats of said pieces of material along their entire width to form narrow rear projecting tabs, said pieces of material being secured together at said tabs;
• at least one cord hole formed in each of said tabs, corresponding cord holes in each of said tabs being accurately aligned one on top of the other;
• and
• a cord extending from said headrail through corresponding cord holes in each of said tabs to said bottomrail, said cord being adapted, when operated, to control the raising and lowering of said shade.

A method of fabricating a pleated shade that may be raised and lowered comprising the steps of:

• securing together along substantially their entire width two sections of material forming each rear pleat of a piece of prepleated material, said material having alternate pleats projecting towards the front and back, to form a tab having a length of approximately 5/16" to 3/8" projecting from the rear of each said pleats, the sections of material after the tabs have been formed having a length of approximately 3/4" to 11/8";
• forming at least one cord hole in each of said tabs, the corresponding cord holes in each of said tabs being accurately aligned;
• securing one end of said material to a headrail and the other end to a bottomrail;
• and
• providing a cord extending from the headrail through the cord holes in each of said tabs to said bottomrail;
• said cord being adapted, when operated, to control the raising and lowering of said shade.