Waste-free method of making window treatments

A method of making a plurality of foldable, collapsible window shades, each shade formed of a plurality of elongated preforms cut from a continuously moving narrow strip of elongated flexible material and subsequently stacked and bonded together to form a respective continuous array, comprising:

• depositing colorant onto a first portion of said moving continuous strip of flexible material;
• thereafter cutting said first portion of moving colorant-coated strip into at least one set of preforms, each preform having a first combination of color, pattern and length, and each set of such preforms, when stacked and bonded together, forming a continuous array having the color, pattern, height and width substantially corresponding to a first customer-specified shade;
• successively stacking at least one individual preform against a temporary support to form a partial set of stacked preforms;
• transferring said partial set of stacked preforms from said temporary support to a primary support while continuing to successively stack the immediately following preforms against said primary support until said set is complete;
• removing said completed set from said primary support while successively stacking against said temporary support at least one of the initial individual preforms of the immediately following set that accumulate during said removal step to create a second partial set of stacked preforms;
• and then transferring said second partial set of preforms from said temporary support to said primary support while continuing to successively stack the next following individual preforms against said primary support until said second set is complete;
• thereafter, without interruption of the continuous movement of said continuous strip, repeating said depositing and cutting steps on a second portion of said moving strip to produce a second set of preforms, each preform of said second set having a second combination of color, pattern and length which differs from said first combination in both length and at least one of either color and pattern, and such second set of preforms, when stacked and bonded together, forming a continuous array having the color, pattern, height and width substantially corresponding to a second customer-specified shade;
• and
• assembling said continuous arrays to top and bottom rails that have been cut to respective lengths corresponding to the widths of said first and second customer-specified shades;
• whereby said plurality of customer-specified shades are formed with substantially no wasted colorant-coated strip material that is not part of said plurality of shades.

A method of making a foldable, collapsible window shade having a first customer-specified height and width, and a customer-specified pattern, border or image the completeness of which is only revealed by the fully deployed shade, the shade being formed of a plurality of elongated preforms cut from a continuously moving narrow strip of elongated flexible material and subsequently stacked and bonded together to form a continuous array, and wherein said array comprises at least two preforms whose color or pattern differ from each other, comprising:

• dividing said pattern, border or image into horizontal segments of uniform height;
• sequentially depositing colorant corresponding to said respective segments of pattern, border or image onto said moving strip of said flexible material;
• thereafter cutting said strip to preforms of predetermined lengths;
• successively stacking at least one individual preform against a temporary support to form a partial set of stacked preforms;
• transferring said partial set of stacked preforms from said temporary support to a primary support while continuing to successively stack the immediately following preforms against said primary support until said set is complete;
• removing said completed set from said primary support while successively stacking against said temporary support at least one of the initial individual preforms of the immediately following set that accumulate during said removal step to create a second partial set of stacked preforms;
• and then transferring said second partial set of preforms from said temporary support to said primary support while continuing to successively stack the next following individual preforms against said primary support until said second set is complete;
• and
• wherein stacking said preforms in the sequence necessary to generate the fully integrated customer-specified pattern, border or image, and bonding together all of said preforms to form a single continuous array having height and width substantially corresponding to the customer-specified shade.