Lamp shade assembly and the method of forming same

A lampshade assembly that includes only three parts, namely, a pleated lamp shade formed as a continuous resilient band having a plurality of notches in the pleat folds that extend inwardly towards the center of the band, a flexible member extending through apertures adjacent one end of the band, and a rigid support including a ring. The method of forming the lampshade assembly by the customer includes the one step procedure of moving the rigid support into the interior of the band and towards the flexible member until the ring of the support snaps into place in the notches. In the formed lampshade assembly, the ring pushes outwardly against the opposing inwardly directed force of the resilient band to hold the band, in conjunction with the flexible member, in a position in which the lampshade flares downwardly and outwardly.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates, in general, to a lamp shade assembly of the 
type including a pleated lamp shade and a support, and the method of 
forming same. 
2. Information Disclosure Statement 
It is desirable to have a pleated lamp shade assembly which is economical 
to manufacture, which can be shipped in a knocked-down condition to 
alleviate damage to the shade during shipment and to reduce shipping and 
storage costs, and yet be easily and quickly assembled by the ultimate 
customer. One attempted solution previously contemplated in the prior art 
includes the use of a series of deformable hook members each of which must 
be deformed during assembly of a rigid support member of the lamp shade 
with the pleated shade as the forming ring of the rigid support member is 
pushed past each of the hook members. As the forming ring passes the 
hooked end of each of the hook members the flexible hook member undeforms 
and returns to its original position. Then, there is required a second 
step of pulling the rigid support structure back into the retaining hole 
of each of the hook members where the lip of the retaining member deforms 
and then snaps back to catch the forming ring of the support member. As 
the forming ring is caught on all flexible hook members spaced about the 
pleated material, the lamp shade with the pleated material is assembled. 
The above mentioned lamp shade assembly utilizing hook members had various 
shortcomings, as will be apparent from the above description thereof. 
Thus, there is the additional manufacturing costs of providing the 
plurality of hook members and assembling same with the pleated shade. 
Also, it is apparent that in the two step assembly by the ultimate 
customer of support structure with the deformable hook members that some 
difficulty during assembly can occur. 
A preliminary patentability search in Class 362, subclass 352, produced the 
following patents, some of which may be relevant to the present invention: 
Payne, U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,996, issued Aug. 12, 1986; Payne, U.S. Pat. No. 
4,625,268, issued Nov. 25, 1986; Yeh et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,994,949, 
issued Feb. 19, 1991; Hyland et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,121,312, issued Jun. 
9, 1992; Hyland et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,902, issued Mar. 16, 1993; and 
Hyland, U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,415, issued May 10, 1994. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The present invention is an improved pleated lamp shade assembly which is 
economical to manufacture, which can be shipped in a knocked-down 
condition to alleviate damage to the shade during shipment and to reduce 
shipping and storage costs, and yet is easily and quickly assembled in one 
movement of the support structure relative to the pleated lamp shade by 
the ultimate customer. 
It is an object of the present invention to provide a lamp shade assembly 
which only has three parts, i.e., a pleated lamp shade, a flexible member, 
and a support structure, but which lamp shade assembly has no hook members 
or the like. 
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a simple yet 
effective method for forming a lamp shade assembly from a knocked-down 
condition.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to FIGS. 1-10, lamp shade assembly 11 of the present invention, 
comprises, in general, lampshade 13, a rigid support 15 for supporting 
lampshade 13 from a lamp base, not shown, and a flexible member 17. 
Lampshade 13 includes a length of resilient pleated material 19 having a 
first edge 21 and having a second edge 23 joined in overlapping 
relationship to first edge 21 by suitable means such as stitching, 
adhesive or the like to form a continuous resilient band 25. The inner 
side 27 of band 25 defines an open center portion 29 of the band and 
lampshade 13. 
Pleated material 19, and therefore band 25, includes a plurality of folds 
31 having inner edges 33 extending inwardly towards open center portion 29 
and having outer edges 35 extending outwardly away from open center 
portion 29. Folds 31 extend lengthwise from first end 36 of band 25 to the 
second end 37 thereof. A plurality of spaced apertures 39 extend through 
folds 31 along a horizontal plane at a first level 41 adjacent but spaced 
from first end 36 of pleated material 19. It will be understood that the 
first end 36 of pleated material 19 is also the first end 36 of band 25 
and lampshade 13. A plurality of notches 43 are respectively provided in 
inner edges 33 of folds 31 also along a horizontal plane, but at a second 
level 45 which is spaced from first end 36 a greater distance than the 
spacing of apertures 39 from first end 36. 
As previously stated pleated material 19 is resilient and due to this 
resiliency when band 25 is expanded outwardly from open center portion 29 
by an outside force, band 25 has the characteristic of exerting an 
opposite and inward force towards open center portion 29. Pleated material 
19 is preferably formed, in a manner well known to those skilled in the 
art, from a suitable resilient plastic, such as vinyl, on the outside of 
which is provided a suitable fabric laminated with the plastic which 
serves as a backing for the fabric. 
Flexible member 17 is an elongated non-resilient piece of material such as 
a cord, string or the like which extends through apertures 39 and has the 
ends thereof fixedly joined together as by a knot or the like to limit the 
expansion of band 25 at flexible member 17 to a given inside diameter "d". 
Rigid support 15 includes a ring 49 of a larger outside diameter than the 
given inside diameter "d" of band 25 at flexible member 17. When lamp 
shade assembly 11 is in an assembled condition as depicted in FIGS. 1 & 2, 
ring 49 extends into notches 43 in the inner edges 33 of folds 31 and 
holds band 25 at ring 49 outwardly against the opposing inwardly directed 
force of resilient pleated material 19. Thus, ring 49 holds band 25, in 
conjunction with flexible member 17 in a position in which lampshade 13 
flares outwardly from first end 36 to second end 37. In other words, in 
the assembled disposition of lampshade assembly 11, the lampshade 13 is 
held in a substantially frusto-conical disposition. 
Support 15 preferably includes a smaller ring or collar 51 for placement 
over a threaded member to be attached to the lamp base in a manner well 
known to those skilled in the art. In addition, support 15 preferably 
includes braces 52 fixedly attached at the opposite ends thereof to collar 
51 and ring 49. 
The lamp shade 13 is preferably assembled with the flexible member 17 at 
the manufacturing plant and is shipped in a knocked-down condition with 
the support 15 being provided in the shipping carton separate from the 
lamp shade 13. The lamp shade 13 with the flexible member 17 in place is 
preferably first packaged in a plastic cylindrical sleeve 53 as depicted 
in FIG. 4 before being placed in the shipping carton with the support 15. 
Thus, the ultimate consumer has only to assemble two parts, namely, (1) 
the lamp shade 13, which already has the flexible member 17 in place, and 
(2) the support 15. The assembly of these two parts is a very quick and 
easy operation for the consumer, as will be appreciated from the following 
description of the assembly thereof. 
Having removed the combined lamp shade 13 and the attached flexible member 
17 from sleeve 53, the lamp shade 13 with the flexible member therein is 
turned upside down from the normal position of the lamp shade assembly 11 
during use. Then, the first end 36 of lamp shade 13 is placed on a 
supporting surface 55 as depicted in FIG. 7. Next, support 15 is placed 
through second end 37 into the open center portion 29 of band 25 and 
pushed downwardly against the inner side 27 of band 25 with ring 49 being 
held substantially horizontal. It will be understood that as the support 
15 and ring 49 is moved downwardly as shown by the arrow at "a", the 
outside edge of ring 49 will slide along inner edges 33 of folds 31 which 
exerts an outward force against inner edges 33, as depicted by the arrow 
at "b" in FIG. 9, until ring 49 reaches notches 43, whereupon ring 49 will 
snap into place in the notches 43 as depicted in FIG. 10 to complete the 
assembly of lamp shade assembly 11. It will be further understood that 
when the support 15 is moved downwardly, as above described, the band 25 
will flare outwardly from first end 36 towards second end 37 until the 
band 25 reaches the frusto-conical shape in the finished lamp assembly 11 
as shown in FIG. 8. 
From the foregoing it will be seen that not only is the method and lamp 
shade assembly an improvement for the manufacturer in not having the 
expense and difficulty in manufacturing and assembling the hook members of 
prior lamp shades, as well as the reduction in shipping costs, but it is 
an improvement for the ultimate consumer due to the simplicity and ease of 
assembling the support with the lamp shade per se in one quick movement. 
Although the present invention has been described and illustrated with 
respect to a preferred embodiment and a preferred use therefor, it is not 
to be so limited since modifications and changes can be made therein which 
are within the full intended scope of the invention.