Patent Publication Number: US-4220189-A

Title: Window shade sealing system

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     With the advent of the world wide shortage of energy and the dissipation of energy sources architectural trends have tended toward buildings with fewer windows, as the provision of additional windows is ordinarily linked with the belief that additional loss of heated and air conditioned air from within will occur. This problem can be dimished somewhat by the utilization of thermal window glass, or providing a double pane, but this may be difficult to do on existing buildings and is expensive in new buildings. 
     Whereas it has been known that curtains are of some benefit in acting as a heat barrier in front of a window, and whereas window shades have been invented having improved means of sealing, or at least holding the periphery against the window frame, no easily mounted window shade and sealing system has been developed coupling the advantages of a sealed panel with the convenience and universal adaptability of curtains. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention fulfills the above mentioned gap by providing a window shade system having a conventional roller-mounted shade which is retained in a shade housing having a narrow slit one side of which is a mounting strip having peel-off adhesive material thereon to mount the roller housing to the window frame, the other side of this slit being a resilient pressure-bearing lip pressing the shade against the mounting strip as it is withdrawn or retracted from the roll. 
     Two vertical channels as well as a bottom channel are provided to capture the edges of the shade in such a way that they are sealed against the window frame, thus positively preventing the passage of air from the window around the shade into the room. The channels along the sides and the bottom of the shade which capture the edges thereof are also covered on their mounting sides with peel-off adhesive material so that the entire system need merely be peeled and pressed into place along a window frame, permitting an entire window to be fitted with this sealing mechanism in seconds. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
     FIG. 1 is a front elevation view somewhat diagrammatically presented of a window having the system in place; 
     FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2-2 of FIG. 1 but with the shade all the way down; 
     FIG. 2a is a detail of the shade roller housing in an alternative mounting mode; 
     FIG. 3 is a section taken along line 3-3 of FIG. 1; 
     FIG. 3a is a sectional view of the channel showing an alternative mounting; 
     FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the side channel having the adhesive protective layer partially peeled away. 
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     A window is shown in FIG. 10 wherein the window proper indicated at 10 is enclosed in a surrounding frame 12, usually of wooden construction. A window shade 14 is wound on a roller 16 which is spring-mounted in conventional fashion. The roll is pivoted at 18 inside the roller housing 20 which preferably defines a complete enclosure around the roller to act as a secondary barrier in the event of some trace air seepage through the slit 22. This slit is defined on one side by the mounting strip 24 which mounts directly to a vertical surface as shown in FIG. 2 by virtue of the peel-back adhesive strip 26, or mounts as shown in 2a wherein the mounting strip connects to a back panel 28 adhered to the window frame. The other side of the slit 22 is formed by a resilient pressure applying lip 30 such that the pay-out slit 22 rather firmly pinches the shade as it is pulled out or retracted, preventing the passage of air therethrough. 
     Vertical side channels 32 are shown in detail in FIGS. 3 and 4 and have a front sealing strip 34 with the peel-back adhesive 26 mounted thereto. These channels are U-shaped by virtue of an extended resilient lip 36 which is a pressure bearing member against the edge of the shade to hold it against the sealing strips 34 after the channels have been mounted with the adhesive strips 26 properly parallel thus defining tracks guiding the edges of the window shade. 
     The bottom of the shade includes a slat 38 to provide it with rigidity, and as can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 3 this slat may terminate at the entry into the side channels so that the resilience of the lips 36 need not be sufficient to expand and close after the passage therethrough of the slat. 
     An alternative means of mounting the side channels is shown in FIG. 3a, wherein the peel-back adhesive strip 26 is utilized to mount the channel in an L-bracket 40 which is itself adhered by virtue of adhesive strip 42 to the window frame. 
     At the bottom of the parallel side channels 32 is a bottom channel 44 which could be identical to the side channels or modified slightly to ease the acceptance of the slat 38 therein. In either case, the bottom channel has a sealing strip 46 with peel-back adhesive and a frontal resilient lip 48 to accept the slat 38 and compress the shade against the sealing strip 46. A slot 50 may be cut in the lip 48 so that a pull cord or chain 52 may be pulled down through this slot to seat the slat 38 in an easy manner. 
     As described and claimed herein the shade sealing system is economical to manufacture, can be installed by virtually anyone regardless of experience, and thus will pay for itself, both production costs and installation effort, in a very short time by virtue of its advantages in preventing losses of heated and air conditioned air, especially in older buildings in which utilization of new construction techniques is not applicable.