Patent ID: 8220518

Claim:
An expandable and contractable shade assembly, comprising: a plurality of closed cell structures disposed longitudinally along a width dimension of said shade assembly, said closed cell structures aligned vertically one above another with juncture lines defined between adjacent ones of said vertically aligned closed cell structures; at a fully expanded configuration of said shade assembly, said closed cell structures having a cross-sectional profile such that a back face of said closed cell structures defined between said juncture lines has an essentially flat vertical profile opposite a front face of said closed cell structures; a lift system configured for vertically drawing said closed cell structures from said fully expanded configuration into a fully contracted configuration, said lift system comprising a plurality of lift cords that lie along a vertical line of action rearward of said back face of said closed cell structures; said lift cords engaged with said back face of each said closed cell structure only at an attachment location at about a mid-point of said back face between said juncture lines; and wherein in said fully contracted configuration of said shade assembly, each of said closed cell structures collapse into a flat profile, and said attachment locations with the lift cords causing each of the plurality of closed cell structures to hang from said lift cords in a vertical and adjacently disposed orientation thereby defining upper edges of each of said collapsed closed cell structures which are adjacent and oriented in an upward vertical direction and bottom edges of each of said collapsed closed cell structures which are adjacent and oriented in a downward vertical direction; and further comprising a headrail, said headrail comprising an internal channel into which said upper edges of each of said collapsed closed cell structures are drawn and maintained in their adjacent and vertically oriented configuration in said fully contracted configuration of said shade assembly.