Patent ID: 8042597

Claim:
A roller shade system comprising: a rotatably-mounted roller tube; a flexible shade fabric windingly received around the roller tube, the shade fabric having a first fabric end connected to the roller tube and a second fabric end opposite the first fabric end, the shade fabric comprising a hembar pocket at the second fabric end, the second fabric end adapted to move in an upward direction and in a downward direction as the roller tube is rotated in respective first and second directions; and a pleating hembar contained within the hembar pocket, the pleating hembar characterized by a non-linear shape for causing the shade fabric to hang with a plurality of pleats, such that there is a resulting length of overlap of the shade fabric in a direction parallel to the roller tube; wherein the pleating hembar comprises a plurality of C-shaped hembar sections having first and second ends, the first end of each hembar section adapted to be coupled to the second end of another adjacent hembar section; wherein each hembar section comprises an elongated portion extending between two curved portions; and, wherein the hembar sections are coupled together via interlocking structures, the first end of each hembar section comprising an interior interlocking portion and the second end of each hembar section comprising an exterior interlocking portion.