Patent ID: 8465617

Claim:
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 different from said first combination, 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.