Patent Application
20150083352
The present disclosure relates to a curtain panel with flip tabs, and more particularly, to a curtain panel with a plurality of spaced flip tabs with grommets embedded therein to facilitate hanging, opening, and closing the curtain panel.
Typically, plain or pinch pleat panels used as window or shower curtains require extra hardware like drapery hooks, rings, or pins for installing, opening, and closing the curtains. However, drapery hooks, rings, or pins used to hang a plain or pinch pleat panel for a window are cumbersome, inconvenient, and often not applicable to the convenience of from-store-to-window offerings.
Many other home goods such as shower curtains and draperies have leveraged this type of attachment using grommets to assist consumers with the convenience of the ease of attachment. In some readymade window treatment categories, grommets are directly attached to a panel itself and are aligned to receive a curtain rod.
However, if the grommets are directly attached to the panel itself, a curtain rod must be inserted into the panel itself and can be exposed from both front and back sides of the panel, which is not desirable from the aesthetic perspective. Also, the lifetime and durability of the panel can be adversely affected by directly attaching the grommets to the panel itself.
What is desirable is a new window or shower curtain panel that can be conveniently mounted, opened, and closed on a curtain rod via flip tabs bearing grommets, that does not require all extra hardware like drapery hooks, rings, or pins for customer to install the curtain panel, that does not impact the manufacturing cost, and that does not expose the curtain rod when it was installed, opened, and closed.
The present disclosure relates to a curtain panel with flip tabs bearing grommets configured to glide on a curtain rod for easy hanging, opening, and closing the panel. The present disclosure eliminates the need for extra hardware including drapery pins or hooks. Additionally, the disclosed curtain panel allows for easy and smooth hanging, opening, and closing the panel without any additional mechanism, and no part of the curtain rod can be seen when installed.
According to one aspect of the present disclosure, a curtain panel with flip tabs for easy hanging, opening, and closing the panel is disclosed. A curtain panel with a front-facing side and a back side includes a panel with a predetermined dimension, and a plurality of spaced flip tabs attached to a top section of the back side of the panel and a plurality of grommets embedded in said flip tab. Each of the plurality of grommets is affixed to the flip tab such that the grommets are aligned to receive a curtain rod and are configured to glide on said rod for easy hanging, opening, and closing the panel.
According to another aspect of the present disclosure, a method for manufacturing a curtain panel with flip tabs is disclosed. The method includes providing a panel with a predetermined dimension, and providing a flip tab with a grommet affixed to the flip tab through an opening formed in said flip tab. The method further includes attaching said flip tab to a top section of the back side of the panel such that the panel has pre-spaced and aligned grommets thereon.
The details of one or more embodiments of the present invention are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the description below. Other features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from the claims.
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate exemplary embodiments of the invention and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. In the drawings:
The drawings depict various preferred embodiments of the present invention for purposes of illustration only. One skilled in the art will readily recognize from the following discussion that alternative embodiments of the structures and methods illustrated herein may be employed without departing from the principles of the invention described herein.
The present disclosure relates to a curtain panel with flip tabs for easy hanging, opening, and closing the panel. An embodiment will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Referring to
The flip tab 112 is designed to have an opening 116 formed in approximately the center portion to accommodate a grommet 114. The grommet is placed within the opening 116 of the flip tab and is affixed to the flip tab along the edge defined by the opening 116 formed within the flip tab 112. The flip tab with grommet embedded therein 110 is then attached by various known methods to the top section 120 of the panel 102. A plurality of flip tabs with grommets embedded therein are aligned to receive a curtain rod 202 as shown in
Referring to
Each grommet is placed within an opening 116 formed in each flip tab 112 as illustrated in
Since the grommets are not directly affixed to the panel itself, the panel does not have to be cut out to form openings to receive grommets. Since the panel itself is not perforated to receive the grommet, the durability of the panel improves. Also, the manufacturing processes can be simplified and the manufacturing cost can be reduced because pre-manufactured flip tabs can be simply affixed to the panel by sewing or by using Velcro, glue, or snapper, or by other known methods. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a window treatment having a curtain panel with a plurality of flip tabs embedded with grommets because the resulting panel can be manufactured with reduced manufacturing steps and costs, and the durability of the panel improves. Also, with the above design, the curtain rod is not exposed from the front-facing side when the panel is installed, thereby providing an improved panel design from the aesthetic perspective.
The curtain panel with flip tabs works well with any standard or regular curtain rod. Since no extra hardware is needed to hang, open, or close the panel, the disclosed curtain panel eliminates the need for drapery hooks, rings, or pins and provides simplified installation, easy and convenient opening and closing of the panel. Since the disclosed curtain panel can be simply hung from the rod, no extra effort to get the hooks inserted into the right spot and no extra cost in purchasing extra hardware is incurred.
It is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the illustrations described and shown herein, which are deemed to be merely illustrative of the best modes of carrying out the invention, and which are susceptible to modification of form, size, arrangement of parts, and details of operation. The present disclosure is intended to encompass all such modifications which are within its spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the following claims.
The present application claims the benefit of the Provisional Patent Application No. 61/881,248 filed on Sep. 23, 2013, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61881248 | Sep 2013 | US |
