Innovation Through Safety:
Much More than a Slogan

The window covering industry gets redesigned in five years
- and it's only the beginning.

It sounds like an intimidating assignment for Harvard's best an brightest MBA candidates: Show how an industry could redesign virtually every one of its products and re-educate its customers in less than five years!

Actually, it describes the colossal accomplishments of America’s window covering industry. Since committing its full resolve and resources to addressing cord safety in late 1994, the U.S. window coverings industry has managed to change the mechanical design of every blind, pleated shade and drapery currently available. In the process, customers have been able to enjoy some of the most innovative and forward-looking designs in home fashions today.

As for re-educating customers, the window covering industry can point with pride to its success in creating an unprecedented national awareness of cord and window safety through its ongoing public information program.

TAKING A CLOSER LOOK

Compared to the relatively staid window covering of yesteryear, today’s blinds, shades and draperies are unquestionably in the design limelight with high-tech looks and sleek styling. Ironically, many of these cutting-edge window coverings owe their home fashion flair to the sober world of product safety engineering, and the search for solutions to the potential hazards of looped and dangling pull cords.

In fact, looped-cord hazards were the impetus behind the industry’s current achievements in product innovation and safety. In late 1994, a coalition of major U.S. window covering manufactures, importer and retailers formed the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) to respond to the federal government’s concern over reports of accidental child strangulation in looped window cords.

Within weeks of its formation, WCSC had forged an industry-wide agreement with federal product safety regulators to eliminated looped cords on all two-corded horizontal blinds, pleated and cellular shades made in or imported to the United States after January 1, 1995. (To address looped products already in the marketplace, WCSC launched its still-active public service campaign to provide consumers with free retrofit tassels and tie-downs to reduce cord-loop hazards).

STANDARD SHAPES NEW DESIGNS

Although the immediate modifications to new two-corded horizontal blind, pleated shades and cellular shades effectively eliminated loops form a large volume of window coverings, industry engineers continued on their quest for better cord-design solutions. In addition, they also began tackling the complexities of trying to reduce looped-cord hazards on the more complicated multiple- and continuous-cord systems on many products.

By late 1996, despite the highly competitive nature of the industry, design and manufacturing experts had managed to cooperatively develop an industry-wide safety standard for eliminating or reducing looped-cord hazards. The resulting national ANSI/WCMA safety standard, in effect since mid-1997, requires all U.S. window covering manufacturers, importers, fabricators and retailers to meet its exacting safety criteria and engineering specifications for dealing with cord access and configurations.

The standard sets acceptable parameters for safety. Although such safety items as cord releases, retraction devices, tensioners, shear devices, cord stops and cord shrouds are defined in the standard, manufacturers are free to design and develop their own technologies to meet the standard’s underlying cord safety objectives. And indeed they have.

A quick inspection of the eye-catching products filling today’s window coverings outlets provides testimony to the exceptional ingenuity and creativity of today’s manufacturers in developing highly-appealing, innovative products on the cutting edge of technology, interior design and safety engineering.

For example, consider the engineering acumen and styling desirability behind such hugely popular design innovations as cordless mini-blinds and pleated shades; wand systems that control both the transversing and rotating functions of vertical blinds without visible cords of chains; battery-operated lifting systems for roller products; motorized controls; concealed mountings, and infrared sensors.

But that’s just the beginning. More advances are on the way, as industry designers and engineers continue to explore new technologies and design features to provide America’s window covering customers with ever more innovations through safety.

EFFORTS CONTINUE

The Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) continues to operate its public service and education program aimed at creating awareness of the potential child safety hazards associated with window cords.

Even thought today’s window covering are manufactured to the ANSI/WCMA safety standard, thousands of older products with looped and/or dangling pull cords still remain in America’s homes. WCSC encourages consumers with older loop-corded products to obtain free retrofit safety tassels, tie-downs and safety information by calling the WCSC safety line at (800) 506-4636.

In all cases, parents are urged to regularly check for cord and window safety by making sure cribs, beds and low-standing furniture are moved away from windows and that all window cords are secured out of reach. Additional window and window-cord safety information can be found on the Council’s web site at www.windowcoverings.org.

From DWC / WCSC December 1999