Screen opening for a drop ceiling

Abstract

A perimeter for a screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling has two parallel long sides connected by left and right end caps. The longs sides and end caps form a narrow screen opening for raising and lowering a movie or video screen attached to the original ceiling of the room. The long sides have approximately three foot lengths connected by transition blocks to form the long perimeter sides. The inner edges of the long sides, transition blocks and end caps are all tapered identically to slope inwardly toward the screen opening and upwardly toward the ceiling. The slope tends to narrow the perceived opening to make it more attractive to the eye. The entire screen opening perimeter system is easily attached to an existing metal T-rail drop ceiling by clips approximately three-fourths to an inch long, three thousandths of an inch thick and having a gap of approximately 0.242 inches. The clips require only approximately 7.8 pounds of force to attach the screen perimeter to the T-rail system.

1 . A perimeter for a narrow screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling system connected to a metal T-rail system, comprising:
 (a) a plurality of long rail segments connected to form opposite sides, each segment having an upper attaching lip, a lower supporting lip and an inner inwardly and upwardly sloping edge, running the length of the screen opening;   (b) a plurality of connecting blocks connecting said long rail segments to form opposite sides, having an upper attaching lip, a lower supporting lip and an inner inwardly and upwardly sloping edge;   (c) two square-U-shaped end caps, each end cap having a perpendicular end section and left and right end cap legs, wherein said end cap legs are perpendicular to said end section but parallel to said long rail opposite sides and screen opening, each end cap having an upper attaching lip, a lower supporting lip and an inner inwardly and upwardly sloping edge;   (d) attaching clips for attaching the upper attaching lip of said long rail segments, transition blocks and end caps to a metal T-rail system;   wherein opposite parallel lengths of said long rails and transition blocks form opposite parallel sides of a narrow longitudinal screen opening in a drop ceiling and wherein opposite ends of each parallel side are connected together by said end caps;   wherein said screen opening perimeter is attached to said T-rail system by the attaching clips to form a perimeter for a screen.   
     
     
         2 . A perimeter for a narrow screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling system connected to a metal T-rail system as in  claim 1 , wherein the inner edges of said long rail segments, transition blocks and end caps are identical and have the same geometrical shape. 
     
     
         3 . A perimeter for a narrow screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling system connected to a metal T-rail system as in  claim 1 , wherein said clips have connected upper and lower legs, said upper and lower legs having a gap opening of between 0.225 inches and 0.250 inches. 
     
     
         4 . A perimeter for a narrow screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling system connected to a metal T-rail system as in  claim 1 , wherein said clips have a gap opening of 0.242 inches. 
     
     
         5 . A perimeter for a narrow screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling system connected to a metal T-rail system as in  claim 1 , wherein the upper and lower legs of said clips are between three-fourths and one inch in length and have a compression strength of between 7.6 and 8.0 pounds. 
     
     
         6 . A perimeter for a narrow screen opening in a wooden drop ceiling system connected to a metal T-rail system as in  claim 5 , wherein the upper and lower legs of said clips are between three and four thousandths of an inch thick.