P/00/0 i Rcuinlion 3.2 AUSTRALIA Patents Act 1990 PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION Invention Title; A curtain for a truck or the like The invention is described in the following statement:: ( D0997667:1 1 Title A curtain for a truck or the like. Field of the invention 5 The present invention relates to curtains and is particularly applicable to truck curtains. Background of the invention Most truck curtains are fixed at the side of the truck and move by way of rollers at the top and belt buckles at the bottom which fix into slots or onto a bar to secure the curtain. 10 Typically the curtains are made from some type of heavy duty plastics material typically made from 900 gram per square metre coated flexible PVC sheet such as that available from Mehler Tex.Nologics and known as Polymar 8556. This sheet offers little or no restraining effect on the load that is being carried on the tray of the truck. consequently, steel gates are used as load restraint devices. These are removable by the driver lifting the 15 gates from locating holes in the tray to allow fork truck access and the like. These gates are heavy, time consuming to operate and present OH&S issues. There are safety standards on these gates and on other restraining devices A number of attempts have been made to do away with the need for the steel gates. There 20 have been attempts to convert the truck curtain into a restraining device so that if packages or goods fall or move then they are held within the truck and do not pierce the curtain. The buckles are normally placed at 600mm centres along the curtain. Curtains have been tried which have Kevlar strips the full height of the curtain to strengthen the curtain to make it resistant to shifting loads. Additionally, steel bars have been inserted into pockets 25 and these steel bars have also run the full height. Although these devices may have improved the resistance to load shift they suffer some shortcomings. Drawing back the curtain with Kevlar or steel bars made it difficult as they are bulky and tend to bunch and leave at least half a metre of curtain at the end of the truck. This 30 impedes the fork access to a load that would be up against that end. Additionally, it has been found difficult to have such devices to meet the design safety standards as the buckle systems and the pulley systems tended to be a weak point. Additionally, it has been found that when the steel bars used that if a load should shift and I D0997667:1 I - I fall against the curtain then the steel bars buckle. In that event it makes the curtain near impossible to open as the curtain no longer slides well. Bent steel bars tend to get caught in the running slots and they do not concertina or move very well. 5 Summary of the invention In contrast, embodiments of the present invention provide a truck curtain comprising: a sheet; and at least one metal rope which runs substantially the entire vertical length of the sheet. 10 It is preferred that the at least one metal rope is of stainless steel. When this is the case, it is preferred that the metal rope is of a diameter which is between 3.5mm and 4.5mm diameter, and more preferably and typically being 19 strand bundled 316 grade stainless steel wire of about 4mm diameter of approximately 1500 kg breaking stain . 15 Tests have shown that embodiments of the present invention do meet the safety standards and, being flexible, they concertina well and do not suffer from the buckling problem such as occur with steel bars. 20 Brief description of the drawings Preferred embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: figure 1 is a front elevational view of a curtain according to one preferred embodiment of the invention; 25 figure 2 is a rear elevational view of the embodiment of figure 1; figure 3 is a rear isometric view of the embodiment of figure 1; figure 4 is a right elevational view, partly exploded, of the embodiment of figure 1; figure 5 is a fragmentary rear elevational view of the embodiment of figure 1; and figure 6 is an exploded view of a detail of the embodiment of figure 1. 30 Description of preferred embodiments of the invention The embodiment of a truck curtain I which is illustrated in figures 1 to 6 comprises a sheet 2 which is preferably made from heavy duty plastic material with a number of metal ropes 3 which run vertically through substantially the entire height of the sheet 2. A particularly S00997667:1I preferred form of the metal rope 3 is stainless steel, preferably about 4mm in diameter. As is illustrated in figures 2 and 3, the metal ropes 3 are carried adjacent the rear face 7 of the sheet 2. Each metal rope 3 terminates with a swaging to a terminal 8 at its upper end 5 and a swaging to a terminal 9 at its lower end. The terminal 8 has an eye I 1 through it and the terminal 9 has an eye 12 through it. A vertical run of weldable webbing 13 runs the full vertical height of the sheet 2 and underlies each metal rope 3. The webbing 13 is preferably welded to the sheet 2, or 10 attached to the sheet 2 in any other suitable manner. A horizontal run of weldable webbing 14 is similarly attached to the sheet 2 proximate to the lower edge of that sheet and overlies the lowennost extremities of the vertical runs of webbing 13. Each rope 3 is covered over substantially its entire length 3 by a covering 16. The 15 covering 16 is the typically the same material as sheet 2 and is preferably welded to the sheet 2 to make a sleeve which serves to retain the rope 3 in place against the sheet 2. The upper terminal 8 of the rope 3 is pinned with a pin 17 through the eye I I to a conventional upper roller assembly 4. In the region where each vertical run of webbing 13 20 and the horizontal run of webbing 14 overlap, the lower terminal 9 of the rope 3 is pinned with a pin 18 through the eye 12 to a conventional lower buckle assembly 6. While the present invention has been described with reference to a few specific embodiments, the description is illustrative of the invention and is not to be construed as 25 limiting the invention. Various modifications may occur to those skilled in the art without departing from the true spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. "Comprises/comprising" when used in this specification is taken to specify the presence of 30 stated features, integers, steps or components but does not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, integers, steps, components or groups thereof. In the claims, each dependent claim is to be read as being within the scope of its parent claim or claims, in the sense that a dependent claim is not to be interpreted as infringed 3 09097667 ) unless its parent claims are also infringed. 4 (D0997667: I