Chain link fences have been widely used for many years to satisfy fencing requirements. While they provide acceptable strength and durability over many years, they do not provide privacy or serve as a windbreak due to their appertured construction. Various inserts, typically referred to as "slats", have been suggested and manufactured for increasing the privacy of a chain link fence, as well as serving as a windbreak. Many early arrangements were designed to be directly connected to the wire of the fence and required clamping or bending of a metal slat onto a link of the fence.
The inventor of the present invention overcame a problem with slats migrating upwardly and downwardly due to wind or other environmental forces, which created an unfinished uneven appearance, by providing a slat retaining means which extend through a slot in the slats and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,556 to Meglino which issued on Apr. 23, 1985.
In light of the trend to make fence inserts with substantially hollow inner portions, a shipment of fence inserts commonly requires a very large container volume. Since shipping charges are a relatively high portion of the consumer costs of fence inserts, it would be desirable to provide fence inserts which could be shipped in a manner which significantly reduces the wasted air space in the shipment. Furthermore, by reducing the overall volume of a plurality of inserts, a greater volume of the inserts could be delivered quicker since they would require only a single truckload.