Ordinary umbrellas can shade the sun. Only a layer of cloth is needed to isolate ultraviolet rays, and the absorption intensity of ultraviolet rays by human body under ordinary umbrella is lower than that without umbrella, so even ordinary umbrella can protect against sun. Of course, ordinary umbrellas usually don't have a glue layer, which has poor light transmittance and less sun protection effect than parasols.

Umbrella is a tool for shading or sheltering from rain and snow, and is generally made of oil paper, oilcloth or plastic cloth. Umbrella in English comes from Latin Umbra, which means shade and shadow.

Umbrellas are usually made of malleable cloth and other materials and wound wires that can be used as skeletons. When in use, lift the umbrella by hand. Although the umbrella was originally invented to block the sun, it is most often used as a tool to block the rain in rainy days. Other functions of umbrellas include being used as decorations, crutches and even weapons. Hong Kong's time-honored Liang Suji umbrella is one of the umbrellas that can be used as weapons.

Spring is an important part of umbrella hardware, which makes the umbrella more mechanical through its characteristics, and makes the umbrella firmer and more practical through its elasticity, torsion, pressure and stretch resilience. Common umbrella springs include central rod support spring, Z-shaped positioning spring, umbrella frame compression spring, automatic opening and closing tension spring, etc.