Building Directory

Abstract

A modular wall mountable directory comprises a base plate having side channels for receiving the ends of indicia carrying strips. The retaining lip of the side channels is of a soft material to permit the front lip to be pulled back to allow an individual strip to be removed while retaining the rest. The strips are also made of a combined stiff and resilient material to facilitate the insertion of letters.

Parent Case Text

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 199,605, filed Nov. 17, 1971, now abandoned.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to improvements in the construction of indicia displaying apparatus and, more particularly, to an improved display apparatus for use as a building directory.

2. Description of the Prior Art

Building directories generally include an outer frame mounted on a wall and an inner frame within it. The outer frame usually has a glass front removably attached or hinged to side members of the frame to permit access to the interior. The inner frame is equipped with a panel that is arranged to hold the indicia bearing strips. These arrangements are generally of the character of grooves in a plastic or metal plate, with the interior of the grooves lined with a resilient material such as felt. The strips of paper or plastic are generally made in the shape of a horizontal U with the information lettered on the facing end and, the two projections are pressed into the groove where they are resiliently retained. With such an arrangement the lettered strips may be shifted in position, removed or replaced, as required.

While such an arrangement has many desirable features and is a great improvement over a lettered page bearing the indicia it still entails the removal and relocation of many strips when a new strip or a plurality of strips are to be inserted between an existing group of strips. This would be particularly true in the case with large directories which would generally include many columns of such indicia.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved building directory in which indicia carrying members are easily replaced.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a building directory which is attractive in appearance, simple in design and relatively inexpensive to manufacture.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved directory having indicia strips which can be readily changed, without the removal and relocation of existing indicia.

The foregoing as well as other objects and advantages of the present invention, may be more clearly understood by reference to the following detailed description taken with the drawings which illustrate a building directory embodying the features of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a single column building directory constructed in accordance with the features of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the lines 2--2 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a letter strip for use in the directory; and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view of the letter strip of FIG. 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

In the drawing, the building directory is represented generally by the numeral 10 and in FIG. 1 it is shown mounted within a case 11 on a wall 12. The protective case consists of top and bottom walls 15 and 16 respectively and a left and right side wall 17 and 18 respectively. The four walls are attached to a rear panel 19 to which is also attached the directory 10. At the front of the protective case there is a framed transparent panel 21 attached by means of a hinge 22 to the side wall 17.

The directory 10 consists of a flat tray 23 having two upturned sides 24 and 25. Both ends of each of the sides have an extension thereof bent inwards to form tray limiting members 26, 27, 28 and 29. The tray is attached to the back panel 19 of the enclosure by means of screws 30 passing through the slotted holes 31 and 32 at the top and the slots 33 and 34 at the bottom of the panel. Along each side of the panel is a U-shaped channel 35 and 36 of flexible material such as soft vinyl or rubber. This may be attached to the tray by cement or other provisions or even left unfastened since the mounting of the tray 10 to the back panel 19 will restrain one of the walls of each channel therebetween. The other wall of this flexible channel serves as the restraining lip for the indicia bearing strips in the tray.

The characters 38 are typically provided with tab-like members 39 (FIG. 4) projecting from their rear surface. Typical characters usable with the present disclosure are manufactured by the Adjusta Bulletin Board Co. of Agincourt, Ontario, Canada. In accordance with a specific aspect of the invention, the distance between the rib-like projections 41, 42 and 43, 44 of the groove 40 is smaller than the thickness of the tab 39, so that when inserted into the groove 40, the tabs 39 are securely retained.

To further facilitate their retention as well as the insertion and removal of the characters when it is desired to change the information thereon, the rib-like members 41, 42, 43 and 44 are of a softer material than is the remainder of the strip 37.

Referring to the drawing FIGS. 3 and 4 the strip 37 includes the tab receiving groove 40, configured with two pairs of ribs, the ribs of each pair lying in opposed relation to one another and running longitudinally of the strip. This groove 40 with its rib-like members 41, 42, 43 and 44 constitutes a cushiony lining designated 45 within the U-shaped cross section of the strip 37. This cushiony lining is formed from a softer material than that used in the remainder of the strip. This is important since the hardness of the vinyl, rubber or other elastomer used in the strip must be closely controlled to provide sufficient rigidity whereby the strip is sufficiently stiff to retain its shape when held along its ends, and yet be resilient enough to permit the insertion and removal of the characters. This construction provides a soft receiving groove lining which conforms readily to the shape of the tabs and helps to securely hold them in place due to the high degree of resilience. The remainder of the strip being substantially harder maintains the strip in the desired position with respect to the tray 23 which carries the strips.

Strips of this character may be manufactured by several known means, for example, the strip body may be extruded by a first extruder which extrudes the hard vinyl and a second extruder associated therewith for extruding the soft vinyl. The two vinyls are combined in one die and emerge from the die as a composite extrusion, the soft vinyl being fused to the rigid vinyl during extrusion through the die. Other methods of manufacture may be used, however, it is quite apparent that the co-extrusions of the two elastomers into an integrated strip is the most convenient and economical method at present.

The simple construction and the ease with which changes can be made make the assembly adaptable to many different uses. For rapidly changing names or data, the marker strips may be preassembled by inserting the individual characters making up the name, message or other indicia on to the strip. The strips are freely slidable vertically within the tray and so stack themselves automatically. To insert a pre-assembled strip into a particular position according to its alphabetic order as for example when used as a building directory, the portion of strips above the desired location is merely lifted to provide a space for the strip to be inserted, and then inserting one end under the lip on one side of the tray while deflecting the resilient lip on the other side of the tray and pushing the strip into place. The strips then fall into place to re-form an unbroken column.

It is not necessary to slide the strips to the top of the tray for removal, so the strips need not be removed and replaced unnecessarily as changes are made.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A changeable display device comprising an elongated rear wall member, a pair of parallel frontwardly projecting longitudinal flanges integral with said rear wall member, a pair of U-shaped channels of an elastomeric material mounted on opposite sides of said rear wall member enclosing said flanges, with the open faces of the U's facing each other and with one leg of the U's lying adjacent and attached behind the rear surface of said rear wall member and the other leg of the U's forming a resilient lip lying in a parallel plane in front of and spaced away from said rear wall member, thereby forming a resilient retaining channel on each side of said rear wall member for removably retaining therealong display strips between each said other leg of said U-shaped channel and said rear wall, and a plurality of information bearing display strips each dimensioned to fit across the front of said rear wall member with the opposed ends thereof in said retaining channels, respectively, said display strips having means to removably retain arrays of character element along the length of said display strips, each of said character elements having a rearwardly projecting tab, said display strip retaining means comprising a first relatively hard elastomeric material with a longitudinally running tab insertion groove in one surface thereof and a second relatively soft elastomeric material bonded within said tab insertion groove forming two pairs of opposed parallel rib-like slots which extend parallel to said tab insertion groove, said retaining means adapted to resiliently grip and center said tabs of individual character elements inserted therein, the frictional contact and pressure of said second elastomeric material upon deformation by and against said tabs removably securing said character elements within said tab insertion groove, whereby said display strips can be individually inserted and removed from within said retaining channels by deflecting one or both of said other legs forming said resilient lip and said character elements in turn can be selectively inserted and removed from said display strips.