Indicia Display Panel

Abstract

Indicia bearing strips are mounted in edge-to-edge relationship so that their outer surfaces will lie flush over a backing. Such strips are replaceable and held in place by magnetic attraction. The strips may be assembled in such edge-to-edge relationship through an access slot along one edge of a directory board.

Parent Case Text

This application is a division of copending application Ser. No. 085,518, filed Oct. 30, 1970 for Indicia Display, now U.S. Pat. No. 3,751,836.

Description

A principal object of the present invention is to provide a directory board in which indicia strips can be replaced quickly and easily, yet the indicia board will be protected from tampering.

FIG. 1 is a front elevation of a directory board embodying the invention with parts broken away.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal section through such directory board taken on line 2--2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a transverse section through such directory board at the location of line 3--3 in FIG. 1, and

FIG. 4 is a transverse section through such directory board along line 4--4 of FIG. 1 with parts broken away.

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary longitudinal section through the directory board of FIG. 1 taken along the upper portion of the board at the location of line 2--2, and

FIG. 6 is a fragmentary longitudinal section through the lower portion of the board at the location of line 6--6.

FIG. 7 is a fragmentary longitudinal section through the upper portion of a directory board showing an alternative type of construction.

FIG. 8 is a fragmentary longitudinal section through a portion of a directory board such as shown in FIG. 1 comparable to FIG. 6, but illustrating an alternative type of structure.

FIG. 9 is an exploded, fragmentary top perspective of the lower right portion of the directory board shown in FIG. 1, with parts broken away.

In the present invention an indicia strip is received in a groove so that the outer face of the strip will be flush with the adjacent structure. Such adjacent structure may be adjacent indicia strips. The purpose of the strips may be to indicate the occupants of an office building, for example.

In FIGS. 1 to 9, an assembly of indicia strips is incorporated in a directory board. Such board is mounted on a stationary component supporting panel 26, shown as a sheet of 5-ply plywood, which can be attached to a suitable wall or stand. The facing component of the directory board includes a backing panel 27, shown as a sheet of 3-ply plywood, carrying a cover sheet 28 on which the indicia strips 29 are mounted. Such indicia strips may, for example, bear the names of people or companies occupying offices in a building, or may bear designations of meetings or events accompanied by room designations. The strips 29 may be in a single piece, or may be composed of sections. One section, for example, could bear a name and a second section could bear a room number. One section or sections could bear the designation of a meeting or event and another section or sections could bear a room number or name.

Because the plane of the directory board backing panel 27 will usually be upright, the strip elements 29 should be adherent to the cover sheet 28. The adherent effect between the indicia strip elements and the directory board sheet can be produced in various ways, such as by the cover sheet and/or the indicia strips having a pressure-sensitive adhesive surface, or by the cover sheet and indicia strips having surfaces of clinging material such as felt or by the cover sheet and indicia strip elements having magnetic attraction. The last mentioned type of adherent structure is preferred.

For the indicia strip elements 29 to adhere to the cover sheet 28 by magnetic attraction, one of such elements will have the characteristics of a magnet, and the other of such elements will be made of magnetic material. It is preferred that the cover sheet 28 be magnetized and that the indicia strips 29 be of magnetic material such as of steel. Indicia can be applied readily and inexpensively to such strips by application of rub-off transfer letters and numbers. Each of such strips can be removed or inserted individually by lengthwise sliding movement as illustrated in FIG. 9. The entire cover sheet 28 can be covered by indicia strips placed in edge-to-edge coplanar relationship as shown in FIG. 1.

It is important that the construction of the directory board prevent tampering with the indicia strips 29. Consequently, the slots between the upper and lower edges of the space overlying the cover sheet 28 are closed. An angle strip having a wide face flange 30 and a narrower edge flange 31 extends across the top of the board as shown in FIG. 2 with the flange 31 covering the upper edge of the directory board backing panel 27 and the flange 30 overlying the upper portion of the face of such panel. A lower angle strip includes a wide flange 32 covering the lower margin of the directory board panel 27 and a narrower flange 33 extending beneath the lower edge of the directory board panel 27 and of the supporting panel 26.

The face flanges 30 and 32 of the upper and lower angle members and the cover sheet 28 between them are covered by an outer transparent sheet 34 of glass or plastic. Such transparent sheet is secured in place spaced outwardly from the backing panel 27 by unslotted heads of securing screw assemblies 35. Each securing screw includes an internally threaded shank integral with the head and extending through an aperture in the facing sheet 34, a flange 30 or 32, and the backing panel 27 behind such flange. An externally threaded screw extends through the aperture in backing panel 27 and is screwed into the internally threaded shank.

The facing component of the directory board is mounted removably on the fixed component supporting panel 26 by attaching flanges 31 and 33 to such panel. A hole 36 in the upper flange 31 fits over the end of a latch pin 37 protruding upward beyond the upper edge of the supporting panel 26, as shown in FIGS. 2 and 5. Correspondingly, a hole 38 in the lower flange 33 receives the projecting end of a latch pin 39 protruding beyond the lower edge of the supporting panel, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 8. One of these pins, shown as being the lower pin 39, is retractable for withdrawal of its end out of the flange hole so that the edge of the directory board panel carrying such flange can be swung away from the supporting panel.

As shown best in FIG. 6, the pin 39 has a head 39' which is backed by a compression spring 40 received in a cavity 41 in the directory board supporting panel 26. By endwise pressure on the projecting end of pin 39, such pin can be moved lengthwise toward the recess 41 in opposition to the force of spring 40 sufficiently to retract the projecting end of such pin from a hole 38 in the flange 33.

When the flange has thus been released, the entire facing component of the directory board can be swung relative to the stationary component in the manner indicated in FIG. 6 about its opposite end until the flange 33 has cleared the supporting panel 26. The directory board is next shifted edgewise as indicated in FIG. 5 to withdraw the hole 36 in flange 31 from the projecting end of pin 37. The entire directory board facing component can then be removed from the station component board-supporting panel 26 while the latter remains in place.

In some instances, it may be preferred to make the stationary component board-supporting panel 26 and the directory board facing component inseparable. In such instances, the construction shown in FIG. 7 can be used as an alternate to the construction of FIG. 5. In this instance, instead of providing interengagable and separable pin-and-socket means, such as the pin 37 and hole 36 shown in FIG. 5, the corresponding edges of the directory board facing component backing panel 27 and the fixed component mounting panel 26 can be inseparably but movably connected by a hinge 36' substituted for the pin-and-socket type of connection. Such hinge may be a continuous or piano type of hinge. Whatever its structure, it will guide the directory board facing component backing panel 27 for swinging relative to the fixed component supporting panel 26 without the two panels being separated.

It is preferred that the opposite edges of the directory board supporting panel 26 extending perpendicular to the edges of such panel covered by the directory board flanges 31 and 33 have outwardly projecting flanges between which the directory board backing panel 27 and transparent facing sheet 34 are received and which are of a width sufficient to cover the thickness of the directory board facing component. Such a flange 42 is shown in FIG. 9 as having a tongue or flange 43 perpendicular to it which is secured in a marginal groove 43' extending along the edge of panel 26.

As shown best in FIG. 3, it is preferred that flanges 42 along the edges of the supporting panel 26 be sufficiently wide to cover virtually the entire thickness of the directory board assembly, projecting outward across the access slot to the strip-receiving cavity of the facing component between the backing panel 27 and the transparent facing sheet 34. Such flange will therefore prevent access to the cavity between the cover sheet 28 and the facing sheet 34 in which the indicia strips 29 are received. Consequently, these flanges constitute obstructing means which will prevent removal of indicia strips.

When the directory board facing component panel 27 has been swung away from the stationary component supporting panel 26 in the manner indicated in FIGS. 5 to 9, as described above, however, the slot between the edge portions of cover sheet 28 and the transparent sheet 34 is accessible so that indicia strips 29 can be shifted edgewise out of the space between the cover sheet 28 and the transparent sheet 34 and replacement strips can be inserted into such space as indicated in FIG. 9.

In the arrangement for mounting the transparent sheet 34 on the directory board panel 27, by the use of screws as described in connection with FIGS. 1 to 7 and 9, it is necessary to provide holes in such transparent sheet. These holes form stress concentration points which induce cracking of the sheet. The stress concentration resulting from a hole for accommodating a securing screw 35 may, for example, result in a corner of the transparent sheet breaking off. Such stress concentration areas can be avoided by utilizing a construction such as shown in FIG. 8, for example, along opposite margins, such as the upper margin and lower margin of the directory board.

Instead of utilizing only a simple angle marginal finishing strip including a face flange forming a spacer between the directory board facing component panel 27 and the transparent sheet 34, the strip has an additional flange. In the strip of FIG. 8, the flange 33' adapted to cover corresponding edges of the directory board panel 27 and the directory board stationary component supporting panel 26 is extended outward into overlapping relationship with the corresponding edge of the transparent sheet 34.

Three flanges 44, 45 and 46 project in generally parallel relationship from the same side of flange 33' in place of the single flange 32. The middle flange 44 corresponds to the single flange 32 of the other type of marginal finishing strip described and is engaged between the directory board panel 27 and the transparent sheet 34 as shown in FIG. 8 to space them apart for providing the space between them to accommodate the cover sheet 28 and the indicia strips 29.

The outer flange 45 is spaced from the central flange 44 a distance substantially equal to the thickness of the transparent sheet 34 and the margin of such transparent sheet fits into the groove between such flanges 44 and 45 to retain the transparent sheet in place of the construction shown in FIGS. 1 to 7. The screws 35 serve the dual purpose of attaching the marginal finishing strips 32, 33 and the transparent sheet 34 to the directory panel board 27 because such screws 35 extend through both the finishing strip flange 32 and the transparent sheet 34, as well as the panel 27, as described above.

When the screws 35 are omitted, it is necessary to provide an alternate construction for securing the marginal finishing strips to the directory panel. The inner flange 46 serves this purpose by being of a cross-section flared away from the flange 33' and received in a complemental inwardly flared groove in the edge of the directory board panel to form a dovetail connection. Such a connection will prevent the finishing strip being pulled away from the directory panel in a direction transversely of the length of the strip without rupturing the panel.

Claims

1. In an indicia display directory board including a facing component having a backing panel, an outer transparent sheet overlying the backing panel and means securing the transparent sheet and the backing panel in spaced relationship for defining a cavity between the outer face of the backing panel and the transparent sheet with an access slot formed between one edge portion of the backing panel and the overlying edge portion of the transparent sheet and communicating with such cavity, an indicia strip slidable edgewise out of such cavity through such access slot, a stationary component located behind the facing component with the backing panel of the facing component closer than the outer transparent sheet to the stationary component, and securing means connecting the facing component and the stationary component, the stationary component including a fixed panel, the improvement comprising a fixed slot-obstructing side flange carried by the fixed panel of the stationary component and projecting forward from the fixed panel toward the facing component and across the access slot of the facing component into a position overlapping the slot-forming edge of the transparent sheet for obstructing the access slot to prevent removal of the indicia strip therethrough, the securing means being operable to prevent sufficient bodily movement of the facing component away from the stationary component to remove the facing component access slot from registration with and obstruction by said fixed slot-obstructing side flange, and the securing means being releasable for movement of the facing component relative to the fixed component sufficiently to remove the facing component access slot from being obstructed by said fixed component fixed slot-obstructing side flange.