Supports – Mirror or picture type – Stand
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-25
2001-07-31
Ramirez, Ramon O. (Department: 3632)
Supports
Mirror or picture type
Stand
C248S316700, C040S324000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06267346
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to a device for holding a paper sheet close to the vertical in order to facilitate the viewing thereof.
Traditionally, copyholders of different types have been used to hold document vertically.
Some of these copyholders are made of a tilted tray on which the sheet is placed and held by a gripper located on the upper section of the tray. The tray, for its own part, is held by an articulated arm, by a trestle or rests on a base. The tray-type copyholders are generally rather expensive. They are often cumbersome and fixed on the workspace (the desk) or a computer screen. Handling them can prove rather tedious.
Other copyholders are made of a gripper system clamping the document by its upper section, whereas the said document hangs freely in the air. Such copyholders must be installed at a certain height on a fixed and vertical bracket. (They are generally fixed using a double-faced adhesive or a suction cup on a wall or the upper section of a computer screen). Their use depends on the presence of a fixed bracket which, however, is very tricky to displace and reading a text becomes difficult since the mobile sheet may oscillate freely in the air.
The purpose of this invention is to remedy the shortcomings mentioned above.
More especially, the invention must suggest a solution enabling easier handling, let alone quicker handling, of the sheet to be held, during placement.
The purpose of the invention is met by a device enabling to hold a paper sheet close to the vertical in order to facilitate the viewing thereof, which comprises first holding means and second holding means which cooperate with the first holding means in order to confer to the sheet, as the former is introduced between the first and the second holding means, an initial curvature which rigidities the sheet.
The device according to the invention is intended to be placed freely on a flat surface such as a worktop or at least more or less plane a surface, such as the top of a pile of books, papers or files. In this sense, the device of the invention can be a mobile device. Moreover, this device can be a small system designed to provide, thanks to an appropriate compromise between the surface that it occupies where placed at a given location and its weight as well as the tilt of the sheet when held, stable position and holding of the sheet.
The first holding means and the second holding means are formed so that the first holding means hold the sheet by its back and can thus be considered as back holding means and such that the second holding means hold the sheet by its front and can thus be considered as front holding means.
According to some embodiments presented further, the first holding means constitute the back section of the device whereas the second holding means constitute the front section of the device.
The device of the invention is more especially designed so that the sheet to be held can be introduced between the first holding means and the second holding means without prior deformation. The sheet is therefore still plane when being fed between the first holding means and the second holding means. As a user continues to feed the sheet between the first holding means and the second holding means, the device confers, by itself, an initial vertical folding or an initial curvature since the device does not deform the sheet to the extent that a folding mark may remain after the sheet has been removed from the device. The initial curvature created towards the upper angles of the sheet, two lines of force which stretch and rigidify the said sheet mechanically and permanently, for the duration of the insertion of the sheet between the first holding means and the second holding means, allowing the said sheet to be held in a position close to the vertical in a stable manner.
The device according to the invention advantageously grips the sheet only by its lower edge and over a small height.
Although the device of the invention is mainly intended for holding one or several paper sheets, this device can also be used, without departing from the framework of this invention, for holding sheets made of any other material, such as for instance paper of different thicknesses, cardboard, synthetic material, liable to be deformed elastically for the duration of the holding process of this sheet by the device according to the invention. Moreover, the invention is not limited to the use of rectangular sheets exhibiting upper angles. But, conversely, sheets of any other shapes, for instance oval or circular, can be used.
The invention also relates to the characteristics thereunder, considered individually or according to all their technically possible combinations.
The first holding means and the second holding means define amongst themselves a space designed for accommodating the sheet, whereas the aperture of this space shrinking in the direction of insertion of the sheet.
Seen in lateral projection, the first holding means or the back section of the device and the second holding means or the front section of the device, are at their upper level distant by a space of approx. 5 to 15 mm so that the insertion of the sheet is made easier. This space shrinks towards the base of the space in order to exhibit at the base an aperture of approx. 0.2 to 3 mm. The aperture is measured, in lateral projection of the first holding means and the second holding means, as the width of the space between these means considered at the corresponding level. This shrinking can be more or less linear or, conversely, quite significant at the beginning and relatively small over the largest portion of the space.
The first means exhibit a concave surface more or less tilted backwards and provided with two bearing zones and the second means exhibit a convex surface opposite the concave surface of the first holding means and fitted with a protrusion acting on the sheet in its section arranged between both bearing zones.
The concave surface comprises a recess provided by a contraction in the material of the first holding means.
The first holding means are formed in order to exhibit mainly only bearing zones, whereas a portion of the first means located between the bearing zones is characterised at least partially by an absence of material.
This arrangement relates more particularly to two embodiments of the first holding means, i.e. a loop or a cradle on the one hand and sticks, spaced from one another, on the other.
When the right and left hand sides of the back section are materialised by plane surfaces, the said surface can form together at the base of the device an open angle whose apex is directed to the back of the device and whose value may range from 90° to 160°, the value of 140° being particularly suited.
When the bearing surfaces of the right and left hand sides of the back section are materialised by ridges, the protruding section can penetrate to such a depth that between these three points at the base of the device, an angle can be defined whose apex is represented by the protruding section and whose value may range from 90° to 160°, the value of 140° being particularly suited.
The bearing surfaces of the back section can be tilted to form an angle of 45° to 85°, the value of 65° being particularly suited so that the plan of the sheet may form with the axis of the user's eye, a right angle.
The first means and the second means or, according to a particular embodiment, the back and front sections, can be distant at the level of their upper opposite edges by a space of approx. 5 to 15 mm in order to facilitate the insertion of the sheet, whereas the value of 10 mm is particularly well suited.
When the right and left hand bearing zones of the first means or of the back section are made of plane surfaces and when the said surfaces are opposite plane surfaces constituting the second means or the front section, the distance between these sections may range from 0.2 to 3 mm, the value of 0.8 mm being particularly well suited.
The back section can be mounted on an articulation interconnected to an actuating device fitted wi
Dill Etienne
Spaes Joel
Arent Fox Kintner & Plotkin & Kahn, PLLC
Ramirez Ramon O.
Wood Kimberly
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