Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Signs – Stretched or tensioned
Reexamination Certificate
2002-04-02
2004-04-13
Morris, Lesley D. (Department: 3611)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Signs
Stretched or tensioned
Reexamination Certificate
active
06718668
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a banner support assembly for purposes of engaging and holding taut a banner or picture canvas. This invention relates to a connector assembly and in particular to a reconfigurable connector assembly suitable for a point-of-purchase advertising device.
While the following description will deal with application of the present invention to a “point-of-purchase” advertising device, it will be apparent that the present invention has more general application that may be used in both in door and out door applications.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the gross advertising budget of this nation being what it is, it is easy to believe that a tremendous amount of money and human energy goes into the production and maintenance of the billboard and sign system across the country. Signs have served many purposes including identifying a place of business, giving directional information, affording a warning and in promoting a product.
Early signs employed translucent or transparent display faces mounted on a cabinet that housed the wiring and also contained the source of illumination. Characters were painted or otherwise formed on the display face. Unfortunately, about the only practical material available for the display faces was glass. As a result, frequent replacement came to be expected because of breakage arising from projectiles thrown by vandals, objects carried by the wind or the force of the wind itself.
Of major importance to the outdoor sign industry was the development, more than a generation ago, of rigid plastic sheets or panels formed of such materials as acrylic, polycarbonate, butyrate and variations thereof One of the more popular has been a polycarbonate marketed by General Electric Company under the trademark LEXAN. It is reasonably unbreakable and exhibits sufficient surface hardness to withstand significant damage from most thrown or blown objects. Although often referred to as being “rigid”, it actually exhibits a degree of resilient flexibility, and that can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that it is much safer and easier to handle than a material such as glass, and it also is capable of withstanding stresses developed by distortion in the cabinet and induced by wind or other forces. The primary disadvantage is that the same degree of flexibility also enables the sheet material to bow in an amount sufficient that the impact of severe wind is sufficient to cause the display face literally to blow out of the sign framework. At least usually, the face on the lee side first is sucked out by a combination of pumping by the other face and lowered pressure on the lee side. It has been stated that one major United States manufacturer spent approximately 1.4 million dollars in 1978 alone for the replacement of rigid plastic sign faces.
Other disadvantages of the rigid plastic sign faces include difficulties with cementing and other necessary fabrication techniques and in obtaining consistency of color during the production of a large number of display faces that are supposed to be identical. Additionally, the practical aspects of shipping, handling and installation limit the size of rigid plastic panels which may be used, so that larger signs require additional framework to support a plurality of panels arranged in a signal sign. The rigid plastic materials also are comparatively expensive. A typical outdoor sign might have dimension of 10×24 feet, and many such signs are much larger. The wind loss coupled with the sizes involved and the expense of the material concerned explains why a single company could incur substantial yearly replacement costs. What appears to be a major improvement, capable of overcoming at least most of the above-discussed problems and disadvantages, has been the development of a soft, cloth-like, stretchable fabric material for use as a display face. As marketed by the 3M Company under the trademark PANAFLEX, it has a weight about the same as heavy canvas. It presents a smooth surface and is translucent for light from internal illumination. This material is a polyvinyl chloride that is re-enforced with glass fibers that run through the material in both directions in a pattern resembling that in ordinary window screens. As a result, it is virtually impossible to tear; even if cut, the cut is unlikely to propagate. Should it be cut, or penetrated, the cut or hole can easily be patched in the field in a manner similar to and no more difficult than applying a patch to an innertube.
As presently manufactured, the material is white. Moreover, the same company has developed special pigments for use in decorating its surface with different colors. Those pigments may be applied by the use of screen-printing to produce full-color pictorials as well as letters, numbers and graphic symbols. A full range of colors is available, so that it is possible to perfectly match any standard color with consistency as between a large quantity of display faces. In contrast, the decoration of rigid plastic sign faces is limited, exhibits substantial inconsistency and, at least in certain colors, is prone to fade.
Aside from being unbreakable, another advantage is that the material may be supplied in rolls. Within reason, that removes all practical limitations upon the size of a single display panel and it greatly facilitates handling, shipping and installation.
Nonetheless, the fabric has some disadvantages. Like the rigid plastic material, it continues to be expensive. It currently becomes competitive only if produced in quantity for identical sign faces. Because the decoration is printed with a special silk screen for each given decoration, and a multiple-colored presentation requires that color separation techniques be used in the printing, it becomes very expensive to make only a single sign. Under these circumstances, use has generally been restricted to the fabrication of identical signs in quantities of about ten to one hundred or more. Nevertheless, the advantages have attracted substantial interest, and a demand has already developed for use of the material in signs of large size and quantity.
Of course, the stretchable fabric must be mounted to some sort of framework. The cabinet approach continues to be preferred, because that has a form factor ideally suited for the mounting in the row (or rows) of fluorescent tubes that today most commonly constitute the interior source of illumination. Moreover, the cabinet-type framework accommodates a weatherproof internal raceway in which lamp ballasts and connecting wiring may be disposed. Whatever the interior construction, the framework must be extremely rugged to support the weight of larger signs and to withstand gale winds. One sign may weigh several thousand pounds. A person who has observed a sign mounted atop a tall building often will be surprised, if she has an opportunity to close inspection, to discover how large it has to be in order that that displayed lettering may be read from ground level. It is not uncommon for such a sign to have a display face area of many-hundred square feet.
To exhibit the ruggedness necessary in larger signs, it has long been known to fabricate such signs of steel frameworks. Either angle or channel members are employed to form inwardly facing U-shaped channels which are mitred or otherwise joined successively one to the next in order to form a rectangular cabinet. Combinations of slots, ledges, clamps and the like have then been used to secure the rigid panels that form the display faces to the resulting framework. Steel frameworks are still widely used in the sign industry, particularly by the smaller, independent fabricators.
After assuring proper functioning in all respects, and also giving due consideration to the cost of parts and labor for installation, the originator of the PANAFLEX stretchable fabric has recommended an approach which involves the use of a clamp assembly at each of a plurality of locations spaced around the perimeter. Small holes are drilled or punched in the edge margin of the fa
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