Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Picture frame – Support
Reexamination Certificate
1999-05-10
2001-09-04
Dayoan, B. (Department: 3628)
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Picture frame
Support
C040S745000, C040S747000, C040S759000, C040S761000, C040S762000, C248S469000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06282827
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is concerned with stands, particularly stands for picture frames, and with picture frames as such.
There is a long standing need for picture frames which can stand upright on a desk, shelf etc. and which can be economically manufactured for a mass market. Frames of this general type exist.
One such mass produced picture frame has a perimeter frame, e.g. of wood with mitred comer joints or alternatively of plastics, a transparent front panel of plastics or glass, and a rear opaque panel typically of fibre board or plastics. The picture—be it a painting, photograph, print etc.—is sandwiched between the front and rear panels, which are themselves received in a recess formed around the rear of the perimeter frame and held in position typically by flexible metal tabs driven into the perimeter frame, which are bent into position against the rear panel. To enable the frame to stand upright, the rear panel has cuts or perforations pre-formed in it to define a leg which can be bent backwardly out of the plane of the panel. The cuts do not form a closed loop, so that the leg and the panel remain connected through a region of material which, being flexible, acts as a hinge. The frame can thus be rested on a horizontal surface, being upright but inclined somewhat backwardly with the leg serving to prevent it from falling backward.
An alternative construction uses a leg formed separately from the frame's rear panel but coupled thereto through a hinge.
While commercially successful, such frames are not without shortcomings. Their appearance is not appropriate in some contexts; the leg can sometimes fold inward allowing the frame to topple backward, and abuse can cause the material forming the hinge for the leg to fail.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved stand for a picture frame and an improved free standing picture frame. It is particularly desired to provide a frame with a stand which can support the frame but whose bulk can be minimized for storage, and to ensure that when supporting the frame the stand is adequately located to prevent motion of the stand which would allow toppling of the frame.
In accordance with the present invention, there is a stand for a picture frame comprising a bracket for coupling to the rear of the frame and a leg, one of the leg and the bracket defining at least one slot and the other of the leg and the bracket comprising a projection receivable in the slot(s) to thereby mount the leg on the frame, the leg and the slot(s) being shaped such that use the leg can be thereby mounted on the frame in either of a first orientation relative to the frame in which the leg lies generally parallel to the rear of the frame to minimize bulk and a second orientation relative to the frame in which the leg projects backward from the frame and can thus support the frame in a standing position.
Registration of the leg's projection with the slot can provide an adequately positive means of maintaining the leg in either of its positions, while the facility to dispose the leg against or adjacent the rear surface of the frame allows the space taken up by the frame to be minimized for packing, storage, transport etc. The stand according to the present invention can if desired be economically manufactured from plastics and/or pressed metal sheet and/or shaped metal wire.
It is especially preferred that the projection is receivable along a direction which is generally upright with respect to the frame's standing position. In such embodiments the leg preferably has a surface which contacts the rear face of the frame in use and so resists rotational movement of the leg relative to the frame.
The leg and the bracket can be separately formed. They are preferably not fixedly coupled together.
To achieve a simple structure, the leg may be formed as a single component of sheet material. It may be stamped from sheet metal.
The leg preferably has a support portion which meets the projection in an elbow, the support portion extending backwardly from the frame when the leg is in its second orientation to rest on the supporting surface and so support the frame in its generally upright position.
In the currently preferred embodiment of the present invention, the projection and the slot are shaped to register in a manner such that following insertion of the projection into the slot the leg cannot be moved from its first to its second orientation without first being withdrawn from the slot.
In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, the slot in the bracket is generally “L” shaped in cross section, the projection being generally rectangular in cross section and so receivable by the slot in at least two different orientations, one substantially perpendicular to the other. A “T” shaped cross section can also be used for the slot, although this form of the invention is not currently preferred.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the slot has a square cross section. The leg projection may have a square cross section. Such an embodiment may comprise a leg comprising shaped square section wire.
In still another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the bracket defines two differently orientated slots such that the leg lies in the first orientation when received in one slot and in the second orientation when received in the other. A preferred construction of this embodiment comprises a bracket part formed of metal sheet, the two slots being parallel and separated by an intermediate portion of the sheet.
Preferably, the projection is insertable into the slot in a generally downward direction, the slot being upwardly open. It might be imagined that subsequent upward pressure exerted on the support portion due to the weight of the frame would tend to displace the leg upwardly, but in fact the inventor has found that instead the force on the leg causes its projection to bind in its slot and thus to be maintained in position.
The bracket part is preferably formed of shaped sheet metal. For economical mass production, the bracket can be formed by stamping. It may be coupled to the rear of the frame by integrally formed dogs pressed out of the plane of the sheet metal and driven into a board forming the rear of the frame.
In yet a further preferred embodiment of the present invention, either the projection or the slot is formed with a guide path extending along at least part of its length, the other of these components being formed with a follower which is brought into registration with the guide path by insertion of the projection in the slot so that the orientation of the leg relative to the frame is thereby constrained, the shape of the guide path being such that motion of the projection along the slot in a certain direction causes the leg to move from its first orientation to its second orientation. Thus in this version the leg need not be fully disengaged from the bracket part in order to be moved from one orientation from the other. In fact, this embodiment of the invention can provide a frame which operates, from the point of view of the user, in a particularly straightforward and elegant manner.
In such embodiments the leg and/or the bracket part may be formed of molded plastics.
However, a particularly preferred version of this embodiment of the present invention includes a bracket part having a metal plate defining a slot which is three sided and preferably shaped substantially as a ninety degree segment of a circle. The bracket part preferably has a guide path itself formed as a slot formed through the metal plate. To prevent relative motion of the parts of the metal plate on respective sides of the slot, they may be secured to a back plate. The corresponding leg is most preferably formed of sheet material with a follower formed as a stub on the projection, the stub being receivable in the slot.
Preferably the guide path is such that movement of the projection into the slot causes the leg to move from its first orientation to its second orientation. Su
Chop Andrea
Dayoan B.
Lahive & Cockfield LLP
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