Card – picture – or sign exhibiting – Illuminated sign – Having multiple function
Patent
1993-04-08
1995-03-21
Look, Edward K.
Card, picture, or sign exhibiting
Illuminated sign
Having multiple function
40604, 381029, 160399, G09F 1300, G09F 1700
Patent
active
053984366
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
DESCRIPTION
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a visual panel such as a lane decoration panel in a bowling alley, a display panel for outdoor-wall and rooftop advertizement, and a display panel for advertizement in station precincts.
2. Background Art
In a bowling alley, for instance, a wall is used for a lifting device portion of an apparatus for automatically aligning and arranging bowling pins at a distal end of a lane so as to cover and conceal the lifting device portion from a competitor. Conventionally, the number of unknocked-down pins and the like are displayed on this wall by electric light.
Recently, the display of the number of unknocked-down pins and the like has come to be given on a table or the like on the competitor's side. Instead of the electric-light display of the number of unknocked-down pins and the like, a multiplicity of panels on which pictures, photographs or the like are printed have come to be installed on the walls for covering and concealing the lifting device portion, so as to create a unique, favorable atmosphere of the interior of the bowling alley from the viewpoint of vision.
In many cases, however, such panels on which pictures, photographs or the like are printed are periodically replaced with new panels on which different pictures, photographs or the like are printed, so as to renew the atmosphere of the interior of the bowling alley. Yet, since such panels have a size of approximately 3 m .times.1 m or thereabouts, much expense is required in the replacement operation, particularly in transportation, so that such panels are not necessarily satisfactory.
Such a problem is not restricted to panels in bowling alleys, and also occurs in the case of panels for rooftop advertizement which are periodically replaced.
The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described aspects, and its object is to provide a visual panel which facilitates transportation thereof and is thereby capable of reducing the replacement cost.
DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
In accordance with the present invention, the aforementioned object is attained by a visual panel comprising: a frame; a flexible sheet having swollen portions at opposing edge portions thereof, respectively; and sheet stretching means for slidably accommodating the swollen portions at the opposing edge portions of the sheet and for stretching the sheet over the frame.
As a preferred example of the stretching means in accordance with the present invention, the stretching means comprises a first stretching device for slidably accommodating the swollen portion at one edge portion of the sheet and a second stretching device for slidably accommodating the swollen portion at the other edge portion of the sheet, wherein the first stretching device and the second stretching device are each provided with a hole for accommodating the swollen portion at the edge portion of the sheet and a slit through which the edge portion of the sheet continuing to the swollen portion is inserted. Here, in one example, at least one of the first stretching device and the second stretching device is secured to the frame or is disposed movably with respect to the frame. The frame and the stretching means may be formed of any of wood, metal, synthetic resin, and the like, but may preferably be formed of a hard plastic or aluminum, most preferably aluminum, in view of the mechanical strength or the light-weight characteristic.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, the visual panel further comprises tension adjusting means for adjusting a tension applied to the sheet. In the visual panel having such tension adjusting means in the present invention, it suffices if the first stretching device is secured to the frame, and the second stretching device is disposed movably with respect to the frame, wherein the tension adjusting means is provided between the second stretching device and the frame. In another form, it suffices if the first stretching device and the second stretching device are disposed movably with re
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Look Edward K.
Nguyen Hoang
SCS Promotion Company Limited
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