DK2438585T3

DK2438585T3 - Support for an information display having at least the front display surface and a rear surface

Info

Publication number: DK2438585T3
Application number: DK10709726.3T
Authority: DK
Inventors: Hôtel François L
Original assignee: Hotel François L
Priority date: 2009-05-15
Filing date: 2010-03-18
Publication date: 2015-02-16
Also published as: PL2438585T3; WO2010130485A1; ES2530846T3; EP2438585B1; BRPI1001330B1; FR2945425A1; FR2945425B1; EP2438585A1; AR077625A1; SI2438585T1; BRPI1001330A2; PT2438585E

Description

Support for an information display with at least one front display face and one rear face

The field of the invention is that of supports for information displays for communication or visual advertising at points of sale (POS), known as POS advertising. In this instance, these are columns which can fold onto themselves and unfold automatically, and advantageously, which can be transported and stored in excellent conditions on the one hand and can be very rapidly installed on site on the other hand.

More specifically, the invention relates to a support for an information display with at least one front display face and one rear face, comprising at least one blank made of a substantially rigid and foldable material comprising said display face, it being possible for the support to be driven from a folded state to an unfolded state under the action of devices which act so as to be distributed discretely along the display face of the blank, each device comprising stressing means for unfolding the support and holding means for the support when said support is unfolded, the support being folded against the action of the stressing means of said devices.

It is noted that when the support only comprises one front display face and one rear face, which may or may not be used for display, the stressing devices are also provided to bend the display face of the blank and the holding means are also provided to hold the display face in the bent state. FR-2824946 discloses a support of this type, of which the stressing and holding devices are assemblies which each comprise a resilient stressing bracelet and a holding strip intended to abut a folded-border portion of the blank at the two ends of said strip or at only one end, the strip being connected by the other end thereof to the blank close to a lateral edge of the display face. A support of the same type is also known, which support has two display faces interconnected at their edges and comprising, therebetween, resilient stressing members and foldable holding pads fixed in the centre of the display faces or on the lateral edges thereof, on the inner side.

From a folded state, it is sufficient to start unfolding the support so that it unfolds completely automatically under the action of the resilient stressing members. Conversely, the support is folded by stretching the resilient stressing members.

It could be said that, for unfolding the support, the need to have assemblies in two parts, a holding strip and a resilient stressing member, is not ideal from the point of view of production, setup, price or even weight. Furthermore, after a large number of unfolding/folding actions, there may be a risk that the resilient members may become weakened or slackened or that their force may no longer be sufficient to carry out their stressing function correctly, not to mention the risk that they may break under the action of heat or UV radiation or the fact that their length may be miscalculated and they may therefore be too short.

It has already been proposed that only resilient stressing members, without holding strips, be used, by being fixed by resilient cords at each end thereof to the lateral edges of the support, holding of the display face in the bent state (when this is the case) being ensured by the equilibrium between the force of the resilient cords and the 'opening' force of the bent face. However, a solution of this kind does not avoid the disadvantages of the resilient members presented above.

It has also already been proposed that resilient members not be used. FR-2876261 discloses a support which has two display faces interconnected at their edges and comprising, therebetween, foldable holding pads fixed to the display faces on the inner side, but it is the user who must unfold the support and manually start to apply pressure to the display faces by bringing their edges closer, before unfolding the holding pads and bringing into place the locking portions of the pads in order to lock them in their holding state and keep the support unfolded.

In the two latter cases presented above, the supports comprise two single stressing and/or holding parts, the display face(s) of which supports are bent by bringing their edges closer, but with the disadvantage of the resilient members in the first case and the requirement for a positive stressing action on the part of the user in the second case. A support of the type described in patent FR-2876261 is further known from Brazilian patent no. PI 0303694, which support has, fixed between the two faces, holding devices which can change between a folded state and an unfolded and locked holding state for keeping the support in the unfolded state. If, again in this case, the user has to intervene to change the state of the holding devices by pushing thereon, it is noted that the display faces assume their bent state and the support assumes its unfolded state, not by bringing the lateral edges of the faces closer, but directly by spreading the display faces. WO 2009/039608 describes another support for an information display which is in the shape of a foldable column.

The invention of the present application aims to propose a solution which is free from all the difficulties presented above. Thus the invention relates to a support according to claim 1.

In this way, the stressing and holding devices, which are each formed by a single spreading part, alone perform their stressing function by changing from their stressed state to their rest state, and their holding function by the very fact that they have reached their rest state in which they ensure the support is held in its unfolded state.

In the preferred embodiment of the support of the invention, said devices have a memory effect so as to return to their rest state after being stressed.

Thus the devices are advantageously provided with a resilience which ensures their memory effect.

In this case, the devices can be formed by a pad made of resilient cellular material, for example a polyurethane foam, fixed to one or both of the two faces.

However, the devices can also be formed by a compression spring (coil spring) fixed to one or both of the two faces, or even by a flexible resilient strip fixed to only one of the two faces.

It is noted that 'resilient' foam is in the process of becoming a clean and environmentally friendly material. If foam pads, springs or strips are used, to consider just these examples, even if their stressing function can become dulled with use and time, it cannot be equated with the risk of wear and breakage of the resilient members.

The spreading devices can be fixed in the central part of the support or close to their lateral edges.

When the support only comprises a front display face and a rear face, the stressing and holding devices are also provided to bend the display face of the blank and to hold said display face in the bent state, said devices being arranged to, when in the rest state, stress and bend the front display face.

Reference has just been made to supports for an information display comprising a plurality of stressing and holding devices which act so as to be distributed discretely along the display faces of the support. From an industrial point of view, this is the most interesting solution because it is the most flexible, the lightest and the cheapest.

The invention will be better understood with the help of the following description of several embodiments of the support of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: - Fig. 1 is a view of the flat blank of a first embodiment of the support of the invention; - Fig. 2 is a three-quarter perspective view from above of the support in an unfolded state obtained with the blank of Fig. 1; - Fig. 3 is a front perspective view from above of the support of Fig. 2; - Fig. 4 is an end view of the support of Fig. 2 and 3 in the unfolded state; - Fig. 5 is a view of the support of Fig. 2 and 3 during folding; - Fig. 6 is an end view of the support of Fig. 5; - Fig. 7 is a view of the support of Fig. 2, 3 and 5 in the folded state;

Fig. 8 is an end view of the support of Fig. 7, the two faces being flattened against one another;

Fig. 9 is a view of the blank of Fig. 1 with foam pads and during forming of the support;

Fig. 10 is a view of the blank of Fig. 1 with resilient strips and during forming;

Fig. 11 is a view of the blank of Fig. 1 with compression springs and during forming;

Fig. 12a, 12b and 12c are end views of a fourth embodiment of the support of the invention, with four faces, in the unfolded state, during folding and virtually in the folded state, respectively; and

Fig. 13a, 13b and 13c are end views of a fifth embodiment of the support of the invention, with three faces, in the unfolded state, during folding and virtually in the folded state, respectively.

The support blank of the display 1 of Fig. 1 is, here, made of card stock, which is a substantially rigid and flexible material. It comprises here two rows of four panels 2-5 and 6-9 extending on the two sides of a longitudinal median line 10 intended, after folding, to form one of the two lateral edges of the support. The adjacent panels of the two rows extend on the two sides from three transverse folding lines 11-13, which are orthogonal to the longitudinal median line 10. All the panels are identical to one another and the outer surfaces of the panels of the two rows are intended to form here a front display face 14 and rear display face 15 of the support.

Each panel is laterally extended on the side opposite that of the longitudinal folding line 10 by an assembly and fastening border 16 of the support. Each border 16 is cut away at the two sides and is intended to be folded about the edge 17 of the associated panel so as to be able to be pressed against, and fixed to, the associated border of the adjacent panel on the same level, i.e. panel pairs 2, 6; 3, 7; 4, 8; 5, 9. From the external edge 18 of each border 16, two cuts 19, 20 are made in a partial arc shape leading to a small opening 21 intended to receive a resilient holding member of the two borders 16 for each pair of panels on the same level which are pressed against one another and thus fixed to one another.

In regions 22, 23, 24 of the panels 6, 7, 8 respectively, on the inner surface 28 of the portion of the blank intended to become the rear face 15, it has been provided to fix, in this case by gluing (Fig. 9), three pads 25, 26, 27 made of a resilient cellular foam, in this instance, made of polyurethane. Each pad, here, is in a relatively elongate parallelepiped shape, i.e. sufficiently long to be able to ensure its stressing and spreading function, which will be addressed later.

The support for the display is formed by pressing the two rows of panels 2-5, 6-9 down onto each other after folding the blank 1 about the median line 10, juxtaposing the borders 16 in pairs and holding them against one another in this juxtaposed state by resilient members which pass through the cuts 19, 20.

Once formed (Fig. 2), the display is in the shape of a vertical column with two lateral edges 10 and 29, the edge 29 being formed by the outer edges 18 of the borders 16 extending into the extension of one another.

In Fig. 2, the display is shown in the shape of a standing vertical column which can be folded onto itself by pressing the panels 2-9 down onto one another.

It is noted that the pads 25-27 are spread apart from one another, which means that they act over the whole of the height of the column but so as to be distributed discretely across this height, i.e. along the display faces.

From the unfolded or standing state of Fig. 2, the support can be folded (Fig. 5-8) by folding the panels 2-9 onto one another.

To this end, the two faces 14, 15 are flattened onto one another by squeezing the pads 25-27 (Fig. 8), the flattening being possible owing to the relative sliding of the borders 16 which is permitted by the resilient fixing members. The panels are folded against one another about the transverse folding lines 11-13 (Fig. 5), alternately from one side and from the other, in a concertina shape, before keeping the assembly folded in this way by any appropriate means, for example a resilient strap (Fig. 7). Setup is carried out even more simply, by removing the resilient strap holding the support in the folded state, under the action of the expansion and relaxation of the pads 25-27 which, from their stressed state, spread the faces 14, 15 apart from one another until these pads, changing to their rest state, reach said rest state or a state of near rest in which their action balances the opening force of the display faces 14, 15.

The pads 25-27 made of a resilient cellular foam, due to their resilience on the one hand, and due to the fact that, in the folded state of the support, they are themselves compressed or stressed on the other hand, exert a stressing action on the display faces 14, 15 which spreads said faces apart from one another in order to unfold the support. Moreover, as the support column in question is a column with two faces, when the pads spread the two faces apart from one another, the two faces bend as they approach the two lateral edges 10, 29, the stressing action of the pads therefore being exerted equally to bend the two faces. At the end of the setup process of the support, as has been said earlier, an equilibrium is established between, on the one hand, the opening force exerted by the faces 14, 15 to revert to their flat state, which tends to bring them closer to one another and to recompress the pads, and, on the other hand, the force exerted by the pads in the opposite direction, which tends to make them assume their non-compressed rest state. Thus the stressing and spreading pads therefore act equally to hold the support in its unfolded state. In the case of a support with two faces, the pads therefore act equally to hold the faces in their bent state. The pads alone carry out these functions of stressing and holding.

Finally, the pads made of cellular foam, which are single with only one element, change between a stressing state when they are compressed because the support is in the folded state, and a rest (or near rest) state in which they hold the support in the unfolded state.

In general, the pads described above can equally be considered as memory effect devices, the memory effect being ensured in this instance by their resilience. A support column has just been described which has resilient cellular foam pads as stressing, spreading and holding devices.

The support columns of Fig. 10 and 11, in which elements identical to those of the support column in Fig. 2-9 have the same reference numerals, comprise spring strips 35-37 and coil springs 45-47 as memory-effect stressing and holding devices in place of the pads 25-27.

The resilient and flexible spring strips each comprise an end region 38 for fixing to the inner surface 28 of the face 15, a flexible and resilient middle portion 39 with a central flexion region, and a second end region 40 which is free and can slide on the inner surface 41 of the face 14 when the support column is folded and unfolded.

When the support is folded, the act of pressing the two faces down onto one another and of folding the panels onto one another flattens the strips 35-37 which, during unfolding, resume their rest shape for spreading the two faces apart from one another.

The coil springs 45-47 of the column of Fig. 11 are fixed only to the inner surface 28 of the face 15 by one coil end, the other coil end remaining free, although it could equally be fixed to the inner surface 41 of the face 14. The coil springs 45-47 function in the same way as the strips 35-37. In the folded state of the column, the springs are compressed, and when they are able to resume their rest state, they spread the two faces 14, 15 apart from one another.

Support columns have been considered in which the foam pads, the spring strips and the coil springs are fixed to the centre of the panels, and thus of the faces, close to the transverse folding lines. Any other arrangement would be perfectly possible, such as close to the lateral edges, i.e. close to the borders 16 or the longitudinal folding line 10.

Support columns with two faces (Fig. 1-11) have been described. However, the invention equally applies to support columns having more than two faces, for example having three faces 51, 52, 53 (Fig. 13a, 13b and 13c) with a triangular cross section, or even four faces 61, 62, 63, 64 (Fig. 12a, 12b and 12c) with a rectangular cross section, the stressing and holding devices 55, 65 being arranged as before between two opposing faces 62, 64 (columns with four faces) or between two adjacent faces 52, 53 (columns with three faces). With a column having three faces, the face 51 which is free from the stressing device 55 can comprise a folding line 54 which, during folding of the column, forms an edge extending from the opposing edge 56 of the column, said opposing edge joining the two other faces 52, 53 which approach one another until they touch (Fig. 13c), the third face thus being completely folded onto itself in two half-faces 51', 51".

With a column having four faces 61-64, the folding and flattening would be carried out by folding adjacent faces in pairs 61, 62 and 63, 64 or 61, 64 and 62, 63 about the four edges 66, 67, 68, 69 forming the column.

Claims

Support for an information display in the form of a foldable column comprising at least one front display surface (14) and a rear face (15), the support comprising at least one plate (1) made of a substantially rigid and foldable material comprising the display surface (14) where it is possible for the support to be driven from a folded state to a unfolded state under the action of tensioning and holding devices (25-27) which exert their effect discreetly along the display surface (14) of the plate (1) wherein each tensioning and holding device (25-27) comprises tensioning means for unfolding the support and holding means for the support when the support is unfolded, the support folding against the action of the tensioning means of the devices (25-27), characterized in that each tensioning and holding device (25-27) 25-27) is formed by a single spacer attached to at least one of the faces (15) and which abuts the other of the faces to hold the front face (14) and rear flap. those (15) of the support are separated and the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) are arranged to be able to switch between a tensioned state, in the folded state of the support, and a resting state in which the devices keep the support in the unfolded state.

Support according to claim 1, wherein the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) have a memory effect so that they can return to the resting state after being tensioned.

Support according to claim 2, wherein the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) are provided with an elasticity which ensures the memory effect.

Support according to claim 3, wherein the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) are formed by feet of an elastic cell material.

The support according to claim 4, wherein the feet (25-27) are secured to only one surface (15).

Support according to claim 3, wherein the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) are formed by compression springs (45-47).

Support according to claim 3, wherein the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) are formed of flexible elastic slats (35-37) attached to only one (15) of the two faces (14, 15).

Support according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein only two surfaces (14, 15) are provided, wherein the tensioning and holding devices (25-27) are provided for arching the display surface (14) of the plate (1). and for holding the display surface in the curved state wherein the devices are arranged to clamp and arch the front display surface (14) in the resting state.

A support according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein at least three surfaces are provided.