GB2048540A - Improvements in and relating to noticeboards - Google Patents

Abstract

A noticeboard is formed from a plurality of inter-engaging vertical wooden slats (20) supported between horizontal upper and lower rails (16 and 18) which themselves are held captive between two vertical hollow metal posts (10, 12). Tie rods (24, 26) extend through the hollow metal upper and lower rails and are secured and tensioned at opposite ends. The length of rails (16 and 18) is made fractionally less than the combined width of the slats (20) so that the latter are compressed tightly as the tie rods (24, 26) are tensioned. The upper and lower ends of the slats (20) are tapered (at 42 and 44) for entry into slots extending along the length of members (16, 18). <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Improvements in and relating to noticeboards Field ofinvention This invention concerns noticeboards and in particularfree-standing noticeboards mounted on posts and typically used by local authorities and churches and similar organisations.

Background to the invention Conventional noticeboards have tended to be of all wood construction which has been susceptible to adverse weather and has required periodic painting or varnishing. Whilst the board itself on which notices and the like are to be pinned is best formed from wood or a similar material to allow drawing pins and the like to be pressed thereinto, the remainder of a noticeboard need not necessarily be constructed from timber or such material which is susceptible to rot and decay and it is an object of the present invention to provide an alternative form of construction of a noticeboard which it is anticipated will have a considerably longer life in the field than conventional designs of noticeboard.In particular it is an object of the invention to provide a design which will allow a softwood board to be used for the actual board on which the notices are to be attached.

Conventionally hardwood has been used to improve the durability of conventional designs of noticeboard and the hard surface of such wood has made it very difficult to fix notices by means of drawing pins and the like.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide a form of design in which all fastenings used to secure the noticeboard together are concealed so as to minimise possible damage through vandalism.

The invention According to the present invention a noticeboard comprises two up-right struts adapted to be secured in the ground, upper and lower elongate board supports extending transversely between the two upright struts, the upper board support including a recess in its underside and the lower said board support having a recess formed along its upperface and a plurality of wooden boards adapted to be slid into the said recesses and held captive therein between the said upper and lower board supports and means for exerting a compressive force through the two said upright struts in a direction to compress the array of boards together.

The means for causing the boards to be compressed conveniently comprise tie rods extending through the upper and lower board supports and secured at opposite ends to the said upright struts.

Preferably means is provided for adjusting the tension in at least one and preferably both of the tie rods.

Conveniently the upright struts are of hollow cross-section and each of the tie rods is formed with a screw-thread profile at at least one end thereof and means for adjusting the tension in the tie rod comprises a hexagonal boltthreadedly engaged on the screw-threaded end of the tie rod and adapted to abut against an internal face of the hollow crosssection of the strut within which it is located. By tightening the bolt onto the tie rod so the tension in the latter can be increased. A similar hexagonal nut may be threaded onto the other end of the tie rod which accordingly is formed with a similar screwthread profile or alternatively a fixed enlarged head is formed at or secured to the said other end of the tie rod with a shoulder adapted to engage the inside surface of the other said upright strut within which it is housed.

By providing aligned apertures in the said upright struts so the tie rod can be introduced into the transversely extending elongate board support after the latter has been located approximately in position and the hexagonal nuts may be threaded onto the ends of the tie rod in situ and by means of an appropriate tool such as a box spanner the nuts can be tightened as required, access for these operations being gained through the second of the two aligned apertures in each of the struts.

In order to reduce the chance of vandalism and to prevent the ingress of water and dirt, the aligned aperture may be covered by a bung or like closure member which is preferably a snap fit into the said second aligned aperture in the upright strut or may be formed with an internal screw-thread profile whereby the bung is adapted to be screw-threadedly engaged onto the threaded end of a tie rod as it protrudes through a bolt.

A title board may be attached to the upper transversely extending board support.

Upper and lower board supports may be formed from steel box section having a groove cut in one of the four faces so as to provide the said recess into which the ends of the boards can be fitted. By slightly tapering the cross-section of each board so the latter can be introduced more readily into the groove/recess in the box section.

By forming the box section from a material having a degree of resilience, and by arranging that the dimensions of the groove into which the edges of the boards are slid is slightly undersize in relation to the thickness of the boards so the latter will be gripped by the edges of the groove in the box section into which they are slid. To this end and for other reasons it is preferable that the boards are of a soft wood so that the interaction between the boards and the groove does not unduly distort the metal box section but the edges of the groove deform the soft wood so as to form a good weatherproof seal between the softwood boards and the box sections of the upper and lower board supports.

In an alternative arrangementthe upper and lower board supports are formed from metal tubing having a parallel-sided groove cut along the length of the tubing to form the recess. The tubing may be of any convenient cross-sectional shape and may be of circular cross-section but a preferred cross-sectional shape is oval or elliptical with the groove formed in one of the smaller radius of curvature regions of the cross-section. In this way the smaller diameter of the elliptical or oval cross-section is perpendicular to the plane of the array of boards making up the noticeboard and this permits a slightly more elegant shape to be obtained than if the upper and lower board supports are of for example square or rectangular cross-section.Furthermore the curving external surface of the tubing does not form a ledge on which water can rest as is the case with square or rectangular section board supports and this is to advantage at least with regard to the lower board support since it is here that water may collect against the softwood boards and cause the latter to rot.

According to another arrangement, a standard cross-section profile known as a Jansen Profile No.

76.520 may be used. This is a stronger section than simple tubular or box sections cut to form the groove into which the board ends are fitted.

Whatever the choice of cross-section for the upper and lower board supports, drainage apertures are preferably provided in the lower support so that in the event that water does enter the interior of the cross-section of the lower board support it can drain away and thereby reduce the risk of wet rot occurring in the boards the edges of which are contained within the lower board support.

According to a further preferred aspect of the invention, hinged or sliding glass or Perspex covers may be provided over the face of the array of boards forming the noticeboard.

Whilst any form of inter-engagement may be employed between the abutting edges of the boards making up the noticeboard array, the simplest form of inter-engagement is so-called tongued and grooved engagement in which the abutting edge of one board is formed with an elongate groove into which an elongate protrusion ortongueformed along the abutting edge of the adjoining board can fit.

The invention provides steel frame construction to give lateral clamping of inter-engaging (typically tongued and grooved) boards the ends of which are enclosed in cross-members preferably of steel and held under compression to avoid the loosening of the boards due to timber shrinkage. The assembly eliminates the need for glued joints and allows chemical preservative treatment of each board prior to assembly.

Preferably a noticeboard constructd in accordance with the invention is supported in concrete foundations let into the ground.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation of a noticeboard constructed as an embodiment of the invention, Figure2 is an end elevation of the board shown in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a plan view from above of the board shown in Figure 1, Figure 4 is a perspective view of the board shown in Figures 1 to 3 with one of the upright struts shown embedded in a concrete slug let into the ground, Figure 5 is a cross-section on the line V-V in Figure 1 drawn to an enlarged scale and with much of the right-hand upright strut of Figure 1 cut away, Figure 6 is a cross-section through the lower board support member and left and right hand struts of Figure 1 on the line VI-VI in Figure 1, Figure 7 is a cross-section on the line VII-VII in Figure 1, Figure 8 is an enlarged scale edge view similar to Figure 5 also shown in cross-section of another embodiment of the invention in which the upper and lower board support members are of oval crosssection and Figure 9 is a similar cross-sectional view to that of Figure 8 of a further embodiment of the invention in which the upper and lower board supports are of so-called Jansen profile.

Detailed description of the drawings Referring first of all to Figures 1 to 7 there is there shown a noticeboard constructed as one embodiment of the present invention. The noticeboard comprises a pair of elongate upright struts 10 and 12 the lower ends of which are adapted to be sunk into the ground typically in concrete as at 14 in Figure 4 and between the upper ends of which extend two elongate transverse rails 16 and 18 which constitute upper and lower board supports for an array of tongued and grooved softwood boards generally designated 20. This array comprises the noticeboard proper and by virtue of the fact that soft wood is used notices can be pinned or tacked thereto more easily than has hitherto been the case since typically hardwood has been employed for the noticeboard proper in previous designs of noticeboard.

Across the upper rail 16 and attached thereto is a title board 22. The name of an organisation or local authority or other designated material can be applied thereto either by way of adhesive lettering or by way of painting or stencilling.

The transverse rails 16 and 18 are held in place by means of tie rods which are best seen in Figures 5,6 and 7. An upper tie rod 24 extends through the upper rail 16 and a lower tie rod 26 extends through the lower rail 18. As shown in Figure 6 which is a cross-section on the line VI-VI in Figure 1, each of the tie rods is formed with a screw-thread profile 28 at one end and 30 at the other end. Threaded thereon are hexagonal nuts 32 and 34 respectively and a spring washer or the like such as 36 may be fitted between the nut 32 and the inside surface of the hollow section of the upright section containing the nut 32. In the case of Figure 6, the strut containing the nut 32 corresponds to the strut 12 of Figure 1 and the strut shown in cross-section at the opposite end is of course strut 10 of Figure 1.

Both ofthe struts 10 and 12 are of hollow cross-section and are formed from steel or the like material and in order to facilitate the introduction of the tie rods 24 and 26, apertures are formed in the box sections of the struts 10 and 12, an aperture on the inner face of each box section corresponding to the diameter of the tie rod 24 or 26 and an aperture on the outer lateral surface of each box section 10 and 12 of larger diameter than the aperture on the inner face through which the tie rod can be introduced to allow itto be passed through the aperture in the inner face and which is large enough also to accomodate the hexagonal nut such as 32 or 34 as the case may be and also a box spanner or like tool (not shown) to allow the nut 32 and/or 34 to be tightened.

When the unit has been assembled, a bung of rubber or plastics or composite material 38 and 40 is fitted into the external aperture. To facilitate the location and retention of the bung 38 or 40 the latter may be formed with an internal screw-thread profile to allow itto be screw-threaded onto the protruding screw-threaded ends of the tie rods such as 26 and 30 but preferably and alternatively the tapering cross-section of the bung 38 or 40 is formed with an annular recess to allow the latter to be sprung into position and to be gripped by the periphery of the aperture into which the bung 38 or 40 is fitted.

Referring once again to Figure 5, the upper and lower edges of each of the boards making up the array of boards 20 is tapered as at 42 and 44 to facilitate the introduction of the edges of the boards into the transversely extending rails 16 and 18.

As seen in Figure 5, the upper and lower rails 16 and 18 are of box section with an elongate aperture along the underside of the box 16 and along the upper face of the box 18 to receive the edges of the boards.

The board forming the array 20 are tongued and grooved as is best seen in Figure 7.

Figure 7 also demonstrates how the boards may be clamped tightly together. The width of the boards is selected to that when they are initially fitted together and located in position between the upper and lower rails 16 and 18, the lateral dimension from one side to the other of the array is slightly greater than the length of the rails 16 and 18. The latter are formed from steel or similar material and are thus virtually inextensible as are also the tie rods 24 and 26.After the latter have been inserted in position and the nuts such as 32 and 34 tightened the boards in the array 20 will be clamped between the two upright box sections forming the struts 10 and 12 and continued tightening of the nuts 32 and 34 will further compress the boards 20 until the tie rods have been tightened sufficiently to take up the difference between the lateral dimension of the board array 20 and the length of the rails 16 and 18.

With the boards under such compression, no gaps will remain between the boards and natural shrinkage of the wood which inevitably occurs with time will be accommodated.

In this way the boards will be held firmly together to form the array at all times.

Referring now to the alternative embodiment shown in Figure 8, there is there shown a noticeboard in cross-section in which the upper and lower rails 16 and 18 of Figure 5 are replaced by oval cross-section rails 16' and 18'. The advantage of this alternative cross-sectional shape of the rails 16 and 18 will be clearly appreciated when it is considered that rain and snow can lodge on the ledge designated by reference numeral 46 in Figure 5 where the cross-section of the upper and lower rails 16 and 18 is generally rectangular and the curved external surface adjoining the boards in the array 20 in the embodiment of Figure 8 does not allow water or snow or ice to collect in any appreciable quantity adjacent the boards and thus assists in preserving the boards from rotting.

In all other respects the embodiment shown in Figure 8 is similar to that shown in the previous figures in the drawings reference to which is made for the remaining detail of this embodiment.

Figure 9 shows a further alternative embodiment and again corresponds to the view of Figure 5 in which the upper and lower rails 16 and 18 are replaced by Jansen profiles 16" and 18". These alternative cross-section rails have been found to be stronger than the cross-sections of the rails shown in Figures 5 and 8 and this is by virtue of the fact that the slides of the channel into which the edges of the boards fit are formed by a doubling over of the material forming the profiles. Resilience is obtained in the Jansen profile by means of a slit along the base of the channel designated by reference numeral 48 and 50 in Figure 9 and the tie rods 24 and 26 extend through the centre of the profile in exactly the same way as they do in the Figure 5 and Figure 8 embodiments.

Although not shown hinged or sliding glass or Perspex covers may be provided over the surface of the board when viewed in Figure 4.

Obviously the boards making up the array 20 are treated with weather-proofing preservatives material such as a chemical dip, impregnated varnish, creosote and the like before they are assembled to form the array 20. The remainder of the assembly is formed from metal which is resistant to rotting and can be preserved against corrosion for long periods of time by means of painting and other surface treatment as required.

Although not illustrated the upper rail 16" may be replaced by a further jansen profile type 32.373 which has an integral corner extension piece which together with the integral flat surface of the profile constitutes a title board thus avoiding the need for a separate title board such as is shown at 22 in Figure 5.

The lower rail 18" shown in Figure 9 may also to advantage be replaced by a Jansen profile 76.694.

With these alternative Jansen profiles the upper and lower edges of the boards forming the noticeboard are tapered on both faces instead of just the single face at 42 and 44 as shown in Figure 5.

The invention is of particular value since it allows for the replacement of the softwood boards should these ultimately deteriorate or be damaged. It will be seen that the boards making up the noticeboard can be removed by simply undoing the tie rods through the upper and lower rails of the assembly and the board or boards to be replaced can then be removed and fresh ones substituted at will.

Claims (1)

1. A noticeboard comprising two upright struts adapted to be secured in the ground, upper and lower elongated board supports extending transversely between the two upright struts, the upper board support including a recess in its underside and the lower said board support having a recess formed along its upper face and a plurality of wooden boards adapted to be slid into the said recesses and held captive therein between the said upper and lower board supports and means for exerting a compressive force through the two said upright struts in a direction to compress the array of boards together.

2. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 1 in which the means for compressing the boards comprises tie rods extending through the upper and lower board supports and secured at opposite ends to the said upright struts.

3. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 2 in which means is provided to adjusting the tension in at least one and preferably all of the tie rods.

4. A noticeboard as claimed in Claims 2 or 3 in which there are two tie rods.

5. A noticeboard as claimed in Claims 2,3 or 4 in which the upright struts are of hollow cross section and each of the tie rods is formed with a screw thread profile at at least one end thereof and the means for adjusting the tension in the tie rods comprises a hexagonal boltthreadedly engaged on the screw-threaded end of the tie rod and adapted to abut against an internal face of the hollow cross section of the strut within which it is located.

6. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 5 in which a similar screw thread profile is formed at the opposite end of the tie rod and a similar hexagonal nut is threaded onto the other end of the tie rod.

7. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 5 in which the opposite end of the tie rod from the screwthreaded end is formed with a fixed enlarged head thereby providing a shoulder for engaging an inside surface of the upright strut within which it is housed.

8. A noticeboard as claimed in any of Claims 2to 7 in which aligned apertures are provided in the upright struts so that the tie rods can be introduced into the transversely extending elongated board support after the latter has been located approximately in position and the hexagonal nuts threaded onto the end of the tie rod in situ.

9. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 8 in which the aligned apertures are covered by bungs or like closure members.

10. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 9 in which the bung or like closure member is a snap-fit into the outer aligned aperture in the upright strut.

11. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 9 in which the bung or other closure member is adapted to be screw-threadedly engaged onto the threaded end of the tie rod axially aligned with the outer aligned aperture.

12. A noticeboard as claimed in any of the preceding claims in which the upper and lower board supports are formed from steel box section having a grooved cut in one of the four faces so as to provide the said recess into which the ends of the boards can be fitted.

13. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 12 in which the cross-section of each board tapers slightly from one edge to the other so that the latter can be introduced more readily into the groove in the box section.

14. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 12 or 13 wherein the box section is formed from a material having a degree of resilience and the dimensions of the groove into which the edges of the boards are to be slid is slightly undersize in relation to the thickness of the boards so that the latter will be gripped by the edges of groove in the box section into which they are slid.

15. A noticeboard as claimed in Claim 14 in which the boards are formed from a soft wood so that the interaction between the boards and the groove does not unduly distort the metal box section but the edges of the groove deform the softwood so as to form a good weatherproof seal between the softwood boards and the box section.

16. A noticeboard as claimed in any of Claims 1 to 11 in which the upper and lower board supports are formed from metal tubing having a parallel-sided groove cut along the length of the tubing to form the recess.

17. A noticeboard as claimed in any of the preceding claims in which drainage apertures are provided in the lower support so that in the event of water entering the interior of the cross-section of the lower board support it can drain away and thereby reduce the risk of wet-rot occurring in the boards, the edges of which are contained within the lower board support.

18. A noticeboard as claimed in any of the preceding claims further comprising hinged or slid ing glass or perspex covers over the face of the array of boards forming the noticeboard to give weath erproof protection to notices pinned thereon.

19. A noticeboard as claimed in any of the preceding claims in which abutting edges of the boards inter-engage by means of so-called tongues and grooves along adjoining edges of the board.

20. A noticeboard as claimed in any of the preceding claims when supported in concrete foundations let into the ground.

21. A noticeboard constructed and arranged substantially as herein described with reference to and illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

New claims or amendments to claims filed on 2nd July 1980.

Claim 1 superseded.

New Claim 1 Claims 2 to 21 to remain as originally filed.

1. A noticeboard comprising two upright struts, upper and lower elongated incompressible board supports extending transversely between the two upright struts, the upper board support including a recess in its underside and the lower said board support having a recess formed along its upper face and a plurality of softwood boards adapted to be slid into the said recesses and held captive therein between the said upper and lower board supports, said boards in their natural condition forming an array of marginally greater width than the length of the board supports, and means for exerting a compressive force through the two said upright struts in a direction to draw the ends of the board supports into tight engagement therewith and there by compress the array of boards together.