GB2080005A - Sign Box - Google Patents

Abstract

A kit of parts for manufacturing a sign box comprises extruded lengths of metal or plastics material adapted to form the ends 11 and sides 10 of the box, each length being provided with a continuous groove 12 formed in the extrusion and corner pieces 16, each corner having two projecting tongues 17, 18, the tongues 17, 18 being adapted to engage in the grooves 12 in adjacent end 11 or side 10 pieces. The corner pieces may be of any desired shape, for example, they may be in the form of square corners, radiused corners which may be concave or convex, scalloped corners or chamfered corners. By providing the extrusion with grooves running throughout their length, the side extrusions may be cut of any required length or series of lengths joined together and the corner pieces with their tongues will fit into the cut extrusions without further cutting or shaping operations. The tongues may be integral with the corners or they may be provided in separate jointing members. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Sign Box This invention relates to a light box or a sign box and in particular to a kit of parts for the construction of light or sign boxes.

An object of the invention is to provide an improved kit of parts constructing light boxes or sign boxes from extruded metal or plastics material, but particularly from extruded aluminium, which eliminates the need for expensive and accurate machinery for mitring corners of the box.

The term "light box" relates to an enclosure, open on one side, wherein may be fixed a diffusing panel of translucent material, when used for area lighting. If murals or advertising material are affixed to the translucent material a sign box is formed. The term sign box is used hereinafter to encompass the term light box.

In accordance with the present invention a kit of parts for manufacturing a light box or sign box comprises extruded lengths of metal or plastics material adapted to form the ends and sides of the box, each length being provided with a continuous groove formed in the extrusion, and corner pieces, each corner piece having two projecting tongues, the tongues being adapted to engage in the grooves in adjacent end or side pieces.

The extrusion for the sides and ends may be made from metal such as steel or aluminium but are preferably of aluminium and have an anodised finish. Alternatively, the extrusion can be made from stainless steel or plastics material.

The corner pieces may be of any desired shape, for example, they may be in the form of square corners, radiused corners which may be concave or convex, scalloped corners or chamfered corners.

The corner pieces may have the tongues integrally formed on them. Alternatively, the tongues may be carried by separate jointing members, the jointing members being easily attachable to and detachable from the corner pieces.

For example, each jointing member may have a tongue formed as an extension of a channel section, the channel section being arranged to engage between extruded flanges or projections on a corner piece.

By providing the extrusion with grooves running throughout their length, which is a preferred feature of this invention, the side extrusions may be cut of any required length or series of lengths joined together and the corner pieces with their tongues will fit into the cut extrusions without further cutting or shaping operations.

Thus the system eliminates the need for expensive and accurate machinery for mitring corners by providing slip-in or tongued extruded corner sections which enables a sign box to be produced by semi-skilled operatives. Furthermore, since the corner pieces may be formed as curved, scalloped, or multi-angular corners, the easy production of attractively designed sign boxes from these materials is facilitated. If a frame or bezel is fitted to a square cornered box a small amount of relatively easy mitring may still be required, but this can be done with hand tools.

From another aspect the invention comprises a sign box manufactured from extruded aluminium side and end pieces joined by extruded aluminium corner pieces, the corner pieces being provided with tongues extending the full width of the corner piece and adapted to engage in grooves or slots which run the full length of the extruded sides and ends, the tongues being either integral with the corner pieces or carried by separate jointing members which are easily attachable to and detachable from the corner pieces.

The box being of any desired length can be reinforced as necessary by an extruded section, provided for this purpose, which section can also be used if required for the support of lighting tubes and or control gear.

A backing panel which is preferably of a reflective nature can be fitted to the back periemiter of the extruded section forming the box, by the use of pop-rivets, self-tapping screws or any other suitable fixings. For additional support if required the backing panels can also be attached to the back supporting brackets using similar fixing methods.

The front of the sign box may be finished with a simple mitred frame and be fitted with a glass, or other transparent or translucent material, suitable for carrying sign characters or legends.

In the accompanying drawings: Fig. 1 is an exploded view of a set of components forming a sign box in accordance with the invention; Fig. 2 shows a number of different extruded corners which may be used with the sign box shown in Fig. 1; Figs. 3 to 8 are exploded views showing different shapes of corner pieces and associated jointing members; Fig. 9 is a transverse section through the side extrusion or planking illustrated in Figure 3; Fig. 10 is a transverse section through the side extrusion lot, or planking, shown in Fig. 5; and Fig. 1 a to e illustrates different shapes of sign box which may be made using the components described with reference to Figures 1 to 10.

The box shown in Fig. 1 comprises side extrusions 10 and end extrusions 11 of a sign box.

These extrusions are provided with grooves 12 adapted to receive tongues of corners 13, 14, 1 5 and 1 6. The grooves 1 2 are formed by extrusion or roll forming and run the full length of each of the sides and ends. Each corner such as 13 is provided with integral tongues 17, and 18 adapted to engage in the grooves 12 in adjacent sides 10 and ends 11.

The particular corner piece illustrated presents a square or box section corner shape which, when assembled, forms a flush continuation of the surface of the sides and ends.

The box as shown is provided with a back panel 18a. Fittings 19 and 20 have fixed clips 21 supporting fluorescent lights 22.

The back panel can be fixed to the side extrusions 10.

The lower side extrusion 10 has an electrical control panel 24 which carries a capacitor 25, and choke 26 and 27 in addition to switches 28. This panel could also carry fuses and any other electrical components. Alternatively electrical control panels can readily be fitted to the side or end extrusions.

The front of the box is finished off with extruded mouldings 28, 29, 30 and 31 and optionally 28a cut to form a front frame to the box. Four trim mouldings 32 can be used if desired to avoid the need for accurate mitring of ends of mouldings 28, 29 etc.

Four trim mouldings 32 can be used in conjuction with corners 31 a to achieve a radius corner appearance to the finished assembly.

Alternatively four sections of corners 32 or 33 with their appropriate trim or a combination or corner profiles complete the assembly. The particular assembly described is for a light box that is basically rectangular in its frontal appearance, but by the use of six or more corner profiles (Fig. 4) more complex outlines are readily obtained.

Another way to finish off the corners is to use a plug 9 of plastics material which fits into the channel in each side of each corner 13 as shown in Fig. 1.

In use a kit of parts can be supplied containing all the parts enumerated above but by using the side and end extrusions, it is possible to fabricate these boxes at a given site, extrusions 10 and end extrusions 11 may be cut to required lengths with a hacksaw and because the grooves run the full length of the sides and ends, the corners will fit into the cut pre lengths of side and end extrusions.

The back panel can then be cut to the required size and the light fittings and brackets adjusted to suit a given size of panel.

When the box is assembled the corners are simply pushed into these grooves in the extrusions and are then fixed in place by rivets, sWelf-tapping screws, or any suitable fixings. The back is attached to the framework formed from the four side panels with its corners by means of rivets self-tapping screws or other suitable fixings.

The front of the box can be finished off with any desired glass or other transparent or translucent material such as plastic which can be of any desired character pattern or legend.

The back panel can also be made transparent or translucent and can carry similar legend material so as to give a double-sided box. If that is done it becomes necessary to support the fluorescent lights by brackets which are supported from the midpoints of the side extrusions to give even illumination of both panels.

Alternative corner shapes are shown in Fig. 2 by way of example. It will be noted that the square corner 14 shown in Fig. 1 can be replaced by a radiused corner 31 a shown in Fig. 2 or by a scalloped corner 32 or by a chamfered corner 33.

Any other corners may be used since the fittings are universal, the tongues on each corner arranged to be of standard size to fit into the grooves in the side and end extrusions. If the side and corner extrusions are made from extruded anodised aluminium no further finish is required, but obviously the box could be painted or plastic coated or treated in any other way totgive a pleasant exterior appearance.

In Fig. 3 is shown an alternative form of corner piece 34. The tongues 35, 36 are not integral with the corner pieces 34 but are formed on a separate jointing member 37. The jointing member 37 is easily attachable to and detachable from the corner piece 34 by means of a channel section 38 adapted to engage between extruded flanges or projections 39, 40 formed on the corner piece 34. The jointing member 37 may be engaged with the corner piece 34 by sliding the channel section 38 into engagement with the projections 39 and 40. The tongues 35 and 36 may then be engaged in grooves 12 in sides 1 Oa and ends 11 a respectively, to complete a corner.

In Fig. 4 a concave corner piece 34a is shown which is suitable for a box with a stepped side or end. Again the tongues 41, 42 are formed on a separate jointing member 43 and 44 respectively.

The jointing members have channel sections 45, 46 which engage projections 47, 48 on corner piece 34a.

Fig. 5 shows an alternative form of corner suitable for a stepped construction. The corner piece 34b is joined to side 1 Ob and 11 b by jointing members 49 and 50. Member 49 has a tongue 51 and member 50 has a tongue 52. The jointing member 51 may be joined to corner piece 34b by a flange 53 and projection 54 which engage corresponding projections 55 and 56 on corner piece 34b. Jointing member 50 has a similar flange 53a and projection 54a which engage projections 55a and 56a on corner piece 34b.

Fig. 6 illustrates another form of corner in which the anvex corner piece 34c is connected to end 1 Ob and side 11 b by jointing members 57 which are similar to jointing member 49 in Fig. 5, Fig. 7 shows an alternative form of concave corner piece 34d with tongues 58, 59 formed integrally with it.

Fig. 8 shows two curved corner pieces 60, 61 which together form a rounded end for a box.

They are joined by a jointing member 62 which is double-ended because it is joining a corner profile to a corner profile. Other similar jointing members (not shown) may be used to connect the corner pieces 60, 61 to an end and a side respectively of a box.

The shape of extrusion 1 Oa illusrated in Fig. 3 can be more clearly seen in Fig. 9. The grooves 12 for receiving the tongues 35 are formed between the extruded corners and an extruded flange 12a.

The shape of extrusion 1 Ob shown in Fig. 5 may be seen more clearly in Fig. 10. The grooves 12 are formed by an extruded flange portion 12b.

Figs. 11 a to 11 e are front elevations of different sign boxes which may be formed with the components previously described. For instance the box shown in Fig. 11 C employs, at 34d, the corner centrifugation illustrated in Fig. 7.

It also employs at 60, 61 the configuration shown in Fig. 8.

The box shown in Fig. 11 b employs the corner configuration 33 shown in Fig. 2 etc. The other boxes shown in Figures 11 C to 11 e employ various combinations of corners all utilising the tongue and groove principles of this invention.

Claims (12)

Claims

1. A kit of parts for manufacturing a sign box comprising extruded lengths of metal or plastics material adapted to form the ends and sides of the box, each length being provided with a continuous groove formed in the extrusion, and corner pieces, each corner piece having two projecting tongues, the tongues being adapted to engage in the grooves in adjacent end or side pieces.

2. A kit of parts according to claim 1 and in which the extrusion for the sides and ends may be made from steel or aluminium or plastics material.

3. A kit of parts according to claim 2 and in which the extrusion is made from aluminium with an anodised finish.

4. A kit of parts according to any preceding claim and in which the corner pieces are square, or concave or convex radiused, or scalloped or chamfered.

5. A kit of parts according to any preceding claim and in which the corner pieces have the tongues integrally formed on them.

6. A kit of parts according to any of claims 1 to 4 and in which the tongues are carried by separate jointing members, the jointing members being easily attachable to and detachable from the corner pieces.

7. A kit of parts according to claim 6 in which each jointing member has a tongue formed as an extension of a channel section, the channel section being arranged to engage between extruded flanges or projections on a corner piece.

8. A sign box manufactured from extruded metal or plastics side and end pieces joined by extruded metal or plastics corner pieces, the corner pieces being provided with tongues extending substantially the full width of the corner piece and adapted to engage in grooves or slots which run the full length of the extruded sides and ends, the tongues being either integral with the corner pieces or carried by separate jointing members which are easily attachable to and detachable from the corner pieces.

9. A box according to claim 8 reinforced by an extruded section, provided for this purpose, which section is also used for the support of lighting tubes and or control gear.

10. A box according to claim 8 or claim 9 and in which a backing panel of a reflective nature is fitted to the back perimeter of the extruded section forming the box, by the use of pop-rivets, self-tapping screws or any other fixings.

11. A box according to any of claims 8 to 10 finished with a simple mitred frame and fitted with a glass, or other transparent or translucent material, suitable for carrying sign characters or legends.

12. A sign box made from a kit of parts in accordance with any of claims 1 to 7.

1 3. A kit of parts for a sign box substantially as hereinbefore particularly described and as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.