GB2085285A - Display system - Google Patents

Abstract

A bracket 10 has forwardly projecting members 16 in pairs, and a complementary tray 18 of merchandise has opposing side walls 30, each of which is folded back on itself at 32 in an inverted U, forming sleeves in which the forwardly projecting members 16 engage. The members 16 have upwardly projecting portions 50 to engage in holes 52 in the upper edges of the side walls. The tray is conveniently formed by folding a blank. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Display system This invention relates to a system for displaying merchandise, for example in a shop, store or supermarket. It is especially but not exclusively applicable to merchandise which is packed in boxes.

It is well known to provide stands for holding merchandise for display purposes in a shop, store or supermarket. However, when the merchandise comes in packages such as small boxes, there is a probiem in ensuring that the merchandise can be easily attached in bulk to the stand, that the individual packages are then easilyvisible by the customer, and that the customer can easily remove one or more of the packages.

The present invention provides a display system comprising a tray for holding merchandise, the tray having two opposing side walls; and a stand comprising at least two forwardly projecting members which are spaced apart by a distance such as to co-operate with the opposing side walls of the tray; the upper edges of the side walls each being provided with means for engagement with the corresponding forwardly projecting member two removably support the tray on the forwardly projecting members.

Preferably, each side walt of the tray is of inverted U cross-section with the base of the U forming said upper edge of the side wall. The side walls may thus each form a sleeve which can be slidably mounted ion one of the forwardly projecting members on the stand. Preferably, the upper edge of the forwardly projecting member h-as an upwardly projecting portion which is engageable with a hole in the corresponding upper edge of the side wall of the tray so that the tray positively engages on the forwardly projecting members. The upper edge of the side wall of the tray may be provided with two such holes so that the tray can engage on the forwardly projecting members of the stand in either of two opposing orientations; i.e. the tray may be reversibly mounted on the forwardly projecting members.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 is an exploded view of a display stand and a tray, Figure 2 shows a blank for forming the tray in Figure 1, Figure 3 is a cross-section of a portion of a second tray, and Figure 4 shows a blank for forming a third tray.

Referring firstly to Figure 1, a display stand 10 is made from stiff wire and is coated with a plastics material. It comprises a backing framework made from two parallel wires 12 on one of which is provided a number of washers 14 by means of which the stand can be screwed to a wall or backing panel in the shop, store or supermarket. The two wires 12 are spaced apart by a plurality of forwardly projecting members 16a to 16f. The forwardly projecting members are wires bent into a generally rectangular confiouration. and with the exception ofthe members 16a and 16f at the ends of the stand they are arranged in closely spaced pairs.

The tray 18 shown in Figure 1 is folded from a blank of board material whose plan is shown in Figure 2. This comprises a rectangular bottom forming member 20, hinged to the four sides of which are front, rear and side wall forming panels.

When made up, each of the front, rear and side walls are of double thickness, and thus there are provided two front wall forming panels 22,24; two rear wall forming panels 26, 28; and at each side two side wall forming panels 30,32. Each side wall forming panel 30, 32 is provided with lateral flaps 34, and hinged to the edge of each wall panel 24,28 and 32 furthest from the bottom forming panel 20 there is a respective flap 36,38, 40.

Between the panels 26, 28 and also between the panels 22,24 there is a single crease 42; but between the respective side wall forming panels 30,32 there is a double crease 44. To make up the tray, firstly the panels 32 are folded over the panels 30, bringing the lateral flaps 34 together. The side walls are then folded up from the bottom 20 about the hinge lines 46 and the lateral flaps 34 are turned inwardly. The double creases 44 are thus at the upper edges of the side walls, and the side walls each form a sleeve of inverted U cross-section, the base of the U being at the upper edge between the double creases 44.

The front panels 22, 24 and the rear panels 26, 28 are then folded up and over the flaps 34 so that the flaps 34 are trapped between the two pairs of panels 22, 24 and 26, 28. After this manoeuvre, the flaps 36, 38 lie over the bottom panel 20, trapping the-flaps 40 of the side walls between the bottom panel 20 and themselves. The edges 48 of the flaps 36,38 meet each other over the centre of the bottom panel 20, and tend to engage each other to prevent the tray from unfolding.

As seen in Figure 1, the side walls of the tray are somewhat higher than the front and rear walls, and the sleeve formed between the panels 30, 32 by reason of the double creases 44 is open at the front and rear.

The spacing of the forwardly projecting members 16 of the stand is such that the sleeves on opposite side walls of one of the trays 18 will fit snugly over a pair of the members 16. More than one tray 18 will fit on the stand; where there are two members 16 closely spaced together, one will co-operate with the side wall sleeve of one tray while the other cooperates with that of an adjacent tray.

As seen in Figure 1, the upper edge of the rectangular wire frame of each forwardly projecting member 16 is bent into a small upwardly projecting loop 50 at the front end. The blank of the tray shown in Figure 2 has corresponding holes 52 formed in between the double crease lines 44. When the tray is made up, as seen in Figure 1, these holes 52 are then in the very upper edge of the side walls of the tray, and when the sleeve formed by the side wall is slipped over the forwardly projecting member 16, the upwardly projecting loop 50 engages in the hole 52 to provide a degree of anchorage for the tray on the forwardly projecting member 16. This prevents the tray 18 accidentally sliding off the stand, e.g.

when a customer is removing merchandise from the tray.

The trays 18 are provided with not one but two holes 52 between each double crease line 44. Since the front and rear walls of the tray shown in Figure 1 are identical, it then makes no difference which way round the tray is slid onto the stand. The loop 50 will engage in one or other of the holes 52 depending which way round it is placed.

In use, the stand 10 will bea permanent or semi-permanent fixture in the shop, and boxes of merchandise will be delivered to the shop by the manufacturer packaged in trays 18 and shrinkwrapped with a plastics material such as polyethylene. Normally there will be several boxes to each tray, positioned as shown by chain-dotted lines in Figure 1 so that printed matter on the boxes is visible above the low front and rear walls of the tray. The tray will be made a suitable size to take a given number of boxes exactly, thus producing a completely rectangular package which is very easy to shrink-wrap. In the shop, the shrink-wrapping will be removed, and a number of the trays 18 will be slid onto the stand 10.

Figure 3 shows an alternative form of construction of the tray. Instead of being made from foldable board material this tray is vacuum formed and/or heat bent from a plastics material. Suitable plastics materials are thin gauge polyvinyl chloride, or a corrugated extruded polypropylene material sold under the Trade Mark CORREX. In the case of the tray shown in Figure 3, the side walls 56 are inturned at the upper edge, and then downturned to form an inverted U-shaped sleeve 54. The lower edge of the downturned inner layer 58 of the side wall 56 is not trapped against the bottom of the tray as in Figure 1.

The material of the side walls will have some resilience, and when the boxes of merchandise are inserted in the tray they will push against the resilience of the material of the side walls to form a snug package. To some extent, of course, this also happens with the tray shown in Figure 1, because of the double crease 44 and the gap between the panels 30,32 making up the inner and outer layers of the side wall.

Figure 4 shows a blankforforming an alternative tray. This one is not intended to be reversible, and thus the rear wall forming panels 26', 28' are deeper than those shown in Figure 2 so as to form a higher rear wall than the front wall. Likewise, the lateral flaps 34' at the rear of the tray are largerthan the lateral flaps 34 at the front. However, it is necessary to have a slot 60 extending partially between the flaps 34' and the panels 30, so that when the tray is erected and forwardly projecting member 16 of the stand 10 can pass through this slot 60 into the sleeve formed between the panels 30, 32. Because this tray shown in Figure 4 is not reversible, only one hole 52 is needed in each double crease 44.

Claims (18)

1. A display system comprising a tray for holding merchandise, the tray having two opposing side walls; and a stand comprising at least two forwardly projecting members which are spaced apart by a distance such as to co-operate with the opposing side walls of the tray; the upper edges of the side walls each being provided with means for engage.

ment with the corresponding forwardly projecting member to removably support the tray on the forwardly projecting members.

2. A display system according to claim 1 wherein each side wall of the tray is of inverted U crosssection with the base of the U forming said upper edge of the side wall.

3. A display system according to claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the side walls each form a sleeve which can be slidably mounted on one of the forwardly projecting members on the stand.

4. A display system according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the upper edge of the forwardly projecting member has an upwardly projecting portion which is engageable with a hole in the corresponding upper edge of the side wall of the tray so that the tray positively engages on the forwardly projecting members.

5. A display system according to claim 4 wherein the upper edge of the side wall of the tray is provided with two said holes so that the tray can engage on the forwardly projecting members of the stand in either of two opposing orientations;

6. A display system substantially as any described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

7. A tray for a display system according to any one of the preceding claims, having two opposing side walls, the upper edges of the side walls each being provided with means for engagement with a respective said forwardly projecting member to removably support the tray thereon.

8. A tray according to claim 7 wherein each side wall is of inverted U-cross-section with the base of the U forming said upper edge of the side wall.

9. A tray according to claim 7 or claim 8 wherein the side walls each form a sleeve which can be slidably mounted on one of the forwardly projecting members on the stand.

10. A tray according to claim 7, claim 8 or claim 9 wherein the upper edge of the side wall is provided with a hole for engaging an upwardly projecting portion of the forwardly projecting member.

11. A tray according to claim 10 having two said holes in the upper edge of the side wall, to enable the tray to engage reversibly on the upwardly projecting portion.

12. A tray according to any one of claims 7 to 11, folded from board material.

13. A tray according to any one of claims 7 to 11, vacuum or heat formed from plastics material.

14. A tray substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings,.

15. A package comprising a tray according to any one of claims 7 to 14 filled with merchandise.

16. A package according to claim 15 wherein the merchandise is in the form of a plurality of boxes in the tray.

17. A blank of foldable board material arranged for forming a tray according to claim 12.

18. A blank of foldable board material substan tially as described herein with reference to Figure 2 or Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.