GB2206229A - Advertising panel for motor vehicles - Google Patents

Abstract

An advertising panel 10 for a motor vehicle can be releasaby mounted on a door 2 of the vehicle and includes a smooth outer surface 14 for carrying thereon advertising material. The panel may be hooked over the leading and trailing edges of the door with the hook (s) at the trailing edge being adjustable. It is shaped to fit over the bump bar 8 of the door and may be provided with a backing of rubberised plastics, polyurethane foam or rubber peripheral strip. <IMAGE>

Description

IMPROVED ADVERTISING PANEL FOR MOTOR VEHICLES This invention relates to advertising panels for motor vehicles and has particular, though not exclusive, application to such panels suitable for attachment to the doors of company registered cars.

There are currently over 5 million company registered cars in the United Kingdom, with each vehicle being a potential source of advertisement for the-owner. It is wellestablished that applying a firm's name and/or service to the side of a motor vehicle is an extremely effective means of advertising, because it is highly visible, it is low cost and it is presented to an ever-changing audience.

However, the current methods of car side advertising each suffer from a number of serious disadvantages.

It is well-known to use magnetic signs mounted on the side of a vehicle. Such signs are limited in size, are restricted to the flat surface of a car door, are easily removed or stolen and can come off at high speed. Further, the sales message thereon is permanent and is not easy to up-date, while the cost of such signs is high.

Sign-writing of adverts is a costly exercise initially and even more costly to re-instate, while there is a marked resistance by the representatives or drivers of the cars to use the cars for domestic purposes in view of the permanent nature of the adverts thereon.

Vinyl posters or the like can be adhered directly to the door surfaces, but removal of such adverts often causes damage to the paintwork of the car, as well as sunlight discolouration thereof. Further, most doors of current vehicles incorporate bump bars or the like whereby the flat area for such posters is limited.

It would be desirable to be able to provide an advertising panel for motor vehicles which overcame the above disadvantages and which, in particular, enabled the advertising material to be readily:removed from the vehicle without any damage thereto.

According to the present invention there is provided an advertising panel for a motor vehicle adapted to be releasably mounted on a door of the vehicle and including a smooth outer surface thereto for carrying thereon advertising material or the like.

It will be appreciated that, with such an arrangement, and when it is desired to use the vehicle for domestic, nonadvertising purposes, it is merely necessary to remove the panel and associated advertising material from the door, thus converting the vehicles to an unmarked vehicle.

The panel can extend over the whole of the non-window area of the door whether or not there are bump bars or other shapings on the door. In the former case, the rear of the panel is shaped to fit over said bump bar or bars with the front of the panel still presenting a smooth outer surface for the advertising material, the bump bars assisting in the location of the panel on the door.

The releasable mounting of the panel to a car door may be achieved by means of a plurality of hooks provided on the leading and trailing edges of the panel and adapted to hook over the leading and trailing edges of the door, at least one of said hooks being adjustable to permit initial location of the panel on the door, subsequent adjustment of said at least one hook securing the panel to the door.

Conveniently the panel comprises two fixed hooks on the leading edge thereof and an adjustable hook on the trailing edge thereof, said adjustable hook including adjustment means located inwardly of the outer surface of the panel and accessible from outwardly of said panel.

The inner surface of the panel may be shaped to conform substantially with the outer surface of the associated door, in which case the panel may comprise an outer portion of uniform thickness having said smooth outer surface thereto and an inner portion secured to said outer portion and having an inner surface shaped to conform substantially with the outer surface of the door.

The panel may include a strip of resilient material, such as rubber, extending around the periphery of the inner surface of the panel and adapted to engage the door of the vehicle to space the panel therefrom.

Conveniently the panel is of a rigid plastics material with the fixed hooks bonded into the leading edge thereof.

By way of example only, an embodiment of the invention will now be described in greater detail with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Fig. 1 shows the outer profile of a conventional car door; Fig. 2 is a section through a panel according to the invention attached to the door of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a front view of the panel of Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is an enlarged detail of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a section on the line V-V in Fig. 4, and Fig. 6 is a section through an adjustable hook according to the invention.

Referring to the drawings, Fig. 1 shows the outer profile of a conventional car door indicated generally at 2 and including an upper window portion 4 and a lower body portion 6. The lower portion 6 typically includes a bump bar 8 extending substantially horizontally across the full width of the door, while it is not unusual for a body portion 6 to incorporate additional transverse shapings, primarily for aesthetic purposes, and whereby the outer surface of said body portion is of somewhat irregular shape unsuitable for the application thereto of either magnetic signs or vinyl posters.

The panel of the invention provides a smooth outer surface to the body portion 6 of the door 2.

Referring to Figs. 2 and 3, there is shown a panel indicated generally at 10 and which may be vacuum formed from a plastics material. The panel includes a sheet 12 of uniform thickness having a smooth outer surface 14 thereto and is adapted to be releasably attached to the body portion 6 of the door 2 whereby the irregular profile of said portion 6 is converted to a smooth profile.

The sheet 12 is of slightly convex shape and includes upper and lower edge regions 16,18 angled inwardly of the panel as best seen in Fig. 2, as well as front and rear edge regions 20,22 (Figs. 5 and 6) also angled inwardly towards the door 2, whereby the hollow interior of the panel so formed houses the bump bar 8 and other irregular shapings of the body portion 6 of the door. The front and rear edge regions 20,22 may be recessed to enable passage therethrough of the bump bar 8, the co-operation between said recesses and the bump bar 8 serving to assist in the vertical location of the panel 10 on the door 2.

The panel may include a backing layer of, for example, soft rubberised plastic or the like rearwardly of the sheet 12 having an inner surface conforming substantially with the irregular outer surface of the body portion 6 of the door 2, or the hollow interior of the sheet 12 could be filled with polyurethane foam or the like.

Preferably, however, the rear surface of the panel 10 is provided with a rubber strip around the periphery thereof and adapted to abut the body portion 6 of the door 2 when the panel 10 is in position thereon.

The illustrated panel 10 is provided with a pair of hooks 24 secured inside the front edge of the panel 10 and adapted to hook over the front upright lip 26 of the body portion 6 of the door 2. The panel 10 is also provided with an adjustable hook indicated generally at 28 mounted at the rear edge of the panel and adapted to engage over the rear upright lip 30 of the body portion 6 of the door 2.

More particularly, the adjustable hook 28 comprises a hook member 32 projecting from the panel 10 and mounted on, to be movable with, an externally-threaded shaft 34 behind the panel, said shaft 34 being received within an internally threaded fitting 36 bonded within the panel. The head of the shaft 34 includes a recess 38 therein adapted to receive an AllanZkey or the like which can be inserted through a hole 40 in the rear edge region 22 of the panel 10, rotation of the shaft 34 by the key drawing the hook member 32 over the lip 30 to secure the panel 10 to the door 2.

When in position on the door 2, the panel 10 is rigidly secured thereto and presents a smooth outer surface to the door onto which can be adhered or otherwise attached a variety of advertising material. Alternatively a permanent message may be screen printed onto the panel 10.

The described panel is of a water and weather resistant material that is not susceptible to damage by road grit or other hazards associated with road travel. The panel is designed to be slim enough not to protrude laterally beyond the wheel arches of the associated vehicle'whereby it does not create a hazard to other road users.

The panel is designed to suit the particular shape of the individual vehicle and is fixed to the vehicle in such a way as not to damage the vehicle in any way during fitting or removal - fitting can be achieved in rapid time, typically five minutes or less, while the panel,-when not in use, can be stored in the boot of the car or a garage.

Once fitted, a panel cannot be removed unless the door of the vehicle is open and the hooks can thereby be removed from over the lips 26,30 of the door 2, thus preventing theft of the panels, while the fixing of the panel is such that it cannot come adrift from the door even at high speed.

The panel is of aerodynamic shape such as to prevent undue wind noise during travel at high speed.

The described panels are such as to enable rapid and frequent change of design or advert without undue cost or effort and provide large uninterrupted spaces on which to advertise without the problem of bump bars or other surface irregularities breaking up the available space.

The panels of the invention are such as to enable costly re-instatement of paintwork to be avoided after stickers have been attached to a car door and enable adverts to be displayed by a vehicle without depreciation of the vehicle.

The precise construction of the panel can be altered from that described above without departing from the scope of the invention. For example, there may be two or more adjustable hooks instead of the single hook illustrated, while the means for effecting the adjustability may be other than as shown in Fig. 6, for example a rotatable cam arrangement accessible through a pin hole in the front of the panel. Other modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Claims (7)

1. An advertising panel for a motor vehicle adapted to be releasably mounted on a door of the vehicle and including a smooth outer surface thereto for carrying thereon advertising material or the like.

2. An advertising panel as claimed in claim 1 and including a plurality of hooks provided on the leading and trailing edges of the panel and adapted to hook over the leading and trailing edges of the door, at least one of said hooks being adjustable to permit initial location of the panel on the door and subsequent adjustment of said at least one hook to secure the panel to the door.

3. An advertising panel as claimed in claim 2 and comprising two fixed hooks on the leading edge thereof and at least one adjustable hook on the trailing edge thereof, the or each adjustable hook including adjustment means located inwardly of the outer surface of the panel and accessible from outwardly of said panel.

4. An advertising panel as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 in which the inner surface of the panel is shaped to conform substantially with the outer surface of the associated door.

5. An advertising panel as claimed in claim 4 and comprising an outer portion of uniform thickness having said smooth outer surface thereto, and an inner portion secured to said outer portion and having an inner surface shaped to conform substantially with the outer surface of the door.

6. An advertising panel as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 and including a strip of resilient material extending around the periphery of the inner surface of the panel and adapted to engage the door of the vehicle to space the panel therefrom.

7. An advertising panel for a motor vehicle substantially as described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.