GB2208425A - Display lighting apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

Cable display apparatus consists of a plurality of vertical cables 10 (flexible cables or rods) on which display devices (shelves 12 and 13, box 14, sloping panel 16, vertical panel 15) are supported. Some or all of the cables are energized with a low voltage from a transformer, and lighting units such as unit 25 (an internally lit vertical display panel) and 26 (which illuminates panel 16 below it) are attached to and energized through the cables. The cables may be energized via a pair of mounting strips, or via a single mounting strip with two conductors in it. Various forms of single or double cantilevered lights may be used. A TV or the like (not shown) in the display may be energized by a step-up transformer. <IMAGE>

Description

D is p la y ityLlt Apparatus The present invention relates to display apparatus, and more specifically to such apparatus incorporating lighting means.

Display apparatus is apparatus which supports display material, such as merchandise and descriptive placards, in an attractive way. It is often desirable or essential for such apparatus to be free-standing and unobtrusive - that is, not supported by a wall or panel. One known form of such apparatus is the cable or rod system, in which a plurality of thin steel cables or rods extend vertically, with shelves and/or display panels attached to them. The cables may be mounted on a free-standing frame or between floor and ceiling, and the shelves and panels themselves are generally of glass or clear plastic.

It is also often desirable for the display material (merchandise and/or descriptive placards) to be illuminated. This is generally done by means of lights (e.g. spotlights) which are separate from the display apparatus, being fixed to adjacent solid surfaces such as floors, walls, or ceilings.

There is a need for a more effective form of lighting which is combined more closely with the display apparatus. The general object of the present invention is to provide a cable display apparatus incorporating lighting means.

Cor brevity, the term "cable" alone will be used, but it will be understood that rods are included within the scope of this term.) Accordingly the present invention provides cable display apparatus comprising a plurality of vertically extending cables supporting insulating shelves and/or display panels and like, with a low voltage being applied to the cables and lighting units attached to and powered through the cables.

The cablesare preferably arranged,in e linear or rectangular pattern. It is possible to energize only those particular cables to which the lighting units are connected. It may however be desirable to energize all the cables in one line of the pattern, or the whole of the pattern, so that lighting units can be attached between any adjacent pair of cables. This is achieved by connecting the cables alternately (either along the line or in both directions through the rectangular array) in two groups to which the two sides of the supply are respectively connected.

The cables may be attached individually to a floor and ceiling (or to brackets projecting from a wall or to a free-standing unit) which are of generally insulating nature; in this case, connections may be made to each individual cable for applying the low voltage. The connections may often be concealed beneath carpeting or above a false ceiling. (A false ceiling will generally be of low strength, so the cables will normally need to be attached to the true ceiling and thus will pass through the false ceiling). In some circumstances, however, the preferred method of mounting the cables is by attaching them to mounting strips (which are generally formed as metal extrusions) at one or both ends. In this case, the mounting strip or strips may be used to provide one or both connections to the cables.

Specific embodiments of these and further features of the invention will be described in more detail, by way of example, with reference to the drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is a general view of a cable display apparatus with lighting units; Fig. 1A is an enlarged view of a device mounting element; Fig. 2 is a wiring diagram for the apparatus of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is an end view of several lighting units on a cable; and Fig. 4 is an exploded view of one of the lighting units of Fig. 3.

Fig. 1 is á general view of a cable display apparatus, with twelve cables 10 arranged in an L-shaped rectangular array. Each cable is stretched between a floor fixing 11 and a similar ceiling fixing (not shown). Various display shelves, panels,? and the like are attached to the cables; thus there are two shelves 12 of different lengths each held by four cables, a longer shelf 13 held by six cables, a box 14 of glass or plastics material, a vertical panel 15, and a sloping shelf 16. These display devices are fixed to the cables by device mounting elements 17. Fig. 1A shows the simplest form of such element, comprising a metal cylinder or slug 20 with a radial tapped bore 21 extending to its axis and a longitudinal slot 22 also extending to its axis and intersecting the bore.The slug can be pushed onto the wire so that the wire lies along its axis and a screw (not shown) can then be screwed into the bore 21 to hold the element 17 firmly on the wire. The shelves 12 and 13 may rest on the elements 17, being provided with short slots near their corners through which the cables pass. The elements 17 may also be provided with portions (not shown) designed to hold particular display devices such as the box 14.

The apparatus also includes two lighting units 25 and 26, each attached between two adjacent cables 10. Unit 25 is a light box" - an internally illuminated vertical display panel which is intended to have a transparency mounted on its front face (and optionally another one on its rear face). It consists essentially of a flat box of translucent plastics material containing a low voltage fluorescent tube (which is preferably folded or zig-zag, to give a more uniform illumination of the faces of the box) and four integral device mounting elements, with the two top (or bottom) ones connected to the tube.

Unit 26 is a lighting unit for illuminating the sloping shelf 16, and consists essentially of an opaque housing of insulating material in which an incandescent or fluorescent lamp is mounted and which forms a reflector, and has two integral device mounting elements connected to the lamp.

The cables to which the two lighting units 25 and 26 are energized via the cables 10. The two lighting units therefore provide internal illumination in the light box 25 and illuminate the shelf 16. The cables 10 serve the dual functions of supporting the display devices 12 to 16 and 26 and energizing the lighting units 25 and 26 (unit 25 being not merely a lighting unit but also a display device).

The cables are energized with an AC supply voltage of 12 V; obtained from a mains transformer 31. A voltage of 12 V is convenient, being low enough to be safe but high enough to energize the lighting units 25 and 26 without excessive resistance loss in the cables and other connections. The system is preferably fused for relatively low power, less thAn 100 W, particularly if flexible cables rather than rigid rods are used. This is because if higher power is allowed, the system cannot discriminate reliably against a short circuit between points at the other ends of two cables from the ends to which the power is connected. If the lighting units re substantially closer to one end of the cables, it is also desirable, all other things being equal, to feed the cables at that end.

The cables 10 may be copper plated, made of copper alloy, or made with one or more strands of copper wire if the resistance of the normal steel cables is excessive. They may also be made with a thin coating of plastics material of relatively low strength, which will insulate them against casual contact with metal objects which might produce short circuiting but will be readily crushed and pierced by the tightening of the screws of device mounting elements such as that shown in Fig. 1A.

If the cables 10 are fixed individually to an insulating floor and ceiling, e.g. of wood or concrete, individual connections are made to each. Such connections are preferably concealed beneath carpeting or above a false ceiling, if such is in use (with the cables passing through it to fixing points on the true ceiling). The cable mountings 11 themselves are preferably wholly metallic.

An alternative method of mounting the cables of cable display apparatus is to provide a mounting strip at one or both ends of the cables. Usually, though not necessarily, when this method is employed the cables are arranged in a single line rather than a rectangular pattern, and the display devices are flat vertical panels. Such a mounting strip consists of a C-section extrusion, and the cables have their ends attached to terminations which will slide into the mounting strip and be held therein. This method is used where it is inconvenient or impossible to fix each cable individually to the floor and/or ceiling.

If two mounting strips are used, then for present purposes two types of cable terminations are preferably utilized, one conductive and the other insulating. Each cable has an insulating termination at one end and a conducting termination at the other, and each cable has its orientation reversed from the adjacent one. Thus the cables are connected to the floor and ceiling mounting strips alternately. The low voltage is applied to the two mounting strips.

It may be desirable to provide also a modified insulating cable termination to which a connecting wire may be attached. By providing this type of termination on, for example, the floor end of, the first cable in the apparatus, that cable may be used as the supply connection to the upper mounting strip. A second wire would be attached to the adjacent end of the lower mounting strip, and the two wires from the transformer would thus run together, one ending at one end of the lower mounting strip and the other passing a short distance into that mounting strip to the modified insulating termination of the first cable.

If a single mounting strip is used, then it may be provided with two internal conductors running along its length on insulating supports. A single design of cable termination is utilized in conjunction with this, in which there is a insulated connection therethrough from the cable to a contact element on one side of the termination inside the mounting strip. By inserting each cable termination into the mounting strip the opposite way round from the previous one, the cables are connected to the two internal conductors alternately. (This is similar to lighting strips in which a plurality of lights are slidable along the strip, though in such strips each light contacts both conductors, while in the present system each cable termination contacts only one of the two conductors.) The transformer is of course connected to the two internal conductors at one end of the mounting strip.

Fig. 2 shows another way of energizing the cables 10, enabling the lighting units to be connected between any two adjacent cables. The cables form a rectangular pattern1 and connections 30 are made between them so that they form two sets, with any adjacent pair of cables being in opposite sets and all diagonally opposite cables being connected together into the same set.

A further way of energizing more than two cables is to provide connections between cables by means of metal strips forming part of a display panel. Thus a rectangular display panel supported by four cables may be provided with metal strips along two sides, each metal strip being formed integrally with the two device mounting elements between which it stretches. If each strip is attached to one cable which is directly energized, the other cable to which the strip is connected will be energized via the strip. By extending this technique, or otherwise, the cables may all be energized 60 that all those in a given line are in the same set.

The lighting devices used in the present cable display system may take a variety of forms. Fig. 1 shows two such forms, a vertical light box 25 and a simple lighting unit 26. It is obvious that a sloping or horizontal light box may also be proyided, and that a light,may be incorporated in, for example, the box 14. Fig. 3 shows, in end view, several possible forms of lighting unit, including lighting unit 26 as the simplest. Lighting unit 40 is an elaboration of unit 26 in which a symmetrically balanced pair of sloping shelves 42 are attached to the central portion 41, whi.h is substantially identical to unit 26.

This unit 40 is intended to be lit from above by a similar unit or unit 26, and to light a similar unit below. Several such units may be arranged in a column (the bottom unit of a column of such units will not normally contain a lamp).

Lighting unit 45 is a symmetrically balanced unit in which two tubular lamp housings 47-1 and 47-2 are supported by a pair of U-shaped arms 46 with the cable 10 attached to them at their midpoints. The housings 47 have openings as indicated, and the unit is intended to illuminate both sides of a vertical diplay panel (not shown) fixed beneath it. Lighting unit 49 is similar to unit 45, but is not symmetrical, having only one housing 47, and- the two arms 46 are L-shaped. The unit is balanced by means of a pair of counterweights 48 one on each arm 47.

Fig. 4 is a top exploded view of the lighting unit 49, which is adjustable for different cable spacings and for different distances between the cable 10 and the housing 47. As shown, the arms 46 each consist of a straight rod section 50, an L-shaped tubular section 51, and a further straight rod section 52 fixed to the lamp housing 47. In Fig. 3, the various lighting units are all shown as being fixed to the cable 10 by means of mounting elements 17. In the unit shown in Fig. 4, however, the rod section 50 has a slot 53 and a threaded bore (not shown), so that there is no distinct mounting element portion. The counterweights 48 are push fits on the rods 50, and the rods 50 and 52 are push fits in the ends of the tubular sections 51.The size of the assembled unit may be adjusted by the extent to which the various components are pushed together, or by manufacturing the components to the maximum desired size and cutting them shorter as desired for smaller sizes. The components 50, 51, and 52 are metal, to provide the necessary current path, while the housing 47 is nonconducting (or insulated from the rods .52).

If the cable spacing and the distance between the cable 10 and the housing 47 are both fixed, then the lighting unit 49 can be constructed in a somewhat simple manner which is visually more attractive, by making each arm 46 of a single bent rod in place of the two straight rods 50 and 52 and the bent tube 51. The countyrweight 48 will then also be located at a fixed position on the arm 46, and so may be permanently fixed to it.

If a television or other apparatus requiring a mains voltage supply is carried on a display panel, it may be energized f 'om two energized cables via a step-up transformer. It may be desirable for such a transformer to incorporate some form of voltage regulation or to produce a nominal voltage above normal mains voltage, to compensate for the voltage loss which is likely to occur in the 12 V transmission path between it and the mains transformer 31.

Claims (10)

C leki m EB

1 Cable display apparatus comprising a plurality of vertically extending cables supporting insulating shelves and/or display panels and like1 with a low voltage being applied to the cables and lighting units attached to and powered through the cables.

2 Cable display apparatus according to claim 1 wherein all the cables along a line, or in both directions through a rectangular array, are connected alternately in two groups to which the two sides of the supply are respectively connected.

3 Cable display apparatus according to either previous claim wherein the cables extend between two conductive mounting strips, each cable having an insulating support at one end and a conductive support at the other.

4 Cable display apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the supply is connected directly to one mounting strip and to the other mounting strip via a connection to a cable.

5 Cable display apparatus according to either of claims 1 and 2 wherein the cables extend from a mounting strip carrying two internal conductors to which the cables are alternately connected.

6 Cable display apparatus according to any previous claim wherein at least one connection between cables is formed by means of a metal strip forming part of a display panel.

7 Cable display apparatus according to any previous claim including a lighting unit consisting of an internally illuminated display panel.

8 Cable display apparatus according to any previous claim including a lighting unit consisting of an opaque housing of insulating material in which an incandescent or fluorescent lamp is mounted and which forms a reflector, and has two integral device mounting elements connected to the lamp.

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9 Cable display apparatus according to any previous claim including a mains voltage device fed by a step-up transformer fed from the cables.

10 Cable display apparatus substantially as herein described and illustrated.