GB2458932A - A system for and a method of marking a pedestrian surface - Google Patents

Abstract

A system of line marking of a pedestrian surface such as to create a standard or alternative sports court or pitch, comprising one or more lengths of resilient flat tape (10) having at its respective ends one part (11) of a two-part fastener, and one or more anchor members (13) each having a corresponding other part of the two-part fastener. The anchor members (13) are placed removably or permanently on the surface and the lengths of tape are stretched onto the anchor members thus to provide visible marking of the surface. A standard tennis court, for example, may thus be converted into one or more smaller courts such as for training purposes.

Description

A SYSTEM FOR AND METHOD OF LINE MARKING A PEDESTRIAN SURFACE

Pedestrian surfaces, particularly sports surfaces, may be marked out to define a playing area such as a tennis court, or to provide marked out areas to control movement of pedestrians, for example Such marking is usually of a permanent nature and carried out by painting or otherwise permanently marking the surface.

An object of the present invention is to provide a system for and method of temporarily marking a pedestrian surface, which, however, may be permanent or semi-permanent in use, but in any event is removable or changeable as required It is essential that any marking material placed on the surface shall not present a trip hazard to pedestrians.

According to the present invention, a system for line marking a pedestrian surface comprises at least one length of resilient flat tape having on at least one face thereof, one part of a two-part fastener, and at least one anchor member having thereon the corresponding other part of the two-part fastener The system may include a plurality of lengths of the tape, each having at both ends said one part of the two-part fastener, at least one of the anchor members being adapted to receive and fasten adjacent ends of two or more lengths of tape.

The two-part fastener may be hook and loop fastener.

At least one end of each of two or more lengths of tape may have an additional part of the two-part fastener thus to enable lengths of tape to be attached end-to-end The tape may be an resilient narrow fabric which when stretched to a predetermined extent remains flat The anchor members may be removably attachable adhesively to a pedestrian surface.

The anchor members may be removably attachable to a pedestrian surface by hard fixings such as screws or nails The anchor members may be permanently attachable to a pedestrian surface The system may include sufficient lengths of the tape and sufficient anchor members to enable line marking of the surface to create a standard sports court or pitch The end regions of the or each length of tape may have additional fasteners to enable the respective ends of the tape to be attached together for storage According to a further aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of line marking a pedestrian surface comprising the steps of providing at least one length of resilient flat tape having on at least on face thereof, at both ends, one part of a two-part fastener, providing at least one anchor member having thereon the corresponding other part of the two-part fastener, attaching the anchor members to the pedestrian surface at a predetermined position stretching the tape to reach the position of the attached anchor member and attaching, with the respective parts of the two-part fastener, the stretched tape to the anchor member and thus to the pedestrian surface.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figs I a and 1 b illustrate opposite faces respectively of a length of resilient flat tape having, in end regions thereof, one part of a two-part fastener; Figs 2a and 2b illustrate how lengths of the tape may be attached to anchor members, Figs 3a to 3d illustrate how lengths of the tape may be attached together end-to-end, Figs 3e and 3f illustrate how the tape may be adapted for storage; Fig 4 illustrates a standard tennis court, Fig 5 illustrates how lengths of tape and respective anchor members may be used to adapt a standard tennis court to provide one or two smaller courts, and Fig 6 is a view similar to Fig 5 but showing how a standard tennis court may be adapted to provide four smaller courts Referring now to Figs la and ib, a length of visually evident, resilient flat tape, for example an elasticated woven or knitted polyester stretch fabric 10 has, in opposed end regions on one face of the tape, a pair of pads 11 being one part of a two-part fastener such as hook and loop fastener. The pads 11 may be attached adhesively or sewn to the tape 10 Fig lb illustrates how on an opposed face of the tape 10 at one thereof there is similarly attached a pad 12 being the other part of hook and loop fastener Preferably, though not exclusively, the pads 11 are the looped part while the pad 12 is the hooked part. If required, a pad 12 may be provided at each end of the tape 10 on the face thereof opposite that to which the pads 11 are attached.

Figs 2a and 2b illustrate an anchor member in the form of a pad 13 of the other (preferably hooked) part of the two-part fastener Fig 2a illustrates four lengths of tape removably attached to the pad 13, while Fig 2b illustrates two lengths of the tape 10 attached to and extending from the pad 13 mutually at a right angle Quite obviously the lengths of tape 10 may be attached to the pads 13 in any configuration as required by the intended marking.

The anchor members 13 may be adhesively attached to the surface, if appropriate according to the nature of the surface, or permanently, or semi-permanently attached by hard fixings such as spikes, screws or nails Referring now to Figs 3a to 3d, if appropriate, lengths of tape 10 may be attached together end-to-end without the use of an anchor pad 13, the pads 11 and 12 on the respective tapes being attached one to the other thus to provide an extended length of tape The extension lengths lOa may be provided only with pads 12 thus to be attached to respective lengths of tape 10 at their opposed ends Alternatively, all lengths of tape may have both pads 11 and 12 as illustrated in Figs 3b and 3d Referring now to Fig 3e, for storage each length of tape may be coiled as illustrated Alternatively, as shown in Fig 3f, each length of tape may be folded as illustrated, preferably with mutually attachable fastening means at each end of the length of tape Typically, the tape 10 is of a width in the range of 5mm to 150mm and is of a material which when stretched to a predetermined extent remains flat, ie, it does not curl up at the edges The degree of stretch, while remaining flat, may be, for example, to an additional 65% of its relaxed length depending upon the properties of the material The elasticity of the material should be such, while ensuring that the stretched tape remains flat, as not to place excessive stress on the anchor members or pads 13 The elasticity depends upon the quality and width of the material selected An example of the use of a system for line marking in accordance with the invention will now be described with reference to adaptation of a standard tennis court as illustrated in Fig 4, the overall length of which is in the region of 24 metres with a width of some 11 metres Within the perimeter A of the court lengthwise are parallel lines B some 8 metres apart, while either side of the central net C and parallel thereto are lines some 6 metres from the net A central line E divides the court widthwise.

Referring now to Fig 5, where the standard court is illustrated by dotted lines 14, one or two smaller court areas are created, for example for training purposes, by four tapes lOb each stretched, for example, from a relaxed length of 5.5 metres to a length of 9 metres and attached by anchor points 13 to the surface of the court, and two lengths lOc each stretched from a relaxed length of 5 metres to a length of 8.23 metres to form base lines whereby a pair of smaller courts are created one on each side of a centre line 15 which may be provided either by the existing net or by an additional length of tape equivalent to the lengths lOc This newly marked out area may thus provide a single, shorter and court utilising the central net, or two smaller playing areas each of which would then require an additional net, as illustrated by dotted lines 16.

Referring now to Fig 6, it will be seen that a standard tennis court, again illustrated by dotted lines 14, may be extended to provide four playing areas 17 or a shorter, wider court about the net 15 In this case the new court is made up of six lengths of tape 1 Od each stretched from 5 5 metres to 9 metres in length and two lengths lOe each stretched from 8 metres to 13 metres It will be appreciated that the system may comprise a set of tapes of different lengths which may be wound on drums or coiled, or folded, together with appropriate numbers of anchor members 13, the system being easily stored, transported and laid out as required In the case of very long tapes, additional pads 11 may be provided between the ends of the tape and adapted, when the taped is stretched, to attach to appropriately placed anchor pads 13 It will be further appreciated that the system may be used for the marking of any surface either to create a marked out sports area or simply to provide line marking to divide a surface into different areas such as may be required, for example, for temporarily marking an area to control pedestrian movement While hook and loop fastener is suitable for most purposes, nevertheless this may be replaced by hard fixings such as screws, nails, hooks etc, while the lengths of tape are preferably removably attached to the anchor members whereby the marking can be readily removed, thus providing an entirely portable marking system The tape may be self-coloured to provide visual contrast with respect to the surface to which it is to be applied and it may be provided with graduated or other surface markings The system may include several such tapes having respectively different markings thus to differentiate certain marked areas from others.