WO1996034378A1

WO1996034378A1 - Display device

Info

Publication number: WO1996034378A1
Application number: PCT/EP1996/001501
Authority: WO
Inventors: Catherine Kuhn
Original assignee: European Technology 92
Priority date: 1995-04-24
Filing date: 1996-04-06
Publication date: 1996-10-31
Also published as: LU88602A1; AU5276896A

Abstract

The invention concerns a display device in the form of a casing (12) with a display window (18) and winding means inside the casing (12) for winding up and unwinding flexible posters (26) such that they can be presented in succession behind the display window (18). The posters (26) are wound up on individual rollers (24), which are preferably removable, and the winding means can unwind the posters (26) from their rollers (24) individually according to mutually spaced parallel unwinding planes. The rollers (24) are mounted horizontally in the casing (12) and each poster (26) is secured by a first edge to its respective roller (24), the opposite edge of the poster (26) being free and provided with a load (28) such that it can unwind by gravity.

Description

Display device

The present invention relates to a display device for successively displaying several posters. This device finds its application in particular in the field of advertising or in the field of road signs. Display devices are known, in which the posters are fixed end to end on a support tape to form a strip of great length comprising several posters in series.

This strip can be an endless strip which is stretched between two rollers. At least one of the rollers can be rotated so that the strip unrolls continuously, respectively discontinuously, behind a viewing window. The posters then scroll successively one after the other behind this window. It can also be a strip of limited length, the ends of which are wound on two rollers. Such a device is described for example in the international patent application WO 89/03570.

Devices are also known for successively displaying several posters, which include a prism-shaped support. The posters are attached to the different faces of the prism which is rotated.

However, all of these devices have the disadvantage that, when viewed, the posters scroll behind the window in a predetermined order by their attachment. Consequently, if the display sequence does not correspond to this predetermined order, for example if it is desired to display two non-neighboring posters successively, the strip must be rewound at high speed so as to skip the intermediate poster or posters. The objective of this invention is to provide a display device for two or more posters, which makes it possible to present the posters successively while offering complete freedom in the choice of the display order as well as in the duration of passage of the posters. posters. This objective is achieved by a display device which comprises a box with viewing window and winding means in said box for rolling up and unrolling flexible posters so as to present them successively in front of said viewing window, and which is characterized in that said posters are wound on individual rolls which are preferably removable and said winding means are capable of unwinding said posters from their rolls individually according to parallel unwinding planes spaced apart.

Since the posters are each rolled up on its own roll, no display order is henceforth predetermined. Indeed, the system offers complete freedom of choice of order as well as the duration of presentation of the posters. In their rolled up position, the posters are in a retracted position and are invisible from the outside. To display a poster, it is unrolled from its roll and thus extends in an unwinding plane which is parallel to the viewing window. In its fully extended position, the poster is therefore visible behind the viewing window.

Once the exposure time for a poster has elapsed, it is rolled up again, while another poster is unrolled in its display position. Thanks to the offset of the poster unfolding plans, these movements can be carried out synchronously. Thus a poster can even remain unrolled, and therefore visible, while others carry out ascent and descent in the background, which allows in particular to create dynamic animations thanks to cutouts or transparent areas in the posters. Another advantage of the invention is that the posters are easily exchangeable. To replace one poster with another, simply replace the respective roll with a roll containing another poster. It is therefore not necessary to replace all the posters at once. The rolls supporting the exchange posters can be prepared in the display workshop, which considerably reduces the time required for exchange on site. By transporting the posters in their rolled up state on their roll respectively, the risk of damage to the posters is considerably reduced, for example by creases and folds.

The rollers are advantageously mounted horizontally in the housing, and each poster is fixed with a first edge to its respective roller, the opposite edge of the poster being free and provided with a load so as to take place by gravity. This load exerts a pulling force on the poster, which facilitates a controlled unfolding of the poster and keeps the latter constantly under tension, which promotes the flatness of the posters in their unwinding plan.

In a preferred embodiment, the winding means comprise a mounting device capable of receiving said rolls interchangeably. To this end, the mounting device preferably comprises, for each roller, two axially spaced shafts, each shaft being provided with a first coupling half, and each end of the roller being provided with a second coupling coupling capable of cooperating with said first coupling of the respective shaft, when the roller is inserted between the two shafts.

The two half-couplings of the roller preferably have oblique contact surfaces arranged so as to form a wedge which fits between the oblique contact surfaces of the half-couplings of the two shafts, so that when it is inserted between the two shafts, the roller exerts, thanks to the wedge effect produced by the oblique surfaces, an axial thrust on the two shafts. One of the two shafts can then be moved axially against an elastic means under the effect of this axial thrust. It follows that the roller is, in the assembled position, resiliently embedded between the two shafts, which in particular makes it possible to compensate for slight differences in length of the rollers and thermal expansions of the latter.

At least the coupling half on the motor shaft side comprises male / female elements which can be engaged perpendicularly to the axis of rotation when the roller is inserted. These male / female elements transmit a motor torque to the roller. Each shaft is preferably associated with a cup capable of fitting the coupled half-couplings of the shaft and of the roller, so as to align and lock the roller in the axis of rotation defined by the two shafts. These cups are for example mounted on the shaft so as to be able to slide between an advanced position and a withdrawn position. An elastic means pushes them into the advanced position, and blocking means make it possible to block them in the withdrawn position, so as not to hinder the insertion or extraction of the roller.

By this roller mounting system, the exchange of the rollers becomes an easy and fast operation which requires no tools. It will be more particularly appreciated that the exchange of rolls of great length can be done by a single person who can grasp the roller to be exchanged in the middle.

In order to further facilitate the exchange of the rollers, the display device comprises means for moving the device for mounting the rollers inside the housing between a display position at the top of the housing and a mounting position. and disassembly of said rollers at the bottom of the housing. This possibility of lowering the roller mounting device facilitates accessibility to the rollers. Indeed, a display device quite often has a height of a few meters. By lowering the mounting device inside the housing, the disassembly of the rollers can be carried out at a significantly reduced height. This of course also increases the safety of the person responsible for exchanging the rollers.

According to another embodiment, each poster can be fixed to its roll using a leader strip which can be wound on the roller, the poster being detachably fixed with a first edge to a first edge of the leader strip and the leader strip being fixed with a second edge, opposite the first edge, to the respective roller.

The priming strips, which are located between the posters and the rollers, allow the tent to further reduce the mounting height of the posters. In fact, after having lowered the mounting device into its mounting and dismounting position, the rollers are often at a fairly high working height high above the ground. By unrolling the poster and the leader strip which is upstream of the poster, the upper edge of the poster comes to a height which allows access from the ground. We can therefore replace the poster with another without having to climb a ladder. It is obvious that at this time, it is no longer necessary for the rollers to be removable, since only the posters are exchanged and not the rollers and the priming strips fixed to the rollers. If the height of the panel is not too high, the mounting device must no longer be movable in height. It then suffices to provide a starter strip of such a length that the upper edge of the poster can be lowered from the top of the panel to a working height accessible from the ground.

A preferred embodiment of the invention is described with the aid of the appended figures. These show:

Fig. 1: a schematic perspective view of an advertising panel, FIG. 2: a vertical section seen from the side of an advertising panel with a display device according to the invention in its display position, FIG. 3: a side view of an advertising panel with a display device according to the invention in its mounting position, FIG. 4: a schematic rear view of the panel (without the faces of the housing), FIG. 5: a longitudinal section through a mounting device for a roller according to the invention.

Figure 1 shows a perspective view of a display device 10 as it finds its application in particular in the field of advertising or in the field of road signs. This device 10 comprises a housing 12 mounted on a stand 14. The housing comprises at the front a viewing window 18, behind which are presented posters. This front face of the housing is preferably designed as a door 16 which can be lifted from below to gain access to the interior of the housing 12.

Inside the housing 12, (Figure 2) this device 10 includes a mounting device 22 for six removable rollers 24. On each of these rollers 24 is wound a flexible poster 26. It is clear that the number of six rollers 24 is only one possible embodiment, and that any number of rollers 24 and posters 26 could be provided.

The mounting device 22 is located at the top of the housing 12, so as to be invisible from the outside through the window 18. On this mounting device 22 the rollers 24 are mounted horizontally and parallel to the front face of the panel . The rollers 24 therefore extend perpendicular to the plane of Figure 2 and are therefore parallel to each other. Each roller 24 is mounted so that it can rotate independently around its longitudinal axis. The assembly is carried out by a coupling system, described below, which allows an easy exchange of the rollers 24.

Each of the posters 26 is fixed with an edge (its upper edge) to its roller so that it can be wound thereon by a rotary movement of the roller 24. Wound on their respective roll 24, the posters 26 are thus in a retracted position and are invisible from the outside. To display a poster 26, it is unrolled from its roller 24, thus extending in an unwinding plane which is parallel to the viewing window 18. In its fully unrolled position, the poster is therefore visible behind the window display 18 of the housing 12.

On its lower edge, each poster 26 is provided with a load 28, for example a load in the form of a metal bar. This load 28 exerts by its weight a tensile force on the poster 26, which facilitates the unfolding thereof. In addition, the posters 26 are thus kept under tension, which guarantees their flatness in their unwinding plan.

When the exposure time of a poster has expired, it is rewound again and another poster is unrolled in the display position. In order to be able to carry out these movements synchronously, the rollers 24 are arranged so that they are capable of unwinding the posters 26 individually according to parallel unwinding planes spaced apart (FIG. 2). Thus a poster can remain unrolled, and therefore visible, while others carry out ascents and descents in the background, which makes it possible to create dynamic advertising, for example using cut-outs or transparent films in posters.

To save space inside the housing 12, it is advantageous to place the rollers 24 vertically in two rows around a central unwinding channel, so that the horizontal distance between the axis of a roll 24 and the median plane of the unwinding channel decreases in each row from the upper roller to the lower roller. This naturally implies that two rollers located on either side of the central unwinding channel must rotate in opposite directions. In order to facilitate the exchange of posters 26, it is possible to move the mounting device 22 supporting the rollers 24 vertically from a display position at the top of the housing 12 (Figure 2) to a mounting position at the bottom of housing 12 (Figure 3). To do this, the mounting device 22 is mounted in the housing using two vertical guide rails 30, fixed laterally in the housing 12 (see also Figure 4). Such a guide rail can for example comprise two angles or a U-shaped profile. The mounting device 22 slides in these vertical guide rails 30 by means of rollers 32 arranged on each side of the mounting device 22. In the Figure 4 we see that the movement of the mounting device 22 between the upper display position and the lower mounting position of the rollers 24 can for example be done using a manual winch 34, comprising a crank arranged in the foot 14 of the display device and a drive cable 36 connected to the mounting device 22 passing through several sheaves 38. It is however clear that this vertical movement of the mounting device 22 in the housing 14 could also be motorized.

Referring now to Figure 5. The mounting device 22 comprises two parallel support plates 40, oriented vertically and having between them a distance greater than the length of the rollers 24. These plates 40 extend from the rear of the panel , where they are guided in the guide rails 30 using the rollers 32, towards the front of the panel. These plates of support 40 support the rollers 24 using a coupling system allowing easy exchange of the rollers 24.

Such a coupling system for a roller 24 is shown in longitudinal section in FIG. 5. It comprises on one side a motor shaft 42, to be coupled to a first end of the roller 24, and on the other side a compensating shaft 44, to be coupled to a second end of the roller 24. These shafts 42 and 44 are mounted in the support plates 40, so that their axes of rotation coincide. Their mounting in the support plates 40 is advantageously carried out using ball bearings 46, which are mounted in sleeves 48 fixed to the support plates 40 by screws.

A first coupling half 58 is fixed to each end of the roller 24. A second coupling half 60 is fixed, for example welded, to the internal front face of each shaft 42, 44. These coupling half are for example dog dogs / females 58, 60 capable of engaging perpendicularly to the axis of rotation to produce a coupling capable of transmitting a torque. The dogs 58, 60 preferably have the form of discs, the front faces of which are oblique surfaces with respect to a plane perpendicular to the axis. The oblique surfaces defined by the dogs 58 of the roller 24 are more precisely arranged so as to form a wedge which comes to be embedded between the corresponding oblique surfaces defined by the dogs 60 of the two shafts 42, 44, so that during its introduction between the two shafts 42, 44 the roller exerts, by virtue of the wedge effect due to the oblique surfaces, an axial thrust on the shafts 42, 44.

A fixing cup 50, 52 is mounted on each shaft 42, 44 so that it can slide between an advanced position and a withdrawn position. The two end positions of the cups are illustrated in Figure 5: the cup 50 is in the withdrawn position and the cup 52 is in the advanced position. The inside diameter of each cup 50, 52 is substantially equal to the outside diameter of the two dogs 58, 60, so that the cup can fit, in its advanced position, the two dogs 58 and 60 coupled and thus to center the roller 24 in the axial arrangement of the two shafts 42, 44. Each of these cups 50, 52 is preferably subjected to the action of a spring 56 embedded between a collar 54 of the shaft 42, 44 and the fixing cup 50, 52, so as to push the latter in the direction of its respective forward position.

The dogs 60 supported by the shafts 42, 44 are preferably provided on their periphery with projecting elements, for example pins 62. These pins 62 are capable of engaging in axial grooves 64 of the cup, during movement axial of these in their advanced position (see cup 52 in Figure 5). However, in the withdrawn position the cups 50, 52, which are subjected to the action of the springs 56, can be locked behind the pins 62, for example by turning the cup a quarter of a turn so that the pins 62 are no longer aligned with their respective grooves 64 (see cup 50 in Figure 5). It will be noted that the oblique surface of the dog clutch 60 is entirely clear of the cup 50 when the latter is blocked behind the pins 62. The compensating shaft 44, which faces the motor shaft 42, is axially displaceable in its bearing 46 To this end, it comprises a splined shaft 66 which is slidably housed in a bush 68 with internal splines mounted in the inner ring of the ball bearing 46. On the side of the roller 24, a cylindrical sleeve 70 surrounds the splined shaft 66 so as to serve as a slide for the cup 52. The spring 56 surrounds the sleeve 70 and bears on one side against the collar 54 of the latter and on the other side on the cup 52. On the bearing side 46, the sleeve 70 has a cylindrical housing 72 in which is housed a second spring 74. This spring is supported on one side on the sleeve 68 and on the other side on the sleeve 70, so as to push the dog 60 from the compensator shaft 44 axi alement in the direction of the clutch 60 of the motor shaft 42. At its free end, the splined shaft is provided with a stop 76. This stop 76 serves as a stop for the splined shaft 66 when the roller 24 is removed, thus preventing the splined shaft 66 from coming out of the bushing 68. It will be noted that in this end position of the splined shaft 66, the distance between the dogs 60 is just enough to introduce the roller 24 towards the corner formed by the oblique surfaces of the dogs 58 in the cuneo space shape delimited by the oblique surfaces of the dogs 60 (the arrow 80 in FIG. 5 represents this direction of insertion of the roller 24).

As the roller enters between the two dogs 60 of the shafts 42, 44, the compensation shaft is pushed, by virtue of the abovementioned wedge effect, against the action of the spring 74. The latter is compressed and exerts an axial elastic reaction which pushes the roller against the fixed clutch 60 of the motor shaft.

When the roller is aligned on the axis of the two shafts, the two cups which were held in the withdrawn position by the pins 62 are released, by aligning the pins 62 with the grooves 64 of the cups 50, 52. The coupel¬ les 50, 52 are then pushed by the springs 56 above the pairs of dogs 58, 60 coupled to lock the roller in the axis defined by the two shafts 42, 44.

Similarly, to disassemble the roller 24, the cups are moved from their advanced position to their withdrawn position and are stopped in this position by a quarter rotation. Then the roller 24 is removed perpendicular to the axis. The coupling system is ready to receive the replacement roller with a new poster.

It is obvious that the display device according to the invention is not limited in its use to a stationary display panel, as described above, but that it also finds its application in advertising vehicles.

Claims

claims

1. Display device comprising a box (12) with viewing window (18) and winding means in said box (12) for winding up and unwinding flexible posters (26) so as to present them successively- behind said viewing window (18), characterized in that said posters (26) are wound on individual rolls (24) which are removable and said winding means are capable of unwinding said posters (26) from their rollers (24) individually according to parallel unwinding planes spaced apart.

2. Display device according to claim 1, characterized in that said rollers (24) are mounted horizontally in the housing (12) and in that each poster (26) is fixed with a first edge to its roller (24) respective, the opposite edge of the poster (26) being free and provided with a load (28) so as to take place by gravity.

3. Display device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that said winding means comprise a mounting device (22) capable of receiving said rollers (24) interchangeably.

4. Display device according to claim 3, characterized in that said mounting device (22) comprises for each roller (24) two shafts (42, 44) spaced axially, each shaft (42, 44) being provided with a first coupling half (60), and in that each end of the roller (24) is provided with a second coupling half (58) capable of cooperating with said first coupling (60) of the shaft (42, 44 ) respectively when the roller (24) is inserted between the two shafts (42, 44).

5. Display device according to claim 4, characterized in that the two half-couplings (60) of the roller (24) have oblique surfaces arranged so as to form a wedge which comes to be embedded between corresponding oblique surfaces of the half-couplings (58) of the two shafts (42, 44), so that when it is inserted between the two shafts (42, 44), the roller (24) exerts an axial thrust on the two shafts (42, 44).

6. Display device according to claim 5, characterized in that one of the two shafts (44) is axially displaceable against the action of an elastic means (74).

7. Display device according to claim 6, characterized in that the axially displaceable shaft (44) comprises a splined shaft (66) sliding in a bush (68) with internal splines which is mounted in a roule¬ ment (46 ).

8. Display device according to any one of claims 4 to 7, characterized in that one of the shafts of each roller (24) is a motor shaft (42) driven by a drive means.

9. Display device according to claim 8, characterized in that said two half-couplings (58, 60) on the motor shaft side (42) comprise male / female elements which can be engaged perpendicularly to the axis of rotation and capable of transmitting a couple.

10. Display device according to any one of claims 4 to 9, characterized in that each shaft (42, 44) is associated with a cup (50, 52) capable of fitting the half-couplings (58, 60) coupled to the shaft (42, 44) and the roller (24), so as to center them on the axis of rotation defined by the two shafts (42, 44).

11. Display device according to claim 10, characterized in that each cup (50, 52) is mounted on the shaft (42, 44) so as to be able to slide between an advanced position and a withdrawn position and is subjected to the action of an elastic means (56) which pushes it into said advanced position.

12. Display device according to claim 9, characterized in that each cup (50, 52) is provided with at least one axial groove (64) and each half-coupling (60) associated with a shaft (42, 44 ) is provided with a projecting element (62) which can be engaged in said groove (64) during movement axial of the cup (50, 52) in its advanced position, said projecting element (62) cooperating with the cup (50, 52) to block it in its po¬ sition removed after a rotation misaligning said axial groove (64) and the projecting element (62).

13. Display device according to any one of claims 10 to 12, characterized in that the half-coupling (60) fixed to the end of the water wheel (24) is a male dog in the shape of a disc, in that the coupling half (58) fixed to the shaft (42, 44) is a female dog in the form of a disc, and in that the external diameter of the dogs (58, 60) is substantially equal to the internal diameter of the cup (50, 52).

14. Display device according to any one of claims 3 to 13, characterized by means for moving said mounting device (22) of the rollers (24) inside said housing (12) between a display position at the top of the housing (12) and a mounting and dismounting position of said rollers (24) at the bottom of the housing (12).

15. Display device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that each poster (26) is fixed to its roller with the aid of a primer band which can be wound on the roller, the poster (26 ) being detachably fixed with its first edge to a first edge of the leader strip and the leader strip being fixed with a second edge, placed on the first edge, with the respective roller (24).