AU695456B2

AU695456B2 - Advertising sign

Info

Publication number: AU695456B2
Application number: AU20159/97A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Michael Rogers
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1995-11-16
Filing date: 1997-05-09
Publication date: 1998-08-13
Anticipated expiration: 2016-11-18
Also published as: AU2015997A

Description

i: i P00011 Regulation 3.2

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act, 1990

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT TO BE COMPLETED BY THE APPLICANT NAME OF APPLICANT: MICHAEL ROGERS ACTUAL INVENTOR(S): ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: MICHAEL ROGERS Peter Maxwell Associates Level 6 Pitt Street SYDNEY NSW 2000 ADVERTISING SIGN INVENTION TITLE: DETAILS OF ASSOCIATED PROVISIONAL APPLICATION NO(S): The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me:r II -a r n I- C~X~ 2 The present invention provides an advertising sign that may be easily displayed and stored when attached to a roller door.

In many situations, advertising signs are desired to be displayed above entrances of doorways and the like, that are closed by roller doors.

Hitherto, in order to display a desired sign within a doorway it had to be manually attached to the top of the doorway and when the doorway was to be closed, the sign had to be manually detached from the top of the doorway and stored. This process is time-consuming, labour intensive and may be unsafe if the signs desired are heavy or difficult to handle.

The object of the present invention is to eliminate the timeconsuming, labour intensive and unsafe processes applied in displaying and storing signs on roller doors. It is a further object of the invention that the sign may be stored without folds forming within it.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an advertising sign assembly for attachment to a roller door, said assembly including a flexible sign of generally planar form having a top edge and a bottom edge, means for attaching the top edge at or adjacent to the bottom of the roller door and means for securing the bottom edge of the sign so that the bottom edge is spaced from the plane of operation of the roller door and upwards of the lowermost position of the closed roller door.

Preferably, the bottom edge securing means allows variable vertical movement of the bottom edge and allows the roller door to be closed without folds forming in the sign.

In a preferred form of the invention, the assembly further includas means of attachment for an additional sign or any similar article, the said means of attachment comprising a channel portion formed in a rod 3 connected to the bottom edge of the sign, so that the said additional sign or article may be displayed beneath the fully displayed advertising sign.

In order that the invention may be more readily understood and put into practical effect, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings in which:- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of an advertising sign assembly according to one embodiment of the invention, when the roller door is open and the sign is being displayed, Fig. 2 shows the sign assembly of Fig. 1 when the roller door is closed and the sign is being stored, Fig. 3 is a perspective view of a vertical strip of the advertising sign assembly of Figs. 1 and 2, and Figs 4A to 4D show schematically the sequence of events during the closure of the roller door.

The advertising sign assembly shown in Figs. 1 to 3 includes a flexible, planar and, in this instance, a rectangular sign 10, having a bottom folded straight edge 11, a top folded straight edge 12, and two side edges 13 and 14. The top edge 12 of the sign 10 is attached to or adjacent to the bottom edge 15 of the roller door 16 and bottom edge 11 of the sign lO is attached to a hollow rod 17. The sign 10 may be made of polyvinylchloride.

The top edge 12 of the sign 10 has a cylindrical rod 50 located in its folded portion so as to provide a stiff edge. The stiff edge is located in and is supported by a C-shaped channel 51 of an elongated track or panel 52.

The panel 52 has a plurality of holes 53 along its length for enabling connection to the bottom edge 15 of the roller door 16.

4 The bottom edge 11 of the sign 10 also has a cylindrical rod 54 located in its folded portion so as to provide a second stiff edge. The second stiff edge is located in a first C-shaped channel 55 extending the entire length of the rod 17, such that the rod 17 is supported by means of the engagement of the second stiff edge in the channel Caps 57 are secured by screws 58 to both ends of the rod 17 so as to close off the hollow cavity within rod 17 from the outside for the purposes of safety and appearance.

Rod 17 has a second C-shaped channel 59 extending its entire length which may receive therewithin a stiff edge member of an additional sign 60 (as shown in dotted outline in Fig. such as a flag, or a fluorescent light or any similar article. The additional sign 60 is thereby attached through its top edge to rod 17 and is allowed to hang freely so as to be visible beneath the fully displayed advertising sign The rod 17 is, in this instance, made of extruded aluminium and has a generally teardrop cross-sectional shape. The C-shaped channels 55, 59 are asymmetrically located about an imaginary midline defining otherwise symmetrical halves of the teardrop shape.

The rod 17 is secured inwardly from the plane of operation of the roller door 16 by a pair of horizontally extending wall brackets with connecting hoops 22 and 23 and by a pair of elasticised cords 24 or any type of semi-flexible line. In this instance, the two hoop brackets 22 and 23 are attached at either side of the roller door 16 on the inside walls approximately halfway up the doorway. The cords 24 may be attached to rod 17 by means of engaging through holes 25 at either end of the rod 17, as shown in Fig. 3, thus allowing the rod 17 to be mobile in the vertical plane. Each cord 24 has a snap-on connection 61 at its other end for releasable attachment to its respective hoop bracket 22 and 23. The cords 24 maintain the sign 10 under sufficient tension to avoid significant flapping in the wind.

The operation of the invention is shown in Figs. 4A to 4D. When the sign 10 is to be displayed fully, the roller door 16 is opened and the rod 17 is in its uppermost position with its adjoining cord 24 stretched upwards as can be seen in Fig. 4A.

When the roller door 16 is in the process of closing, as shown in Fig.

4B, the cord 24 is slackened and the rod 17 starts to longitudinally roll about a horizontal axis in a direction shown by arrow A which is determined by the weight distribution of the freely hanging rod 17, now that it is unrestrained by cord 24. As the roller door 16 is lowered and the rod 17 remains hanging only by the sign 10, the weight distribution of the rod 17 (as dictated by its generally teardrop cross-sectional shape and the relative positions of the C-shaped channels 55 and 59) ensures that the sharper edge of the rod 17 rolls downwardly in a direction towards the inside of the doorway, thereby drawing the bottom edge 11 of the sign (attached within channel 55) with it.

By the time that the rod 17 hangs only by the cord 24, as shown in Fig. 4C, the sign 10 is hanging neatly under the rod 17.

When the roller door 16 is lowered completely to its closed position, the sign 10 is, as shown in Fig. 4D, fully inverted.

Whilst the roller door 16 is in the process of being closed, no folds form within the sign 10. Such folds do not form because of the weight distribution of rod 17 when freely hanging from the sign 10 and because of the location of the hoop brackets 22 and 23. The weight distribution enables the sign 10, as the roller door 16 is being lowered, to remain on

A

6 the roller door side of the rod 17, thus not allowing the sign 10 to fold on itself and over the rod 17 as the roller door 16 is being closed. Without the weight distribution provided by the asymmetrically located or offset channels 55 and 59, there is a probability that the sign 10 may fall to the furthest side of the rod 17 when the roller door 16 is being closed and hence lead to folds forming in the sign 10 and to the fouling of the closing operation, which, without manual intervention, will prohibit full closure of the roller door 16.

The above described operational sequence is reversible by the opening of the roller door 16 so as to display the sign In a further preferred embodiment, a plurality of elastic straps may be connected at spaced apart intervals adjacent to the bottom edge 15 of the roller door 16 and used to secure and store the sign 10 (after it has been rolled up into generally cylindrical form) against the bottom edge In order to roll up the sign 10, the cords 24 must of course be first disconnected from the bracket hoops 22, 23. Storing the sign 10 in this manner enables the roller door 16 to be opened without displaying the sign Various other modifications may be made in details of design and construction without departing from the scope or ambit of the invention.

IL-

Claims

1. An advertising sign assembly for attachment to a roller door, said assembly including a flexible sign of generally planar form having a top edge and a bottom edge, means for attaching the top edge at or adjacent to the bottom of the roller door and means for securing the bottom edge of the sign so that the bottom edge is spaced from the plane of operation of the roller door and upwards of the lowermost position of the closed roller door.

2. The advertising sign assembly of claim 1 wherein the bottom edge securing means allows variable vertical movement of the bottom edge and allows the roller door to be closed without folds forming in the sign.

3. The advertising sign assembly of claim 1 or claim 2 and further including means of attachment for an additional sign or any similar article, the said means of attachment comprising a channel portion formed in a rod connected to the bottom edge of the sign, so that the said additional sign or article may be displayed beneath the fully displayed advertising sign.

4. The advertising sign assembly of claim 1 wherein the sign is made of polyvinylchloride.

The advertising sign assembly of claim 1 wherein the means for attaching the top edge at or adjacent to the bottom of the roller door comprises a cylindrical rod located in a folded top portion of the sign so as to provide a stiff top edge, the stiff top edge being located in and being ft 8 supported by a C-shaped channel of an elongated panel, the panel having a plurality of holes along its length for enabling connection to the bottom of the roller door.

6. The advertising sign assembly of claim 1 wherein the bottom edge of the sign comprises a cylindrical rod located in a folded bottom portion of the sign so as to provide a stiff bottom edge, the stiff bottom edge being located in a first C-shaped channel of a support rod.

7. The advertising sign assembly of claim 6 wherein the support rod has a second C-shaped channel which is adapted to receive a stiff edge member of an additional sign.

8. The advertising sign assembly of claim 7 wherein the support rod has a generally teardrop cross-sectional shape and the first and second C- shaped channels are asymmetrically located about an imaginary midline defining otherwise symmetrical halves of the support rod.

9. The advertising sign assembly of claim 8 wherein the means for securing the bottom edge of the sign so that the bottom edge is spaced from the plane of operation of the roller door comprises a pair of horizontally extending wall brackets, to each of which is connected a first end of an elasticised cord, the other second end of which is connected to the support rod. 14 An advertising sign assembly for attachment to a roller door, said assembly being substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to any one of the accompanying drawings. Dated this 7 day of May 1997. MICHAEL ROGERS Patent Attorneys for the Applicant PETER MAXWELL ASSOCIATES a r' I i I ABSTRACT An advertising sign assembly includes a flexible sign (10) of generally planar form that can be attached to a roller door (16) so as to hang therefrom when the roller door (16) is open. The sign (10) has a top edge (12) attached by suitable means (50, 51, 52, 53) to the bottom of the roller door and has a bottom edge (11) attached by suitable means (54, 55) to an asymmetrical cross-section rod The rod (17) is secured by flexible cords (24) to hoop brackets (22, 23) fixed to the inside walls at opposite sides of the roller door (16) in such a way that the bottom edge (11) is spaced from the plane of operation of the roller door and upwards from the lowermost position of the roller door (16) when closed.