GB2149745A - Display card - Google Patents

Abstract

A display card for packets contains slits, each of which define an upwardly-directed first tongue 47a having a second tongue 47b which extends from its free end and which is also upwardly-directed. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Display card This invention relates to display cards such as are used to support articles for sale and is concerned particularly with display cards of the kinds used to support packets, e.g. in the form of sealed bags containing nuts or other snackfoods. Such display cards consist essentially of a sheet of heavy card containing a number of slits arranged in rows and columns, each slit being shaped so as to define one or more tongue-like members for retaining one of the bags or packets, the flattened upper part of which is folded over the tongue like member and is thus held in the slit. The invention also relates to an article of manufacture, consisting of a display card according to the invention having attached to it the appropriate number of such packets.

Cards of the kind to which the invention relates are intended to be displayed in a vertical position, usually by being suspended by means of a central hole made in the card adjacent its upper edge or by being supported in other ways, e.g. by means of a foldable rear bracket which enables the card to stand upright upon a bar or counter. One or more of the packets can be removed as desired, by pulling their flattened upper parts out from the supporting slits. The many requirements which must be met by such cards include the ability to support the packets reliably throughout the period of use of the card and to allow one or more packets to be easily removed, without dislodging or damaging the remaining ones and without damaging the packets as they are removed.

Many different shapes of slit have been proposed and used in the past, including simple straight horizontal slits defining tongues which point or face downwardly and slits defining tongues which face upwardly. Cards with straight slits or with downwardly-directed tongues are disclosed, for instance, in US-A-1785496 and GB-A1362998. In general, it is preferable for the slits in the cards to be shaped so that they define upwardly-directed tongues, because this allows the flattened upper parts of the packets to be gripped firmly within the slits by being folded over the tongues. Slits defining simple upwardly directed tongues are disclosed, for instance in US-A1940078, which shows rectangular tongues, and in GB-A-1492742, which shows trapezoidal tongues.

Display cards are also known, which have slits of more complex shapes. Examples of these are disclosed in GB-A-1492743 and GB-B-2055741, where the slits not only define first tongues which are upwardly-directed, but also second tongues which are downwardly-directed, each second tongue facing and cooperating with one of the first tongues in holding a packet for display purposes. Provision of an oppositely-directed second tongue, formed by shaping the slit appropriately, has the advantage of improving the firmness of attachment of the packets to the display card, because the packet can be folded over the first tongue and then the second tongue can be made to overlie and thus hold the folded part of the packet.It has now surprisingly been found, in accordance with the present invention, that firm attachment can also be obtained if each slit not only defines an upwardlydirected first tongue, but also a second tongue, which in contrast to the secondary tongues of the prior art is also upwardly-directed.

In order that the invention may be readily understood and appreciated, display cards are described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, which shows various shapes of slit, including an embodiment of a display card according to the invention. In the accompanying drawing: Figures 1 to 3, comprising Figures 1A and 1B, Figures 2A to 2D and Figures 3A and 3B, show various types of slit shapes according to the prior art; Figure 4 shows part of a display card according to the invention, including a number of the preferred shape of slit, for receiving and supporting packets.

Figure IA shows a V-shaped slit 10, such as disclosed in US-A-1785498, the two straight parts 11 of which are at a right-angle or at a somewhat greater angle. Fig. IB shows a slit 2, such as disclosed in GB-A-1362998, comprising an aligned pair of spaced straight parts 13 connected by a central curved V-shaped part 14. The tongues defined by the slits in both of these prior disclosures are downwardly-directed when the display cards containing them are placed in an upright position.

Figure 2A shows a rectangular slit 15, such as disclosed in US-A-1940078, comprising a straight "horizontal" part 16, i.e. parallel to the base of the display card containing examples of the slit 15, and this straight part 16 is joined at each end to a vertical or near-vertical side part 17. Fig. 2B shows a trapezoidal slit 18, such as disclosed in GB-A1492742, in which a straight horizontal part 19, like the part 16 in Fig. 2A, is joined at each end to a distinctly inclined side part 20, so that the resulting tongue is wider at its base than at its top. Fig. 2C shows a modified rectangular slit 21, which is generally similar to the slit of Fig. 2A, but which has, instead of a straight central part, one which is slightly upwardly curved, this arched or curved part 22 being joined at each end like the part 16 in Fig. 2A, to a vertical or near-vertical side part 23.

Fig. 2D shows an improved form of slit 24, comprising a straight horizontal part 25 shorter than the width of the tongue formed by the slit 24, a pair of vertical or near-vertical side parts 27, inclined side parts 26 joining the straight part 25 to the side parts 27 and reversely inclined side parts 28 joined to the side parts 27; the slit 24 thus forms a flattened laterally-symmetrical octagon, the lower horizontal side of which is where the tongue defined by the parts 25, 26, 27 and 28 of the slit 24 remains joined to the display card itself.

The tongue formed by the slit 24 is a significant improvement over simple downward tongues such as those produced by the slits 10 and 12 of Figs. IA and IB and simple upward tongues such as those produced by the slits 15, 18 and 21 of Figs. 2A to 2C, especially in relation to how it grips a packet folded over it; this greater effectiveness is presumably due to the presence of the inclined parts 28 and the fact that the tongue is wider than the base joining it to the remainder of the card. Fig. 3A shows a complex slit 29, such as disclosed in GB A-1492743, in which two opposite side parts 30 are joined by a continuous wavy part having two crests 31 united by a trough 32.Fig. 3B showed a modified form of complex slit 33, such as disclosed in GB-B-2055741, in which two aligned spaced parts 34 parallel with the base of the display card and the bottom of the resulting tongue are joined, at their ends, to vertical or near-vertical side parts 35 and, in the centre, by a reverse curved part 36.

The slits 29 and 33 can be derived by notionally combining a slit such as that shown in Fig. IB with the slit 18 or the slit 15, shown in Fig. 2B and Fig.

2A respectively. The tongues formed by the slits 29 and 33 thus are complex shapes, consisting of a first upwardly-directed tongue and a second downwardly-directed tongue formed where the slit 29 or 33 assumes a re-entrant shape and, in effect, thereby removes from the first tongue a small part of the card and creates the second tongue from it.

Downward tongues such as illustrated in Fig. IA and 18 are unable to hold packets adequately, especially when the cards are displayed in an upright condition and the packets are removed one at a time over a long period. The more complex shapes of upwardly-directed tongues, such as illustrated in Figs. 2D, 3A and 3B are effective to hold packets securely. Ali the shapes of slit illustrated by Figs.

2A to 2D and Figs. 3A and 3B have in common that the resultant tongues consist wholly or predominantly of an upwardly-directed shape attached to the background area of the whole display card by a lower horizontal part which enables the tongue to be bent awây from the plane of the background part, whereby the flattened part cf a packet can be folded over the uppermost part of the tongue and then held securely as the elasticity of the card causes the tongue to return to the plane of the background part. The tongue can be pressed back into or through this plane to increase the security of attachment of the packet to the card. The shape of the slit 24 shown in Fig. 2D is especially effec tive in this way.The smaller secondary and down wardly directed tongues formed by the complex slits 29 and 33 of Figs. 3A and 3B can be made to overlie the folded parts of the packets so as to as sist in their attachment to the display card. All the shapes shown in Figs. 2A to 2D, 3A and 3B have in common the feature that the slit includes a straight or curved part or two straight or curved parts which are aligned, located furthest from the root of the tongue, i.e. the unslit part of the card at the base. The horizontal line containing this part or parts thus forms an upper edge to the tongue over qhich the flattened packet can be folded.

The display card of the invention has one or more slits in it which are of a shape which runs counter to the many forms of the prior art, in that each slit contains this same feature, namely a spaced pair of aligned edges parallel to the root of the tongue, but also contains a secondary tongue which could be expected to prevent the packet from being effectively folded over the upper edge, because this secondary tongue is attached to the primary tongue along this edge. The succession of various forms of slit in the prior art, such as illustrated by the examples shown in Figs. IA to 3B, could suggest that the addition of an upright secondary tongue would negate the purpose of an upright primary tongue, but this has not been -ound to be so, in practice.

A portion of a display card according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention is shown at 40 in Fig. 4. Four similar slits 41, rL'pre- senting parts of two of the rows and columns of such slits 40, are shown. The broken line 42 in the lower right-hand part represents a packet having its upper portion flattened and attached to the card 40 by being folded over the tongue formed by the slit 41.

As shown at the left-hand part of the Figure, the slit 41 consists of a spaced pair of aligned straight parts 43 parallel to the base 46 of the card 40, each joined at its outer end to a vertical, near-vertical or slightly inclined side part 44. The straight parts 43 are joined together by an upwardly-curved or arched part 45. The ends of the slit 41, namely the lower portions of the side parts 44, define the root of the tongue 47 so formed and this lies along a line 48 shown chain-dotted at the right-hand side of Fig. 4 for the upper one of the slits 41. The straight parts 43 lie along a line 49, shown doubledotted, and the part between the lines 48 and 49, shown hatched in Fig. 4, can be regarded as the primary upright part 47a of the tongue 47.It is generally similar to the tongues shown in Figs. 2A, 2B and 2C and ignoring the curved part 36) the tongue shown in Fig. 3B. The part of the tongue 47 above the line 49, shown cross-hatched in Fig. 4, can be regarded as a secondary upright part 47b, attached to the primary part 47a. In use, packets such as that shown at 42 can be attached manually or mechanically to the card 40 in the appropriate way, so that the flattened upper part of each packet 42 is inserted into one of the slits 41, by being folded over the edges of the tongue 47 furthest from the root lying on the line 48. As the composite tongue 47a, 47b returns to the plane of the card 40, the slit 41 traps the flattened part of the packet 42 and holds it securely. Although the secondary tongue 47b prevents the flattened part of the packet 42 from folding over along the line 49, i.e. about the parts 43, secure attachment is attained in a manner which is an improvement over that given by a straight-edged tongue lacking an upwardly-directed secondary tongue, such as those shown in Figs. 2A to 2C.

The invention thus consists in an improved dis play card containing one or more slits defining composite tongues comprising a primary upward part carrying a secondary upward part, thus ex cluding any downwardly-directed part as decribed in relation to Figs. 3A and 3B, the composite tongues of the invention having the features described in relation to and illustrated by way of ex ample in Fig. 4; the invention further consists in the combination of such a display card and an array of articles attached thereto; the invention also consists in the methods of manufacture whereby display cards of the invention are made by stamping or otherwise providing the appropriate forms of slit in background members such as card or paper board and whereby the completed display cards are formed ready for use by attachment of packets to the cards by manual or mechanical insertion into the receiving slits defining the composite tongues; such attachment is assisted by the features of shape of the slits, whereby the tongues and the background member adjacent the tongues can partly overlie portions of the packets held within the slits; where the secondary tongues described and shown in Fig. 4 are formed with an arcuate upper edge by reason of the shape of the part 45, the display card of the invention can also be made with secondary tongues of different shapes, such as rectangular or trapezoidal, and the primary tongues can also be differently shaped, provided the shape allows for attachment of the selected form of secondary tongue to the selected form of primary tongue and both are directed upwardly in relation to the base of the display card.

Claims (9)

1. A display card for detachably supporting and displaying packets, a part of a packet being inserted into a slit made in the card, wherein each slit is shaped so as to define an upwardly-directed first tongue and, extending from it, a second tongue which is also upwardly-directed, whereby a packet inserted into the slit can be attached to the card by being folded downwardly over the edges of the first and second tongues.

2. A display card according to claim 1, wherein the first tongue includes a spaced pair of aligned edges.

3. A display card according to claim 2, wherein the second tongue is located between the spaced pair of aligned edges.

4. A display card according to claim 2 or 3, wherein the pair of aligned edges are parallel to the base of the card and the first tongue also includes vertical or inclined edges joined to the outer ends of the aligned edges.

5. A display card according to claim 3 or claims 3 and 4, wherein the second tongue is defined by an up wardly-curved or arched edge.

6. A display card according to claim I, substantially as described with reference to Fig. 4 of the accompanying drawing.

7. A display card as defined in any preceding claim, having a plurality of the slits arranged in rows and columns.

8. A display card according to claim 7, having packets, for instance sealed bags of snackfoods, attached to some or all of the slits.

9. A method of attachment of a packet to a display card as defined in any of claims 1 to 7 which comprises bending the first and second tongues away from the plane of the card, inserting a packet into the thus opened slit and returning the tongues to the plane of the card with part of the packet folded over the upwardly-directed edges of the tongues.