Seal for art display frames of wood

The present device, in a preferred embodiment, is a flexible plastic strip which is formed to be substantially in the shape of the letter L. The flexible plastic strip is shaped so that it can sit on the rabbet of a frame which displays art, such as a picture frame. The plastic strip is secured to the inside wall and the ledge of the wooden frame so that moisture and/or tiny life forms, such as tiny insects or larvae, which normally reside in the wooden frame cannot penetrate the seal and do damage to the art work. The plastic strip is flexible so that it can be cut and used with any shape of wooden frame such as an oval shaped frame, a rectangularly shaped frame, or the like.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
It is well understood by the general public as well as those skilled in the 
art of framing, that wooden frames used to display pictures, or crewel 
work, or dried flowers, and the like, are the most popular types of 
frames. It is also well understood by those skilled in the art of picture 
framing, that wooden frames contain residual acids and/or tiny life forms, 
such as tiny insects or larvae. In the prior art the residual acids have 
emanated from the wooden frames and have entered into the air, in the 
chamber, between the art work and the glass piece through which the art 
work is viewed. Such acidic vapors have acted to cause the art work to 
turn brown and ultimately to disintegrate. Some attempts have been made to 
overcome the (residual) acidic vapor problem. One such attempt has been to 
"dry out" the wooden frames but such a technique has been costly and 
unsatisfactory from the standpoint that the wooden frames have lost their 
natural appeal due to the drying out process. A second attempt has been 
employed which involves making the display frames from metals such as 
aluminum, which of course have no residual acid. With respect to the 
problem of resident tiny life forms, an attempted solution has been to 
fumigate the wood so as to kill either the insects or the larvae. Again, 
such a procedure is costly and in fact it has not always been effective 
because in some cases even after fumigation tiny life forms have appeared. 
The present invention permits the person doing the framing to employ wood 
in its natural form, (i.e. without either fumigating or drying out the 
moisture) while yet preventing harm to the art work by sealing the art 
work against permeation by liquids, gases, and/or vapors as well as 
permeation by the tiny life forms found resident in the wooden frames. 
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE 
In accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present device, a strip 
of acrylic material is formed to substantially resemble the letter "L". 
The strip of acrylic is flexible so that it can be bent and shaped into 
many configurations and therefore can be used with rectangularly shaped 
frames, oval shaped frames, circular frames and the like. The "L" shaped 
strip is employed in an "L" shape form so that the base or short extension 
of the "L" shaped strip sits in abutment with the ledge, or rabbet, of the 
wooden frame. In addition, the elongated section of the "L" shaped strip 
is in abutment with the inside wall of the wooden frame. The "L" shaped 
strip is secured to the ledge and the inside wall by an adhesive material, 
preferably a pressure sensitive adhesive. Since the strip is fabricated 
from a material which is impervious to liquids, gases or vapors, no 
liquids, gases or vapors emanating from the inside walls or the ledge can 
pass through the "L" shaped strip into the air chamber between the art 
work and the viewing glass or viewing piece. Accordingly there is no 
damage to the art work because of the presence of damaging liquids, gases, 
or vapors. It is also true that because the "L" shaped strip is fabricated 
of material that does not permit any tiny life forms to pass through, the 
art work is not damaged by tiny life form activity.

Consider FIG. 1. In FIG. 1 there is shown an "L" shaped sealing strip which 
provides the seal between the inside wall and the ledge of a wooden frame 
and the art work which that wooden frame is employed to display. Wooden 
frames traditionally have been made of basswood, oak, pine, ramin wood, 
poplar, mahogany, and maple although other forms of wood have been used. 
Wooden frames made of such woods have a residual acidic content therein 
and such residual acid emanates over a period of time from such woods to 
enter into the air which is trapped between the viewing piece, such as the 
glass piece, and the art work which is to be shown. Such wooden frames 
have traditionally had a inside wall 13 as shown in FIG. 2 and a ledge or 
rabbet, 15 as shown in FIG. 2. The viewing piece, usually glass, normally 
comes to rest on the ledge 15. Separating the viewing piece from the art 
work has traditionally been accomplished by employing a mat. In more 
recent times, a device called "INNERSE" (which is a registered 
trademark of the present inventor) has been used to provide a separation 
device between the viewing piece or glass piece, and the piece of art. In 
any event, whatever may be used to separate the viewing piece from the 
piece of art causes a chamber of air to exist between the viewing piece 
and the art work per se. Very often it has been the case that the piece of 
wood, such as wood 17 in FIG. 2, has contained residual acid and/or tiny 
life forms such as insects or larvae. When the art work has been mounted 
within the wooden frame, in the prior art, the residual acids have 
emanated from the wood such as the wooden frame 17 in the form of liquids, 
or gasses, or vapors and/or the tiny life forms have migrated to the air 
chamber. Those acidic forms have served to brown or burn out the art work 
and the tiny life forms have done damage and of course that is a very 
undesirable situation. In accordance with the present invention, the 
acrylic strip 11, shown in FIG. 1 and in FIG. 2, is employed to seal off 
the wooden frame from the chamber created between the viewing piece and 
the art work as well as directly from the art work itself. In the 
preferred embodiment the thickness 19 of the "L" shaped strip is 20 mils, 
however other thicknesses could be employed. The "L" shaped strip 11 is 
made into an "L" shape so that the base 21 can come to rest against the 
ledge 15 while the elongated section 23 can come to rest on the side wall 
13. Now it should be understood that the 20 mil "L" shaped strip can be 
cut along such lines as the dashed line 25 to shorten the length of the 
acrylic strip 11 if a shortened length should be so desired. In addition 
the acrylic strip 11 can be cut along the dashed line 27 if indeed the 
side wall of the wooden frame is shorter than the standard length of the 
elongated section 23. In the preferred embodiment the length 23 is 5/8ths 
of an inch while the width of the base section 21 is 3/16 of an inch. 
Obviously other lengths of the elongated section and widths of the base 
section could be employed. 
FIG. 2 shows the "L" shaped strip resting on the rabbet or the ledge 15 and 
being in abutment with inner wall 13. The "L" shaped acrylic strip is 
secured to the inner wall and to the ledge 15 by adhesive and in the 
preferred embodiment that adhesive is a pressure sensitive adhesive such 
as 3M Type 465 adhesive, so that the picture framer can relocate the "L" 
strip if in fact when it is first positioned it is not in the proper 
position. It should be understood that the "L" shaped strip 11 could be 
secured to the side wall and to the ledge by some more permanent adhesive 
if so desired. 
The "L" shaped strip is fabricated from acrylic material in the preferred 
embodiment although other forms of plastic or ceramic material could be 
employed provided such materials are impervious to liquids, gases and 
vapors and are impervious to tiny life forms such as insects and larvae. 
In the preferred embodiment I have employed acrylic because of its great 
flexibility and the fact that it can be recut into various sizes to 
accommodate different frame configurations. 
FIG. 3 depicts a rectangular frame 29 displaying a house 31 as art work. 
The dashed line shown around the rectangular frame 29 is shown to depict 
that there is a ledge 15 and that the ledge 15 is holding the base 21 of 
the "L" shaped strip away from the viewer of FIG. 3. The viewing piece 33 
which is likely to be a piece of glass, or clear plastic, is resting upon 
the base 21, actually upon the surface 35 shown in FIG. 2. Separating the 
viewing piece 33 from the art work 31 is accomplished by INNERSE 
separators or a mat of some kind. 
FIG. 4 depicts an oval shaped frame 35 which is displaying the art work 
(i.e. art work 37). Similarly to that which was discussed in connection 
with FIG. 3, the ledge 38 is depicted to lie within the dashed line 39. 
Resting on the ledge 38 is a base section 21 of the "L" shaped strip which 
has been formed into an oval shape. It should be understood that the "L" 
shaped strip could be made up of a number of sections of "L" shaped strips 
to completely seal the rabbet and inside wall of any particular frame. In 
FIG. 4 the viewing piece 41 is resting on the surface (which is similar to 
the surface 35 in FIG. 2) of the "L" shaped strip. Lying between the 
viewing piece 41 and the art work 37 could be some INNERSE separators 
to hold the art work away from the viewing piece 41. The "L" shaped strip 
is fitted into the oval shaped frame 35 in a fashion similar to the way 
the "L" shaped strip is fitted into the frame piece 17. The "L" shaped 
strip serves to keep the destructive acidic vapors or tiny life forms from 
entering the space defined by the INNERSE separators. 
FIG. 5 depicts a circular frame 43 whose ledge 45 is defined by the dashed 
line 47. Mounted on the ledge 45 and on the inner wall of the frame 43 is 
an "L" shaped strip which has been formed into a circle. The "L" shaped 
strip is secured to both the ledge 45 and the inside wall of the frame 43. 
As was mentioned earlier the "L" shaped strip can be a plurality of "L" 
shaped strips which fit together to seal off the inside wall and the ledge 
of the circular frame 43. In the circular frame of FIG. 5, the viewing 
piece 49 is separated from the art work 51 by INNERSE separators or by 
a mat and again the chamber defined by the INNERSE separators is held 
free of acidic contamination or contamination by tiny life forms by the 
"L" shaped sealing device. 
The "L" shaped sealing device 11 can be either in integral form, that is 
having the base section integral with the elongated section 23 or can be 
formed of two pieces by having the base section 21 represent one piece and 
the elongated section 23 representing a second piece. By having the "L" 
shaped strip formed integrally, into an "L" shape it enables the framer to 
more readily place the strip into position on the ledge and the inside 
wall. However, it should be understood that, in the discussion herein and 
in the claims, a reference to an "L" shaped strip means that it could be 
two pieces, or one piece, or many pieces, to provide a sealing effect by 
the material secured to both the ledge 15 and the inner wall 13 as 
depicted in FIG. 2.