FABRIC FACED BILLBOARD

Abstract: Advertising billboard (10) and various methods of its construction utilizing the basic concept of drawing a sheet of fabric (42) having the advertising message on the front across the rigid billboard panel (18) and then introducing a continuous stream of air or maintaining a continuous pressure between the panel (18) face and the fabric (42) to smooth the fabric (42) into a continuous, slightly curved surface without wrinkles or sag lines.

Description: Descrϊption Fabric Faced Billboard Background of the Invention With the gross advertising budget of this nation being what it is, it is easy to believe that a tremendous amount of money and human energy goes into the production and maintenance of the billboard system across the country. The invention relates specifically to billboards. There are two types of billboards in virtually universal use today. A smaller version, called the "poster" is ten feet high and twenty-four feet long, and may come with a metal frame. Typically, the poster is covered with several panels of paper which are glued to the billboard backing panel. Paper has the advantage that it is capable of mass production and printing processes, but suffers from a couple of major drawbacks. First, even when freshly printed, because the printing process utilizes ink, the resulting poster billboard tends to be dull and colorless compared to the bright, sharp colors available from a painting process. Secondly, the paper ordinarily weathers rather fast and begins fading and peeling. The ink on the poster ages more quickly than does paint. The second industry standard is termed alternatively the "Bulletin", or the "Spectacular". In the event a complex pictoral is represented on the bulletin, printed paper may be used as on the poster. Ordinarily, however, plywood panels are used which are hand painted to produce a durable, clear, and very bright pictoral. From a visual stanφoint, the painted plywood panels are much preferred to the paper. However, from a labor standpoint, these panels are very expensive, both from the production and the deployment stand¬ point. In the case of most plywood billboards, artist's shops across the country are utilized to paint the billboards used in that particular locale. This is done, of course, because since there is no mass production technique that is really practical with the billboards any¬ way, and shipping costs are high, distribution of production to local centers is cheaper than central production. However, one drawback, which may not be major, is the lack of uniformity from one part of the country to the next between billboards and advertising presen¬ tations presented on them due to the diversity of artists. In some occasional instances (for example, large Marlboro billboards which are oversized, being twenty feet tall and sixty feet wide) the plywood panels may be painted in one location by a particularly adept artist and shipped out on location. This is, of O course, very expensive.. Regardless of how the plywood panels are made, once they are delivered to the hanging site, erection of the panels into place requires the use of a crane and ordinarily three men who work three to four hours on the project. This is particularly onerous costwise when it is considered that the panels must be moved and either reinstalled or painted over in a period of several weeks, requiring the same effort for the installation of another billboard. One method that has been tried in order to avoid all or most of these problems has been the use of fabric stretched over the face of a billboard. Fabric has the advantage that it may be printed, painted, or silkscreened, it may be folded and is easy to ship like paper, it is lightweight, but it wilϊ take graphics as easily and as beautifully as does wood. An additional and most desirable feature stems from the fact that billboards of this type can be moved frequently from site to site, resulting in an increased exposure to the public. Unfortunately, experience with fabric has shown that when stretched over the face of a billboard, under action of gravity, the fabric will wrinkle and stretch when exposed to the constant variations of temperature, humidity and precipitation of a billboard environment. For this reason, the use of fabric has been abandoned. Summary of the Invention The instant invention, however, overcomes the problems previously inherent in the use of fabrics or synthetic sheet materials as facing for billboards. The inventor, having a great depth of experience in giant inflatable advertising media, and also being the inventor of Animated Three-Dϊmensϊonal Inflatable Display having U.S. Patent No. 4,271,620, has adapted inflatable technology to a billboard. In essence, the fabric which is imprinted or painted with the adver¬ tising message is stretched across a somewhat special billboard or a modified existing billboard, and a continuous-action blower operating through a hole in the back of the billboard applies a continual pressure to the back surface of the fabric insuring that it holds its shape in a smooth contour rather than wrinkling or sagging in the weather. Special features include the possibility of utilizing lights within the pocket or chamber defined between the billboard and the fabric, the us.e of a three-dimensional inflatable communicating with the air chamber, and special structure utilized to convert an existing billboard for use with the fabric so that it is still usable as a conventional OM?I billboard with plywood or paper. Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 is an isometric view of the billboard with portions of the fabric cut away; Figure 2 is a side elevation view of the blowers mounted .on the back of the billboard panels, the arrow showing direction of air; Figure 3 is a section taken along line 3-3 of Figure 1; Figure 4 is a somewhat diagrammatic side elevation view of the billboard seen from a distance illustrating the relative degree of billowing of the fabric; and Figure 5 is a top elevation view of the billboard. Detailed Description of the Pre erred Embodiment The billboard is shown at 10 with its ground support frame 12, catwalk 14, and front lighting 16. An existing billboard has a flat backing panel 18 supported on the frame 12 and reinforced with a beam border 20 of two-by-fours around its rear periphery. Whatever plywood panels or paper panels are used according to conventional billboard techniques are, of course, applied against the front surface o the backing panel 18, and lit from the front with lighting 16. There is virtually a limitless variety of systems that are conceϊvable to modify this existing billboard structure to accomodate the inflated fabric concept that is the heart of this invention. The one shown utilizes a front rib-like framing member 22 that extends around the entire periphery of the front face of the billboard parallel to the beam border 20 behind the billboard. This rib in the illustrated embodiment is made from two-by-two's fastened with nails 24 through the panel into the back beam border. In a further modification to the existing structure, bores 26 are made at spaced intervals through the beams 20 and are secured in place with bolts 27 having counter sunk nuts 28 so that threaded studs 30 project outside the beam. The actual fabric-gripping dement is a damp bar 32 which is provided in four-foot lengths and engaged over the studs 30 through lateral slots 34 which have identical mutual spacing to that of the studs 30. The forward portion of the damp is a continuous cupped jaw 36 which engages a rope or continuous bead 38 envdoped in the perimeter of the fabric as shown in Figure 3. A second rope 40 is permanently engaged at the very outer edge of the fabric sheet 42 to facilitate handling and positively prevent disengagement of any portion of the sheet from the damp. The damp jaw 36 continuously engages the rope 38 around its entire length of travel, with as many of the four foot damp bar lengths 32 being used as are needed. Once the damp bars are engaged over the ropes 38 and thus the sheets 42, they may be tightened by moving the damp bars rearwardly before tightening down the wing nuts 44 which engages serrations 46 on the damp bars through washers 48. One person can hang the entire sheet in a rdatively short period of time. The sheet, which can be either a woven or a non-woven tough synthetic, for a typically sized fourteen foot by forty-eight foot billboard weighs around forty pounds, and by providing an eydet in each of the upper corners, a single worker can engage these eydets on the respective studs 30 and then working from the center, damp the sheet in, removing the eydets from the studs when damping down those portions of the sheet adjacent the eydets. No crane is needed, nor are several men needed, the cost of whose time, of course, also indudes transportation to and from the billboard site. As best seen in Figure 2, a blower 50 is mounted to the back of the billboard pand by any suitable means so that its continuous operation maintains a pressure within the chamber 54 between the fabric and the billboard pand. This chamber, is ideally no wider f O than about ten to twelve inches at the widest as indicated by arrows 55 in Figure 4 in a billboard that is usually at least ten feet high, so that a substantially flat ront abric surface is maintained as shown in the drawings. Also disposed in this chamber may be mounted lighting means such as flourescent lights 56, which when used with translucent sheet material would provide a very attractive backlighting effect to supplant, or possibly even supplement, lighting from the fixtures 16. Another option would be the incorporation of a three- dimensional inflatable such as cigarette pack 58 which communicates through the opening 60 with the main chamber 54 so that it also is slightly pressurized to maintain its shape. This cigarette pack, of course, is shown as an example only, as there is no limit to the number or complexity of inflatable figures that can be mounted on the ront of the sheet 42 and derive their pressurization from the chamber 54. There are many means of implementing the general concept set forth herein of utilizing a fabric front for a billboard sign or other planar surface by pressurizing a chamber created between the existing billboard panel, or the equivalent, and the fabric. The front rib 22 could be diminated, alternate damp structure could be utilized, variations on blower mounting and positioning and lighting means Q? PI could also be conceived which are intended to be within the scope of the appended daims, which, while daiming the specific features of the instant invention, both as it pertains to means and method of displaying advertising material and means and method of modifying an existing billboard, are not intended to be limited in their broadest sense to the specific implementations of the concept. While I have described the preferred embodiment of the in¬ vention, other embodiments may be devised and different uses may be achieved without departing from the spirit and scope of the appended daims. OI FI

Claims: Claims 1. A display comprising: (a) a flexible sheet defining a message-carrying surface; (b) a support frame and means for mounting said sheet substantially continuously around its periphery to said frame; (e) backing means behind said sheet and together with said sheet defining a substantially endosed chamber; and (d) means for introducing air into said chamber on an ongoing basis at a pressure higher than ambient to billow said sheet away from said backing to tauten same so that said message-carrying surface is generally smoothly deployed and substantially free of surface discontinuities resulting from such effects as sagging, stretching and wind ripple. 2. Structure according to Claim 1 wherein said backing means comprises a rigid planar pand. 3. Structure according to Claim 2 wherein said pand comprises the back board of a billboard and said support frame indudes means supporting said billboard upright over a ground surface. 4. Structure according to Claim 3 wherein said means for mounting said sheet includes a peripheral forward rib framing member defined on said pand and means engaging said sheet around said rib spaced from the front surface of said backboard. 5. Structure according to Claim 4 and including lighting means mounted to said pand in the space defined behind said sheet. 6. Structure according to Claim 5 wherein said lighting means comprises a plurality of upright flourescent tubes. 7. Structure according to Claim 4 and induding a trim cord wrapped in the periphery of said sheet and said means engaging said sheet comprises a damp structure damping said cord through said sheet against said rib framing member. 8. Structure according to Claim 7 wherein said damp structure comprises a series of damp plates bolted to said frame on projecting threaded studs. 9. Structure according to Claim 8 wherein said damp plates span lengths of said rib framing member of on the order of four feet and define lateral slots to engage said studs to effect tension adjustment of said sheet. 10. Structure according to Claim 1 wherein said flexible sheet indudes a two-dimensional planar base member and at least one three- dimensional inflatable mounted to the front thereof and communicating with said chamber. E. Structure according to Claim 1 wherein the periphery of said sheet which mounts to said frame is substantially plane-defining and the widest spacing of said sheet from the plane so defined is on the order of one-tenth the height of said sheet. 12. Structure according to Claim 1 wherein said means for introducing air comprises a blower mounted to and communicating through said backing member. 13. A method of displaying a message comprising the following steps: (a) drawing a sheet with a message displayed on the front thereof around the edges of an upright pand; CM (b) securing said sheet around the edges of said pand to define a pocket therebetween; (d) providing a continuous supply of air at a pressure higher than ambient to said pocket to bDlow said sheet away from said pand to tauten same into a smooth, continuous surface. 14. A method according to Claim 12 wherein said sheet is translucent at least in part and induding the further step of incorporating illuminating means in said pocket to illuminate said sheet from behind. 15. A method of tautening an illustrated sheet of material defining the front of an ϊncompletdy sealed chamber to create a smooth, continuous illustrated surface with no substantial discontinuities or irregularities, comprising the step of continuously ddivering a stream of air at a pressure higher than ambient into said chamber. 16. A method of converting a conventional billboard having an upright panel mounted on a frame into a billboard having a smooth fabric front, comprising the following steps: (a) stretching a sheet with a message on the front thereof around the front of said pand; (b) retaining said sheet to the edges of said pand in generally airtight fashion to define a pocket between said pand and said sheet; (c) continuously introducing air into said pocket to tauten said sheet and diminate discontinuities from the front surface thereof. 17. A method according to Claim 16 and induding the prdiminary step of fastening a rib structural member as a forward border around the front periphery of said pand and drawing said sheet around said rib. 18. Structure according to Claim 17 wherein said billboard defines a rear beam border around the periphery of said pand and step (b) comprises attaching damps to said beam border and damping the periphery of said sheet therewith. 19. Structure according to Claim 18 wherein the attaching of said damps comprises passing a series of bolts out through said beam border with the threaded ends thereof extending as studs, and said damps are engaged thereon through slots in said damps engaged on said studs and retained by nuts. O FI 20. Structure according to Claim 17 wherein said rib structural member comprises a two-by-two stud nailed to said billboard. 21. A method according to Claim 16 wherein step (c) includes the substeps of cutting a hole in said panel, mounting a blower to said panel over said hole, and actuating said blower. 22. Apparatus for adapting a billboard having a planar display pand and a rear peripheral support beam for use as a smooth, surfaced flexible sheet display, comprising: (a) a flexible sheet having a message on the front surface thereof; (b) means for attaching said sheet around the edge of said billboard; (c) a blower, and means for mounting said blower to said pand at a hole cut therein to continuously blow ambient air between said pand and said sheet. 23. Apparatus according to Claim 22 and induding a plurality of dongated members and means to fasten same to the forward face OM of the border of said panel to support said sheet. 24. Apparatus according to Claim 22 and induding a plurality of bolts to pass through said beam border to secure said means for attaching thereto. 25. Apparatus according to Claim 24 wherein said means for attaching comprises a plurality of dongated damps to damp the periphery of said sheet, and lateral slots defined in said damps for engaging over said bolts and nuts to secure said damps to said bolts.

Inventors: VICINO ROBERT K, VICINO, ROBERT, K.
Applicants: VICINO ROBERT K, VICINO, ROBERT, K.
Application year: 1982
Main classification: G09F15
IPC codes: G09F15, G09F19