RESILIENT PANEL EDGING STRIP

Abstract: An edging strip for a panel comprising a U-­ shaped rail having two side walls joined by a web and adapted to receive and grip an edge of a panel, at least one of the side walls having an inner portion adjacent the web and an outer portion comprising a rotatable flap which is joined to the inner portion, characterised in that the inner portion (16,16a) of the or each wall is joined to the flap (17,18) by a flexible web (19,20) whereby the flap (17,18) can be rotated away from the opposite wall through an angle of approximately 90° relative to the inner portion (16,16a).

Description: The present invention relates to a resilient edging strip for a panel which is designed to form a protective edge for the panel and which can be employed to enable flexible sheet material to be quickly and easily attached to and removed from the panel. It is well known to display advertising material on panels at a point of sale location, for instance indoors in a shop, or out of doors at a garage or filling station. In many cases it is desirable to change the nature of the advertising material at frequent intervals. If this entails replacing the complete display panel, it can involve considerable cost, particularly if the display panel is for use out of doors and has to withstand weather conditions. It is therefore desirable to provide a durable, permanent display panel onto which sheets of replaceable advertising material can be quickly and easily attached and removed. Hitherto, this has been done by using an adhesive which involves problems in both securely attaching the sheet material and enabling it to be removed relatively easily, or by fastening members or studs which may not be secure and which again involve considerable labour in both attaching and removing the sheet material. In order to overcome some of these problems it has been proposed in U.K. Patent No. 2010673 of Segerstad to provide a strip assembly comprising a main strip adapted to grip the edge of a display panel and two flap strips which are pivotally hinged to the main strip. The main strip and the flap strips have co-operating locking elements enabling the flap strips to be locked in a position in which they can clamp a sheet of display material against the panel. We have found that this known type of strip assembly has a limited application because it can only accomodate a relatively small range of panel thicknesses. It is also necessary to form the terminal portions of the flap strips from a different and more resilient material than the main part of the flap strips in order to achieve the required gripping characteristics. This makes the manufacturer of the components relatively costly. A further disadvantage is that the flap strips can only accommodate the sheet material and cannot in addition clamp a protective sheet of glass or transparent plastics on the panel. A similar prior art device, with some similar disadvantages, is described in EP-A1-0 189 065. The edging strip described in this document has an end wall with a pair of inner wall members adapted to grip the edge of a display panel. Outer wall members are joined to the end wall by flexible webs and are provided with a hook arrangement to engage their respective inner wall members, with a snap action when moved into the closed position. This device is also only able to accommodate sheet material of a limited range of thicknesses because the locking of the outer wall member with its inner wall member can only take place at a single closed position. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an edging strip for a display panel which is unitary in its structure and therefore economic to manufacture and assemble, which can be used with a wide range of panel thickness and which enables flexile sheet material and a protective sheet of plastics or the like to be quickly and easily attached to or removed from the panel. The edging strip of the present invention can also be used as a protective edging strip for instance for a sheet of glass forming a part of a double glazing system. Accordingly, the present invention provides an edging strip for a panel comprising a U-shaped rail having two side walls joined by an end wall and adapted to receive and grip an edge of a panel therebetween, at least one of the side walls having an inner wall portion and an outer wall portion comprising a rotatable flap (see EP-A1-0 189 065), characterised in that the inner wall portion of the or each wall is adjacent the end wall and the outer wall portion is spaced from the end wall and joined to the inner wall portion by a flexible web which allows the flap to be moved under a snap-action between a first position rotated away from the opposite wall through an angle of approximately 90° relative to the inner wall portion, and a second position biassed towards the opposite wall whereby the outer wall portion grips the edge of the panel. The present invention also provides a display panel having edging strips as defined in the preceding paragraph attached to at least two opposite edges of the panel whereby the flaps of the edging strips can be rotated from a position in which they are clamped against the surface of the panel through approximately 90° away from the panel to enable sheet material to be attached to and removed from the panel. The present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a plan view of part of a display panel and edging strip according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a section through the edging strip shown in Figure 1; Figure 3 is a section through the display panel and edging strip of Figure 1 showing the edging strip in the closed position on one side of the panel and in the open position on the other side of the panel; Figure 4 is a section through a modification of the edging strip of Figures 1 to 3, Figure 5 is a section similar to Figure 3 but showing the edging strip to Figure 4 in the closed position; and Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 5 showing the edging strip in the open position. In Figures 1 to 3 of the drawings, a display panel is indicated generally at 10 and an edging strip for the display panel 10 is indicated generally at 11. The display panel 10 may be formed from any suitable material such as fibre board or plastics so as to be relatively rigid in order to act as a support for flexible sheet material such as a poster 12 which may carry, by way of example, advertising material or sales information. The edging strip 11 is generally U-shaped so as to comprise two similar side walls 13 and 14 joined by a substantially solid base portion 15. Each wall 13 and 14 comprises an inner wall portion 16 and 16a, respectively, and an outer wall portion which comprise rotatable flaps 17 and 18 respectively. The inner wall portions 16 and 16a are joined to the outer flaps 17 and 18 by flexible webs 19 and 20 respectively, which are formed from a different and more resilient material than the remainder of the wall portions which are relatively rigid. Each outer flap 17 and 18 is formed with a projecting element in the form of a rib 21 and 22, respectively, the ribs being positioned adjacent the flexible webs 19 and 20 and inclined inwardly and rearwardly towards the base 15. The inner wall portions 16 and 16a are formed with inwardly projecting flanges 23 and 24, respectively, the free ends of which are made from a softer and more resilient material to form pads 25 and 26, respectively, adapted to resiliently grip the opposite sides of the panel 10. Adjacent the base 15 of the strip, each inner wall portion is formed with an inwardly projecting abutment 27 and 28, respectively, the abutments being adapted to locate and position the periphery of the panel 10. The base 15 is also formed with slots 29 and 30 to enable the strip 11 to be quickly and easily attached back to back to a similar strip or hung from a wall or rail. The inner wall portions 15 and 16 and the outer flaps 17 and 18 are inclined inwardly towards one another in a direction away from the base 15 and the outer flaps 17 and 18 are formed with runners, 31 and 32 respectively, at their free ends which are adapted to clamp posters or three dimensional display material 12 and 12a against the opposite sides of the panel 10. In order to mount the strip 11 on the panel 10, the outer flaps 17 and 18 are prized apart to enable the edge of the panel 10 to be inserted between the walls. As the edge of the panel is inserted between the walls, it slides past the ribs 21 and 22 and the flanges 23 and 24 so as to locate between the abutments 27 and 28. In this position, the panel has forced the ribs 21 and 22 apart which has the effect of rotating the outer ends of the outer flaps 17 and 18 inwardly so that the runners 31 and 32 are clamped firmly against the opposite sides of the panel. At the same time, the flanges 23 and 24 are bent inwardly and downwardly towards the base 15 so as to provide a clamping action on the panel 10 adjacent its periphery. If the outer flap 17 is now prized away from the panel 10 into the portion shown on the right-hand side of Figure 3, it rotates about the flexible web 19, through the closed position shown on the left hand side of Figure 3 and into the open position shown on the right. As this rotation occurs, the inner wall portion 15 is forced outwardly and a snap action is achieved as a result of the interaction of the relatively rigid rib 21 and flexible hinge 19. When the outer flap 17 is in the open position, a poster 12 can be laid against the panel 10 and the outer flap 17 then rotated back through 90° so as to clamp the poster 12 against the face of the panel 10. Again a snap action is achieved by the interaction of the rib 21 and flexible hinge 19. The display panel 10 will preferably have an edging strip attached along each side of the panel so that the panel is completely trimmed and finished by the edging strips. Posters can then be attached to one or both sides of the panel by snapping the outer flap of each strip away from the panel, laying the poster in place and then manually snapping each outer flap of the strips back against the face of the panel. If it is necessary or desirable to protect the posters or other flexible sheet material on the panel 10, a protective sheet of glass or clear plastic can be inserted on top of the poster and clamped in position by the outer flaps 17. The edging strip 11 is formed as a single unitary plastics moulding which makes it economic to manufacture and to assemble. Preferably, the flexible hinges 19 and 20 are formed from a relatively soft polyvinyl chloride or polypropylene and the remainder of the edging strip formed from a more rigid polyvinyl chloride. In an alternative embodiment of the invention, which is shown in Figures 4 to 6, an edging strip is indicated generally at 40 which is similar in all respects to the edging strip 11 except that it has two side walls, one side wall 41 being identical to the side wall 15 of the edging strip 11 and the other side wall 42 being substantially flat. In use, the side wall 41 is adapted to clamp the panel 10 flat against the side wall 42 but, in all other respects, the side wall 41 functions in exactly the same way as the side wall 15 to clamp a poster 12 against the panel 10.

Claims: An edging strip (11) for a panel comprising a U-shaped rail having two side walls (13,14) joined by an end wall (15) and adapted to receive and grip an edge of a panel (10) therebetween, at least one of the side walls having an inner wall portion (16,16a) and an outer wall portion (17,18) comprising a rotatable flap, characterised in that the inner wall portion (16,16a) of the or each wall (13,14) is adjacent the end wall (15) and the outer wall portion (17,18) is spaced from the end wall (15) and joined to the inner wall portion (16,16a) by a flexible web (19,20) which allows the flap to be moved under a snap-action between a first position rotated away from the opposite wall through an angle of approximately 90° relative to the inner wall portion (16,16a), and a second position biassed towards the opposite wall whereby the outer wall portion grips the edge of the panel. An edging strip as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that the or each flap (17,18) has a projecting element (21,22) adjacent the flexible web (19,20) extending inwardly towards the opposite wall, and compressed between its respective wall and the panel so as to act as a spring. An edging strip as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that the or each flap (17,18) is normally inclined inwardly towards the opposite wall. An edging strip as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that the or each projecting element (21,22) extends along the length of the wall and is inclined towards the end wall (15). An edging strip as claimed in any preceding claim characterised in that the or each inner wall portion (16,16a) has a resilient flange (23,24) extending inwardly towards the opposite wall, the flange being adapted to bias a panel towards the opposite wall. An edging strip as claimed in any preceding claim characterised in that the two side walls (13,14) are similar. An edging strip for a display panel as claimed in any preceding claim characterised in that the strip is formed as a one piece unitary plastics moulding. A panel having edging strips each as claimed in any preceding claim attached to at least two opposite edges of the panel whereby the flaps of the edging strips can be rotated from a position in which they are clamped against a surface of the panel through approximately 90° away from the panel to enable sheet material to be attached to an removed from the panel.

Inventors: DAVIS, DEREK
Applicants: GRAPHEX LIMITED
Application year: 1988
Main classification: A47G1
IPC codes: A47G1