Rotary vane displays

Abstract: A rotary vane display has a set of parallel vanes of triangular cross-section, each mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis. The vanes are synchronously and intermittently driven to present three successive display surfaces. Display material, such as a poster, is attached to display surface portions of each vane by magnetic attraction. Each display surface portion (12, 14, 16) has a channel (18) in which is secured a strip (20) of magnetised material. The rear of the display material (30) is coated with a ferrous ink or wash (32) which is magnetisable and causes the display material to be held attracted to the display surface area (12, 14, 16) while enabling it to be readily removed for replacement.

Description: This invention relates to a rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members whereby a plurality of display surfaces are successively presented, and to a method of preparing a display of poster-like material on a rotary display. Rotary displays of this kind are usually realised in the form of a set of parallel display members - vanes -of regular polygonal (commonly triangular) cross-section each rotatable about its longitudinal axis. The vanes are aligned and synchronously driven in 120° steps to repeatedly display three successive display surfaces (with the usual triangular cross-section vane). Displays of this type are illustrated in patent specification GB 2 134 301 and EP-A 0 249 396. Rotary vane displays are used to provide display surfaces for receiving poster-type display material. The vanes have plane external surfaces. The poster or similar sheet is divided into strips fixed by adhesive to respective vanes. Care is necessary in affixing the strips to ensure alignment of the display. Removal of the strips for a new display is time consuming and usually involves use of a solvent for the adhesive. There will be described hereinafter a rotary display incorporating a vane structure by which an appropriately treated poster is securable to the vanes in a way that permits adjustment of individual strips for alignment and ready removal of the strips when the display is to be changed. More particularly the vanes are provided with magnetised surfaces and the poster back is coated with a magnetic (i.e. magnetisable) material that is attracted to the vane surface. There will be described hereinafter a rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members for providing a plurality of succesively presented display surfaces. Each rotatable member has at least one portion providing a display surface area on which is received a portion of display material. In accordance with the teachings of this invention one of these portions is magnetised and the other has a magnetic content whereby there is a magnetic attraction between the portions to maintain the display material portion attached to the display member portion. The use of magnetic attraction to magnetically attach indicia to a surface is known. An example is found in patent specification EP-A-0 333 285 in which the indicia are the segments for a seven-segment numerical display in which both the segments and the display surface are provided with a specially prepared and magnetised layer. The display surface is magnetised at selected areas corresponding to the segments of a numerical display. The use of magnetic attraction in rotary vane displays is disclosed in patent specification CH-A-677 415 This specification discloses a rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members for providing a plurality of successively presented display surfaces, each rotatable member having a plurality of display surface portions on at least one of which a portion of display material is located by magnetic attraction. In each of these specifications the display material is cut into strips in the conventional way and affixed to a strip of magnetisable tin plate or foil. The latter is then applied to a vane surface or facets which comprises one or more magnets and is removably secured thereto by magentic attraction. According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members for providing a plurality of successively presented display surfaces, each rotatable member having a plurality of display surface portions on at least one of which a portion of display material is located by magnetic attraction, characterized in that: each at least one display surface portion of each rotatable member is permanently magnetised over its whole display surface area, and the respective portion of display material wanted on each at least one display surface portion has a magnetisable coating magnetically attracted to and thereby removably attached to the respective permanently magnetised display surface portion. According to another aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of preparing a display of poster-like material on a rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members for providing a plurality of successively presented display surfaces, each rotatable member having a plurality of display surface portions on at least one of which a portion of display material is attached by magnetic attraction, characterized in that: each one display surface portion is permanently magnetised over its whole display surface area, and in that the display of poster-like material is attached to said one display surface of the rotatable members by: coating one surface of said poster-like material with a magnetisable material, cutting the coated poster-like material into strips, there being a respective strip for attachment to said one display surface of each rotatable member, and attaching each strip of coated poster-like material to a respective one display surface of each rotatable member relying on the magnetic attraction between the magnetised display surface area and the magnetisable coating. In order that the invention and its practice may be better understood an embodiment will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 shows a cross-section of a vane embodying the invention having a poster strip affixed to one side; and Figs. 2 and 3 show details of modifications of the structure of the vane of Fig. 1. Fig. 1 shows a vane 10 of triangular cross-section which is preferably adapted for mounting in a rotary display unit in the manner illustrated and described in above-mentioned specification EP-A 0 249 396, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The vane is a hollow aluminium extrusion of essentially equilateral triangular cross-section providing the usual three display surface areas 12, 14 and 16. However, in this instance the vane does not have entirely plane surfaces for receiving poster strips. Each side of the vane is modified to accommodate a magnetised strip extending the length of the vane. The vane 10 is rotatable in 120° steps about axis B extending normal to the plane of the figure when mounted in a complete unit and is shown in one of its three display positions in which it is intended to form part of a vertical display surface for the complete unit as seen in the direction of arrow A. For illustrative purposes, surface 12 of the vane is shown as having a magnetised strip 20 in place with a poster strip 30 attached; surface 14 has a like magnetised strip 20 in place without an attached poster strip. The surface 16 is shown incomplete without the magnetised strip in place. Each side of the vane is formed with a channel or recess 18 extending the length of the vane. In the illustrated construction the channels 18 are formed by adding lugs 22 at the corners of the basic triangular shape. These lugs 22 define the longitudinal sides or edges of the channels 18. The design is such that the width of each channel, i.e. in the direction W for display surface 12, occupies as much as possible of the vane area as seen from the viewing direction A. The strip of magnetic material is of rectangular section and its thickness is just slightly less than the depth of the recess as best shown for surface 14. Typically the recess has a depth of about 1mm and the outer surface of the strip 20 is inset about half the depth. This leaves a shallow outer channel or recess as seen at 24 at surface 14 which aids in locating the display material strips. In Fig. 1 the sidewalls 19 of the channels 18 are perpendicular to the base to receive the rectangular section strips 20. The strips are secured in the channels by adhesive. The magnetised strips 20 are conveniently cut from a magnetic tape such as that sold under the name "Magnet Sheet" by Anchor Magnets Ltd. of Sheffield, England. The sheet is available in any width required with self adhesive on the non-magnetic surface to adhere the sheet to the base of the vane channels. To make practical use of the magnetised strips, the poster display material is given a magnetisable content capable of being attracted to the strips so as to adhere to it. A convenient way of doing this is to apply a ferrous ink to the rear surface of the poster 30, for example by screen printing. A suitable ink is ferrous ink available from Sericol Ltd or Coats Inks Ltd in the United Kingdom. This can be done with ordinary poster display materials. The ink dries to form a ferromagnetic coating 32 which is sufficiently attracted to the underlying magnetised strip material 20 to secure the poster strip 30 to the magnetic strip. This is illustrated at surface 12 in Fig. 1 It will be noted that the poster strip is cut to the same width in direction W as the channel in which it seats and is located by the shallow outer channel 24 mentioned above. Small adjustments of the poster strip may readily be made lengthwise of the vane surface (laterally of the overall display) for alignment and the poster strips are readily removable for changing the display. As is well known, there are small gaps between the strips of poster mounted on a rotary display. The provision of lugs at the vane ends may tend to increase these gaps. Fig. 1 shows the adjacent corner 11 of the vane below. The vanes have to be mounted at sufficient spacing to allow rotation without the vanes coming into contact. By outwardly tapering the recess edges as shown at 40 in Fig. 2 and correspondingly bevelling the strips 22 to match, the proportion of total area used for display may be enhanced. By inwardly tapering to form an undercut 42 and correspondingly bevelling the strips as seen in Fig. 3, the strips may be retained mechanically without use of adhesive though with the loss of.some display area. In the ultimate, modification of Fig. 2 could be carried to the extent of omitting lugs 22 altogether. The magnetic strips 22 would be adhesively secured to the plane surfaces of an ordinary triangular extrusion but without any guide channel to assist in locating the strips during assembly. It will be understood that while a single vane embodying the invention has been described in detail, in a complete rotary vane display unit such as that disclosed in EP-A 0 249 396, each vane will be constructed in the same manner as that described above. The poster, or other display material, for mounting on one of the overall display surfaces of the unit is given a magnetic coating, e.g. the ferrous ink referred to above, over its rear surface, it is cut into strips and the strips attached to display surface portions of the individual vanes relying on magnetic attraction as described above.

Claims: A rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members (10, 11) for providing a plurality of successively presented display surfaces, each rotatable member having a plurality of display surface portions (12, 14, 16) on at least one of which a portion of display material (30) is located by magnetic attraction, characterized in that: each at least one display surface portion (12) of each rotatable member is magnetised over its whole display surface area, and the respective portion of display material (30) located on each at least one display surface portion (12) has a magnetisable coating (32) magnetically attracted to and thereby removably attached to the respective permanently magnetised display surface portion (12). A rotary display as claimed in Claim 1 in which each respective portion (30) of display material comprises a non-magnetic poster like display material having said magnetisable coating (32) on one side thereof. A rotary display as claimed in Claim 2 in which each at least one display surface portion (12) is provided by a strip (20) of magnetised material having a magnetised surface that provides a surface display area (12), the portion (30) of poster-like display material attracted thereto being in contact with the magnetised surface display area over the whole area thereof. A rotary display as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3 in which each rotatable member (10) comprises a body of non-magnetic material to which a magnetised member (20) is secured to provide a magnetised display surface portion. A rotary display as claimed in Claim 4 in which the non-magnetic body of each rotatable member (10, 11) is formed with a channel in which said magnetised member (20) is seated. A rotary display as claimed in Claim 5 in which said magnetised member (20) has a display surface portion (12) which is inset below the mouth of the channel in which it is seated to provide a shallower channel (24) for locating said portion of display material secured to said display surface portion. A rotary display as claimed in Claim 1, 2 or 3 in which each rotatable member (10, 11) comprises a vane of generally regular polygonal cross-section providing a plurality of display surface portions (12, 14, 16), each surface portion having a channel (18) extending lengthwise of the vane and a respective magnetised member (20) seated in the channel (18). A rotary display as claimed in Claim 7 in which each magnetised member (20) has a display surface which is inset (24) below the mouth of the channel in which it seats. A method of preparing a display of poster-like material on a rotary display of the kind having a set of rotatable members (10, 11) for providing a plurality of successively presented display surfaces, each rotatable member having a plurality of display surface portions (12, 14, 16) on at least one of which a portion of display material (30) is attached by magnetic attraction, characterized in that: each one display surface portion (12) is permanently magnetised over its whole display surface area (20), and in that the display of poster-like material (30) is attached to said one display surface (12) of each of the rotatable members (10, 11) by: coating one surface of a sheet of said poster-like material with a magnetisable material (32), cutting the coated sheet of poster-like material (30) into strips, there being a respective strip for attachment to said one display surface (12) of each rotatable member (10), and attaching each strip of coated poster-like material (30) to a respective one display surface of each rotatable member relying on the magnetic attraction between the magnetised display surface area (12) and the magnetisable coating (32).

Inventors: BUTLER EDWARD MAURICE PIERCE, BUTLER, EDWARD MAURICE PIERCE
Applicants: POWERGRAPHIC DISPLAYS LTD, POWERGRAPHIC DISPLAYS LIMITED
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G09F11
IPC codes: G09F11