Plate support permitting simple and immediate insertion separation and removal

Abstract: A support (10) for a plate (32) provided with fastening protrusions (34, 36) for keeping in a rigid enough way the plate (32) itself within the support (10) and with means (38, 40) helping flexion and bending of the plate (32) for allowing the disengagement thereof.

Description: The present invention refers to a support for plates used for marking or give information to electric control and /or signalling members, such as handles, push-buttons and ligths usually used in control boards, being said support made in such a way that a therefor suited plate can be therein hand inserted and removed with great easiness and without the help of any tool. Since long time has been met the need to mark control and signalling members by means of plates bearing therein written or drawn suitable symbols, words, figures or drawings for an unambiguous indication of every specific control or signalling member. There are many kinds of these plates which can be somehow fastened near control and signalling members, said kinds comprising plates fastenable by the use of an adhesive layer, rivets, screws, or the like. Another largely diffused fastening way of said plates consists of providing a plate with a bore or window wherein is passed a stem or sleeve for fastening the member to a control board so that the fastening of the member itself operates to fasten the plate to the board. This second fastening way is undoubtely easier, more practical and simpler than the preceding one because permits not to anyway affect the external surface of the control board, however has the drawback that for changing a plate it is necessary to unscrew the ring nut of the control or signalling member itself, which is not always easy, especially for members fastened behind the board, as for example those depicted in the European Patent No. 0,105,387, granted on March 25, 1987 to the applicant of the present application, requiring access behind the board and the use of a specific tool for unscrewing the nut. In the prior art have been proposed some approches for changing just the portion of the plate bearing the symbols, leaving unremoved a support properly fastened to the control and/or signalling members. A first approach, described and depicted in the Catalogue C8373X published on April 1987 by the present applicant, consists of a frame having a planar portion provided with a circular bore large enough for passing a stem or sleeve of the control and/or signalling member upwardly provided with a rectangular box-like protruding portion housing in a shallow recess an insert bearing symbols protected by a transparent cover forcely fitted into the shallow recess. This approach has two main drawbacks: the first one is the thickness of the protruding portion allowing to use this kind of plate supports just with control and/or signalling members having a protruding square base resulting contiguous and flush with the rectangular box-like portion, as depicted in the above mentioned Catalogue, while members not provided with such a square protruding base should not be practical to be used, leaving spaces and gaps difficult to be maintained clean, and also aesthetically rather poor; the other one is that, to remove the transparent cover, is required some tool, such as a screw driver, so that it is impossible to simply hand replace the insert. A second approach is described and claimed in DE-U- 8 804 230 filed on March 29, 1988. Looking at the figures of such a publication, it is seen that also this approach consits of a plate support comprising an annular flat portion (12) and a thicker frame portion (14) connected to the annular portion (12) and provided with with a rectangular opening (16), housing a rectangular plate (20) bearing indicating symbols. Also this second approach has substantially the same drawbacks of the first one, that is a protruding thicker frame portion (14) with the connected problems of spaces difficult to be maintained clean and the plate (20) easy to be hand inserted but immpossible to be removed without hte help of a specific tool. Also US-A- 4 884 353, granted on December 05, 1989 to W. Taylor, discloses and claims a front sign loading assembly comprising a rectangular frame having inserted a rectangular sign panel engaged with its shorter sides under lips of transversal frame members and supported by either a resilient block or a rigid triangular fulcrum both extending from a backwall of the frame itself. However, there is to observe that this system can properly work just if the dept of the frame is many times greater than the thickness of the sign panel because should the thickness of the sign panel be of the same order of the dept of the frame, the disassembly of the sign panel, as depicted in the annexed darwings, would be impossible, as the panel could not bend deeply enough for having the end edges clearing the lips of the transversal frame members. Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a plate support, fastened to a control board, containing one or more control or signalling members, permitting easy insertion, separation and removing of a plate in and from said support without separating the support from the board and without the help of any tool. It is another object of the present invention to provide plate changement on the support just operating in front of said board. The above mentioned objects are met by the present invention consisting of a plate support comprising a frame surrounding a displaying plate having a shape mating with said frame, said frame being adjacent to means for fastening the support to a fastening ring nut of a control or signalling member, a planar table provided with a circular bore in which can be inserted a ring nut of a control or signal member, wherein that said frame is manufactured integral with the planar table, has the same thickness of the planar table itself and is suited for housing the displaying plate having such a shape and size to be fitted with the frame, the frame being provided with two internal protrusions engaging two opposed sides of the plate to keep it fastened to the frame, when said plate has been forcelly inserted thereinto, and contains frame disengaging means consisting of two support cross members supporting the plate and connecting opposing sides of the frame, said support members leaving a space for by force allowing such a bending of the plate to bring it out of engagement with the internal protrusions on the sides of the frame. Preferably, the frame is of substantially rectangular shape. In addition, the two sustaining supports are provided with smooth bevels to permit a lateral sliding of the plate when the edges thereof are disengaged from the protrusions of the frame. The features of the present invention will be completely defined in the claims forming the concluding portion of the present description, however further features and advantages will appear more completely from the following detailed description of an embodiment, given in exemplifying but not limiting way and provided with the enclosed drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a front view of a plate support according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of figure 1; Figure 3 is a sectional view, similar to that of figure 2, depicting the release and separation operation of a plate from the frame protrusions by intervention of an operator finger at substantially the center of the plate; Figure 4 is a partial enlarged view of the same cross section of Figure 3 depicting more in detail the release mechanism of the plate from the frame protrusions; Figure 5 is a sectional view, similar to that of figures 2 and 3, depicting the removing operation of a plate from the related frame of the support therefor; and Figure 6 is a partial enlarged view of the same cross section of Figure 5 depicting more in detail the removing mechanism of the plate from the support therefor. Referring first to figures 1 and 2, it is seen that a plate support 10 consists of a planar plate member 12 comprising a substantially rectangular frame 14, formed by three sides 16, 18 and 20, and adjacent to a planar table 22 crossed by a substantially circular bore 24 provided with a recess 26, having the task to necessarily arrange the support 10 with respect to a control and/or signalling member availing of a plate 32 housed in said support. A plate 32, siutable to contain notices or symbols useful for the control and/or signalling member, is inserted into the frame 14, engaged under protrusions 34 and 36 on the sides 18 and 20 of the frame 14 itself. The plate 32 rests on two supports or cross members 38 and 40 connecting the side 16 and the planar table 22 defining the frame 14, said cross members 38 and 40 being provided with bevels 42 and 44, of cylindric shape or the like, having the task to promote the disengagement of the plate 32 from the protrusions 34 and 36, as it will be disclosed in more detail in the explanation of the operation of the invention. Referring to figures 3 to 6, further to figures 1 and 2, it is seen that the invention operates in the following way: to insert a plate 32 into a seat 50, defined by the frame 14 and the cross members 38 and 40, the plate is laid on the frame 14 in alignment with the seat 50 and the plate itself is uniformly pushed on the whole surface till, with a little bending, two of its sides clear the protrusions 34 and 36, helped by their trapezial shape, and are inserted thereunder, assuring a complete fastening of the plate 32 to the seat 50. For separating and removing the plate 32 from the seat 50 an operator presses a finger 52 on the center of the plate 32, pushing according to the direction of the arrow 54, till the plate 32 itself sinks down at the center following the bevels 42 and 44 of the cross members 38 and 40 and collapsing as depicted in the figures 3 and 4. Then, the finger 52 of the operator is moved in the direction of the arrow 56 laterally pushing the plate 32 which thus slides along the bevel 44 of the cross member 40 coming out completely from the seat 50, as depicted by the figures 5 and 6.

Claims: Plate support comprising a frame (14) surrounding a displaying plate (32) having a shape mating with said frame, said frame being adjacent to means for fastening the support to a fastening ring nut of a control or signalling member, a planar table (22) provided with a circular bore (24) in which can be inserted a ring nut of a control or signal member, wherein said frame (14) is manufactured integral with the planar table (22), has the same thickness of the planar table itself and is suited for housing the displaying plate (32) having such a shape and size to be fitted with the frame (14), the frame being provided with two internal protrusions (34, 36) engaging two opposed sides of the plate (32) to keep it fastened to the frame (14), when said plate has been forcelly inserted thereinto, and contains frame disengaging means consisting of two support cross members (38, 40) supporting the plate (32) and connecting opposing sides of the frame (14), said support members (38, 40) leaving a space for by force allowing such a bending of the plate (32) to bring it out of engagement with the internal protrusions (34, 36) on the sides of the frame (14). Support, as in claim 1, characterized in that said frame (14) is of substantially rectangular shape. Support, as in claims 1 and 2, characterized in that the two support cross members (38, 40) are provided with smooth bevels (42, 44) to permit a lateral sliding of the plate (32) when the edges thereof are disengaged from the protrusions (34, 36) of the frame (14).

Inventors: FALCHI FIORINO, FALCHI, FIORINO
Applicants: GE POWER CONTROLS ITALIA SPA, GE POWER CONTROLS ITALIA S.P.A.
Application year: 1992
Main classification: G09F7
IPC codes: G09F7