EP0786754A1

EP0786754A1 - Vertical printed message stand for shelves

Info

Publication number: EP0786754A1
Application number: EP96830023A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Carlo Monterisi; Piercarlo Crespi
Original assignee: SYNCO ITALIANA Srl
Current assignee: SYNCO ITALIANA Srl
Priority date: 1996-01-23
Filing date: 1996-01-23
Publication date: 1997-07-30

Abstract

A message stand for shelves constituted by a moldable substantially flat body (1) conformable upon folding it into a functional message stand, having a first thinned folding zone (2) along a median longitudinal line, a plurality of pegs (5, 6) and holes (7, 8) distributed along the two portions (3, 4) defined by said first folding zone (2) and cooperating with each other in coupling the ones into the others while passing through corresponding holes of a printed message card an edge portion of which is clamped between the two longitudinal foldable portions (3, 4), each of these two foldable portions (3, 4) having a holed flap (10, 11) hinged thereto by a pliable thinned zone (14, 15) orthogonal to said first longitudinal folding zone (2), said holed flaps (10, 11) being rotated open along said hinging thinned zone (14, 15) to form a base resting on the surface of a shelf (S) and fixable thereto by elastically compressible pegs installed through the holes (12, 13) of said flaps (10, 11) and into socket holes present in the shelf (S). Said two portions (3, 4) have, adjacently along said first longitudinal folding zone (2), a concavity (22, 23) in their abutting surfaces. Said holed flaps (10, 11) have, on the opposed side of their face resting on the shelf (S), a stiffening rib (16, 17) ending with a flexibly extended hook (18, 19), that projects beyond the folding line along said thinned zone (14, 15). A window (25, 24) in the wall of said concavity (22, 23) of each of said two portions (3, 4) cooperates with the respective flexible hook (18, 19), to lock the flap (10, 11), bent open until the end face (20, 21) of the respective rib (16, 17) abuts against the external surface of the respective longitudinal portion (3, 4), stopping the flap (10, 11) in an orthogonal position.

Description

In general the present invention relates to supporting and holding frames for printed promotional messages or the like for shelving, particularly but not exclusively, for self-service retail shops.
Self-service retail shops, department stores and shops in general make a large use of supporting stands for promotional information such as labels, discount messages, and any other type of information on the characteristics and prices of articles displayed on shelves or anything that serves to inform the customers about special offers or otherwise to promote the sale of a certain article. Such messages are customarily printed on highlighted cards of various shapes and dimensions and their display along the shelves requires the use of special clips or supports easy to install on the shelves, in correspondence of the products, which the message refers to.
Generally, promotional messages, such as discount offers, etc., are displayed so that they stick out from the edge of the shelves so that they can be noticed from a distance along the passage ways or aisles.
For this purpose, the shelves are usually provided with an uninterrupted series of holes, set at regular intervals, on the leaning surface, along the outer edge so to provide socket holes for elastically compressible plastic pins used to anchor the base of vertical message stands.
There are many well known shapes of such vertical message stands that can be readily installed onto the leaning surface of shelves, capable of receiving and holding an edge of a usually rectangular card so that the printed card sticks out like a banner from the shelf.
The structure of this type of message stands is commonly that of a substantially flat plastic body that can be fabricated at a low cost by molding it as a single piece, having a generally rectangular and elongated shape. The flat body is actually subdivided in two portions defined by a thinned pliable zone formed along the median longitudinal line that allows the closing one against the other of these two portions (as a book), while interposing between the two overlapping portions the edge of a printed card to be displayed. Two or more pairs of registering and holding pins and holes, distributed along the two overlapping portions, defined by the thinned folding line, cooperate by locking themselves into the others after passing through cooperating holes present along the assembling edge of the printed card being sandwiched between the two portions closed together.
Each of the two portions terminates with a holed flap which is "connected" to the respective folding portion of the flat body by a folding thinned pliable zone or line orthogonal to the pliable zone of longitudinal folding.
After securely clamping fixing the edge of the card between the two folded portions, the two holed flaps are bent open at 90° in relation to the respective longitudinal portion, thus forming a leaning surface of the message stand onto the surface of the shelf. Through the holes on the two flaps folded out at 90° elastically compressible pins are installed by forcibly inserting their elastically deformable portion through the hole in the respective flap and into one socket hole present on the surface of the shelf.
These well known message stands, though being cheaply fabricated in a single molded piece, do not ensure a perfectly stable upright support. Indeed, their upright position derives solely from an equality of the elastic stresses in the two flaps folded out at 90° that form the leaning surface of the vertical message stand on the surface of the shelf.
With continuous use or as a consequence of ill-usage or ill-storage, due to an induced disuniformity of elastic memory properties, the message stand may acquire a "preferential" nonperfectly vertical position, that is a tendency to lean more to one side rather than to the other. Even if correctly installed, the flag-like displayed messages are normally hit involuntarily by browsing customers and tend to remain bent after having been rudely abused.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a vertical message stand for flag-like displaying of a printed card that can be installed on the surface of a shelf and that though being moldable in a single piece, permanently maintains a perfectly vertical position.
This and others associated advantages are attained by the message stand object of this invention, characterized in that the two portions defined by the thin zone of longitudinal folding are provided, adjacently along the thinned pliable zone, with a concave zone in respect to the surface of the abutting faces, (of course with the interposition of a printed card). Moreover, the holed flaps that are eventually folded out at 90° are provided, on the face opposite to their bearing face, with a stiffening and stopping rib, ending with a flexible hook which extends projectively beyond the ideal folding line along the respective thinned pliable zone. A window through the wall of the concave zone of the two overlapping portions, permits to the end portion of the hook to encroach into the space enclosed within the two concave zones and provides an anchoring edge to the flexible hook of the respective flap when the latter is bent out at 90° in respect to the relative longitudinal portion of the stand.
In this way, when opening the two flaps to form a standing surface of the vertical message stand, the two ribs eventually stop the reciprocal rotation of the longitudinal portion and of the respective holed flap in a perfectly orthogonal position. Moreover, the flexible hook interacts with the cooperating edge of the window through which it may encroach in the space defined within the two concave zones of the abutting portion, establishing a mechanical hooking that perfectly blocks in a perfect reciprocal position the various articulated portions of which the message stand is subdivided.
The result is a message stand that though remaining fabricable at a low cost through a single piece molding process, may be configured in a perfectly and mechanically stable functional form, such as to ensure a precise and stable upright position once installed on the surface of the shelf.
These and other aspects and advantages of the present invention, will become even clearer through the following detailed description of an important embodiment and by referring to the enclosed drawings, wherein:

Figures 1 and 2 show the flat body of the message stand as moldable, as viewed from the two opposite sides;
Figures 3, 4 and 5 illustrate how the stand is configured.

By referring to the figures, the message stand 1 of the invention is constituted substantially by a single moldable body, generally flat, having an elongated and generally rectangular shape.
A first thinned zone 2 extends along the median longitudinal line of the piece, defining two portions 3 and 4 that can be folded to abut one over the other, similarly to a book.
At least two pegs 5 and 6 are formed on one of the two overlapping portions, while the other is provided with cooperating sockets 7 and 8, capable of receiving and retaining the pegs 5 and 6. A card (non shown in the figures), printed with a message to be displayed, will be provided, coordinately along the supporting edge, with two holes, through which the two pegs 5 and 6 will pass before being snappingly inserted into the receiving socket holes 7 and 8, so to keep in a perfectly vertical position the card whose edge portion is solidly sandwiched between the two portions 4 and 3.
Preferably, a hooking device can be realized in a zone that does not interfere with the edge of the card clamped between the two portions 3 and 4 of the message holder. In the illustrated example, this hooking device is constituted by a protruding hook 9a, formed on the coupling face of one of the two portions (4) and by a cooperating window 9b formed on the other portion 3. By closing the two portions together along the thinned longitudinal pliable zone 2, the hook 9a passes through the window 9b, elastically interfering with an edge of the window 9b, establishing in this way a mechanical coupling between the two portions 3 and 4 closed together and preventing an involuntary opening.
Each of the two longitudinal portions 3 and 4 have an extension or flap, respectively 10 and 11, each having a slot or a hole 12 and 13. Each flap is defined by a pliable thinned connecting zone 14 and 15, orthogonal to the thinned zone 2 of longitudinal folding.
The two flaps 10 and 11 may be bent along the connecting thinned zone 14 and 15 and turned until assuming a position orthogonal to the longitudinal portions 3 and 4, in order to constitute a bearing surface of the holder on the surface of the shelf, the edge shape of which is shown in the Figures 4 and 5.
As easily appreciated by observing Figures 2, 4 and 5, a rib, 16 and 17, is formed on the face opposite the face that rests on the surface of the shelf. Each rib 16 and 17 terminates with a flexible hook 18 and 19 that projects beyond the end face 20 and 21 of the rib, thus protruding beyond the ideal folding line along the respective thinned connecting zone 14 and 15.
According to another aspect of this embodiment, the two overlapping portions 3 and 4 are provided, adjacently to the folding zone 2, of a concave zone 22 and 23 in respect to the coupling surface of their abutting faces.
This concavity and the presence of the two openings, respectively 24 and 25, formed in the concave zone 22 and 23, allow the flexible hooks 18 and 19 to encroach, passing through the orifices 25 and 24, into the space enclosed between the concave zones 22 and 23 when the two flaps 10 and 11 are opened to give shape to the rest base of the message holder.
The end faces 20 and 21 of the respective ribs 16 and 17 of the flaps 10 and 11 constitute stop surfaces for the bending out of the two flaps 10 and 11 upon the reaching of a perfectly orthogonal position in respect to the longitudinal portions 3 and 4.
At the same time, the two projecting hooks 18 and 19 pass through the openings 25 and 24 and elastically interact with an edge of these openings, thus establishing a mechanical locking of the respective orthogonally bent portions that permanently maintain their relative position.
In practice, the locking of the hook 9a in the window 9b and the locking of the hooks 18 and 19 in the respective windows 24 and 15, impart to the message holder, thus configured, a complete mechanical stability, preventing the upright portion constituted by the two overlapped longitudinal portions 3 and 4 that clamps and supports the card from assuming a nonperfectly vertical position.
Nevertheless, the message holder of the invention remains moldable as a single piece.
The thinned bending zones 2, 14 and 15 may be shaped in different ways but in any case they must permit repetitive bendings without breaking or tearing of the thinned plastic material.
Moreover, while the bending zones 14 and 15 must permit a rotation by 90° of the flaps 10 and 11, the bending zone 2 for the longitudinal folding of the two portions 3 and 4, should allow a rotation by 180° of one portion in respect to the other. For this reason, the bending zone 2 along the median longitudinal line should preferably be in the form of two or more parallel grooves to allow the two portions 4 and 3 to overlap one another, according to procedures usually followed for molding this type of foldable pieces of plastic material.
Different types of plastic material may be satisfactorily utilized, polypropylene being an example.

Claims

A message stand for shelves constituted by a moldable substantially flat body (1) conformable upon folding it into a functional message stand, having a first thinned folding zone (2) along a median longitudinal line, a plurality of pegs (5, 6) and holes (7, 8) distributed along the two portions (3, 4) defined by said first folding zone (2) and cooperating with each other in coupling the ones into the others while passing through corresponding holes of a printed message card an edge portion of which is clamped between the two longitudinal foldable portions (3, 4), each of these two foldable portions (3, 4) having a holed flap (10, 11) hinged thereto by a pliable thinned zone (14, 15) orthogonal to said first longitudinal folding zone (2), said holed flaps (10, 11) being rotated open along said hinging thinned zone (14, 15) to form a base resting on the surface of a shelf (S) and fixable thereto by elastically compressible pegs installed through the holes (12, 13) of said flaps (10, 11) and into socket holes present in the shelf (S), characterized in that
said two portions (3, 4) have, adjacently along said first longitudinal folding zone (2), a concavity (22, 23) in their abutting surfaces;
said holed flaps (10, 11) have, on the opposed side of their face resting on the shelf (S), a stiffening rib (16, 17) ending with a flexibly extended hook (18, 19), that projects beyond the folding line along said thinned zone (14, 15);
a window (25, 24) in the wall of said concavity (22, 23) of each of said two portions (3, 4) cooperates with the respective flexible hook (18, 19), to lock the flap (10, 11), bent open until the end face (20, 21) of the respective rib (16, 17) abuts against the external surface of the respective longitudinal portion (3, 4), stopping the flap (10, 11) in an orthogonal position.
The message holder according to claim 1, characterized in that is made up of a single piece of molded plastic material.
The message holder according to claim 1, characterized in that said first thinned zone (2) has a cross section that includes at least two parallel grooves permitting a reciprocal rotation of two portions (3, 4) by an angle of 180°.
The message holder according to claim 1, characterized in that it comprises locking means of said two portions (3, 4) closed together.
The message holder according to claim 4, characterized in that said locking means comprise at least a flexible hook (9a) projecting from the abutting face of one of said two portions (4) and a cooperating window (9b) formed through the other of said two portions (3).