GB2047452A - Pre-pierced number-plates - Google Patents

Abstract

A vehicle number plate assembly incorporates a sheet metal support plate 11 with an array of regularly spaced apertures 13. A frangible cover sheet 14 which provides the desired background colour is secured to the support plate. A series of characters representing the registration mark are fastened in position by fastening means 15, 16 which break through the frangible cover and pass through appropriate apertures. The positions of the fastening means on the characters and of the apertures in the plate allow for any required positioning of a character. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Pre-pierced number plate The invention relates to vehicle registration mark display assemblies.

A typical vehicle registration mark display assembly incorporates a sheet metal support plate to which appropriate characters (numbers and letters) are attached in appropriate positions to display the registration mark of the vehicle concerned. As each vehicle requires a different combination of characters it is necessary for each vehicle registration mark display assembly to be made individually. This normally entails starting from a blank support plate and an appropriate selection of characters with integral projections on their rear surfaces, piercing apertures in the plate at locations to correspond with the rear projections, and mounting the characters on the plate by passing the projections through the apertures and applying a fastening element to each projection behind the plate in order to secure the character in position.Thus, at the stage when the vehicle registration mark display assembly is being assembled, it is necessary to pierce apertures in the plate at accurately defined locations. This requires certain specialised tools and is a time consuming operation.

An object of the invention is to provide a vehicle registration mark display assembly made from components which can be assembled together easily.

According to the present invention there is provided a vehicle registration mark display assembly comprising a support plate, an array of regularly spaced apertures in the plate, a frangible cover sheet arranged over the front surface of the plate and a series of characters for representing the registration mark, each character having fastening means for engagement with the apertures in the plate through the cover sheet to secure the character to the plate, the positions of the apertures in the plate and of the fastening means on the characters being such that any desired character combination can be secured to the plate, with the characters in desired regular positions, by engagement of the fastening means in some of the apertures.

Preferably the apertures are arranged in two parallel rows, one to coincide with the upper edge portion of each character and the other to correspond with the lower edge portion of each character.

Preferably the pitch between adjacent apertures is such as to provide one aperture at the left hand edge portion of each character, another aperture at the right hand edge portion of each character and three further equally spaced apertures therebetween.

Preferably each fastening means incorporates a rearwardly directed generally pointed projection to facilitate piercing of the frangible cover sheet and guidance of the fastening means into the appropriate aperture.

Preferably the fastening means is such that fastening can be completed without obtaining access to the rear of the support plate. For example each fastening means may be in the form of a series of rearwardly directed flexible projections closely surrounding a hole extending through the - character from front to rear, the projections being of such a size and in such positions as to enable them to be passed - through an aperture in the support plate, a pin being provided to be passed through the hole in the character to deflect the projections outwardly and thereby prevent removal of the character. The pin may terminate substantially flush with the front face of the character to provide a neat appearance.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described by way of example only with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a front elevation of a vehicle registration mark display assembly according to the invention with some parts broken away; Figure 2 is a section on the line ll-ll of Fig.

1; and Figure 3 is a section on an enlarged scale on the line Ill-Ill of Fig. 1.

The drawings show a vehicle registration mark display assembly, subsequently referred to as a number plate. The number plate incorporates a support plate 11 constituted from sheet metal such as aluminium. The support has a generally flat rectangular form but is stiffened around its edges by a peripheral flange 1 2 bent over at an angle of approximately 45 degrees as shown in Fig. 2.

The support plate incorporates an array of regularly spaced apertures 1 3. The apertures are arranged in two parallel horizontal rows, one arranged to coincide with the upper edge portion of each character to be mounted on the support plate and the other arranged to coincide with the lower edge portion of each character. The front face of the support plate is covered by a frangible cover sheet 14, which prior to the mounting of characters on the support plate, covers the apertures 1 3 so that they are not visible from the front face of the number plate. The cover sheet 1 4 may for example be a thin film of plastics material secured to the support plate by an adhesive.

The cover sheet is coloured to correspond with the number plate requirements of the country in which the vehicle concerned is to be registered. For example for a rear number plate of a British registered vehicle the cover sheet should be of a yellow reflective material.

Each character is moulded from plastics material and is of a form and colour to meet the requirements of the country concerned.

For example, for a British number plate, all characters are of a standard height and stan dard width, the only exception being the character "1" (letter or numeral) which clearly is much narrower than all other characters. A series of typical characters, namely A, 3, 4, 0 and L are shown in the drawing mounted on the backing plate 11. Each character has at least one fastening means at its upper edge and at least one fastening means at its lower edge. For example, in the character L, there is one fastening means 1 5 at the upper end portion of the L and a second fastening means 1 6 at the lower right hand edge of the L.

The construction of each fastening means can best be seen from Fig. 3. Each fastening means incorporates a composite rearwardly extending projection made up from a series of for example four projecting elements 1 7 which closely surround a central hole 1 8 of the fastening means. Each projecting element has a narrow neck portion 1 9 adjcent to the main body of the character and the size of these neck portions is such that the composite projection is a close fit within an aperture 1 3.

Beyond the neck portions 19, each projecting element is of increased thickness so that the external diameter of the composite projection in its free state is larger than the diameter of an aperture 1 3. However, due to the flexibility of the projecting elements and due to a tapered outer extremety thereof, it is possible for the composite projection to be passed through an aperture 1 3 from the front to the back of the support plate. During this operation, the projecting elements deflect to the position shown in chain dotted outline in Fig.

3. In practice, as a projection is being pushed through an aperture 13, it breaks the cover sheet 14 and thus forms its own aperture in the cover sheet in register with the appropriate aperture 1 3. When the projecting elements have been passed through an aperture, a pin 21 of plastics-rnaterial is inserted in the hole 1 8 and this causes the projecting elements 1 7 to be held in their outwardly deflected positions to form a head of larger diameter than the aperture 13 and thereby prevent removal of the character from the support plate.

With some characters such as for example the characters 0 and 3, it is convenient to provide one central upper fastening means and one central lower fastening means. With some other characters, such as for example A, it is convenient to provide one central upper fastening means and two lower fastening means at the right and left hand edge portions of the character With some further -characters (now shownYsuch-as X and H, it is convenient to provide individual fastening means at each corner of the character. However, for some characters, such as 4, the upper and lower extremities of the character do not coincide either with the right or left hand edges of the character or with the centre of the character. In such case, the fastening means are arranged at a position mid-way between the centre of the character and the right or left hand edge portions thereof.A further character which requires attachment means mid-way between the centre and edge portion is the character W, which has its lower-most points mid-way between the centre and the extremities.

The pitch between adjacent apertures 1 3 is such that when the centre of a character is aligned with one such aperture, further apertures correspond with the right and left hand edge portions of the character and still further apertures coincide with the mid-points between the centre and the extremities. Thus, it is possible to mount any character with its centre coincident with any paid of upper and lower apertures, the apertures actually used for mounting that character depending on the nature of the character and the location of the attachment means thereon. Adjacent characters can thus be mounted on the support plate at regular spacings represented by a pitch of six spaces between adjacent apertures.Where a larger spacing is required, for example to separate the letters of a registration mark from the numerals thereof, this pitch may be increased to eight spaces. Also, where the character 1 is used either as a letter or numeral, the spacing between the centres of adjacent characters can be reduced to four spaces to take account of the narrow character. Prior to mounting any characters on the support plate, the registration mark should be considered to establish whether it has a smaller than typical number of characters or whether it incorporates the character 1 which would require less space. These criteria determine whether the first character should be mounted adjacent the left hand end of the support plate or whether it should be spaced in from the left hand end.

As best seen in Fig. 2, each fastening means 1 6 projects beyond the rear face of the support plate 11 to an extent which is less than the rearward extent of the peripheral flange 1 2. Thus, a completed number plate as described above can be mounted on a flaf surface of a vehicle in any convenient conventional way. If desired, some of the apertures 1 3 which are not used for the mounting of characters may be used to mount the number plate to a vehicle.

Alternatively, each new vehicle as manufactured may be supplied with an integral support plate with a cover sheet. This basic part of a vehicle number plate could then be incorporated as a fundamental part of the vehicle so that it would be less susceptible to damage or inadvertently falling off the vehicle.

Then, when the vehicle was registered and a registration mark allocated to the vehicle, it would be a simple matter to select the appropriate characters and mount them on the support plate from the front.

The final appearance of the number plate is as neat as conventional number plates because apertures 1 3 which are not used remain covered by the cover sheet 14 and because the pins 21 fill their holes 18 and terminate flush with the surface of the characters.

If a character becomes damaged and has to be replaced, it is a simple matter in some situations to force the pins 21 of the character concerned out of the rear of the number plate so that the damaged character can be removed and replaced. In situations where there is no space behind the number plate, the appropriate pin may be drilled out or otherwise cut away to permit removal of a damaged character.

Claims (7)

1. A vehicle registration mark display assembly comprising a support plate, an array of regularly spaced apertures in the plate, a frangible cover sheet arranged over the front surface of the plate and a series of characters for representing the registration mark, each character having fastening means for engagement with the apertures in the plate through the cover sheet to secure the character to the plate, the positions of the apertures in the plate and of the fastening means on the characters being such that any desired character combination can be secured to the plate, with the characters in desired regular positions, by engagement of the fastening means in some of the apertures.

2. A display assembly as claimed in Claim 1 in which the apertures are arranged in two parallel rows, one to coincide with the upper edge portion of each character and the other to correspond with the lower edge portion of each character.

3. A display assembly as claimed in Claim 1 or Claim 2 wherein the pitch between adjacent apertures is such as to provide one aperture at the left hand edge portion of each character, another aperture at the right hand edge portion of each character and three further equally spaced apertures therebetween.

4. A display assembly as claimed in any preceding claim wherein each fastening means incorporates a rearwardly directed generally pointed projection to facilitate piercing of the frangible cover sheet and guidance of the fastening means into the appropriate aperture.

5. A display assembly as claimed in any preceding claim wherein each fastening means is in the form of a series of rearwardly directed flexible projections closely surrounding a hole extending through the character from front to rear, the projections being of such size and in such positions as to enable them to be passed through an aperture in the support plate, a pin being provided to be passed through the hole in the character to deflect the projections outwardly and thereby prevent removal of the character.

6. A display assembly as claimed in Claim 5 in which when in position, the pin terminates substantially flush with the front face of the character to provide a neat appearance.

7. A vehicle registration mark display assembly substantially as described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.