GB2282695A - Banner system - Google Patents

Abstract

A banner system includes a semi-rigid tape 1 of, for example, polyester. The tape 1 is horizontal and lies in a vertical plane. Suspended from the tape 1 are paperboard sheets 2 which also lie in the vertical plane and which have printed on their front faces images 3 which may, for example, be letters to make up a message. At its top, the longitudinal marginal zone 4 of each sheet 2 extending from one vertical edge thereof to the other is folded back upon itself and adhered to the back of the sheet 2. The adhesion takes place for the whole of a horizontal band between the upper horizontal cut edge 5 of the sheet and a line indicated by the dot-dash line 6. In this way, the upper horizontal edge zone of each sheet 2 is formed with a slot 7 through which the tape 1 extends and which itself extends the whole horizontal length of the sheet 2 and is very narrow horizontally and relatively wide vertically. <IMAGE>

Description

A BANNER SYSTEM A known type of banner consists of a plurality of sheets of, say, paper-board, printed on one face with the respective letters of, say, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY". Each sheet is formed in its upper horizontal edge zone with two through holes horizontally spaced apart at the same level for a cord, which serves to support all of the sheets, to be passed from the back to the front and then to the back again of the sheet. This known banner has two disadvantages.

One is that the cord can very easily tear the edges of the holes, often to the extent that the cord is torn out of the sheet. Another problem is that the sheets, especially those in the centre of the banner, tend to bend about the vertical and thus spoil the effect of the banner.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner system, comprising an elongate semirigid element and at least one sheet formed along its upper horizontal edge zone with slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally for receiving said element therethrough so that said element extends along said zone.

Since the elongate element is semi-rigid, the element can be relatively easily pushed horizontally through the slot means.

The semi-rigid element advantageously takes the form of a tape and the slot means is preferably of a horizontal transverse dimension not significantly greater than that of the thickness dimension of the tape. Thus, as considered in a horizontal transverse direction, the slot means receives the tape closely. Thereby, with the semi-rigid tape extending horizontally but lying in a vertical plane, the sheet(s) is/are encouraged to lie in the vertical plane.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a banner system, comprising an elongate flexible element and at least one sheet formed along its upper horizontal edge zone with slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally for receiving said element therethrough so that said element extends along said upper horizontal edge zone, the uppermost boundary of said slot means being closed for substantially the whole length of said upper horizontal edge zone.

In this way, the or each sheet is supported by the flexible element for at least a substantial part of the whole horizontal length of the sheet. The spreading of the contact between the sheet and the flexible element over at least a substantial part of that length of the element within the sheet helps to reduce the risk of the element tearing the sheet.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided in combination, a container and a banner system contained therein, said banner system comprising an elongate flexible element and a plurality of sheets receiving said flexible element along their respective upper horizontal edge zones, said sheets being arranged in a bunch with said flexible element winding through the bunch, and at least some of said sheets carrying letters of the alphabet which, when said banner system is removed from said container and spread, spell a greeting.

Owing to this aspect of the invention, the banner system can be equivalent to a boxed greetings card.

In order that the invention may be clearly understood and readily carried into effect, reference will now be made, by way of example, to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view from above of a banner, Figure 2 shows a fragmentary, vertical, cross-section through an upper longitudinal edge zone of a sheet of the banner and taken on the line II-II of Figure 1, Figure 3 is a view similar to Figure 2, but of a modification, and Figure 4 is a perspective view from above of a boxed banner.

Referring to Figures 1 and 2, the banner includes a semi-rigid tape 1 of, for example, polyester. The tape may be of the character conventionally used for fixing articles to pallets, for example. The tape 1 is horizontal and lies in a vertical plane. Suspended from the tape 1 are a plurality of sheets 2 of paperboard which also lie in the vertical plane and which have printed on their front faces images 3 which may, for example, be letters to make up a message, as shown. At its top, the longitudinal marginal zone 4 of each sheet 2 extending from one vertical edge thereof to the other is folded back upon itself and glued to the back of the sheet 2. The adhesion takes place for the whole of a horizontal band between the upper horizontal cut edge 5 of the sheet and a line indicated by the dot-dash line 6, so that a horizontal, elongate portion 4a is adhered to the back of the sheet 2 and a horizontal elongate portion 4b remains unadhered thereto. In this way, the upper horizontal edge zone of each sheet 2 is formed with a slot 7 which extends the whole horizontal length of the sheet 2 and is very narrow horizontally and relatively wide vertically.

The slot 7 itself thus lies in the vertical plane.

To assemble the banner, the tape 1 has its leading end simply brought to lie in the plane of the slot 7 and is then pushed through each slot 7 in turn until the complete message has been made. It is important that the tape 1 should be semi-rigid, since this greatly facilitates pushing of the tape through each slot 7. Moreover, with the tape 1 relatively tightly stretched between two supports, each sheet 2 is supported by the tape 1 over substantially the whole of the horizontal length of that sheet, so that there is a good distribution of load over substantially the whole horizontal length of the sheet, thus minimising the risk of tearing of the sheet 2 by the tape 1.

If desired, the lower horizontal edge zones of each sheet 2 may be folded back upon themselves and adhered to themselves, to form thin slots corresponding to the slots 7, and a second horizontal tape identical to the tape 1 passed therethrough, so that the sheets 2 are mounted between two horizontal, semi-rigid tapes.

Although the fold at the very top of the sheet 2 in the embodiment of Figures 1 and 2 can be formed so that the upper boundary of the slot 7 is of an inverted U-shape, the tapered lower boundary of the slot 7 can have the disadvantages that the tape 1 being pushed through the slot 7 tends to jam in the tapered lower boundary of the slot and even in raw glue at the very bottom of that boundary and that, especially after some use, the tape 1 can twist in the slot 7. These disadvantages can be overcome as shown in Figure 3 by folding the zone 4 back upon itself twice, so that approximately the portion 4a is tucked in behind approximately the portion 4b,to give substantially a U-shape to both the upper and lower boundaries of the slot, with the portion 4a being glued to the back of the sheet 2. The slot can be dimensioned so that those U-shape boundaries fairly closely receive the upper and lower edges of the tape 1, so that twisting of the tape in the slot 7 is more firmly resisted. The arrangement shown in Figure 3 may of course be applied in an inverted form to the lower longitudinal edge zone of each sheet 2.

The band or bands of glue in the versions of Figures 2 and 3 may be covered with peelable layers removable prior to adhesion.

As shown in Figure 4, a small-sized banner substantially according to Figures 1 and 2 or Figures 1 and 3, except that the semi-rigid tape 1 is replaced by a readily flexible tape 1', may be placed in a box-form container 9 with the sheets 2 stacked one upon another.

The tape 1' extends through the slots 7 of all of the sheets 2 in turn and thus meanders through the stack of sheets 2.

The tape 1' has free end zones 1" whereby a recipient can lift the banner out of the container 9 and spread it to display a greeting, for example "HAPPY BIRTHDAY", spelled out by the sheets 2. One of the sheets 2 may have at its front a space reserved for the purchaser to write a message to the intended recipient. Thus, the banner can be considered as equivalent to a boxed greetings card.

Claims (23)

1. A banner system, comprising an elongate semi-rigid element and at least one sheet formed along its upper horizontal edge zone with slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally for receiving said element therethrough so that said element extends along said zone.

2. A system according to claim 1, wherein the uppermost boundary of said slot means is of inverted, substantially Ushape.

3. A system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the lowermost boundary of said slot means is of substantially Ushape.

4. A system according to claim 2 or 3, wherein both lateral boundaries of said slot means are formed by said sheet, at least one of said lateral boundaries being formed by a folded-over, elongate part of the upper horizontal edge zone of said sheet.

5. A system according to any preceding claim, wherein the uppermost boundary of said slot means is closed for substantially the whole length of said upper horizontal edge zone.

6. A system according to any preceding claim, and further comprising a second elongate semi-rigid element, said sheet being formed along its lower horizontal edge zone with second slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally for receiving the second element therethrough so that said second element extends along said lower horizontal edge zone.

7. A system according to claim 6, wherein the lowermost boundary of said second slot means is of substantially Ushape.

8. A system according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the uppermost boundary of said second slot means is of inverted, substantially U-shape.

9. A system according to claim 7 or 8, wherein both lateral boundaries of said second slot means are formed by said sheet, at least one of said lateral boundaries of said second slot means being formed by a folded-over, elongate portion of the lower horizontal edge zone of said sheet.

10. A system according to any one of claims 6 to 9, wherein the lowermost boundary of said second slot means is closed for substantially the whole length of said lower horizontal edge zone.

11. A banner system, comprising an elongate flexible element and at least one sheet formed along its upper horizontal edge zone with slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally for receiving said element therethrough so that said element extends along said upper horizontal edge zone, the uppermost boundary of said slot means being closed for substantially the whole length of said upper horizontal edge zone.

12. A system according to claim 11, and further comprising a second elongate semi-rigid element, said sheet being formed along its lower horizontal edge zone with second slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally for receiving the second element therethrough so that said second element extends along said lower horizontal edge zone.

13. A system according to claim 12, wherein the lowermost boundary of said second slot means is closed for substantially the whole length of said lower horizontal edge zone.

14. In combination, a container and a banner system contained therein, said banner system comprising an elongate flexible element and a plurality of sheets receiving said flexible element along their respective upper horizontal edge zones, said sheets being arranged in a bunch with said flexible element winding through the bunch, and at least some of said sheets carrying letters of the alphabet which, when said banner system is removed from said container and spread, spell a greeting.

15. A combination according to claim 14, wherein said elongate flexible element has a free end zone which may be pulled by a recipient to lift said banner system from said container.

16. A combination according to claim 14 or 15, wherein one of said sheets has a space reserved for writing of a message by a purchaser.

17. A combination according to claim 14, 15, or 16, wherein each sheet is formed along its upper horizontal edge zone with slot means open at its ends and substantially closed peripherally and receiving said element so that said element extends along said zone.

18. A combination according to claim 17, wherein the uppermost boundary of each slot means is closed for substantially the whole length of the upper horizontal edge zone of its sheet.

19. A system according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the uppermost boundary of each slot means is of substantially U-shape.

20. A system according to claim 17, 18, or 19, wherein the lowermost boundary of each slot means is of inverted, substantially U-shape.

21. A system according to claim 19 or 20, wherein both lateral boundaries of each slot means are formed by its sheet, at least one of said lateral boundaries of each slot means being formed by a folded-over, elongate portion of the upper horizontal edge zone of its sheet.

22. A banner system, substantially in accordance with any example hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

23. In combination, a container and a banner system, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 4 of the accompanying drawings.