GB2349729A

GB2349729A - Improvements to replaceable advertising materials

Info

Publication number: GB2349729A
Application number: GB0006436A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Mark Stanley; Neil Charlesworth Howe; B Harrington
Original assignee: TSA Ltd
Current assignee: TSA Ltd
Priority date: 1999-03-17
Filing date: 2000-03-17
Publication date: 2000-11-08
Also published as: GB0006436D0

Abstract

The apparatus (1) for removably attaching advertising material to the side of a freight transport container has a receiving member (18) and a sheet of primarily plastics material (23), the receiving member (18) and the sheet (23) being linked together by fastening means (20, 24). The receiving member (18) and the sheet (23) are secured at each in use vertical edge to a bar (25). Securing to the bar (25) is achieved by means of replaceable rivets. One or more of the bars (25) is rotatable in order to achieve the desired tension. The receiving member (18) and the sheet (23) may be linked together by means of a link mechanism.

Description

IMPROVEMENTS TO REPLACEABLE ADVERTISING MATERIALS Field of the Invention The present invention relates to apparatus for de-mountably attaching advertising material to an advertising medium. More particularly, the invention related to materials which are easily mountable and de-mountable from advertising media including freight transporters (for example, a road haulage, sea-going or air transport freight container) and/or non-temporary road-side advertising panel.

Background Art Known to the Applicant In the following description, reference to bill-boards and other specific advertising media are not intended to be limiting to the identified media.

The current methods of advertising matter on permanently-erected, purpose-built advertising bill-boards or other permanent structures that could conceivably act as a bill-board, for example, the walls of houses or offices, can involve the pasting of a number of sheets of paper onto the bill-board in a particular order, the completed sheets of paper forming the finished advertising material.

Alternatively, such advertising material may be painted directly onto the permanent structure. Either procedure is time consuming, the former presenting the possible problem that the sheets could be placed out of sequence, thereby ruining the overall form of advertising.

Furthermore, the advertising of matter on the sides of freight transporters, for example, road haulage freight transport containers has traditionally been of the semi-permanent painted advertising kind on the side and/or rear of the transport container body. As a form of advertising, this is extremely valued, nevertheless, it has several problems, most notably, it cannot be easily removed and is expensive to apply in the first place and each time the freight transport container is cleaned, there is a possibility of part of the advertising being either worn down or off.

Once this occurs, because of the expense associated with re-applying the fully painted advert on to the side of the freight transport container, it is usually left in this dilapidated state which is detrimental to the overall impression and effect of the advertising campaign.

Furthermore, the speed with which advertising now needs to be both seen and changed given other forms of available advertising media (for example, the Internet), has meant that the semi-permanent nature of bill-board or freight transport container advertising is now a problem. It is increasingly necessary to change more rapidly the nature of this type of advertising, and it is an object of the present invention to alleviate this and the other problems associated with this type of advertising medium outlined herein above.

Summary of the Invention According to the invention there is provided apparatus for removably attaching advertising material to the side of a freight transport container or vehicle, the apparatus comprising : a receiving member, integral with the side of the freight transporter ; a sheet of plastics material so sized and shaped to span a substantial portion of the side of the freight transporter, the sheet being linked to the receiving member by a fastening means adapted to link the sheet edges to the receiving member, the apparatus further comprising tensioning means acting in a horizontal plane to tension the receiving member and the sheet in said horizontal plane.

Advantageously, the tensioning means comprises a substantially vertically aligned rod or pole secured to each in use vertical edge of the sheet and/or receiving member.

The or each rod or pole preferably has a number of apertures along its length to receive rivets.

The sheet and receiving member are preferably secured to the or each rod or pole by means of rivet.

The fastening means is advantageously a zip mechanism.

Preferably, at least one of the rods or poles is rotatable, its rotation producing a horizontal tension across the sheet and receiving member. The rotation of the rod or pole is conveniently achieved using a ratchet and pawl mechanism.

The invention includes within its scope advertising material formed as sheet material adapted to operably engage one or more receiving members mountable on a freight transporter, the material having fastening means along its edges, adapted to link with the receiving means, the material including tension means receivers for engagement by tensioning means to tension said material in use.

Brief Description of the Drawings Preferred embodiments of the invention will now be more particularly described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying sheets of drawings wherein: Figure 1 illustrates a perspective view of apparatus for attaching an advertisement according to the prior art; Figure 2 illustrates a perspective view of an alternative apparatus for attaching an advertisement according to the prior art; Figure 3 illustrates a perspective view of yet further apparatus for attaching an advertisement according to the prior art; Figure 4 illustrates a perspective view of Figure 3 in its closed or sealed position ; Figure 5 illustrates a front view of an embodiment of the present invention comprising two items zipped together; Figure 6 illustrates a front view of one of the items shown in Figure 5 in its completely unfurled state; Figure 7 shows a side view of that which is illustrated in Figure 6; Figure 8 illustrates a front view of the second item shown in Figure 5 in its unfurled state ; Figure 9 shows a side view of that which is illustrated in Figure 8; Figure 10 shows a front view of a curtain-sided vehicle incorporating one embodiment of the present invention in its in use state ; Figure 11 shows the embodiment illustrated in Figure 10 being"zipped-up"using a cord being pulled by an operator; Figure 12 shows in more detail that which is shown in Figures 10 and 11 i. e. one end of the curtain sided vehicle illustrating the zip and the demountable zip-puller ; Figure 13 shows the opposing end of that which is shown in the present figure; Figure 14 shows the zip fastener in the embodiment incorporated by the previous four figures being pulled by hand ; and Figure 15 shows the end stop of the zip fastener at the lower end of the embodiment shown above in its fully opened state.

Description of the Preferred Embodiments Throughout this specification, the term"substantial"is intended to cover, of course, 50% or more of a particular area but in this particular patent specification, we also wish the term to include areas which may be as little as, for example, 10% of the side of a freight transport container or non-temporary road-side advertising panel but which by comparison with such well known relative comparatives such as warning labels (e. g. hazardous chemical warning labels etc) are indeed substantial.

Furthermore, throughout this specification, the term non-temporary road-side advertising panel is intended to positively exclude those types of advertising panel (for example, illustrating the"National Lottery") that are placed on the ground outside shop fronts during the day and taken inside the shop to prevent them being stolen, at night time. The term is also intended to positively exclude forms of road-side advertising associated with, for example, fast-foods and the like served from road-going vehicles parked in lay-bys or at the road-side. The term is intended to cover those forms of permanent road-side advertising panel that are not only purpose-built as road-side advertising panels, but also any form of permanent structure that could act as an advertising panel or bill-board, e. g., the side of a building capable of being used for advertising purposes.

Furthermore, the term paper is intended to include paper of a thickness that the reader is now holding in his hands, but it is also intended to cover corrugated cardboard, thick card, plastics coated paper and the like.

Figures 1 to 4 show apparatus known in the art for demountably attaching an advertisement.

Figure I shows apparatus designed to de-mountably attach a single sheet of advertising material to a freight transport container or non-temporary road-side advertising panel and this is generally referenced 1.

The apparatus 1 comprises a receiving member 5 that is designed to be permanently fixed to a freight transport container or non-temporary road-side advertising panel via a number of screws (not illustrated). The receiving member 5 comprises a single sheet 3 of transparent polyvinyl chloride (PVC) of the type normally found as strips hung from the ceiling of hospital corridors to act as both draft-excluders and rapidly moveable doorways for the transportation of patients in an emergency. This form of plastics sheeting is integral with the receiving member 5 along its top edge 4, the other edges being de-mountably attachable to the receiving member 5 via the Velcro TM strips 2 found along the three remaining sides of the receiving member 5. The Velcro strips 2 mate with the three peripheral edges of the PVC sheet 3 through the use of complementary Velcro TM material that is found along the exterior peripheral surface edge of the PVC sheet 3. The method of attachment of the Velcro 2 to the sheet 3 is illustrated by the arrows given the label"A" A one-piece sheet of paper containing the advertising material ("the sheet"-not illustrated) is slipped onto the face of the receiving member 5 prior to the PVC sheet 3 being brought down from its raised position, (see Fig. 1) so as to overlie the sheet in use prior to the PVC sheet 3 then being secured to the receiving member 5 via the Velcro TM strips 2.

It will be noted that the top edge 4 of the PVC sheet 3 is in non-parallel alignment with the top edge of the receiving member 5. This enables for example, rain water, to run-off the top edge 4 of the PVC sheet 3 in bad weather. This is particularly useful in both a moving and static form of the apparatus 1. The static form, of course being that being fitted to a bill-board whilst the moving version covers freight transport containers. For the avoidance of doubt, when the apparatus 1 is fitted to freight transport containers, the direction of travel of the freight transport container when moving is denoted by the arrow and"B"in Figure 1 and the angle"theta"denotes the angle created by the top edge 4 with respect to the top edge of the receiving member 5, the theta angle being the runoff angle.

Figure 2 illustrates an alternative form of the apparatus 1. Once again, the apparatus is generally denoted by the reference numeral 1 and comprises a PVC sheet 7 three of the peripheral edges 9 of which are permanently bonded to the receiving member 5 leaving one edge open to enable the PVC sheet 7 to act as a pocket, the entrance of which is denoted by the reference numeral 8. The entrance 8 of this pocket is scalable to the receiving member 5 via a number of press studs 13, the female portions of the press studs being located along the exterior peripheral entrance of the pocket 8 of the PVC sheet 7 whilst the mating male press stud portions are located along the interior peripheral entrance to the pocket 8, permanently fitted to the receiving member 5.

The lower representation in Figure 2 comprises a sheet of paper 12 with advertising material on it permanently sealed and sandwiched between two sheets of plastics material, in this particular instance, polyethylene, to form a one-piece sheet of primarily plastics material 10 with a permanently sealed plastics border 11 to prevent any ingress of dirt, water, or the like into the advertising and spoiling the advertising material on the sheet of paper 12. This one-piece sheet of primarily plastics material 10 is inserted into the pocket as shown, before the press-studs 13 seal the entrance of the pocket.

Certain types of freight transport containers of the road haulage kind comprise a well-known form of freight transport container body known as a"curtain-sider" transport container body. The receiving member 5 of both of the illustrated Figures could be fitted to such a curtain-sided vehicle. If such an arrangement were to take place, certain modifications would need to be carried out to the illustrated embodiments. For example, the rear of the curtain that the receiving member 5 overlies, may possibly need ventilation apertures within it.

Furthermore, the receiving member 5 would need to be so designed from resiliently flexible material to withstand the vertical"tensioning"of the curtainsided transport container body prior to transportation. The vertical tensioning could be sufficient to effectively seal the entrance 8 of the pocket illustrated in Figure 2 without the need of press studs 13.

Figures 3 and 4 illustrate yet a further prior art apparatus, Figure 3 being a nonsealed view and Figure 4 illustrating a sealed view. For the avoidance of doubt, both views in Figures 3 and 4 are seen from the inside of the freight transport container, in particular in this embodiment, the freight transport container is a curtain-sided vehicle.

In this particular apparatus, the receiving member 5 again comprises a single sheet 3 of transparent PVC, all four edges of the PVC sheet being welded to the rest of the receiving member 5 to form a weather resistant transparent barrier onto which advertising material can be placed.

As can be seen, there is also a non-transparent draw down cover 15 formed from the same material that a normal curtain-sided vehicle-curtain is made from which is pulled down (as shown in Figure 4) once the 1-piece sheet of paper containing the advertising material (not illustrated) is put in place. It can also be seen that the receiving member 5 comprises standard apertures 16 and that there are complementary apertures on the draw down sheet 15 which are so sized and shaped as to accommodate standard buckles used to secure the curtain to the body of the freight transport container during freight transport.

In a particularly preferred embodiment as shown in Figure 5, a curtain-sided vehicle incorporates a curtain of the type generally referenced 17. The curtain 17 comprises a receiving member 18 and a sheet 23 formed primarily of plastics material on which an advertisement may be printed or otherwise displayed. Both the receiving member 18 and the sheet 23 are formed from standard curtain-side open material. Figure 5 illustrates how the receiving member 18 and the sheet 23 are linked together. Linkage is provided using a zip fastener 20,24. One half of the zip fastener 20 is integral with the receiving member 18 whilst the other half of the zip fastener 24 is integral with the sheet 23.

When the curtain 17 is in use, the receiving member 18 and the sheet 23 are further linked together via an aluminium bar 25. The aluminium bar 25 is aperture along its length, the apertures being so sized and shaped as to receive a number of rivets, formed of a plastics material. The rivets (not illustrated) pass through apertures located along the length of the sleeve 19 of the receiving member 18 and complementary apertures are located down the width of the sheet 23. The rivets secure the sheet 23 and the receiving member 18 to the aluminium bar 25. They can however be relatively easily knocked out to release the sheet 23 from the receiving member 18, when the advertisement on the side of the vehicle is to be changed. When a replacement sheet 23 is in place, rivets are used to secure this replacement sheet 23 in position. It can of course be contemplated that a sheet 23 can have an advertisement on each of its two sides, in which case the sheet is simply turned over.

Once the sheet 23 is zipped to the receiving member 18, the buckles 22 fitted to straps 21 which are integral with the receiving member 18 are tightened to vertically tension the curtain 17 when the curtain 17 is fitted to a curtain-sided vehicle. The sleeves 19 pass through poles (not illustrated) located at either end of the curtain-sided vehicle, one of the poles being fitted with a ratchet and pawl mechanism to horizontally tension the curtain 17 once the sheet 23 has been zipped to the receiving member 18.

Figure 6 illustrates the receiving member 18 devoid of the sheet 23 and the apertures 26 that run the length of each respective sleeve 19 can be clearly seen.

Turning to Figure 8, the aluminium bar 25 has a number of complementary apertures 26. The apparatus as described herein can also be employed where buckles curtains are used.

Both the receiving member 18 and the sheet 23 are formed from canvas material of the type typically used for curtain-sided vehicles. Due to the inherent flexibility of these materials, the invention may also be used to display an advertisement on curved surfaces as well as substantially flat surfaces of the type described herein (for example, on the wall of a curtain-sided vehicle). In alternative embodiments, integral zips running from top to bottom of the receiving member 18 and the sheet 23 can be employed An array of hooks 22 are fitted to standard raves and no additional rails need to be put into place to support the receiving member 18 in use. The use of industry standard fitments is important, as the use of such standards normally results in cost savings. Moreover, the lack of need for additional rails means that the overall weight of the vehicle is kept to a minimum. This means that more payload can be carried for the same overall gross tonnage (vehicle plus payload).

For the avoidance of doubt, the receiving member 18 is pliable/flexible and can be easily folded back onto itself Finally, in the embodiment illustrated in Figures 5 to 15, buckles only occur along the bottom edge of the receiving member 18 which is typical of curtain-sided vehicles. The use of the aluminium bar 25 ensures that in use, airflow along the face of the sheet 23, for example caused by movement of the vehicle does not cause billowing of the sheet 23. In fact in use, the aluminium bar 25 is not seen as it is located towards the rear of the receiving member 18. Furthermore, the zipped sheet 23 forms a relatively airtight seal for the receiving member 18, thus preventing air from entering behind the sheet 23 and causing it to billow.

Of course, the embodiments that have been described are by way of example only and further alternative embodiments that are not illustrated could be included without departing from the scope of the original invention. For example, the receiving member 5 along its top and bottom edges could be fitted with one half of a suitable zip fastener, each"half'comprising one set of"teeth"of the zip fastener. The complementary half set of"teeth"for each of the two zip fasteners would be fitted to the top and bottom edges of the one-piece sheet of primarily plastics material 10. Such an arrangement would literally allow advertising to be zipped to the side of freight transport containers or non-temporary road-side advertising panels. Having provided the person skilled in the art with the realisation that plastics materials used in a completely different field and for a completely different purpose (the National Health Service (see page 5 of the specification)), could be used in the field of protection for advertising material, plastics other than PVC could, in principle be used and these materials can be selected without further inventive thought by the intended skilled addressee of this specification. The methods of manufacturing such materials, will similarly present no problem to the person skilled in the art and need not be discussed here.

Furthermore, the lower representation in Figure 2 could comprise a flexible sheet of plastics material enabling the advertising material to be"rolled-up"for storage and transportation when not in use. In addition, the advertising material could be printed directly onto a sheet of plastics material instead of being sandwiched between two sheets of plastics material.

In addition to zip-fastenings other fastenings means known to those skilled in the art may also be used to fasten the receiving member 18 to the sheet 23. For example, the sheet 23 may be provided with beading along its channel or other retaining means on the receiving member to hold the sheet 23 in position.

Appropriate glass transition temperatures for such plastics materials mentioned in this specification will also be known to the person skilled in the art.

It will of course be understood that the present invention is not limited by the specific details described herein, which are given by way of example only, and that various modifications and alterations are possible within the scope of the appendedclaims.

Claims

Claims 1. Apparatus for removably attaching advertising material to the side of a freight transport container or vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a receiving member integral with the side of a freight transporter; a sheet of plastics material so sized and shaped to span a substantial portion of the side of a freight transporter ; the sheet being linked to the receiving member by a fastening means adapted to link the sheet edges to the receiving member; the apparatus further comprising horizontal tensioning means acting in a horizontal plane to tension the receiving member and the sheet in said horizontal plane.
2. Apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tensioning means comprises a substantially vertically aligned rod or pole secured to each in use vertical edge of the sheet and/or receiving member.
3. Apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the or each rod or pole comprises a number of apertures along its length.
4. Apparatus according to either claim 2 or 3, wherein the sheet and receiving member are secured to the or each rod or pole by means of rivets.
5. Apparatus according to any of claims 2 to 4, wherein at least one of the rods or poles is rotatable to produce horizontal tension across the sheet and receiving member.
6. Apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the rotation of the rod or pole is achieved out using a ratchet and pawl mechanism.
7. Apparatus according to any preceding claim wherein the fastening means is a zip mechanism.
8. Apparatus for removably attaching advertising material to the side of a freight transport container, substantially as herein described with reference to and as illustrated in any one of Figures 5 to 15 of the accompanying drawings.
9. Advertising material formed as sheet material adapted to operably engage one or more receiving members mountable on a freight transporter, the material having fastening means along its edges, adapted to link with the receiving means, the material including tension means receivers for engagement by tensioning means to tension said material in use.