GB2521473A - A Stencil - Google Patents

Abstract

A stencil 10 comprises at least one frame part suitable for holding in position 22, 23, 24 on a surface with a users fingers and a shaped hole 12 provided so that a surface may be marked through the shaped hole 12; preferably the frame holding portions comprise upstanding portions 15, 16, 19, 20, 21; an island 13 in the stencil 10 may be supported by a strut 14 to the frame, rather than by the conventional stencil bridges. There may be a series of stencils 10 which interlock with one another.

Description

A Stencil

Description

The invention relates to a stencil for use in marking a surface by embossing, tracing or paint-ing inside a hole in the stencil surface. Such a stencil has been available for some years, in the form of a flat meta' or plastic sheet having an array of holes, such as h&es shaped to represent the letters of the alphabet, or numbers, or pictures. Very often, for reasons of efficiency of production, the stencil sheet cannot be divided into individual letters or symbols. It is there-fore necessary to wait for paint to dry before an adjacent character can be stencilled with paint.

Economically priced single character stencils are only available in a limited number of styles and have been superceded by self adhesive characters. Signwriters can make their own sten-cils from thin flexiNe plastic hut loose parts in the character are still a problem, making many jobs that are more efficiently done by a skilled signwriter, by hand. A stencil according to the invention may be made in larger sizes, by laser cutting of material, and the loose parts may be supported behind the stencil. Lit signs may be produced by having a structure behind the stencil for containing the light source and, if required, protecting the interior of the sign by fastening a transparent cover over the open parts of the stencil. Individual stencils may have a structure behind them having locating holes, protrusions etc to hold a number of them in ac-curate alignment.

The invention will be described with reference to the diagrams: Figure 1 shows stencils or individual letters of the alphabet, figure 2 shows a perspective view of a preferred stencil for the letter g, when made using a small 3D printer. Figure 3 shows a stencil for producing the letter B a letter having two loose parts. Figure 4 shows the face of a stencil with a shaped hole and a periphery that is the same shape.

In figure iten stencils are shown, for the characters A, a, G, g, W, w, I, i, 0, o. The upper line 1 is the tallest extent of letters of the font selected, the line 2 is the alignment line for the sev eral characters and the line 3 is the lowest descender. The widest character W lies between the lines 4 on the left and 5 on the right. Thus a rectangular stencil needs to be wider than the distance 4-5 and higher than the distance 1-3. The view of the ten stencils also shows the limited size of the areas where the stencil may be held down,. On the letter I the stencil could he held down in positions 6 and 7, whereas the letter W could onbr he held down by the finger nails in areas 8 and 9. In most cases having the stencils of less than 30 mm wide could result in paint being deposited on the fingers and on the area outside the stencil face. Figure 2 shows a perspective view of a prototype stencil 10 made with a 3D printer according to the invention.

The stencil face 11 is thin (0.6mm) and contains the shaped hole 12 representing the character g The character g' contains a loose island' part 13 that is supported by the thin strut 14. The reinforcing areas 15 and 16 also define the alignment line 17 and the centre of the width of the character by the slotl8. The wings 19, 20 and 21 serve several purposes -they help to contain spread of paint, they provide upper surfaces 22, 23 and 24 that may be used to hold the stencil in position with the fingers whilst the outer surfaces 25, 26 and 27 may be used when placing and removing the stencil. The holes 28 and 29 show one means for locating adjacent stencils side to side using rods or bolts. If hole 29 were replaced by a boss (not shown) then the sten- cils would be held in alignment in the hole of an adjacent stencil without an additional com-ponent. The wing 20 also supports the upper end of the strut 14. the strut being at an angk approaching4s degrees to the horizontal to enable it to be formed in the 3D printing process without an appreciable droop In 3D printing (stereolithography) it may be neccessary to use a filler material such as wax, extruded at the same time as the build plastic, to support the strut 14. Alternative designs may employ taller wings 19, 20 and 2land different shapes of strut 14.

In figure 3 an arrangement is shown that caters for characters having more than one loose part.

The number 8' or etter B present the difficulty of having two loose parts and requiring a strut having an access between the two loose parts.

Figure 4 shows the printing face of the stencil having the shaped hole 12 in the shape of a fish and the periphery 30 is also in the shape of the fish, thus enabling the user to trace around the outer periphery 30 and to mark the same shape on the surface or sheet material underneath.

The drawings do not include every aspect of the application of the invention. Individual coin-ponents shown in the drawings are not limited to use in their drawings and they may be used in other drawings and in all aspects of the invention.

Claims (19)

1. Claims l.A stencil having at least one frame part for holding it with the lingers in an accurate posi-tion onto a surface that niay be marked through at least one shaped hole to the surface to be marked.
2. 2 A stencil according to claim 1 in which the part for holding it may a'so serve to remove the stencil easily after use.
3. 3. A stencil according to any one of the previous claims having alignment guides on at least one edge to enable it to he aligned with an adjacent stencil.
4. 4. A stencil according to any one of the previous claims having a thin flat face containing the shaped hole through which stencilling may take place.
5. 5. A stencil according to claim 4 in which the shaped hole has at least one island feature within it and that feature is held in position by a member connecting it to the frame.
6. 6. A stencil according to any of the previous claims having at least one upright pillar as part of its support relative to the frame of the stencil..
7. 7.A stencil according to any of the previous claims having at least one frame part for holding it in position with the fingers in the form of an upstanding tongue.
8. 8. A stencil according to any one of the previous claims as part of a structure containing a mul-tiplicity of stencils
9. 9. A stencil according to claim 8 having the part containing the shaped hole detachable from the structure.
10. 10. A stencil according to claim 8 having the stencil part interlocking interchangeably with the frame.
11. 11. A stencil according to any one of the previous claims having at least one interlocking fea-ture to enable different stencils to be assembled into a composite stencil.
12. 12. A stencil according to any one of the previous claims produced using a 3D printing meth-od.
13. 13. A stencil according to any one of the previous claims including at least one shaped hole representing an English alphanumeric or grammatical character.
14. 14. A stencil according to claim 13 including a shaped hole in the shape of any script form.
15. 15. A stencil according to any one of the preceding claims having a pre-determined arrange-nient of shaped holes.
16. 16. A stencil according to any one of the preceding claims having the periphery of its stencil-ling face in the form of a recognisable object or letter..
17. 17. A stencil according to claim 16 having its periphery a scaled up shape of the shaped hole in the stencil.
18. 18. A stencil according to any one of the preceding claims for marking paper or card with a liquid.
19. 19. A stencil according to any one of the preceding claims for use in making signs.