Patent Application
20150360506
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to devices for protecting framed artwork and the surface and perimetric edges of the frame.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Artwork such as paintings, drawings, photography and the like is often stretched over or around bars acting as rigid frames. The artwork may be unique and invaluable from either a financial or sentimental standpoint. It is oftentimes necessary to box the artwork for shipping, transportation or storage. All too frequently, the artwork is scratched or otherwise damaged when contacted by other frames or components with which it is shipped and sometimes damage is inflicted on the framework which itself can be very artistic and quite valuable.
In recognition of the need for protecting framed artwork and the like, many proposals have been made for protection of the frame and face of renderings and paintings. It has been proposed to provide wire clips which might clip over the corners of a picture frame to capture the respective corners of the rectangular frame for holding a covering material in position over the frame. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 467,700 to Levy. Devices of this type suffer the shortcoming that the adjacent objects may still be moved into close proximity and possibly contact and indent, scrape or otherwise damage the artwork itself.
Other efforts to provide protection for framed artwork have led to the proposal of wire clips formed for attachment to the backsides of the frames and to project over the edges of the frames themselves to form barriers at the front and sides of the frame seeking to protect the frame and purportedly allow a cloth or net covering to be stretched over the front of the artwork in hope of providing protection. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,363,010 to Brown. While providing some protection against dust and low impact contact, such devices fail to provide a sturdy, rigid barrier to positively prevent contact with the surface of the artwork around the corners and along all four sides of a frame.
Efforts have also been made to provide a somewhat sturdier device for attaching to a frame for spacing a covering from the front side of artwork and the frame. One such device includes a resilient visor device configured with a clamp like structure formed with a flange intended to fit against the inside wall from the back of the frame and to then flex and clip over the top of the frame to engage a lip with the front side of the frame to purportedly hold a curved visor in place t project forwardly of the lip. A device of this type is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,606,140.
Such devices, while beneficial for certain applications where frames are of a uniform dimension and depth, suffer the shortcoming that they are limited to only specific applications for certain frames, are not adaptable to different sizes of frames and can be readily dislodged by a jostling motion to which artwork might be exposed during movement, transportation and storage.
The apparatus of the present invention includes four orthogonal channel shaped corner devices having back walls for anchoring to the back wall of a picture frame or support and front walls spaced from the front of the frame, the corner devices being formed by legs projecting perpendicularly to terminate in ends which, when mounted on the frame are spaced apart a predetermined distance to confront one another. The apparatus further includes elongated channel shaped rails having a length of the selected distance to fit the between the confronting ends of the corner legs. Removable clips are provided for removable attaching the rails to the respective corner devices.
The artwork protector device of the present invention includes, generally, four orthogonal corner devices 21 of channel shaped construction configured with spaced apart front and back walls 23 and 25, respectively, defining U-shaped channel legs 24 and 26 terminating in respective ends 29 and 31 configured to be, when mounted on picture frame 33, spaced a predetermined distance apart. Received within the space defined by the predetermined distance are respective elongated rails 35 and 37, also of U-shaped channel construction to complement the cross sectional shape of the respective corner devices 21 and defining spaced apart front and back walls 36 and 38. The back walls of the respective corner devices and rails are secured to the back side of the picture frame 33 by means of fasteners 41 received in predrilled bores 43 (
Channel shaped, resilient clips, generally designated 45 (
Paintings, photographs, and other artwork often have substantial intrinsic and material value, oftentimes unique to the piece of work without any true replacement value. Damage to such artwork can be devastating for the owner or custodian of the artwork itself and destroy relationships and the value of an estate or collection.
Merely covering the face of the artwork itself with a cloth or the like may damage the work itself and certainly fails to protect the periphery of the frame encasing the artwork. Even bubble wrap or the like only provides a cushioning effect which, if contacted by the sharp corners or hard surfaces or adjacent objects can puncture and penetrate to the artwork itself, thus destroying the value. It is this concern to which the present invention is directed.
In one preferred embodiment of the present invention the corner pieces 25 and rails 35 and 37 are constructed of extruded ABS plastic, having sufficient rigidity so that the cowlings will be separated spaced in front of the frame 33 prevent contact by adjacent objects.
The wooden, plastic or metal frames of artwork may vary in dimension, both in plan view and in thicknesses. A frame may be about ¾ of an inch thick and may vary in width from ½ to several inches and in plan view may be, for instance, a foot to several feet on a side. To accommodate these variations in dimensions, in one preferred embodiment, we fabricate the corner devices of extruded ABS plastic formed with a channel shape to provide front and back walls 23 and 25 spaced about ⅛th inches thick and spaced apart about 3¼ inches measured to the outside. In this particular embodiment, we constructed the front and back walls 23 and 25 with a transverse length of about 3⅛th inches to provide ample length for spanning a portion of the backside of the frame 33 and to cause the front cowling wall 23 to act as a cowling wall to provide some substantial degree of protection against direct contact with the frame or the artwork.
In the exemplary embodiment, we construct the corner devices 21 with the channel shaped orthogonal legs having an overall length of about 6-9 inches. We configured the back wall 51 with a fastener groove 53 (
The back wall 25 is formed on its backside with a plurality of longitudinally projecting, parallel V-shaped index grooves 54 acting as indicia to form markers to define respective indexes for indexing the orientation of the devices on the frame 33.
Formed in spaced relation along the marginal edge of the back walls 25 are respective predrilled bores 46 for receipt of the screws 41.
As mentioned above, the rails 35 are channel shaped to complement the cross sectional shape of the respective legs of the corner devices 21. The rails are thus formed with the back walls 38 and front or cowling walls 36 connected by a return wall 65. The back walls include predrilled holes 67 spaced along the length thereof. The back walls 36 further include respective fastener grooves 71 to align with the fastener grooves 53 in the corner devices. The return wall 65 includes raised, longitudinal reinforcing index rib 73 aligned with the rib 55 of the corner devices. The elongated cowling wall 38 is formed at its free end with an in-turned latch lip 77 (
The clips 45 are about three inches long and are also constructed of extruded ABS and are likewise channel shaped in transverse cross section to complementally fit over joints between the terminal ends of the respective legs of the corner devices and the abutting ends of the rails 35 and are resilient to snap into place.
Referring to
The front walls 88 of the respective clips are formed along the interiors with respective relief grooves 89. The walls 88 are formed at their free extremities with respective inwardly directed hooks 91 configured to hook over the respective latching lips 57 and 77. Finger grasp tabs 93 project diagonally outwardly from the respective hooks 91 (
In operation, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the stretcher bars forming frames 33 on which artwork is stretched can come in many different sizes and configurations but is typically rectangular in shape defining orthogonal corners. Our invention takes advantage of this fact by packaging sets of corner devices and rails in a retail package which may include eight corner devices 21 and 4, rails 31 of selected lengths such as, for instance, 2, 3, or 4 feet in length. As will be appreciated, the rails can be cut to match the size of the particular frame. Also included in the package are four clips 45 and 20 and washerhead screws 43 to be received in the predrilled holes of the corner devices and rails for anchoring the apparatus in position.
The user will thus position the corner devices 21 on the corners of the stretcher bars defining the frame and align a selected one of the parallel incised index grooves 54 spaced from the outside edges of the respective bars defining the frame 33 to facilitate positioning and orientation of the respective corner devices with the desired standoff distally from the outside edges of the frame (
For many standard configurations of stretcher bars, the 6-9 inch runs of the legs for corner devices 21 will provide a spacing between the ends of such legs to provide a space of 2, 3, or 4 feet for receipt of rails 35 of that length. The selected rails may thus be moved into position with the respective back walls 61 positioned behind the frame 33 as at
Once the rails 35 have been positioned between the ends of the legs of the corner devices 21, the clips 45 may be aligned over the seams or joints between the ends 29 of the corner devices 21 and the respective clips moved into position with the respective flanges 83 engaged with the respective adjacent extremities of the grooves 53 and 71 so the clips may be fitted over the marginal ends of the rails and legs of the corner devices with the proximate extremities of the respective index ribs 55 and 73 received in the respective grooves 87. The front walls of such clips will thus juxtapose the cowling walls 53 to allow the respective hooks 91 to be snapped into position underneath and about the respective latching lips 57 and 77 to maintain the rails in alignment with the corner devices. As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, for artwork stretcher bars having longer lengths, two or more rails 35 may be installed in alignment with one another and additional clips 45 purchased for fastening of those rails to the respective corner devices. With the rails held in place by the respective clips 45, the washer screws 43 may be inserted through selected ones of the bores 67, with or without pilot bores in the stretcher bar frame to securely anchor the respective rails in position to positively hold the respective back anchor walls 36 in place.
With the apparatus of the present invention installed in place, it will be appreciated that the respective cowling walls 23 and 51 of the corner devices and rails 34, being stood off from the front of the frame and extended plane of the artwork, provide protection for the distal edges of the stretcher bars defining the frame 33 so that positive protection is provided for the frame 33 and the stretched artwork 40.
The artwork may then be conveniently transported or stored with the owner being secure that the artwork is protected from direct engagement by adjacent furniture, artwork, frames or the like to thus positively avoid damage to the artwork itself. When the destination is reached or the artwork retrieved from storage, the apparatus may be removed from the frame by backing out the fastener screws and the corner devices and rails stored for use in the future when other artwork is to be stored or shipped.
From the foregoing it will be appreciated that the present invention provides an ideal protective device for two dimensional artworks which is convenient to install and is relatively inexpensive to manufacture. The installation can easily be made by one person aligning the corner devices utilizing the incised index lines to facilitate spacing thereof about the periphery of the frame and convenient alignment of the rails with the respective corner devices for installation of the fastener clips and the fastener screws. The device is relatively fool proof for isolating artwork for shipping and allows for multiple pieces of artwork to be fitted in a shipping crate without concern for damage from direct contact. The device is adaptable for mounting on artwork frames of different sizes and, upon removal, can be stored and re-used at a later date. The apparatus provides such positive protection that the artwork might be shipped in moving trucks or the like without the necessity of crating or wrapping in protective wraps. If desirable, the artwork may still be wrapped and the device of the present invention will protect the wrapping from direct contact with the artwork itself.
Although the present invention has been described in detail with regard to the preferred embodiments and drawings thereof, it should be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that various adaptations and modifications of the present invention may be accomplished without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the detailed description and the accompanying drawings as set forth hereinabove are not intended to limit the breadth of the present invention.
