Protection of posterboard inventory

Abstract

A display rack for displaying one or more sheets of posterboard or other similar sheet material has vertical columns supporting vertically spaced apart tiers, each tier having a perimeter frame having side rails secured to and supported by the vertical columns and front and rear rails. Corner guards are secured to the perimeter frame at the intersections of the side rails and the front and rear rails and positioned for respectively receiving a corner of the posterboard, each corner guard having a bottom wall, a side wall, an end wall deployed for holding posterboard on the tier. Corner guards at the rear corners have side walls that taper or flare outwardly. Clips adapt the corner guards for retrofitting to display racks.

Description

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The invention herein relates to a method and apparatus for protecting posterboard inventory in display racks at the point of sale.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Posterboard is a relatively thick, substantially rigid paperboard sheet product often used to display information. It is typically about 0.10 to 0.20 inches thick and provided in 22″×28″ sheets, although other thicknesses and sizes are also sometimes provided. Posterboard has at least one and preferably two finished surfaces on which indicia or graphic information may be written or applied and presented. The surfaces are either white or colored and may be provided with a different color on the respective opposite sides as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,598.

Posterboard is offered for sale in wire-form display racks. Such display racks have four vertical wire columns and a series of vertically spaced-apart wire tiers, each tier accepting a plurality of sheets of posterboard. The tiers are also wire forms, typically having a wire perimeter frame secured to the four vertical wire columns, and further having intermediate wire sheet support struts spanning the perimeter frame from back to front. The tiers are angled downwardly from back to front of the display rack, and adjacent sheet support struts are joined by vertical stops at the front of the tier, such that one or more sheets of posterboard are retained on the tier notwithstanding the downward angle of the tier.

A typical display rack may have ten or more tiers. Some display racks have tiers that are deeper than they are wide, and have the shorter edges of the sheets of posterboard adjacent the vertical stops. Other display racks are wider than they are deep, and have the longer edges of the sheets of posterboard adjacent the vertical stops at the front of the tray.

Sheets of posterboard are loaded into the trays by stockers at the retail location. The posterboard may be sorted by color, with a different color in each tray, or may be mixed. Of course, if the posterboard has a different color on its respective sides, only one color is visible in the tray. Customers often remove several sheets of posterboard from the tier to select a sheet of posterboard for purchase and replace those sheets of posterboard that are not selected for purchase, and may mix the colors in doing so.

In the course of loading the posterboard, and in the course of the customer selecting one or more posterboard for purchase and replacing any sheets of posterboard that are not selected, the corners and edges of the sheets of posterboard are often damaged, primarily through contact with the vertical columns of the display rack. The possibility of damage is exacerbated in that customers are aware of the problem and often remove and replace several sheets of posterboard in an effort to find a sheet of posterboard that is undamaged. Retailers have reported that the amount of posterboard that becomes unsaleable as a result of display rack damage is on the order of thirty percent. This situation has existed for years, but has not been overcome.

Therefore, protection of posterboard in display racks would be a very welcome advance.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The principal object of the invention herein is to protect posterboard at the point of sale.

It is an additional object of the invention herein to protect posterboard at the point of sale in wire form display racks.

In carrying out the invention herein, three-wall corner guards are secured to a tier of a wire form display rack, and are positioned to respectively receive and protect the corners of one or a stack of sheets of posterboard displayed on the tier. Each corner guard has a bottom wall, a side wall and an end wall and is adapted for mounting on a tier of a wire form display rack. Two corner guards deployed at the rear of the tier are sized, configured and positioned to prevent damaging contact between a rear vertical column of the display rack and corners of a sheet of posterboard being inserted onto the tier of the display rack. Two corner guards deployed at the front of the tier prevent damaging contact between a front vertical column of the display rack and corners of a sheet of posterboard being inserted onto the tier of the display rack.

In one aspect of the invention, the distal ends of the side walls of the corner guards mounted at the rear of the tier are tapered or flared, to guide the posterboard into the corner guard.

In other aspects of the invention, the corner guards are releasably attached to the wire form display rack. In a particular aspect of the invention, C-shaped clips of the respective corner guards releasably engage the perimeter frame of a tier of the display rack, and the bottom walls of the respective corner guards overlie a respective side of the perimeter frame to support the corner guard in its desired orientation. The clips may include two spaced-apart C-shaped clips. This permits the corner guards to be retrofitted on existing display racks. The corner guards may also be permanently attached to the display rack.

In another aspect of the invention, the corner guards at the front of a tier are mounted to position the front edge of a posterboard spaced from vertical wire-form stops of the display rack, to also protect the front edge of the posterboard from contact therewith.

Other and more specific objects and features of the invention herein will appear in the following detailed description of the invention and claims, taken together with the drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, partially cut away, of corner guards according to the invention secured on a wire-form display rack for displaying posterboard;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a corner guard according to the invention;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of another corner guard according to the invention herein;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the display rack of FIG. 1 having corner guards, secured thereon with posterboard supported on the upper tier of the display rack; and

FIG. 5 is a top view of another corner guard according to the invention. The same reference numerals refer to the same elements throughout the various figures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a wire-form display rack 10 having corner guards 12, 14, 16 and 18 attached thereto.

The display rack 10 is of the type widely used at retail locations that sell posterboard. It generally comprises four vertical wire columns 20, 21, 22 and 23 extending upwardly from a base, not shown, that sits on a floor or shelf. The upper ends of columns 20 and 21 are connected by a cross-member 24, and columns 22 and 23 are connected by a cross-member 26. The display rack 10 has a series of vertically spaced-apart wire tiers, with tiers 30 and 32 being shown in FIG. 1. It will be understood that the display rack 10 has additional tiers that are not shown in FIG. 1 for simplicity of illustration.

The tier 30 has a perimeter frame 34 which consists of a front rail 36, a rear rail 38, a side rail 40 which is secured to the vertical columns 20 and, 21, and a side rail 42 which is secured to the vertical columns 22, 23. The tier 30 also includes sheet support struts 44 and 46 and sheet support struts 50 and 52 extending between the front rail 36 and rear rail 38. Sheet support struts 44 and 46 are connected by a U-shaped vertical stop 48 and support struts 50 and 52 are connected by a vertical panel stop 54, as an alternative to the U-shaped wire stop 48. A typical display rack would have either two U-shaped stops or two panel stops, but the display rack 10 is shown with one of each to illustrate the two types of stops. The U-shaped wire stop 48 may leave impressions in the front edge of posterboard placed in the display rack 10, and a pad may be provided in accordance with one aspect of the invention herein. An additional support strut 56 is centrally located, but has no stop associated with it so that front edges of sheets of posterboard received on the tier are available to be gripped by a prospective purchaser. The tiers 30, 32 are angled downwardly from the rear to the front of the display rack 10, to better display posterboard and to help maintain the posterboard at the front of the display rack 10.

The corner guards 12, 14, 16 and 18 are respectively mounted at the corners of the perimeter frame 34 of tier 30. With reference to FIG. 2, corner guard 12 is illustrated. It has a bottom wall 60, a side wall 62 upstanding from the bottom wall, and an end wall 64. In the embodiment shown, the end wall 64 is connected to both the bottom wall 60 and sidewall 62, but it may be connected to only one of them. Two spaced-apart C-shaped clips 66 and 68 are secured to one of the bottom wall or side wall, or to the intersection thereof in the embodiment shown. The C-shaped clips 66, 68 are flexible, and as illustrated in FIG. 1, snap over and embrace the side rail of 40 perimeter frame 34 to attach the corner guard 12 thereto. When so attached, the bottom wall 60 of the corner guard 12 overlies the front rail 36 to orient the corner guard 12 on the perimeter frame 34; namely, with the bottom wall 60 aligned with the support wires 44, 46, etc. With continued reference to FIG. 1, clip 68 is attached to side rail 42 at the intersection with front rail 36, which positions the end wall 64 of the corner guard 12 in alignment with the U-shaped stop 48. The clip 68 may also position the end wall 64 spaced slightly upwardly and rearwardly on the tier 30 from U-shaped stop 48, so that the front edge of a sheet of posterboard does not touch the U-shaped stop 48.

With reference to FIG. 3, corner guard 14 is similar to corner guard 12 having a bottom wall 70, side wall 72 and end wall 74; however, the sidewall 72 preferably tapers outwardly to distal end 73. The corner guard 14 also has C-shaped clips 76 and 78 for attaching the corner guard 14 to side rail 40 at the rear of tier 30, with the bottom wall 60 overlying the rear rail 38 of the perimeter frame 34, as shown in FIG. 1. The end wall 74 is positioned at the rear of the tier 30. It will be noted that the side wall 72 of the corner guard 14 extends forwardly from the vertical column 21, i.e., the distal end 73 is disposed closer to the front rail 36.

Corner guard 16 may have a mirror image configuration with respect to corner guard 12, which adapts it for mounting on side rail 42 with its bottom wall 74 overlying the front rail 36 of the perimeter frame 34 as shown in FIG. 1. The corner guard 18 has a mirror image configuration with respect to the corner guard 14, which adapts it for mounting to side rail 42 at the rear of tier 30, as also shown in FIG. 1. It has bottom wall 80, side wall 82 which tapers outwardly to distal end 83 and end wall 84.

With respect to corner guards 14 and 18, because the sidewalls 72 and 82 taper outwardly to distal ends 73 and 82, there is additional width between the distal ends 73, 83 of sidewalls 72 and 82 for receiving and guiding the corners of a posterboard into the corner guards 14 and 18. Although this configuration is not required on the corner guards 12 and 16 at the front of the display rack 10, it may be used so that the same molds may be used to make the front and rear corner guards.

The corner guards 12, 14, 16 and 18 and the C-shaped clips secured thereto are preferably formed of a polymer. The clips are preferably separately formed and attached to the remainder of the corner guards by sonic welding, heat welding or the like. The clips permit the corner guards 12, 14, 16 and 18 to be retrofitted to existing display racks 10. Alternatively, the display rack 10 can include corner guards of the configurations shown on initial construction. Such corner guards would not need attaching clips, but could be secured by other means at the time of manufacture. As one example, the corner guards could be metal and welded to the perimeter frame of the tiers, could be attached by adhesives, or could be attached by integral studs engaging openings in the perimeter frame.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, the corner guards position one or more sheets of posterboard 80 on a tier of the display rack 10, and protect the corners of the posterboard from damage. The rear corners of the poster board are protected from damaging contact with the vertical columns 20-24, and especially the rear vertical columns 21 and 23. The front corners are protected from damage from incidental contact with other objects or structures in the store environment, and the front edges of the sheets of posterboard are protected from indentations caused by contact with U-shaped stop 48.

With reference to FIG. 5, another corner guard 90 is illustrated. It has a bottom wall 92, side wall 94 and end wall 96, and is characterized by the sidewall 94 flaring outwardly adjacent its distal end 95. This configuration provides additional spacing for guiding a posterboard into the corner guard 90 when deployed at the rear of a tier of a display rack.

Accordingly, corner guards have been described for use on the display rack admirably achieve the object of the invention. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention, which is set forth in the following claims.

Claims

1. A corner guard adapted to be retrofitted to a wire-form display rack having at least one tier with a perimeter frame and protect one or more sheets of posterboard displayed thereon, the corner guard comprising a bottom wall, a side wall and an end wall, and further comprising means for attaching the corner guard to a perimeter frame of a tier of a wire-form display rack with the corner guard overlying a portion of the perimeter frame to maintain the corner guard in a desired orientation.

2. A corner guard as defined in claim I wherein the sidewall of the cornerguard is tapered outwardly toward its distal end.

3. A corner guard as defined in claim 1 wherein the sidewall of the corner guard flares outwardly adjacent its distal end.

4. A corner guard as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottom wall of the corner guard is adapted to overlie a portion of the perimeter frame.

5. A corner guard as defined in claim 1 wherein the bottom wall, side wall and end wall are unitary molded polymer.

6. A corner guard as defined in claim 2 wherein the means for attaching the corner guard to the perimeter frame of a tier of a display rack are C-shaped clips sized and adapted to retain the corner guard on a tier of the display rack.

7. A corner guard as defined in claim 6 wherein the C-shaped clips are positioned to retain the corner guard on a tier of the display rack with the end wall of the corner guard aligned with or spaced along the tier from a stop of the tier.

8. A display rack for displaying one or more sheets of posterboard or other similar sheet material comprising vertical columns supporting vertically spaced apart tiers, each tier having a perimeter frame having side rails secured to and supported by the vertical columns and front and rear rails, and corner guards secured to the perimeter frame at the intersections of the side rails and the front and rear rails and positioned for respectively receiving a corner of the posterboard, each corner guard having a bottom wall, a side wall, and an end wall deployed for holding posterboard on the tier.

9. A display rack as defined in claim 8 wherein the side walls of at least the corner guards secured to the perimeter frame at the intersections of the side rails and rear rail taper outwardly to the distal ends of the sidewalls.

10. A display rack as defined in claim 8 wherein the side walls of at least the corner guards secured to the perimeter frame at the intersections of the side rails and rear rail flair outwardly adjacent the distal ends of the sidewalls.

11. A display rack as defined in claim 8 wherein the side walls of at least the corner guards secured to the perimeter frame at the intersections of the side rails and rear rail extend forwardly past rearward vertical columns.

12. A display rack as defined in claim 8 wherein the stops are positioned along the front rails of the tiers and the corner guards secured to the perimeter frame at the intersections of side rails and front rail have their end walls aligned with or spaced toward the rear rail from the stops of a tier.