Product Display
An apparatus and method for displaying retail products is disclosed. The apparatus comprises a product tray which itself includes a platform member for supporting one or more products, at least one lighting element and connector means for electrically connecting the lighting element to a power source when the platform member of the product tray is releasably secured to a product tray support.
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for displaying products. In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention provides a highly convenient means for constructing a display stand able to illuminate products on display.
Many different types of product display are known. Typically these consist of shelving units in the form of product trays supported in some fashion and located at various positions in a shop or other retail establishment. Products are hung from the product trays or supported on an upper surface of a platform part of the product trays and customers wishing to purchase the products can remove these from the display.
Many different types of display system are known, however, many of these suffer from the drawback that restocking of the products is an onerous task due to the fact that a user may find it inconvenient to reach parts of the product tray which are to be restocked.
Displays are also known which include one or more light sources to illuminate parts or all of a display matrix. It is known that during an initial installation phase when the display is constructed the provision of lighting can be an onerous task requiring a user to access parts of the display which may be difficult to reach. Also, under some applications, a skilled electrician is required to ensure that the lighting is correctly installed.
It is an aim of the present invention to at least partly mitigate the above-mentioned problem.
It is an aim of embodiments of the present invention to provide a way of displaying products in a versatile manner.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for displaying retail products, comprising:
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- a product tray comprising a platform member for supporting one or more products, at least one lighting element, and connector means for electrically connecting said lighting element to a power source simultaneously with said product tray being releasably secured to a product tray support.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for supporting at least one product tray, comprising:
-
- at least one elongate frame;
- a plurality of product tray locating elements disposed longitudinally along at least a portion of said frame; and
- an elongate power source comprising at least one power track; wherein
- said elongate power source and said locating elements of said elongate frame are arranged to provide power to a product tray simultaneously with said tray being releasably secured to said frame.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for displaying a plurality of products, comprising the steps of:
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- locating at least one product tray, at a desired location by releasably securing said product tray to a product tray support; and
- supplying power to at least one lighting element of said product tray simultaneously with said tray being secured.
Embodiments of the present invention provide the advantage that power is supplied to a lighting element of a product tray at the same time that the product tray is secured at a desired location. This means that no complex wiring operation is required. Equally, the product display can be assembled without skilled electrician operators being required.
Embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus in which a product tray for supporting one or more products can be simply connected to a support structure with the motion of mounting the tray actioning connection of an electrical connection to thereby supply power to a lighting element of the product tray. This is a safe and simple process.
Embodiments of the present invention will now be described hereinafter, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
In the drawings like reference numerals refer to like parts.
It will be understood that a broad range of products may be supported by product trays according to embodiments of the present invention. For example retail products of the type purchased by shoppers in a supermarket or department store. The products may be supported on an upper surface 13 of a platform portion of the product tray 11 or may be hung below the platform. As illustrated in
Each product tray also includes a connector 17 which is dimensioned so as to be able to lock the product tray in position through a respective hole 18 in the product tray support 12. The locking process is repeatable so that product trays can be removed an relocated as required.
Power is supplied to the LEDs 34 from a power source connected to the supporting spur 12. Connection to this power supply is made via electrical connectors 36 of the product tray when the product tray is locked in place on the spur 12. The connecting elements 36 are in the form of metal ears which are resiliently biased outwardly. One or more of these connector elements 36 is provided on each product tray. The connector 17 is in the form of a male lug 37 which will fit into the locating holes 18 of the spur. The lug 37 is part of a central casing 38 which may hold control circuitry used to drive signals to the LEDs 34. The circuitry in the casing 38 are connected to the LEDs via an electrical connector 39. The circuitry may control the intensity and/or on/off status of the LEDs or some other parameter.
Each connector 36 is resiliently biased so as to constantly push the connector against an abutment surface part of a respective connector 42. In this way power supplied from the power track is constantly supplied to a respective product tray via the connectors 36 which are connected via electrical connection to respective pins 45 at a front end of the casing 38. These pins 45 are arranged to receive a connector part of the connection 39 between the casing and the LEDs to thereby provide power to the LEDs from the power tracks in the support frame. It will be understood that the connectors 45 may be omitted and that thus the LEDs may be connected directly to the resilient connectors 36. As a still further option the circuitry in the casing may be omitted and the LEDs may be connected directly with the contacts 36.
By providing each product tray with a connector 17, which enables the product tray to be simply and firmly secured at a desired position on a support, a very versatile display is provided. In addition by providing an electrical connector 36 which connects with a power source in the support simultaneously with a product tray being duly located a very simple process is provided for illuminating products on a product tray. The correct assembly of a display can be assessed by a user when constructing the display because if a product tray is not correctly fixed in place the lighting elements on the product tray will not illuminate.
As illustrated in
The power tracks 1100 and 1101 are provided by respective metal rods having a circular cross section. It will be understood that other shapes of conductive elements may be used. The outer surface of these connectors provides an abutment surface against which the abutment noses of the connecting elements of a product tray may be urged. Each conductive track is held in a cup like support so that each power track is cradled by insulating material. The insulating support 1102 is in the form of a bisected figure of eight.
As illustrated in
A locking mechanism 2203, which is connected to handle 1902, is also illustrated more clearly in
Providing a product tray which has a central connection rather than side by side brackets and which can be secured to a single spur upright, leads to the possibility for a wider selection of display orientations. This is because the display makers are not constrained to have to provide two side locating positions.
Also the tray may simply be removed in a one-handed operation by staff.
It will be appreciated that whilst the above described embodiments have been explained with respect to an upright support frame horizontal frames could be provided in accordance with further embodiments of the present invention. Likewise rather than locating holes for locating product trays at predetermined locations on the product support male extending pins may be provided on the product tray support whilst a connector on a product tray could be a female recess into which respective pins may be duly located.
Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the words “comprise” and “contain” and variations of the words, for example “comprising” and “comprises”, means “including but not limited to”, and is not intended to (and does not) exclude other moieties, additives, components, integers or steps.
Throughout the description and claims of this specification, the singular encompasses the plural unless the context otherwise requires. In particular, where the indefinite article is used, the specification is to be understood as contemplating plurality as well as singularity, unless the context requires otherwise.
Features, integers, characteristics, compounds, chemical moieties or groups described in conjunction with a particular aspect, embodiment or example of the invention are to be understood to be applicable to any other aspect, embodiment or example described herein unless incompatible therewith.
Embodiments of the present invention have been described here and above by way of example only. It would be understood that modifications to the specifically described examples may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
Claims
1. Apparatus for displaying retail products, comprising:
- a product tray comprising a platform member for supporting one or more products, at least one lighting element, and connector means for electrically connecting said lighting element to a power source simultaneously with said product tray being releasably secured to a product tray support.
2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the product tray comprises one or more support member and the platform member is secured to the support member so as to be slideable with respect to the support member.
3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein the connector means is arranged to connect the lighting element to the power source only when the platform member of the product tray is secured to the product tray support.
4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said connector means comprises at least one electrically conducting abutment element electrically connected to said lighting element and arranged to abut and thereby electrically contact an electrically conducting abutment surface of the tray support when the tray is releasably secured to the tray support, said abutment surface being connected to the power source.
5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said connector means comprises at least one sliding contact arranged to make sliding contact with an electrically conducting abutment surface of the tray support when the tray is releasably secured to the tray support, said abutment surface being connected to the power source.
6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 5 wherein said sliding contact is resiliently biased.
7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 4 wherein said connecting means is connected to said lighting element via control circuitry arranged to selectively supply power to said at least one lighting element.
8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said at least one lighting element comprises a plurality of light emitting diodes.
9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein said plurality of light emitting diodes comprises a plurality of multi-coloured light emitting diodes.
10. The apparatus a claimed in claim 8 wherein said plurality of light emitting diodes comprises a plurality of high intensity light emitting diodes.
11. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said product tray further comprises a display panel located at a front edge region of said platform member and at least one lighting element is arranged to backlight said display panel when said tray is releasably secured.
12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said product tray is arranged to support one or more products resting directly on an upper surface of the platform member.
13. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said product tray is arranged to support one or more products hanging from a lower surface of the platform member.
14. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said product tray is arranged to support one or more products when those products are located in one or more product organising devices, said tray being adapted to locate one or more of said product organising devices on a surface of the platform member.
15. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 wherein said product tray further comprises:
- at least one bracket element including securing elements for releasably securing the bracket element to a tray support and a platform member supporting surface arranged to releasably secure the platform member to the bracket element.
16. The apparatus as claimed in claim 15 wherein said platform member is slidably mounted with respect to the bracket element.
17. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1 further comprising at least one tray support locatable at a target location and including a plurality of product tray locating elements arranged to receive, and thereby locate, at least one product tray.
18. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17 wherein the tray support comprises at least one power track extending along a length of said tray support for supplying power to any product tray located by said locating elements.
19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 18 wherein a portion of said power track provides an electrically conducting abutment surface.
20. Apparatus for supporting at least one product tray, comprising:
- at least one elongate frame;
- a plurality of product tray locating elements disposed longitudinally along at least a portion of said frame; and
- an elongate power source comprising at least one power track; wherein
- said elongate power source and said locating elements of said elongate frame are arranged to provide power to a product tray simultaneously with said tray being releasably secured to said frame.
21. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein said locating elements comprise a plurality of locating holes each arranged to receive mating portions of a product tray and releaseably secure a product tray at a desired location.
22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein said locating elements comprise a plurality of mating pins each extending outwardly from the elongate frame and arranged to mate with a respective at least one locating hole of a product tray to thereby releaseably secure a product tray at a desired location.
23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein said at least one elongate frame comprises a pair of elongate frames arranged to be located in an upright position at a target location, and to each support a respective one of two ends of a product tray.
24. The apparatus as claimed in claim 23 wherein each said elongate frame houses at least one elongate power track.
25. The apparatus as claimed in claim 24 wherein each said elongate frame houses a positive power track and a negative power track.
26. The apparatus as claimed in claim 24 wherein each said elongate frame comprises an insulating member arranged to electrically insulate said frame from each power track.
27. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21 wherein each locating hole includes a locating element door which is arranged to open to receive a mating portion of a product tray but which at least partially prevents ingress of a finger or dirt when not locating a product tray.
28. The apparatus as claimed in claim 20 wherein said power supply comprises an AC and/or DC power supply.
29. A method for displaying a plurality of products, the method comprising:
- locating at least one product tray, at a desired location by releasably securing said product tray to a product tray support; and
- supplying power to at least one lighting element of said product tray simultaneously with said tray being secured.
30. The method as claimed in claim 29 further comprising placing products on said located product tray.
31. The method as claimed in claim 29 further comprising placing one or more product organising devices, each holding one or more products, on said product tray subsequent to said act of securing said product tray to the tray support.
32. The method as claimed in claim 29 further comprising:
- releasably securing at least one bracket element to the product tray support; and
- releasably securing a platform member of the product tray to the bracket element.
33. The method as claimed in claim 32 further comprising sliding the platform member of the product tray towards the product tray support until the product tray is located at the desired location.
34. The method as claimed in claim 29 further comprising verifying that a product tray is releaseably secured at said desired location by determining if at least one lighting element on the product tray is illuminated.
35. The method as claimed in claim 29 further comprising placing at least one product tray support in an upright position at a target location prior to said act of locating at least one product tray via securing said product tray to the product tray support.
36. (canceled)
37. (canceled)
Type: Application
Filed: Dec 19, 2005
Publication Date: May 29, 2008
Inventors: Alistair Gordon Burns (Leicestershire), Peter Crown (Leicestershire)
Application Number: 11/793,939
International Classification: A47B 81/00 (20060101); A47G 29/02 (20060101); A47F 11/10 (20060101);