SIGN SUPPORT STRUCTURE

Abstract

A display sign suitable for a parking lot comprises a base formed of elastomeric material comprising lower and upper portions. The upper portion comprises at least six side surfaces forming a prism shape, each of the side surfaces being rectilinear. The sign comprises a post secured to the upper portion. The lower portion comprises a bottom portion, top portion comprising at least six side surfaces aligned with the side surfaces of the upper portion and a plurality of sides being an extension of the side surfaces The display sign comprises a rigid member surrounding the side surfaces of the upper portion and covering the top section of the lower portion, the rigid member being attached to the lower portion and mountable to a substrate and a display member mounted on the post. The upper portion is configured to abut against the rigid member when the post is bent.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present patent application is a Continuation-in-Part of US Patent Application No. 16/873,082, entitled “SIGN SUPPORT STRUCTURE”, and filed at the United States Patent and Trademark Office on January 29^th2020, the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a traffic marker and more particularly, relates to a traffic marker which is designed for displaying information such as around parking lots.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The use of markers for roads is well known in the art. One particular type of marker is a traffic delineator which will identify areas of the highway or road on which automobiles should not travel. Such traffic delineators are frequently used to separate bicycle or walking paths from other traffic. One such type of traffic delineator is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,002,493 having a common inventorship with the instant application.

Such traffic delineators are inevitably impacted by vehicles. In order to extend the lifespan of such traffic delineators, flexible posts are frequently used. The traffic delineator shown in U.S. Pat. No. 8,002,493 is designed to withstand high speed impacts while still maintaining its structural integrity.

A further frequent requirement of traffic markers is for signs to display information particularly in areas such as parking lots. The signs may convey information concerning the type of parking permitted including, for example, signs indicating handicap parking. It has been found that such signs, when mounted proximate to vehicles, are frequently impacted by a vehicle. However, the impact is typically at low speed and accordingly, a different type of support for the sign is required.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

It is an object of the present invention to provide a structure for a display sign which may be used for vehicle parking and which structure is designed to withstand low speed impact.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a display sign suitable for a parking lot, said display sign comprising a base, said base being formed of an elastomeric material, said base having a lower portion and an upper portion, said upper portion having a front facing surface which is rectilinear, a post secured to said upper portion, and a display member mounted on said post. In some embodiments, the upper portion may comprise a least six side surfaces forming prism shape, each of the side surfaces being rectilinear, the lower portion may comprise a bottom portion, a top portion comprising at least six side surfaces aligned with the side surfaces of the upper portion, and a plurality of sides being an extension of the side surfaces, and a rigid member surrounding the side surfaces of the upper portion and covering the top section of the lower portion, the rigid member being attached to the lower portion and mountable to a substrate, a display member mounted on said post, wherein the upper portion abuts against the rigid member when the post is bent.

The base of the display sign may be designed to be of many different configurations. The base is designed to be secured to a substrate which may either be a road, a concrete curb, an asphalt or concrete pavement or there may simply be an earthen structure underneath. In order to facilitate attachment of the base, a plurality of apertures may be formed therein to receive securing members. Such securing members are well known in the art and are used in many structures which must be secured to a substrate—e.g. various types of signs or other structures such as temporary garages which are secured to a substrate. Thus, various types of expansion bolts or the like may be utilized. It suffices to say that such securing members are well known in the art and any suitable choice may be made depending upon the nature of the substrate.

The lower portion may be of any desired configuration and in a preferred embodiment, will be octagonal in outline.

The base, as aforementioned, is formed of an elastomeric material. Again, many suitable elastomeric materials are known in the art and one knowledgeable would be able to choose a suitable elastomeric material. In a preferred embodiment, the elastomeric material is rubber.

The upper portion is also formed of an elastomeric material and preferably is formed integrally with the base. The upper portion has a front facing surface which is rectilinear—in other words, substantially flat. This enables the upper portion to give when a force is applied thereto. In a preferred embodiment, the upper extending portion can be configured to be hexagonal or octagonal in shape. It is preferred that an octagonal configuration be employed.

The upper portion has a post secured thereto. Preferably the post is of a rigid material such as a hard plastic, fiberglass or metallic material although it will be understood that other materials, including flexible materials may be utilized.

In order to secure the post to the base, preferably a recess is provided in the upwardly extending portion to receive the post. Naturally, the configurations of the post and recess may be varied although a square or rectangular shape could be considered as optimal.

Although one could rely only on a snug fit to retain the post in the recess, it is preferred that mechanical fasteners such as nuts and bolts may be employed.

In order to provide an attractive and long-lasting structure, preferably the base is covered with a metallic material to ensure greater longevity. Many suitable metallic materials such as steel, aluminum, and alloys thereof are well known in the art.

The post is designed to receive a display member. This can be as simple as a sheet of material which would be secured to the post by mechanical fasteners such as nuts and bolts. The rigid member may also comprise an inner portion having a shape matching with the shape of the top portion of the lower portion. The rigid member may also comprise apertures aligned with first apertures of the lower portion, the apertures being adapted to receive a fastener mountable to the substrate. Moreover, the lower portion may also comprise second apertures adapted to receive a fastener mountable to a bottom portion of the rigid member.

The post may also include reflective material formed thereon. Again, such an arrangement is well known in the art and further elaboration is not required.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Having thus generally described the invention, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings illustrating an embodiment thereof, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the outer shell for a base member;

FIG. 2 is a top plan view thereof;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view thereof;

FIG. 4 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the lines A-A of FIG. 2;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a base member;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view thereof;

FIG. 8 is a side elevational view thereof;

FIG. 9 is a bottom plan view thereof;

FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view taken along the lines A-A of FIG. 8; and

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of the display sign as a traffic marker.

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the display sign as a traffic marker shown with the upper portion abutting against the rigid member when the post is bent.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

A novel sign support structure will be described hereinafter. Although the invention is described in terms of specific illustrative embodiments, it is to be understood that the embodiments described herein are by way of example only and that the scope of the invention is not intended to be limited thereby.

Referring to the drawings in greater detail and by reference characters thereto, there is illustrated in FIG. 11 a display sign generally designated by reference numeral 10 and which display sign 10 includes a display member 12 and a base 14.

Base 14 has a lower portion 16 and an upper portion 18. A post 20 is designed to be held by upper portion 18.

Lower portion 16 of base 14 has a plurality of side walls 24 each of which merges with corresponding arcuate portion 26. As will be seen, there are provided apertures 28 which extend through side walls 24 and arcuate portions 26 to permit the use of fasteners to secure base 14 to a substrate below.

Upper portion 18 of base 14 includes at least one side wall 32 which is rectilinear in nature. In the illustrated embodiment, there are provided a plurality of such side walls 32, all also being rectilinear in nature. In the illustrated embodiment, there are 8 such side walls 32 to hereby form an overall octagonal structure.

Upper portion 18 also includes a top wall 34 with a recess 36 being formed therein. As will be seen, there are provided a plurality of apertures 38 which extend transversely across upper portion 18 and communicate with recess 36. Apertures 38 are designed to receive fasteners 40 which secure post 20 within recess 36. The upper portion 18 may further comprise vertical reinforcing members or inserts 19 adapted to increase vertical rigidity of the base or upper portion 18, as shown in FIG. 10. In the illustrated embodiment, inserts 19 are configured to reinforce a section of the upper portion 18 to allow the upper portion 18 to remain substantially formed while the post 20 bends. The vertical reinforcing members 19 are typically made of rigid material, such as but not limited to metal. The reinforcing member 19 are generally shaped as elongated members inserted in the upper section 18, such as being over molded or through an elastomeric injection process.

A rigid member, such as but not limited to a metallic covering 44 is provided for lower base portion 16. Covering 44 may be of any suitable metallic material such as a steel or aluminum.

As may be seen in the drawings, a plurality of small apertures 45 are formed in the base 14 to receive mechanical fasteners such as screws which engage within apertures 47 in covering 44. In the illustrated embodiment, the covering 44 is configured to cover and retain the lower portion 16 of the base 14.

Referring now to FIGS. 10-12, the upper portion 18 is typically made out of elastomeric material configured to withstand the weight of the display sign 10 and/or to remain substantially standstill under environmental condition like wind. In addition, the upper portion 18 is flexible enough to bent when a transversal force is applied on the post 20, such as but not limited to a car hitting the sign 10. When such force is applied, the post 20 starts bending while the upper portion 18 is deformed. The upper portion 18 deforms until it abuts against an inner portion 48 of the rigid member 44. The deformation allows the post 20 to bend in a specific direction allowed by the rectilinear surfaces of the inner portion 48 of the rigid member 44, as shown in FIG. 12. In the illustrated embodiment, the inner portion 48 of the rigid member 44 is has eight side walls and/or is octagonal. The different edges of the inner portion 48 represent four distinct directions of bending of the upper portion 18. Understandably, the rigid member 44 may have a different shape containing any even number of rectilinear inner surfaces, such as a hexagon or a decagon.

The rigid member 44 is adapted to be attached to a substrate, such as the ground, a road, concrete or any hard surface. The rigid member 44 limits bending of the flexible base portion 14. As such, the lower portion 16 and/or upper portion 18 are less prone to tearing or breaking as the post 20 is repeatably bent by cars or vehicles hitting the said post 20. The display sign has thus a longer lifetime than other existing flexible display signs.

It will be understood that the above-described embodiment is for purposes of illustration only and that changes and modifications may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

While illustrative and presently preferred embodiments of the invention have been described in detail hereinabove, it is to be understood that the inventive concepts may be otherwise variously embodied and employed and that the appended claims are intended to be construed to include such variations except insofar as limited by the prior art.

Claims

1. A display sign suitable for a parking lot, the display sign comprising: a base formed of elastomeric material comprising a lower portion and an upper portion; the upper portion comprising at least six side surfaces forming a prism shape, each of the side surfaces being rectilinear; a post secured to the upper portion; the lower portion comprising: a bottom portion; a top portion comprising at least six side surfaces aligned with the side surfaces of the upper portion; a plurality of sides being an extension of the side surfaces; a rigid member surrounding the side surfaces of the upper portion and covering the top section of the lower portion, the rigid member being attached to the lower portion and being configured to be mounted to a substrate; and a display member mounted on the post; wherein the upper portion is configured to deform and abut against the rigid member when the post is bent.

2. The display sign of claim 1, the rigid member comprising an inner portion having a shape matching with the shape of the top portion of the lower portion.

3. The display sign of claim 2, the rigid member having an annular shape, the upper portion being configured to abut against an inner portion of the annular shaped rigid member when the post is bent.

4. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the upper portion has a post receptor, the post receptor comprising a recess formed in the upper portion, the recess being sized to snuggly receive the post.

5. The display sign of claim 4, wherein the post is secured within the recess by horizontally positioned mechanical fasteners.

6. The display sign of claim 5, wherein the elastomeric material is rubber.

7. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the post and the upper portion have aligned apertures, a bolt extending through the aligned apertures, and a nut secured to the bolt.

8. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the upper portion has a hexagonal prism shape.

9. The display sign of claim 8, wherein the bottom portion of the lower portion comprises six sides and the rigid member comprises six inner sides surrounding the side surfaces of the upper portion.

10. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the upper portion has an octagonal prism shape.

11. The display sign of claim 10, wherein the upper portion comprises eight rectilinear side surfaces, the lower portion comprises eight sides and the rigid member comprises eight inner sides surrounding the side surfaces of the upper portion.

12. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the post is rigid.

13. The display sign of claim 12, wherein the post is made of fiberglass.

14. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the upper portion comprises an insert.

15. The display sign of claim 1, wherein the rigid member is made of metallic material.

16. The display sign of claim 1, the rigid member comprising an inner portion having a shape matching with the shape of the top portion of the lower portion.

17. The display sign of claim 1, the rigid member comprising apertures aligned with first apertures of the lower portion, the apertures being adapted to receive a fastener mountable to the substrate.

18. The display sign of claim 17, the lower portion comprising second apertures adapted to receive a fastener mountable to a bottom portion of the rigid member.

19. A display sign suitable for a parking lot, said display sign comprising: a base formed of elastomeric material, said base having a lower portion and an upper portion; the upper portion comprising an insert and having more than two side surfaces, each of which being rectilinear; a post secured to said upper portion; the lower portion comprising a plurality of sides being an extension of the front facing surfaces; and a display member mounted on said post.