EP0120871A1

EP0120871A1 - Device for removable labelling

Info

Publication number: EP0120871A1
Application number: EP19830901929
Authority: EP
Inventors: Gérard RETHORE; Andrée née CHAVIN RETHORE
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1982-06-24
Filing date: 1983-06-17
Publication date: 1984-10-10
Also published as: FR2529361B1; FR2529361A1; WO1984000234A1

Abstract

Dispositif d'étiquetage provisoire de menus objets. L'invention est constituée par un corps plan (1) capable de porter la marque du fabricant de l'objet étiqueté et éventuellement les caractéristiques commerciales de cet objet, ledit corps (1) portant, solidaire de lui, un jonc souple (3) qui, après avoir été recourbé pour former la boucle (8), est prisonnier d'un logement (2) contenu dans ledit corps et fermé par l'assemblage des parties constituant ce dernier et dans lequel logement ledit jonc peut coulisser à frottement élastique pour réduire la boucle (8) et la maintenir réduite. L'invention peut être utilisée pour l'étiquetage des menus objets et particulièrement des montures de lunettes.Provisional labeling device for small objects. The invention consists of a flat body (1) capable of carrying the manufacturer's mark of the labeled object and possibly the commercial characteristics of this object, said body (1) carrying, integral with it, a flexible rod (3) which, after being bent to form the loop (8), is trapped in a housing (2) contained in said body and closed by the assembly of the parts constituting the latter and in which housing said rod can slide with elastic friction for reduce the loop (8) and keep it reduced. The invention can be used for labeling small objects and particularly spectacle frames.

Description

IMPROVED DEVICE FOR REMOVABLE LABELING.

The present invention relates to devices used for removable labeling and particularly for labeling small objects, such as objects relating to the trade of opticians and more particularly spectacle frames.

Such objects, like many others, which cannot be made an exhaustive list, require removable labeling which may bear the reference of the object and its price, as well as, apparently, the manufacturer's mark, which the small size of the object thus labeled does not allow wearing sufficiently apparent to play its attractive role at the time of sale, said objects, such as spectacle frames, always appearing in any case or any packaging which could bear such commercial indications.

Various supports have therefore been provided which can be installed in various ways and temporarily on the branches of the glasses, for example, and on which supports these different indications can be worn, these various supports being able to be easily removed when the sale is performed, without this operation leaving traces on the object, as it would be if it were a label stuck in a conventional manner.

It should be noted that generally the useful surface of such objects, such as the temples or the frame of glasses, is too small to allow the affixing of self-adhesive support.

Provision has therefore been made, for example, of semi-rigid plastic jumpers which can be installed on a branch of the glasses which they enclose by their relative elasticity, these jumpers having a sufficient surface to carry the indications deemed necessary. However, such a device has the drawback of not being able to adapt equally to all glasses. It cannot be suitable for metal glasses with thin branches as well as plastic glasses with thick branches. In each of these categories the thicknesses are moreover different from one type to another. The use of such a device therefore presents little interest not having a universal character In addition, this device is not safe, the elasticity being sometimes not sufficient for the labeling thus produced to escape. not during handling of glasses by staff or by customers during fitting.

A device has also been provided consisting of a rigid surface, provided on its edge with a flexible, semi-elastic band, which has notches and which can be threaded in a perforation provided in the same edge of the object, in parallel to said rod, until the notch arriving at the other orifice of said perforation makes this movement irreversible. It is thus possible to enclose objects of different diameters such as branches of glasses of different thicknesses. However, this device has the drawback of taking a long time to set up, since it first requires the introduction of the rod into the special perforation, which is not always simple in a device of small dimensions as must be the case. '' be a glasses branch labeling so that this labeling does not disturb customers during the fitting of frames. It also and above all has the disadvantage of having to be destroyed in order to be removed, the notches which retain the rod opposing the reverse movement to release said device,

11 has also been provided a device in semi-rigid plastic material formed of a flat surface generally having the shape of a quadrilateral which comprises at two of its opposite sides an eye of dimensions sufficient for the branch of glasses to be able be simultaneously threaded there, the flexibility of the material facilitating this operation, moreover, from the same material and secured to the device on one of its ends, a tongue, which thus covers the rear of the branch of the glasses which receives the device, may have its free end installed in the opposite eye in the manner of a bolt penetrating a strike, this having the effect of better immobilizing the device on the branch of the glasses on which it is installed, and presenting a useful surface on either side of said branch, one of its faces being able to bear the manufacturer's mark and the other the references and the seller's price

This device also has the disadvantage of not being universal, the eyes with which it is provided have to be adapted in size, within a certain limit at least, to the dimension of the branches of glasses considered, which requires the existence of several dimensions labels thus formed, therefore causes the cost of manufacturing to be increased by the need to have several molds. To this manufacturing cost are also added difficulties in terms of use, since it is necessary to thread one of the branches of the glasses into each of the eyes that the device contains, and, independently of this operation, thread in one of these eyes the free end of the flexible tongue. The object of the present invention therefore aims to avoid these drawbacks. For this, the labeling device, which can be in any planar form, comprises, during its use, the only need to tension the semi-flexible rod that it comprises in order to enclose the branch of the glasses on which it is installed, whatever the thickness of said branch, without it being necessary to reach any notch to ensure that it remains in place, the braking of the rod in position being obtained by its only compression and the semi-elasticity of the constituent material of this device, According to one embodiment of the object of the present invention, the device is formed from a single piece which can be injected in semi-flexible plastic, this device. comprising, of manufacture, the rod necessary to form the tightening loop which is obtained by making said rod prisoner of the housing which said part comprises and in which it is slightly compressed, in order to be immobilized in any position in which it can be brought to tighten the object to be labeled.

According to another embodiment, the device comprises two parts injected separately, but which, joined to each other by any suitable means, make it possible to produce a label provided with a rod forming a loop whose free strand slides in a housing where it is braked by its own elasticity, so as to remain immobilized in all the positions where it is brought. One of the two parts, which is semi-flexible, comprises the rod and the male stapling elements, the other part, which is preferably rigid, comprises the female elements necessary for this stapling and ensures the compression of the semi rod - flexible in its housing. According to yet another embodiment, the flexible rod is integral with a sheet of the same material, forming its root, made captive between two rigid plates joined together, providing between them the sliding passage of the rod to form the support loop of the device. labeling thus constituted. These measures also comprising a standard part, the most complex, which comprises the housing of the sheet which constitutes the root of the joint as well as the gutter-shaped housing of the latter and the male anchoring clips intended to make the complementary plate integral, which, very simple, includes only the female parts and possibly the inscription of the personal brand of the manufacturer using this device.

Being thus constituted, according to any one of the embodiments described above, the labeling device can be used economically by different brands. Indeed, the piece donated by the manufacture is the most complex, although simple in itself, as well as the rod itself, constitute the standard element of the system, having no original particular commercial indication, its external surface being reserved to carry the retailer's references, which allows its possible use by any manufacturer.

The other part of the device, which is only a very simple part, therefore inexpensive, can on the contrary be reserved to bear the personal mark of each of the manufacturers likely to use this labeling means, which therefore may be of interest to all manufacturers of objects requiring such labeling.

There is thus thus a removable device which can be adopted by different brands for an inexpensive cost price, the main element being a standard element adaptable to any brand therefore being able to be manufactured in very large series, only the element simpler to be the subject of a particular manufacturing according to the wishes of each user,

The accompanying drawings, given by way of example only, show in a nonlimiting manner embodiments of the object of the present invention.

FIG. 1A is a diagrammatic view of the object of the invention according to an embodiment allowing its manufacture in a single piece, such that it can come out of an injection press. Figure 1B is a schematic view of the same object ready for use.

Figure 2A is a schematic plan view of an embodiment of the same kind in which the labeling surface is reduced to the single stapling member of the system, so as to re further reduce the size.

FIG. 2B is a diagrammatic view of the same object ready for use.

Figure 3A is a schematic exploded view of the object of the invention according to an embodiment obtained in two parts which can be joined by stapling.

FIG. 3B is a diagrammatic view of the same object ready for use,

FIG. 4A is a diagrammatic exploded view of the object of the invention according to the same two-part embodiment, allowing labeling of a large area.

FIG. 4B is a diagrammatic view of the same object ready for use.

FIG. 5A is an exploded view of the object of the invention according to an embodiment making it possible to manufacture the rod independently so as to give it a perfectly adequate flexibility.

FIG. 5B is a diagrammatic view of the same assembled object. As shown (fig. 1 A), the device comprises a preferably rectangular body 1, but which can take on any other shape, oblong for example, which is injected in semi-flexible plastic, that is to say sufficiently rigid under the thickness corresponding to the mass of the assembly, but capable of flexing, without presenting an annoying elasticity, at the level of the thinning of the wall at the location of the housing 2 which is provided in its mass, in a plane passing through the smallest median of its largest faces, said housing being able to receive the rod 3 integral with the part 1 and erected orthσgonally to it in the same plane as the housing 2 parallel to it, during its manufacture. Said rod 3, by the very nature of the material used (polyethylene or polypropylene for example, or even plasticized polyvinyl, or others) is sufficiently flexible, under its small diameter to form a loop whose free strand is slightly compressed in the housing 2, when the latter is ready for use.

For this, the part 1, as it leaves the injection molding machine, is split up to the level of the housing 2 along a median plane parallel to the two large faces, which constitutes at this level a sort of clamp with two articulated branches, thanks to the flexibility of the material, around the housing 2.

Each of the arms 4 and 5 of said clamp reciprocally comprises any male-female stapling device capable of joining these two branches firmly so as to reconstitute, after closure (according to FIG. 1 B) the housing 2 in a perfectly cylindrical, said housing having in this position a diameter slightly less than the diameter of the rod 3, so as to compress it sufficiently to avoid its spontaneous sliding after being placed on the object to be labeled

According to Figures 1 A and 1 B, the stapling means of the branches 4 and 5 was chosen, by way of example, and in order to facilitate the injection of the part, in the form of a male notch 6 located at the end of the free branch 4 parallel to this side, cooperating with the female notch 7 located at the end of the branch 5 so that, applied one against the other, the two branches are immobilized together , this being done after the free end of the rod 3 has been placed in the housing 2, so as to form a widely open loop. The final part is thus easily formed without any tools after injection and in a single operation which consists only in closing the clamp with two branches 4 and 5.

We then understand that it will suffice to tighten the rod 3 to enclose the branch of the pair of glasses which will have been passed through the loop 8 closed by said rod to label a pair of glasses. One of the sides of such a label may bear any necessary mark of origin, the other side may include any self-adhesive support on which the specific references of the object and its price can be written. It will also be noted that the layout provided for the rod 3 and its housing ensures the parallelism of the eyeglass branch thus labeled and of the label itself, which avoids the discomfort that would constitute, when trying on the mount, a label which would be perpendicular to this branch.

According to FIG. 2 A, the object of the invention is limited, on the surface to the single part forming the clamp with two branches 4 _a and 5 _a , provided with the same stapling system 6 and 7 and comprising the same rod 3 and its housing 2 capable of braking it.

In either case the end of the free strand of the rod 3 can be provided either with a roundness 9 (fig. 1) or with a ring 10 (fig. 2), intended to facilitate traction on said rod and possibly (fig. 2) to also allow attachment to this level of any low-weight object. According to another construction method (fig. 3, 4 and 5). and in order to reduce the cost price by manufacturing in greater numbers, it has been sought that the use of the single removable labeling device can be used by different brands. For this it has been provided that the object of the present invention consists essentially of two parts: part 1, the most complex in its manufacture, which comprises the rod 3, its housing 2 and the stapling device 7, being standard, that is to say comprising without origin any particular allocation for such or such user mark é This part can therefore be made for all customers interested in this object, regardless of the brand for which it will be used. The second part, which is the least expensive to manufacture, being the simplest, is the part which will be manufactured for the benefit of such or such user brand, which may appear in the same mass of the material of this part. It is the junction of these two elements, 1 and 12, according to FIGS. 3B, 4B and 5B which makes it possible to slightly compress the rod 3 in its housing 2, in which it has been previously bent, thus forming the necessary loop for using the device. According to the stapling mode shown in FIG. 3, by way of example, the stapling system for the parts 1 A fit 12, which together form the labeling device, is obtained by means of the female slides 7 located at each the ends of the part 1 A which also carries along its median the semi-cylindrical housing open according to its generator 2 of the rod 3, said part being made of a semi-flexible plastic. The complementary part 12 carries at each of the corresponding ends the bars 8 capable of penetrating into 'female slides 7. Said part 12 is made of a rigid plastic material so as to slightly compress the rod 3 in its housing 2 when parts 1 A and 12 are joined together. Keeping the two parts 1 A and 12 thus assembled in place is obtained by means of the pots 13 and 14 made in the part 1 A on either side of the housing 2 these two female pots cooperating with male bosses carried by the part 12 on the corresponding internal face.

The part thus assembled, after curvature of the rod 3 to form the loop 8, is represented by FIG. 3B.

It is therefore understood that the use of such a method of fa brication allows the use of the device by the most different brands, these being carried by the external face of the part 12 which, as we see, is the the least expensive part of the device, part 1 A can be used in a standard manner, whatever the brand which must be carried by such labeling. FIG. 4 shows the possibilities of adaptation of such a device to labeling of a larger area. For this, the rigid part 12 A, instead of having its male stapling device at its lateral ends, only has a dovetail boss 16 which cooperates with the complementary female claws 22 located at each of the ends of the part 1 B which, in addition to this stapling element comprises the rod 3 and its semi-cylindrical housing open along its generatrix 2. The assembly of these two parts 1 B and 12 A is represented by FIG. 4B, the hand held in position being here again obtained by means of the female pots 13 and 14 carried by the boss 16 and cooperating with the complementary male bosses carried by the internal face of the part 1 B, or vice versa.

The part 1 B occupies here only a small part of the surface of the label 12 A, which can bear on its external face the mark of the user and on its internal face all the inscriptions that the retail merchant can be interested in inscribing it, its remaining use as it has already been described, by means of the loop 8 which can be more or less closed by the tension of the rod 3 which is naturally braked by its elasticity inside its semi-cylindrical housing open along its generator 2, the part 1 B being made as a whole of a semi-flexible plastic material.

In order to further facilitate the manufacture and also reduce the cost price, it was planned that the two essential parts of the device, 1 C and 12 B (fig.5) would be manufactured using the same material, in an almost rigid material occurs.

In this case only the rod 3 is made from a flexible elastomeric material and is made prisoner of the other two parts at the meeting of these. For this, the rod 3 is provided at its base with a sheet of the same material 15 which is automatically pinched between the parts 1 C and 12 B, when they are joined, said sheet 15, which forms the root of the rod 3 penetrating into a housing 17 intended to contain it and made in part 1, which simultaneously carries the semi-cylindrical housing open along its generator 2 of the rod 3 and the stapling elements 18 and 1 9 for example which cooperate with the complementary elements 20 and 21 carried by the part 12 B, which has no other particularity than that of bearing the mark of the user, this part remaining the simplest of the device.

It should be noted that the imprint 47 intended to receive the sheet 15 which constitutes the root of the rod 3 can equally well be carried by a device of the type of FIG. 3. The blocking of the parts 1 A and 12 which can be achieved in this case by means of a barley grain carried by the bars 22, which in this case cooperate with the pots formed in the wing of the slides 7a.

It is therefore understood that in each of these cases the labeling of a piece of small dimensions, such as a branch of glasses is greatly facilitated since it requires only the only operation of tensioning the rod 3, which is automatically braked by its slight compression in its housing 2. And the removal of the label is likewise very easily done by a reverse operation, by relaxing said rod 3, without any destruction being feared, which allows the reuse of this object, which reduces the investment required at the merchant-consumer level. It can even be supplied with any number of bases such as 1 A, 1 B, or 1 C, on which it will carry, according to its needs, a part 12, 12 A or 12 B of the brand which will suit the object that he wishes to label, without the need for him to have a complete labeling device for each of these marks, since the device will be interchangeable, from the moment when the manufacturer of the object of the present invention will have chosen a specific mounting model. It is understood that the invention is not limited to the examples which have been described, any variant, considered as equivalence, which cannot modify its scope.

The object of the present invention can be used for the provisional labeling of any object, and particularly mon tures of glasses by fixing on one of its branches, such a device in no way interfering with the fitting of frames. Such a device can also be recovered without destruction for use on any other pair of glasses, whatever the dimensions of its branches, and whatever the brand of this new frame, since it can easily be interchanged.

Claims

1 °) - Device intended to constitute a temporary but stable means of labeling, mainly small objects of various dimensions, such as the branches of glasses, Characterized by the fact that its fixing means is constituted by a rod parallel generators (3) of flexible material having at least a slight elasticity, integral with or rendered integral with the body (1) of the device which has at least one flat surface of any shape which can receive any commercial indication necessary for the management of the stock and the sale of the object thus labeled and which comprises in its mass a semi-cylindrical tubular housing (2), open along its generatrix, crossing it parallel to its surface and to the axis of the rod (3) considered in its rest position in which housing said rod (3) is slightly compressed, after being bent to form the loop (8), by bringing together the parts forming said body and closing said housing during their assembly and locking.

2 °) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that it consists of at least one body (1) having at least one surface capable of carrying, whatever its shape, at least the mark of the manufacturer of the object thus labeled, said body (1) consisting of a semi-flexible material, such as polyethylene, polypropylene, plasticized polyvinyl or other, capable of having real rigidity under a certain thickness but also having a sufficient flexibility and elasticity in its thin parts, such as the rod (3) of small diameter come during the same injection operation as the body (1) of which it is integral and which can slide in the housing ( 2) semi-cylindrical open according to its generatrix provided for this purpose in said body (1), after having been folded back on itself to form the flexible loop (8), said housing (2) having at least one of its diameters slightly less than the diameter d u rod (3) which it contains, so that it can slide there when its free strand outside the body (1) is subjected to a certain traction, but is immobilized there by its own elasticity as soon as this traction ceases 'be exercised. 3 °) - Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the body (1) integral with the rod (3) and formed during the same manufacturing operation of the same semi-flexible material is split along a plane median pa parallel to its main faces so as to form at this level a clamp with two branches (4) and (5) whose internal apex of the angle formed by these two branches is occupied by the housing (2) open according to its generatrix and capable of receiving the rod (3) and of compressing it slightly when the two branches (4) and (5) are brought together to the point of coming into contact with one another, these being kept in this closed position by any suitable anchoring means, and said housing (2) constituting at the interior apex of said angle the necessary thinning of the constituent material of the device to ensure the necessary flexibility thereof to create the hinge effect of the branches (4 ) and (5) between them.

4º) - Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the anchoring means intended to retain contiguous to one another the branches (4) and (5) of the clamp intended to receive in the housing (2 ), which forms the interior som of its opening angle, the rod (3) and at the slightest primer, is constituted by a male notch (6) carried by one of the branches (4) of the clamp on its extreme edge and parallel to it, the other branch (5) also carrying at its extreme edge and parallel to it the female notch (7) complementary to the previous one.

5º) - Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the body (1) of said object is extended in its same plane beyond the outer top of the clamp formed by the branches (4a) and (5a) which includes the rod (3) and its housing (2), so as to present a larger surface area intended to carry inscriptions, other than the sole brand of the manufacturer, such as the price of the object or its reference.

6 °) - Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the body (1) plane on at least one of its faces, of any shape, constituted by injection of a semi-flexible material comprising the rod (3 ) and its housing (2) capable of receiving said rod by imposing a slight compression on it, presents said housing (2) in the form of a semi-cylindrical gutter open according to its generatrix, the latter being closed, after placement of the rod (3) which forms the flexible loop (8), by the establishment of the complementary face (12) which is fixed to the body (1) by any suitable anchoring means, said part being made of a perfectly rigid material and which can bear any advertising indication deemed necessary, the rear face of the body (1) being able to carry any commercial indication specific to the labeled object.

7 °) - Device according to claim 6, characterized in that the anchoring means for retaining attached to one another the body (1a) and the part (12) to close the housing (2) and keep there slightly compressed the folded rod (3), is constituted by a female slide (7a) carried at each end of the short sides of the body (1a) parallel to each of them, the complementary male bars (6) being carried by each of the extreme edges of the short sides of the rigid complementary face (12), the device being supplemented by at least one convex stud carried by one of the parts (1a) or (12) cooperating with a concave pot of same geometry carried by the other part to immobilize them temporarily after their installation, anchored one on the other; said concave pots being for example the spherical caps (13) and (14) placed on either side of the housing (2), complementary male spherical caps being located on the internal face of the rigid part (12).

8 °) - Device according to claim J, characterized in that the rigid and flat part (12a) has a surface much greater than that necessary to make it integral with the part (1b) which simultaneously carries the flexible rod (3 ) the housing (2) capable of receiving said rod by imparting slight pressure to it and the female stapling means (22a) the male stapling means (16) being carried by the rear face of the part (12 a) and occupying only a small part thereof, said stapling means being constituted by any suitable means capable of retaining the body (1 b) on the part (12 a) which bears on its front face the permanent mark of the user of such a device and on its rear side the indications concerning the object thus labeled.

9 °) - Device according to claim 8, characterized in that the stapling means carried by the parts (1 b) and (12 a) is constituted by a dovetail assembly completed by a fixing means in side by side sheave read by the cells in the form of spherical caps (13) and (14) placed on the boss (16) on either side of the housing (2) which is closed by said boss, the complementary spherical cells being carried by the body (1 b). 10 °) - Device according to claim 1,

Characterized by the fact that it is constituted by two parts of these planes and of any shape of rigid plastic material (1 c) and (12 b) assembled by any suitable anchoring means such as the bosses (1 8) and (19 ) which penetrate into the perforations (20) and (21) of the complementary part, said parts thus joined together now trapped between them the rod (3) made of a flexible elastomer material carrying at its base the sheet of the same material (15) Ini serving as the root and maintained inside the hollow imprint (17) formed in the thickness of the plate (which also carries the housing (2) in the form of a semi-cylindrical gutter open according to its capable generator to receive the rod (3) folded in the form of a loop and exerting a slight pressure on it, said gutter being of a diameter slightly smaller than said rod which is thus slightly compressed by the final assembly of the parts (1 c) and (12b), the latter being able to carry r the mark of the user manufacturer, the part (1 c) possibly bearing the inscriptions specific to the labeled object.

11 º) - Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the flexible rod (3) forming the loop (8) is terminated at its free end by thickening facilitating its taking such as the sphere (9) .

12º) - Device according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the thickened seed of the free end of the flexible rod (3) consists of a ring (10).