Modular Billboard Frame Alignment for Storm-Resistant Displays
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional billboards are prone to damage from violent storms, leading to safety concerns and labor-intensive repairs, as well as inefficient advertising surface presentation.
Innovation Solution
A billboard frame system with rectangular tubular sections, risers, and stringers that can be securely aligned and oriented vertically, combined with a flexible substrate and tensioning elements for a stable and smooth advertising surface, allowing for easy assembly and attachment to support posts.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional billboards use multiple upright posts with wallboard and vinyl covers, then advertising surfaces can be displayed, but the structure is vulnerable to storm damage and safety hazards from debris
Solution Approach 1:
The billboard structure is divided into modular components: a frame structure with multiple frame members, a separate flexible substrate for advertising content, and distinct support posts. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently - the frame provides structural integrity against storms while the flexible substrate can be easily replaced without affecting the structural elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces rigid wallboard with a flexible substrate (vinyl or similar material) that carries advertising indicia. This flexible substrate is stretched across the frame and secured with tensioning elements, creating a taut surface that resists storm damage better than traditional wallboard while eliminating the hazard of rigid debris being thrown during violent weather.
2Ease of repair
If traditional billboards use rigid wallboard with vinyl covers, then advertising can be displayed, but repairs require labor-intensive realignment and replacement of wallboard
Solution Approach 1:
The advertising surface is separated from the structural frame, allowing the flexible substrate to be independently replaced. When advertising content needs updating or the substrate becomes damaged, only the substrate requires replacement - not the entire wallboard assembly. This dramatically reduces repair labor and time compared to traditional methods requiring wallboard removal, realignment of uprights, and reinstallation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system transitions from a static rigid wallboard structure to a dynamic system where the flexible substrate can be easily installed, removed, and replaced. The tensioning elements allow for quick adjustment and replacement of the advertising surface without affecting the permanent frame structure, enabling rapid updates and repairs.
3Ease of manufacture
If billboard frame sections are assembled from tubular portions, then ease of assembly is improved, but alignment precision must be maintained for a flat front plane
Solution Approach 1:
Connection elements serve as intermediaries between the tubular frame portions, providing built-in alignment features that guide precise positioning during assembly. These connection elements ensure that multiple frame members align to form a flat front plane while simplifying the assembly process through standardized joining mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The frame structure incorporates self-aligning features where the geometry of tubular portions and connection elements automatically guide proper alignment during assembly. The design includes inherent alignment mechanisms that reduce the skill level and precision required by assembly workers, allowing accurate frame assembly through self-correcting geometric relationships.
Data Source
AI summary
A billboard sign includes abutting rectangular tubular sections forming a frame using a rectangular tube extending across abutting ends within the tubular sections. The rectangular tube is biased against adjacent inside wall surfaces of the tubular sections for securing and aligning the tubular sections to each other. Risers extend between opposing horizontal frame sections and define a flat riser plane. Stringers are attached to support posts and define a vertically oriented plane. With risers defining the flat riser plane, the stringers horizontally attached to support posts and aligned for defining a vertically oriented plane, the flat riser plane can be aligned with the vertically oriented plane for securing the frame to the support posts in a flat plane of the frame vertically oriented as desired, regardless of the orientation of the support posts. A flexible substrate may be extended across a periphery of the frame with a message carrying surface.