Picture Mounting with Interlocking Spars for Damage-Free Alignment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing picture mounting systems require precise alignment and often result in damage when re-alignment is attempted, as they rely on self-adhesive materials that are difficult to reposition without damaging the picture or the mounting.
Innovation Solution
A picture mounting system with a central display panel and interlocking spars that provide structural integrity and self-tensioning, allowing for easy alignment and adhesion of flexible images using adhesive strips or staples, ensuring the image is retained flat and taught against the display surface.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If self-adhesive materials are used to attach pictures to display panels, then the mounting process becomes simpler and more inexpensive, but precise alignment becomes difficult and re-alignment results in damage
Solution Approach 1:
The mounting system is divided into separate components: a display panel, a frame with spars, and attachment means positioned at corners or edges. This segmentation allows the picture to be aligned using mechanical guides before final attachment, enabling both ease of construction and precise alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
Alignment marks or guides are introduced as intermediary elements between the picture and the mounting structure. These intermediaries facilitate precise positioning during assembly without requiring the adhesive itself to provide alignment, thus resolving the contradiction between simple adhesive application and precise alignment.
2Ease of operation
If self-adhesive materials are used for picture attachment, then the mounting process is simplified, but re-alignment becomes difficult or impossible without damage
Solution Approach 1:
Alignment marks or guides are provided in advance on the mounting structure or picture背面, allowing the user to correctly position the picture before applying the adhesive. This preliminary alignment action ensures that once attached, the picture cannot be easily misaligned or damaged during repositioning attempts.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention replaces purely adhesive attachment with a combined mechanical-adhesive system. Mechanical elements such as corner pieces, clips, or interlocking features provide the primary attachment and alignment, while adhesive serves as a secondary bonding mechanism. This substitution allows for easier adjustment and re-alignment compared to relying solely on self-adhesive materials.
3Adaptability or versatility
If flexible webs like canvas or paper are used for pictures, then the pictures can be more versatile and easier to produce, but they lack structural rigidity for direct display
Solution Approach 1:
The invention explicitly accommodates flexible picture materials such as canvas, paper, or photographic prints by providing a rigid mounting structure (frame with spars) that supports these flexible elements. The flexible picture is attached to the rigid frame, combining the versatility of flexible materials with the structural integrity of the mounting system.
Solution Approach 2:
The mounting system creates a composite structure by combining the flexible picture material with the rigid frame and spars. This composite construction allows the flexible picture to be displayed with the structural support needed for hanging and display, resolving the contradiction between material flexibility and structural rigidity.
4Ease of operation
If adhesive is applied to the entire front face of the display panel, then picture attachment is simplified, but precise alignment becomes critical and difficult to achieve
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of applying adhesive to the entire front face, the invention places attachment means at specific localized positions such as corners or edges of the display panel. This localized attachment approach simplifies the adhesive application process while the alignment marks or guides ensure precise positioning, resolving the contradiction between attachment simplicity and alignment precision.
Data Source
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AI summary
A picture mounting has: a web having a display panel which has a display surface on its front face with an image thereon, the display panel having a perimeter defined by a frame having a plurality of spars; each spar being made of leaves created from the web and extending from the perimeter of the display panel, each of the leaves being folded at least twice, in a rearward direction to create a spar having a polygonal cross-section; the spars being mutually interlocking thereby to retain the spars adjacent the rear surface of the display surface and thereby to create the frame.