Display Device

Field of the invention

The present invention relates to a display device for articles such as tobacco industry products, for example cigarette packs.

Background

It is well known that packs of cigarettes can be displayed on a shelf or in a static display case at a point of sale. However such conventional displays do not permit a prospective purchaser to see the pack design easily. The present invention seeks to overcome this problem.

Summary of the invention

According to the invention there is provided a display device for articles, comprising: a housing including a central compartment and side compartments on opposite sides of central compartment, at least one rotary shaft extending upwardly through the central compartment, a motor configured to rotate the shaft, and at least one receptacle on the shaft to receive an article to be displayed, to be rotated by the motor.

The display device of the present invention particularly suited for displaying cigarette packs, allowing an interactivity with the consumer by means of the movement of the articles, such as cigarette packs.

The housing may be generally rectangular and the side compartments may be of substantially the same dimensions. The side compartments may be separated from the central compartment by generally vertically extending plates. The shaft can be rotatbly mounted on a base plate on which the motor is mounted. The display device may include at least one further said shaft driven by a motor. The side compartments may be covered by respective transparent plates.

In an embodiment, the display device of the invention is a square or rectangular structure composed, for example, of acrylic and metal, having metallic shafts, motors and wherein the receptacles are in the form of niches obtained through "vacuum forming".

The structure of this embodiment of the display device is basically adapted to be assembled in a framework support which can be another display with tubular feet, fixed on flat surfaces or on the ceiling with metallic shoes or others.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the display device is a rectangular structure having three portions, namely two symmetric side compartments, each one covered by a transparent plate so as to allow the display of the exposed rectangular articles and a central compartment wherein the rectangular niches are disposed to provide a rotational motion around the respective vertical shafts having the lower end fixed on the inner surface of the base plate of the structure and the upper end joined to a respective motor located at the lower surface of the top plate of the structure.

Also, there may be partition plates in the central compartment vertically separating the niche sets. Partition lines are disposed in parallel in the transparent plate so as to allow the display of rectangular articles.

The display device of the invention is particularly, but not exclusively, suited to display packs or packages of tobacco articles, such as cigarettes.

The display device of the invention may be coupled to a support, for example with legs fixed to a floor or a ceiling. This support can also be square or almost square-shaped structure with tubular feet, for example of square section.

Brief description of the drawings In order that the invention may be more fully understood an embodiement thereof will now be described by illustrative example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

Figure 1 is a perspective view of a displaye device for articles in accordance with the invention,

Figure 2 is a perspective view of the display device of Figure 1 when assembled in a support with legs, Figure 3 is a front view of the display device, and Figure 3A is an enlargement of a detail of Figure 3.

Detailed description

A housing 1 comprising a rectangular box (the box can be square), has two symmetric rectangular side compartments Ia, Ib, each covered by a transparent plate 4, which can have parallel horizontal partitions 5 in order to allow the display of the articles. A central compartment is separated from the respective side compartments by respective vertical plates 10. b

In the lower surface of the top plate 11 of the box-shaped structure 1 and in the central compartment zone there are disposed motors or engines 3 (in the disclosed case there are three engines) which drive respective vertical shafts 6 that extend up to the inner surface of a base plate 12.

Jointly assembled in these shafts are receptacles in the form of rectangular niches 2 for receiving articles such as cigarette packs to be displayed, which rotate with the shafts thereby providing an attractive visual effect.

The central compartment can be vertically divided into sub-compartments by parallel horizontal plates 7 having respective holes for the passage of the shafts. In the illustrated case, the niches 2 are alternately distributed in each one of the sub- compartments, thus emphasizing the visual effect of the display.

Figure 2 shows the display device assembled in a support 9 of the same section and having legs 8 to be fixed on the floor or ceiling of a store. This support can eventually be another fixed display.