Object of the Invention

The object of the present invention is a portable stand-alone fence with an information field and is preferably intended to temporarily fence or limit an area both within buildings and outside buildings with the purpose of separating or limiting access to certain areas to various people, like for instance visitors, or to allow access to personnel or participants of an event and the like. The fence of the invention is designed for sports events to fence the areas intended to individual racing teams, e.g. in automotive sport to racing teams as a servicing area; another embodiment of the fence of the invention is meant to arrange the walking way of visitors at exhibitions for instance in galleries, museums or business premises, where it is desired to direct the movement of clients by simultaneously offering them some information, for example in front of bank counters, at bus and railway stations, in self-service stores, etc.

Technical Problem

A technical problem solved by the present invention is how to design such foldable fence with an information field that will be quickly foldable and prepared to be transported without a need for any tools or connecting elements separable from one basic part and will be adequate to be used both within buildings and also outside buildings on an even or uneven area and will simultaneously also offer a possibility of various embodiments in the sense of industrial design, because its external form should go in hand with the purpose of its use and should have an individual external appearance.

Prior Art

Known fences of this type consist of at least two posts having a base frame allowing each post to be stand-alone and movable, whereby one post is provided with a spring take-up element with a tape. The tape can be extracted from the take-up element and bridged to the neighbouring post. The tape is constantly tense due to the spring take-up element regardless of the distance between both posts.

However, there are two needs that fail to be met by this fence. A first one: the flexible tape, which delimits two areas, is not stiff enough for the people near it to sense it is a boundary, which is especially true in a crowd of people who are attentive to other objects. Another characteristic of said fence lies in that the tape surface is relatively small and does not offer any space for information fields, advertising messages or no directing, educating and other messages can be displayed.

Hence there is a need for a new portable stand-alone fence that will be much stiffer and the people near it will feel it as a boundary despite being attentive to other objects and it will also carry large information fields.

Solution to the Technical Problem

The described technical problem is solved by a portable stand-alone fence with an information field of the invention, whose essential characteristic lies in that between two posts there is a stiff transversal tube with a longitudinally running groove, in which a rod is pivoted, said rod having a wound flexible foil as information field, which can be extended from the tube in its radial direction and be fixed in its extended condition to two posts. As to a variety of needs the posts can be provided with bases of any optional known shape. The posts can moreover

be connected with a bar at its lower part, said bar having foldable feet instead of bases.

The essence of the invention will be explained in more detail in the continuation by a description of embodiments and the enclosed drawing, in which

Fig. 1 shows a perspective view of the fence of the first embodiment in a ready- to-use mode;

Fig. 2 shows a transversal cross-section of the bar with a foil according to the first embodiment;

Fig. 3 shows an elevation of the lower part of the fence post of the first embodiment;

Fig. 4 shows a perspective view of the fence of the second embodiment in a ready-to-use mode;

Fig. 5 shows a side view of the fence of the second embodiment;

Fig. 6 shows a perspective view of the fence of the third embodiment in a ready- to-use mode;

Fig.7 shows the same as Fig. 6, yet in the storage and transport mode;

Fig. 8 shows a transversal cross-section of the bar with a part of the fence post of the third embodiment;

Fig. 9 shows a perspective view of the fence of the fourth embodiment;

Fig. 10 shows a perspective view of the fence of the fifth embodiment.

First Embodiment

The first portable stand-alone fence with an information field of the first embodiment, shown in Figs. 1, 2 and 3, consists of at least two stand-alone posts 1, and one bar 2, housing a flexible foil 3 intended as an information field. The posts 1 are of an optional design and have bases 4 at their lower part. The bases 4 are preferably designed as relatively heavy dishes, but can also be designed as a

multi-cusp star having the post 1 in its centre. The bar 2 is designed as a tube with a longitudinally running groove 21 housing a rod 22, on which a flexible foil 3 is wound. The rod 22 is preferably mounted in the bar 2 via a spiral spring 23 functioning as a winder of the rod 22 and thus also of the foil 3.

On the top 11 of the posts 1 there is at least one seat 12, preferably four seats 12 intended to mount the ends of the bar 2. The seats 12 are preferably designed as cylindrical plugs on the upper surface of the post 1, whereby the central line of the plugs runs parallel to the axis of each post 1. The seats 12 on one post 1 are arranged between themselves to allow an optional positioning of several bars 2 from the same post 1. The bars 2 are provided with complementary elements 21 at their ends, said elements being in a form-locking contact with the seats 12 on posts, these elements 21 are preferably designed as lugs. The contact of the seat 12 and the complementary element 21 does not need any additional elements and it allows the bar 2 to turn on the seat 12 on the surface perpendicular to the axis of the posts 1, which allows us to assemble a long fence in a broken line and also a branched fence, even several ends of a fence can be joined in a mutual point.

On the bottom part 13 of each post 1 there are seats 14 intended to fix the foil 3 in its expanded position, which will be explained in more detail later. Said seats 14 are preferably designed in the same way as the seats 12 on the upper ends of the posts 1, whereby the contact of each post 1 and the base 4 is conceived with a distance 15.

The transversal free edge of the foil 3 is preferably provided with a stiff end profile 31, whose ends 32 are shaped with complementary elements 33 fitting in a corresponding seat 13. Each element 33 is preferably designed as a lug. The profile 31 is preferably positioned in a tube-like terminal element 34 of the foil 3.

The foil 3 is intended as an information field, on which information can be given in a written and/or graphical form in optional ways, preferably by printing.

The described first embodiment of the fence comprises only three elements, two posts 1 and one bar 2. The connection between them is conceived without any additional connecting elements, no tools and no special skills are needed for connection.

The described quick connection of the bar 2 with the post 1 and turning of the bar

2 around the seat 12 on the post 1 makes the bar 2 also useful as a temporary closure (door). The bar 2 in the latter case is preferably designed without the foil

3 or is used with a wound foil (stored in the bar 2).

Second Embodiment

A portable stand-alone fence with an information field according to the second embodiment shown on Figs. 4 and 5 consists of a bar 2 of the same structure and a foil 3 as described in the first embodiment. At the ends of the bar 2 there are two pivotal legs 5, in a way that their pivotal points 51 form a blunt angle between them, if taken perpendicularly to the axis of the bar 2. The pivotal points 51 of each pair of legs 5 are arranged on the bar 2 so that the legs 5 of the same pair are adjacent to the bar 2 in the folded mode, and when they are turned in its ready-to-use mode, their free ends are extended to form the shape of an inverse letter V.

The foil 3 is arranged in the bar 2 in the same way as in the first embodiment, it can be expanded through the groove 21 and it is wound on the rod 22, which is pivoted in the bar 2 with a spring 23 being fixed on the rod. The unwound foil 3 is fixed with its free corner 35 to one leg 5 on each side of the bar 2. Preferably

there is a terminating profile 31 at the free edge of the foil 3, the ends of said profile being intended to be fixed on both legs 5.

Third Embodiment

The third embodiment shown on Figs. 6, 7 and 8 is conceived in a way that all constituent parts are joined in a fixed assembly which can be rearranged from the storing mode to the ready-to-use mode only by folding individual parts.

This embodiment is conceived as follows: at the ends of the bar 2 housing a wound foil 3 in the same way as described in the first embodiment, there are two pivoted posts 6. At their opposite ends the posts 6 are pivoted into a base frame element 7, preferably a rod, on which there is at least one rod-like rotating element 71, functioning in the position perpendicular to the element 7 as a standalone base frame with said element.

The posts 6 are designed as a two-part element connected with hinges 61 in the centre and allow the posts 6 to be fold one against the other by means of the hinges 61, whereby the bar 2 and the base frame element 8 approach each other. The posts 6 are preferably designed as U-profiles with their indented side fitting each other and the cross-section of the U-profiles is such to engage with the bar 2 and the base frame 8. With the fence in the folded mode the bar 2 and the base frame element 8 lie in the posts 6. With the fence is in the unfolded mode, the hinges 61 of the posts 6 are fixed with locking elements 62, preferably sliding elements connecting both parts of each post 6 via the hinge 61 into a stiff connection, when the post 6 is straight.

The maximum height of the posts 6 cannot exceed the length of the bar 2 or of the base frame element 8, so that in the folded mode of both posts 6 their hinges 61 come optionally close to each other.

Fourth Embodiment

A fence of the fourth embodiment as shown on Fig. 9 is intended to be put on an optional slanting area, provided that the fence does not lie in parallel with the area, but preferably in a horizontal position.

This embodiment is characterised in that any earlier described variant, described as the first, the second or the third embodiment, is provided at least at one end with a levelling rod 15 that can be continuously set in the axial direction of the post 1 or 7. The rod 15 can be positioned near the post 1 or 9 or within it. The levelling rod 15 is preferably positioned within the post 1 or 9 in a threaded seat 151. The rod 15 has a section 152 with a thread corresponding to the thread of the seat 151. Depending on the area where the fence is to be positioned in a non parallel direction, the lower end 153 of the rod 15 is designed as a point to be pressed into the surface or as a base of a known shape to fit the surface.

Fifth Embodiment

Any of the fences described above may be provided on its posts 1 or 7 with supports 16 that are positioned in form-locking ways in optional mutual distances on posts 1 or 6 and are intended to receive optionally shaped shelves 161 or other elements as a support to hold a variety of objects, e.g. exhibiting or sales objects, such shelves may, however, also be designed as storing shelves. The supports 16 are designed in a way to allow the positioning of shelves 161 at one or both sides of the unfold foil 3.

The posts 1, 6, 9 in all said embodiments (first, third, fourth and fifth embodiment) or legs 5 (the second embodiment), can be designed as telescopic elements that can be extended by extraction in various known ways, so that the height of the object taken as a unit in the ready-to-use mode can be set.

All described embodiments of the fence of the invention allow a creation of optional series, straight and/or broken, and also branched fences consisting of one post or leg, which is mutual for several bars, moreover several bars can be put together at one post or leg. Due to the described combining of bars and posts or legs, the bars can be assembled as a door or barrier of access through the fence.

It is understood that a man skilled in the art can design further variants based on the knowledge of the described invention and its embodiments without circumventing the essence of the invention defined in the appended claims.