Actuator for sliding panel signs

A sign including sequentially laterally slidable display panels comprised of strips having laterally extending slots and slats extending from said strips interleaved with slats of adjacent panels,

• a base member presenting opposite sides and having laterally extending slots,
• means supporting said panels for sliding on one side of said base member laterally relative to each other along the slots in the panel strips,
• actuator means including a plurality of interfacing bar members arranged on the other side of said base member, said bar members having drive pins projecting from them which pass through slots in said base member and engage, respectively, in driving relation with successive panels,
• means for supporting said bar members for sliding laterally in sequence relative to each other on the other side of the base member,
• first and second intermeshed gears and means for driving one of said gears rotationally in one direction so the other gear rotates in the opposite direction about axes substantially perpendicular to the lateral direction,
• cam pins of shortest, intermediate and longest lengths arranged in succession about the rotational axis of said first gear and projecting axially therefrom,
• rotation of said first gear causing the shortest cam pin to engage and shift the bar member most remote from said base laterally such that said drive pin of the bar member shifts the panel with which it is engaged to start a display cycle and continued rotation of said first gear causes the increasingly longer cam pins to shift the bar members successively nearer to said base member in sequence such that the drive pins on said bar members will shift sequentially the panels which the drive pins engage,
• a cam pin extending axially from said second gear, said gears being synchronized such that when all of said bar members are shifted in one direction laterally said cam pin on the second gear will be at a rotational position for starting to return all of said bars and, hence, said panels simultaneously to their unshifted positions to enable repetition of an operating cycle.