US 5,374,461 AGranted

Rotatable wheel assembly

AssigneeThe Flexi/Group, Inc.

InventorHoward M. Bromberg

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Abstract

A rotatable wheel assembly which is suited for use as a wheel calculator, including a wheel having an axial hole therein and bearing indicia on one of its faces, front and back covers between which the wheel is sandwiched, the front cover having a window opening therein for selective viewing of the indicia on the wheel face, and the back cover and the front cover being adhesively bonded to each other through the hole in the wheel, the bond providing a grommetless pivot or axle for the wheel. To inhibit contact between the adhesive bond and the wheel while maximizing the width of the axle relative to the size of the hole in the wheel, a mask having a hole therein which is of substantially the same size as, but not greater than, the hole in the wheel, is interposed between the back cover member and the wheel with the two holes axially aligned with each other. The entire assembly can be formed by machine or by hand, either from a unitary, generally rectangular blank of paperboard or like sheet material, the blank being divided into panels constituting the various components by fold and tear lines, or from such a blank which includes all components of the assembly other than the mask which can be formed from a separate strip of sheet material and individually positioned between the wheel and the back cover member before the blank is folded into its final state.

Claims12

Dependent claims

A rotatable wheel assembly which includes a pair of generally flat, oppositely disposed, parallel, first and second cover members of substantially the same shapes and sizes and each having an inside face and an outside face, a generally flat wheel member sandwiched between said inside faces of said cover members and having opposite faces at least one of which bears indicia or items of information thereon, said wheel member having an axis of rotation substantially perpendicular to said wheel member and said cover members and including an axial hole encompassing said axis of rotation, said axial hole of said wheel member not encompassing any pivot disc that is contiguous with said wheel member, and adhesive means provided at said inside face of at least said first cover member in a region of the latter juxtaposed to said axial hole of said wheel member, the adhesive means securing said first cover member to said second cover member through said axial hole of said wheel member such that the adhesive means extending from one to the other of said first and second cover members through said axial hole of said wheel member forms a pivot for said wheel member to enable the latter to rotate substantially about said axis with respect to said cover members, at least that one of said cover members which is proximate to said at least one face of said wheel member being provided with at least one window opening through which said indicia or items of information on said wheel member can be selectively viewed upon rotation of the latter;

wherein the improvement comprises that:
(a) said adhesive means is greater in area than said axial hole in said wheel member;
and
(b) a mask member is interposed between said inside face of said first cover member and the proximate one of said faces of said wheel member, said mask member
(i) being of a size sufficient to overlie the entire adhesive means,
(ii) having a hole therein fully overlaid by said adhesive means and substantially identical in shape with but not greater than said axial hole of said wheel member and located in precise axial alignment with said axial hole of said wheel member, and
(iii) by virtue of its location and construction, ensuring that said pivot formed by the portion of said adhesive means extending through said hole of said mask member and said axial hole of said wheel member substantially fully occupies said axial hole of said wheel member, that any contact between said adhesive means and said proximate face of said wheel member is inhibited, and that apart from the presence of any window openings said outside faces of said first and second cover members are entirely unobstructed by structural components of the wheel assembly that would interfere with the presentation of graphics on said outside faces.

4 more elements

A blank of flexible, foldable sheet material for making a rotatable wheel calculator assembly which has a front cover member and a back cover member having respective inside faces directed toward each other, a rotatable wheel member sandwiched between said cover members and having an axis of rotation and front and back faces directed toward said front and back cover members, respectively, a mask member sandwiched between said inside face of said back cover member and said back face of said wheel member, with each of said wheel member and said mask member having therein a respective circular hole both of which are coaxially aligned with each other and are centered on said axis of rotation, and adhesive means interconnecting said front and back cover members through said holes and constituting a grommetless axle for said wheel member;

said blank being an integral, elongate, generally rectangular strip of said sheet material having transverse fold lines and tear lines therein dividing said strip into a series of panels, including
(a) a first panel which is to constitute said mask member and has opposite side edges and a first hole centered between said side edges,
(b) a second panel which is to constitute said back cover member and is connected to said first panel by a first fold line,
(c) a third panel which is to constitute said front cover member and is connected to said second panel by a second fold line spaced from said first fold line and has at least one window opening therein laterally offset from the intersection of said third panel with said axis of rotation of said wheel member,
(d) a fourth panel which is to constitute a tab and is connected to said third panel by a first tear line spaced from said second fold line and has a medial third fold line spaced from said first tear line, and
(e) a fifth panel which is to constitute said wheel member and is connected to said fourth panel by a second tear line spaced from said third fold line and said first tear line and has a central second hole aligned longitudinally of said blank with said first hole,
(f) said first and fifth panels being adapted to be folded along said first and third fold lines, respectively, over against said second and third panels, respectively, said first and second panels as a unit and said third and fifth panels as a unit being adapted to be folded along said second fold line over against each other, and said fourth panel upon being folded over against itself along said third fold line as a concomitant of the folding of said fifth panel against said third panel being adapted to be separated from said third and fifth panels by tearing along said first and second tear lines to release said fifth panel for rotation relative to said first, second and third panels.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 08/113,209Filed 27 Aug 1993
Granted: 20 Dec 1994
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

G09F 11/23
Indicating arrangements for variable information in which the complete information is permanently attached to a movable support which brings it…
G09F 11/232
The advertising or display material forming part of rotating members, e.g. in the form of perforations, prints, or transparencies on a drum or…
Y10T 428/15
Stock material or miscellaneous articles: sheet, web, or layer weakened to permit separation through thickness
Y10T 428/218
Circular sheet or circular blank: aperture containing