Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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DISPLAY FOR A CASKET SELECTION ROOM
Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the funeral service industry,
and more particularly to a display system facilitating the selection by a
customer of a casket in a funeral home selection room.
Background of the Invention
Funeral home casket selection rooms have evolved as those in
the industry have attempted to better meet the funeral customers' needs. The
"traditional" presentation of product in a funeral home selection room was to
simply place each casket on a bier and open the head end cap or lid of the
casket to permit viewing inside the casket. As many caskets as possible were
displayed in a selection room in order to maximize the number of product
choices for the customer. Unfortunately, such a "traditional" presentation
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results in what has been referred to as a "sea of caskets" visual effect,
which
can be both distressing or alarming and confusing to the customer.
Advances in the design of funeral home selection rooms have
taken the form of providing a plurality of alcove structures, either of a
"modular" construction or of a "stick built" construction, in the funeral home
selection room. Each alcove structure includes a vertical back wall and a pair
of vertical, spaced apart wing walls cooperating with the back wall to form an
alcove. A soffit may span the upper front edges of the wing walls, and
lighting, for example track lighting, may be incorporated into the soffit. A
two-
tier casket rack is located within the alcove, the lower tier of the casket
rack
being a roll out rack permitting the lower casket'to be rolled out from under
the upper casket and the casket lid opened for display of the lower s:asket.
Tasteful signage and the like is mounted on the hack wall above the caskets.
Such a construction, which is the subject of the assignee's prior U.S. Patents
Nos. 5,405,017 and 5,524,594, both hereby incorporated by reference
herein, increases the number of caskets which can be displayed in a funeral
home selection room, as well as greatly improves the "look and feet" of the
casket presentations, thereby reducing the cluttevr and confusion of the so-
called "sea of caskets°' effect and providing a feeling of comfort to
the families.
New construction and renovation costs being what they are,
there is an ever-increasing need to increase the product density displayable
in
the funeral home selection room, without sacrificing comfort, convenience and
look and feel of the casket display systems of U.:7. Patents Nos. 5,4f)5,017
and
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5,524,394. To that end, the assignee's U.S. Patent Application Serial hlo.
08/911,823, hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses and claims a
Display For A Casket Selection And/t~r Viewing Room. That application
discloses the display of a plurality of casket portions along with a plurality
of
casket information modules. Each information module corresponds to one of
the casket portions displayed and houses an insert displaying samples of the
various features of the particular casket, for example, a portion of the cap
panel, a photo of the casket, a fabric swatch of the casket fabric, etc. To
access and view the casket samples displayed ors the insert, a door to the
module must be opened, and the insert must be slid out of the module.
It is desirable to provide still further improvements in the area of
casket display and selection.
Summarc~ of the Invention
The present invention is a display for a casket selection room
comprising a wall; a plurality of casket portions displayed on the wall, the
plurality of casket portions representing a plurality of casket choices from
which a customer may select; and a plurality of casket information modules
displayed on the wall, each of the information rnodules corresponding to one
of the plurality of casket portions and including at least one of a photo of
the
casket, a portion of a cap panel of the casket and a fabric swatch of the
casket,
the photo, portion of the cap panel or fabric swatch being visible to the
customer without opening the information module.
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The casket portion and corresponding information module can
be secured to a support, and the support can be secured to the wall.
The wall can include at least one horizontal groove therein, and
the support can include a first bracket mounted thereto which is received in
the groove in the wall.
The support can include a second bracket mounted thereto and
the information module can include an opening which receives the bracket
mounted to the support.
The support can be L-shaped having a leg portion and a foot
portion, the casket portion can be a casket corner having first and second
side
portions abutting the leg and foot portions, respectively of the support and
the
information module can abut the leg portion of i:he support.
The support can further include a portion connecting the leg
and foot portions, and the casket corner can be supported atop the connecting
portion.
The information module can include first, second and third
pockets containing a photo of the casket, a portion of a cap panel of the
casket
and a fabric swatch of the casket.
The casket selection display of the, present invention thereby
provides further advantages above and beyond the casket selection display
disclosed in U.S. Application Serial No. 08/911,823, for example obviating the
need to open a door of the casket information nnodule and remove the casket
information insert in order to be able to view the same.
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These and other advantages of the present invention will
become more readily apparent during the following detailed description taken
in conjunction with the drawings herein, in which:
Brief Description of the Drawings
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the casket selection display of the
present invention;
Fig. 2 is an exploded perspective view of the display of Fig. 1;
and
Fig. 3 is a view taken along line 3-3 of Fig. I.
IO Detailed Description of the Invention
Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2, there is illustrated a display 10
according to the principles of the present invention. The display 10 can be
installed in the selection room of a funeral home for facilitating the
selection of
a casket by a customer or a family member. The display 10 can include a wall
I5 20, and a plurality of casket portions 30, supporis 40 and information
modules 50.
Wall 20 can include a plurality of horizontal grooves 202
therein. Grooves 202 could be formed into an existing room wall 20, or wall
20 could be in addition to an existing room wall. For example, wall 20 can be
20 a commercially available product known as "Slat Wall°°,
available from Marlite
of Dover, Ohio. In that case the Slat Wall wall :20 can be mounted to a sheet
of plywood (not shown) with screws (not shown), and the plywood can be
adhesively secured to existing dry wall (not shown) with an adhesive (not
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shown). In the case of an existing masonry wall I;not shown), the plywood can
be attached thereto with appropriate masonry screws (not shown).
Each casket portion 30 represents .a casket choice from which
the customer or family member- may select. In other words, each of the casket
portions 30 can be of a different color, material, finish and/or include
different
hardware styles. The casket portions 30 can take. one or more of many forms.
As one example, a casket portion 30 can be a short quarter section of a casket
showing half of an end wall and an end portion of a side wall of the casket.
As another example, a casket portion 30 can be a short length of the casket
side wall. As yet another example, a casket portian 30 can be a short Length
of the entire end of the casket. It will thus be appreciated that many
different
configurations of casket portions may be displayed on the display 10
depending on the positioning of the casket portions 30 and the selection of
the
actual portion of the casket to be displayed.
Each casket portion 30 can be secured to a respective support
40. Support 40 can be L-shaped having a leg portion 402 and a foot portion
404 interconnected by a connecting portion 406. Casket portion 30 can
reside atop connecting portion 406 and be secured to leg and foot portions
402, 404 via screws (not shown), fox example. Support 40 can include a
bracket 408 on a rear side of leg portion 402 which can be received in groove
202 in wall 20, to thereby removably secure support 40 to wall 20.
Each casket information module 50 can be removably secured
to a respective support 40. Support 40 can include a bracket 410 on a front
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side of leg portion 402 which is received in an opening 502 in informatian
module 50. Each information module 50 can be fabricated of a transparent
material such as acn~lic and include a first pocket 504, a second pocket 506
and a third pocket 508. The first pocket 502 can include a photo 510 of the
casket, the second pocket 506 can include a portion 512 of the cap panel of
the casket and the third pocket 508 can include a fabric swatch 514 of the
fabric of the casket. Pockets 506, 508 and cap panel portion 512 and fabric
swatch 514 are sized such that customer can readily access the cap panel
portion 512 and fabric swatch 514 allowing the customer to touch and feel
IO same. Additionally, cards (not shown) containing printed information can be
positioned in the packets to thereby provide additional information about the
casket.
Those skilled in the art will readily recognize numerous
adaptations and modifications which can be made to the present invention
I5 which will result in an improved selection room display, yet all of which
will
fall within the spirit and scape of the present invention as defined in the
following claims. Accordingly, the invention is to be limited only by the
scope
of the following claims and their equivalents.
What is claimed is:
