Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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CONVEYOR ASSEMBLY CARRYING ADVERTISING AND CHECKOUT
STATION INCORPORATING THE SAME
Field of the Invention
[0001] The present invention relates generally to advertising and in
particular,
to a conveyor assembly carrying advertising and to a checkout station
incorporating
the same.
Background of the Invention
[0002] Techniques for printing advertising on the conveyor belts of retail
establishment checkout stations are known. Because of the flexible nature of
conveyor belts, their generally continuous motion, and the constant wear to
which
conveyor belts are subjected as a result of objects of various shapes, sizes,
and texture
being placed thereon, applying advertisements on conveyor belts has been
challenging.
[0003] U.S. Patent No. 6,648,127 to Molinaro et al. discloses a conveyor belt
with advertising fabricated by coating at least one flexible belting member
with a
vinyl size coating. Special white PVC coated belting material is employed. A
variety
of printing processes may be used to print registered color separation images
on the at
least one belting member. These processes include silkscreen, flexographic and
offset
printing. The conveyor belt may comprise belting members made in lengths
shorter
than the entire length of the conveyor belt joined together using removable
attachment
means, permitting individual advertising images to be replaced by switching
belting
members without replacing the entire conveyor belt.
[0004] While techniques for applying advertising to conveyor belts exist,
improvements are desired. It is therefore an object of the present invention
to provide
a novel conveyor assembly carrying advertising and a novel checkout station
incorporating the same.
Summary of the Invention
[0005] Accordingly, in one aspect there is provided a conveyor assembly
comprising a rotatable conveyor belt having an exposed outer surface and at
least one
advertisement releasably secured to the outer surface, said at least one
advertisement
comprising a substrate having a width substantially equal to that of said
conveyor belt,
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said substrate having an upper surface on which advertising is printed and a
bottom
surface coated with a releasable adhesive that contacts the outer surface of
said
conveyor belt.
[0006] In one embodiment, the at least one advertisement further comprises a
protective coating applied to the upper surface of the substrate. The at least
one
advertisement may be a single advertisement having a length substantially
equal to the
length of the conveyor belt or may be a plurality of discrete advertisements
placed
along the conveyor belt. The substrate may be for example a vinyl film. The
advertising may be printed on the vinyl film using ink jet printing,
electronic printing
or screen printing.
[0007] According to another aspect there is provided a checkout station
comprising a checkout terminal and a conveyor assembly as described above to
deliver articles placed thereon to the checkout terminal.
Brief Description of the Drawings
[0008] Embodiments will now be described more fully with reference to the
accompanying drawings in which:
[0009] Figure 1 is a perspective view of a retail establishment checkout
station
comprising a conveyor assembly carrying advertising;
[00010] Figure 2 is a top plan view of an advertisement for applying to the
conveyor assembly of Figure 1;
[00011] Figure 3 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the advertisement
of
Figure 2; and
[00012] Figure 4 is a side elevational view of the advertisement of Figure 2
being applied to the conveyor assembly of Figure 1.
Detailed Description of the Embodiments
[00013] Turning now to Figure 1, a retail establishment checkout station is
shown and is generally identified by reference character 10. As can be seen,
checkout
station 10 comprises a conveyor assembly 12 at one end of the checkout station
10
and a checkout terminal 14 at the other end of the checkout station 10. The
checkout
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terminal 14 is conventional and comprises a bar code scanner 16, a keyboard 18
and a
display 20 allowing a cashier to process articles being purchased. The
checkout
terminal 14 also comprises a point-of-sale (POS) terminal 22 to enable
electronic
transactions to be completed. The conveyor assembly 12 comprises a conveyor
belt
30 that is bordered by rails 32 extending along opposite sides of the conveyor
belt 30.
The conveyor belt 30 is in the form of an endless loop of belting material
that is
wound around drive and tail rollers (not shown) positioned adjacent opposite
ends of
the conveyor assembly 12 allowing the conveyor belt 30 to be advanced to
deliver
articles placed thereon to the checkout terminal 14. The conveyor belt 30 may
be
formed from a single piece of belting material joined at its ends or from a
plurality of
individual pieces of belting material joined at its ends that are joined
together by
suitable means.
[00014] In this embodiment, the exposed outer surface 34 (see Figure 4) of the
conveyor belt 30 has a plurality of discrete advertisements 40 applied thereto
along
the conveyor belt 30. Each advertisement 40 is releasably secured to the outer
surface
34 of the conveyor belt 30 allowing the advertisements to be readily changed
and/or
reordered. As is best seen in Figures 2 and 3, each advertisement 40 comprises
a
substrate 42 having a width that is approximately the same width as the
conveyor belt
30. The substrate 42 is formed of flexible, opaque vinyl and is white in
color.
Advertising is printed on the top surface 44 of the substrate 42 using typical
techniques for digital printing on vinyl surfaces, such as for example ink jet
printing,
screen printing, electrostatic printing etc. The bottom surface 46 of the
substrate 42 is
coated with a pressure sensitive adhesive 48 allowing the substrate 42 to be
releasably
secured to the conveyor belt 30. The vinyl film produced by 3MTM of Minnesota,
U.S.A. under the name ScotchcalTM graphic film series has been found to be
suitable.
[00015] Figure 4 shows a side elevational view of an advertisement 40 as it is
being applied to the conveyor belt 30. Before application, the adhesive 48 is
covered
with a backing 50 such as paper to protect it from debris. When applying the
advertising 40 to the conveyor belt 30, the backing 50 is initially peeled
away from
the adhesive 48 of substrate 42 by a small amount and the exposed adhesive 48
is
applied to the outer surface 34 of conveyor belt 30. The backing 50 is then
slowly
peeled away from the adhesive 48 of the substrate 42, and the substrate 42 is
pressed
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and smoothed against the outer surface 34 of the conveyor belt 30 to ensure
flat, even
application of the substrate 42. As will be appreciated, if the backing 50 is
completely peeled off of the adhesive 48 before applying the substrate 42 to
the
conveyor belt 30, bubbling may occur or debris may get caught between the
substrate
42 and the conveyor belt 30.
[00016] The advertisements 40 applied to the outer surface 34 of the conveyor
belt 30 may be from the same advertiser or may be from multiple advertisers.
Typically, the length of time the various advertisements 40 remain on the
conveyor
belt 30 is a function of the amount of money paid by the advertisers. The
releasable
nature of the advertisements 40 allows great flexibility in terms of replacing
and/or
reordering advertisements. For example, if the advertisements 40 are from
multiple
advertisers, if one advertiser has paid for a longer period of display time,
then
advertisements 40 from that advertiser will remain on the conveyor belt 30,
while
advertisements 40 from other advertisers who have not paid for as long a
display time
are removed and replaced.
[00017] To protect the advertising printed on the top surface 44 of the
substrate
42, a protective substantially transport coating (not shown) may be applied
over the
top surface 44 of the substrate 42. The overlaminate produced by 3MTM of
Minnesota, U.S.A. under the name ScotchcalTM overlaminate has been found to be
suitable. This overlaminate provides both ultraviolet protection and physical
protection to the advertising printed on the top surface 44 of the substrate
42.
Application of the overlaminate to the top surface 44 of the substrate 42 may
be
similar to the application of the substrate 42 to the conveyor belt 30 by
removing the
protective backing from the adhesive of the overlaminate and pressing the
overlaminate onto the top surface 44 of the substrate 42. Alternatively, the
overlaminate may be applied to the top surface 44 of the substrate 42 by cold
roll
lamination. Alternatively, a top coat may be applied to the top surface 44 of
the
substrate 42 over the advertising. The top coat produced by 3MTM ScotchcalTM
gloss
overprint clear has been found to be suitable.
[00018] Although the advertisements 40 are described as being discrete and
placed on the outer surface 34 of the conveyor belt 30 at spaced locations,
those of
skill in the art will appreciate that alternative configurations are possible.
For
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example, a single advertisement having a length substantially equal to the
length of
the conveyor belt 30 may be used. In this case and cases where advertisements
are of
significant length, it is preferred that the advertisements are applied to the
conveyor
belt 30 while the conveyor belt is laid flat to ensure the advertisements are
smoothly
and evenly applied to the outer surface 34 of the conveyor belt 30. The
advertisements 40 need not be spaced along the conveyor belt 30. Rather, the
advertisements 40 can be placed side-by-side over the entire length of the
conveyor
belt 30 or over one or more sections of the conveyor belt length.
[000191 Although preferred embodiments have been described, those of skill in
the art will appreciate that variations and modifications may be made without
departing from the spirit and scope thereof as defined by the appended claims.
