Sign making web with dry adhesive layer

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The invention resides in a laminated web for use in making signs of the kind comprised of characters, symbols or other shapes cut from a sheet of colored sign material and adhesively attached to a supporting surface of contrasting color.
The web is cut to provide the shapes used in constructing a sign and lends itself particularly well to situations where the cutting is performed on an automatic sign generating machine, but its use is not necessarily restricted to this application, it being possible that the web may also be used in circumstances where the shapes are cut by hand or by means other than an automatic machine.
The web comprises a base layer of sheet material carrying a superimposed layer of sign material.
The layer of sign material has a first face facing the base layer and a second face facing away from the base layer.
The first face is the better or "good" face of the sign material.
A layer of permanently tacky adhesive of the web is located between the base layer and the layer of sign material and is preferentially bonded to the base layer to allow the sign material to be peeled from it with the adhesive remaining on the base layer only.
The web further comprises a layer of dry adhesive bonded to the second face of the layer of sign material.
This layer of dry adhesive is activatable to a tacky condition for adhesively attaching cut shapes of the sign material to a supporting surface.
In this construction of the web the "good" face of the sign material is protected by the base or carrier layer during handling and cutting and is not exposed until the end of the sign making process.
This construction of the web also permits the use of a simple procedure in transferring the cut shapes of the sign material to the supporting surface after cutting, the procedure involving removing or "weeding" the surrounding sign material from the cut shapes, activating the dry adhesive remaining with the cut shapes into a tacky condition, applying the base layer with the cut shapes to the supporting surface, pressing the cut shapes against that surface to cause them to adhere to the surface, and lastly peeling the base layer from the surface leaving the attached shapes behind on the surface to complete the sign