Split-flap display


A split-flap display, or sometimes simply a flap display, is an electromechanical display device that presents changeable alphanumeric text, and occasionally fixed graphics.
Often used as a public transport timetable in airports or railway stations, as such they are often called Solari boards after display manufacturer Solari di Udine, of Udine, Italy, or in Central European countries they are called Pragotron after the Czech manufacturer.
Split-flap displays were once commonly used in consumer alarm clocks known as flip clocks.

Description

Each character position or graphic position has a collection of flaps on which the characters or graphics are painted or silkscreened. These flaps are precisely rotated to show the desired character or graphic. These displays are often found in railway stations and airports, where they serve as flight information display system and typically display departure or arrival information, although digital equivalents are far more common now.
Sometimes the flaps are large and display whole words, and in other installations there are several smaller flaps, each displaying a single character. The former method is limited to the words it can display on the flaps, while the latter system is not, and output messages can be changed without the need for the addition or replacement of flaps, although images cannot. In the Frankfurt example image on the right, the destinations in the centre of the picture are split into characters, while the messages left and right of these occupy one flap each.
During a power loss or disruption the display will freeze. At first this may be an advantage because the information is still correct and still available. When the information becomes outdated it might be worse than no information.
Flip-dot displays and LED display boards may be used instead of split-flap displays in most applications. Their output can be varied more easily but they suffer from lower readability. They also can refresh more quickly, as a split-flap display often must cycle through many states.
Advantages to these displays include:
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority has designed the new LED replacements for its aging Solari boards at North Station and South Station to emit an electronically generated flapping noise to cue passengers to train boarding updates.
Many game shows of the 1970s used this type of display for the contestant podium scoreboards. Usually, the flip was left-to-right on a vertical axis, although up/down on a horizontal axis was not completely unknown. Early seasons of the game show Family Feud used a split flap display as part of the game board. The game board on the Nickelodeon game show Make the Grade was a 7x7 split-flap display, used to display subjects and wild cards, as well as tracking contestants' progress. The television game show Chain Reaction on GSN features computer-simulated split-flap displays to display the various words in a chain.
In Italy, split-flap displays have also been occasionally used as destination signs for transit vehicles; there was also a brief vogue for them in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s.

Operational boards in transport terminals and businesses

The boards are currently in use at the following stations:

Australia

. Located in the main departure hall, displaying departures and check-in information. Very popular meeting point for people travelling together.

China

Shanghai Starbucks Roastery. Lists the featured coffee beans on a split flap display installed by Solari di Udine S.P.A.

France

Some railway stations in France still have one or several split-flap displays, Strasbourg, Nantes and Toulouse-Matabiau stations.

Germany

In Greece, these displays are still widespread. Most airports and train stations have one, most notably the Athens International Airport, which has two enormous displays of this kind. Bus stops, tram stops as well as the stations of the Athens Metro and the Proastiakos Commuter Rail System of Athens use electronic displays.

Hungary

Stations etc. previously equipped with these boards included, amongst others:

Australia

Since the 1980s, all railway stations in The Netherlands except those with very low passenger numbers had spit-flap displays on all platforms providing detailed information about the upcoming train. The larger railway stations also featured displays in this style near staircases and entrances, and the busiest stations had large overview displays in the main hall, e.g. at Amsterdam Centraal, Utrecht Centraal and Rotterdam Centraal. Between 2010 and 2012, they were all taken out of service. Most spit-flap indicators have been replaced by LCD displays, in some cases LED was used where direct sunlight would impact the readability too much.

United Kingdom

The aesthetic appeal of the displays is such that they have also seen use in purely artistic forms, such as in Pedestrian Drama, contemporary artwork using this display technology, and art by Juan Fontanive, who has used the mechanism extensively since 2005.
The album cover for The Enemy's album We'll Live and Die in These Towns is based on the Solari design seen at British railway stations.

Patents