GB2279914A - Preparing documents for binding or filing. - Google Patents

Abstract

A document 6 is prepared for binding by application of a binding strip 24 to a margin thereof. The binding strip is composed of two plies 10, 10A which are bonded together (eg as by adhesive 20) over half their width, and which are mutually unbonded over the other half of the width, so that the document edge may be positioned by being abutted against the edge of the bond. At least one of the plies 10, 10A bears an adhesive for application to a face of the document. As shown (Fig. 8) the plies bear mutually complementary stripes of adhesive and release agent over that part of the width receiving the document edge. A number of variations are described. The binding strip may be adapted to receipt in known manner in a paper filing device, or may be semi-permanently (or permanently) bound into a booklet (or book) in known manner. <IMAGE>

Description

BINDING METHOD AND APPARATUS This invention relates to a binding method and apparatus and also provides an adhesive system applicable in such methods and apparatus. An example of the application of the invention is to the binding of individual pages of documents into a book, folder or similar volume.

Previous proposals for binding systems include ring binders, glue-spine binding systems, and spring-grip binders.

However, these and other previously proposed binding systems all suffer from various shortcomings. These include the following. In the case of glued or other conventional binding systems, the pages cannot be removed or interchanged. Also, the pages are not as readily opened as could be desired. In order to examine both sides of a page, it is necessary for that page itself to be flexed and the inherent limitations in the flexibility of paper or the like causes pages to tend to spring back after opening. Also, these previously proposed systems, particularly those involving the punching of holes in the document to be bound cannot be used for important documents such as certificates which cannot be defaced in this way.

Another prior proposal provides a binding element in the form of an attachment member comprising a sheet of elongate dimensions and including along one face of a first elongate side, an adhesive effective to adhere a sheet of paper upon contact, and wherein apertures are provided extending through the sheet and adapted for passage therethrough of securing means. This proposal, whilst addressing the problem of binding documents, such as certificates which cannot be defaced with holes, has the drawback that it is difficult to correctly align the page to be bound with respect to the binding element. This can result in each page of a book or folder being aligned slightly differently and thus not having a square edge.

In my published application number GB 2250957 the problem of page alignment is addressed by means of a binding element being generally M-shaped in cross section and thus having a folded portion in which the inner edge of a sheet to be bound can be guided and located. Adhesive may be provided on both sides of the fold to secure the page. However this solution suffers from the drawbacks that it may be difficult to open the fold in order to locate the page, even when utilising a fold-opening tool and in addition the folding of the binding element is difficult to achieve and adds to the cost of the binding element as a whole.

An object of the invention is to provide a method and apparatus for binding sheets or leaves or cards or the like into a bound assembly offering improvements in relation to one or more matters discussed above or generally.

According to the invention there is provided a method of binding, and a binding element for use in such methods as defined in the accompanying claims.

In an embodiment of the invention a method of binding is provided in which binding elements comprise a strip of sheet material having an inner portion to be mounted into a bound assembly and an outer portion to be secured to a sheet or the like to be bound. The binding element has adhesive on its outer portion to secure the sheet to be bound, interspersed with regions of release material or non-adhesive regions. The adhesive is a peelable adhesive, whereby the sheet to be bound can be removed and itself replaced. In this way, the removability of ring binding systems is provided without the inherent disadvantages of those systems, as discussed above.

With regard to the nature of the peelable adhesive, suffice it to say that such adhesives are readily available and any suitable peelable adhesive may be used for the purpose of the invention in accordance with the manufacturer's specification, subject to the requirement that it provides for sheets mounted to be readily peeled or unpeeled or otherwise unadhered and readhered without damaging or at least without unacceptably damaging the sheet to be mounted.

The preferred embodiment also provides that the sheet material of the binding element is sufficiently flexible to permit the sheet to be bound, to lie flat for examination of both sides of the sheet under its own weight. This fold flat facility is obtained without requiring any flexibility in the sheet mounted in the binding system, and without any requirement for holes or a ring bounder. Indeed, the assembly of bound sheets may be simply stapled together. The degree of flexibility required in the binding element will vary according to the weight of the sheet material to be bound.

In the preferred embodiment the binding elements are bonded together in pairs by gluing, heat sealing or any other suitable means in the region of the inner portion. The bond defines a fold or nip between the two binding elements. This fold or nip receives the edge of a sheet to be bound. The fold then enables the sheet to be correctly aligned with respect to the spine of the bound assembly. Adhesive and release material are provided on both sides of the fold or nip so arranged that the release material of one of the pair of binding elements will come into contact with the adhesive of the other binding element when the two elements are bonded.

This arrangement allows the elements to be separated in order to receive the edge of a sheet to be bound.

In a further embodiment of the invention one of the two contacting faces of the bonded binding element assembly may be provided with adhesive on its outer portion and the second with release material. This also permits the two binding elements to be separated and receive the sheet to be bound.

It also has the advantage that the sheet bound thereto is only secured by adhesive on one face and this is particularly useful when binding photographs where it is desirable to avoid having adhesive in contact with the side of the photographic print which displays the image.

In the preferred embodiment, the bonded binding element assemblies are secured together by any suitable means such as stapling or gluing or gripping with a gripping element or elements. An adhesive region may also be provided on the assembly itself to provide self adhesion when the assemblies are secured together. In one embodiment, a plurality of binding element assemblies are prebound together in order to accept a plurality of sheets to be bound. This provides a convenient means for mounting a collection of sheets, such as pages from a stamp album, photograph album or other collection. Alternatively, one or more Such binding element assemblies may be provided in an otherwise conventional book, manual or the like to permit at least one or more sheets thereof to be removed and replaced, while the remainder are conveniently held.Such a facility may be useful for updating technical publications, and also diaries, personal organisers and the like.

With regard to materials useable in relation to the binding elements and assemblies thereof, plastics materials are suitable, such as polythene sheet. Preferably such materials should be transparent or semi-transparent.

Alternatively, fabric sheet material readily provides the desired flexibility and also has significant strength.

Embodiments of the invention will be now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which Fig 1 shows a plan view of a binding element; Fig 2 shows a plan view of an alternative binding element; Fig 3 shows an end view (on arrow III) of the binding element of Figs 1 and 2; Fig 4 shows, diagrammatically and on a larger scale, two binding elements to be bonded to form a binding element assembly with regions of adhesion and release material on both binding elements; Fig 5 shows two binding elements bonded to form a binding element assembly; Fig 6 shows the binding element assembly of Fig 5 with an accompanying sheet bound thereto; Fig 7 shows a binding element assembly one member of which is formed with an extended adhesive edge; Fig 8 shows a binding element assembly one member of which is formed with an extended edge of release material;; Fig 9 shows two binding elements to be bound to form a binding element assembly with one binding element having adhesive and the other release material; and Fig 10 shows an assembly of bonded binding elements of the previous figures with the accompanying sheets bound thereby.

As shown in Figs 1 and 2, the binding element 10 is in the form of an oblong rectangle having an inner portion 12 to be mounted into a bound assembly, and an outer portion 14 to be secured to a sheet or the like to be bound. Outer portion 14 has, on one side of binding element 10, alternate regions of peelable adhesive 16 and release material 18. Inner portion 12 has, on the same side of binding element 10, a zone 19 of adhesive for bonding to an adjacent binding element.

The binding elements 10 are formed from polythene sheets material and are transparent.

Fig 4 shows two binding elements 10 prior to being bonded together by their adhesive zones 19 at their inner portions 12. A bond 20 (Fig 5) forms between the inner portions 12 to produce a double thickness zone 24 with a stop or nip 22 at its outer edge to receive the edge of the sheet to be bound.

The binding elements 10 are arranged prior to bonding so that the adhesive bonds or regions 16 of one element 10 are aligned with and come into contact with the release material bands 18 of the second element l0A when the two elements 10 and 10A are bonded. This arrangement allows the outer portions of the elements 10 and 10A to be separated and re-closed repeatedly to the point at which the nip 22 is formed as shown in Fig 5.

In use, the binding elements, 10, 10A of the binding element assembly 24 are separated as far as stop or nip 22.

The edge of a sheet 26 to be bound is inserted between the the elements 10, 10A so as to abut the nip 22. The nip 22 acts as a stop between the binding elements and enables the sheet to be easily correctly aligned with respect to the spine of the bound assembly. The binding elements 10, 10A are then closed around the edge of sheet 26 and manual pressure applied to ensure a firm contact between the adhesive bands 16 of the binding elements 10, 10A and the sheet 26 bound thereby. Fig 6 shows a sheet retained in a binding element assembly.

A further means whereby a binding element assembly 24 can be secured into the bound assembly of Fig 6 is shown in Fig 7. Fig 7 shows an assembly of two binding elements 10, lOB in which one element lOB is wider than the other. The region 28 of element lOB which extends further than or projects from the second element carries an adhesive. This adhesive may be peelable or not depending on the application. Said adhesive can be used to secure the binding element assembly to similar assemblies as shown in Fig 10.

The embodiment of Fig 8 also shows an assembly of binding elements in which one element is wider than the second. In this embodiment the projecting region 30 of the first element which extends further than the second element carries release material so to aid manual separation of the binding elements prior to insertion of a sheet to be bound.

Fig 9 shows two binding elements lOC and lOD to be bound to form a bonded binding element assembly 24 in which one binding element l0C is formed with peelable adhesive 16 across its full width and the second binding element lOD is formed with release material 18 across the full width of its outer portion 14 with adhesive across its inner portion. This arrangement permits ease of separation of the outer portions of the two binding elements lOC and lOD once they have been bonded together.

Fig 10 shows an assembly of five pairs of binding elements bonded into binding element assemblies 25 in association with five sheets 26 bound thereby. There is indicated at 32 the location for the application of a binding means such as staples, glue or a spine clip or the like (not shown).

Interestingly, the above embodiments provide a binding system employing relatively very inexpensive materials enabling a loose-leaf filing system to be provided requiring no damage to leaves or sheets filed, providing a very compact spine and enabling correct alignment of sheets or leaves to be bound to be readily achieved.

Claims (13)

1 A method of binding sheets or leaves or cards or the like into a bound assembly comprising a) providing at least two binding elements, said binding elements comprising a strip of sheet material having an inner portion to be mounted into said bound assembly and an outer portion to be secured to a sheet or the like to be bound, at least one binding element having adhesive on said outer portion to secure the respective sheet or the like; b) securing said sheet or the like to said binding element by engagement with said adhesive and forming the bound assembly;; characterised in that c) said binding elements are bonded together in the region of the inner portion so as to form a stop or nip, the method comprising the step of binding the inner portions of the bonded binding elements and locating the edge of a sheet to be bound thereby in the fold or nip, said sheet being retained in position by contact with said adhesive.

2 A method of binding sheets or leaves or cards or the like into a bound assembly comprising a) providing at least two binding elements, said binding elements comprising a strip of sheet material having an inner portion to be mounted into said bound assembly and an outer portion to be secured to a sheet or the like to be bound, at least one binding element having adhesive on said outer portion to secure the respective sheet or the like; b) securing said sheet or the like to said binding element by engagement with said adhesive and forming the bound assembly;; characterised in that said binding elements are bonded together in the region of the inner portion so as to form a stop or nip and regions of release material are provided within the region of adhesive on the binding elements in such a way that the regions of release material of one binding element come into contact with the region of adhesive on the other binding element when the two elements are bonded to form said stop or nip, the method comprising the step of binding the inner portions of the bonded binding elements and locating the edge of the sheet to be bound thereby in the stop or nip, said sheet being retained in position with the adhesive regions on each element.

3 A method of binding elements as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, characterised by said binding elements being formed from flexible sheet material which sheet material has the necessary flexibility so that in use the intermediate portions thereof provide a hinging action to permit a sheet bound thereby to lie flat for examination of both sides thereof under its own weight, the method comprising the step of binding the inner portion of the binding element so that the intermediate portion of the binding elements, can thus flex.

4 A method of binding sheets as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 characterised in that said adhesive being a peelable adhesive whereby said sheet or the like can be removed and itself replaced or removed and replaced by another sheet or the like, the method comprising the step of peeling the upper binding element from said sheet and peeling said sheet from the adhesive of a lower binding element and subsequently replacing it as aforesaid.

5 A method according to any of the preceding claims characterised by providing a plurality of pairs of bonded binding elements and securing the inner portion thereof together by stapling or gluing or gripping with a gripping element or elements.

6 A method according to any of claims 1 to 4 characterised by providing a plurality of pairs of binding elements which are already secured together at their inner portions by any desired method and locating the edges of a plurality of sheets in the stop or nips formed in the region of the bond between a pair of binding elements and adhering same to the adhesive portion of said binding element.

7 A method according to any of claims 1 to 4 characterised by providing at least one of said binding element assemblies as part of a bound book or manual or the like, to permit at least one sheet thereof to be removed and replaced.

8 A method of binding sheets or leaves or cards or the like substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

9 A binding product for use in a method according to claim 1 comprising at least two binding elements said binding elements being formed from sheet material having an inner portion to be mounted into said bound assembly and an outer portion to be secured to a sheet or the like to be bound, at least one of said binding elements having adhesive on said outer portion to secure the respective sheet or the like characterised in that said binding elements are bonded or bondable together to form a stop or nip to receive between the binding elements the edge of a sheet to be bound.

10 A binding product for use in a method according to claim 1 comprising at least two binding elements said binding elements being formed from sheet material having an inner portion to be mounted into said bound assembly and an outer portion to be secured to a sheet or the like to be bound, at least one of said binding elements having adhesive on said outer portion to secure the respective sheet or the like characterised in that said binding elements are bonded together to form a stop or nip to receive the edge of a sheet to be bound, said binding elements having regions of release material provided within the regions of adhesive in such a way that the regions of release material of one binding element come into contact with the regions of adhesive of the other binding element when the two elements are bonded to form said stop or nip.

11 A binding product for use in binding sheets or leaves or cards or the like substantially as described herein with reference to the accompanying drawings.

12 A binding product comprising at least two binding elements having portions which can be peeled apart to receive a sheet to be bound, characterised by said binding elements being bonded or bondable together across a portion of their dimensions whereby peeling said elements apart up to said bonded portion produces a stop or nip therebetween to receive the edge of an article to be bound.

13 A method of binding sheets or leaves or cards or the like comprising providing at least two binding elements with portions which can be peeled apart to receive a sheet or the like to be bound characterised by said binding elements being bonded together across a portion of their dimensions and the method comprising peeling apart said elements up to said bonded portion so as to produce a stop or nip and inserting into said stop or nip the edge of a sheet or the like to be bound.