AU686949B2

AU686949B2 - Unit for replenishing memo paper stacks

Info

Publication number: AU686949B2
Application number: AU54829/96A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Shin Fujisawa; Takashi Sugibuchi
Original assignee: Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Co
Current assignee: 3M Co
Priority date: 1995-05-19
Filing date: 1996-04-12
Publication date: 1998-02-12
Anticipated expiration: 2016-04-12
Also published as: CA2219409A1; WO1996036493A1; DE69601036D1; AU5482996A; EP0825929B1; NZ306291A; JPH08314383A; MX9708726A; EP0825929A1; JP3588161B2; DE69601036T2; ES2124631T3

Description

UNIT FOR REPLENISHING MEMO PAPER STACKS

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Field of Utilization. in Industry

The present invention relates to a unit for replenishing tape or sheet stacks of memo paper with a removable adhesive, such as memo paper commercially available under a trade name, for example, of TAPEFLAG, to a dispenser for housing them.

Prior Art

A tape dispenser for housing and removing on use in sequence a plurality of short tapes with a removable adhesive used as a tag or an index has been already known in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-504004. In this dispenser, tape stacks in which short tapes each having coated on one edge thereof a removable adhesive are laminated with the adhesive-coated edges being superposed alternately are housed while the adhesive-non-coated edge of the uppermost tape is put out of the dispenser. On taking out a tape from the dispenser, the edge of the uppermost tape exposed outside the dispenser is picked and pulled out. At this time, the adhesive-non-coated edge of the lower tape connected to the adhesive-coated edge of the tape taken out is pulled out of the dispenser for the preparation of the next use.

This dispenser has a constitution such that a mount of a short tape stack is bonded to a dispenser case with an adhesive and accordingly, is deficient in that new tapes cannot be replenished to the dispenser when the tapes are used up and also in that the takeoff port is projected and disturbing. In order to overcome these inconveniences, a proposal has been made (see Japanese Patent Application No. 5-295086). The newly proposed dispenser is formed into a shape of flat letter C by turning up opposing edges of a plate material so as to face respective leading ends with each other at an appropriate space. The short tapes housed in this dispenser can be taken out in sequence in the same manner as described above by using the space between the opposing edges turned up as a takeoff port and when the tapes are used up, a new tape stack can be replenished to the dispenser by elastically distorting and thereby deflecting the wing-like or hood-like parts turned up and forming the takeoff port.

Problems to be Solved by Invention

The above-described dispenser capable of replenishment of short tapes is, however, deficient in that the replenishing operation itself is cumbersome because the wing-like or hood-like parts must be deflected by using the elastic deformation, in other words, the space for taking out the tape must be forced open at the time of replenishment to charge a new tape stack and also in that it is not easy to charge the tape stack to a predetermined position of the dispenser. This is particularly outstanding when the stack to be charged into the dispenser is in plurality.

Accordingly, the object of the present invention is to provide a unit capable of easy replenishment of tape or sheet stacks of memo paper with a removable adhesive into a dispenser.

Means for Solving the Problems

In order to achieve the object, the present invention provides a unit for replenishing memo paper stacks to a dispenser for memo paper with a removable adhesive, the dispenser being formed into a shape of a flat letter C by turning up opposing edges of a plate material so as to face the respective leading ends to each other at an appropriate distance, wherein a plurality of memo paper stacks is fixed to a common substrate and adhesive-non-coated edges of the uppermost memo paper of respective stacks are connected by an interlinker having laminated thereon a removable adhesive.

The term "memo paper with a removable adhesive" as used in the present invention means a tape- or sheet-form memo paper having laminated on one edge thereof a removable adhesive. The above-described tape- or sheet-form memo paper includes, of course, those for writing important matters thereon which is on use temporarily affixed to a document and the like and can be removed after the end of use and, in addition, includes removable tapes and sheets used as a tag or index for a temporary purpose. The material for the memo paper of the present invention is not restricted only to paper but materials such as plastic films may also be used without any problem.

The term "memo paper stack" as used in the present invention means a stack obtained by laminating the above-described memo papers so that the adhesive- coated edges come alternately, which is housed in a dispenser with the adhesive- non-coated edges of the uppermost memo paper being put outside and used by pulling the edge of the uppermost paper appearing outside to take out in sequence the lower memo papers.

The unit for replenishing memo paper of the present invention will be described in greater detail by referring to the drawings attached. The memo paper taken as an example in the following description is in the form of a short tape used mainly as a tag or index but it is a matter of course that the present invention is by no means limited to such an embodiment.

A dispenser for memo paper with a removable adhesive is first described. As shown in Fig. 1 , a dispenser 1 is formed to have a bottom 4 and hoods 5, 5' by bending opposing edges of a flat and translucent plastic sheet 2 in the form of nearly flat letter C and the space 6 between leading ends of the hoods 5, 5' is used as a takeoff port for taking out a desired memo paper from the dispenser. The reason why a translucent material is used is because the remaining amount of memo papers in the dispenser can be easily confirmed. Fig. 2 is a view of the dispenser 1 shown in Fig. 1 where five sets of short tape stacks 1 1 are bonded and fixed to the bottom and the short tape is made of a translucent plastic material with one edge part 12 being colored for discrimination. The short tape edge is colored to different colors every stack. However, the material for the short tape, the coloring on the short tape edge and the different colors every stack are not essential in the present invention. The edge part, where an adhesive is not laminated, of the uppermost tape in each stack is put out of the opening, namely the tape takeoff port 6, of the dispenser as shown in Fig. 2 so as to take it out of the dispenser. In Fig. 2, when new short tape stacks are replenished to the dispenser upon the using up of the short tapes, the space 6 for taking out a tape must be forced open as described above and each stack must be charged independently into the dispenser, thus the replenishing operation is cumbersome.

On the contrary, the replenishment of short tape stacks can be very easily conducted by using the replenishing unit of the present invention. As shown in Fig. 3, in the replenishing unit 20, five sets of memo paper stacks 21 are fixed to a common substrate 22 using the removable adhesive laminated on the short tape laid at the bottom of the stack and adhesive-non-coated edges 23 of the uppermost short tape in respective stacks are connected by an interlinker 24 having laminated thereon a removable adhesive.

The short tape stack (namely, memo paper stack) 21 used in this unit may be the same as those used conventionally. The common substrate 22 for fixing stacks 21 may be made of paper or a plastic material. Among plastic materials, preferred are polyester, vinyl chloride and polypropylene. The substrate may have any thickness as long as the substrate can sufficiently support the weight of stacks fixed thereon and can endure the force applied thereto on charging a replenishing unit into the dispenser. In general, the lower bound of the thickness for the substrate is about 50 μm.

The interlinker 24 may be made of paper or plastics or may be in the form of film or a tape. Examples of preferred plastic materials for the interlinker 24 include polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester and polycarbonate, the thickness of the interlinking film or tape may be appropriately selected but it is preferably from 30 to 100 μm in general. If the thickness is less than 30 μm, the interlinked edge parts of respective short tapes cannot behave in agreement to inhibit the insertion of the replenishing unit into the dispenser, whereas if the thickness exceeds 100 μm, the interlinker becomes too strong as compared with the short tape and may wound the short tapes. The removable adhesive laminated on the interlinker 24 is not particularly restricted as long as it is made of a rubber-base or acrylic synthetic resin. The adhesive strength of this adhesive is preferably from 20 to 100 g/25 mm. If it is less than 20 g/25 mm, the interlinker cannot adhere to the short tapes, whereas if it exceeds 100 g/25 mm, the interlinker can be hardly removed from each stack after the charging of the replenishing unit into the dispenser. The charging of the replenishing unit of the present invention into a dispenser will be described below by referring to Fig. 4. The substrate remained after the short tapes are used up is removed from the dispenser, then a new replenishing unit 20 is used, end parts 23 of the uppermost short tape in respective stacks 21 which are connected by an interlinker 24 are set up in line and the replenishing unit 20 is inserted from the one edge 8 of the dispenser 1 in the arrow direction of Fig. 4 so that the end parts 23 can pass through the space 6 between the hood parts 5, 5' of the dispenser 1. Thereafter, the interlinker 24 is removed from end parts of short tapes and the dispenser 1 can be used immediately.

The replenishing unit inserted can be fixed by any convenient method. For example, the width of the substrate 22 of the replenishing unit 20 is set the same or almost the same with the corresponding inner diameter of the dispenser 1 and the substrate 22 is caught and fixed therein after the insertion using the elasticity of the dispenser 1. Or, a projection and a recess capable of engagement with each other are provided on the back surface (on the surface where stacks 21 are not fixed) of the substrate 22 and also on the bottom surface 4, which comes into contact with the back surface above, of the dispenser 1 (it may be freely selected whether the projection or the recess is provided on the back surface of the substrate 22 or on the bottom surface 4 of the dispenser 1) and the projection and the recess are engaged after the charging of the replenishing unit to fix the replenishing unit 20.

Mode of Operations

The substrate of the unit for replenishing memo paper of the present invention is useful for fixing a plurality of stacks for replenishment and facilitates the charging and the replenishing of the stacks in a lump into the dispenser. The interlinker connecting the adhesive-non-coated edges of the uppermost memo paper in respective stacks prevents inconsistent behavior of the adhesive-non-coated edges as a free edge on the uppermost memo paper in respective stacks which disturbs the insertion of the replenishing unit.

Examples A white cardboard (72x48x0.5 mm) was used as a mount and five sets of short tape stacks were disposed thereon at equal intervals. The stack was prepared by piling 20 sheets of short tape cut into 45 mm x 12 mm and having laminated on one edge thereof a removable adhesive (adhesion strength: 60 g/25 mm) so that the adhesive-laminated edges came alternately. The adhesive-non-coated edges of respective stacks were arranged to come on the same side of the mount. A white paper tape of 12 mm in width (Cover-UP Tape produced by Sumitomo 3M KK; thickness: 0.1 mm, adhesive strength: 70 g/25 mm) was put across the adhesive- non-coated edges to interlink them to thereby produce a unit for replenishing stacks of the present invention as schematically shown in Fig. 3. The resulting replenishing unit can be smoothly inserted and charged into a dispenser made of an amorphous polyester resin (A-PET) film of 0.3 mm in thickness and having an outer dimension of 74x49x3 mm and also can be fixed conveniently using the elasticity of the dispenser.

Effect of Invention

As described in the foregoing, according to the present invention, memo paper stacks can be newly replenished in an extremely simple manner to a dispenser where memo paper with a removable adhesive are used up and absent.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

Fig. 1 is a view showing a dispenser for memo paper with a removable adhesive.

Fig. 2 is a perspective showing a dispenser where short tape stacks are charged. Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a unit for replenishing memo paper according to the present invention. Fig. 4 is a perspective view explaining the charging of a replenishing unit of the present invention into a dispenser.

DESCRIPTION OF REFERENCE NUMERALS

1 ... dispenser

6 ... tape takeoff port

1 1 . . short tape stack

20 . . replenishing unit

21 . . memo paper stack

22 . . substrate

23 . . adhesive-non-coated edge

24 . . interlinker

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A unit for replenishing memo paper stacks to a dispenser for memo paper with a removable adhesive, the dispenser being formed into a shape of a flat letter C by turning up opposing edges of a plate material so as to face the respective leading ends to each other at an appropriate distance, wherein a plurality of memo paper stacks is fixed to a common substrate and adhesive-non-coated edges of the uppermost memo paper of respective stacks are connected by an interlinker having laminated thereon a removable adhesive.

2. The replenishing unit as claimed in claim 1 , wherein said substrate is made of paper or a plastic material.

3. The replenishing unit as claimed in claim 1 or 2, wherein said interlinker is made of paper or a plastic material.