EP0187083B1 - Continuous assembly of postal letters or the like - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to folds which are presented in a continuous strip for correspondence or dissemination of confidential information.

Such strips are formed by bundles of continuous sheets, folded in a screen, each flap of which constitutes a unitary fold. These products, which are generally given the English name of "mailers", allow editing on a printing machine such as a computer printer, electro-accounting equipment or the like. The lower sheet of the bundle is intended to form, for each of the flaps of the folding screen, that is to say for each of the unit folds, the back of the envelope of the fold considered, while the upper sheet forms the faces envelopes. All the intermediate sheets are intended to constitute the interior documents or inserts of each of the folds. According to known arrangements (carbonaceous areas, chemical papers or possibly zoned self-reproducers, etc.) the typing of the printer is selectively transferred to some of the sheets, therefore to some of the interior documents, while non-personalized mentions, ie ie identical for all the folds, are printed on one or more sheets before their assembly.

The lower and upper sheets at least are joined by gluing along their lateral edges and, transversely, at the top and bottom of each fold.

After passing through the printer, the bundle is brought to a unitizing device where the folds are separated from each other along the folding fold lines either by breaking by traction, or by cutting (cutter).

There are many types of such unit fold assemblies which are used more and more frequently for the dissemination of personalized confidential information or for mass correspondence: personalized advertising, notice of due dates for invoices, statements, regulations, etc. However, they all have a certain number of drawbacks, the most important of which is certainly the method of printing the inserts. Indeed, the fact that the inserts are never in the original position, prohibits their exploitation in optical or magnetic reading (none of them can constitute a universal payment title for example) and imposes the use of a printer impact (hammers or needles), while the performance of these machines appears increasingly insufficient and that they are intended to be replaced by printers without mechanical displacement (inkjet printers or laser printers for example ).

To overcome this major drawback, a method and a machine for manufacturing mailers have been devised in which the inserts from continuous sheets are cut and introduced between the lower and upper sheets after they have passed through the printer (European patent 51099 to name of the same applicant). Of course, the dimensions of each insert are smaller than those of the flaps of the lower and upper sheets and each flap of one and / or the other of these sheets has a frame formed by a thread of heat-activated glue, the sealing of the folds taking place at the user's place, before being put into the unit by passing through a heat-bonding station.

The object of the invention is defined by claim 1. It resides in a particular arrangement of the inserts coming from at least two superimposed layers, each layer being constituted by a separate continuous sheet or by one of the panels of a continuous sheet folded longitudinally.

According to the invention, at least one of the two superimposed inserts is provided, at least partially, in a determined area, with a coating of adhesive which can be activated by heat, which causes the two inserts considered to stick together on a surface or along lines corresponding to this coating, when passing through the heat sealing station.

Thus, we take advantage of the compulsory supply of heat and pressure to achieve, within each unit fold, the creation of a new object by superimposing and securing the inserts or a detachable part of these last. This new object can be used for a variety of purposes. It can be a bundle of tickets or labels. Most often, however, a return envelope is made for a means of payment or a detachable part of the insert (order form, request for information, etc.). An interesting application by its economic aspect, consists in thus manufacturing, by superposition and gluing of two areas of the same dimensions, a response card sufficiently rigid to be shipped by post, from a folded insert having a relatively low grammage. It suffices for this that the card thus formed is separable from the rest thanks to an entourage of detachable perforations, and a significant saving of paper is thus achieved by weight.

• - la figure 1 montre schématiquement la fabrication d'un mailer à insert libre,
• - la figure 2 représente, à plus grande échelle, le détail de l'insert de la figure 1,
• - la figure 3 montre l'insert tel qu'il est reçu par le destinataire,
• - la figure 4 est une variante du mailer avec son insert,
• - les figures 5A-5_C correspondent à une réalisation avec deux inserts pliés à l'italienne dont l'un permet la formation d'une enveloppe retour,
• - les figures 6A-6_c, semblables aux figures 5A-5_c, montrent la réalisation d'une enveloppe retour avec des inserts pliés à la française en accordéon, après impression à 90 degrés.

The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows and which refers to the accompanying drawings in which:

• FIG. 1 schematically shows the manufacture of a mailer with a free insert,
• FIG. 2 represents, on a larger scale, the detail of the insert of FIG. 1,
• FIG. 3 shows the insert as received by the recipient,
• FIG. 4 is a variant of the mailer with its insert,
• FIGS. 5A-5 _C correspond to an embodiment with two Italian-folded inserts, one of which allows the formation of a return envelope,
• - Figures 6A-6 _c , similar to Figures 5A-5 _c , show the production of a return envelope with inserts folded in French accordion, after printing at 90 degrees.

The application shown in Figures 1-3 is that of shaping a response card from a relatively thin intermediate continuous sheet.

In FIG. 1, the assembly comprises three sheets, namely a lower sheet 11, an upper sheet 12, and an intermediate sheet 10. Each of said sheets has along perforations along at least one of its longitudinal edges ( 10b, 11b, 12b) and is guided and driven along a respective circuit, symbolized here by a support roller (14, 15, 16), by spike trainers (17, 18, 19).

Only sheet 10, before appearing at the entrance to its circuit, passes through a printer (not shown). Each sheet carries equidistant transverse weakening lines (10a, 11a, 12a), two successive lines delimiting a flap corresponding to a unitary fold. On the lower 11 and upper 12 sheets, the spacing E ₁ of the weakening lines is greater than that E ₂ presented by the weakening lines 10a of the intermediate sheet 10.

When we speak of an intermediate "sheet" 10, it should be understood that it is a continuous assembly, each section of which must be housed inside a respective unitary fold, but that this sheet comprises, as has been said, at least two plies, either because it itself forms a thin bundle of several continuous strips, or because it results from the longitudinal folding of a wide strip. In the latter case, which is the one shown, a conventional folding station 31 is arranged at the entrance to the circuit of the sheet 10.

At least one of the lower 11 and upper 12 sheets carries sealing means along its longitudinal edges (inside with respect to the perforated driving margins) and sealing means straddling the transverse lines of weakness 11a , 12a, these sealing means being activatable by heat and pressure. The assembly is carried out in a sealing station 20, the inlet of which is constituted by a pair of driving rollers 13 rolling one on top of the other, and between which the various sheets are engaged, possibly after passing over rollers of reference 21. In the sealing station, the upper and lower sheets are joined together, over the entire periphery of each of their flaps by means of pressing pressure cylinders 22.

To have an interior document in each of the folds, that is to say to introduce a section of sheet between the upper and lower sheets, without said section being able to be "taken" by the sealing, but on the contrary remains free to 'inside the sealed envelope so as not to hinder its extraction by the recipient, the following arrangements have been made.

The intermediate sheet 10 is, after folding, a little narrower than the sheets 11 and 12. As has been said, the height ₂ of the flaps of the sheet 10 is less than the height E ₁ of the flaps of the sheets 11 and 12 The difference in width and height of the flaps of strip 10 compared to those of strips 11 and 12 is at least twice the width of a sealing thread so that the interior document can fit entirely inside. of the sealing frame. It suffices then that the upper edge of a flap of the sheet 10 is engaged between the driving rollers 13 slightly later than the upper edges of the flaps of the sheets 11 and 12 and that said intermediate flap is detached from the continuous strip 10 to fit properly between the sheets 11 and 12. For this, a certain dynamic must be observed, clearly formulated in the aforementioned European patent 5 1099 and which is foreign to the object of the present invention.

In Figure 2, is shown, on a larger scale, the sheet 10 as it appears after its passage through the printer but before its longitudinal folding. The insert includes various pre-printed indications, of a general character, identical on all the components, such as 28a-28d and personalized mentions carried by the printer, such as 29a, 29b and the addresses 29c, the central text 30 being able to be a juxtaposition of preprinted information and information carried by the printer. In each flap, the longitudinal strips 32a and 32b, arranged on either side of the central part 33, from which they are separated by a line 35a, 35b of detachable perforations, have the same width and are intended to be secured by bonding to form a response card 34 (fig. 3). To do this, at least one, 32a, of these strips comprises on each flap a frame 36 of heat-activatable adhesive disposed on the face of the sheet 10 opposite the printed face visible in FIG. 2. After longitudinal folding, the superimposed perforated edges of the sheet 10 are detached by the edge cutter 26 (fig. 1) and at the end of the treatment, when the folds are sealed in the station 20 and before the unitization, the pressure and the heat applied by the rollers 22 cause the backing of the strip 32a to be heat-bonded to the back of the strip 32b. After unitization, the unit folds can be mailed, the addresses 29c of the recipients being read through the windows 27 provided in the sheet 12 (fig.1).

Each recipient, after opening the fold, extracts the insert which then appears as shown in Figure 3. After having cut along line 37 formed by the superposition of lines 35a, 35b of detachable perforations, it has hands on the one hand, the central part 33 folded which it suffices to deploy to take cognizance of the message which is addressed to it and, on the other hand, the response card 34 which it must fill, according to the directives 30, before to resend it. It should be noted that the card 34 has a thickness twice that of the sheet 10, which corresponds to a significant saving since to obtain the same grammage for the card 34, without carrying out the fusing, it would have been necessary to double the weight of part 33.

As mentioned above, by the same means, it is possible to shape, inside each fold, an object other than the response card of the example which has just been described.

Thus, FIGS. 4, 5A-5 _c and 6A-6c show, by way of nonlimiting examples, three other possibilities of objects shaped inside the same envelope.

In FIG. 4, it is again a response card but presenting itself in the transverse direction. There is no fundamental difference with the embodiment of Figures 2 and 3, except that the address of the first recipient appears on what will later be the back of the card T 34 '.

FIGS. 5A-5 _C show an embodiment of the invention with two inserts 40 and 41 folded in the Italian fashion. The insert 40 has received, in the zone 40a, the address of the initial recipient and the rest of its surface constitutes a message, part of which may be, if necessary, detachable in order to be returned to the first sender. This insert 40 therefore undergoes no transformation during the sealing of the initial fold. On the other hand, the insert 41 has, on its two longitudinal edges 41 a and 41 b, lines 42 of heat-activatable adhesive, so as to form, after passing through the sealing station 20 (fig. 1) return 43 closed on three sides. The lines of glue 42 stop about 20 mm from the lateral edges 41 c of the insert 41, so as to provide access to the protective film 44 with an adhesive strip intended for sealing the return envelope.

In FIGS. 6A- _6c , there are, between the sheets 11 and 12 forming the top and the bottom of the outward envelopes, two inserts 50 and 51. However, in this example, these inserts receive an impression at 90 degrees and are folded French-style, accordion-style, with three parts each. As in the previous example, the insert 50 receives the address of the initial recipient and a personalized message at least partially. The insert 51 is intended to constitute a return envelope and for this is provided with lines 52 of heat activatable adhesive along the lateral edges of one of its three flaps. When, after passing through the sealing station 20 of the initial fold, the lines of glue 52 join the lateral edges of the flap which carry them with those of the flap to which they are applied by folding, the insert 51 forms an envelope 53 of return for a payment order or any other response document. The return envelope can be sealed, as in the example in FIGS. 5A-5 _c , using an adhesive strip provided with a protective film, the flap formed by the third flap 51 a insert which can then constitute, for example, an acknowledgment of receipt of the reply fold. Another possibility consists in providing, on the flap 51 a, a breaking line 54 making it possible to detach a part 55 which can be an acknowledgment of receipt by leaving, attached to the return envelope, a flap 56 carrying the sealing means (in this case, if the return envelope is a T envelope, the address of the second recipient and the T will be printed on the face of the envelope formed by the intermediate flap, contrary to what is shown in FIG. 6 _B ).

The few examples which have just been described show that one can imagine shaping, inside the initial fold, at least one new more or less complex object.

Claims (4)

1. A continuous assembly of postal or other covers of the kind in which the continuous sheets at the top (12) and the bottom (11) respectively forming the fronts and the backs of the envelopes are joined together at the end of the production process in a sealing station (20) by heat sealing to enclose internal documents or inserts which are free and introduced between said sheets after they have passed through a printer, characterised in that the inserts are formed by transversely cutting at least two thin strips placed one on top of the other, each strip being constituted by a separate continuous sheet or by one of the panels of a continuous sheet (10) folded longitudinally, in that at least one of these strips is impregnated with glue that can be activated by heat along lines (35) and/or around pre-determined zones so that passing the assembly through the sealing station (20) leads to the creation of a new object (34) inside each individual cover through superposition and interlocking of the inserts or a detachable part (32a, 32b) of the latter.

2. An assembly as in claim 1, characterised in that the object produced inside each individual cover is a reply card (34) the thickness of which is thus double that of the sheet (10) from which it originated.

3. An assembly as in claim 1, characterised in that the object produced inside each individual cover is a reply envelope (43, 53).

4. An assembly as in claim 1, characterised in that the object produced inside each individual cover is a bundle of tickets or labels.

Images