EP0562416A1

EP0562416A1 - Method for automatically forming pockets for wallets, cheque holders, credit card holders and similar articles, a device for implementing the method, and the pockets obtained

Info

Publication number: EP0562416A1
Application number: EP93104218A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Silvio Rosean; Sergio Rosean
Original assignee: Max Ros Sas Di Rosean S & C
Current assignee: Max Ros Sas Di Rosean S & C
Priority date: 1992-03-24
Filing date: 1993-03-16
Publication date: 1993-09-29
Also published as: IT1254737B; ITMI920687A1; ITMI920687A0

Abstract

A method for automatically forming pockets for wallets or similar articles, of the type in which a plurality of front strips (6) are joined to a rear strip (7). The method comprises a first step in which at least two offset and partly overlapping front strips (6) and a rear strip (7) superposed on said at least two front strips (6) are guided towards a welding station (1), a second step in which a portion of said rear strip (7) is joined to each front strip (6) by electrowelding, and a third step in which the front strips (6) and rear strip (7) are automatically cut into units of predetermined length.

Description

This invention relates to a method for forming pockets for wallets, credit card holders, cheque holders and similar articles, and the device for implementing the method.
It is known to form such pockets by joining to a rear strip a plurality of front strips in an offset and partly overlapping arrangement so that the pockets are suitably stepped.
The front strips are joined to the rear strip by sewing or gluing.
In this latter case, in addition to being implemented manually, the assembly can also be implemented by known devices comprising means for automatically applying a layer of adhesive to the rear strip, guide means for then superposing the front strips in a staggered arrangement on the rear strip, and rollers to cause the front strips to adhere to the rear layer.
If the front strips are joined to the rear strip by sewing or manual gluing, lengthy and difficult operations are involved which negatively affect the production cost and time.
Production time is improved if said known automatic gluing devices are used for assembling the pockets.
However, such devices also have certain serious drawbacks.
In this respect, that portion of the front strips which adheres to the rear strip must have a considerable width (about one centimetre) in relation to the pocket dimensions, because only in such a case can pockets be formed which effectively retain the cards inserted into them, and which do not "flop" during card insertion. This results in an undesirable wastage of the generally expensive material of the front strips of the pockets, this negatively affecting the final production cost, especially when producing some thousands of such items.
An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic method for pocket assembly which is of simple and rapid implementation and in which that portion of the front strips which adheres to the rear strip is of small width (a few millimetres) relative to the pocket dimensions.
A further object is to provide an automatic method in which the front strips are securely joined to the rear strip so that the pockets cannot tear on inserting the cards.
A further object is to provide a method which substantially reduces production costs.
A further object is to provide a device for implementing said method which is of safe, reliable and simple operation, and which is able to join front strips to the rear strip in a reduced time.
These and further objects which will be apparent to the expert of the art are attained by a method and a device for its implementation in accordance with the accompanying claims.
The present invention will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings, which are provided by way of non-limiting example and in which:

Figure 1 is a schematic side view of the device of the invention but without the webs to be assembled;
Figure 2 is a schematic perspective view of the device of the invention but without the welding head;
Figure 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of the front strips and of the rear strip which have been joined together by the method of the invention;
Figure 4 is a perspective view of a wallet comprising a plurality of pockets formed by the method of the invention.

The device of the invention comprises a welding station 1 (Figures 1 and 2), members 5 (only one of which is shown in Figure 2) for guiding a plurality of webs 2 (Figure 2) towards said station, and means 4 for conveying the webs to said station.
The webs 2 with which the wallet pockets are to be formed comprise in the illustrated example (Figure 3) four front strips 6 and one rear strip 7.
The front strips 6 advantageously have their free major edges 6A folded over. The webs 2 are formed of thermoweldable material, however they could be of two different materials, with that part 6B of the webs which remains in view when the wallet has been assembled being of quality material which is not thermoweldable (such as leather), and that part 6C which remains concealed by the other front strips being of thermoweldable material. In this manner, in addition to saving on material cost, pockets of lesser thickness can be obtained.
The welding station 1 comprises a guide and support base 10 for the webs 2 and a welding head 11. The base 10 comprises a plurality of staggered, partly overlapping flat members 8 between which the front strips 6 are inserted (see Figure 2).
For this purpose, each pair of flat overlapping members 8 comprises a portion in which these members are spaced apart by a distance equal to the thickness of the front strips 6 so as to define a slot 9 into which one of said strips 6 can be inserted.
The slots 9 have along one of their major sides a widening 10 to enable front strips with a folded-over edge 6A to be able to pass through the slots 9 (Figure 3). By virtue of the widening 10, not only can the webs be inserted into said slots but are also efficiently retained therein as they are unable to slip out. Webs which do not have the folded-over edge 6A are however sufficiently guided by said slots 9.
The upper member of each pair of flat overlapping members 8 does not completely cover the lower member but allows a portion 12A thereof uncovered (Figure 2) so that that portion 12 of the front strips 6 not inserted into the slot 9 rests on the uncovered portion of said lower member.
The welding head 11 comprises a plurality of welding bars 13 associated with each other and spaced apart by cross-members 17 (only one of which is visible in Figure 2) which are fixed to a parallelepiped block 14A, for example by bolts. The spaced-apart bars 13 have their free edge 13A at different heights and staggered so that when the head 11 is lowered onto the base 10, the free edge 13A of each bar 13 rests on one of the portions 12A of the flat members 8, so that when the front strips 6 are inserted into the base 10, the edge 13A of the bars 13 rests on that part 12 (Figure 2) of the front strips 6 not inserted into the slots 9 in the base 10.
It should be noted that each bar 13 is in contact only with one of the strips 6 as these are separated from each other by one of the flat members 8.
The welding head 11 is associated with a member (not shown but conventional) for driving said head and for providing the energy necessary for the electrowelding.
The guide members 5 for the webs 2 (only one of which is shown in Figure 2) are positioned in proximity to the welding station and comprise a plurality of superposed flat members 14 shaped to form slots into which the front strips 6 arranged staggered in succession are inserted. In contrast to the slots 9 of the flat members 8 the former slots are completely closed to provide optimum guiding for the front strips 6 towards the welding station.
The guide members 5 also upperly comprise a removable flat bar 15 with a slot into which the rear strip 7 of the webs 2 can be inserted. The bar 15 can be moved longitudinally along the top of the guide member and is connected to its top by conventional fixing members.
The guide members 5 are advantageously positioned in proximity to the welding station 1 such that the slots into which the front strips 6 of the webs 2 are inserted are coplanar with and aligned with the respective slots in the base of the welding station. The guide bar 15 is positioned such that the rear strip 7 of the webs 2 covers at least that portion 12 of the strips 6 which extends beyond the slots 9 in the base 10.
The conveying means 4 for the webs 2 comprise a gripper member 16 with two flat elements 16A and 16B between which the webs 2 pass. The member 16 is associated for example with a usual lever system 17 (partly shown but conventional) for moving the two elements 16A and 16B of the gripper 16 apart or together so as to release or grip the webs 2, and for shifting said elements from a first position A (Figure 2) close to the guide member 5 to a second position 13 close to the welding station 1.
The lever system 17 is able to move the two flat elements 16A, B together when these are in the position A so that they securely grip the webs 2, and to then shift the flat elements 6A, B into the position B so that the webs 2 are dragged by the guide element to the welding station. On reaching position B the two elements are moved apart to release the webs, and are then returned to position A.
The device of the invention also comprises downstream of the guide member 5 usual supports for reels (not shown but conventional) on which the webs 2 are wound, and upstream of the welding station 1 a usual cutter (not shown) for cutting the webs 2, previously joined together in said welding station, into units of the required length.
The operation of the device and the method for automatically forming pockets involve firstly inserting the webs 2 through their slots in the guide member 5 and then through the slots provided in the base 10 of the welding station 1. The front strips 6 are inserted into the base slots with the lesser-quality face facing upwards. The device is able to operate even if not all the slots in the guide 5 and in the base 10 are occupied (as shown in Figure 2).
As stated, when the front strips 6 of the webs 2 are inserted into the slots 9 in the base 10, a portion 12 of said front strips 6 projects from the slot 9 and rests on an end part of the flat members 8 of the base 10 (as shown in Figure 2). The rear strip 7 is positioned superposed on said portions 12 of the front strips.
The welding head 11 is then lowered onto the base 10 to weld together the portions 18 (Figure 3) of the front strips 6 and rear strip 7, on which the free edges 13A of the welding bars 13 act.
The welding action of any one of the bars 13 is exerted only on a part 18 of one of the front strips 6 and on a part of the rear strip 7, the action not extending to the other underlying front strips as one of the flat members 8 is interposed between these and said part, so isolating said underlying strips from the upperly exerted welding action.
It should be noted that only a narrow weld width (for example three millimetres) is required for the front strips 6 and rear strip 7 to be securely joined together.
Compared with traditional methods, for equal amounts of material used, this allows deeper pockets P (Figure 3) to be formed or material to be saved.
The welding head 11 is then raised from the base 10 and that portion comprising the webs which have just be joined together is advanced by the conveying means 4 so that a new portion of webs to be joined together reaches the welding station 1.
When joined together, the webs are cut into units 22 (Figure 4) of the required dimensions by the cutter. The web units 22 obtained in this manner can be directly joined to the walls 20 of a wallet 23 by sewing the sides 21 of the units to said walls.
Before being sewn to the wallet, the units 22 can be sewn transversely, for example along an axis E (Figures 3 and 4) so that when the units have been joined to the wallet twice the number of pockets are obtained, but of lesser width (indicated by D in Figure 4) than in the preceding case.
In a modification to the present invention, the units 22 are formed of low cost material unsuitable for being in a visible position on the wallet. In this case an additional element 24 of quality material and good appearance is superposed on the unit (Figure 4), and comprises in proximity to the opening of each pocket of the unit a cut 25 (Figure 4) for inserting cards into the underlying pockets.
That face of the pockets in contact with the additional element 24 is glued to this latter.
The additional element 24 and the unit joined to it are then sewn onto the wallet walls.
The described invention is susceptible to numerous modifications, all falling within the same inventive concept.
In particular, the stated materials and dimensions can be modified according to requirements.

Claims

A method for forming pockets for wallets, cheque holders, credit card holders and similar articles, of the type in which a plurality of front strips are joined to a rear strip, characterised by comprising a first step in which at least two offset and partly overlapping front strips (6) and a rear strip (7) superposed on said two front strips (6) are guided towards a welding station (1); a second step in which a portion of said rear strip (7) is joined to each front strip (6) by electrowelding; and a third step in which the front strips (6) and rear strip (7) are automatically cut into units (22) of predetermined length.
A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised by transversely sewing through said units (22) to obtain from one and and the same unit (22) a greater number of mutually separated pockets.
A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised by joining to said unit (22) an additional element (24) comprising, in proximity to the opening of each pocket of the unit, a cut (25) for inserting cards into the underlying pockets.
A method as claimed in claim 3, characterised in that those faces of the front strips in contact with said additional element (24) are glued thereto.
A device for implementing the method indicated in claim 1, characterised by comprising a welding station (1), at least one member (5) for guiding a plurality of strips (6, 7) towards said welding station, and means for conveying said strips (6, 7) to said station.
A device as claimed in claim 5, characterised by comprising a plurality of reels for continuously feeding said strips (6, 7) to said welding station (1) and a means for dividing the strips leaving the welding station into units (29) of the required length.
A device as claimed in claim 5, characterised in that said welding station comprises a base (10) and a welding head (11), said base (10) comprising a plurality of flat members (8) partly overlapping and staggered, each pair of overlapping flat members comprising a slot (9) for the passage of said strips (6), the upper member of each pair not completely covering the underlying member so that a portion (12) of each of said strips (6) rests on the lower member of said pairs but is not covered by the upper member of that pair; said welding head comprising a plurality of spaced-apart welding bars (13) having their free edge (13A) at different heights and staggered so that said edges can rest on said portions (12) of each of said strips (6).
A device as claimed in claim 7, characterised in that said slots (9) for the passage of said strips (6) comprise along one of their major sides a widening to allow the insertion of strips (6) which have an edge folded over.
Pockets formed by the method of claim 1, characterised by comprising a plurality of front strips (6) each having a portion (18) of their lower edge joined to a rear strip (7) by electrowelding.
Pockets as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that said electrowelded portions (18) of the front strips (6) are mutually parallel.
Pockets as claimed in claim 9, characterised in that said front strips comprise two parts joined together, a first part (6B) which remains exposed after the wallet is assembled being of quality material, and a second part (6C) invisible after the wallet is assembled being of thermoweldable material.
Pockets as claimed in claim 9, characterised by comprising, joined to said front strips (6), an additional element (24) comprising a plurality of spaced-apart cuts (25) positioned at the openings of said pockets.