FR2693403A1 - Signature configuration for forming books, leaflets etc. - has vertical spine fold and horizontal top edge fold, latter comprising alternating series of shaped cut=outs and bridge-type portions - Google Patents

Abstract

The signature is defined by spine (2) and top edge (3) folds, the top edge including an alternating series of spaced cut-outs (4) and bridge portions (5). Each of the bridge portions is formed with a small cut (6) at one or both ends, extending perpendicularly away from the fold line. The cuts are about 1.5mm long and the bridge portions of the fold are between 1.5 and 3mm wide. A special cutting tool, with first and second series of spaced blade portions, is also described for producing the fold line and cut edge configuration. ADVANTAGE - Improved handling and forming speed, with more precise definition of edge line.

Description

 Notebook. intended for the manufacture of brochures. books and the like. perforation tool useful for its preparation. process for preparing said notebook.

 The present invention relates to notebooks intended for the manufacture of brochures, books and the like.

 It also relates to a perforation tool for paper, in particular useful for the preparation of said notebooks.

 Finally, it relates to a process for the preparation of said notebooks.

 The present invention is in the field of printing and more particularly in that of broaching.

 The printing works uses paper which is presented for printing, either in sheets or in reels. After being printed, said paper must be folded for the creation of books, brochures, catalogs ...

 Roll paper is generally folded, simultaneously with printing, at running speeds of up to 100,000 copies / hour.

The folding operation, well known to those skilled in the art, includes the successive stages of:
- formation of the cone fold,
- creation of a perforation, embrittlement or pre-cutting line, where alternating cuts and attachment points;
- cutting notebooks
- formation of the head fold of said notebooks along said perforation line,
- formation of the back fold of said notebooks.

 Said perforation line is intended to increase the precision of the head fold and to limit the appearance of "grimaces" during the formation of the back fold.

 These "grimaces" or "mustaches" or even "crow's feet" consist of a variable quantity and more or less accentuated in amplitude, of folds, gathers, creases, folds, approximately parallel to the edges of the paper. This defect, well known to all printers, staplers and bookbinders, is explained by the hunting of the pages located inside the notebook, pages, which are limited in their movement by keeping the attachment points of the perforation line.

These inner pages are inevitably driven outward by their successive thicknesses, are forced to gather to absorb the push they undergo.

 Such a defect affects the appearance and presentation of the folded notebooks. It also has implications for the proper use of broaching equipment.

 This defect is all the more accentuated as the paper is thick and the number of pages important. Because of this, it is common to print a print on a paper of 115 grams per square meter in two notebooks of 16 pages while it would be faster, more economical, to produce a single notebook of 32 pages.

 A great deal of research has been and is still being carried out with the aim of reducing or even eliminating the said defect.

 We mainly tried to work on the number and the width of the attachment points of said perforation line so that they can absorb alone "the chase" of the interior pages by deforming.

 Unfortunately, the limit was quickly found in the quantity and width of said attachment points, taking into account the mechanical strength of the paper.

 If the notebook is made too fragile, it tears into a folder, leading to long and costly production stoppages.

 Research in this direction has in any case not given satisfactory results.

 According to the invention, an original solution is proposed to remedy this problem of the presence of "faces" at the top of the notebooks, intended for the manufacture of brochures, books, catalogs ...

 In fact, it is proposed to slightly modify the perforation line in order to make it more flexible without weakening it.

 According to its first object, the invention therefore relates to notebooks, intended for the manufacture of brochures, books or the like which comprise a back fold and a head fold in which cutouts and attachment points alternate. Said notebooks are characterized in that they also include inside, at the level of the head fold, incisions which extend from at least one end of certain attachment points, in a direction substantially perpendicular said head fold.

 Advantageously, each attachment point has at least one such incision at one of its ends.

 According to a variant of the invention, each attachment point includes such an incision at each of its ends.

 Said incisions give the perforation line the flexibility required to absorb the entire thrust of the interior pages, without weakening the notebook in so far as they extend in the direction of development: in a direction substantially perpendicular to the head fold or , which amounts to the same thing, in a direction substantially parallel to the back fold.

 In fact, said incisions, by modifying the length of said attachment points, allow them to twist.

 As indicated above, in order to obtain the desired result - the non-appearance of "grimaces" during folding - the number of said incisions can be varied. The depth of said incisions can also be varied.

 Conventionally, the attachment points have a width of between 1.5 and 3 mm, advantageously between 2 and 2.5 mm. The cutouts of the perforation line have a width close to cm.

 According to the invention, the expected result is generally obtained by making at least one of the ends of said attachment points with a width of between 1.5 and 3 mm, incisions with a length of approximately 1, 5 mm (between 1 and 2 mm).

 It is understood that advantageously, the length of said incisions is proportional to the width of said attachment points. The greater the width of the attachment points, the more there was a tendency, according to the prior art, to generate said "grimaces"; longer will be the incisions of the invention, for the absorption of said faces.

 The notebooks of the invention therefore have at their head fold attachment points at least "open" at one of their ends. Said attachment points have thus been made deformable without weakening the paper.

 The incisions of the invention were impossible to make with the equipment existing on the market. The Applicant has therefore developed a perforation tool for paper intended to generate said incisions Ie along which the cutouts and attachment points alternate. Such a tool constitutes the second object of the invention.

 It comprises a first series of aligned cutting elements, separated by recesses and, in combination with said first series, a second series of cutting elements oriented substantially perpendicular to those of the first series and located each, substantially in line with the one end of the corresponding recess.

 Said first series of cutting elements makes it possible to cut out from the paper a perforation line along which alternates cutouts and attachment points. It is easily understood that said attachment points correspond to said recesses.

 Said second series of cutting elements makes it possible to cut the incisions substantially in line with the ends of the attachment points. It is easy to understand that the geometry of this second series of cutting elements determines the frequency and the depth of the incisions.

 According to a preferred variant, each cutting element of the second series is the head of a tooth forming a body with the corresponding cutting element of the first series; said tooth being located at substantially the same level of attack as that of said corresponding cutting element and intervening, by its thickness for cutting the incision at the end of an attachment point.

 For cutting an incision at each end of an attachment point, two teeth or a single tooth with two heads are associated with the corresponding element of the first series.

 Advantageously, the cutting elements of the first series are carried by a first blade called the perforation blade and the cutting elements of the second series are carried by a second blade called the incision blade; said two blades, applied one against the other and made integral then constituting a perforation tool according to the invention.

 Said two blades can be glued or joined mechanically.

 Such a tool of the invention advantageously results from the juxtaposition of a conventional perforation blade and another blade intended to generate the incisions.

 It can easily be produced from such a conventional perforating blade, which can be straight or circular and the cutting elements of which are generally serrated. Notebooks can therefore be obtained according to the invention, on conventional folding chains, incorporating a modified perforation blade.

 A person skilled in the art knows the toothed blades used to date to generate the line of perforation which is found at the head fold of the notebooks. There are many varieties. The serrations can be numerous and tight or, on the contrary, broad and spaced ... It is in the design and the realization of these serrations that all the efforts were carried or still carry to limit the "grimaces". We had never thought of adding to said conventional perforation blades means for generating incisions in the direction of travel of the paper. This is the basis of the present invention.

 According to its last object, the invention relates to a process for preparing notebooks. Conventionally, said notebooks are obtained by successive folding of sheet or reel paper and said method includes the creation of a perforation line in which cutouts and attachment points alternate; said line being intended to increase the precision of the head fold and to limit the appearance of "grimaces" during the formation of the back fold. In an original manner, said method includes the creation of incisions, from at least one end of certain attachment points, in a direction substantially perpendicular to said line of perforation.

 Advantageously, the incisions are generated at at least one end of each attachment point. It can be generated at each end of said attachment points.

 According to a preferred variant of said method, the perforation line and the incisions are generated at the same time using a perforation tool, as described above. The width of the cutting elements of the second series of said tool is equal to the desired length of said incisions.

 The invention, as described above, makes it possible to achieve, in the manufacture of notebooks, in particular of A4 format, a quality of shaping, unknown to this day, with thick notebooks and / or large numbers of pages and this, with very high job security.

 Said invention is illustrated in Figures 1 to 8 appended to this description.

- Figure 1 is a perspective view of a notebook of the invention, open;
- Figure 2 is a plan view of said notebook before folding along the perforation line (head fold);
- Figure 3 is an elevational view of a perforation tool according to the prior art;
- Figure 4 is a section on IV-IV of Figure 3;
- Figure 5 is an elevational view of a perforation tool according to a variant of the invention;
- Figure 6 is a section along VI-VI of Figure 5;
- Figure 7 is an elevational view of a perforation tool according to another variant of the invention;
- Figure 8 is a section along VIII-LIFE of Figure 7.

 In Figure 1, there is shown in 1 a notebook of the invention. 11 has a back fold 2 and a head fold 3. At said head fold 3, there are alternately cutouts 4 and attachment points 5. Typically, incisions 6 extend from d one end of each attachment point 5 in a direction substantially parallel to the back fold 2.

 In FIG. 2, the same notebook has been shown, before the formation of said head fold 3. It has in its middle the perforation line along which the cutouts 4 and the attachment points 5 alternate. At one end of said attachment points 5, there are, open on said cutouts 4, the incisions 6. Such a notebook is first folded along said perforation line, then in the other direction, to form the back fold 2. We understand that during the formation of this last fold the incisions 6 allow the deformation of the attachment points 5. Thus, each attachment point 5 reabsorbs part of the "hunting" of the inner pages and avoids the appearance of "grimaces".

 In Figure 3, there is shown a perforating tool 10 'according to the prior art. It is a straight perforation blade commonly used by printers in the preparation of notebooks from paper on reels. Said blade has a series of aligned cutting elements 11 ′, separated by recesses 12.

Said cutting elements 11 ′ have a serrated profile.

 In Figure 5, there is shown a perforation tool 10 according to the invention. n results from the joining by gluing of a first conventional perforation blade having cutting elements 11 and recesses 12 and of a second incision blade having cutting elements 13, in line with said cutting elements 11.

 In FIG. 7, another perforation tool 10 is shown according to the invention. n also results from the joining of two blades; the incision blade having a different profile. There are two cutting elements 13 for a cutting element 11.

 The arrangement of said cutting elements, 11 and 13, makes it possible to obtain with the tool of FIG. 5 an incision by attachment point - corresponding to the recesses 12 - and with the tool of FIG. 7 two incisions by attachment point.

 The following nonlimiting example illustrates the invention. Its interest is apparent from the consideration of the comparative example given below.

Example
One prints according to the offset process on a Gazette press, format 1020 x 630, in pagination of 64 pages, a color (black text) on a paper of 50 grams per m2.

 The printed paper strip passes over a conventional metal cone (fold of the cone). It is then perforated regularly along lines of perforations perpendicular to the direction of travel of the paper. Notebooks are then cut which are supported on a cylinder by pins. The cut is made at equal distance on either side of a perforation line. Finally, we execute on a first folding set "the head fold" of said notebooks, then on a second folding set "the back fold". We therefore have successively 16-page notebooks, then 32 pages, and finally 64 pages.

 To perforate said strip of paper, a conventional perforation blade is used to which, according to the invention, an incision blade has been juxtaposed.

 Under the action of this perforating tool, attachment points were generated with a width of 2 to 2.5 mm and incisions with a length of approximately 1.5 mm at the base of said dots. attached.

 The tool used is of the type shown according to FIGS. 5 and 6.

 The 64-page notebook obtained is presented with, at its upper part - head fold - the incisions made by the incision blade and the perforations made by the conventional blade.

 Examination of this reveals the absence of "crow's feet", "grimaces" or "mustaches". The top of this 64-page notebook is very smooth, which is quite unusual with paper of such a grammage.

Comparative example
The procedure is as in Example 1, without changing any of the parameters (nature of the paper, ink, machines, etc.) except that with the perforation tool according to the invention, a perforation blade is replaced classic. The blade to which we had, for said example 1, juxtaposed an incision blade. It is found that the 64-page notebook thus obtained has, along its head fold, the conventional perforations and in its upper part, the usual defects: "crow's feet", "grimaces" or "mustaches". These defects are unsightly and affect the overall quality of the work.

Claims (9)

1. Notebook (1), intended for the manufacture of brochures, books and the like, comprising a back fold (2) and a head fold (3) in which cutouts (4) alternate with attachment points (5) , characterized in that, inside said notebook (1), at said head fold (3), incisions (6) extend from at least one end of certain attachment points (5 ), in a direction substantially perpendicular to said head fold (3). 2. Book (1) according to claim 1, characterized in that each attachment point (5) has at least one incision (6) at one of its ends. 3. Book (1) according to one of claims 1 or 2, characterized in that each attachment point (5) has an incision (6) at each of its ends. 4. Book (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that said incisions (6) have a length of about 1.5 mm for a width of the attachment points (5) between 1 , 5 and 3 mm. 5. Punching tool (10) for paper, characterized in that it comprises:  - A first series of aligned cutting elements (11), separated by recesses (12); for cutting out from the paper a perforation line alternating between cutouts (4) and attachment points (5); and, in combination with said first series,  - A second series of cutting elements (13) oriented substantially perpendicular to those of said first series and each located substantially at the right of one of the ends of the corresponding recess (12); for cutting incisions (6) in the paper at the ends of said attachment points (5). 6. Punching tool (10) according to claim 5, characterized in that each cutting element (13) of said second series is the head of a tooth forming a body with the corresponding cutting element (11) of said first series, located substantially at the same level of attack as that of said corresponding cutting element (11); said cutting element (13) of the second series intervening by its thickness for cutting an incision (6) at the end of an attachment point (5). 7. perforation tool (10) according to any one of claims 5 or 6, characterized in that a first blade called the perforation blade carries the cutting elements (11) of the first series and in that a second blade said incision blade carries the cutting elements (13) of the second series; the two blades being applied one against the other and made integral. 8. A method for preparing notebooks (1) according to any one of claims 1 to 4, by successive folding of sheet paper or reel; said method including creating a perforation line in which cutouts (4) and attachment points (5) alternate; said line being intended to increase the precision of the head fold (3) and to limit the appearance of "grimaces" during the formation of the back fold (2) characterized in that it also includes the creation of incisions (6), from at least one end of certain attachment points (5), in a direction substantially perpendicular to said line of perforation. 9. Method according to claim 8, characterized in that said perforation line and said incisions (6) are generated at the same time using a perforation tool according to any one of claims 5 to 7, the width of the cutting elements (13) of the second series of cutting elements of said tool being equal to the desired length for said incisions (6).