GB1594734A

GB1594734A - Adhesive envelope and method of manufacture thereof

Info

Publication number: GB1594734A
Application number: GB1040880A
Authority: GB
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1977-10-11
Filing date: 1977-10-11
Publication date: 1981-08-05

Description

(54) ADHESIVE ENVELOPE AND METHOD OF MANUFACTURE THEREOF (71) I, TEIKKI SAMULI SUOMINEN, of 14 Petsamonkatu, SF-33500 Tampere 54, Finland, a Finnish citizen, do hereby declare the invention, for which I pray that a patent may be granted to me, and the method by which it is to be performed, to be particularly described in and by the following statement: The invention concerns an adhesive envelope, manufactured of plastic film, which is intended to be adhered on packages, e.g.

on parcels sent by post or other kinds of packages or similar consignment wrappings, and to seal C.O.D. or parcel notification cards or dispatch notes or other kinds of notices therein.

The present invention provides an adhesive envelope manufactured of plastic film for attachment to a package by self-adhesive strips on the envelope surface, the envelope consisting of a front wall to be placed against the package surface and of a rear or outer wall, wherein the front wall is united to the rear wall at two opposite edges of the front wall but is not united thereto at the other edges of the front wall so that apertures are formed for the insertion of documents'between the walls, the rear wall protrudes beyond said other edges of the front wall, and adhesive strips are present on the front surface of the protruding portions of the rear wall, such that adhering the envelope to a package closes the apertures.

An embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the following description with reference to the drawings, in which: Figure 1 shows an adhesive envelope according to the invention seen from the front; Figure 2 shows a section on the line F-F of Figure 1.

As shown in the drawings, an adhesive envelope according to the invention consists of front and rear walls 51 and 52 and can be manufactured most easily of heat-seamable plastic film. The front wall 51 in Figure 1 is understood to be the upper side, which will face the package when the envelope is placed on the package. The most suitable shape for the envelope is rectangular. The front wall 51 is essentially narrower than the rear wall 52. The front and rear walls 51 and 52 have been seamed together at their upper and lower edges 55 and 56. The envelope is open at the side edges 53, 54 of the front wall. Portions of the rear wall 52 protrude beyond the side edges 53, 54 of the front wall, and adhesive strips 59 have been placed on these protruding portions.

As shown in Figure 1, the adhesive strips 59 are on the front surface of the protruding portions of the rear wall. The adhesive strips may be applied by a lamination method or as an adhesive tape. The adhesive strips can be furnished with some protective tape, which can be of ordinary paper or surface-finished i.e. by plastictreated paper, the surface coating material being essentially of plastic material similar to that of the blank film.

As the above-mentioned protective tape is rather expensive and the feeding of it causes expenses, it can be left out, in which case the particular parts of the other face of the envelope, opposite the said adhesive strips, are provided with a surface finish, for instance of silicone emulsion surface coating agent, such that the adhesive does not adhere thereto. As shown in Figure 1, the silicone coating strips 59a have been applied on the opposite face of the rear wall i.e. opposite to the adhesive strips 59. When the envelopes are collected into bundles at the end of a manufacturing line, the silicone-coated strips on the lower surface of an upper envelope are placed on the adhesive strips of a lower envelope, whereby the adhesive strips are protected. It is easy to take envelopes from such bundles into use, since there are no protective tapes to be removed.

When an envelope according to this invention is used, the document to be sealed in the envelope is inserted through one of the apertures at the open edges 53, 54 of the front wall. The envelope with its contents is then pressed on to the package surface intended for it, whereby the envelope is closed at the same time and the document inside the envelope will remain well pro tected.

The rear wall 52 continues on one side somewhat past the adhesive strip 59, forming a tear-off flap 25a. The flap 25a has been made so that the envelopes can be collected into bundles and seamed together in a bundle on line 52c. Adjacent to the adhesive strip, the flap has been perforated on line 52b, along which line the envelope can be easily torn off from a bundle. In addition to this, the flaps 52a are provide dwith holes 52d by which a bundle can be suspended, if required. Alternatively there can be a single hole. The envelopes can also be bound into bundles without any seaming, the perforation 52b of the tear-off flap being omitted and instead of that the necks of the suspension holes 52d being thinned, so that it is easy to tear an envelope off from its suspension attachment.

The procedure for manufacturing an adhesive envelope according to the present invention is mainly as described in the parent Patent Application No. 42204/77 (Specification No. 1 594 733), a wide band being used for the starting blank of the rear walls, in order that several envelopes can be produced in parallel. To form the front walls, narrower upper bands are fed to the production line appropriately spaced in parallel, so that the space for the tear-off flaps, in between the adjacent upper bands, is taken into consideration. The adhesive strips are made as described in the parent Patent Application No. 42204/77 (Specification No.

1 594 733) but are located on the upper surface of the rear wall and silicone coating tapes are placed on the opposite (lower) face of the rear wall. Perforation of the tear-off strips, cutting-off of the envelopes and the making of bundles, as well as the optional seaming and perforation of suspension apertures, is carried out in a suitable order of phases, as described in the parent specification.

Envelopes according to the invention can be manufactured, of course, by using a narrower production line, having a line width the same as that of the envelope, but the production of envelopes would be slower.

WHAT I CLAIM IS: 1. An adhesive envelope manufactured of plastic film, for attachment to a package by self-adhesive strips on the envelope surface, the envelope consisting of a front wall to be placed against the package surface and of a rear or outer wall, wherein the front wall is united to the rear wall at two opposite edges of the front wall but is not united thereto at the other edges of the front wall so that apertures are formed for the insertion of documents between the walls, the rear wall protrudes beyond said other edges of the front wall, and adhesive strips are present on the front surface of the protruding portions of the rear wall, such that adhering the envelope to a pack age closes the apertures.

2. An adhesive envelope according to claim 1, wherein on the face of the envelope opposite to the adhesive strips a coating of an agent has been applied such that the adhesive does not adhere thereto, the coating being at least as wide as the adhesive strip and designed to be, when the envelopes are stacked, above an adhesive strip of a lower envelope in the stack.

3. An adhesive envelope according to either of claims 1 and 2, wherein an attachment flap has been provided on the rear wall.

4. An adhesive envelope according to claim 3, wherein the attachment flap is of the same material as the said wall.

5. An adhesive envelope according to either of claims 3 and 4, wherein between the attachment flap and the rear wall a perforation or thinning is present.

6. An adhesive envelope according to any of claims 2-5, wherein the attachment flap has been provided with holes for attaching the envelope to a holder.

7. An adhesive envelope according to claim 6, wherein necks of material outwardly of the attachment holes have been perforated or thinned.

8. A bundle of adhesive envelopes according to any of claims 2-15, wherein the envelopes are piled into bundles by means of the attachment flaps, the envelopes being seamed together at points in the attachment flaps.

9. A method for manufacturing adhesive envelopes according to any of claims 1-8, which comprises forwarding a blank comprising a doubled band of plastics film, said doubled band comprising a wide lower band and an upper band consisting of several adjacent narrow bands each having the width of the front wall of an envelope to be produced and having between them a sufficiently wide distance for the formation of attachment flaps in the lower band, while at the same time applying continuous adhesive strips to the upper surface of the lower band on both sides of the narrow upper bands, and making transverse seams across the blank to seam the front and rear walls at a separation corresponding to the height of the adhesive envelope, the transverse seaming operation and continuous longitudinal cutting of the lower band being carried out in such a manner that the envelopes simultaneously break off from the blank.

10. A method according to claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips are furnished with protective tapes made of ordinary paper

**WARNING** end of DESC field may overlap start of CLMS **.

Claims

**WARNING** start of CLMS field may overlap end of DESC **. tected. The rear wall 52 continues on one side somewhat past the adhesive strip 59, forming a tear-off flap 25a. The flap 25a has been made so that the envelopes can be collected into bundles and seamed together in a bundle on line 52c. Adjacent to the adhesive strip, the flap has been perforated on line 52b, along which line the envelope can be easily torn off from a bundle. In addition to this, the flaps 52a are provide dwith holes 52d by which a bundle can be suspended, if required. Alternatively there can be a single hole. The envelopes can also be bound into bundles without any seaming, the perforation 52b of the tear-off flap being omitted and instead of that the necks of the suspension holes 52d being thinned, so that it is easy to tear an envelope off from its suspension attachment. The procedure for manufacturing an adhesive envelope according to the present invention is mainly as described in the parent Patent Application No. 42204/77 (Specification No. 1 594 733), a wide band being used for the starting blank of the rear walls, in order that several envelopes can be produced in parallel. To form the front walls, narrower upper bands are fed to the production line appropriately spaced in parallel, so that the space for the tear-off flaps, in between the adjacent upper bands, is taken into consideration. The adhesive strips are made as described in the parent Patent Application No. 42204/77 (Specification No. 1 594 733) but are located on the upper surface of the rear wall and silicone coating tapes are placed on the opposite (lower) face of the rear wall. Perforation of the tear-off strips, cutting-off of the envelopes and the making of bundles, as well as the optional seaming and perforation of suspension apertures, is carried out in a suitable order of phases, as described in the parent specification. Envelopes according to the invention can be manufactured, of course, by using a narrower production line, having a line width the same as that of the envelope, but the production of envelopes would be slower. WHAT I CLAIM IS:

1. An adhesive envelope manufactured of plastic film, for attachment to a package by self-adhesive strips on the envelope surface, the envelope consisting of a front wall to be placed against the package surface and of a rear or outer wall, wherein the front wall is united to the rear wall at two opposite edges of the front wall but is not united thereto at the other edges of the front wall so that apertures are formed for the insertion of documents between the walls, the rear wall protrudes beyond said other edges of the front wall, and adhesive strips are present on the front surface of the protruding portions of the rear wall, such that adhering the envelope to a pack age closes the apertures.

or plastics-coated paper, in which the plastics material is the same as that of blank film.

11. A method according to claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips are furnished with protective tapes of plastics material which is different from that of the plastics film and which does not form seams, but is cut off due to the heat of the seaming operation.

12. A method according to claim 9, wherein as the adhesive strips, self-adhesive tape, furnished with a protective cover is used.

13. A method according to claim 9, wherein a protective tape is not used for the adhesive strips but on the face of the blank opposite to the adhesive strip the blank is furnished with a coating, at least of the size of the adhesive strip, which prevents the envelopes adhering to each other when the envelopes are piled one above another.

14. A method according to claim 9, wherein the adhesive strips are applied by printing.

15. An adhesive envelope according to claim 1, substantially as described herein with reference to the drawings.

16. Adhesive envelopes produced'by a method according to any of claims 9-14.