GB2130966A - Multi-sheet documents - Google Patents

Abstract

A multi-sheet document, preferably a credit card sales voucher, which comprises a top record sheet 2 made of pressure markable material so that pressure-printing will produce print visible from its front side, the sheet having a transfer marking material 16 on its back side, a plain paper lower sheet 4 which will be marked on its front by material 16 during the pressure printing process and which carries marking material 22 on its back side and a plain bottom sheet 6 which will be pressure printed on its front side with marking material 22 from sheet 4. Thus no separate interleaved sheets of carbon paper are required and only the front sheet 2 needs to be of specially-treated paper, so that the voucher is simple and inexpensive to produce. <IMAGE>

Description

SPECIFICATION Multi-sheet documents This invention relates to multi-sheet documents and in particular to such documents on which imprints are to be made from a credit card or other form of printing plate by pressing the plate and the document together.

A commoniy used type of multi-sheet document is the credit card sales voucher. Such a voucher typically includes three record sheets secured together along one edge. A major requirement of these vouchers is that it should be possible to make an imprint of the embossed characters of a customer's credit card upon the front of each of the three record sheets by applying pressure to the front of the document while the card is beneath the document, this normally being done by means of a device including a roller which moves under substantial pressure across the front of the document while the card is beneath it.The device will normally incorporate a fixed printing plate carrying in relief the particulars of the establishment at which the credit card transaction is being carried out and a print from this plate is also made on all three record sheets as the roller device is used. Further information specific to the individual transaction such as the nature of the goods and their price is printed by hand or otherwise to the front of the voucher and it is also desired that this information appear on the front of each one of the record sheets. Of the three record sheets, one is retained by the customer, one by the establishment where the transaction is done, and the third is forwarded for processing by the finance institution involved.

Credit card sales vouchers have been manufactured in various forms to enable the above results to be achieved. Two typical examples will be briefly described. In both of them the top record sheet is of transparent paper and behind it lies a sheet of two-sided one-time used carbon paper. Behind that is the second record sheet which is of relatively thick opaque paper. In the first example the second record sheet is followed by a sheet of one-sided one-time used carbon paper with its carbon side against the third record sheet which is of plain paper.In the second example, the second record sheet has its back side coated with a microencapsulated chemical material and this lies immediately against the front side of the third record sheet which is coated with a complementary chemical material such that so-called "carbonless" copying occurs on the front side of the third record sheet when both sheets are pressed together against a printing plate. In both cases, the imprint on the top record sheet is made on the back side of the sheet from the front of the double-sided one-time used carbon but is visible from the front of that sheet because the sheet is transparent. Also in both cases, the imprint on the front of the second record sheet is made from the back side of the two-sided one-time used carbon.In the first example, the imprint on the front of the third record sheet is made from the one-sided one-time used carbon and in the other example it is made by the "carbonless" technique as already referred to.

After these types of voucher have been imprinted and completed the now unwanted one-time used carbon sheets have to be manually removed before the three record sheets are distributed in the desired manner. The carbon on these sheets is applied by a cold carbonising process and comes off quite easily on the fingers so that removal of the sheets is a messy operation for the user. Furthermore, there has to be a facility for disposal of the unwanted carbons which accumulate during the course of repeated transactions; and these used carbons can serve as a source of information which can be used fraudulently. The voucher also, of course, has to have assembled into it more sheets of material than will ultimately be needed.

Another type of voucher has been used, though on a limited scale, in which the "carbonless" copying technique is used to produce all copies except that on the top sheet, but this would be unacceptably expensive for most applications.

The present invention aims to provide a simply constructed multi-sheet document, and in particular a credit card sales voucher, which is also low in cost.

From one aspect the invention provides a multi-sheet document comprising an upper record sheet and a lower record sheet beneath and adjacent to the upper record sheet, the upper record sheet comprising a pressure-markable sheet material and a marking material which is transferrable to the lower record sheet by pressing the sheets together so as to form a visible marking on the second sheet consisting of said marking material, whereby localised pressure applied to the two record sheets will produce on the upper and lower record sheets corresponding markings visible from the front sides of the sheets.

By providing an upper record sheet which is capable not only of being itself marked by applied pressure, but also of transferring marking to the lower record sheet at the same time, the performance required in for example the first two record sheets of the first above described credit card sales vouchers is achieved without assembling between the record sheets any carbon sheet, thus saving the material and assembly costs of the added sheet and the messy and inconvenient steps of having to remove it and dispose of it after the carbon sheet has served its purpose. Furthermore, the lower record sheet can be of plain (i.e. not so treated as to take an active part in the copying process) paper which is relatively low in cost.

Preferably, the marking material is provided on the upper record sheet in the form of a coating formed on the back of the sheet by means of a hot carbonising process. The coating may contain carbon, or a non-carbon pigment. The hot carbonising process is in itself well-known and produces a quite hard and glossy finish on the coating which does not readily come off on the fingers. Consequently separation and subsequent handling of the coated record sheet is not unacceptably messy. Cold carbonising could alternatively be used but because the resulting coating is more easily removed, it would be preferable to provide the coated sheet with a region, such as a marginal region, devoid of coating so that the sheet could be handled at that region to minimise coating material coming off onto the fingers.

For the purpose of a complete credit card sales voucher, a further record sheet is provided below and adjacent to the lower record sheet and the lower record sheet comprises a marking material on its back side, so that marking will be caused on the further record sheet when localised pressure is applied to the three record sheets. This avoids the need for a further, one-sided, carbon sheet to be included between the second and further record sheets as in the first example of the prior art referred to above, without it being necessary to resort to relatively expensive carbonless copying paper for those sheets as was done in the second example of the prior art described above.

Credit card sales vouchers are used in which more than three record sheets are provided. In this case, not just one but a plurality of further record sheets may be provided one on top of the other and iocated below and adjacent to the lower record sheet. Then, by providing a marking material on the back side of each further record sheet it will be able to mark the next sheet below it when the locaiised pressure is applied to all the record sheets. Obviously it is not essential, and may in fact be undesirable, for the lowermost record sheet to have any marking material on its back.

From a further aspect, the invention provides a record sheet which comprises a pressuremarkable sheet material and a marking material which is transferrable, by application of localised pressure to the sheet, to any suitable substrate in contact with it so as to form a visible marking on the substrate consisting of said marking material.

Such a sheet can be printed upon the pressure alone and at the same time a copy be taken on any suitable substrate lying adjacent to the sheet. A record sheet in accordance with this broader aspect of the invention may find application outside the context of multi-sheet documents.

In order that the invention may be more clearly understood a preferred embodiment will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of a credit card sales voucher in accordance with the invention, and Figure 2 is an edge view on an exaggerated scale of the three record sheets of the voucher of Figure 1.

Referring to the Figures, the credit card sales voucher shown therein consists of three record sheets 2, 4 and 6 secured together for example by adhesive at one end margin 8 and separable from that margin and from each other at perforation lines indicated at 10. In known manner, the front of each record sheet will have thereon pre-printed information indicated in a very schematic manner in broken lines at 12.

The upper record sheet 2 comprises a printable and pressure markable sheet material 14 and material 1 6 for causing marking of the lower record sheet 4. The pressure-markable sheet material 14 may for example be one of the carbonless copying papers available on the British market under, for example, the trade marks "Monoform" and "Action" which include microencapsulated chemical materials such that when localised pressure crushes the micro capsuies the materials mix and form a mark visible from the front side of the sheet i.e. in the direction of arrow A.

The marking material 1 6 covers the back side of the sheet with the exception of the margin 8 and the opposite margin indicated at 1 8 and preferably is applied by the hot pitch carbonising technique in which a waxy carbon-containing material of relatively high melting point (for example 850C) is applied to the paper at a temperature of about 92 to 970C and then chilled rapidly so as to minimise the extent to which it soaks into the paper and to cause rapid crystallisation into small crystals, this giving a shiny and quite hard finish so that the coating does not easily come off onto the fingers.

The lower record sheet 4 may comprise an ordinary paper sheet 20 having on its back side a coating 22 which can be the same as the coating 1 6 and will occupy approximately the same area of the sheet.

The further record sheet 6 may be of plain paper, carries no coating, is preferably thicker than the other two record sheets, and preferably will form the processing copy, that is to say the copy which eventually will be forwarded to and subjected normally to automatic handling and reading by, the financial institution with which the credit card voucher is associated.

In use, the voucher will have a pressure roller run across the top of itxvhile a credit card and fixed printing plate are beneath it as already described, and in known manner. The raised characters on the credit card and printing plate will apply localised pressure through the three sheets of the voucher. This pressure will cause an inprint on the top record sheet 2, visible from direction A, because of the pressure-markable nature of the sheet material 14. It will also cause an imprint on the front of the lower record sheet 4 due to transfer of marking material to sheet 4 from coating 1 6. It will also cause an imprint on the front surface of record sheet 6 due to transfer of marking material from the coating 22 on sheet 4 to the front of sheet 6. After the imprint of the credit card and printing plate have been made, information about the transaction itself is entered on the front of the top record sheet 2 using a ballpoint pen. This additional information is also transferred by the coatings 1 6 and 22 onto the sheets 4 and 6 respectively.

The advantages of using such a construction have already been referred to. If the coatings 1 6 and 22 are applied by the hot carbonising process the sheets 2 and 4 will not be particularly messy to handle, but to the extent that this remains any significant problem, it is minimised by providing the carbon-free margin 1 8 on sheets 2 and 4 by which they can be handled without the fingers contacting the carbon coating.

The reduction of the number of sheets required to form a complete credit card sales voucher, which is enabled by the present invention, has a further advantage. It is desirable, and is known, for the price involved in a particular credit card transaction to be imprinted on the voucher in machine-readable characters at the point of the transaction. This may be done by a special adjustable printing head incorporated into the printing device used to imprint the voucher. When this is done, all the most important information on the voucher namely the identity of the card-holder, the identity of the retailer and the amount of the transaction will be present in machine-readable characters so that the very large quantity of vouchers involved can more efficiently be processed by the financial institution which receives the processing copies.However, with existing vouchers which incorporate added leaves of carbon paper, the quality of the printing of this amount leaves something to be desired because the total thickness of all the sheets of the voucher produces a cushioning effect during printing which tends to give fuzzy edges to the characters of the printed amount. Because the present invention reduces the number of sheets, and total thickness, of the voucher this effect is reduced and it is believed that this will improve the machine readability of vouchers on which non-standard information such as price of the transaction is printed at the point of the transaction.

It is important that the processing copy be free of carbon, for which reason it will be the further record sheet 6 in the embodiment just described.

It is also preferred for the processing copy to be thicker than the other copies so that it can more readily be handled by automatic equipment.

In addition to the advantages already mentioned, the use of the present invention as described in relation to the preferred embodiment enables the thickness and the weight of a complete credit card sales voucher to be decreased by between 10 and 20% and this is significant when the vouchers are being transported and stored in bulk.

Claims (14)

1. A multi-sheet document comprising an upper record sheet and a lower record sheet beneath and adjacent to the upper record sheet, the upper record sheet comprising a pressure-markable sheet material and a marking material which is transferrable to the lower record sheet by pressing the sheets together so as to form a visible marking on the second sheet consisting of said marking material, whereby localised pressure applied to the two record sheets will produce on the upper and lower record sheets corresponding markings visible from the front sides of the sheets.

2. A document as claimed in claim 1, wherein the lower sheet is of plain paper.

3. A document as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein the marking material is in the form of a coating.

4. A document as claimed in claim 3, wherein the coating is formed by means of a hot carbonising process.

5. A document as claimed in claim 3, wherein the coating is formed by means of a cold carbonising process.

6. A document as claimed in claim 4 or claim 5, wherein the coating contains carbon.

7. A document as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the lower record sheet comprises a transferrable marking material on its back side, and comprising a further record sheet below and adjacent to the lower record sheet to receive marking consisting of said material when said localised pressure is applied to the three record sheets.

8. A document as claimed in claim 7, comprising a plurality of further record sheets one on top of the other and located below and adjacent to the lower record sheet, at least all but the lowermost further record sheet comprising a transferrable marking material on its back side whereby the marking material on a further record sheet will produce on the next sheet below marking consisting of said material when said localised pressure is applied to all the record sheets.

9. A document as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein the lowermost sheet of the stack is free of marking material on its back side and constitutes a machine processable sheet of the document.

10. A document as claimed in any preceding claim, in which the record sheets are detachably secured together in register with each other.

1 A document as claimed in any preceding claim, which is a credit card sales voucher.

12. A record sheet which comprises a pressuremarkable sheet material and a marking material which is transferrable, by application of localised pressure to the sheet, to any suitable substrate in contact with it so as to form a visible marking on the substrate consisting of said marking material.

1 3. A multi-sheet document comprising an upper record sheet and a lower record sheet beneath and adjacent to the upper record sheet, the upper record sheet comprising a printable and pressure markable sheet material and a material for causing marking of the lower record sheet when the sheets are pressed together, whereby localised pressure applied to the two record sheets will produce on the front side of each sheet visible markings corresponding to raised characters beneath the document, such visible markings being in addition to further markings generated by a printing implement or device used on the front side of the upper sheet.

14. A multi-sheet document substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.