GB2183203A

GB2183203A - Mailable documents

Info

Publication number: GB2183203A
Application number: GB08627733A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Jacob Mcphillips Drillick; Alan Frederick Myers
Original assignee: DOCUMAIL Ltd
Current assignee: DOCUMAIL Ltd
Priority date: 1985-11-23
Filing date: 1986-11-20
Publication date: 1987-06-03
Also published as: EP0225135A3; GB8627733D0; EP0225135A2; GB8528924D0

Abstract

A method of producing a mailable document without using an envelope, in which method a piece of paper is fed to a computer-controlled printer, which prints variable information including a name-and- address field 23 thereon. The paper is then folded about four parallel lines which divide the paper into four areas 20, 21, 22 and 23 and a flap in such a way that printing on areas 20 and 21 are concealed within the completed mailable document, and the name and address are exposed. At least some portions of the overlying marginal regions are then adhered together to seal the document. Perforations may be provided along the margional regions to assist opening of the document, and along the fold lines to assist separation of the document into separate pieces by a recipient. <IMAGE>

Description

1 r m GB2183203A 1

SPECIFICATION

Mailable documents This invention relates to a method of produc- 70 ing a mailable document, which method espe cially tends itself to the use of automated ma chinery.

Many companies frequently require to send documents to a large number of recipients, each document being individual to the recipi ent. For example, in the case of a company paying dividends to share-holders, a cheque is forwarded to each share-holder along with an appropriate statement, the amount payable be ing dependent upon the share holding of the recipient. In order to mail such documents, the statements and cheques are printed using ap propriate equipment and then must be inserted in envelopes which either have previously been addressed, or which have a window per mitting the recipient's name and address to be read from the statement, provided the state ment has been inserted into the envelope with this correct orientation.

With the use of ever more sophisticated printing apparatus for the production of indivi dualised documents, the production of docu ments carrying variable data has become much simpler than used to be the case. By employing suitable data processing facilities, a very large number of such documents can be produced in a relatively short space of time.

However, the amount of handling of those documents in order to insert them into envel- 100 opes so as to enable them to be forwarded to the recipient is most considerable, and so is a slow, time-consuming process which adds considerably to the cost of a mailing oper ation. Often, the documents are folded and inserted into envelopes by hand, though re cently mechanised equipment for this process has been developed but even so, such equip ment is costly, prone to less than 100% relia 45- bility, and is relatively slow in its operation as compared to the printing of the documents.

Moreover, the cost of the envelopes must be added to the overall cost of the mailing oper ation.

It is consequently a principal aim of this invention to provide a method of producing a mailable document which largely overcomes the disadvantages of the traditional methods of producing mailable documents employing envelopes, as outlined above.

Accordingly, this invention provides a method of producing a mailable document, in which method a piece of paper'is fed to a computercontrolled printing device, variable indicia are printed an one side of the fed piece of paper, such printing being under the control of a computer and including a name and address in a first area and confidential information in another area, and the printed piece of paper is then fed to a folding ma- chine where the paper is given four folds each substantially parallel to the others and to an edge of the paper, the first fold being spaced from said edge of the paper and defining an area on which confidential information may be printed, the second fold being in a sense which leaves exposed printing on the side of the second fold remote from the first fold with the distance between the first and sec- ond folds being not less than that between the first fold and said edge, the third fold being in the same sense as the second fold and being spaced from the second fold by a distance not less than the distance between the first and second folds, and the fourth fold being in the same sense as the third fold and being spaced from the third fold by a distance not less than that between the second and third folds, the fourth fold defining a relatively narrow flap to overlie that portion of the document adjacent the second fold between that second fold and the third fold whereby printed matter between the third and fourth folds as well as printed matter between the third fold and the edge of the flap may be read, and the mailable document being completed by adhering at least portions of some of the marginal regions of the paper to those parts of the paper which those marginal regions overlie.

It will be appreciated that in the method of this invention, the step of placing a document carrying variable printed indicia into an envelope is completely eliminated, for no envelope is used. Instead, the printed piece of paper is folded in such a way that that piece of paper by itself forms the mailable document. Folding is performed in such a manner that even though the piece of paper has been printed only on one side with all of the variable information (including the recipient's name and address) which must be passed on to the recipient, the name and address area is wholly visible when the mailable document has been completed by folding and adhering as specified above, and yet other information carried between said edge of the paper and the second fold cannot be read until the mailable document has been opened. Thus confidential information carried between said edge and the second fold conveniently may be in two parts, one part being between the first and second folds and the other between said edge and the first fold. For example, between the first and second folds may be printed a statement, advice note, cheque stub or the like, and a cheque proper or payment slip may be printed between the first fold and said edge, these two items being separated by the first fold itself. The area between the second and third folds, insofar as it does not lie underneath the flap defined by the fourth fold, may be read externally of the completed mailable document and so may be used for any non-confidential information, such as advertising or the like.

2 GB2183203A 2 The name and address could appear on this area, if preferred, instead of on that area lying between the third and fourth folds.

Completion of the mailable document of this invention, by adhering at least some of the marginal portions of the piece of paper to other parts of the paper which those marginal portions overlie may be performed in a variety of ways. For example, the flap defined by the fourth fold may be adhered to that area of the folded paper which the flap overlies. In addi tion to, or for some circumstances instead of, the flap being adhered to the underlying pa per, the side edges of the paper may be ad hered one to another. Whichever portions are adhered one to another, it is preferred for such adhering to be so done that the mailable document can easily be opened by the in tended recipient, without tearing those areas of the paper carrying printed matter. For example, contact adhesives may be employed which allow the joined parts easily to be sepa rated upon the application of a force in the appropriate direction thereto. Another possibil ity is to provide a plurality of separate spaced 90 spots of adhesive, whereby separation may easily be performed. For example, along the flap only three spots of adhesive may be em ployed, one centrally and one at each end of the flap, respectively. Yet another possibility is 95 to provide perforations separating the adhered marginal portions from the main areas of the document, such that the document may be opened by tearing off the marginal regions along the perforations.

The adhesive may be applied prior to the printing step, in which case the adhering step may be completed by suitably activating the adhesive, or the adhesive may be applied dur ing or after the folding step, as appropriate.

Similarly, if perforations are employed, the pa per may be perforated prior to the printing step, immediately thereafter or even during the folding step.

The paper subjected to the folding step to 110 produce the mailable document must be in the form of a cut sheet of the required size. The paper fed to the printing device may be in the form of individual cut sheets of the required size, or may be in the form of a continuous 115 web, which is cut into separate sheets following the printing step, by a suitable cutting device, the cut sheets then being fed to the folding machine.

As mentioned above, the first fold may be 120 made in either sense-that is to say, the first fold may be performed so that when effected, the printed matter to each side of that fold lies facing each other (and so cannot there- after be read until unfolded) or lies facing outwardly so that either area of printed matter can be read. Thereafter, the second and subsequent folds must be made in the sense which has the printed matter facing outwardly.

In performing the method of this invention, the printing on one side of the paper under computer control may be performed in any suitable manner. For example, such printing could be performed by conventional daisy wheel or similar printer, by a line printer or, where both quality and speed of output is most important, by a laser printer. The latter has the advantages that different type faces, sizes of print and so on all may be incorporated on the same printed face of the paper fed to the printer. Of course, the paper fed to the printer may itself be pre-printed with nonvariable information, either on the same face as will be printed when performing the method of this invention, or on the reverse face, or even on both faces.

It will also be appreciated that though the printing, folding and adhering steps may be performed by physically separate machines, advantageously all those steps are performed within one integrated machine incorporating the necessary equipment to perform all the required functions.

Depending upon the intended use of the printed document, it may be advantageous to provide perforations to separate certain of the areas of the document, in which case it is convenient for the lines of perforation to coincide with the fold lines. For example, in the case of forwarding a cheque, the area between the first fold and the adjacent parallel free edge of the sheet may be used for the cheque- with perforations provided along the line of ihe first fold. For such a case, it may be convenient also to provide a cheque stub, remittance advice or the like on the area between the first and second folds, in which case the second fold also may be defined by a line of perforations.

This invention extends to a mailable document whenever produced by a method of this invention as described above.

By way of example only, two specific methods of this invention will now be described in greater detail, reference being made to the accomapanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a rear view of a document ready for printing with variable information on one side thereof; Figure 2 is a front view of the document of Figure 1, but when printing has been completed; Figures 3 to 7 show various steps in the folding of the printed document of Figure 2; Figure 8 is a section through the completed mailable document shown in Figure 7; and Figures 9 to 14 correspond respectively to Figures 3 to 8, but showing a second folding sequence.

Referring initially to Figure 1, there is shown a piece of paper 10 ready for feeding to a computer-controlled printer, in order to have certain variable information printed thereon. Figure 1 shows the rear of the paper 10, with adhesive coatings (for example of heat or 4 3 GB2183203A 3 pressure sensitive adhesive) along the marginal regions of edges 11, 12 and 13, but not along edge 14. Perforations 15, 16 and 17 separate those marginal regions from the main area of the paper, and there are provided two further rows of perforations 18 and 19 parallel to perforations 16.

Pre-prepared papers as described above are fed one at a time to a computer-controlled printer, in order to have variable information printed on the face not carrying the adhesive, As shown in Figure 2, such variable informa tion may include a cheque on a first area 20, a cheque stub or advice note on a second area 21, advertising matter on a third area 22, 80 and a name and address in a fourth area 23.

At the same time and provided a user has an official permit, a mailing frank may also be printed in the fourth area. It will be appreci- ated that the information printed on the first, 85 second and fourth areas will vary from one piece of paper to the next, but methods of performing such variable printing form no part of this invention and will not be described in greater detail here. Suffice it to say that corn- 90 puter-controlled techniques for the extraction of data from data banks in order to generate such printed documents are well known and understood in the art.

Figures 3 to 7 show a folding sequence for 95 the printed document shown in Figure 2. The cheque on first area 20 is folded about the line of perforations 18 such that the non printed sides of the areas 20 and 21 lie facing each other (Figure 4) and then the areas 20 and 21 are together folded in the same sense about the line of perforations 19 such that the printed cheque on area 20 is directed to the reverse side of area 22 (Figure 5). Those al- ready folded areas are then folded round once 105 more in the same sense, such that printed area 21 lying between the two lines of perfor ations 18 and 19 lies facing the reverse side of the name and address area 23. Finally, the adhesive-coated marginal region 12 is folded 110 round about perforations 16 to form a flap which overlies part of the area 22, adjacent the perforations 19 (Figure 7). To complete the document the adhesive coatings on the marginal regions 11, 12 and 13 are suitably 115 activated, for example by the application of heat or by pressing, depending upon the na ture of the adhesive.

Figure 8 shows a section through the folded document illustrated in Figure 7, and from this it can be seen that when the document has been completed, only areas 22 and 23 may be read, all printed matter on areas 20 and 21 remaining confidential until the document is opened. This is easily achieved by tearing along the perforations 15, 16 and 17: the side edge marginal portions 11 and 13 should first be removed, whereafter the document may easily be torn along the line of perfora- tions 16, to allow the document to be un- folded. Then, both the cheque and the cheque stub or advice note may be separated from the remainder of the document and from each other, by tearing along perforations 18 and 19.

Figures 9 to 14 show another sequence of folding a document corresponding to that shown in Figures 1 and 2, the sequence differing from-that shown in Figures 3 to 7 in that the first fold is performed about the line of perforations 18 in the opposite sense as compared to the first-described example. Thus, as can been seen from Figures 10 and 11, the printed matter on areas 20 and 21 lies face-to-face. Thereafter, subsequent folds proceed in the manner shown in Figures 11 to 13, which is essentially the same as shown in Figures 5 to 7. Figure 14 shows a section through the completed document, emphasising the difference with respect to the firstdescribed method, shown in Figure 8. In all other respects, the production of a mailable document by this second folding method corresponds to that of the firstdescribed method, referring to Figures 1-8 inclusive.

The second method has the advantage that it is possible to form the second fold first, and then the first and third folds can simultaneously be formed. This folding process may therefore particularly lend itself to certain types of automatic paper-folding machinery.

By way of further illustrations, when a dividend payment is being made by the method of this invention, A4 size paper may be em- ployed, with the various dimensions being as follows: Original A4 paper size: 210 x 297 mm Width of marginal regions 11, 12 and 13: 5 mm Effective sizes of areas 20, 21, 22 and 23: 73 x 200 mm Size of flap: 5 x 210 mm Final size of completed mailable document: 73 x 210 mm In order to yield a larger completed mailable document, for example of a size approximately equal to a piece of A4-sized paper divided into thirds by two folds, a correspondingly larger original paper size may be employed-in this example, approximately 210 mm x 410 mm. Another possibility is for a web of continuous paper to be employed, the apparatus used to perform the method of this invention including a cutting device to separate the web into cut sheets either before or after the printing step.

Claims

1. A method of producing a mailable docu- ment in which method a piece of paper is fed to a computer-controlled printing device, variable indicia are printed on one side of the fed piece of paper, such printing being under the control of a computer and including a name and address in a first area and confidential 4 GB2183203A 4 information in another area, and the printed piece of paper is then fed to a folding machine where the paper is given four folds each substantially parallel to the others and to an edge of the paper, the first fold being spaced from said edge of the paper and defining an area on which confidential information may be printed, the second fold being in a sense. which leaves exposed printing on the side of the second fold remote from the first fold with the distance between the first and second folds being not less than that between the first fold and said edge, the third fold being in the same sense as the second fold and being spaced from the second fold by a distance not less than the distance between the first and second folds, and the fourth fold being in the same sense as the third fold and being spaced from the third fold by a distance not less than that between the second and third folds, the fourth fold defining a relatively narrow flap to overlie that portion of the document adjacent the second fold between that second fold and the third fold whereby printed matter between the third and fourth folds as well as printed matter between the third fold and the edge of the flap may be read, and the mailable document being completed by adhering at least portions of some of the marginal regions of the paper to those parts of the paper which those marginal regions overlie.

2. A method according to claim 1, in which the flap defined by the fourth fold is adhered to that area of the folded paper which the flap overlies.

3. A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, in which the side edges of the paper are adhered one to another.

4. A method according to claim 2 or claim 3, in which a plurality of discrete spots of adhesive are employed along the length of regions being adhered to one another.

5. A method according to any of the pre- ceding claims, in which the adhering is performed using a pressure- sensitive or a heat sensitive adhesive.

6. A method according to any of the preceding claims, in which lines of perforations are provided to separate the adhered marginal portions from the main areas of the document, such that the document may be opened by tearing off the marginal regions along the perforations.

7. A method according to any of the preceding claims, in which the adhesive is applied to the paper during or after the folding step.

8. A method according to any of the preceding claims, in which the paper fed to the printer is pre-printed with non-variable information, on either or both faces of the paper.

9. A method according to any of the preceding claims, in which the paper is provided with at least one line of perforations extending thereacross, which line of perforations coin- cides with a fold line.

10. A method of producing a mailable document substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated in the ac70 companying drawings.

11. A mailable document whenever produced by a method according to any of the preceding claims.

Printed for Her Majesty's Stationery Office by Burgess & Son (Abingdon) Ltd, Did 8991685, 1987. Published at The Patent Office. 25 Southampton Buildings, London, WC2A l AY, from which copies may be obtained.