GB2258632A

GB2258632A - Mailers and business form assemblies for producing mailers.

Info

Publication number: GB2258632A
Application number: GB9117590A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Victor Herbert Perriman
Original assignee: Moore Business Forms Inc
Current assignee: Moore Business Forms Inc
Priority date: 1991-08-15
Filing date: 1991-08-15
Publication date: 1993-02-17
Also published as: CA2076213A1; MX9204658A; GB9117590D0; NZ243826A; AU2101092A

Abstract

A mailer or business form assembly for forming such a mailer, in which the mailer (10) is formed from two rectangular sheets (20) sealed along all four edges and includes a line of perforation (31) along a marginal edge portion of a first of the edges (22) extending inside a continuous line of adhesive (30) along that marginal edge portion and in which at least the two edges (23, 24) adjacent to the first edge and extending normal thereto are secured to one another by a peel-apart adhesive arrangement (33, 34), such that after the first edge portion has been torn off along the line of perforation (31), the two sheets from which the mailer is formed can be peeled apart from one another without significantly damaging the mailer. <IMAGE>

Description

MAILERS AND BUSINESS FORM ASSEMBLIES FOR PRODUCING MAILERS This invention relates to mailers and business form assemblies for producing such mailers. The invention is particularly applicable to business form assemblies capable of being processed in a non-impact printer and subsequently processed including being sealed to be suitable for mailing.

The invention utilisies separate message and cover sheets in which the message sheets are capable of being fed through a non-impact printer to have information printed on such message sheets, while the cover sheets bear all the adhesive for sealing the two sheets together after they have been collated so as to form a sealed mailer. Preferably the separate message and cover sheets are provided in the form of continuous webs, the message web comprising a plurality of message sheets connected to one another by transverse lines of perforations and the cover web comprising a plurality of cover sheets connected to one another by transverse lines of perforations. The adhesive for securing the sheets together may be heat seal or pressure seal adhesive.

Such business form assemblies are described in European Patent Specification 0143622. However, the mailers of that specification are intended to be opened by tearing off four marginal edge portions along lines of perforations formed in both sheets.

An object of the present invention is to provide mailers and business form assemblies for forming such mailers, which mailers are simpler to open.

Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention provides a mailer and a business form assembly for forming such a mailer, in which the mailer is formed from two sheets sealed along all four edges and includes a line of perforation along a first of the edges extending inside a substantially continuous line of-adhesive along that marginal edge portion and in which at least the two edges adjacent the first edge and extending normal thereto are secured to one another by a peel apart adhesive arrangement such that after another by a peel apart adhesive arrangement such that after the first edge portion has been torn off along the line of perforation the two sheets from which the mailer is formed can be peeled apart from one another.

In another aspect the invention provides a business form assembly for forming a mailer comprising a message sheet suitable for passage through a non-impact printer to receive information thereon, a cover sheet of a corresponding size to the message sheet, each of the sheets having longitudinal and transverse edges, the cover sheet carrying adhesive along all its four marginal edge portions such that when it is collated with a message sheet and the adhesive activated the sheets will adhere to one another along the edges to form a sealed mailer, in which the adhesive along a first of the edges of the cover sheet is formed in a substantially continuous line, the cover sheet being formed with a line of perforations parallel to the first edge and inwardly of said continuous line of adhesive, the message sheet being formed with a line of perforations adapted to substantially overlie and be in register with the line of perforations on the cover sheet when the sheets are collated, and in which the adhesive along at least the two opposite edge portions of the cover sheet extending normal to the first edge is of a peel apart type.

Preferably the business form assembly comprises a plurality of message sheets and a plurality of cover sheets, included respectively in a continuous message web and a continuous cover web, each comprising a plurality of such sheets separated from the adjacent sheets by transverse lines of perforations.

In one form each message sheet and each cover sheet extends the full width of such webs, in another form there are two cover sheets and two message sheets arranged side by side on the web and each separated from one another by a slit line extending longitudinally of the webs, with a line of adhesive extending longitudinally adjacent and on each side of the central slit line of the cover sheet.

The invention extends to mailers formed from such business form assemblies.

The peel apart adhesive lines are normally formed as a series of spaced spots or discreet areas of adhesive separated by areas free of adhesive. The spacing is such that the area free of adhesive along the line of adhesive is more than twice that of the adhesive area, preferably three to nine times as great and with advantage about four to six times as great.

Two embodiments of business form assemblies and mailers formed therefrom will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings of which: Figure 1 shows one message sheet forming part of a message web, Figure 2 shows one cover sheet forming part of a cover web, Figure 3 shows a mailer formed from the sheets of Figure 1 and 2, Figure 4 shows an alternative embodiment of message sheet forming part of a message web, Figure 5 shows an alternative embodiment of cover sheet forming part of a cover web, and Figure 6 shows a mailer formed from the sheets of Figures 4 and 5.

A message sheet 12 has longitudinal edges 13, 14 and transverse edges 16, 17. The message sheet forms part of a continuous message web 18 provided with transverse lines of perforations 18a to divide the web into the message sheets, these lines coinciding with the transverse edges 16, 17. The message web 18 is of a form suitable for passing through a non-impact printer to receive personalised information and carries no heat sensitive adhesive.

A cover sheet 20 of the same size as the message sheet 12 has longitudinal edges 21, 22 and transverse edges 23, 24. The cover sheet forms part of a cover web 25 provided with transverse lines of perforations 25a to divide the web into a series of such cover sheets with the transverse edges 23, 24 coinciding with the lines 25a extending across the full width of the cover web. Both the cover web and the message web have a series of sprocket guide holes 26 along each longitudinal edge so that the webs can be accurately fed through a series of machines such as printers, adhesive supplying machines, collating machines, sealing machines and bursters. The cover sheet is provided in known manner with a window 27 so that a personalised address printed on the message sheet can be viewed through the window when the sheets are collated.

As shown in Figures 2 and 5 the cover sheet bears lines of adhesive. These adhesive lines are provided on the rear of the cover sheet but for clarity are shown on the front of the sheet.

The cover sheet has a substantially continuous line 30 of nonactive but activatable adhesive along its longitudinal edge 22 inside the sprocket holes 26. In practice this adhesive may be formed as a pattern of overlapping discrete areas to produce an effectively continuous line. The cover sheet has a line of perforations 31 adjacent its longitudinal edge 22 inside the line of adhesive 30 and the message sheet has a line of perforations 32 arranged to overlie and be in register with the perforations 31 in the cover sheet when the sheets are laid on top of one another. Lines of adhesive 33, 34 and 35 of a peel apart formation are located along the other three marginal edge .portions of the cover sheet. The adhesive is of the same kind as that of the line 30 but comprises a series of spots or discrete areas spaced from one another so that the sheets can be pulled apart after being sealed together with very limited fibre tear of the sheets. In the preferred form each spot 36 is substantially square or diamond shaped with each side having a length of about 0.2 cms and the spots are spaced apart so that along the line of adhesive the adhesive free areas are three to nine times the adhesive areas, preferably four to six times.

The adhesive is preferably activated by heat but may be activated by other means such as pressure. In the latter case the message sheet must bear complementary lines and spots of adhesive similar to those on the cover sheet but of a type substantially insensitive to the type of heat generated by a laser printer, so that the adhesive on the message sheet will register with and contact the adhesive on the cover sheet when they are brought together.

After the sheets 12 have been printed with personalised information, the sheets 12 and the sheets 20 are collated, that is they are brought into overlying coinciding relationship one on top of the other and fed through a sealing machine which activates the adhesive to secure the sheets together around all four edges and form a series of connected mailers. The sprocket holes are normally then detached and the individual mailers separated from one another in a burster. Figure 3 shows one such individual mailer 37.

Figures 4 to 6 show similar message sheets and cover sheets forming parts of message webs and cover webs and similar parts have been given like reference numerals and will not be re-described. In the arrangement of Figures 4 and 5 two message sheets and two cover sheets are located side by side with one another across the width of respective webs, in so called two to view arrangement. The side by side sheets are separated by a respective central longitudinal slit lines 40, 41 and the cover sheet has two additional longitudinally extending lines of peel apart adhesive 42, 43 adjacent the perforation line 41. The left hand side of the message web is formed with a substantially continuous line of adhesive 45 similar to line 30 and the message web and cover web are formed with lines of perforation 46, 47 inside the line of adhesive 45 and corresponding to the lines 31 and 32. The message sheets bear no heat sensitive adhesive.

Which marginal edge carries the line of substantially continuous adhesive and which edge portions carry the lines of peel apart adhesive can be selected at will.

Claims

1. A mailer or business form assembly for forming such a mailer, in which the mailer is formed from two rectangular sheets sealed along all four edges and includes a line of perforation along a marginal edge portion of a first of the edges extending inside a substantially continuous line of adhesive along that marginal edge portion and in which at least the two edges adjacent to the first edge and extending normal thereto are secured to one another by a peel-apart adhesive arrangement, such that after the first edge portion has been torn off along the line of perforation, the two sheets from which the mailer is formed can be peeled apart from one another without significantly damaging the mailer.

2. A business form assembly for forming a mailer comprising a message sheet suitable for passage through a non-impact printer to receive information thereon, a cover sheet of a corresponding size to the message sheet, each of these sheets having longitudinal and transverse edges, the cover sheet carrying adhesive along all its four marginal edge portions such that when it is collated with a message sheet and the adhesive activated the sheets will adhere to one another along the edges to form a sealed mailer, in which the adhesive along a first of the edges of the cover sheet is formed in a substantially continuous line, the cover sheet being formed with a line of perforations parallel to the first edge and inwardly of said continuous line of adhesive, the message sheet being formed with a line of perforations adapted to substantially overlie and be in register with the line of perforations of the cover sheet when the sheets are collated, and in which the adhesive along at least the two opposite edge portions of the cover sheet extending normal to the first edge is of a peel-part type.

3. A business form assembly according to claim 2 in which the adhesive along the fourth edge portion of the cover sheet is of a peel-part type.

4. A mailer or business form assembly according to any of claims 1 to 3 in which each peel-part adhesive arrangement comprises a series of spaced apart discrete areas of adhesive separated by areas free of adhesive, the spacing being such that the area free of adhesive along the line of discrete areas of adhesive is more than twice that of the total such area covered by adhesive.

5. A mailer or business form assembly according to claim 3 in which said area free of adhesive is in the range 3 to 9 times as great as the area covered by adhesive.

6. A mailer or business form assembly according to claim 4 in which said area free of adhesive is in the range 4 to 6 times as great as the area covered by adhesive.

7. A business form assembly according to claim 2 or any claim dependent thereon which comprises a plurality of message sheets and a plurality of cover sheets, included respectively in a continuous message web and a continuous cover web, each of the webs comprising a plurality of sheets separated from the adjacent sheets by transverse lines of perforations.

8. A business form assembly according to claim 7 in which each message sheet and each cover sheet extends the full width of its respective web.

9. A business form assembly according to claim 7 in which there are two cover sheets and two message sheets arranged side by side on the respective cover and message webs, each separated from one another by a slit line extending longitudinally of the respective web, and in which a line of adhesive extends longitudinally adjacent and on each side of the central slit line of the cover sheet.

10. A business form assembly according to any of claims 1 to 9 in which the adhesive is a heat activatable adhesive and no adhesive is positioned on the or each message sheet.

11. A business form assembly according to any of claims 1 to 9 in which the adhesive is activatable by pressure and is not substantially sensitive to heat of such amount as will be encountered in passing through a non-impact printer and in which the or each message sheet bears areas of adhesive corresponding to the areas of adhesive on the associated cover sheet such that the adhesive on the message sheet and the cover sheet will register with one another when the sheets are corrollated.

12. A business form assembly or mailer substantially as described herein with reference to or as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.