GB2266862A - Report cards - Google Patents

Abstract

Report cards well known in the medical field have hitherto comprised an area coated in adhesive overlaid with a removable masking sheet. Sections of the masking sheet are removable to expose areas of the adhesive to which record labels may be stuck. The invention provides a laminated report card 1, which comprises an adhesive backing sheet 7 overlaid with a printed face sheet 2. The face sheet is die cut to provide a plurality of strips 10 which are removable to enable record labels to be stuck in their place. <IMAGE>

Description

REPORT CARDS The invention relates to report cards generally, and to medical record cards in particular, to which sequential record labels may be stuck to fill in a report.

Report cards have many applications in the medical field where it is essential to keep a timely sequential account of treatments prescribed, drug or X-ray doses administered, pathology test results and the like. Similarly in the engineering field a sequential record of machining or assembly operations performed and of quality control inspections completed is necessary to ensure correct manufacture to the highest standards.

In the past pre-printed forms have been filled in by hand or by sticking adhesive labels to appropriate fields of these forms. It will be readily understood that, especially in the medical field, illegible entries can be a great problem.

Thus, to overcome this disadvantage the use of typed or printed labels may be preferred. However, commercially adhesive or self-adhesive labels of well known type can in use present problems of their own, including for example feeding around and correct alignment with printer or typewriter platens.

It would in many circumstances be preferable to use plain paper labels which can suitably be cut from a typed sheet or fed in ribbon form from a label printer (suitably computer operated by a machine performing an operation which should be recorded). Such usage requires that the pre-printed forms are themselves coated in an adhesive and a number of examples of this are to be found in the prior art. For example in one type, strips of double sided tape have been applied to a form wherein the masking layer of each strip is removable to permit a label to be stuck in its place. This provides an effective though costly construction as such commercially available tape is not cheap.

Another far more ingenuous example requires that a defined portion of each record card (comprising only the fields that are to be filled in) is coated with a permanent adhesive layer which is applied using manual silk screen printing methods.

Frequent passes of the printing blade are usually required to ensure proper coverage of the adhesive. Once the adhesive has set sufficiently ie: is permanently tacky, a masking sheet pre-coated with a release agent is applied so as to extend over the area of the adhesive covered portion. This sheet may be cut so as to allow sequential removal of strips thereof to uncover layers of the adhesive to which labels may be stuck.

These prior art constructions are costly to produce by virtue of the use of expensive raw materials or labour intensive processes or both. In addition it will be clear that as the adhesive layer only covers a part of the pre-printed form that the material from which the form itself is made is of some importance. To hinder damage of the forms, or to reduce wear and tear, it will be preferable to use card.

Such materials are not only much more expensive than lighter weight papers, but also may require the use of more costly printing and handling techniques.

It is an object of the invention to provide a method of construction and record cards which overcome some if not all of the aforementioned disadvantages of the known prior art.

According to one aspect of the invention a laminated record card comprises a first backing sheet wholly coated with a permanent or removable adhesive layer to which a second masking face sheet printed with fixed form information is adhered. A portion of the face sheet is die cut to permit sequential removal of sections or strips of said portion thereby exposing an area of said adhesive to which a correspondingly sized paper record label may be adhered to fill in said record card. Preferably the face sheet is of normal paper printed on its obverse face and pre-coated with a release agent on its reverse or contact face.

According to a further aspect of the invention a method of manufacturing a record card comprises the steps of printing a masking face sheet with fixed form information; laminating an adhesive coated backing sheet with said face sheet; and die cutting a portion of the face sheet to define removable sections of this sheet. The backing sheet may be supplied from a roll of self adhesive paper or the adhesive may be applied immediately prior to lamination. Also it may be preferable to use a removable adhesive so that the face sheet can be plain paper.

According to a still further aspect of the invention the previous method can be modified by omission of the first step and the use of a pre-printed face sheet. Suitably said sheet may be pre-coated on its contact face with a release agent.

The invention will now be further described with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example only, a preferred embodiment of the invention; and in which, Fig. 1 illustrates a report card made in accordance with the invention in perspective view; and Fig. 2 illustrates the report card in exploded view.

In the drawings like numerals denote like parts, wherein a laminated A4 record card in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention is generally denoted 1, although it will appreciated that the invention is not limited to any specific form size. A face sheet 2, suitably of clay-coated paper having its reverse face 3 pre-coated with a release agent, is pre-printed and/or tinted on its obverse face 4 with fixed form information such as the numbering, lettering and form lines illustrated generally at 5. The reverse face 3 of sheet 2 is then laminated with a self-adhesive face 6 of a backing sheet 7.

Subsequently the face sheet 2 is die cut along or adjacent a section of the form lines 8 between chain dotted lines 9.

It is further cut along these lines 9, thus defining a plurality of removable strips 10 as illustrated in the exploded view of Fig. 2. It will be appreciated that the removable portions of the face sheet need not necessarily be strips but may take any desirable shape appropriate to the respective field of the form to which they relate. If desired file holes 11 may be punched through the laminated record card 1 to enable use in ring binders or the like.

When in use the record card may be sharply bent generally along one of the lines 9 at one end of a desired strip 10 to cause the resilience of that strip 10 to peel its end from the adhesive 6. Once one end of the desired strip 10 is freed from the adhesive the whole strip may be removed exposing a corresponding area of adhesive to which a record label can be stuck. Sequential removal of the strips 10 will enable the form 1 to be filled in with appropriate labels (not shown).

In this embodiment the adhesive used for the self-adhesive face 6 is a so called permanent adhesive. Conveniently the reverse face 12 of the backing sheet 7 is pre-coated with a release agent so that the sheet 7 can be fed from a roll of such sheeting.

A further embodiment of the invention requires that the adhesive used is a removable adhesive such as that used in the well known 'Post-It' (TM) notepads. The advantage of using such adhesive is that the face sheet 2 may be of ordinary paper without the need for the release agent on its reverse face 3.

It will be appreciated that the method of manufacture described can be highly automated overcoming the labour intensive methods described in the prior art. In addition, whilst the report cards 1 may be made individually, the process described lends itself to the use of wide rolls of backing and face sheeting so that a plurality of cards 1 may be manufactured simultaneously and subsequently cut from continuous sheeting.

Once the strips 10 have been removed from the report card 1, the remaining laminate continues to furnish the added rigidity and resilience that such lamination provides. This is a particular advantage over previous constructions which rely on the printed form providing all the resilience. As a consequence thinner materials may ordinarily be used in record cards manufactured in accordance with this invention.

Although it is desirable that the masking sheet 2 extends over the whole surface of the backing sheet 7 it will be understood that this need not be the case. Likewise although the adhesive layer preferably co-extensive with the sheet 2, it need not be.

Claims (8)

1. A laminated record card comprising a first backing sheet wholly coated with a permanent or removable adhesive layer to which a second masking face sheet, printed with fixed form information, is adhered; in which a portion of the face sheet is die cut to permit sequential removal of sections or strips of said portion to expose an area of said adhesive to which a correspondingly sized paper record label can be adhered to fill in said record account.

2. A laminated record card in accordance with claim 1, in which the face sheet is normal paper printed on its obverse face and pre-coated with a release agent on its reverse face.

3. A laminated record card in accordance with claim 1 or claim 2, in which the backing sheet is self-adhesive sheeting with a reverse face pre-coated with a release agent.

4. A method of manufacturing a laminated record card comprises the steps of printing a masking face sheet with fixed form information; laminating an adhesive coated backing sheet with said face sheet; and die cutting a portion of the face sheet to define removable sections of this sheet.

5. A method of manufacturing a laminated record card in accordance with claim 4, in which the backing sheet is fed from a roll of self adhesive paper.

6. A laminated record card manufactured in accordance with the method of claim 4 or 5.

7. A laminated record card in accordance with any one of claims 1 to 3, or 6 in which the adhesive is a removable adhesive.

8. A laminated record card constructed and arranged as herein particularly described and illustrated.