Patent Application
20220305755
The present application claims priority to Belgium Patent Application No. 2021/5224 filed Mar. 25, 2021, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference into this application.
The present disclosure relates to an element for producing a jacket, folder or box.
In particular, the present disclosure is intended to provide an element in the form of a semi-finished or half finished product which is finished further by the end user into the eventual product.
Such elements are already known in the form of a sheet of, for example, rigid paper or cardboard, which may or may not be provided with grooves that allow the element to be folded into a jacket for, for example, a book, a folder for binding a bundle of leaves, for example, or a box to package an object in.
Traditionally, such element or sheet is provided with or coated with pre-glued paper.
The end user can then apply a finishing layer or final coating material on the element to give it the desired finish or personalisation.
It is not excluded hereby that the finishing layer on the outside is different to the finishing layer on the inside of the folder, jacket or box.
Subsequently, the finished and personalised element is then folded into a jacket, folder or box.
A disadvantage of such known elements is that the aforementioned grooves become very rigid due to the pre-glued paper and the finishing layer running over the grooves.
Not only is folding the element less smooth and easy, but in the folds themselves the different layers create a messy and sloppy appearance due to creasing and crumpling.
The purpose of the present disclosure is to provide a solution to at least one of the aforementioned and other disadvantages.
The object of the present disclosure is an element for producing a jacket, folder or box, that the element relates to a semi-finished product comprising an uncoated sheet which on at least one side is provided with a layer of hotmelt adhesive which is directly applied on the sheet for applying a finishing layer directly on the hotmelt adhesive.
An uncoated sheet is a sheet here without finishing layer or added components.
In other words, such sheet contains one material or one piece or one assembly or one unit or is undivided.
‘Directly applied on the sheet’ is understood to mean that the hotmelt adhesive makes physical contact with the sheet, i.e. without an intermediate layer of paper or the like.
Similarly ‘directly on the hotmelt adhesive’ is understood to mean that the finishing layer makes physical contact with the hotmelt adhesive, i.e. without an intermediate layer of paper or the like.
The aforementioned finishing layer can be made of all kinds of materials, such as mat paper, shiny paper, fabric, linen, canvas, etc.
Furthermore, the finishing layer can be printed with text, photographs, drawings, film printing and the like.
This provides the advantage that by providing the hotmelt adhesive directly on the sheet on which the finishing layer can be applied, there is no longer a need to coat the sheet with pre-glued paper such that less material is used.
An additional advantage is that, as only one layer is applied around the sheet, the grooves will not become rigid such that folding the element can be done easily and smoothly.
Creasing and crumpling of the finishing layer will also be a lot less, as only the finishing layer is applied around the element.
In a practical embodiment, the sheet is produced from a rigid paper or cardboard.
Rigid here is understood to mean that the sheet will not bend or fold.
For the present disclosure it is important that a hotmelt adhesive is used, and for example not self-adhesive glue, which is then provided with a removable cover paper or the like.
It can indeed not be excluded that self-adhesive glue is applied on the edges of the grooves. The self-adhesive glue will not be covered by the finishing layer upon applying a finishing layer. When the sheet is then folded, the exposed glue will make contact with the material of the sheet, for example the cardboard. Consequently the groove will either be glued or the cardboard will be damaged upon reopening the groove.
According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, the sheet is provided with one or more grooves to form a hinge.
By the hinge, the sheet can be folded into the eventual jacket, folder or box after applying the finishing layer.
As only the finishing layer will be applied on the sheet and no other layers of paper or other types of layers, the thus formed hinges will not be rigid or difficult to fold after finishing or personalising the element.
In some embodiments, the grooves are grooved or milled in the sheet.
With the intention of better showing the characteristics of the present disclosure, a few embodiments of an element for producing a jacket, folder or box according to the present disclosure are described hereinafter by way of an example, without any limiting nature, with reference to the accompanying figures, wherein:
The element 1 according to the present disclosure shown in
In this case, the sheet 2 is made of cardboard.
The sheet 2 may also be produced from rigid paper, thick paper, synthetic material or the like.
The sheet 2 is provided with a layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive on at least one side 3a, 3b, and in the case of
As shown in
The layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is hereby applied directly on the sheet 2. This means that no layers of paper or other types of layers are applied between the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive and the sheet 2.
In this case, the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is applied over practically the entire surface of the sheet 2.
In some embodiments, the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is also applied on side edges 5 of the sheet 2, but in some other embodiments, the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is not applied to the side edges 5 of the sheet.
In some embodiments, the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is a special hotmelt adhesive which will not soak in or be absorbed into the cardboard of the sheet 2, but will remain on top.
In this case, the sheet 2 is further provided with a number of grooves 6, in the example shown there are four grooves 6.
The grooves 6 are applied on both sides 3a, 3b of the sheet 2, in corresponding locations, as shown in
By the grooves 6 the sheet 2 can be folded into, in this case, a jacket for a book or folder for a bundle of leaves.
The grooves 6 thus form hinges 7 as the sheet 2 is weakened locally on the level of the grooves 6.
Consequently, the sheet 2 can be folded on the level of the grooves 6.
In this case, the grooves 6 are V-shaped and can be produced by grooving or milling the sheet 2.
As shown in
To realise this, the grooves 6 are first made in the sheet 2 by milling or grooving.
Subsequently, the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is applied on the sheet 2 by rollers.
On the level of the grooves 6, the sheet 2 will not make contact with the roller, such that no hotmelt adhesive ends up there.
Of course it is not excluded that the sheet 2 is first provided with a layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive over the whole surface and subsequently the grooves 6 are grooved or milled, whereby glue and cardboard are locally removed from the element 1.
The use of the element 1 is very simple and as follows.
The finishing layer 8 is subsequently attached to the element 1 in the known way by heating the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive.
As shown in
Subsequently, the coated element 1 can be folded into a jacket or folder.
Although
Although in the example of
The dimensions and the location of the one or more grooves 6 will hereby be chosen such that by folding the sheet 2, a box, or a section of a box, can be formed.
Indeed, for producing a box based on an element 1 according to the present disclosure, several elements 1 may be used, whereby each element 1 will form a section of the box.
A difference with the previous embodiment are the grooves 6, which in this case are U-shaped instead of V-shaped.
Even when there are only two grooves 6, the present disclosure is not restricted to this.
In this case, the layer 4 of hotmelt adhesive is also applied in the grooves 6 on one side 3a of the sheet 2, more particularly also in the bottom 9 of the grooves 6. The side 3a will become the inside of the jacket.
On the side 3b, which is the outside of the jacket, no hotmelt adhesive is applied in the grooves 6.
In this case the finishing layer 8, when applied around the element 1, will stick on the bottom 9 of the grooves 6 on the side 3a or the inside of the jacket.
The effect is that when the jacket is folded as shown in
Although in the examples shown and described above, a folder or jacket is referred to, it is not excluded that an element according to the present disclosure is applied for producing a box, such as a packaging box, a gift box or presentation box.
The present disclosure is by not to the embodiments described as an example and shown in the drawings, but an element for producing a jacket, folder or box according to the present disclosure can be realised in all kinds of forms and dimensions, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021/5224 | Mar 2021 | BE | national |
