Patent Application
20080185490
The present disclosure is broadly concerned with an adapter for use with a postal envelope tray. More particularly, it is concerned with an adapter for supporting and protecting a horizontal stack of envelopes within a postal tray to maintain the envelopes in a compressed, flattened state during curing of the adhesive and at the same time permit vertical stacking of additional postal trays in a nesting relation without deforming the envelopes.
Envelopes used for bulk mailing are generally obtained in quantity from an envelope manufacturer and delivered to inserter/mailer firms that use automated equipment to stuff the envelopes. Typically, envelopes reach the exit tray or table of the envelope machine with the side seam adhesive still wet. The envelopes are immediately removed by hand under compression and tightly packed into corrugated cartons. Because the packed envelopes are compressed, the panels are held together until the adhesive cures and the envelopes dry in a flat state. The cartons of envelopes are then delivered to an inserter firm, opened and the envelopes are unloaded by hand for placement into the inserter apparatus. The “stuffed” envelopes are then placed in containers such as postal trays and delivered to a bulk mail center or postal facility.
This packaging system is expensive, inefficient and not environmentally friendly. The corrugated cartons are expensive, difficult to handle and open and they take up space in the area of the envelope and inserter machinery. They also present disposal problems for the inserter firm. Attempts to reuse the cartons have been unsuccessful because of the labor required to sort and handle them.
While it would be preferable to transport the newly manufactured envelopes to the inserter/mailer in postal trays, which could be reused to deliver the stuffed envelopes for mailing, previous attempts to do so have not been successful. This failure may be attributed to the configuration of US postal trays. The trays are manufactured in accordance with USPS specifications to include a flat rectangular base and four upwardly and outwardly extending sides, each having the shape of an isosceles trapezoid, so that all sides extend upwardly and outwardly at an angle from the base. The trays are sized to receive a horizontally stacked layer of stuffed, standard sized business envelopes that are upstanding in orthogonal relation to the base of the tray. Because of the outward angle of the sides there is a gap between the sides of the tray and the sides of the envelope stack.
While the outwardly angled configuration of the sides of the trays advantageously enables the trays to be stacked in a nested fashion, the gap resulting from that configuration prevents lateral support of the envelope stack. The angular gap between the outwardly angled sides of the tray and the orthogonal envelope stack provides room for the envelopes to curl and warp. Newly manufactured envelopes are particularly susceptible to distortion or deforming as the wet adhesive cures. Such deformed envelopes are unsuitable for use with automatic inserting equipment because of their tendency to jam the equipment. Without the necessary pressure to hold the envelopes tightly together, the panels may also separate from each other before the adhesive is dried, causing the seams to become unglued and rendering the envelopes unusable.
In addition, while the sides of the trays are configured to enable close stacking of the trays when they are not in use, they do not keep the bottom of a stacked tray up and away from the top of a horizontal stack of envelopes in a lower tray. This may result in crushing of envelopes when the postal trays are vertically stacked in a column.
Accordingly, there is a need for an envelope packaging system that avoids the problems previously described and permits usage of USPS postal trays to transport newly manufactured envelopes throughout the mailstream and that permits the trays to be stacked without crushing the envelopes,
The envelope tray adapter provides a greatly improved system for protecting a horizontal stack of envelopes positioned in a postal tray having outwardly angled sidewalls. The adapter has pairs of side and end panels joined end to end and sized to fit on the bottom wall of the postal tray. Each panel has a height greater than the height of the envelope stack, but less than the sidewalls of the postal tray in order to support a second postal tray nested on top and protect the envelopes from being crushed. The panels may be formed from a continuous length of any suitable material that is folded to form the side and end panels and is strong enough to support the load produced. Appropriate materials include common corrugated paper box forming product known as “275 pound test paper board.” One end of the panels has a free end including a glue flap that overlaps and adheres to the inner surface of the adjacent end panel. An envelope packaging system for stacks of horizontal envelopes includes a postal tray with an envelope tray adapter positioned in engagement with the bottom wall of the postal tray to receive a horizontal stack of envelopes and a second postal tray positioned atop the envelope tray adapter to maintain the second postal tray out of engagement with the envelopes.
Various objects and advantages of this envelope tray adapter will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention.
The drawings constitute a part of this specification, include exemplary embodiments of the envelope tray adapter, and illustrate various objects and features thereof.
As required, detailed embodiments of the envelope tray adapter are disclosed herein; however, it is to be understood that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the adapter, envelope packaging system and method of packaging, which may be embodied in various forms. Therefore, specific structural and functional details disclosed herein are not to be interpreted as limiting, but merely as a basis for the claims and as a representative basis for teaching one skilled in the art to variously employ the tray adapter in virtually any appropriately detailed structure and method.
Referring now to the drawing figures, the reference numeral 1 refers to an envelope packaging system depicted in
The envelope stack 6 is made up of a group of envelopes 7, each having a top 22 (
Each of the illustrated envelope tray adapters 2 and 3 is formed of a continuous length of material having a first free end 30 and a second free end 31. The material is scored, creased, or folded to form a first end panel 32, a first side panel 33, second end panel 34 and a second side panel 35 joined in end-to-end relation. A glue flap 36 extends from the second free end 31. The side panels 33 and 35 are generally equal in length as are the end panels 32 and 34.
The end panels 32 and 34 and the side panels 33 and 35 have such panel heights and cooperate in such a manner as to support a second tray 5 out of crushing engagement with a stack of envelopes 7 positioned within the panels. The panels 33, 34, 35 and 36 are generally equal in height, although it is foreseen that the end panels 32 and 34 may be of generally equal height with only one of the side panels 33 or 35 having an equal height; and that the side panels 33 and 35 may be of generally equal height with only one of the end panes 32 or 34 having an equal height. It is also foreseen that one or more of the individual panels 32, 33, 34 or 35 may include one or more portions having a height less than the height of the remainder of the respective panel. It is intended that the term “equal” as applied to length and height allows for appropriate industry variations sufficient to provide the desired support and stability while being inexpensive to produce.
The panels are folded to form corners defining an upstanding, generally rectangular configuration open at the top and bottom, in which the tray adapters 2 and 3 and each of the panels 32, 33, 34 and 35 have an inner surface 42 (
The end panels 32 and 34 of the tray adapters 2 and 3 are sized to have a length that is less than the width of the bottom wall 10 of the envelope trays 4 and 5 but slightly greater than the length of the envelopes 6. The side panels 33 and 35 of the tray adapters 2 and 3 are sized to have a length that is less than the length of the bottom wall 10 so that the adapter 2 or 3 can be easily received within the tray 4 or 5 and can easily receive an envelope stack 6. The tray adapter panel height is sized to be less than the height of the envelope tray sidewalls 13, 14, 15, and 16, and the end panels 32 and 33 and at least one of the side panels 34 and 35 have a height greater than the height of the envelopes 6, so that the adapter 2 or 3 will stand above the tops 22 of the envelopes 7 to receive and support the bottom wall 10 of a second tray 5 when it is stacked on top of the adapter 2 positioned within the first tray 4.
The tray adapters 2 and 3 may be constructed of a natural fibrous material such as paper or cardboard, which may be corrugated for strength, or they may be formed of a synthetic resin or fiberglass material. Such construction permits the adapters 2 and 3 to be folded flat for storage when they are not in use. However, it is also foreseen that the adapters 2 and 3 could be constructed of wood, metal or any combination of the foregoing materials.
In a method of use, a plurality of postal trays 4 and 5 are obtained by an envelope manufacturer. While only two exemplary trays and adapters are shown and described, the number of trays and adapters actually used will be determined by the number of envelopes 7 to be processed. A plurality of envelope tray adapters 2 and 3 are also obtained. Advantageously, the adapters 2 and 3 are inexpensive, use fewer raw materials than cartons, and they may be stored flat to conserve space. One tray adapter 2 or 3 is positioned within each of the envelope trays 4 and 5.
The adapters 2 and 3 are installed to engage the bottom wall 10 of the tray in generally orthogonal relation, with the adapter panels 32, 33, 34 and 35 being somewhat shorter than the tray side walls 13, 14, 15 and 16. This construction serves to ensure that there is some distance or space between the upper margin of each adapter 2 and 3 and the upper margin of the respective envelope tray 4 and 5. It also provides a generally triangular space or gap between the outer surfaces 43 of the orthogonal adapter panels and the outwardly extending side walls, which enables a user to reach into each of the trays 4 and 5 and comfortably position the adapters 2 and 3 within the respective envelope trays 4 and 5 without pinched fingers.
A user removes a stack of newly manufactured envelopes 7 from the exit tray or table of an envelope machine (not shown), compressing them to form a stack that is slightly curved on top for ease of handling. The user next positions the compressed horizontal stack 6 of envelopes 7 within each of the adapters 2 and 3 with the envelope bottoms 23 engaging the upper surface of the bottom wall 10 of a tray 4 and 5. The envelope stack 6 is laterally laterally supported in a compressed condition by the adapter panels 32, 33, 34 and 35 while the adhesive dries.
The user next stacks the postal trays 4 and 5 with the bottom wall 10 of the upper tray 5 engaging the lower adapter 2 in its respective lower tray 4. In this manner the upper tray 5 is supported on top of the lower adapter 2 and the tray 5 is maintained out of crushing engagement with the envelopes 7 in the lower tray 4. The trays 4 and 5 may be stacked in a column configuration as depicted in
When the envelopes 7 so packaged are delivered to the inserter firm, they are easily removed from the adapters 2 and 3 and placed into inserter machines (not shown) for stuffing the envelopes with preselected contents. The adapters 2 and 3 require less space than cartons in the are of the inserter machines and they may be returned to the envelope manufacturer for reuse. In some cases, depending on the expense of the adapters 2 and 3, the adapters can be disposed of by recycling. Once the envelopes 7 are stuffed, they can again be loaded into the trays 4 and 5 for delivery to a mailing center.
In this manner, the envelope packaging system 1 provides an economical, user friendly system for supporting newly manufactured envelopes 7 and transporting them to an inserter firm and then transporting the stuffed envelopes 7 to a mailing facility in a single postal tray without the need for additional packaging cartons.
It is to be understood that while certain forms of the present invention have been illustrated and described herein, it is not to be limited to the specific forms or arrangement of parts described and shown.
