Patent Application
20120261461
1. Field of the Disclosure
This invention relates to envelope construction, and more particularly, to a multi-up envelope construction arrangement useful for receiving images from digital printing machines without transfer deletion occurring.
2. Description of Related Art
The ability to print variable data with digital printers has enticed customers to use that capability to print a series of addresses on envelopes and use the envelopes as tools for messaging and target selling. However, business envelopes have been difficult to run in digital printers for a variety of reasons; such as, jamming, wrinkling, issues with adhesives setting up due to moisture (fuser oil) and/or heat and pressure from the fusing process. The typical design of most of these envelopes adds a multi-ply layer seam within the body of the envelope, which consequently creates a transfer deletion on the address portion of the face of the envelope when imaged through a printer. For machines sensitive to a limited loading stack it becomes an inefficient way to use the printer with limited confidence of successful output. There are designs that account for some of the problems and seasoned operators can alleviate others, but productive and efficient run lengths are not to be expected, particularly with production scaled equipment.
Typical prior art envelopes in use are of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 914,274; 3,666,926; and 4,004,728, which either disclose envelopes having three or more overlapped layers, such as, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,627,195 and 4,004,728, or are of two layer materials, but are not suited or configured to be utilized with copier sheet feeding operations, such as, the envelopes disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 914,274 and 3,666,926. Envelopes which have portions of three or more overlapped layers of material are affected when passing through the toner image fixing apparatus of the type having a heated roller and a back up pressure roller. In this type of fixing apparatus, the rollers are spaced apart to handle a predetermined range of paper thicknesses in order to insure quality fixing. While two thicknesses of sheets may sometimes be tolerated, three thicknesses have, in practice, resulted in deterioration in quality, smudging of toner images, and physical damage, such as, wrinkling on those portions of the envelope whereat three layers of paper are present.
Thus, there is still a need for an envelope configuration that will feed through a high speed printer without wrinkling or experiencing image transfer deletion.
Accordingly, in answer to this need, provided hereinafter is a multi-up envelope configuration that is applicable over a wide range of sizes and capabilities. In one embodiment, a business envelope (#10) is used in a 21″×10⅛″ sheet size, which fits into an extra large tray size of a printer. Essentially, two sheets of 20# paper of 21″×10⅛″ sheet size are laminated together using pattern printed adhesive and silicon sites to create a sheet of multi-up #10 envelopes. Each envelope is surrounded by a perforation in the sheet and that can be trimmed after printing. Edges are square folded to eliminate the multi-ply design that causes image deletions. There are 3 kiss slits at the bottom of each envelope to allow air escape and prevent wrinkling in the printer. Flaps for each of the envelopes are included in the sheet which can be folded over and sealed by the customer using a peel and seal adhesive strip, which keeps the strip moisture free and the flap opened to eliminate issues of sealing in the printer.
Various of the above-mentioned and further features and advantages will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the specific apparatus and its operation or methods described in the example(s) below, and the claims. Thus, they will be better understood from this description of these specific embodiment(s), including the drawing figures (which are approximately to scale) wherein:
While the disclosure will be described hereinafter in connection with a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that limiting the disclosure to that embodiment is not intended. On the contrary, it is intended to cover all alternatives, modifications and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the disclosure as defined by the appended claims.
The disclosure will now be described by reference to a preferred embodiment that includes a method for making multiple two-ply envelopes from a sandwich of two sheets of paper.
For a general understanding of the features of the disclosure, reference is made to the drawings. In the drawings, like reference numerals have been used throughout to identify identical elements.
Referring now to
An adhesive 18 is included in predetermined areas of bottom sheet 12 for adhering portions of the bottom sheet together with portions of top sheet 17 shown in
Alternatively, and because the disclosed method for creating envelopes is a multi-up sequence, it is not limited to the disclosed configuration of four-up, and can be reduced down to a 10.125 inch×10.5 inch two-up, or expanded to a full roll capability for continuous feed devices, if desired.
An advantage of the heretofore described method of creating multi-up, multi-ply envelopes is in facilitating customization options for customers and thereby giving the customers the ability to print high quality variable data with digital printers on a series of envelopes and use the envelopes as a tool for messaging and target selling. In addition, customer productivity is increased with multi-up applications and customer satisfaction is increased with less machine shutdowns and better print quality.
In recapitulation, two sheets of 20# paper of 21″×10⅛″ sheet size are laminated together using pattern printed adhesive and silicon sites to create a sheet of multi-up #10 envelopes. Each envelope is separated by a perforation in the sheet and includes edges that are square folded to eliminate image deletions. Three kiss slits are located at the bottom of each envelope to allow air to escape and prevent wrinkling as they are conveyed through a printer. The flaps for each of the envelopes are included in the sheet which can be folded over and sealed by the customer using a peel and seal adhesive strip, which keeps the strip moisture free and the flap opened to eliminate issues of sealing in the printer.
The claims, as originally presented and as they may be amended, encompass variations, alternatives, modifications, improvements, equivalents, and substantial equivalents of the embodiments and teachings disclosed herein, including those that are presently unforeseen or unappreciated, and that, for example, may arise from applicants/patentees and others. Unless specifically recited in a claim, steps or components of claims should not be implied or imported from the specification or any other claims as to any particular order, number, position, size, shape, angle, color, or material.
