Patent Application
20050064434
The present invention relates generally to stationery products, and, more specifically, to die cut sheets.
Stationery products are typically manufactured in large quantities from a large roll of suitable material defining a web. The web is transported along a running axis for producing therein individual sheets for the desired product. The different types of sheets are innumerable and vary in material composition, configuration, and size as desired for a particular application.
Typical sheets are rectangular and may include continuous diecuts, lines of perforations, micro-perforations, fold lines, and printing thereon as desired. The sheets may be single ply without a liner, or may be double ply with a liner. The liner is typically a silicone release liner which protects pressure sensitive adhesive on the back side of the face ply. The face ply is typically diecut to form individual pressure sensitive labels which are ubiquitous in the stationery industry.
Single ply sheets include the ubiquitous printing paper manufactured in various sizes for various uses. Printing paper may have various configurations for specialty applications for various commercial or consumer applications.
In one commercial application a single sheet includes diecuts extending therethrough, and therefore a stack of such diecut sheets includes identical diecuts aligned together throughout the entire stack. Since the diecuts extend through the individual sheets they necessarily provide a continuous cut through the stack of sheets. Since the diecut line is a local interruption in the otherwise smooth and continuous surface of the sheet, the stacked diecuts may snag or lock together leading to difficulties in sheet feeding.
For example, a stack of sheets is typically loaded into the storage tray of a printer, and the printer includes a pick up mechanism, such as friction rollers, which remove individual sheets from the stack in turn. If the diecut in one sheet snags the diecut in the next sheet during the feeding process in the printer, the feeding mechanism may not be able to separate one sheet interlocked with the next sheet by the aligned diecuts, or may separate the sheets but may cause undesirable skewing of the initially snagged sheet being fed.
The misfeeding of sheets in printers or copiers is a common problem known to all, and typically occurs due to friction between the stacked sheets rendered worse under high humidity conditions. Sheet feeding mechanisms are available in various configurations and complexity for feeding individual sheets and avoiding multiple sheet feeding in the printer or copier. Although successive sheets may be separated during the feeding process, excess friction therebetween may nevertheless cause undesirable misfeeding or skewing of the sheets through the printing feed path.
Sheets having diecuts extending completely therethrough increase the possibility of undesirable interlocking between the sheets formed in a stack or vertical lamination thereof. The possible interlocking effects of the diecuts depends on the configuration, size, and location thereof in the individual sheets which may cause interlocking or snagging during the feeding process in a printer.
In one exemplary configuration, a hotel folio comprises a single ply rectangular sheet of heavy paper containing therein a diecut band through which a magnetic room key card may be inserted and retained in a cooperating tab formed by a semicircular diecut. The folios are provided to the hotel in a stack thereof which typically includes preprinted information thereon regarding the hotel and its services, and may also be post-printed at the time of reception for adding additional information thereto.
Since the card key receptacle is defined by multiple diecuts, the multiple diecuts increase the possibility of interlocking of the sheets in the printer, which in turn increases the possibility of misfeeding or skewing of the sheets during the check-in procedure. Such misfeed of folio sheets is undesirable because it delays the check-in process and is inconvenient.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide an improved stack of sheets reducing or eliminating the possibility of interlocking of the diecuts therein.
A stack of alternating sheets includes repeating diecuts offset among the sheets. The sheets may be made from a continuous web using a die to cut the repeating diecuts along the running axis of the web. Individual sheets are cut from the web and stacked with the diecuts offset from each other in turn. The stack of sheets may be loaded into a printer and fed individually therethrough, with the offset diecuts preventing interlocking therebetween.
The invention, in accordance with preferred and exemplary embodiments, together with further objects and advantages thereof, is more particularly described in the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
Illustrated in
The printer is suitably joined to a conventional computer (not shown) which controls the printing thereof, and the printer is configured for feeding individual sheets through the printer from the stack stored in the drawer thereof. Any desired print 14 may be printed on the individual sheets fed through the printer in a conventional manner.
The stack of sheets illustrated in
A roller die 18 is mounted on one side of the web and cooperates with a roller anvil 20 mounted on the opposite side of the web for die cutting the web 10w to form therein the repeating diecuts 16 along the longitudinal or running axis of the web being unwound from the roll. The roller die 18 is conventional except for the specific placement of the cutting edges or knives 24 thereon for effecting the offset of the corresponding diecuts 16 in turn as the die rolls along with the longitudinal transport of the continuous web 10w.
The apparatus illustrated in
The individual sheets are suitably cut from the common web in a conventional manner and stacked in corresponding groups typically including hundreds of alternating sheets having the offset diecuts therein. For example, a typical stack of sheets for commercial application may include a box of about 2,000 or 2,500 sheets for subsequent use by the intended customer.
The difference between the two offsets A,B may be about 6 mm, for example, but may be larger or smaller as desired, with the minimum difference between the two offsets being the minimum practical value for preventing alignment of the repeating diecuts which could cause interlocking therebetween. The minimum difference in offsets A-B between the repeating diecuts is a function of the positional accuracy of the forming the diecuts in the traveling web 10w using the rotating die 18, and the configuration and orientation of the repeating diecuts.
The typical supply roll 10r illustrated in
In this way, three slit webs may be produced from the common larger web, followed in turn by conventional cutting of the sheets from the three slit webs. The individual flat sheets 10a, b formed from the slitting and cutting operations are then suitably stacked in one or more groups, such as the three groups illustrated in
The basic production of cut sheets with diecuts therein is conventional whether made from a single small web or from a larger web slit into two or more smaller webs. The conventional roller die includes cutting edges for the desired diecuts which produces identical diecuts in identical cut sheets both along the running axis of the web as well as transversely across the web for maximizing the production of the sheets in the manufacturing process.
Similarly, the cut sheets 10a, b illustrated in
In the enlarged view of
The diecuts 16 may be singular in each sheet, or may be multiple as illustrated in the exemplary embodiment of
In
As shown in
In this way, for the two-configuration design of the sheets 10a,b, the two offsets A,B repeat in successive sheets and alternate in turn. If desired, three or more different offsets could be used instead of the two different offsets A,B and repeat in any suitable manner throughout the stack of sheets.
In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in
As illustrated in most detail in
In the exemplary embodiment illustrated in
This configuration of the sheets 10a,b defines an exemplary hotel folio as illustrated in
In this configuration of the folio sheets 10a,b illustrated in
The individual folio sheets may therefore be individually transported through the printer without interlocking of the stacked diecuts, and accurately printed thereon in a single pass. The so printed sheet 10a is then suitably folded by hand, for example, in three overlapping pages 32,34,36, with the diecuts 16 being disposed in the center page between the front and back pages.
As indicated above,
Straight diecuts could also be offset along their longitudinal axes, but this would require an offset as least as large as the length of the individual diecut to avoid any overlap therebetween. This may be acceptable in some configurations, or the longitudinal offset may be smaller and permit some overlap or alignment of the straight diecuts.
The straight diecuts could also be offset by rotation from sheet to sheet, and therefore aligned with each other at a single crossing point. This offset may be acceptable in certain configurations, but might be more visible to the user and aesthetically undesirable.
In contrast, the semicircular arcuate diecut 16a illustrated in
Since the ubiquitous continuous diecut is found in arcuate or straight forms in various cut sheet products, such diecuts may be conveniently laterally offset from each other in any suitable manner from sheet to sheet in the corresponding stack thereof for preventing diecut interlock. The amount of offset may vary as desired and may be translation only, rotary only, or a combination of both as desired for the particular configuration of the diecuts and intended product.
In the exemplary hotel folio cut sheets illustrated in
The offset diecut in the stack of sheets may be used wherever desired for eliminating or reducing the possibility of sheet interlocking from aligned diecuts, and therefore has innumerable applications.
While there have been described herein what are considered to be preferred and exemplary embodiments of the present invention, other modifications of the invention shall be apparent to those skilled in the art from the teachings herein, and it is, therefore, desired to be secured in the appended claims all such modifications as fall within the true spirit and scope of the invention.
Accordingly, what is desired to be secured by Letters Patent of the United States is the invention as defined and differentiated in the following claims in which I claim:
