EP0250124B1 - Sealed documents - Google Patents

Abstract

Sealed documents are provided by placing an area or areas of reusable adhesive (26) on one side of a sheet of paper (10) or the like, and twice folding the document to seal same along one edge, or thrice folding the document along all edges. Multiple plied sheets (10a, 10b and 10c) may be manipulated in like manner.

Description

Background of Invention
• This invention pertains to sealed documents. In particular the invention pertains to sheets constituting a message or other information recording sheet which sheet may be folded and sealed to form a sealed document. It is known to provide a construction of letter paper capable of being folded and sealed to provide a foldable mailer containing a combined message sheet and envelope to enable the foldable mailer to be despatched by post. Such constructions are shown in British Specification no 753 929, US Specifications Nos 3 523 638, and 1 307 421 and German Specification no 67 753.
• It is also known to provide record keeping systems (US Specification No 4 153 277) including a master ledger sheet and a multiple sheet label assembly with adhesive backing and the label assembly includes a flap so that the flap can be secured to the back of the master ledger sheet.
• Also US Specification No 4 576 399 discloses a three panel code sheet with one of the panels having extended edges with adhesive and protective covering strips.
• Also US Specification No 3 143 279 discloses a combined envelope and statement form but the document does not refer to reusable adhesive but the form includes three transverse foldlines for folding the sheet into four substantially equal parts in addition to the fold line adjacent a sealing flap and the adhesive is positioned for securing the four parts.
• It is often desirable to provide a way to provide information on a simple sheet of paper or the like and have a self-contained means to seal the document without having a letter construction including envelope parts. Moreover, it is also desirable to have the sheets readily available, as in the form of a pad of the sheets.
Objects of Invention
• Therefore, it is an object of this invention to provide a sheet, and a pad of sheets, that may be rapidly sealed by self-contained means to be sealed along at least one edge, or along all edges.
• The invention may be best understood by reference to illustrative embodiments, which will be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.
Description of Drawings
• Fig 1 shows one surface of a sheet of material for the invention.
• Fig 2 shows the reverse side of the sheet of Fig 1.
• Fig 3 shows the sheet of Fig 1 after a first fold.
• Fig 4 shows the sheet of Fig 1 after a second fold.
• FIG. 5 shows a sheet prepared for a second embodiment of the invention.
• FIG. 6 shows the sheet of FIG. 5 after a first fold.
• FIG. 7 shows the sheet of FIG. 6 after a second fold.
• _.FIG. 8 shows a set of sheets prepared for still another embodiment of the invention.
• FIG. 9 shows the sheets of FIG. 8 after an initial folding operation.
Detailed Description of Illustrative Embodiments
• In FIG. 1reference character 10 designates a sheet of paper or like material on the surface 12 of which a message or other information may be recorded.Sheet 10 hastop edge 14,bottom edge 16,right side edge 18 andleft side edge 20. Side 12 also hasindicia marks 22 for a purpose described below.
• Theopposite side 24 ofsheet 10 is shown in FIG. 2. A strip of reusable or releasable adhesive 26 (hereafter, "reusable") is provided alongedge 14 ofside 24. Reusable adhesives are well known in the art. Spaces also are provided for "To" and "From" information atpositions 28 and 30 onside 24.
• For purposes of creating a sealed document the user, facing side 12, folds the document along fold line 32 (FIG. 3) which could be perforated to facilitate folding at the proper place. When folded,edge 14 is placed at theindicia marks 22. The user then folds the document along fold line 34 (FIG. 4) at the indicia marks to place the area between the fold line 34 andedge 16 over theadhesive strip 26. Pressing the parts together secures the folded document.
• The document may be opened simply by peeling apart the areas held by the reusable adhesive. A perforation line 35 (FIGS. 1-3) may be located at the inner edge of the adhesive strip at allow the user to remove the adhesive or fold the adhesive strip over to eliminate the exposed adhesive surface. The exposed strip would not be desirable if the document was filed.
• If more security is desired the configuration of reusable adhesive areas shown in FIG. 5 may be used. Hereside 24 ofsheet 10 not only hasstrip 26 but also strips 36, 38, 40 and 42 of reusable adhesive. "To" and "From" spaces also are provided at thelocations 44 and 46.
• In use thesheet 10 of FIG. 5, which has a side 12 like that of FIG. 1, is folded over and secured bystrip 26 of adhesive as was the case in FIGS. 1-4.Adhesive strip 26 is now covered, but the otheradhesive strips 36, 38, 40 and 42 appear as shown in FIG. 6. Now a third fold is accomplished by the user, along a line indicated bychain line 48, to bring the adhesive strips together, and provide the document shown in FIG. 7. In this way the document is sealed slong all four edges. It may be opened by peeling the sealed areas apart.
• Adhesive may exist along all of the edges as shown in FIG. 6 to bring adhesive on two surfaces together for added strength. However, one coat of adhesive will do, in which case only one-half ofstrips 40 and 42 need by used, and only one ofstrips 36 and 38. Indeed, if the manufacturer feels it can save on adhesive and remain competitive, only spots of adhesive are necessary.
• In another embodiment of the invention thesheet 10 may be one of a number of such sheets, with carbon paper (not shown) or carbonless transfer materials between them for making multiple copies of a given message. For example, these could be of the "To/From/Reply" memo format. The sheets would be held together by theadhesive strips 26. A set of three such sheets, here 10a, 10b and 10c, are shown in FIG. 8, already once folded as the single sheet as shown in FIG. 3 has been folded.
• In order to seal the set of sheets (FIG. 8) thebottom edges 16 of sheets 1 Oa and 10b are folded underedges 14 of the three sheets as shown in FIG. 9, leaving theedge 16 of sheet 10c to be folded over to be secured to theadhesive strip 26 of sheet 10c, in the manner shown in FIG. 4.
• The multiple sheet set of FIG. 9 may also be provided with the additional adhesive area (FIGS. 5-7) and again folded, as explained in connection with FIGS. 6 and 7.
• Upon reading the foregoing descriptions of illustrative embodiments many other embodiments will occur to the reader. Therefore, the scope of the invention is to be determined from the appended claims.

Claims (4)

1. A rectangular sheet (10) of foldable information receivable material to serve as a sheet constituting a message or other information record surface (12) having a strip of adhesive (26) along one side of the sheet (10) and an area on the other side of the sheet on which information may be recorded and the sheet (10) being divided into two parts comprising,

a first part including the top edge (14) with the strip of adhesive (26) applied thereto, a second part limited by the bottom edge (16) and a fold line (34) to constitute a fold over flap,

the first part being foldable about a second fold line (32) to close the sheet with the information within the folded sheet,
characterised in that the strip of adhesive (26) is of the reusable adhesive kind and is positioned along the top edge (14) of the sheet (10) and in that indica (22) is placed on the said other side and adjacent the bottom edge (16) of the sheet (10) opposite from the edge bearing the strip of adhesive (26), the indica (22) being placed from the edge (16) of the sheet a distance substantially equal to the width of the strip of adhesive (26) and defining the fold line (22) whereby the second part of the sheet may be folded to place the side beaing the message or other information inside the second fold and the edge (14) at which the adhesive is applied is brought to the indica (22) whereupon the second part of the sheet may be folded over the adhesive to close the folded sheet.

2. A sheet of material as in claim 1 characterised in that a line of perforations (35) is provided along the inner edge of the adhesive strip (26) to facilitate folding over or eliminating the adhesive strip (26) after the folded sheet has been opened.

3. A sheet of material as claimed in claim 1 or 2 characterised in that at least one sheet (10a) is plied on top thereof, whereby the set of sheets (10) may be folded and affixed by folding the margins of the additional sheet (10a) or sheets (10a, 10b, 10c) to underlie the edge (14) of the bottom sheet after the fold, whereby the adhesive strip retains the folded set together.

4. A sheet of material as claimed in claim 1, 2 or 3 characterised in that additional strips of adhesive (36, 38, 40, 42) are provided on said one side of the sheet so placed that after the second fold the sheet may be folded a third time along a fold line (48) at right angles to the first fold line leaving the additional adhesive (36, 38, 40, 42) within the thrice folded sheet so that all four edges of the thusly folded sheet are affixed together.

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