Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Structurally defined web or sheet – Including variation in thickness
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-01
2001-10-02
Loney, Donald J. (Department: 1772)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Structurally defined web or sheet
Including variation in thickness
C428S163000, C428S908000, C369S068000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06296926
ABSTRACT:
This invention relates to an apparatus for manual, mechanical reproduction of short sound information. It further relates to application of the apparatus in print products. The invention finally relates to a method for producing such a sound reproducing apparatus.
It is desirable in many cases to integrate sound information into mass-produced print products such as magazines, packages, books, greeting cards and the like. Providing the sound track gives the print product the additional function of a sound reproducing apparatus. The optical information can thus be supplemented by acoustic information.
Such an apparatus is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,306 (“Book With Talking Pages”). This is a book whose pages have an elongate, relieflike sound track. The sound track is incorporated by embossing into the page which is made of a “stiff material such as paper or plastic.” Scanning the sound track in the longitudinal direction with a special scanning stylus sets the page into audible mechanical oscillations.
The known apparatus involves the difficulty that the stated materials are not equally suitable for producing a sound reproducing apparatus and a print product. Conventional cardboard or paper has a rough surface which does not allow sufficient embossing of the fine sound relief. Scanning causes loud noise that considerably impairs the reproduction quality. Since paper and paperboard are normally not especially stable, the strip furthermore wears out quickly. Certain plastics allow much better embossing of the sound track but are harder to print and therefore rather unsuitable for print media.
A further disadvantage results from the necessity for a special scanning stylus. This is impractical to handle and can easily get lost.
Finally, series production is impeded by the fact that the sound track in the known apparatus is not flat but is pressed through so as to form an elevation on the underside (cf.
FIG. 3
in U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,306). One must therefore always use not only a female mold (provided with the negative of the sound relief) for embossing, but also a male mold. One can accordingly only use machines permitting a male mold. Also, stackability and processing are impaired by reason of the elevation. Finally, the sound relief can also be compressed and thereby damaged by the load of sheets stacked thereabove.
For producing the sound track U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,835 (“Sound Producing Straw”) and U.S. Pat. No. 695,159 (“Apparatus for Reproducing Sound”) disclose embossing using embossing wheels. This method is elaborate and cannot be applied to print media without the construction of special apparatuses.
For providing the sound relief on the embossing wheel U.S. Pat. No. 695,159 (“Apparatus for Reproducing sound”) states engraving as a method. DE 202594 (“Sprechmaschine mit Aufnahmewalze (bzw. Platte) mit schrauben-(bzw. spiral-) förmigen Rippen”) states a method for producing a sound relief wherein a circular saw-like cutting wheel is mounted on a membrane and follows the motions of the membrane. The wheel cuts the relief into a rib moving past the cutting edge.
The known methods have the disadvantage that a special apparatus is necessary for engraving or cutting the relief. Generally, this is uneconomical.
The invention is thus based on the object of providing an apparatus for manual, mechanical reproduction of short sound information, in particular speech, which can be integrated into flat materials by embossing, permits high reproduction quality, has sufficient life, is easy to handle, and can be produced efficiently with usual apparatuses. It is further the object of the invention to find an embossing method for providing sound reliefs in print media using available machines. Finally, it is the object of the invention to find a method for providing a relieflike surface suitable as an embossing die in a simple way and using existing apparatuses.
The object is solved according to the invention by embossing in a multilayer material. Such materials can unite the property of being readily printable with the ability to be precisely contoured by embossing.
If one of the layers is paper, paperboard or cardboard, a further layer is preferably a lacquer layer. It is located on the side facing the sound track. Glossy lacquers are preferred to matt. Besides lacquer layers one can also use coating, foil laminations, and hot foil embossings applied before or with the embossing of the sound track. For the foil coating one particularly uses foils containing polypropylene, PVC as well as polyethylene, acetate, polyester and starch with thicknesses of about 10 microns to a few tens of microns. One can also use metal foils or metal-coated plastic foils. Combinations of several of the stated layers (e.g. a coated and lacquered cardboard material) are likewise part of the invention.
It is surprising that multilayer materials are suitable for simple production of detailed and lasting sound contours. One would have expected for example that the cardboard layer would yield too greatly during embossing or the coating be too hard to permit clean embossing of the contour. Also, one would have assumed that a lacquer layer would destroy the embossing die by lacquer settling in the fine grooves of the contour, or that the lacquer (or plastic, etc.) layer itself would be destroyed during embossing or detached from the cardboard. Amazingly, this is not, or only barely, the case.
The material is preferably multilayered over its whole surface, but it fundamentally suffices if only the area of the sound track is multilayered, e.g. in the form of a simple narrow foil strip or a partial printing with lacquer.
The sound track is executed so as to be sufficiently wide so that it can be scanned conveniently and reliably with the fingernail. This makes a scanning stylus superfluous and facilitates handling. The strip is thus at least about 8 millimeters wide, but preferably about 20 millimeters. The wide strip also increases life since the sound track is not always scanned at the same place.
One can of course also use objects other than the fingernail for scanning. In particular one can use the corner of an angular object for scanning, e.g. the corner of a diskette, a ruler or a card in check-card format (DIN 9752) such as a check card, credit card, telephone card, club card, health insurance card or identification card, or a bookmark. One can also use a calling card, postcard or other card made of stiff paper or cardboard. Objects with strongly convex edges, such as coins, are likewise suitable as scanning objects. A bent piece of wire, such as a paper clip, is also suitable.
Unlike in U.S. Pat. No. 2,997,306 (“Book With Talking Pages,”
FIG. 3
) the sound track is flat on the underside, i.e. not pressed through so as to form an elevation on the underside of the material. This simplifies production since the sound track can be produced without use of a male mold. Processing is likewise facilitated since sheets without an elevation on the back are better stackable and can be processed better in stapling, gluing, packaging and other machines.
One avoids such pressing through by forming the sound relief in such a way that the multilayer material is compressed more in the area of the dales than in the area of the hills. The relief thus arises by compression and not by embossing. For this purpose at least one of the layers must consist of a sufficiently compressible material, preferably a fibrous material such as thick paper, cardboard, paperboard or a textile fabric. The material is compressed more in thickness than the relief is high. Even in the furthest protruding peak of the height profile the material is preferably compressed by at least ⅕ of its thickness. For a satisfactory result one usually requires materials with a total thickness (=over all layers) of at least 300 microns. If the sheets are stacked after embossing, the sound track is protected from being damaged by the load of the sheets thereabove because the total sound track is deeper than the surroundings after compressing. Finally,
Flynn ,Thiel, Boutell & Tanis, P.C.
Loney Donald J.
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