Stock material or miscellaneous articles – Layer or component removable to expose adhesive
Reexamination Certificate
2000-10-06
2004-03-23
Ahmad, Nasser (Department: 1772)
Stock material or miscellaneous articles
Layer or component removable to expose adhesive
C412S003000, C412S004000, C412S005000, C412S008000, C412S900000, C412S901000, C412S902000, C462S057000, C462S072000, C428S041800, C428S041900, C428S042100, C428S192000, C428S194000, C493S374000, C493S379000, C493S382000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06709727
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates rally to the field of bookbinding, and more particularly, to a bookbinding structure and method that may be used with a wrap-around book cover.
2. Description of Related Art
Bookbinding systems utilizing binder strips are well known. Binder strips are used to bind pages together to form a book in which the binder strip forms the spine of the book. Binder strips which use a heat activated adhesives of low and high viscosity are used to bind a stack of sheets using heat and pressure which are applied to the strip and stack using a special purpose binding machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,496,617, the contents of which are hereby fully incorporated herein by reference, describes such a binding strip. The strips include an elongated paper substrate and an adhesive matrix disposed on the substrate. The matrix includes a central adhesive band which is heat activated and which has a relatively low viscosity when activated and a pair of outer adhesive bands. The outer bands are also heat activated, but are of a relatively high viscosity. The central adhesive band functions to secure the edges of the pages to be bound together and to the substrate and the outer bands function to secure the front and back cover pages to the substrate.
Such prior art binder strips are, however, not suitable for some applications due to the appearance of books bound by such strips. The spines of books bound by the conventional binder strips are often devoid of any printed information because the binder strips require specialized equipment for printing on the strip. Moreover, it is sometimes desirable to have a uniform cover having a continuous design from the front cover to the back cover, frequently including the spine. A conventional binder strip cannot provide a bound book having a cover with such a continuous design.
One approach to address the shortcomings of the above-described prior art involves the use of a binder strip having a second adhesive layer which permits the cover to be applied after the binding sequence. As will be explained, this approach permits a printed cover to be applied after the binding sequence so that the cover can be preprinted with heat sensitive inks.
Referring to the drawings,
FIG. 1A
shows one embodiment of a prior art binder strip which permits a cover to be added after the binding sequence is completed.
FIG. 1A
is an exploded perspective view of the various layers of a first embodiment of the prior art bookbinding structure
1
. In the first embodiment, the bookbinding structure
1
includes an elongated substrate
6
having a length which corresponds to the length of the stack of pages (not depicted) to be bound and a width which exceeds the thickness of the stack by at least a minimum amount so that the edges of the substrate
6
will extend around the edge of the stack and slightly over the front and back pages of the stack, as will be described. Substrate
6
is preferably made of a formable material such as heavy weight paper.
A layer of pressure activated adhesive
3
is disposed on one surface of the substrate
6
, with a heat activated adhesive matrix
4
being disposed facing the opposite substrate surface. The pressure activated adhesive
3
is typically a permanently binding adhesive which, once activated by applying pressure, produces a relatively permanent bond. One such pressure activated adhesive is sold under the designation HL-2593 by H. B. Fuller Company of St. Paul, Minn. The Fuller HL-2593 pressure activated adhesive can be subjected briefly to high temperatures, up to about 425 degrees F, without decomposing. The ability of the pressure activated adhesive
3
to withstand high temperatures is important because the bookbinding structure
1
is subjected briefly to high temperatures during the binding process, which will be described in more detail below. The pressure activated adhesive is preferably 0.003 to 0.005 inches thick.
The pressure activated adhesive
3
is covered with a removable release liner
5
, as shown in
FIG. 1A
, to act as a barrier between the pressure activated adhesive
3
and the environment. The release liner
5
is preferably a silicon coated paper, such as made by Akrosil, Inc. of Menasha, Wis. under the designation Silox ® SBL60SC F1U/F4B. The surfaces of the coated paper can have varying release levels, with a low or easy release level indicating that the paper can be separated with little force and a high or tight release level indicating the separation requires a relatively large amount of force. The designation F4B indicates that the release level of the liner surface contacting the pressure sensitive adhesive layer
3
has a medium release level, with the opposite surface of the liner having a low or easy release level as indicated by the designation F
1
U.
The heat activated adhesive matrix
4
is comprised of a center adhesive
4
A which extends along the longitudinal axis of the substrate
6
and a pair of outer adhesive bands
4
B. The center adhesive band
4
A, which is a heat activated adhesive of relatively low viscosity, is the primary adhesive for binding the pages together. The center adhesive
4
A is typically 0.015 inch thick. An adhesive, sold under the designation Cool Bind 34-1301 by National Starch & Chemical Company of Bridgewater, N.J., has been found to be suitable as the center adhesive band
4
A. The center adhesive band
4
A preferably extends over slightly less than the full length of the bookbinding structure
1
so that there are end gaps without the center adhesive
4
A. In addition, the center adhesive band is at least as wide as the thickness of the stack
13
to be bound so that all of the pages of the stack will be exposed to the low viscosity adhesive.
The outer adhesive bands
4
B are comprised of a heat activated adhesive of relatively high viscosity when activated and possesses a high degree of tackiness. The outer adhesive bands
4
B function to attach the substrate
6
to the front and back pages of the stack. The outer adhesive bands
4
B preferably extend along the entire length of substrate
6
and are 0.010 inch thick. An adhesive sold under the designation HB HL-1777 by H. B. Fuller Company of St. Paul, Minn., may be used for the outer adhesive bands
4
B.
The
FIG. 1A
bookbinding structure further includes an undercoat adhesive layer
7
disposed intermediate the adhesive matrix
4
and the substrate
6
. The undercoat adhesive is heat activated and is relatively thin, typically 0.003 inches thick. The undercoat is preferably the same type of adhesive used in the outer adhesive bands
14
B and functions to act as a barrier so as to prevent the low viscosity central adhesive band
4
A from passing through the substrate
6
. In addition, the undercoat adhesive prevents all of the low viscosity adhesive of central band
4
A from being drawn up between the pages of the stack which may leave essentially no adhesive intermediate the edges of the pages and the substrate
6
.
The manner in which the
FIG. 1A
prior art bookbinding structure
1
is applied to the stack
13
and used to bind the stack will be subsequently described. However, once the stack of pages has been bound, the structure
1
and stack
13
appear as shown in FIG.
4
. As can be seen, the structure
1
is positioned on the bound edge of stack
13
. Note that the bound stack
13
does not include a cover at this stage of the sequence, with top of the stack being the first page and the bottom of the stack being the last page. The pressure sensitive adhesive
3
is exposed by manually removing the release liner
5
as shown in the drawing. A cover assembly or book cover
2
is positioned on a flat surface as shown in FIG.
5
. The bound book
13
is then carefully positioned above the cover
2
so that the stack is aligned with the right hand portion of the cover, with the bound edge of the stack being positioned near the center of the cover.
After alignment, the stack
13
is lowered on to the book cover
2
so that the bottom portion of
Ahmad Nasser
Girard & Equitz LLP
Powis Parker Inc.
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