Printed media transverse binder

Details Printed media transverse binder Printed media transverse binder

2000-05-23

2003-01-07

Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)

Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture

Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor

With printing

C156S182000, C156S385000, C156S387000, C270S052180, C270S058080, C118S046000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06502614

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to printed media production and in particular binding pages of printed media into bound documents.
CO-PENDING APPLICATIONS
Various methods, systems and apparatus relating to the present invention are disclosed in the following co-pending applications filed by the applicant or assignee of the present invention simultaneously with the present application:
Ser. No. 09/575,197 (NPA001US) Ser. No. 09/575,195 (NPA002US) Ser. No. 09/575,159 (NPA004US)
Ser. No. 09/575,132 (NPA005US) Ser. No. 09/575,123 (NPA006US) Ser. No. 09/575,148 (NPA007US)
Ser. No. 09/575,130 (NPA008US) Ser. No. 09/575,165 (NPA009US) Ser. No. 09/575,153 (NPA010US)
Ser. No. 09/575,118 (NPA012US) Ser. No. 09/575,131 (NPA016US) Ser. No. 09/575,116 (NPA017US)
Ser. No. 09/575,144 (NPA018US) Ser. No. 09/575,139 (NPA019US) Ser. No. 09/575,186 (NPA020US)
Ser. No. 09/575,185 (NPA021US) Ser. No. 09/575,191 (NPA030US) Ser. No. 09/575,145 (NPA035US)
Ser. No. 09/575,192 (NPA048US) Ser. No. 09/575,181 (NPA075US) Ser. No. 09/575,193 (NPB001US)
Ser. No. 09/575,156 (NPB002US) Ser. No. 09/575,183 (NPK002US) Ser. No. 09/575,160 (NPK003US)
Ser. No. 09/575,150 (NPK004US) Ser. No. 09/575,169 (NPK005US) Ser. No. 09/575,184 (NPM001US)
Ser. No. 09/575,128 (NPM002US) Ser. No. 09/575,180 (NPM003US) Ser. No. 09/575,149 (NPM004US)
Ser. No. 09/575,179 (NPN001US) Ser. No. 09/575,187 (NPP001US) Ser. No. 09/575,155 (NPP003US)
Ser. No. 09/575,133 (NPP005US) Ser. No. 09/575,143 (NPP006US) Ser. No. 09/575,196 (NPP007US)
Ser. No. 09/575,198 (NPP008US) Ser. No. 09/575,178 (NPP016US) Ser. No. 09/575,164 (NPP017US)
Ser. No. 09/575,146 (NPP018US) Ser. No. 09/575,174 (NPS001US) Ser. No. 09/575,163 (NPS003US)
Ser. No. 09/575,168 (NPS020US) Ser. No. 09/575,154 (NPT001US) Ser. No. 09/575.129 (NPT002US)
Ser. No. 09/575,124 (NPT003US) Ser. No. 09/575,188 (NPX004US) Ser. No. 09/575,189 (NPX001US)
Ser. No. 09/575,162 (NPX003US) Ser. No. 09/575,172 (NPX008US) Ser. No. 09/575,170 (NPX011US)
Ser. No. 09/575,171 (NPX014US) Ser. No. 09/575,161 (NPX016US) Ser. No. 09/575,141 (IJ52US)
Ser. No. 09/575,125 (IJM52US) Ser. No. 09/575,142 (MJ10US) Ser. No. 09/575,140 (MJ11US)
Ser. No. 09/575,190 (MJ12US) Ser. No. 09/575,138 (MJ13US) Ser. No. 09/575,126 (MJ14US)
Ser. No. 09/575,127 (MJ15US) Ser. No. 09/575,158 (MJ34US) Ser. No. 09/575,117 (MJ47US)
Ser. No. 09/575,147 (MJ58US) Ser. No. 09/575,152 (MJ62US) Ser. No. 09/575,176 (MJ63US)
Ser. No. 09/575,115 (PAK04US) Ser. No. 091575,114 (PAK05US) Ser. No. 09/575,113(PAK06US)
Ser. No. 09/575,112 (PAK07US) Ser. No. 09/515,111 (PAK08US) Ser. No. 09/575,108 (PEC01US)
Ser. No. 09/575,109 (PEC02US)
The disclosure of these co-pending applications are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
With the advent of the Internet has come the opportunity for the print media industry to publish “on-line” rather than producing and distributing traditional paper based publications. On-line publishing has a number of advantages. From the consumer's point of view, information is available on demand, information can be navigated via hypertext links, information can be searched, and information can be automatically personalized. From the publisher's point of view, the costs of printing and physical distribution are eliminated and the publication becomes more attractive to advertisers as it can be targeted to specific demographics and linked to product sites.
On-line publication also has disadvantages. Computer screens are inferior to paper. At the same quality as a magazine page, a SVGA computer screen displays only about a fifth as much information. Both CRT's (Cathode Ray Tubes) and LCD's (Liquid Crystal Displays) have brightness and contrast problems, particularly when ambient light is strong. Ink on paper, being reflective rather than emissive is both bright and sharp in ambient light. Accordingly, people have a natural preference to read newspapers, magazines, catalogues, brochures and other publications in a bound paper based format.
Known digital printers, and in: particular digital inkjet printers, do not make any provision for binding together the pages of printed media. Such an arrangement would conveniently provide for bound document production in the small office/home office (SOHO) environment. This would also permit some of the existing drawbacks of on-line publication to be addressed. However, in the SOHO environment space is often at a premium. Therefore, any provision for automatically binding separate pages into a bound document must not add a significant amount of extra space over that occupied by the printer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to provide means to bind pages of printed media into bound documents suitable for use in conjunction with a digital printer. Accordingly, the present invention provides a binding assembly for use with a digital printer having a support frame for mounting a printhead assembly for printing on pages of media, the binding assembly including:
a binding means mounted to the support frame wherein the binding means is adapted to bind the pages along a line substantially perpendicular to the direction of travel of the page with respect to the support frame.
Preferably, the binding means includes a glue sponge strip extending perpendicularly to the general direction of travel of the page with respect to the support frame. In a further preferred form, retractable fingers periodically extend into the paper path for temporarily stopping the page to allow the glue sponge strip to apply a line of adhesive to the page. In some embodiments of this form of the invention, the retractable fingers retract once the glue strip has applied adhesive to the page such that the page is gravity fed to a binding area where each page is sequentially adhered to the previous page. It is further preferred if the retractable fingers retract once the glue strip has applied adhesive to the page such that the page is gravity fed to a binding area where each page is sequentially adhered to the previous page.
It will be appreciated that the binding means according to this embodiment applies the adhesive directly prior to pressing the adhesive against the previous page. This is more effective than applying adhesive to the rear of each page and sequentially pressing each page to the subsequent page because any interruption in the printing process such as replenishing the paper supply may allow the adhesive applied to the last adhered page to deteriorate and become less effective.
In another preferred form, the glue sponge strip is adapted to receive adhesive from an adhesive supply by capillary action. In accordance with particularly preferred embodiments, the glue sponge strip is retained in a chamber adapted to seal the strip in an environment acceptable for maintaining adhesive performance when the strip is not in use. In these embodiments, a cam shaft is provided to advance the glue strip through a closable aperture in the chamber into engagement with the surface of a page.
In some embodiments, the binding means includes an alignment means to align each page before it is adhered to the previous page. Preferably, the alignment means is a rotating cam positioned to engage the edge of each page and slide them into alignment.
In a particularly preferred embodiment, the printhead is adapted to print the full width of the page simultaneously.
It will be appreciated that a printer according to this aspect of the invention allows rectangular pages of media to move through the printer in a “landscape” orientation wherein the long side of the page is perpendicular to the direction of page travel. As the pages move from a media storage area, such as the paper tray, to the binding area, the overall distance that each page travels is reduced simply because they are in “landscape” orientation as opposed to “portrait” orientation. Consequently, the printer can have a relatively compact design instead of an elongate design, which may be awkward to accommodate, where space is limited. Notwithstanding the compact design, the

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