Envelopes – wrappers – and paperboard boxes – Envelope – Including remailing means
Patent
1996-01-25
1998-01-06
Garbe, Stephen P.
Envelopes, wrappers, and paperboard boxes
Envelope
Including remailing means
229 71, B65D 2706, B65D 2704
Patent
active
057045437
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a letter envelope provided with at least one see-through window, said envelope being suited for use as a sender's envelope and reuse by the receiver as a reply envelope.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Today, such activities as direct marketing frequently employ envelopes containing a reply envelope with prepaid postage. The reply envelope is ready-printed with the receiver's name and address information complemented with the contract number under which the reply receiver is committed to pay the postal authorities for the postage of the reply letters. The reply letter may also have pre-printed ruling for the writing of reply sender information. According to a more advanced embodiment, the reply sender name and address information is preprinted on the reply letter, which is thereafter folded and inserted into the reply envelope so that said information remains visible through a transparent window provided at the upper left corner of the reply envelope.
The prior-art arrangements of including a separate reply envelope are material-wasting. Given the great number of letter mailings containing a reply envelope, significant economical values are incurred by the mailings performed by direct-marketing firms and different officials.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,558,040 (Krueger) granted in Jan. 26, 1971, and the corresponding Reexamination Certificate published in Nov. 8, 1983, disclose a solution to the above-described problem of material waste based on using the original letter envelope sent by, e.g., the direct-marketing company or an official also as the reply envelope. In this embodiment the letter envelope is provided with a detachable seal part and that side of the envelope opposite to the detachable seal part has an extra flap wrapped to the inside of the envelope. When the receiver wishes to send his/her answer in such an envelope, he/she tears off the seal part, unfolds the extra flap wrapped to the inside of the envelope and then folds the flap over the original sender/receiver address information window. Said flap has the reply receiver name ready-printed on it. The flap may also have ready-printed ruling for marking the reply sender information and a notice of prepaid reply postage by the reply receiver.
In regard to material consumption, such an arrangement is more economical than the use of a separate reply envelope, whilst also in this embodiment some extra material consumption in the manufacture of the envelope is caused by the use of said extra flap in comparison to a conventional envelope. Moreover, such an embodiment is complicated and the risk of cutting a finger on the sharp edge of the envelope is present during the unfolding of the flap from the inside of the envelope.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to achieve a significant improvement over the above-described problems by virtue of a letter envelope characterized in having at least one window which is partially covered by a detachable flap carrying any postal marking during the use of the envelope as a sender's envelope and is freed from the cover flap during the use of the envelope as the reply envelope. Material consumption in the manufacture of the envelope according to the invention is identical to that of a conventional envelope, and the receiver can convert the envelope into a reply envelope through a very simple operation of tearing off the detachable, window-enlarging flap from the envelope. As the reply letter, order form or other reply card submitted with the sent material is reinserted in the envelope, the preprinted reply receiver address information, as well as contract number of reply postage prepayment and other similar information will all fit into the enlarged window. By contrast, the standard-size window of a conventional envelope cannot show more than the reply receiver name and address information.
When a direct-marketing letter or similar message is sent to a customer, the address window is cropped to normal size thus displaying only that p
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patent: 3558040 (1971-01-01), Krueger
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