Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes – With severing – removing material from preform mechanically,... – To form particulate product
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-15
2001-09-04
Houtteman, Scott W. (Department: 1656)
Plastic and nonmetallic article shaping or treating: processes
With severing, removing material from preform mechanically,...
To form particulate product
C264S141000, C428S299700
Reexamination Certificate
active
06284177
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a recyclable printable media for sales receipts, particularly to a printable polyethylene media which is compatible with shopping bags in the post-consumer recycling processes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present system of printing sales receipts employs a printable paper media which is printed by a cash register or other business machine using an inkjet, thermal or ribbon printer. The printed receipt is handed to the customer and/or in many cases is placed in the shopping bag with the purchased products. An average cash register tape is 3″ in width and 190′ in length and the roll is approximately 3″ in diameter. Many retail stores place the customer's purchase in a plastic bag and more and more stores are becoming involved with the effort to collect and recycle those bags. A major problem in the recycling of the plastic bag material is the paper receipt left in many of the returned bags.
The industry that recycles the present plastic shopping bags most often shreds them and re-extrudes them into pellets to be used alone or mixed with virgin plastic material to make thick film for disposable trash bags and the like. The paper fiber created by the paper receipts is a continuing problem for the recyclers since it clogs up the screens in the extruder and causes holes to form in the film-making process.
An alternative means for printing receipts is exemplified by the systems for printing receipts at gas stations where a thermal printing process is employed. There is also a need to provide longer rolls of printable material for thermal printers to reduce costs and reduce the frequency that a roll must be changed.
The general concept of employing a thermoplastic material for the fabrication of sales receipts is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,218 (Dobreski). However, as far as applicant is aware, no commercially viable product has been developed using this concept. The reasons for this are that the person of skill in the art must take a significant number of additional steps beyond the teachings of the Dobreski patent in order to arrive at a commercially viable product. For example, the Dobreski patent does not provide sufficient details to select a specific thermoplastic material which is economical, of sufficient strength and which can be reliably fabricated into a printable film. Thus, the present inventors have surprisingly found that a very simple, economical combination can be used in order to provide a commercially viable sales receipt. These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the summary and detailed descriptions which follow.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide an improved printable media for sales receipts which is primarily constructed from a thermoplastic material, typically polyethylene or polypropylene, and is just as recyclable as the plastic shopping bags used at a cash register.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printable media to be used for printing sales receipts to improve the efficiency of the check-out process and enhance the post-consumer recyclability of the plastic bags used by the stores.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a printable media suitable for use in thermal printing processes to improve the efficiency of the thermal printing process and reduce the costs of such printable media. Further objects will appear from the following.
In a first aspect, the present invention relates to a printable media for use in business machines for recording printed data. This printable media is recyclable along with recyclable shopping bags. The printable media comprises a thermoplastic material consisting essentially of polyethylene or polypropylene, an effective amount of a pigment to provide sufficient opacity to said printable media to permit printed data recorded thereon to be readable and a sufficient amount of a matting agent to improve the printability of the printable media. Preferably, the printable media has a thickness of from about 0.5 to about 3.0 mils in order to increase the amount of printable media which can be contained on a roll.
In a second aspect, the present invention relates to a process of printing a sales receipt reflecting the sale of goods to a customer. The improvement of the present process comprises the step of printing a receipt for the sales transaction on a printable recyclable media which comprises a thermoplastic material, an effective amount of a pigment to provide sufficient opacity of said media to permit the printing to be readable and a sufficient amount of a matting agent to improve the printability of the printable media. The thermoplastic material is preferably polyethylene or polypropylene, although any of the polymers identified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,218, the disclosure of which is herein incorporated by reference, as well as other films capable of receiving printing thereon, may be utilized. Again, preferably in this aspect of the invention the printable media has a thickness of from about 0.5 to about 3.0 mils in order to reduce the number of times that the roll of printable media must be changed during a given business cycle.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the detailed description of the preferred embodiments which follows.
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Houtteman Scott W.
Larson & Taylor PLC
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