TWO-DIMENSIONAL DEVELOPMENT, IN PARTICULAR CREDIT

CARDS, TICKETS, DISCOUNT COUPONS, ADVERTISING LEAFLETS, AND THE LIKE

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The present invention relates to the sector of design and manufacture of paper and cardboard products and in particular regards a postal packet designed to contain one or more objects with two-dimensional development, in particular at least one ticket such as a railway ticket, an air ticket, or a ticket for entrance or invitation to shows, musical or sporting events, advertising leaflets, but also a credit card, or an electronic access key. By way of example, in what follows reference will be made to just one ticket or leaflet .

The main task of the present invention is to provide a packet designed to contain and conceal one or more objects with two-dimensional development, in particular at least a ticket or an advertising leaflet or information leaflet, preventing this from possibly coming out of the packet, unless the packet itself has evidently been tampered with.

Advantageously, the postal packet is a purposely designed packet simple to produce.

The above has been obtained by envisaging creation of the postal packet starting from a sheet that is preferably, but not exclusively, rectangular, is folded at the centre so as to define a front leaf, which is folded like a book on a rear leaf and is glued onto the inner face of the latter along the four peripheral edges so as to provide a sort of frame, which is more or less large, around an area that is not glued and defines a housing, in which, before completing gluing, it is possible to introduce a two-dimensional object, such as a ticket or an advertising leaflet, which is then accessible to the user thanks to a pre-determined tear- open line, on the front face of the packet, that enables the covering portion, which may not necessarily have a rectangular format, to be raised using a purposely provided lateral gripping tab. Advantageously, also the area of the rear leaf that does not undergo gluing, which has the same format, is available for printing advertising wordings or illustrative or explanatory texts regarding the item inserted in the packet.

The space for the name and address of the addressee, as well as for stamping, is provided on the rear face of the packet.

With this arrangement, the ticket can be taken out merely by tearing, pulling on the tab, the part of the front sheet that covers the housing along the tear-open line provided and raising the flap of the covering top leaf. Obviously, this renders evident any possible tampering of the packet by ill-intentioned persons.

A better understanding of the invention will be obtained from the ensuing detailed description, with reference to the attached drawings, which illustrate, merely by way of example, two preferred embodiments.

In the drawings :

Figure 1 is a perspective view that shows the inner face of the two leaves into which the original sheet from which the packet forming the subject of the invention is obtained is folded;

Figure 2 is a front view of the postal packet forming the subject of the invention, in the closed configuration, ready for delivery;

Figure 3 is a rear view of the packet of Figure 2;

Figure 4 shows the postal packet of Figure 2, after the non-glued front part has been torn open and it has started to be raised along the folding line, enabling extraction of an item that has been inserted;

Figure 5 shows a variant of the postal packet of

Figure 2 where the item inserted is constituted, merely by way of example, by a three-leaf brochure; and

Figure 6 shows folding of the three-leaf item of Figure 5.

The ensuing description refers, merely by way of illustration, to a ticket, but it is evident that it can be applied without any modifications also to other objects with two-dimensional development, such as for example credit cards, tickets, or leaflets and brochures.

With particular reference to Figures 1 to 3, the postal packet forming the subject of the invention is made up of a sheet of a substantially rectangular shape that is preferably divided in two parts set side by side, i.e., a front part or leaf 2 designed to be folded like a book on the rear part or leaf 4 so that it can be set on top of the latter in order to cover it completely .

Once the front leaf 2 has been set on top of the rear leaf, it has to be glued, with its inner face on the rear leaf along its four edges A, B, C, and D with more or less wide stretches that may differ according to the sides. For this purpose, these stretches are rendered adhesive by means of glues or the like, as highlighted in Figure 1 by the dotted area. A non- adhesive area 8 that defines a housing where a ticket 10 or a leaflet 12 can be inserted before gluing remains free. The same non-adhesive area may be used for carrying wordings or printed information.

Once the ticket or the leaflet has been introduced into this housing, the part of the sheet 2 without adhesive comes to constitute the top closing 2a of said housing, and what is inserted therein cannot be taken out except by removing said closing, as may be seen in Figure 2.

For this purpose, according to the invention illustrated, along three sides of said closing a pre ^¬ set tear-open line L is provided that enables the top closing 2a to be raised by tearing so as to remove the contents easily. The operation is facilitated by the fact that the part of the sheet without adhesive 2a has on the short side opposite to the one in which the tear-open line is not provided, a gripping tab 14, the outline of which follows the perforation line L on the same side.

It should be noted that the housing and the ticket or item inserted therein may in any case have formats different from the rectangular one, such as for example a circular or elliptical format, and may even assume fancy shapes, reproducing, for example, the profile of a flower, an animal, or a particular outline by appropriately shaping the pre-set tear-open line L that delimits the top closing 2a.

As may be seen in Figure 2, the ticket that the sender wishes to send is completely enclosed within the packet, and in view there are only the face of the top part 2 folded like a book with space dedicated to advertising information, and the rear part with a space 16 provided for the address of the addressee and an ample space for stamping.

A first advantage is represented by the fact that the fold of the top part 2 on the rear one 4 and subsequent gluing creates an envelope for the ticket contained therein, without any danger of the ticket possibly coming out of the packet accidentally or anybody managing to extract the ticket from the packet without tampering with it in an altogether evident way.

It is evident that the only way of taking out the ticket contained in the packet is to detach the tab 14, tear along the pre-set tear-open contour lines L the flap 2a of the leaf 2 covering the internal housing, and raise said flap 2a, which renders evident any attempt at tampering with the packet.

In a second embodiment of the invention (illustrated in Figure 4), it is envisaged that also the leaflet inserted 12 is glued with the back of its central part on the sheet 4 once it has been positioned within the housing 8. In this case, once the top closing 2a is opened, the leaflet may be opened completely, however remaining fixed to the back of the packet .