The present invention relates to an element for producing a binding cover for binding a bundle of leaves and a method therefor that makes use of such an element.

More specifically the invention relates to an element intended for producing a binding cover consisting of a U- shaped spine and two cover sheets for binding a bundle of leaves, such as leaves with photographs to form a photograph album or leaves to form a personalised book, or one produced in a very limited edition.

Such an element is already known in Belgian patent No. 1.020.200 in the form of a semi-finished product from which a binding cover can be produced, whereby this element is essentially flat and is essentially formed by a support that is formed by two flat sheets that will form the cover sheets, and between which there is a central flat strip, from which the spine will later be formed, and which are connected together by means of a covering that is affixed over or around these sheets and strip.

The support is provided on the outside with a layer of hotmelt adhesive that extends on the outer surface of the support over one flat side of the support to a few millimetres from the edge of the support.

These elements enable professional-looking binding covers to be made in a relatively simple way with a decorative finishing covering selected, for example, from a stack of coverings of a diverse nature, for example with regard to material, texture, printing and similar, or which can be personalised.

To this end a desired finishing covering is selected whose dimensions are equal to the dimensions of the layer of hotmelt adhesive. This finishing covering is bonded to the element, by means of heat that melts the hotmelt adhesive, after which it is all allowed to cool in order to let the hotmelt adhesive solidify again.

Then by shaping the aforementioned central strip of the element, a U-shaped spine can be formed in which a bundle of leaves can be bound.

Because they are essentially flat, such elements are easy to store in stacks without taking up a lot of space.

However, they have the disadvantage that the shaping of the spine requires a relatively expensive and heavy machine, with, a stamp that moves with a high force that brings about an intrinsic safety risk.

The good formation of the spine also requires a certain level of skill and experience.

Also when forming the spine the finishing covering can be damaged . The purpose of the invention is thus to provide a solution to least one of the aforementioned and other disadvantages.

To this end the invention concerns an element for producing a binding cover provided with a finishing covering for binding a bundle of leaves, whereby the element comprises two cover sheets, each with an inside and an outside, whereby at least one cover sheet is provided on its outside with a layer of hotmelt adhesive to subsequently affix a finishing covering thereon, whereby the element comprises a spine part to which both cover sheets are fastened, whereby the spine part is a spine part with two arms for enclosing an edge of the bundle, whereby each of the cover sheets is fastened to a separate arm.

Hereby the outside means the absolute outside. In other words, this means that the surface oriented towards the outside of one cover sheet or both cover sheets is formed by the layer of hotmelt adhesive, or in other words that the layer of hotmelt adhesive is not covered on the outside with another layer.

The inside is hereby defined as the side where the bundle must be subsequently affixed, thus the side of the spine part and the cover sheets where the spine part is concave, and. the outside as the other side, which will later define the outer surface of a bound bundle.

A layer of. hotmelt adhesive for subsequently affixing a finishing covering is a layer of hotmelt adhesive that is not yet covered by and bonded to a finishing covering, but which still has a free surface, whether or not covered by a protective film, that can be used for bonding such a finishing covering.

Such an element does, not need to be shaped to form a spine in which a bundle can be bound and is thus much easier to use than a traditional element.

A further advantage is that a machine is not required to perform the shaping at the location of the user, so that the costs of such a machine are saved.

A further advantage consists of there being no risk of damage to a finishing covering during the use of the element .

If the spine part is provided on its inside with a layer of hotmelt adhesive to bind the bundle, the affixing of the finishing covering, at least at the location of the spine part, can also be done at the same time as the binding, so that fewer actions are required to bring about a finished product: a bound bundle of leaves.

In a preferred embodiment, at least one cover sheet is fastened in a hinged way to the spine part, whereby more preferably this is brought about by the cover sheet or cover sheets being fastened to the spine part by means of a hinge that is formed by a flexible covering that forms part of the cover sheet and the spine part. In a further preferred embodiment a continuous layer of hotmelt adhesive is provided on the outside over both cover sheets and the spine part so that an uninterrupted bonded finishing covering can be affixed over the said parts.

In an alternative preferred embodiment one of the cover sheets, or both cover sheets, are provided with a layer of hotmelt adhesive that extends no further than the cover sheet concerned, thus not over the spine part.

The invention also concerns a method for producing a binding cover for binding a bundle of leaves, whereby an element is used that comprises two cover sheets, each with an inside and an outside, and that comprises a spine part to which both cover sheets are fastened, whereby at least one cover sheet is provided on its outside with a layer of hotmelt adhesive, whereby the method comprises the following steps:

Step A: the affixing of a finishing covering to a cover sheet by means of the layer of hotmelt adhesive,

Step B: the forming of a spine part with two arms for enclosing an edge of the bundle,

whereby step A takes place after step B.

With the intention of better showing the characteristics of the invention, a few preferred embodiments of an element according to the invention are described hereinafter by way of an example, without any limiting nature, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein: Figure 1 schematically shows a perspective view of a practical embodiment of an element according to the invention for forming a binding cover;

figure 2 schematically shows a perspective view of the element. of figures 1 and 2 from another angle;

figure 3 shows a cross-section of the element of figure 1 according to line III-III on a larger scale; figures 4 and 5 schematically show steps of the method according to the invention, making use of an element according to figure 1;

figure 6 shows a first alternative embodiment of an element according to the invention, in a presentation as in figure 1; and

figure 7 shows a second alternative embodiment of an element according to the invention, in a presentation as in figure 3.

The element 1 according to the invention shown in figures 1 to 3 for forming a binding cover is a semi-finished product that essentially consists of a spine part 2 and two rigid cover sheets 3.

The spine part 2, that is so called because it will later form the spine of the binding cover when a binding cover is produced from the element 1, is essentially formed by a U profile 4 with two parallel arms 5, that is provided with a covering 6 on both the inside 7 and the outside 8. The inside 7 of the spine part 2 is hereby the side between two arms 5. This is the side that lies on the top in figures 1 and 3. The outside 8 is the other side of the spine part. The covering 6 can be made from many materials such as paper, cardboard and plastic film. However, the preference is to provide a covering 6 of white, black or coloured paper, preferably paper with a density of 90 grams/m ² . In this example but not necessarily, the covering 6 is made of the same material on the inside 7 and the outside 8.

It is of course possible that the covering 6 is made of several parts and/or several layers.

The cover sheets 3 are each essentially formed by a flat cardboard sheet 9, that is provided with the same covering 6 as the spine part. Each cover sheet 9 is connected to a separate arm 6 of the spine part, by the covering 6 on the cardboard sheets 9 and on the U profile 4 being made of one part.

The covering 6 hereby forms a hinge 10 between the cover sheets 3 and the spine part 2. The side of the cover sheets 3 that connects to the inside 7 of the spine part 2 is also called the inside, and the side of the cover sheets 3 that connects, to the outside 8 of the spine part 2 is analogously called the outside 8.

In this example, but not necessarily, the U profile is made of metal.. The sheets 9 can also be made of other materials than cardboard.

The covering 6 is provided on the outside 8 with a layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 with a free surface, thus a surface that is not yet covered by a further finishing layer, although it is indeed possible for a temporary protective layer to be affixed to this in order to protect the layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 against fouling.

The layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 covers the entire outside 8 of the element 1, except for a zone of a width, in this example, of 4 mm from the edge 13 of the cover sheets 3, and forms a continuous layer over the spine part 2 and both cover sheets 3.

The spine part 3 is provided on its inside with an adhesive layer 14, in this example also a hotmelt adhesive, for the subsequent fastening of a bundle of leaves.

The production of a binding cover by means of an aforementioned element 1 is very simple and is illustrated on the basis of figures 3 to 5.

In a first step a desired element 1 and suitable finishing covering 15 are chosen from a stock by the user.

The user can choose this finishing covering 15 according to desire and it is clear that many materials, such as paper or cardboard, are suitable for this. This finishing covering 15 can already be preprinted, or if desired can be provided with printing on location. It goes without saying that other materials such as leather, linen, plastic or similar can also be used as a finishing covering 15.

The finishing covering 15 has dimensions that are essentially equal to the dimensions of the layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 on the outside 8 of the element 1, all such that the finishing covering 15 can completely cover the layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 and the finishing covering 15 also extends up to a distance of 4 millimetres from the edge 13 of the support.

The finishing covering is then placed with the unprinted side covering and opposite to the layer of hotmelt adhesive 7. This is shown in figure 3.

Now the spine part 2 is heated, for example by providing a device with a slot with a heated base and heated walls, and placing the spine part 2 together with the finishing covering 15 in the said slot, until the layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 on the spine part 2 has heated sufficiently to melt, after which the spine part 2 with the finishing covering 15 is again taken out of the slot in order to cool down and solidify, so that the finishing covering 15 is bonded to the spine part 2.

Then the finishing covering 15 is placed neatly over the outside 8 of the cover sheets 3, with the element 1 in the closed position. The set is placed between two heated plates, with the simultaneous application of some pressure, so that the layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 at the location of the cover sheets 3 melts and the finishing covering 15 is bonded, after cooling again, over practically the entire outside 8 of the element, and the binding cover 16 is ready for use for binding a bundle of leaves. It can be useful here to place a spacer between the two cover sheets 3 in order to keep them parallel to one another .

This situation is shown in figure 5, whereby the binding cover 16 is shown in a position in which it is opened again.

A bundle of leaves is bound in the binding cover 16 by placing an edge of the bundle between the arms of the spine part 2, and again heating the spine part, for example in the aforementioned slot, whereby the adhesive layer 14 melts followed by cooling down.

It is possible, depending on the thickness of the bundle of leaves that has to be bound, to affix the finishing covering 15 to the spine part 2 and to simultaneously bind the bundle in the spine part 2. When affixing the finishing covering 15 to the cover sheets 3 a spacer is then not required, because the bundle ensures that the cover sheets 3 are sufficiently parallel.

Of course the finishing coverings can also be affixed to the inside 7 of the cover sheets 3. This can be done with any type of adhesive, thus also hotmelt adhesive. This adhesive can, according to desire, first be affixed on the finishing covering, or first affixed on the element 1.

An embodiment of the element according to the invention, whereby this last-mentioned is the case, in the form of a separate layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 on the inside 7 of each cover sheet 3, is shown in figure 6, which for the rest has the same characteristics as the embodiment of figure 1 described above.

The alternative embodiment of the element 1 of figure 7 differs from the embodiment of figure 1 by two separate zones being provided with a layer of hotmelt adhesive 11 on the outside 8 of the element, i.e. one on each cover sheet. Hereby the spine part 2 is not provided with a layer of hotmelt adhesive on its outside 8.

This embodiment of an element 1 according to the invention is eminently suitable when a binding cover 16 with a decorative finishing covering 15 on the spine part 2 is not desirable, or when the provided finishing coverings 2 have rather a small area so that they cannot cover the entire outside 8 without interruption.

It goes without saying that it is also possible for only one of the two cover sheets to be provided with a layer of hotmelt adhesive, together with the spine or otherwise.

For completeness it is noted that the drawings only show the , various embodiments schematically. The proportions between the different components or parts, primarily the thicknesses, have been drawn out of proportion, and this only for the purpose of being able to better illustrate the invention on the basis of the drawings.

The present invention is by no means limited to the variants described as an example and shown in the drawings, but an element for producing a binding cover and a method applied therewith can be realised in all kinds ^' of variants, without departing from the scope of the invention.