ENVELOPE CONSTRUCTION AND METHOD OF MAKING AND DISPENSING SAME Technical Field The present invention relates in general to an envelope construction and a method of making and dispensing them. More particularly, the present invention relates to an envelope construction which can be fed through a conventional sheet feeder with non- impact printers, and for dispensing from a kiosk or the like. Background Art

For many business documents, standard size business envelopes are used. However, because of the difficulty associated with having such envelopes printed by a non-impact desk top printer, such as laser and ink jet printers, many people are still typing or manually addressing envelopes, even in a business environment. This process is time consuming, and is not consistent with the speed of processing documents in a modern office setting.

Even when feeding a single conventional multifold envelope into a non-impact printer, several difficulties in printing the envelope arise. Usually, the envelope is severely crumpled or puckered, and the envelope may even jam the printer. Moreover, the heat associated with laser printers and the moisture associated with ink jet printers cause undesirable effects on the envelope during the printing process. For example, the gummed envelope can become inadvertently sealed, rendering the printed envelope unusable. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved envelope construction, which could facilitate printing of envelopes using non-impact printers without the

difficulties often times encountered in printing conventional envelopes.

There have been various envelope constructions invented to overcome this problem of wrinkling, puckering and crumpling when passing through a printer. In this regard, reference may be made to U.S. patents 5,377,904, 5,201,464, 4,898,323, 4,878,613, 3,968,927, 4,277,016, 3,823,867 and 4,784,317.

For example, in U.S. patent 4,878,613, a partially constructed envelope is adapted to be fed into a laser printer, which causes the completion of the forming of the envelope as a result of the heat produced by the laser printers. A line of heat activatable adhesive is employed to facilitate this process. After the envelope is formed, a portion of the assembly must be removed, thereby leaving an undesirable uneven, ragged edge. This also takes additional time and creates wasted material. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved envelope construction, which would pass through non-impact printers without being wrinkled, crumpled, puckered, or otherwise damaged.

Even greater difficulties arise when attempting to print numerous stacked-like envelopes using non-impact printers. Due to the thickness of standard envelopes, it is difficult, if not impossible, to feed large quantities seriatim into a printer. When the gummed flap is folded over in order to present a rectangular envelope to a printer, the closed envelope does not have a constant thickness. Thus, a large stack of such envelopes poses the problem of having an uneven and non-uniform configuration. With an uneven stack, it is difficult, if not impossible, to feed properly and consistently a large number of envelopes seriatim through a conventional sheet feeder mechanism. Therefore, it would be highly

desirable to have a new and improved envelope construction, which facilitates the reliable and consistent feeding of large quantities of envelopes without jamming or damaging the envelopes. Another problem with many conventional envelopes, is that a crease is formed where the gummed flap is joined to the body of the envelope. This facilitates closing the envelope. In some envelopes, the crease is formed by scoring the paper. As a result, there is an impression or indentation made in the paper, and when the envelopes are stacked, they tend to nest at the score lines. When nested envelopes are attempted to be fed into a conventional sheet feeder, they do not singularize readily and more than one can be presented inadvertently to the feeder mechanism in an undesirable manner. As a result, jamming of the feeder mechanism can occur. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have an envelope construction, where large quantities of the envelopes can be stacked and fed seriatim through a conventional sheet feeder in a reliable and consistent manner.

The printing of customized documents such as greeting cards, at kiosks has become popular. Members of the public who have access to such kiosks can create personalized documents using computers and printers associated with the kiosks. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new apparatus which dispenses blank or customized envelopes from a kiosk-type structure. At the present time, dispensing envelopes from a kiosk is extremely difficult, if not impossible, mainly due to the fact that standard envelopes cannot be stacked properly for proper presentation to a conventional sheet feeder, due to the difficult problem of stacking conventional envelopes. Any kiosk dedicated to

dispensing envelopes to the public would have to store and feed a very large number of envelopes to keep maintenance and restocking of the kiosk within reasonable and profitable limits. In this regard, 500 or even 1,000 envelopes would be desirable. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved apparatus for dispensing envelopes at a public facility, free-standing kiosk. Such an apparatus should be capable of storing and delivering in a highly reliable manner, a large number of envelopes.

The problem of storing a large quantity of stacked envelopes is compounded in a high humidity environment. Kiosks, while normally sheltered from the elements, may be located in public areas, such as open malls and other such locations, where the atmosphere is not necessarily controlled. Thus, such kiosks may frequently encounter high humidity environments.

Humidity can contribute to improper feeding of paper products, such as paper sheets and paper envelopes. All paper stock has a natural curl due to modern paper manufacturing methods. This natural curl can become greatly accentuated, when the paper absorbs moisture from the atmosphere thereby causing the paper to curl. Paper envelopes, when stacked to be fed through a conventional sheet feeder mechanism, tends to warp and to curl in higher humidity environments thus, making the envelopes positioned askew in a stack, which thus becomes canted and unstable. As a result, the envelopes are not properly presented to the sheet feeder and can result in improperly feeding the envelopes, and jamming can occur. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have an envelope construction, which remains properly stacked, even under high humidity conditions, for sheet feeding purposes.

Disclosure of Invention

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new and improved envelope construction, and method of making and dispensing it via conventional sheet feeders in a reliable manner.

It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a new and improved envelope construction and method, whereby envelopes can pass readily through non-impact printers without wrinkling or jamming. Briefly, according to the present invention, there is provided an envelope construction which includes a front panel having a flap sealing adhesive strip on its back side, and a rear panel secured to the front panel at its marginal edges to form a pocket. The thickness of the adhesive strip is substantially the same as the thickness of the rear panel so that when the flap is opened, the overall configuration of the envelope is flat to facilitate stacking and feeding. The combination of the strip and the rear panel are both secured to the back side of the front panel, and the combination adds a layer of a uniform thickness to provide the desired flat aspect. A line of perforations in the front panel between the adhesive strip and the rear panel with the flap portion opened do not deform the front panel. The front and rear panels have opposing curls facing each other to retain the flat aspect of the envelope, even when the envelope absorbs moisture.

An advantage of the present invention is seen in the fact that the novel construction of the envelope prevents warping or curling in high humidity environments and this attribute allows the envelope to be stored in large quantities in a stacked arrangement. Thus, if desired, the envelopes can be dispensed to the public from an apparatus, such as a kiosk having an envelope dispensing apparatus integrated therein.

A further advantage of the present invention is that since the envelope construction may be formed of two separate panels, the two panels can be two different sheets of paper, each having a different weight. In this regard, a heavy bond paper can be used for the front panel and a lighter weight bond can be used for the rear panel when the envelopes are to be used in formal correspondence applications. In this manner, a high quality envelope results, and yet its overall weight is lower, thereby reducing the cost of postage required. Brief Description of Drawings

The above mentioned and other objects and features of this invention and the manner of attaining them will become apparent, and the invention itself will be best understood by reference to the following description of the embodiment of the invention in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a partially cut away pictorial view of an envelope construction which is constructed in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary, enlarged sectional view of the envelope construction of FIG. 1, taken substantially on line 2-2 thereof;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged longitudinal sectional view of the envelope construction of FIG. 1, illustrating the opposing curl configurations of the front and rear panels; and

FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of an envelope dispensing apparatus constructed in accordance with the present invention.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 thereof, there is shown a new envelope construction 10, which is constructed in accordance with the present invention. The envelope

construction 10 can be readily and conveniently fed through a non-impact printer, without having a tendency to be pealed shut from the heat produced by a laser printer (not shown) or the humidity produced by an ink jet printer. Also, the envelope construction 10 will not damage the printer fuser (now shown) of a laser printer, since the construction 10 is protected from adhesive from being inadvertently transferred therefrom to the printer. Due to the novel construction of the envelope 10, envelopes made in a manner of the envelope construction 10, can be stocked flat in a symmetrical manner without leaning or tilting. The envelopes can be stocked in their opened conditions, as indicated in FIG. 1, and can be fed reliably through a conventional sheet feeder (not shown) without adhesive contamination or premature self- sealing. approximately 200 envelopes made like the construction 10 can be stacked in a conventional 500 sheet paper tray (not shown) for feeding through a conventional non-impact printer. The envelope construction 10, generally comprises a large front panel on 20, and having a front side 20A, and a backside 20B, so that a small rear panel 30 is disposed in an overlying relationship on the backside 20B of the front 20 and is secured in place thereof. At three marginal edges 32, 34, and 36 to form an interior pocket P (FIG. 1) . The rear panel has a front side 30A and a backside 30B. A flap portion generally indicated at 12 of the front panel 20 extends beyond the rear panel to form a fold over flap for the envelope construction 10 so that the contents (not shown) and the pocket P can be retained in place in a convenient manner. In order to secure the flap in its closed position, an adhesive strip generally indicated at 16 extends across the backside 20B of the front panel 20 at the flap portion 16 near one of

the its marginal edges so that the flap portion can be sealed in a closed folded over position.

The rear panel 30 and the adhesive strip 16 are generally of the same thickness to add a substantially uniform thick layer to the backside 20B of the front panel 20 to provide the envelope construction with a generally flat aspect to enable a group of like envelope constructions to be stacked evenly for sheet feeding purposes. As best seen in FIG. 3, the front panel 20 and the rear panel 30 each assume its natural curl and in a confronting relationship with one another to form a symmetrical shape to help retain the overall symmetrical shape of the construction constant, even when the panels absorb moisture to facilitate greatly sheet feeding purposes.

In order to maintain a flat aspect to the envelope construction 10, a perforation line 15 in the front wall 20 extends between the adhesive strip 16 and the rear panel 30 entirely across the longitudinal length of the large front panel 20. The perforation line 15 facilitates the folding over of the flap portion 12. Once the flap portion 12 is sealed in place, the envelope construction 10 can be more readily opened, such as with a letter opener (not shown) or similar tool. Also, in accordance with the present invention, the perforation line 15 does not deform the front panel 20, and thus the envelope construction 10 assumes a flat configuration as best seen in FIG. 2. The adhesive strips 16 includes an adhesive line 17 covered over by a peal off backing strip 19. In this manner, the envelope construction 10 can be fed through a sheet feeder (not shown) and into a non¬ impact printer (not shown) without prematurely sealing the envelope construction, since the adhesive 17 is of a pressure sensitive type, and is covered over by the peal-

off backing strip 19. Strip 19 can be removed as shown in FIG. 1 prior to sealing the envelope construction 10.

In order to assemble the envelope construction 10, the front and rear panels are positioned in overlying relationship as indicated in FIG. 1. In this regard, . three of the marginal edges are aligned as indicated at 32, 34 and 36. A u-shaped strip of adhesive 25 extending along the three marginal edges, 32, 34 and 36 to fixed together the two panels to form the pocket P. The adhesive strip 16 is then secured to the backside 2OB of the front panel 20 and secured in place by the adhesive 17. The perforation line 15 is formed by conventional means (not shown) in the front panel 20 either prior to the assembly with the rear wall, or afterwards.

Considering now the envelope construction 10 in greater detail with reference to FIG. 2, the front panel 20 has a thickness T, and a rear panel 30 has a thickness the rear panel 30 and the adhesive layer 25 have thickness t,.

The adhesive strip line 17 and peel-off backing strip 19 have a combined or overall thickness t ₂ . A uniform overall thickness in the envelope construction is achieved by configuring the envelope components such that t. substantially equals t ₂ . In this regard, the rear panel 30 and the adhesive line 25 have a combined thickness t, substantially equal to the combined thickness t ₂ of the adhesive strip 17 and the peel-off backing strip 19. This enables large numbers of the uniformly thick symmetrical envelopes made according to the construction 10, to be stacked evenly without the stack being slanted or leaning to one side. The result is that the novel envelope construction facilitates reliable feeding and continuous printing of large numbers of envelopes using

non-impact printers, without the difficulties encountered in printing conventional multifold envelopes.

As indicated in FIG. 3, the panels 20 and 30 are composed of paper material, and have a material curl, which causes the paper sheet to be bowed from end to end, as shown in FIG. 3, the curl becomes exaggerated in high humidity environments as a result of the absorption of moisture.

According to the present invention, the curl of the paper material forming the front panel 20 and the paper material forming the rear panel 30 are arranged in a confronting relationship with one another to form a symmetrical slightly elliptical shape, thus, when moisture is absorbed, the panels 20 and 30 tend to bow further away from one another, but they retain an overall symmetrical configuration.

Each one of the panels 20 and 30 is composed of paper material having a suitable thickness and stiffness to enable the envelope construction 10 to be properly fed through a sheet feeder. If there is too little calendaring, the panel is too limp and does not have sufficient body for the feeding. On the other hand, if there is too great a calendaring, the resulting envelope is too stiff, and it does not bend readily as it is fed through a non-impact printer.

In accordance with the present invention, the panels 20 and 30 are each composed of paper material having a caliper of between about 3.00 mils and about 5.50 mils. The most preferred caliper is of 4.00 mils and a porosity of about 11.0 Gurley units.

Additionally, the paper material forming the front and rear panels should have sufficient surface smoothness to be properly fed by a sheet feeder and then through a non-impact printer. If the paper material is too slick, it will not be fed properly. If the roughness is too

great, there is too much rag content in the paper material and lint can form on the rollers (not shown) of the equipment.

The paper material forming the front and rear panels 20 and 30 has a surface smoothness of between about 85 Sheffield and about 150 Sheffield. The most preferred surface smoothness is about 100 Sheffield.

Referring now to the drawings, and more particularly to FIG. 4 thereof, there is shown an envelope dispensing apparatus 90, which is constructed in accordance with the present invention. The envelope dispensing apparatus 90 is disposed within a protective housing 80 to serve as a vending machine for the public.

The apparatus 90 is adopted to dispose envelopes in their open positions, and one is made according to the envelope construction 10 of FIG. 1. In operation, a customer can make a payment for one or more of the envelopes, and the envelopes are then dispensed to the customer. The envelope dispensing apparatus 90 includes a payment mechanism 82, which will accept payment for envelopes, in the form of coin, currency, or magnetic strip credit/debit cards. The apparatus 90 also includes a sheet feeder 84 connected to an envelope storage bin 86 containing a stack of like envelopes 88, each of which is similar in construction to the envelopes construction 10 of FIG. 1. The stack of envelopes 88 can include a large number of envelopes, such as 500 to 1000 envelopes. Due to the unique flat, symmetrical construction of the envelope, the stack is even, and the envelopes are fed reliably through the feeder 84.

In operation, a customer would enter payment via a payment chute 91. Once a proper payment has been accepted, the payment mechanism 82 activates the sheet feeder 84 via a electrical cable 93, which conveys a

signal from the payment mechanism 82 to the sheet feeder 84 to commence the feeding of envelope.

Upon activation, the sheet feeder 84 picks up envelopes 88 seriatim stored in the bin 86, and moves them through the envelope outlet slot 97, exposing the envelope 95 to the customer (not shown) . The customer can then conveniently remove the disposed envelopes, such as the envelope 95. The vending process can then be repeated. Because of the flatness, uniform thickness, and resistance to curling or warping, the envelope construction of the present invention makes it possible to vend envelopes in this manner, even through the apparatus 90 is located where the environment is not regulated. High humidity has little or no affect on the reliability of the vending of the unique envelopes. Preprinted, custom printed, or blank envelopes can be vended in this manner, depending upon the desired design and related system employed. While particular embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed, it is to be understood that various different modifications are possible and are contemplated within the true spirit and scope of the appended claims. There is no intention, therefore, of limitations to the exact abstract or disclosure herein presente .