PERSONAL DOCUMENT IN FORM OF A BOOKLET

Description

[0001] The invention belongs to the technical field of printing and is in particular related to manufacturing of personal or identification documents, which are secured against falsification and/or forging.

[0002] By this, the invention is based on the problem, how to provide a personal document in form of a booklet, by which a non-problematic sewing of at least one sheet covered with a protective layer, consisting of a relatively hard material like e.g. polypropylene, among the other sheets should be enabled by simultaneously excluding any possibility, that the internal edge of the said protective layer, which is faced towards the neighboring sheet, could damage the last mentioned sheet by rubbing thereto.

[0003] One of such documents is described in EP 1 008 459 B1 together with a method of manufacturing thereof. As stated therein, by manufacturing of such document, e.g. a passport or the like, there should be taken into account, that at least a page, on which the desired personal data are printed, needs to be secured and should consist of appropriate material, which enables applying of various protective elements, which may be either mounted therein or printed or also punched or even manufactured by means of a laser beam. Although for example the polycarbonate seems to be a very suitable material for such purposes, the hardness thereof is essentially higher than the hardness of paper and in addition, the resistance of this material with respect to repeated bending is really pure. Furthermore, recent requirements by manufacturing such documents may also relate to compulsory including of various electronic or magnetic data carriers, so that the thickness of the layer of such material may also be relatively huge. Accordingly, upon establishing appropriate interconnection of a sheet made of such material, e.g. by means of sewing or the like, with the cover page and the other available sheets, the problems would occur either due to permanent tendency of opening the document or also due to cracking of such bound sheet. In order to avoid this problem, in the above specified patent letter it has been suggested, that the sheet, i.e. the so-called polycarbonate plate, is connected with a band, which consists of a flexibly and easily bending material like e.g. a polypropylene. Such band can be then easily sewed into the document together with the other sheets and is moreover resistant in a sufficient extent with respect to bending, so that during the regular period of use of the document the said cracking or breaking should not to be expected. Another problem, which might occur by establishing a required interconnection between two parts of materials; which are difficult to be interconnected, may then be solved by means of perforating the said band i.e. by providing it with appropriate passages, so that the said band is placed over the said sheet i.e. the plate, and after that over the said band an additional band is placed, which includes appropriate protrusions, which are adapted to the said passages with respect to position and dimensions. In such a way the said protrusions extend through the said passages of the said band towards the surface of the protective layer, by which appropriate connection of the said band with the belonging sheet i.e. the polycarbonate plate in the area of the said perforation i.e. protrusions is enabled, so that each band is at the one hand held between the said band and protective layer, and on the other hand sewed into the document. In such a way is - according to the said patent - the polycarbonate plate mechanically i.e. in thanks to the shape thereof connected to the said band, which is sewed into the document. Such connecting technology is moreover also described in the Slovenian (SI) patent No. 20369A, which is however limited exclusively to connecting the polycarbonate materials with the connecting bands, which consist of various other materials. In such a way it should be possible - at least theoretically - to attach a sheet or plate of polycarbonate into appropriate document in form of a booklet.

[0004] However, in the practice, by manufacturing documents in form of a booklet, in particular of passports or the like, such manner of interconnecting the constituent parts may lead to certain problems. When manufacturing such documents, said band is placed over the previously prepared cover plate and after that the required sheets are placed thereto, whereupon these parts are sewed together. The sheet, which is covered by the protective layer, is often arranged quite adjacent to the cover page. Starting from the internal side of the rear cover page, said band extends beyond the seam towards the internal side of the front cover page, where the perforated portion thereof is placed. The internal edge of the protective layer, which is positioned adjacent to the said seam, is faced towards to the front page of the neighboring sheet. Since the material of the protective layer is essentially harder than the material of the paper of this neighboring sheet, and since moreover the thickness of the protective layer is also relatively large, the said internal edge of the protective layer is pretty sharp and exposed. Although the users are normally not aware of this phenomena at all, by opening or closing the document this hard edge is always rubbed against the essentially softer neighboring paper sheet, so that during the time serious damages may occur on this sheet. Consequently, even by quite regular use of such documents, these damages may result in essentially reducing the thickness of the neighboring paper sheet in the said area of rubbing, so that after certain period of use the sheet may be tom-out and removed from the document.

[0005] Furthermore, EP 1 502 765 A1 discloses a personal document in form of a booklet, which consisis consisting of at least centrally, namely along the central line folded cover page as well as of a desired number of sheets, which are folded at least essentially in the same manner and interconnected in the folded area by means of a seam. At least one personalized page is available in the document, which needs to be efficiently secured against falsification or forgery, and this page consists of at least two layers of polycarbonate, between which the flexible layer is laminated, which serves for attaching the polycarbonate layers into a booklet. Said flexible layer preferrably consists of polythilenterephtalate. Due to its construction, such personalized page is relatively thick and the physical properties, like e.g. hardness, bending resistance etc., may essentially differ from the properties of the other pages within the document, including with the cover pages. Such thickness normally results in abrasion of the adjacent paper sheet of the booklet. When bearing in mind, that carbonate layers are very hard and rigid, while the intermediate layer of polyethileneterephtalate is easily flexible, then the intermediate layer should extend across practically complete surface of the polycarbonate layers, if at least approximately secure interconnection is expected by means of lamination. However, such curcumstance may lead to problems with respect to providing the polycarbonate layers with appropriate data and especially with clarity and visibility thereof after the process of lamination. Still further, repeatingly bending of such complex sandwich structure of quite different materials may often lead to at least locally destruction of adhesiveness between the layers, which no doubt has essential influence in respect of visibility of data and in particular also in respect of hesitations about authenticity of the document. That is why e.g. the second embodiment in the same document consists of a flexible layer e.g. of plastics or textile, which is placed between two polycarbonate layers across only a portion of complete surface or said layers, while in the residual portion said flexible layer is replaced with the third intermediate layer of polycarbonate, the thickness of which essentially corresponds to the thiskness of the flexible layer. In order to establish appropriately secure interconnection among two outward polycarbonate layers and said intermediate flexible layer, passeges are then foreseen in the outward polycarbonate layers, which may serve e.g. for welding, laminating or cementing, i.e. in order to establish a kind of physical interconnection among the layers, which upon finishing thereof leads to similar effects and deficiences like the embodiment according to EP 1 008 459.

[0006] Still further, WO 93/12940 discloses a document in form of a booklet, where at least one page or a cover page is the so-called personalized page, which is equipped with a transparent layer, consisting of a resin like transparent cellulose (cellophane), cellulose nitrate or other cellulose ester, (meth)acrylic polymer or copolymer, vinyl polymer or copolymer or the like. Said layer is attached to the paper sheet ether by means of a self-supporting intermediary resin sheet /the first embodiment/, e.g. a thermoplastic resin sheet, or by means of an adhesive layer, which may be then activated either by means of pressure or temperature or even by a solvent, or also by means of adhesives, which are activated thermally or by radiation, At that time, personalization of documents was performed by means of placing such personalized layer onto a paper sheet, which has previously been equiped with various security elements. Such personalization layers were relatively thin, and materials thereof were not so hard, so that the danger of damaging the adjacent paper sheet was not very high. Preventing of removing/replacing said personalized layer has obviously been taken into account, especially due to exposing the document to moisture or chemicals.

[0007] According to the invention it is therefore suggested, that the polycarbonate material is used exclusively as a protective and data-carrying layer, by means of which a desired sheet of paper or similar material is coated, where in such a document immediately above the sheet, which includes a page equipped with such protective layer, a band is sewed, which consists of a bending-resistant material, in particularly of polypropylene, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or the like, and is preferable smooth and non-perforated. The protective layer, which consists of polycarbonate or other similar material, is placed over at least a major portion, preferably over the complete page of the corresponding sheet, and simultaneously also over at least a portion of the said band, by which the internal edge of the protective layer is placed in abutment at a desired distance from the seam, so that by opening or closing the document the said edge is not rubbed against the sheet of paper or similar material, but against the said band. The said protective layer is furthermore attached onto the corresponding page and simultaneously also onto the said band by means of appropriate adhesive means, in particularly by means of a temperature resistant adhesive, namely an adhesive, which is at least within a predetermined temperature range a duroplastic i.e. a non-melting adhesive, namely at least below a such temperature value, at which the consequences of over-heating become obvious and visible at least by one of the other protective elements of the document. Furthermore, in one of possible embodiments, the thickness of the protective layer in the area of the band is smaller than the thickness in the other areas of the belonging page of the sheet, over which the said layer is placed.

[0008] Now the invention will be explained in more detail on the basis of an embodiment of a document in form of a booklet as shown in Fig. 1 in opened state and in perspective view. The document consists of a cover page 1 as well as of separate sheets 2, 3, which are in this embodiment centrally folded, which means folded along the central line thereof, and interconnected by means of seam 4. One page 20 of the sheet 2 is covered by a protective layer and personalized, which means, that on the one hand personal data is printed thereon, and on the other hand it is also equipped with all required protective elements, which are however not separately shown in the said drawing. A band 6 is placed over the sheet 2 in the area of the said seam 4. In order to maintain the drawling as clear as possible, only one sheet 3 is shown in addition to the previously mentioned sheet 2, by which this sheet 3 extends above the said band 6 and is also centrally folded along and connected thereby with the said sheet 2 and also with the cover page 1 by means of the said seam 4.

[0009] The said band 6 consists of a material, which is bending-resistant i.e. sufficiently resistant with respect to bending in the area of the seam 4. Materials, which fulfill such requirements are e.g. a polyethylene or also a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) or similar plastics, while in this particular case a polyethylene was used. By this particular document according to Fig. 1 the protective layer 5 is placed over the page 20 of the sheet 2, which consists of paper or synthetic paper or similar material, where the said layer includes personal data, which are in particularly exposed to falsification or misuse, which should be - depending on the nature or the purpose of the document - according to the present invention made impossible.

[0010] The said protective layer 5 in this shown embodiment consists of a polycarbonate, but in common may also consist of another similar material, and is attached onto the page 20 of the sheet 2 by means of appropriate adhesive layer 7, by which it protrudes at least partially over the band 6, on which it is attached on essentially the same manner as it is actually attached onto the page 20.

[0011] The said adhesive layer 7 consists of appropriate adhesive means, in this particular embodiment of an adhesive, which may not be softened and remains hard at least below a pre-determined maximum temperature limit, so that the layer 5 cannot be removed without obvious damages. Whenever the document is exposed to a temperature above the said maximum temperature limit, at least one of security elements available on the document is then activated, so that an obvious indication, that the document might be falsified or forged, is then obtained in such a way.

[0012] An internal edge 50 of the layer 5, which is faced towards the seam 4, is placed in abutment to the band 6, so that the sheet 2 is placed below the band 6 and protected against damages, which might otherwise occur due to rubbing by the edge 50.

[0013] In the one of possible embodiments the thickness of the protective layer 5 in the area of the said band 6 is smaller than the thickness of the protective layer 5 on the other areas on the data-carrying page 20.

Claims

1. Personal document in form of a booklet, consisting of at least centrally, namely along the central line, folded cover page (1) as well as of a desired number of paper sheets (2, 3), which are folded at least essentially in the same manner and interconnected in the folded area by means of a seam (4), and at least one personalized page (20) is available on the belonging sheet (2) in the document, which needs to be efficiently secured against falsification or forgery, characterized in that a flexible non-perforated band (6) consisting of polypropilene or polyetilene or PVC is placed above the paper sheet (2) in the area along the seam (4) and its adjacency, and that a protective layer (5), which consists of polycarbonate and is equipped with appropriate data, which need to be secured against falsification or misuse, is placed over at least a majority of the surface of the belonging paper sheet (2) and is attached thereto by means of a resilient duroplastic adhesive, and that said band (6) is partially overlaped by the protective layer (5), so that the internal edge (50) of said protective layer (5), which is faced towards said seam (4), is rest on the band (6).

Ansprüche

1. Persönliches Dokument in Form eines Heftchens, bestehend aus einem zumindest mittig, nämlich entlang der Mittellinie, gefalzten Deckblatt (1) und einer erwünschten Anzahl Papierbogen (2, 3), die zumindest im Wesentlichen in der gleichen Weise gefalzt und im gefalzten Bereich mittels einer Naht bzw. Heftung (4) miteinander verbunden sind, wobei mindestens eine persönliche Seite (20) auf dem zugehörigen Bogen (2) im Dokument zur Verfügung steht, die wirksam vor Fälschung bzw. Verfälschung zu schützen ist, dadurch gekennzeichnet, dass ein flexibles, unperforiertes Band (6), das aus Polypropylen oder Polyethylen oder PVC besteht, über dem Papierbogen (2) im Bereich entlang der Naht bzw. Heftung (4) und deren angrenzender Umgebung positioniert ist, und dass eine Schutzschicht (5), die aus Polycarbonat besteht und mit geeignete Daten versehen ist, die vor Fälschung bzw. Missbrauch zu schützen sind, über zumindest einem größeren Teil der Oberfläche des zugehörigen Papierbogens (2) positioniert ist und mittels eines elastischen duroplastischen Klebstoffs daran angebracht ist, und dass das Band (6) teilweise von der Schutzschicht (5) überdeckt ist, so dass der Innenrand (50) der Schutzschicht (5), der der Naht bzw. Heftung (4) zugewandt ist, auf dem Band (6) aufliegt.

Revendications

1. Document personnel sous la forme d'un livret, consistant en une page de couverture (1) pliée au moins centralement, à savoir le long de la ligne centrale ainsi qu'en un nombre désiré de feuilles de papier (2, 3), qui sont pliées au moins essentiellement de la même manière et interconnectées dans la zone pliée au moyen d'une ligne de couture ou de brochage (4), et au moins une page personnalisée (20) est disponible sur la feuille (2) correspondante dans le document, qui doit être efficacement protégée contre toute falsifications ou contrefaçon, caractérisé en ce qu'une bande non perforée flexible (6) consistant en du polypropylène ou du polyéthylène ou du PVC est placée par-dessus la feuille de papier (2) dans la zone le long de la ligne de couture ou de brochage (4) et à proximité, et qu'une couche de protection (5), qui consiste en du polycarbonate et est équipée de données appropriées, qui doivent être protégées contre toute falsification ou utilisation frauduleuse, est placée par-dessus au moins une majeure partie de la surface de la feuille de papier (2) correspondante et est fixée à celle-ci au moyen d'un adhésif plastique thermodurcissable résilient, et que ladite bande (6) est partiellement chevauchée par la couche de protection (5), de sorte que le bord interne (50) de ladite couche de protection (5), qui fait face vers ladite ligne de couture ou de brochage (4), repose sur la bande (6).

Drawing