A method for the production of books or bound documents with the help of a material web

Abstract

 The invention relates to a method for the production of books or bound documents from a material web (4) which comprises folding lines (6,7) or perforation lines arranged at a distance from one another and whose one side possesses a thin coating of an adhesive capable of being activated, the web (4) being printed with the desired text and subsequently folded together in a folding pattern. After folding together of the web (4) the adhesive is activated so that layers with adhesive facing one another are joined together to form book-pages which can be bound together in a cover (15).

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a method for the production of books or bound documents with the help of a material web for the production of the books, and a book or document which comprises a number of mutually connected leaves.

[0002] The production of bound papers or documents such as e.g. passports, membership books, identification documents etc., frequently occurs in such a manner that the actual document is manufactured in one operation by application of known techniques whilst the filling in of the relevant data on the document constitutes a separate operation. This procedure involves appreciable risks of falsification of the documents in question, on the one hand on the grounds of the finished but not filled-in documents possibly getting into the wrong hands and being filled in or completed with false information, on the other hand on the grounds of legitimate, subsequently filled in documents being relatively easy to falsify in that information already filled in is altered or supplemented.

[0003] In order to prevent such risk of falsification, identification documents and driving licences e.g., among others are manufactured at the same time as factual information including any photographs are entered into the document whereupon the whole document is coated with plastic layers to as to make it falsification-proof and at the same time mechanically durable. The manufacture of the said falsification-protected documents, in principle, takes place so that all the relevent data including the photograph, signature etc. of the owner are set up on a document, which is then photographed. The photographic copy is coated with plastic material and becomes the original document whilst the original of the photographed document is destroyed or filed in the archive. The said procedure is not practical, however, when it is to be used for documents which are more extensive and comprise a number of pages such as e.g. passport documents, membership books and other similar documents.

[0004] A rational and falsification-protected method of manufacturing documents of the type referred to here consists in using modern data technique, whereby the actual document is produced, at the same time as the data required for the document as well as the data or codes for the proof of legitimacy of the document are entered.

[0005] All the information relevant for the actual document can exist stored in a data bank where at the issue of the document the data are written down or printed onto a running web which later is converted to a bound document.

[0006] The present invention provides a method for the production of documents of the type mentioned here by using a material web which comprises folding lines transversing the web and arranged at a distance from one another and which has on its one side a thin coating of an adhesive capable of being activated, preferably heat­activated, the method being characterized by

a) printing of the desired text onto the side of the material web which does not possess adhesive coating,

b) folding together of the web in a folding pattern in such a manner that each of the web portions or sheets situated between two successive folding lines forms a book-page,

c) joining together of coatings of adhesive facing one another through activation of the adhesive with simultaneous compression of the folded-up web.

[0007] A preferred embodiment of the invention will be described in the following with reference to the attached schematic drawing, wherein,

Fig.1 shows how a number of data banks containing information relevant for the books or documents can be coupled together with a centrally arranged printer for the writing out or printing of the book or document.

Fig.2a and b show variants of a running web intended for printing.

Fig.3 shows how the web in accordance with Fig.2 is folded so as to form a stack,

Fig.4 shows how the folded stack of sheets is compressed and adjoining sheets with adhesive layers are bonded to one another, and

Fig.5 shows a cover intended to enclose the sealed book pack or the document.

[0008] The production process of e.g. a passport document may take place in such a manner, in accordance with the invention, that a person applying for a passport calls on an authority issueing passport documents, which is indicated in Fig.1 by I or II. After proper identification of the applicant for a passport the authority, with the help of a specially arranged programme which controls the authority's data installation, can rapidly acquire via the data bank centres A, B and C the relevant data required for the passport document which are assembled and written out, with the help of a data programme established for the production of passports, onto a running web 4 of paper which on its inside is provided with an adhesive coating capable of being activated. After the writing out of all the sheets 5 necessary for the document, they are folded together along prepared folding lines 6,7 and introduced into an arrangement where the folded stack 11 of paper is compressed at the same time as the adhesive layer on the web 4 is activated so that adhesive layers arranged next to one another are bonded together. As will be described later, text, figures, photographs etc. may be inserted between the combined sheets 5 which constitute the proof of legitimacy for the document and check of identity for the holder of the document. When the sheets 5 have been attached to each other in the abovementioned manner, the document may be bound between outer covers 15.

[0009] Beside being used for documents like passports, membership books etc. the method in accordance with the invention may also be applied to the production of other types of books. This production may take place in such a manner that a customer who desires a certain book calls on a book retailing shop I or II in accordance with Fig.1. The book retailing shop does not have in the customary manner a large stock of books, but is provided instead with one or more highspeed printers, e.g. ink jet printers or laser printers, and is provided moreover with a data installation which is terminal-connected to several publishing houses or data bank centres A, B or C. The customer can select in a catalogue the book he desires, whereupon the data operator by means of his terminal I establishes a connection to the data bank of the publishing house which publishes the desired book. When contact has been established via the telecommunication network, e.g. between the bookseller I and the publishing house B, data relating to the desired book are acquired.

[0010] In both cases reported here the printer at the authority or organisation which issues the document or the retailing shop which presents the book is controlled by information which is obtained from one or more data banks and the printer writes out the information transmitted onto the web 4 shown in Fig.2. As mentioned above it is possible to perform this writing at very high speed (more than 100 sheet sides/minute), which means that a normal book or document can be "printed" or written out in a very short time. The writing need not be done line by line, but the web 4 can be advanced in the direction of the lines and not at right angles to the lines as happens in a normal script on a typewriter. To obtain sufficient speed in the writing a number of writing devices can be adapted to co-operate, each performing the writing work along a narrow sector or longitudinal portion of the paper web. In spite of the writing being performed by a number of writing devices operating individually and, moreover, writing the pages in the direction of the lines (i.e. all the lines are written simultaneously), the text will be very distinct and uniform and fully comparable with printed text. The web 4 also may be written in "conventional manner", that is to say the web 4 is advanced in a direction at right angles to the extension of the lines and the text is written out line by line. This too can be done with a number of writing devices or writing nozzles if an ink jet printer is used, except that so as to allow the web to be folded to a book in the manner as shown in Fig.3, every other side has to be turned by 180°.

[0011] When all the sides of the book have been written, the web 4 is folded in the manner as shown in Fig.3, the folding taking placealong the first folding lines 6,7 provided beforehand on the web as shown in Fig.2 so as to form a stack 11 of folded-up sheets 5.

[0012] As is evident from Fig.2a the web 4 is provided not only with the said folding lines 6 and 7, but also with second folding lines 8 which are arranged relatively near the folding lines. In the area between the first folding lines 7 and the second folding lines 8 the through-going holes 9,10 are provided in the paper web,, the holes not being located in the same place on the panels which are formed between the folding lines 8 and 7, but the holes 9 and 10 respectively being displaced in relation to each other so that on folding of the web the holes 9,10 in adjacent sheets 5 will not overlap each other. It can be advantageous in certain cases to arrange the holes 10 as shown in Fig.2a sloping towards the longitudinal direction of the sheet, so that a greater width of the panel delimited by the folding lines 7 and 8 is covered by the holes 10. The web 4 may also be arranged in the manner as shown in Fig.2b, that is to say the web 4 is provided with likewise previously imprinted folding lines 6,7 at right angles to the extension of the web, and the web is folded along these folding lines in the manner as shown in Fig.3. In this case, however, the web has folding lines 8ʹ arranged in the longitudinal direction of the web, an area 1 being formed on each sheet between the edge of the web 4 and the folding lines 8. In this area 1 through-going holes or cutouts 10 are provided which are arranged so that holes 10 in adjacent sheets 5 will not cover one another when the web is folded along the folding lines 6 and 7.

[0013] As mentioned earlier, the web 4 is provided on its one side, that is to say the side which does not carry text, with a thin layer of an adhesive capable of being activated. This adhesive can be activated appropriately by heat, which can be supplied by means of normal radiant or conduction heat, but the adhesive layer may also be adapted so that it is heated with the help of a high-­frequency electromagnetic field. In the folding of the web 4 the adhesive layers on the non-printed side of the web will be brought together, and the stack of folded sheets 5 shown in Fig.3 maybe placed into an arrangement in accordance with Fig.4 consisting of two pressure plates 12 between which the stack 14 of sheets is compressed at high pressure at the same time as the plates are connected to a high-frequency generator 13 so that an electric field is generated between the plates 12. If the adhesive has a high dielectric constant, the adhesive layers on the web 4 will be heated uniformly to such a degree that the adhesive layers pressed against each other fuse together, whereby the sheets 5 placed against one another on folding are joined to one another.

[0014] As mentioned previously, it is also conceivable for the adhesive layers on the web to be heated with the help of radiant heat or hot air, but since the folding process then becomes troublesome to perform, this method would not be appropriate for the manufacture of thicker books. On joining together in accordance with Fig.4 the printed or written pages of the sheets 5 will not stick to one another, since these pages are not coated with adhesive layers. The said panels between the folding lines 8 and 7 and 8 and the web edge, on the other hand, will stick to one another, since the adhesive layer of one of the said panels will be exposed in the holes 9,10 of the adjoining panel, which means that the said panels will adhere to one another. This successive bonding between panels implies that the stack 14 of sheets 5, along its one side, is given a firmly bonded ridgelike part wherein all layers in the stack 14, whether or not they have a coating of adhesive, will be joined together through the adhesive bond which is formed through the holes 9 and 10 respectively.

[0015] Finally the sealed book or document can be provided with an outer cover 15 which has an internal heat-sealable adhesive layer to be attached to the sides of the stack 14. Moreover, the width of the cover 15 can be adjusted owing to the corners of the cover being provided with a number of folding lines 16 which are parallel to one another. The ultimate binding together between cover and book may be done e.g. in that a rivet joint is provided through the cover and through the part of the stack 14 where all the sheets 5 are joined together with the help of the holes 9,10. If the web has been arranged in accordance with Fig. 2b, that is to say the text is printed at right angles to the longitudinal direction of the web with every other page turned by 180°, the sealed-up book has to be edge-trimmed, since otherwise the pages will hang together along the top and bottom edges

[0016] It is also possible to arrange the binding in such a manner that prefabricated covers of a number of different "thicknesses" or back widths are kept in stock which are used depending on the number of pages of the books which are to be produced. The insides of the covers are provided with an adhesive capable of heat activation, e.g. a polythene layer or a layer of some other thermoplastic material, and the coherent sheets in the "printed book" can be adapted so that the first and last sheets have an adhesive-coated surface along the outer sides of the stack of sheets facing towards the insides of the cover.

[0017] To obtain a "bound book" the whole of the stack of sheets and the covers are heated so that layers of adhesive facing towards each other are made to become attached to one another in a strong and durable sealing joint. It is important that the depth of the cover should be slightly greater than the thickness of the book so that the back of the cover bulges out a little from the stack of printed sheets. Alternatively it is possible to allow the back to lie against, and be "fused together" with, the rear edges of the sheets in order to obtain a firmer binding. Under all circumstances the sides of the cover must be more rigid than its back.

[0018] For an easy reading of the book's title or designation the front cover may be provided with a punched out or transparent portion which during the binding is located exactly opposite the portion on the first side of the book where the said title or designation is printed.

[0019] Especially in the production of identification documents of the passport type it has been found advantageous to operate with a running web in the manner as described above and the reason for this is that possibilities exist here of inserting a proof of legitimacy within the leaves of the document joined together from sheets 5 which is very difficult to falsify and, moreover, almost completely impossible to alter or to tamper with.

[0020] In the following examples will be given of measures which may be adopted for creating a proof of legitimacy of the documents in question which is difficult to falsify. The simplest step that can be taken consists in printing on the inside of the running web 4 check marks, figure or letter combinations, bar codes or the like. These markings, in principle, can be different for each sheet or groups of sheets 5 of the web 4 and they can be placed in a certain defined code combination with each other. This implies that the said markings which have been affixed on or against the inside of the web 4 are visually readable or recordable in some manner from outside the web after the same has been folded to leaves. This is easily achievable by ensuring that the paper material is the web 4 is translucent so that the said markings can be observed and read if the leaves in the actual document are held against a light source or against a luminous surface. The markings which may be affixed on or against the inside of the web 4 may be constituted, as has been mentioned, of printed combinations of numerals and letters and bar codes, but also of pictures, and it is also possible, instead of printing, to carry out local thickness reduction of the inside of the web 4 through grinding or milling which may be done either before or after the adhesive layer has been applied. On examination against the light the said thickness reductions will be identified as lighter portions, since the light transmission is greater within the said portions. Such a thickness reduction by grinding may be carried out so that the machined portions form letter or numeral combinations or other optional figures.

[0021] Another possibility consists in laminating in layers of e.g. polarized film between the sheets 5 so that the said film is included between adhesive layers of the sheets 5. Such a polarized film can readily be identified with the help of another polarized film which is used as a checking source. The document, in other words, can be twisted in front of a separate polarized film and, when the document is illuminated by means of a light, it can be observed how the radiation of light through the leaves is extinguished within the portions where a polaroid film is laminated in, when the axes of polarization of the two polaroid layers are twisted by 90° in relation to one another. If the light scatter in the paper layers which surround the polaroid layer is too great, it may be necessary to provide in one of the sheets 5, which enters into the document as a leaf, windows or cutouts which expose parts of the laminated polaroid layer. These cutouts or windows may also be executed in the form of numeral or letter combinations, should this be desired.

[0022] Documents of the types of passports or the like nearly always contain a photograph of the holder and if the said photograph is inserted directly into the passport document, it may be possible to exchange the same, even if the photograph has been affixed with the help of rivets or has been provided with an embossing or a seal. In the production of a passport document in accordance with the invention it is possible to insert photographs in that in anyone of the sheets 5 which form leaves in the passport document a hole or an opening is punched out which is smaller than the photograph which is to be inserted, but which is large enough to expose substantial parts of the said photograph. A photograph applied in the manner specified thus will be partly laminated in between two sheets 5 put together and sealed together to form jointly a leaf in the passport document which means that it is very difficult to remove or to exchange the photo without causing such damage on the document that the interference can be easily discovered. If it is desired to improve the security still further, the photo may be provided with a seal in a known manner.

[0023] It is also possible to insert between the leaves magnetically readable markings or radioactive markings. This may be done by means of printing, and it should be emphasized that detectors of radioactive radiation exist at present which are so sensitive that the radioactive markings which need to be introduced into the document have an extremely low level of radiation which is classified as completely safe. It is also possible to provide the document in a known manner with fluorescent markings which in themselves are invisible, but which appear on illumination with light of a certain wavelength, e.g. ultraviolet light. Such markings can be imprinted by means of conventional printing methods.

[0024] To obtain maximum proof of identity and security against falsification all the methods mentioned here can be combined and by collecting the data into the passport document from one or more secret-protected data banks, since the data which are collected do not pass any "intermediaries", it is possible to ensure that the data are correct and not manipulated in any way.

[0025] The most important advantage from a point of view of security for a document produced in accordance with the invention is that the leaves of the document are made from coherent sheets which are put together and laminated with the help of a coating of an adhesive applied to the insides of the sheets and that it is possible thereby to insert between the sheets which form a leaf proofs of legitimacy in the form of codes of optional type put on the sheet or on separate films and also to insert data concerning passport number, details of birth, name etc. which also appear as printed information on the outsides of the leaves, but which can be checked as to their not having been altered or manipulated by holding the passport leaf up against a light source, whereby the printed data entered into the passport can be checked against the same data, which normally are hidden within the leaves of the passport, but which can be observed if the leaves of the passport are held against a light source. After the individual sheets of the running web have been laminated together it is practically impossible to divide the sheets without destroying the sheets, so that there is almost perfect security against the data which are "laminated" into the individual leaves of the document having been altered in any way, and through inserted codes it is moreover possible, as mentioned previously, to check the legitimacy of the document by establishing that groups of different codes are in a certain code connection with one another.

Claims

1. A method for the manufacturing of book or bound documents with the help of a material web which comprises folding lines transversing the web and arranged at a distance from one another and which has on its one side a thin coating of an adhesive capable of being activated, preferably heat-activated,
characterized by

a) printing of the desired text onto the side of the material web (4) which does not possess adhesive coating,

b) folding together of the web (4) in a folded pattern in such a manner that each of the web portions or sheets (5) situated between two successive folding lines (6,7) forms a book-page,

c) joining together of coatings of adhesive facing one another through activation of the adhesive with simultaneous compression of the folded-up web (4).

2. A method in accordance with claim 1,
characterized in that the adhesive is activated by means of heat.

3. A method in accordance with claim 1,
characterized in that the web portions joined together are held together by means of an outer cover whose insides are attached to the first and last web portions or sheets (5) of the material web (4) required for the said book or document.

4. A method in accordance with claim 1,
characterized in that the adhesive has a dielectric coefficient exceeding 2 and that the activation of the adhesive is done by means of a high-frequency electric field which is applied substantially at right angles to the folded-up and compressed web, thermal energy being generated in the adhesive layer.

5. A method in accordance with claim 1,
characterized in that the placing of the desired text onto the web is brought about by means of a data-­controlled printer.

6. A method in accordance with claim 5,
characterized in that the text is placed onto the said web (4) by means of one or more writing devices arranged movably in transverse direction of the web which are adapted to place marks or markings onto the web advanced synchronously with the movement of the writing devices which jointly form a text whose text lines are parallel with the direction of advance of the web (4).

7. A material web of paper or the like intended for the production of books or bound documents comprising first folding lines transversing the web and arranged at a distance from oone another along which the web is adapted to be folded together in a folding pattern
characterized in that the one side of the web (4) possesses a thin coating of an adhesive capable of being activated, preferably heat-activated.

8. A material web in accordance with claim 7,
characterized in that it is made of a translucent material, e.g. paper, and that its inside possesses markings in the form of imprinted or imposed text or figure arrangements and/or thickness-reducing portions provided in the web material through grinding or some other method, these markings, after the combining of the web to leaves through folding of the web, being located within the said leaves and being inaccessible directly physically, but being visually accessible and recordable from the outside of the web.

9. A material web in accordance with claim 7,
characterized in that at least one or other of the sheets included has a window or cutout which from the outside of the web is covered by a thin layer or a thin film of polarized material, the said window or cutout possibly being in the form of a combination of numerals or letters or of a figure, and the said polaroid films, provided at least locally over the cutouts menioned, being taken up between two sheets (5) folded together of the web (4) which together form a leaf of the said book or the said document.

10. A material web in accordance with claim 7,
characterized in that each of the web portions or sheets (5) which are located between two successive first folding lines (6,7) possesses cut out or punched out holes (9,10) perforating the web, the said cut out or punched out holes (9,10) in adjoining web portions or sheets (5) being so displaced mutually in relation to one another that the punched out holes (9,10) in combined or folded-up web portions (5) do not overlap one another.

11. A material web in accordance with claim 10,
characterized in that each of the said web portions or sheets (5) located between successive first folding lines (6,7) possesses a second folding line (8) transversing the web (4) and located adjoining, or in the vicinity of, the said cut out or punched out holes in such a manner that the cut out or punched out holes will be situated between a first and a second folding line.

12. A material web in accordance with claim 10,
characterized in that each of the said web portions or sheets (5) possesses a longitudinal second folding line (8ʹ) which is parallel with the lateral edges of the web (4), the said cut out holes (10 being located between the said second folding line (8ʹ) and the lateral edge of the web (4).

13. A book or bound document comprising a number of mutually connected leaves,
characterized in that each of the leaves comprises two sheets (5), joined together inside to inside, from a web (4) of coherent sheets, that the outermost sheets in the said web (4) are joined together with the insides of the covers (15) which are connected with each other along a common back portion, and that the web (4) consists of a translucent material, e.g. paper.

14. A book or bound document in accordance with claim 13,
characterized in that one or more of the said leaves possess marks or characteristics which are located between the said joined sheets (5) and which are preferably visually identifiable after completion of the document.

15. A book or document in accordance with claim 13,
characterized in that in the joined sheets are inserted or included identifiable markings made of magnetic or radioactive material or of material which is luminescent in certain light.

16. A book or document in accordance with claim 13,
characterized in that each of the leaves of the book is the bearer of an individualizing mark which is unique for the book in question.

Drawing