Sealed letter producing device and envelope sheet

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9833965-B2
Application number	US-201113881485-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 26, 2011
Priority date	Oct 26, 2010
Publication date	Dec 5, 2017
Grant date	Dec 5, 2017

Abstract

In a sealed letter producing device which folds and seals, with a content, an envelope sheet on which pressure-sensitive adhesives are provided, sealing with pressure rollers smaller than in conventional rollers is achieved.
Pressure-sensitive adhesives 106 are provided in both edge portions in the width direction of an envelope sheet 100 , and remoistening paste 107 is provided inwardly of both edge portions. The remoistening paste is moistened when the envelope sheet wrapping a content is bent and formed into an envelope 50 , the entire surface of the envelope is pressurized by low-pressure rollers and adhered with the remoistening paste, and further only both edge portions of the envelope 50 are pressurized by an upper and lower set and a left and right pair of the pressure rollers 80, 80 having a small width to adhere the pressure-sensitive adhesive 106 . High pressure required for adhesion of the pressure-sensitive adhesives is only necessary in both edge portions of the envelope, and therefore small pressure rollers 80 will suffice.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A sealed letter producing device comprising:
a first paper path which transfers an envelope sheet;
a second paper path which transfers a content; and
an enclosing and sealing unit which is disposed in a position where the first paper path and the second paper path merge, and produces a sealed letter by enclosing and sealing the content by folding the envelope sheet in a manner of containing the content,
wherein the enclosing and sealing unit has
a pair of pressure rollers, each having a width smaller than an application width of pressure sensitive adhesives provided in both edge portions in a width direction of the envelope sheet and facing each other in both edge portions of an envelope, the pair of pressure rollers being disposed at an interval greater than a size of the content in a width direction of the content enclosed in the envelope, and smaller than a size of the envelope in a width direction of the envelope,
a moistening section which moistens a remoistening paste provided on a lower surface of the envelope sheet and inwardly of the both edge portions in the width direction of the envelope sheet, the moistening section including
a water tank for storing water,
a water-absorbing portion immersed into the water in the water tank,
a swing arm pivotably disposed above the water tank, and configured to swing downwardly to press an upper surface of the envelope to cause the remoistening paste to be pressed against the water-absorbing portion to moisten the remoistening paste, and
a driving mechanism driving the swing arm, and

a folding device for folding and adhering the envelope sheet with the remoistening paste after the moistening section moistens the remoistening paste.

2. The sealed letter producing device according to claim 1 , wherein in the enclosing and sealing unit, sealing is performed by applying pressure on the both edge portions of the envelope in the width direction of the envelope by the pair of pressure rollers after the envelope sheet is adhered with the remoistening paste by folding the envelope sheet with the folding device after the remoistening paste is moistened by the moistening section.

3. The sealed letter producing device according to claim 2 , wherein the pair of pressure rollers is formed from a set of rollers having same shapes.

4. The sealed letter producing device according to claim 3 , further comprising:
positioning rollers including two rollers having same shapes and disposed between the pair of pressure rollers and the folding device, the two rollers each having a length in an axial direction greater than a length in the width direction of the envelope sheet, the two rollers being respectively arranged above and below the envelope sheet transferred from an upstream of the two rollers, and adjusting a position in the width direction of the envelope while nipping the envelope, thereby moving the envelope to a position such that the pressure sensitive adhesives of the envelope overlap the pair of pressure rollers, and
an edge sensor for detecting the edge portion of the envelope sheet transferred from the positioning rollers and outputting a positional information of the envelope sheet for moving the positioning rollers.

5. The sealed letter producing device according to claim 1 , further comprising a printing unit printing the envelope sheet and the content for each sealed letter to be produced, and the printing unit includes a printing section which performs printing by an adhesion resistant material on the envelope sheet in a desired pattern.

Assignees

• Wakatabi Tadayuki
• Katada Yasuhiro
• Riso Kagaku Corp

Inventors

• Wakatabi Tadayuki
• Katada Yasuhiro

Classifications

• G03G2215/00426

  Post-treatment device adding qualities to the copy medium product (G03G2215/00421 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G03G2215/00514

  Envelopes · CPC title

• B65D27/34

  Lines of weakness · CPC title

• B43M3/04

  automatic · CPC title

• B65D27/36

  Finger openings, slots, or gripping tabs · CPC title