Abstract:
For binding a stack of perforated sheets, an elongated binding element having separable stacking pins disposed on the binding elements to separate and fix the positions of the binding elements. The stacking pins are preferably in the form of nesting pins disposed at opposite ends of an elongated spine of the binding element to maintain the binding element in a stable position relative to surrounding binding elements. Nested or stacked binding elements may be so utilized in automatic binding processes such that the stacking pins may be severed from the binding element either before, during, or after the binding process itself.

Description:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION  
         [0001]    The present invention relates to binding elements for holding a plurality of perforated sheets or the like, and more specifically the invention pertains to structure for facilitating stacking or otherwise nesting of binding elements.  
         BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
         [0002]    Various types of binding elements have been utilized to bind a stack of perforated sheets or the like. Examples of such binding elements which are of a wire comb or hanger-type design are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,112,389 to Trussell and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,832,370 and 4,873,858 to Jones, while machines for assembling such binders are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,585 to Adams, U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,856 to Archer et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,117 to Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,890 to Flatt, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,489 to Bagroky. Other binding devices are disclosed, for example, in the following references: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,089,881 and 2,363,848 to Emmer, U.S. Pat. No. 2,435,848 to Schade, U.S. Pat. No. 2,466,451 to Liebman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,970 to Heusenkveld, U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,103 to Im, U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,159 to Amrich et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,013, Reexamination Certificate U.S. Pat. Nos. B1 4,369,013 and Re. 28,202 to Abildgaard et al. Machines for assembling plastic comb or finger binding elements are disclosed in patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,645,399 to Scharer, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,211 to Vercillo, U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,859 to Nanos et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,464,312 to Hotkowski et al. The patents are included herein by reference.  
           [0003]    Binding elements typically include a spine from which a plurality of fingers extend which may be assembled through perforations in a stack of sheets. This spine may be linear, with or without a longitudinally extending hinge. Alternately, the spine may be formed by sequential bending of a wire, as with wire comb or hanger type binding elements.  
           [0004]    Due to the structure of such binding devices, which include elongated spines and fingers, the binding devices commonly become entangled when stored in a group. Detangling the binding elements in order to assemble the element to a stack of sheets or lay the element into a binding machine can be a tedious and potentially time consuming process. Further, this tendency to become entangled may complicate or prevent the use of such binding devices in automated binding processes or machines wherein an automated feed is desirable.  
         OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION  
         [0005]    It is a primary object of the invention to provide a binding device with reduced susceptibility to tangling, and a more specific object is to provide a binding device which may be stacked to prevent tangling and to facilitate automated feeding of the device in a binding machine.  
           [0006]    Another object of the invention is to provide a stacking structure which does not interfere with the use or final appearance of a binding element. A related object is to provide stacking structure which may be severed from the binding element during an automated binding process.  
           [0007]    An additional object of the invention is to provide stacking structure which may be economically and efficiently manufactured.  
           [0008]    A further object is to provide stacking structure which may be unitarily molded with the binding element using conventional molding techniques.  
           [0009]    These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following summary and detailed description and upon reference to the drawings.  
         SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
         [0010]    In accordance with the invention, there is provided an elongated binding element having severable stacking pins or alignment pins disposed at opposite ends thereof. Where the binding element includes a spine with protruding fingers, the alignment pins are preferably unitarily formed at opposite ends of the spine. The alignment pins may be alternately disposed on the binding element, or more than two pins may be provided per binding element. The alignment pins are positioned and preferably include a nesting structure such that adjacently disposed binding element may be maintained in a stable position, e.g., in a horizontal position. For example, the binding pins may have a cone shape or include mating protrusions and indentations. While the pins and binding elements are preferably formed of a polymeric material, stacking pins may likewise be utilized with binders formed of metallic materials.  
           [0011]    Before, during or after the binding process, the stackable pins are preferably severed from the binding element. With automated processes, such as are well known in the art, severing of the pins may be accomplished by means of a separate procedure or coincident with another movement of the binding machine during the binding process. By way of example only, the pins may be severed as a machine element moves to exert force on the stack of sheets.  
           [0012]    The binding element with stackable pins may be economically and efficiently manufactured as pins may be unitarily formed with the binding element as part of a single molding process as is known in the art.  
           [0013]    These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the following summary and detailed description and upon reference to the drawings. 
       
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0014]    [0014]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a binding element with stackable pins according to teachings of the present invention.  
         [0015]    [0015]FIG. 2 is a plan view of a binding element of FIG. 1.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 3 is an end view of the binding element of FIG. 1 wherein the stackable pin is shown in cross-section as taken along line  3 - 3  in FIG. 1.  
         [0017]    [0017]FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of two stacked binding elements taken along line  4 - 4  in FIG. 2.  
         [0018]    [0018]FIG. 5 is an plan view of an alternate embodiment of the invention.  
         [0019]    [0019]FIG. 6 is an end view of the binding element of FIG. 5 wherein the stackable pin is shown in cross-section as taken along line  6 - 6  in FIG. 5.  
         [0020]    [0020]FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of two stacked binding elements taken along line  7 - 7  in FIG. 5.  
         [0021]    [0021]FIG. 8 is a plan view of a third embodiment of the invention.  
         [0022]    [0022]FIG. 9 is a side view of a fourth embodiment of the binding element constructed in accordance with teachings of the invention.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 10 is an end cross-sectional view taken along line  10 - 10  in FIG. 9.  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 11 is a plan view of two binding elements of FIG. 9 wherein the stackable pins are shown in cross-section taken along line  11 - 11  in FIG. 9. 
     
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0025]    Turning now to the drawings, there is shown in FIG. 1 a binding element  20  which includes a spine  22  and a plurality of fingers  24  which protrude from either side of the spine  22 . The spine  22  may further include a living hinge  26  or the like which facilitates the bending of the fingers  24  toward one another. In this way, the fingers  24  may be inserted through perforations in a stack of sheets (not shown) to bind the sheets together. In the embodiment illustrated, the living hinge  26  is in the form of a longitudinally extending line of reduced thickness along the spine.  
         [0026]    In accordance with the invention, the binder  20  is provided with stacking protrusions or pins  30  by which a plurality of binders  20  may be nested, or stacked, to prevent the binders from becoming tangled. It will further be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the stacking pins  30  facilitate the use of such binding elements in automated processing. A plurality of elements  20  so stacked may be readily handled and fed through automated binding machines (not shown) such that they may be used for high volume binding. The stacking pin  30  may be then be sheared off the element either during the handling process, during the closing process, or after binding.  
         [0027]    The stacking pins  30  may be of any appropriate design. The stacking pins  30  shown in FIGS.  1 - 4  have a generally conical shape with a broad lower end  32  and a narrow upper end  34 . The narrow upper end  34  further includes an upper surface  35  from which an upwardly extending nipple  36  protrudes. In order to receive the narrow upper end  34 , and the nipple  36 , in particular, the stacking pins  30  preferably include an internal cavity  38 . As may be seen in FIG. 4, the narrow upper end  34  and nipple  36  are received within the cavity  38  to nest the stacking pins  30  and fix the relative positions of the associated binding elements  20 . To further stabilize the nested stacking pins  30 , the internal cavity  38  may include a surface or flange  40  which receives the upper surface  35  of the stacking pin. It will be appreciated that the nipple  36  helps to guide the upper end  34  of the stacker into position within the cavity  38 . It will be appreciated, however, that the nipple  36 , cavity  38  and flange  40  are not required, so long as the pins  30  of adjacent binding elements  20  abut each other to maintain the spatial relationship.  
         [0028]    The stacking pins  30  may be coupled directly to the binding element  20 , or they may be coupled by means of an arm  39 , as shown in FIGS.  2 - 4 . The arm  39  is preferably of a smaller cross-section than the spine  22 , for example, so that it may be easily severed from the binding element  20 .  
         [0029]    It will further be appreciated that the stacking pin may be of an alternate configuration. For example, the stacking pin  30  of FIGS.  1 - 4  may have a smooth sided simple conical configuration such that the upper surface of the stacking pin and the nipple are one in the same and wherein the point or nipple of the cone is received within an internal cavity.  
         [0030]    Alternately, the stacking pin  130  may have a configuration such as is shown in FIGS.  5 - 7 , for example. (It will be noted that in this and subsequent embodiments, similar identification numbers are utilized with a different number prefix, i.e., 1xx is used for this embodiment, 2xx for the next, etc.) In this embodiment, stacking pin  130  is an elongated cylinder having a lower end  132  and an upper end  134 . The upper end  134  includes a surface  135  from which a nipple  136  extends. When nested, the upper surface  135  of the pin seats against lower surface  140 , while the upper surface  142  of the nipple  136  seats against the base surface  144  of the cavity  138 . It will be appreciated, however, that the pins  130  would appropriately nest regardless of which surfaces engage, i.e., the pins  130  would likewise appropriately nest if only surface  142  engaged  144  or if only surface  135  engaged surface  140 , rather than both.  
         [0031]    In this configuration, the stacking pin  130  have a circular configuration. The stacking pin  230  may alternately include a square configuration, such as is illustrated in FIG. 8. It will be appreciated that the cross-sectional side elevation views of the stacking pin  230  will be substantially similar to the cross-sections shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.  
         [0032]    Further, while the stacking pin  30  has been illustrated as extending perpendicular to a plane containing the binder element  20  and as facilitating a vertical stack of binding elements  20 , it will be appreciated that the stacking pins  330  may be utilized to stack binding elements  320  in a horizontal configuration, such as is shown in FIGS.  9 - 11 . In this embodiment, the stacking pins  330  extend substantially parallel to or in the same plane as a plane containing the binding element  320 . In this way, the binding elements  320  are disposed side-by-side when positioned by the stacking pins  330 . The stacking pins  330  are illustrated as having generally the same configuration as is illustrated in the embodiment shown in FIGS.  5 - 7 , however, the stacking pin  330  is slightly more elongated, running substantially the width of the binding elements  20 , as illustrated in FIG. 11. The stacking pin  330  themselves, however, nest in an identical manner to that disclosed and explained with regard to FIGS.  5 - 7 .  
         [0033]    While the stackers have been illustrated with regard to a particular binding element  20  design, it will be appreciated by those of skill in the art that the stacking pins may likewise be utilized with other sheet binding element structures, such as those illustrated in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,013 to Abildgaard et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,970 to Heusenkveld, U.S. Pat. No. 4,873,858 to Jones, U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,211 to Vercillo, U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,103 to Im, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,028,159 to Amrich et al., each of which is incorporated by reference herein. It will be noted that in Abildgaard et al., the binding elements include fingers in the form of nails and mating female strips having openings for receiving the nails. The nipple and cavity arrangement is not required as long as the stacking pins of adjacent binding elements abut one another to maintain the desired spatial relationship. Further, while the stacking pins preferably protrude from the opposite ends of an elongated spine  22 , it will be appreciated that the stacking pins may be alternately positioned along the binder, for example, along the fingers, so long as they do not interfere with the automated processes and so long as they may be severed to provide a final polished product. Additionally, a binding element may include less or greater than two stacking pins and may be formed of a polymeric material or a metallic material, provided these same requirements are met.