Abstract:
A novelty piece fabricated from a continuous roll of paper, with indicia applied to both sides. Fold lines and cut lines are provided at predetermined positions. The sheet is scored and die-cut, and an adhesive is applied at pre-selected locations. The paper is folded in thirds, and is cut again to produce the final product. In operation, the completed product has sliding panels that reveal hidden indicia, both in moveable panels and in apertures. The aforstated features can apply to both sides of the novelty piece.

Description:
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART 
     Novelty pieces are well known as low cost prizes or trade stimulators in the prior art. Such pieces have been, and even currently may be found as prizes in cereal and snack foods, as well as being utilized in merchandising and advertising programs. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is an object of this invention to provide a novelty piece which has a movable, changeable display, where upon pulling out a tab, previously covered indicia is revealed on a pulled out member, and/or in a aperture on the body of the piece itself. This can be accomplished on both sides of the product if so desired. 
     It is another object of this invention to provide a method for making a plurality of the pieces of the foregoing object utilizing web fed printing equipment to enable the preferred embodiment to be economically fabricated. 
     These and other objects are preferably accomplished by providing a novelty piece cut from web fed paper or other printable substrate having both sides of the sheet printed with indicia in registration and then progressively cutting and perforating at predetermined locations, stripping out selected paper areas, then applying adhesive at pre-selected locations and the sheet is then folded aligning the adhesive locations and the pieces are cut out. The final piece consists of three layers of paper or other printable substrate, the middle of which is covered or hidden until, being revealed by pulling out of tabs on the side(s) of the product, the number of sides can vary from one to many, depending on the shape, and overall size of the finished product, the size of the pull outs, and the application it is produced for. Still another aspect of the final piece is that images that appear in apertures on either side of the product can have the image change by the movement of the slide out middle layer. The middle layer can pull all of the way out and be removed, or it can be set to stop at a predetermined location. 
     A previous patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,833,789 discloses a novelty piece having a plurality of indicia bearing panels which fold to reveal concealed indicia while the present invention discloses a member which is slide-able to reveal concealed indicia on both the slide-able member, and apertures in the novelty piece itself. 
     Another important object of the invention is that the within method of producing the novelty piece can be performed on conventional roll fed or web type printing presses, eliminating costly hand labor or specialized machinery, and that the resulting novelty piece is ready to be used with no further fabrication or tearing of edges or the like by the ultimate user. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a plan view of a front of the sheet of printable substrate having three areas of indicia applied, (rows A, B and C) as well as illustrating where die-cuts and perforations are to be placed; 
         FIG. 2  is a plan view of the back of the sheet of printable substrate having one area of printing (rows D, E, and F) as well as illustrating where die-cuts and perforations can be placed; 
         FIG. 3A  is a plan view of the front side of the sheet of  FIG. 1 , without indicia illustrating intended die-cut areas;  FIG. 3B  illustrates the detailed view of die-cut areas. 
         FIG. 4  is a plan view of the front side of the sheet of  FIG. 1 , here illustrating glue positions; 
         FIG. 5   a  is a plan view illustrating the first fold operation showing back of sheet indicia row D folded over onto row E, whereby the respective indicia of each said row is in intended alignment with the other; 
         FIG. 5   b  is a plan view illustrating a second fold operation showing back of sheet indicia row F folded over onto row C. 
         FIGS. 6A and 6B  are plan views illustrating a third fold operation. 
         FIG. 7  illustrates a final die-cut operation whereby the final product is die-cut from the glued and folded sheet. 
         FIG. 8  illustrates the final piece showing faces A and B, and the slide out component with indicia on both sides. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1  of the drawing, a sheet  10  of printable substrate is shown having a plurality of vertical rows of indicia A, B, and C applied thereon. As the sheet advances through a sheet fed printing press, each row has been provided with a plurality of images thereon, all the images in one row, as for example, row B, are here depicted as being identical. Thus, three different faces or images are shown in  FIG. 1 . It is to be understood that all the designs or scenes in one row, such as row B, are only identical if all novelty pieces produced from the same sheet are to be the same. Although the term “sheet” has been used, sheet  10  may be a multi-layered or a multi-plied sheet with the indicia printed separately on two single sheets of paper, then glued, laminated or otherwise joined to a stiffer sheet of, for example, paper or cardboard. 
     Referring now to  FIG. 2 , the opposite side of sheet  10 , is shown, comprising a plurality of vertical rows of indicia D, E, and F which are in alignment and registration with the vertical rows of indicia A, B and C on the front side of sheet  10 , shown in  FIG. 1 . 
     Sheet  10  thus includes thereon, six faces, designs, indicia, or scenes that can be displayed in the single novelty piece of the instant invention. 
     As seen by referring collectively to in  FIGS. 2 through 6 , a plurality of vertical and horizontal die cuts are made through sheet  10  at predetermined locations. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3  of the drawing, vertical die cuts  11  and  12  are made through the images on rows A through F with rows E and F not being visible inasmuch as they underlie rows A and B and are in alignment and registration therewith. Vertical and horizontal die-cuts  13 ,  18  and  19  are made in rows C and D with row D not being visible inasmuch as it underlies row C in alignment and registration therewith. The rectangular die cut areas  31  and  32  are physically removed from the printable substrate. The aforestated die cutting and substrate removal allows the aforestated sliding panels when moved, to reveal hidden indicia. The length of the removed material determines the distance that the sliding panels can move. As shown in  FIG. 3 , when vertical die cuts  14  and  15  advance to vertical die cuts  16  and  17 , the moving panel will stop. Some of the time the design will call for the movable panels to stop, which usually means they will be pushed back in again, alternatively, the intended design purpose may have the sliding panels removed completely from the overall piece, in which case vertical die cuts  14  and  15  will not be required. The die cut lines  11 ,  12 ,  18  and  19  may extend beyond the edges of each image and accordingly, in production, the die cuts may extend past the final trim size of the piece as shown  FIG. 3 . 
     To accomplish the fabrication of the within novelty piece as sheet  10  progresses through a sheet fed printing press, sheet  10  must be folded twice along two fold lines  39 , and  40  ( FIG. 3   a ) so that the indicia on rows C, D, E and F appear to the inside and the indicia in rows A and B being outside the fold are visible. The inside surfaces of the folded sheet must first be glued or otherwise adhesively affixed so when the sheet  10  is folded about lines  39 , and  40  rows A, B, and C which are in alignment and registration with rows D, E, and F will now all be in alignment and registration. 
     To accomplish the aforestated gluing in carrying out the instant invention, the glue or other suitable adhesive must be accurately applied at predetermined locations. As shown in  FIG. 4 , glue patterns,  45  and  46  are applied to specific areas of each image on rows E, and F, prior to the aforestated folding about fold lines  39  and  40 , and upon folding, the mating glue pattern areas  47 , and on  FIG. 5   a  and  FIG. 5   b  mating glue pattern area  48  on rows C and D are in registration. The glue may be machine-applied by a number of well-known techniques utilizing templates, special fixtures or printing technology. 
     After the sheet is folded as shown in  FIGS. 5   a,  through  6   b,  only rows A and B now define the front and rear of the resulting folded and affixed sheet as depicted in  FIG. 7  with row B being on the rear side (not shown). As depicted in  FIG. 7 , the 6 layered and glued images are now die cut out from the three layered folded sheet  10  while ensuring that the previous die cut lines have their endpoints outside and centered to final die or rotary cuts. 
     It is to be understood that the final piece  100  (4 being formed from sheet  10  of the illustrated embodiment) is shown in  FIG. 7  being die cut and releasing from the sheet  10 . Piece  100  has a front face A, as seen in  FIG. 8 , die cut or perforated along line  11 . By pulling the piece on the small side of the die cut  11  which defines a tab, comprised of three layers, the hidden indicia on rows C and D, now emerges and becomes visible, row C panel and indicia being visible when viewing the front face A, and row D panel and indicia being visible when viewing the back face B. The slide out central layer moves outward a predetermined distance, which is a product of the design intent. It could be a very short distance or a very substantial percentage of the overall width or length of the entire piece. Piece  100  also has a back face, B, (not visible in  FIG. 8 .) but nonetheless on the opposite side of front face A, and in alignment and registration with all of the other rows. 
     There is thus described a novelty piece which has moveable display and a method for making the same on sheet fed printing equipment. Obviously, variations thereof may occur to any artisan and the scope of the invention should only be considered to be limited by the scope of the appended claims. For example, it will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art that sets of different images can be produced on the same sheet and that the configuration of the novelty piece is not restricted to a rectangle, but can be produced in many geometrical shape variations, and as well the number of sliding components need not be restricted to one, but there can be any number of sliding components, limited only by the size of the overall piece.