Abstract:
Set of tickets in the form of a continuous strip ( 35, 85 ) of multilayer detachable tickets featuring, between two adjacent tickets ( 30  and  31, 80  and  81 ), cross precuts ( 32, 82 ) alternating with ticket linking bridges ( 33, 83 ), the transversal precuts being used to guide the separation of adjacent tickets when a pulling force is applied on one of the tickets. The cross precuts ( 32, 82 ) feature at their end longitudinal precuts ( 34, 84 ) that are perpendicular or oblique to cross precuts so that the linking bridges ( 33, 83 ) between two adjacent tickets play the role of hinges when the adjacent tickets are folded or are not in the same plane, thus preventing the outer layer from being subjected to more stresses than the inner layer.

Description:
This application claims benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/904,381, filed Mar. 2, 2007. 
    
    
     TECHNICAL FIELD 
     This invention concerns tickets attached to one another and designed to be inserted into an automatic dispensing machine and specifically concerns sets of contactless smart tickets detachable from one another and the associated device to manufacture such tickets. 
     PRIOR ART 
     Paper tickets are widely used in many public-related areas such as access to parking or other reserved areas, as well as transport documents. Paper tickets known as “contactless tickets” also include a chip and an antenna connected together in the thickness of the ticket. When leaving the factory after being manufactured, paper tickets generally come in three forms of packaging. There exist single tickets delivered in boxes, tickets in rolls with or without precuts, and fanfold tickets with precuts. 
     Automatic dispensing machines are adapted to each type of packaging. In the special case of dispensing fanfold tickets, the precuts of tickets are used for separating tickets by tension. With reference to  FIG. 1 , the tickets  10  are in the form of a strip  11 , each ticket presenting precuts  12  separated by linking bridges  13  at its end common with the next ticket, the bridges and the precuts being aligned along a line dividing two adjacent tickets along which the rupture by tension will occur. The pulling force required to separate the tickets must be constant between two adjacent tickets of the strip of tickets. If the strip breaks too easily, a rupture is possible before the ticket comes out of the machine. If the strip is too difficult to break, the machine may be unable to tear off a ticket. If the breaking force in a strip varies too much, both the previous cases can occur leading to a serious malfunction of the dispenser. 
     Obtaining a constant breaking force is rather easy with single-layer tickets. But current contactless tickets have two or three layers of paper glued together. These layers can be of different resistance and the fanfolds are alternating. In a diagrammatic representation according to  FIG. 2 , the tickets are stored as fanfold tickets  21 , each outer layer of tickets on either side of a fold of the fanfold strip located alternately outside or inside the fold. In this manner, the outer layer  25  of the ticket  22  is more stressed and can sometimes tear along the line dividing two tickets as can be seen in the cross-section of  FIG. 2 , while the inner layer  26  of the ticket  22  is subjected to very little mechanical stress and is therefore less stressed than the outer layer. Similarly, the precuts located in the right side of the fanfold strip are not subjected to any stretching stress. 
     All these configurations within the same strip affect the precuts differently with the result that some layers of paper are more stretched than others. In this manner, the pulling force required to separate any two tickets of the strip is different depending on the tickets. 
     DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION 
     This is why the purpose of the invention is to provide tickets in the form of a strip of tickets attached to each other and detachable by means of an almost constant pulling force. 
     Another purpose of the invention is to provide a method for manufacturing tickets according to the first purpose of the invention. 
     The purpose of the invention concerns a set of tickets in the form of a continuous strip of multilayer detachable tickets featuring cross precuts that are perpendicular to the strip between two adjacent tickets alternating with ticket linking bridges, the cross precuts being used to guide the separation of adjacent tickets when a pulling force is applied on one of the tickets. The cross precuts feature at their end longitudinal precuts that are perpendicular or oblique to cross precuts so that the linking bridges between two adjacent tickets play the role of hinges when adjacent tickets are folded or are not in the same plane, thus preventing the outer layer from being subjected to more stresses than the inner layer. 
     The purposes, objects and characteristics of the invention will become more apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which: 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  represents a strip of tickets according to prior art, 
         FIG. 2  represents the tickets stored in the form of a fanfold strip, 
         FIG. 3  represents a top view of a set of tickets according to the invention, 
         FIG. 4  represents a cross sectional view of the set of tickets of  FIG. 3  stored in the form of a fanfold strip, 
         FIG. 5  represents the finishing machine for tickets of the set of tickets shown in  FIG. 3 , 
         FIG. 6  represents a detailed view of the cutting tool of the finishing machine shown in the previous figure, 
         FIG. 7  represents a top view of the sharp part of the cutting tool, 
         FIG. 8  represents a side view of the sharp part of the cutting tool, 
         FIG. 9  represents a top view of a set of tickets according to a variant of the invention, 
         FIG. 10  represents a top view of the sharp part of the cutting tool used with the set of tickets shown in  FIG. 9 , and 
         FIG. 11  represents a perspective view of the sharp part of the cutting tool of the finishing machine shown in the previous figure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     According to  FIG. 3 , multilayer tickets  30  in the form of rolls or fanfold strip are attached to each other by their cross edge to form a strip  35  of detachable tickets. Tickets  30  present or contain information that enable them to be used as a transport receipt or voucher. They are generally made of at least two layers of paper closely glued to each other. The layers are made of paper or a similar material such as synthetic paper. Each ticket  30  has, at its end common with the next ticket  31 , cross precuts  32  and longitudinal precuts  34  located at the ends of cross precuts. Precuts are separated by linking bridges  33 , the bridges and the cross precuts  32  being aligned along a line dividing two adjacent tickets along which the rupture by tension will occur. Cross precuts  32  are perpendicular to the strip of tickets  35  while longitudinal precuts  34  are perpendicular to the cross precuts. The longitudinal precuts  34  extend the linking bridges  33  towards the inside of the ticket  30 . The linking bridges are thus clearly defined and play the role of hinges during folding of the tickets in a fanfold manner, as can be seen in detail in  FIG. 4 . The linking bridges thus bounded by two longitudinal precuts  34  which are parallel to each other have a rectangular shape and preferably a length between 0.9 mm and 2.5 mm and are separated by a distance between 1.1 mm and 2 mm. 
     As diagrammatically shown in  FIG. 4 , the tickets stored in the form of a fanfold strip are shown in cross section. Two adjacent tickets  39  and  40  located on either side of a fold are thus held together by linking bridges  43  that have a radius of curvature designed so that no tearing is caused by the various layers of the tickets. The parts of the tickets along the precuts  42  are not pulled out so that the layer  45  of the ticket located outside the fold is not subjected to greater stretching stress than layer  46  of the ticket located inside. Two tickets  40  and  41  located in a straight part of the fanfold strip are held together by linking bridges  53  alternating with precuts  52 . Similarly, when the tickets are stored in a roll, the linking bridges between two adjacent tickets acting as hinges reduce the stresses on the line of intersection between two tickets caused by the stiffness of tickets. The multilayer tickets set forth in the invention contain at least two layers whose thickness is equal to about 170 μm. 
     According to  FIG. 5 , the finishing machine  61  for tickets consists of guide and tension rollers  63  between which the strip of tickets coming from a roll  62  is directed, a cutout cylinder  64  on which is wound the cutting tool  69 , a pressure roll  65  and an accordion folding device  66  not shown. The tickets  67  are arranged in the form of a fanfold strip  68  for easy packaging and transportation to the dispensing locations. 
     According to  FIG. 6 , the cutting tool  69  consists of a steel strip  70  on which blades  71  and  73  are welded. Centering holes  72  are used for the proper positioning of the cutting tool  69  on the mandrel  64 . The blades  71  cut out the longitudinal edges of tickets  67 . The blades  73  cut out the cross edges of tickets to form cross precuts used for separating tickets by tension. Several breaks  74  in the cross blades  73  form linking bridges between the tickets that are used to maintain the links between two adjacent tickets. 
     According to  FIG. 7 , the breaks  74  in the cross blades  73  are completed by sharp segments  75  that enable longitudinal precuts  34  of small length to be made in the tickets. The cross blades have a length between 0.9 mm and 2.5 mm and separated by a distance between 1.1 mm and 2 mm. The sharp segments  75  are located at the ends of the cross blades  73  and are parallel to each other. 
     According to  FIG. 8 , the sharp segments  75  defining the breaks  74  have a very steep slope  76  on the side of the breaks  74  and gentler slope  77  on the opposite side. The slope  76  ensures that the linking bridge is held properly during the cutting, thereby guaranteeing a repeatability in the width of bridges. The slope  77  provides the sturdiness of the sharp segment  75  for a longer lifespan. 
     The tickets according to the invention are ready to be inserted into a dispensing machine and guarantee a separation force between two tickets within a limited tolerance range. During the separation, the hinges break at their weak spot which is linked to the internal fibers of layers forming the tickets. As the hinges have a certain length, the break leaves on one of the tickets some length of hinges that can vary from one ticket to another. 
     A variant of the invention described below guarantees an equal break, i.e. at the same location on all tickets. According to  FIG. 9 , the multilayer tickets in the form of rolls or fanfold strip are attached to one another by their cross edge to form a strip  85  of detachable tickets. Each ticket  80  has, at its end common with the next ticket  81 , cross precuts  82  and longitudinal precuts  84  located at the ends of the cross precuts. The cross precuts  82  are perpendicular to the strip of tickets  85  while the longitudinal precuts  84  are oblique to the cross precuts  82 . The precuts are separated by linking bridges  83 , the centre of bridges  83  and the cross precuts  82  being aligned along a line dividing two adjacent tickets along which the rupture by tension will occur. The V-shaped longitudinal precuts  84  extend the linking bridges  83  towards the inside of the ticket  80 . The precuts  84  form, two by two and on either side of the line formed by the precuts  82 , two trapezoids joined by their smaller base. The linking bridges are thus clearly defined by two V-shaped precuts  84  and play the role of a hinge during the folding of the strip of tickets in a fanfold manner, as can be seen in detail in  FIG. 4 . The width of this base located at their centre becomes superposed to the line along which the precuts  82  are located. The linking bridges thus formed fit exactly into a rectangle whose edges parallel to the line dividing the two tickets have a length between 1.1 mm and 2 mm and the two other edges have a length between 0.9 mm and 2.5 mm. 
     The ticket finishing machine is the same as the one described for tickets according to the first embodiment of the invention described earlier and particularly with reference to  FIGS. 5 and 6 . To manufacture the tickets according to the variant of the invention, the difference lies in the shape of blades. As such, according to  FIG. 10 , the breaks  74  in the cross blades  93  are completed by sharp segments  95  that are used to make longitudinal precuts of small length in the tickets. 
     According to  FIG. 11 , the sharp segments  95  defining the breaks  94  have a very steep slope  96  on the side of the breaks  94  and a gentler slope  97  on the opposite side. The slope  96  ensures that the linking bridge is held properly during the cutting, thereby guaranteeing a repeatability in the width of bridges. The slope  97  provides the sturdiness of the sharp segment  95  for a longer lifespan. At the closest location, the sharp segments  95  are separated by a distance between 1.1 mm and 2 mm. 
     In comparison with the precuts made in the prior art illustrated in  FIG. 1 , the invention presents an advantage that is revealed from the manufacturing step. When the precuts  12  between the tickets are only cross precuts as shown in  FIG. 1 , the bridges  13  of tickets are subjected to stretching when the precuts are made, which leads to stresses in the fibers of the ticket located in the extension of precuts  12 , that is to say along the line dividing the tickets. As the cutting blades have a triangular section, when the blade passes through the thickness of the ticket and reaches the steel strip, the larger side of the blade is on the side where the blade has started cutting the ticket. As a result, the layer located on this side is subjected to more stretching than the one located against the steel strip. According to the invention, the longitudinal precuts  34  and  84  are used to transmit the stretching forces undergone normally on the line dividing the bridges at the end of bridges. In this manner, the stresses are distributed over the width of bridges and on either side of the line separating the tickets on arcs so that the fibers of all layers of tickets situated along the dividing line are preserved.