Abstract:
The recyclable single-sheet mailer is a single sheet of predominantly opaque paper stock having a front face, a rear face, top and bottom edges, and a transparent and seamless addressee window area defined thereon. All printed content is applied to the rear face of the mailer. The mailer has a plurality of transverse fold lines formed parallel to the top and bottom edges, dividing the sheet into a plurality of panels configurable as either a one-way mailer or as mailer with a business or courtesy reply envelope. Furthermore, a two-dimensional barcode containing addressee specific account information may be printed on the reply envelope to facilitate handling. Finally, addressee information, including bar-coded POSTNET data, may be printed in mirror image within the transparent window area, facilitating correct barcode scanning.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0001]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0002]     The present invention relates to mailers and envelopes, and particularly to single-sheet mailers that may serve both as a billing statement and a built-in reply envelope.  
         [0003]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0004]     Single-sheet mailers are popular with businesses because they offer companies a convenient means of transmitting statements to customers. Mailers include both one-way mailers and mailers with built in pre-addressed envelopes, which have been developed for the situations where the customer needs to respond back or send back a check to the original business concern.  
         [0005]     It is desirable to produce mailers that comprise a single sheet of paper, thereby making the production and printing of the mailer simple and economical. While such mailers have been for the most part successful, most varieties have suffered from the requirement of two-sided printing or the necessity of having a window opening or transparent patch exposing the mailing address. Furthermore, transparent patches such as those composed of cellophane, glassine, and polystyrene render the mailer non-recyclable, and entertain possible registration issues with the addressee indicia disposed on the underlying panel.  
         [0006]     Single-sheet mailers without addressee area cutouts or transparent window areas are well represented in the art. A subset of these devices are shown in U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0125306, published in September 2002; U.S. Patent Publication No. 2002/0008135, published in January 2002; U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,652, issued to S. Seguin in January 1987; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,027,014, issued to W. Cochran in February 2000.  
         [0007]     Mailers with windowed addressee areas composed of cellophane or other transparent material are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,647, issued to J. Yanow in July 1993, which discloses an envelope having top, middle, and bottom portions, where the bottom portion has side flaps, a bottom flap and a window. Folding the single sheet into thirds and sealing the side and bottom flaps of the bottom portion seals the mailer. The window is located on the front panel as a means to show the addressee information therethrough.  
         [0008]     Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,904, issued to R. Potter in November 1997, discloses a single-sheet envelope that is folded over in several portions and is sealed by side flaps and a top flap, where the preprinted address shows through a window. Additional mailers with see-through windows are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,554, issued to D. Sauerwine in December 1993; U.S. Pat. No. 5,598,970, issued in February 1997 to Mudry et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,389, issued to Z. Younger, issued in October 2000. All of the above devices require a window cutout or a transparent patch attached to the surface of the paper.  
         [0009]     Open or covered windows may be used for addresses and address block barcodes. In order for the U.S. Postal Service high-speed barcode sorters (BCS) to function, the material for covered windows must be clear or transparent and securely attached on all edges. Typically, cellophane, glassine, and polystyrene have been used successfully.  
         [0010]     None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus, a recyclable single-sheet mailer solving the aforementioned problems is desired.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0011]     The recyclable single-sheet mailer of the present invention is a single sheet of predominantly opaque paper stock having a front face, a rear face, first and second opposite end edges, and a plurality of transverse fold lines formed perpendicular to the parallel longitudinal edges, dividing the sheet into a plurality of panels configurable as either a one-way mailer or as a mailer with a business or courtesy reply envelope. Transparent addressee and return address window areas are defined in one or more panels, permitting the underlying addressee information to be viewable from outside of the envelope.  
         [0012]     The present invention has been designed to simplify the manufacturing process of single-sheet mailers. One means by which this is accomplished is by having all printed indicia applied to the rear face of the mailer. Furthermore, the transparent window areas are neither cutouts nor transparent patches attached to the face of the mailer. Composed of paper stock that forms the opaque portion of the mailer, the window areas have been made transparent by the application of a chemical agent, thereby providing a seamless transition between the opaque portion of the envelope and the transparent window portion. The transparent windows have sufficient clarity that Postal Service automated equipment may properly process the mailer.  
         [0013]     The Postal Service uses two basic types of automated equipment to process letter-size mail: a multiline optical character reader (MLOCR) which scans the address block on each letter-size mailpiece to determine the ZIP+4 code, and the delivery point information and a barcode sorter (BCS) to read POSTNET (POSTal Numeric Encoding Technique) barcodes on letter-size pieces and sort the mail accordingly. Towards this end, the single-sheet mailer incorporates POSTNET barcodes disposed on both the one-way mailer and the return envelope of the two-way mailer.  
         [0014]     Furthermore, a two-dimensional barcode containing addressee specific account information may be printed on the reply envelope to facilitate handling when returned to the sender.  
         [0015]     Finally, window viewable indicia, including addressee information and bar-coded POSTNET data. may, as an alternative to being printed on an underlying panel, be printed in mirror image on the rear surface of the transparent window area to improve reliability when scanned by U.S. Postal service BCS equipment.  
         [0016]     This and other features of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0017]      FIG. 1A  is an environmental, perspective view of a recyclable single-sheet one-way mailer according to the present invention.  
         [0018]      FIG. 1B  is a front view of the mailer of  FIG. 1A  in an unfolded state to show further details of the mailer.  
         [0019]      FIG. 1C  is a rear view of the mailer of  FIG. 1A  in an unfolded state to show further details of the mailer.  
         [0020]      FIG. 1D  is a diagrammatic perspective view showing successive steps in folding the one-way mailer of  FIG. 1A .  
         [0021]      FIG. 2A  is a front view of a second embodiment of a single-sheet one-way mailer of the present invention unfolded and having the addressee information mirror-printed on the back side of the mailer sheet.  
         [0022]      FIG. 2B  is the rear view of the unfolded one-way mailer of  FIG. 2A .  
         [0023]      FIG. 3A  is front view of a single-sheet two-way mailer of the present invention in an unfolded state.  
         [0024]      FIG. 3B  is a rear view of the mailer of  FIG. 3A .  
         [0025]      FIG. 3C  is a perspective view of the mailer of  FIG. 3A  being folded for initial mailing.  
         [0026]      FIG. 3D  is a rear perspective view of the mailer of  FIG. 3A  in the process of being opened.  
         [0027]      FIG. 3E  is a perspective view of the mailer of  FIG. 3A  showing a check being inserted into the reply envelope portion of the mailer.  
         [0028]      FIG. 3F  is a perspective view of the mailer of  FIG. 3A  showing the reply envelope in the process of being sealed.  
         [0029]      FIG. 4A  is a front view of an alternative embodiment of a two-way mailer of the present invention in an unfolded state with the address indicia printed in mirror image on the rear window portion of the mailer.  
         [0030]      FIG. 4B  is a rear view of the mailer of  FIG. 4A  in an unfolded state having the mirror image of addressee indicia printed on the mailer.  
         [0031]      FIG. 4C  is a perspective view of the mailer of  FIG. 4A  showing the reply envelope being detached. 
     
    
       [0032]     Similar reference characters denote corresponding features consistently throughout the attached drawings.  
       DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       [0033]     The present invention is a recyclable single-sheet mailer having four embodiments generally described in the drawings as 100, 200, 300, and 400. All four embodiments are similar, being comprised of a single opaque sheet of recyclable paper stock having a plurality of panels folded in a specific pattern to create either a one-way mailer  100 ,  200  or a two-way mailer  300 ,  400 . Furthermore, all embodiments are similar in having transparent window areas  104 ,  106  formed in a panel for displaying the addressee and sender address disposed on an underlying panel. Unlike transparent patches used by other mailers, the mailers of the present invention are formed using a chemical process by which the opaque paper is made transparent in order to form the transparent windows  104 ,  106 .  
         [0034]     In order that all address and barcode information be readable through the window, the United States Postal Service requires that the material for covered windows must be securely attached on all edges and satisfy the following minimum reflectance and contract guidelines: (1) A print contrast ratio (PCR) equal to or more than 40 percent in the red and green portions of the optical spectrum is necessary for an MLOCR to recognize address information; and (2) A print reflectance difference (PRD) equal to or more than 30 percent in the red and the green portions of the optical spectrum is necessary for a BCS to recognize POSTNET barcodes.  
         [0035]     Cellophane, glassine, and polystyrene have been used successfully to form the window. Postal Service requirements for window coverings and barcode indicia are known to those skilled in the art and are published by the Postal Service.  
         [0036]     The present invention uses a chemical process disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2002-327,397, published in November 2002, to make the addressee and return address portions of the envelope transparent. A translated abstract of the aforementioned Japanese patent is included by reference in this application and is described below.  
         [0037]     The mailer sheet of the present invention is composed of paper stock that is normally opaque because of a substantial amount of air retained in the fiber of the paper. The air imbedded within the fibers reflects and diffuses light, resulting in the opaque appearance common to an unbleached sheet of paper. However, once the chemical agent disclosed in the &#39;397 is applied to, and penetrates the fiber, the air imbedded within the fibers is absorbed by the solution making the paper transparent.  
         [0038]     The chemical agent used in the present invention, as described in the above-referenced Abstract, has the general formula R1O(AO) n R2, wherein R1 and R2 are hydrogen, a C 1 -C 22  hydrocarbon, or an acyl group and A is a C 2 -C 4  alkylene, and has a melting point greater than or equal to 40° C. or is a reaction product of a polyisocyanate with a compound of the above formula in which R1 and R2 are hydrogen. The chemical agent is in solid form at room temperature and must be heated to attain liquid state. The process by which the addressee area  104  and the return address area  106  is made transparent comprises the steps of (1) heating the paper to the material&#39;s melting temperature; (2) stamping a sponge like material absorbed with the solution stamps onto the paper; (3) maintaining the stamp against the paper until the chemical agent in solid form melts and the liquefied agent thoroughly penetrates the paper&#39;s fibers; and (4) removing the heat source and stamp, thereby allowing the paper to dry and the solution to cool down and retake it&#39;s solid state.  
         [0039]     Facing Identification Mark (FIM) disposed on the front face of Business Reply Mail (BRM) and Courtesy Reply Mail (CRM) permits computerized cancellation equipment to align, postmark, and direct the mailpiece properly, and is incorporated into the design of the two-way single-sheet mailer.  
         [0040]     The U.S. Post Office uses a barcode sorter (BCS) to read POSTNET (POSTal Numeric Encoding Technique) barcodes on letter-size pieces and sort the mail accordingly. Among other requirements, the barcode must always be printed within 4 inches of the bottom edge of the piece, either as part of the address block or within the barcode clear zone in the lower right corner.  
         [0041]     In order to ensure successful automated processing, the transparent window and the placement of the address information are designed so that the entire address and postal barcode appear in the window area during any movement of the panels. POSTNET barcodes printed as part of the address block of the addressee, as well as on the return envelope portion, must maintain the minimum clearances as specified by the U.S. Post Office.  
         [0042]     Referring to the first embodiment of the present invention,  FIGS. 1A-1D  illustrate a single-sheet mailer  100  formed of a rectangular sheet of paper  102  suitable for processing through an inkjet or other low-heat printer to minimze possible heat damage to the window area. This first embodiment is characterized as a one-way mailer, intended as a business mailer to a customer without having a built-in return envelope.  
         [0043]     The mailer  100  is comprised of four panels  116 ,  118 ,  120 ,  122  having front faces as shown in  FIG. 1B .  FIG. 1C  illustrates the rear face of the mailer  100  with the panel rear faces designated  116 ′,  118 ′,  120 ′,  122 ′, respectively. The first panel  116  defines a sealing flap  110  and has a water-soluble adhesive strip  144  defined on the inside flap  110 ′, as shown in  FIG. 1C . The flap  110  is folded along fold line  146  over the intervening panels and seals the first panel  116  to the bottom of the front face of second panel  118 .  
         [0044]     Referring again to  FIG. 1B , the first panel  116  has two transparent panels  104 ,  106 , which allow the addressee indicia  152  and the return address indicia  154 , which are printed on the inside face  122 ′ of the fourth panel, to be visible to the BCS. As previously disclosed, the transparent window areas  104 ,  106  are neither cutouts nor transparent patches of cellophane. These transparent windows  104  and  106  are part of the paper stock that comprise the entire mailer  100 , and by means of the chemical process heretofore disclosed, have been chemically treated to remove the air from the paper fibers, thereby making them transparent. A field  108  is defined on panel  116  for receiving a stamp or preprinted mail indicia.  
         [0045]     The mailer  100  is provided with a pair of perforated or weakened tear strips  112  defined on the left and right sides of the mailer  100  to facilitate opening by the addressee. Tear strips  112  are commonly formed by means of a line of perforations  148  along the tear line. Opening instructions  126 , intended for the addressee, are provided on the front face of the second panel  118 .  
         [0046]     In addition to the fold line  146  for the sealable flap  110 , fold lines  128 ,  130 , and  132  are provided between the first and second panels  116 ,  118 , the second and third panels  118 ,  120 , and the third and fourth panels  120 ,  122 , respectively. Cutouts or notches  114  are defined in the edges of the fourth panel  122  and serve to present underlying adhesive areas  150  to the overlying panel  120 , as shown in  FIG. 1C .  
         [0047]     Still referring to  FIG. 1C  showing the rear face of the mailer  100 , a message area  140 , which may include printed indicia referring to the customer&#39;s account, is defined in the left portion of the first panel face  116 ′. A larger statement area  138  is defined across the lower three panel faces  118 ′,  120 ′,  122 ′ and is designed to contain indicia conveying the substantive content of the mailer  100 . In order to minimize costs for the one-way mailer  100 , all printed indicia, and all adhesive patterns are disposed on the rear face of the mailer  100 . Addressee and return address indicia  152 ,  154  is printed on the right hand portion of the fourth panel rear face  122 ′ and is registered to be clearly visible through the transparent window areas  104 ,  106  respectively. The addressee window area  104  is of a transparency sufficient to allow Postal Service BCS equipment to scan the underlying barcode portion of the addressee indicia  152 .  
         [0048]      FIG. 1D  illustrates the sequence of steps  158  by which the one-way mailer  100  is assembled. First, adhesive areas  150  along the side edges of the mailer  100  are moistened. The adhesive material is non-limiting and may be any water-soluble adhesive compound known to those skilled in the art. Next, the bottom rear panel face  122 ′ of the mailer  100  is folded up towards the first panel rear face  116 ′ along fold-line  130 , whereby panel rear face  122 ′ is in adhesive contact with panel rear face  116 ′ and panel rear face  118 ′ is in adhesive contact with panel rear face  120 ′, as shown in step  160 . Quickly, before the adhesive material  150  dries, panel  120  and the underlying panel  118  are folded upward along fold-line  132 , and is held in place by the adhesive  150  beneath the cutouts  114 , as shown in step  162 . Finally, the adhesive strip  144  on inside flap  110 ′ is moistened folded, making adhesive contact with the upper edge of panel  118 , as shown in step  164 . Once assembled, the addressee and return addressee indicia are visible through window areas  104 ,  106 .  
         [0049]      FIGS. 2A and 2B  illustrate a second embodiment of a one-way mailer, designated as  200 , in which the addressee information and barcode data  210 , as well as the return address indicia  208 , are printed in mirror image on the rear face of the transparent windowed areas  104 ,  106  respectively. Mirror image printing is known in the art and fonts that perform this function, such as “PRMirror” are easily downloaded from the Internet. The benefit of this embodiment is the improvement in clarity of the indicia as observed from the front of the envelope, since the indicia  208  and  210  are printed directly onto transparent windows  106  and  104 , respectively, which is important when being scanned by the U.S. Postal Service.  
         [0050]      FIG. 3A-3F  illustrate the third embodiment of the recyclable single-sheet mailer, which is a two-way mailer  300  that incorporates a return envelope attached to the bottom of a single mailer sheet in which the original addressee may send back an insert, such as a check, to a predetermined address. As in the previous embodiments, the first panel  116  has two transparent window areas  104 ,  106  for the addressee and return addressee indicia  154 ,  152 , respectively.  
         [0051]     As shown in  FIG. 3A , the front side of the two-way mailer  300  has bottom panels  304  and  306  separated by fold line  310 . The return envelope portion is formed by moistening adhesive areas  316 ,  318  and folding the bottom panel  306  so that it lies against, and is adhesively bonded to, panel  304 .  
         [0052]     Referring now to  FIG. 3B , the rear face  304 ′ of the third panel  304  forms the front of the return envelope and has address indicia  334  as well as addressee barcode indicia  332  disposed thereon. Furthermore, a Facing Identification Mark (FIM)  330  and a field  336  for placing postage is defined on the front face of the return envelope. The rear face  306 ′ forms the back of the return envelope and has a two-dimensional barcode  340  disposed thereon. Over twenty different two-dimensional bar code symbologies are currently available and provide high-density storage of information along the height as well as the length of the symbol. Non-limiting, the QR Code  340  shown in present embodiment  300  is capable of encoding 7,336 numeric characters, or 4,464 alphanumeric characters.  
         [0053]      FIG. 3C , in conjunction with  FIGS. 3A and 3B , illustrates the method by which the two-way mailer is folded prior to being send to the business customer. After the return envelope has been formed, adhesive strips  338  are moistened and panel rear face  304 ′ is folded along weakened fold line  312 , bringing the rear face  304 ′ of the third panel  304  into contact with panel rear face  118 ′. In the present embodiment, line  312  is perforated to allow the reply envelope to be torn off by the addressee in preparation for mailing the reply envelope to a predetermined address. To complete formation of the mailer  300 , panel rear face  306 ′ is folded upward so that it is in adhesive contact with panel rear face  116 ′ such that address indicia  152 ,  154  appear through window areas  104  and  106 , respectively.  
         [0054]     When received by the initial addressee, the addressee tears off the perforated edges  112  and peels off inside flap  110 ′ as shown in  FIG. 3D . Upon opening the mailer, the user tears off the reply envelope along tear line  312 , and as shown in  FIG. 3E , may then insert a check  342  or other insert within the reply envelope before sealing the reply envelope by moistening adhesive area  316  and folding and sealing flap  314  against panel rear face  306 ′. As shown in  FIGS. 3E and 3F , the original addressee indicia  152  becomes the return addressee information on the rear of the reply envelope. Furthermore, the two-dimensional barcode  340  enables the receiving company to scan the envelope to determine account related information prior to opening the envelope.  
         [0055]     The fourth and final embodiment, shown in  FIGS. 4A-4C , is an alternative two-way mailer, designated as  400 , incorporating an integrated reply envelope  410  similar to that of the third embodiment  300 , with the mirror, or reverse printed addressee and return addressee indicia  404 ,  402  respectively, similar to the second embodiment of the one-way mailer  200 . The mirror printed information provides high visibility for the indicia that must be scanned by the BCS. Again, because the indicia  402  and  404  is printed directly on the reverse face of transparent windows  106  and  104 , clarity is improved and there is no problem with alignment of the indicia with the transparent windows  106  and  104 .  
         [0056]     It is to be understood that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, but encompasses any and all embodiments within the scope of the following claims.