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Book style cassette holders or albums are mass produced from sheets of thermoplastics material by unwinding a relatively rigid or stiff thermoplastic sheet from a roll and successively thermal forming the sheet into a plurality of pairs of adjoining trays in side-by-side relation connected by flexib

Book style cassette holders or albums are mass produced from sheets of thermoplastics material by unwinding a relatively rigid or stiff thermoplastic sheet from a roll and successively thermal forming the sheet into a plurality of pairs of adjoining trays in side-by-side relation connected by flexible spines and surrounded by marginal portions. The thermal formed areas, preferably composed of two rows of album trays with two sets in each row, are successively severed from the sheet into blanks. Each tray portion of a blank has a bottom surrounded by a hollow peripheral wall with the hollow face of the wall surrounded by a rim providing a pocket. The blanks are fed successively, hollow face upwardly, through a plurality of stations which successively apply adhesive in the pockets, deposit cardboard stiffeners in the pockets, feed a flexible cover sheet and, if desired, a film sheet over all or part of the cover sheet. Printed sheets can also be deposited on the cover sheet and thus covered by the film sheet. The deposited sheets are thermal bonded to the margins surrounding the pairs of trays, the holders or albums are cut free from the blanks, cover sheet and film, the waste marginal portions of the blanks and sheets are wound into a roll and the individual albums are conveyed in open condition to a station where they are manually inspected, closed and packaged for shipment. The entire process is carried out in a straightline operation requiring little manual attention.

대표청구항 ▼

1. The method of making book style albums which comprises unwinding a first thermoplastic sheet from a roll, heating the sheet, thermal forming the sheet to define a plurality of pairs of trays and lids in side-by-side relation connected by flexible spines with open top pockets surrounding the botto

1. The method of making book style albums which comprises unwinding a first thermoplastic sheet from a roll, heating the sheet, thermal forming the sheet to define a plurality of pairs of trays and lids in side-by-side relation connected by flexible spines with open top pockets surrounding the bottom faces of the trays, depositing rigid slabs in said pockets to cover said bottoms, unwinding a second thermoplastic sheet from a roll, covering the thermal formed first sheet with said second sheet, unwinding a third thermoplastic sheet, covering the second sheet on the thermal formed first sheet with said third sheet, bonding the sheets together forming a continuous web of albums, severing the separate albums from the web, winding the web into a roll, and conveying the albums to an inspection station. 2. The method of claim 1 including the added step of depositing adhesive in the pockets before depositing the slabs. 3. The method of claim 1 including the added step of depositing printed material sheets on the second sheet before covering the second sheet with the third sheet. 4. The method of claim 1 including the added steps of punching notches in the side edges of the first sheet before thermal forming and severing the sheet at these notches after thermal forming. 5. In the method of making book style albums from thermoplastic sheets, the improvement which comprises unwinding a first roll of stiff thermoplastic sheet material, successively thermoforming said stiff sheet into album blanks composed of a plurality of pairs of adjacent trays with the trays of each pair connected by an intermediate flexible spine and with the blanks being connected by narrow margins, unwinding a second roll of flexible thermoplastic sheet material, covering the thermoformed blanks with said flexible sheet from said second roll, thermal welding the flexible sheet and the blanks together, severing albums from the thermally welded second sheet and margins of the blanks, separating the margin material and severed flexible sheet material from the albums, and separately discharging the albums and the waste margin and flexible sheet material. 6. The method of claim 5 including the added step of depositing rigid slabs on the trays before covering the slabs with the second sheet. 7. The method of claim 6 wherein glue is deposited between the trays and slabs. 8. The method of claim 5 including the added step of covering the second sheet with a third film. 9. The method of claim 8 wherein printed sheets are interposed between the second sheet and film. 10. The method of claim 5 including the added steps of punching notches in the side edges of the rigid sheet before thermoforming, and severing the rigid sheet at these notches after thermoforming to form said blanks. 11. The method of making book style albums from a plurality of plastic material sheets which comprises unreeling a first stiff thermoplastic sheet from a roll, thermal forming successive segments of the stiff sheet into blanks defining a plurality of pairs of trays connected by flexible spines and having hollow upstanding peripheral walls with flat bottoms, covering the flat bottoms with rigid slabs, unwinding a second flexible thermoplastic material sheet from a roll, covering the slabs and the blanks with said second sheet, unwinding a third flexible thermoplastic sheet from a roll, covering the second sheet on the blanks with the third sheet, thermal welding the stacked sheets, severing finished albums from the thermal welded stack, separating the severed sheet material from the albums, and delivering the finished albums to an inspection station. 12. The method of claim 11 wherein printed sheets are sandwiched between the second sheet and third sheet. 13. The method of claim 11 wherein a plurality of rows of pairs of trays are thermoformed. 14. The method of making book style albums which comprises unwinding a first thermoplastic sheet from a roll, heating the sheet, thermoforming the sheet to define a plurality of pairs of trays and lids in side-by-side relation connected by flexible spines with open top pockets surrounding the bottom faces of the trays, depositing rigid slabs in said pockets to cover said bottom faces, unwinding a second thermoplastic sheet from a roll, covering the thermoformed first sheet with said second sheet, unwinding a third thermoplastic sheet from a roll, covering the second sheet on the thermoformed first sheet with said third sheet, welding the sheets together forming a continuous web of albums, severing separate albums from the web, and separately discharging the albums and the remaining waste sheet material of the web. 15. The method of claim 14 wherein the bonding of the third sheet is limited to three sides of the sheet to form a pocket opening at the fourth side to receive an insert between the second and third sheets. 16. The method of claim 15 including the added step of sandwiching printed sheets between the second and third sheets. 17. The method of making cassette albums which comprises unwinding a roll of stiff thermoplastic sheet material into an elongated run, attaching marginal side edges of the run to elongated conveyor belts, successively heating and thermoforming the belt engaged run of the sheet into album blanks composed of a plurality of pairs of adjacent trays with the trays of each pair connected by intermediate spines and with the adjacent blanks connected by narrow margins, transversely severing thermoformed successive blanks from the run, depositing rigid slabs on the top faces of the bottoms of the thermoformed trays in the successive blanks, forming a run of a flexible thermoplastic sheet, advancing the successive blanks under said run of the flexible thermoplastic sheet, welding the thermoplastic sheet to the blanks around the margins of the blanks, severing the albums from the blanks and flexible thermoplastic sheet, and separating the albums from the margins of the blanks and the flexible sheet portions covering these margins. 18. The method of claim 17 including the added step of covering the run of the flexible thermoplastic sheet with a transparent film prior to the welding step and simultaneously welding this film to the flexible thermoplastic sheet when said sheet is welded to the blanks. 19. The method of claim 17 including the step of depositing printed sheets on the flexible thermoplastic sheet before depositing the film. 20. The method of making book style albums which comprises unwinding a roll of stiff thermoplastic sheet material into an elongated run, attaching the full lengths of the marginal side edges of the run to elongated conveyor belts, successively heating and thermoforming the belt engaged run of the sheet material into album blanks composed of a plurality of pairs of adjacent trays with the trays of each pair connected by an intermediate spine and with the adjacent blanks connected by narrow margins, transversely severing thermoformed successive blanks from the run, maintaining the marginal side edges of the blanks attached to said elongated conveyor belts, advancing the blanks on said belts successively through a slab depositing station, a flexible thermoplastic sheet applying station, a welding station, and a severing station, depositing rigid slabs on the top faces of the bottoms of the thermoformed trays in the successive blanks at said slab applying station, depositing flexible thermoplastic sheet material over the slabs and thermoformed blanks at the flexible sheet applying station, welding the thermoplastic sheet material to the blanks around the margins of the blanks at the welding station to form albums composed of a pair of trays connected by a spine, a slab on the bottom of each tray and a cover over the trays, slabs and spine, severing the albums from the blanks and flexible thermoplastic sheet material at the severing station, stripping the margins of the blanks and the flexible sheet portions covering these margins from the belts and albums, and discharging the separated albums. 21. The method of claim 20 wherein the marginal side edges of the run of thermoplastic sheet material are pierced by needles on the elongated conveyor belts and remain attached to the needles through the severing station.