Powerful Magnetic Folio

This invention relates to notebooks or folios, and more particularly to magnetic notebooks or folios.

It has previously been proposed to hold various objects together with magnets, and British Pat. No. 774,664, published May 15, 1974, shows a notebook wherein the outer edges of the notebook are held together with magnetic material. It has also been the practice heretofore to use magnets to hold single sheets of paper or the like in place, and this is commonly done on surfaces in the home or office where there are magnetic metallic surfaces such as the door or side of a refrigerator or cabinet available to cooperate with a strong permanent magnet. Similarly, a single sheet of paper is held in position under a permanent magnet and armature arrangement in British Pat. No. 1,182,480, published Feb. 25, 1970. However, it has not, up to the present, been proposed to hold a large number of plain sheets of paper, such as 20 or 40, for example, with magnetic holding arrangements, in a notebook or folio.

Accordingly, a principal object of the present invention is to provide a notebook or folio in which permanent magnet material is employed to hold a substantial number of sheets of paper in place within the notebook or folio.

In accordance with the present invention, a magnetic folio or notebook is provided with two elongated strips of permanently magnetized material, with one of these strips being mounted to the notebook inside one of the covers of the notebook, and the other strip of permanently magnetized material being mounted to pivot or hingedly extend over the first strip of permanent magnet material to securely hold a stack of sheets of paper within the notebook between the two permanently magnetized strips.

In accordance with another aspect of the invention, the second strip of permanently magnetized material may be separately mounted on a thin inner flexible strip so that the sheets of paper may be retained in position within the notebook at their inner edges, while the notebook is open and in use. Alternatively, one of the strips of magnetic material may be mounted on each of the two covers of the notebook or folio. In general, it is preferred that the magnet strips be mounted near the binding of the notebook, so that the papers may be reviewed while being held by the magnet strips.

An additional feature of the invention involves the use of thin strips of ferrite material which are magnetized along their length from the top to the bottom of the notebook or folio, with alternate north and south poles, on one strip, and matching south and north poles, respectively, on the other strip.

A supplemental feature of the invention includes the use of thin strips of magnetic material as a backing for each of the permamently magnetized strips, to thereby enhance the pull or holding power of the magnetic assembly.

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description and from the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a magnetic notebook or folio illustrating the principles of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines II--II of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged end view showing one of the permanent magnet strips which is mounted for rotation independent of the covers of the folio;

FIG. 4 is another embodiment illustrating the principles of the inventon;

FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view taken along lines V--V of FIG. 4, and indicating diagrammatically the closure of the notebook; and

FIG. 6 is a partial cross-sectional view showing the assembly of one of the magnet strips with other elements of the magnetic notebook assembly.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, FIG. 1 shows a magnetic folio or notebook including two covers 12 and 14 wherein a stack of paper 16 is held between the magnet strips 18 and 20. The stack of sheets of paper 16 may include, for example, perhaps 10 or 20 up to 30 or 40 or more sheets of papers and may be in the order of 3/16ths of an inch in thickness, and still be securely held against release by the magnets 18 and 20. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 to advantage, the permanent magnet strip 20 may be mounted on a flexible strip 22, while the magnet strip 18 may be secured by adhesive to the right-hand edge of the strip 22 which may in turn be held by adhesive or glue to the right-hand cover 14 of the magnetic folio or notebook. FIG. 2 has a particularly good showing of how the notebook covers 12 and 14 may be opened on a desk or the like, and the sheets of paper 16 may still be positively held in their proper location by the permanent magnet strips 18 and 20. FIGS. 1 and 3, on the other hand, show the magnetic strip 20 folded back to the left so that individual sheets of paper from the stack 16 may be added or deleted.

The magnetic strips 18 and 20 are specially magnetized in order to increase their holding power and magnetic strength. More specifically, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the magnetic strips are magnetized with alternate north and south poles at their exposed surfaces, and with the north poles on one strip being opposite the south poles on the other strip, and vice versa. In addition, to further enhance the holding power and magnetic pull of the strips 18 and 20, thin additional strips of magnetic material 26 and 28 are bonded by adhesive or the like tightly to the permanently magnetized strips. The strips 26 and 28 may be coexensive with the permanent magnet strips, and may be formed of cold rolled steel, for example. The addition of these strips has the effect of increasing the magnetic pull or holding power of the permanent magnet strips by about 10 percent or more.

FIG. 4 shows an alternative embodiment of the invention in which the magnetic notebook or folio includes two covers 32 and 34 and two magnetic strip assemblies 36 and 38, but with both of the two magnet assemblies 36 and 38 being secured to the covers 32 and 34 of the notebook, so that, as the notebook is opened, the sheets of paper 40 are automatically released, and may be shifted, removed, or inserted, as desired, as long as the notebook is open. However, as the notebook is closed, as indicated toward the right in FIG. 5, the sheets of paper 40 are held firmly in position by the magnet assemblies 36 and 38. As in the case of the embodiment of FIGS. 1 through 3, the permanent magnet assemblies include the magnetic backing plate or strip 42, as shown to advantage in FIG. 6, and the strip 42 which may be made of cold rolled steel is again secured to the permanent magnet strip 36 by a suitable very thin layer of adhesive 44, and a similar layer of adhesive 46 is employed to secure the strip 42 to the cover 32 of the notebook.

For completeness, details will now be given as to the dimensions and type of materials employed in the fabrication of one embodiment illustrating the principles of the invention. The magnetic strips which were employed were 10 inches long by 1 inch wide by 60 mils thick, and were moderately flexible. They were purchased from Elektro-Physik, Inc., 1147 Independence Boulevard, Virginia Beach, Va. 23455. They were made of "high energy" permanent magnet ferrite material. The strips were magnetized from one surface thereof with alternate north and south poles, about every half an inch. The magnetic material which was adhered to the back of each of the permanent magent strips was cold rolled steel having a thickness of 30 mils. An acrylic based adhesive was employed both for bonding the permanent magnet strip material to the cold rolled steel strips, and also to secure the cold rolled steel strips to the vinyl material employed both as a cover for the notebook or folio, or for the flexible strip 22 employed for mounting the magnetic strip 20 in the embodiment of FIGS. 1 through 3. The adhesive layers are normally less than one thousandth of an inch thick, when bonding two flat surfaces. Concerning other dimensions, in one a successful prototype which was constructed, the looseleaf binder or folio was approximately 113/4 or 12 inches tall, and nearly 9 inches wide in order to accommodate 81/2.times.11 inch paper sheets. Of course, with legal or other size paper, it would be expected that the size of the binder, and the corresponding size of the magnet assemblies would vary. As mentioned above, with the notebook being approximately 9.times.12 inches in size, magnetic strips which were 10 inch.times.1 inch were employed. These strips could, of course, be narrower or broader, depending on the desired strength or holding power for the magnet, and could range, for example, from about 1/4 inch up to two or several inches wide. It would normally be expected that the length of the magnets would also vary from about 4 inches to about 15 inches. In addition, the thickness of the magnet could vary from about five thousandths of an inch (0.005 inch) up to about 1/4 inch in thickness. However, the preferred range of thickness in order to obtain adequate holding strength without undue thickness for the notebook is in the order of about 0.020 inch up to about 0.150 inch.

Concerning the thickness of the cold rolled steel element 26 and 28, as mentioned above, the succesful prototype used strips which were about 0.030 inch thick. However, somewhat greater or somewhat less thicknesses of cold rolled steel or other appropriate magnetic material may be employed, for example, from about 0.005 inch to about 0.075 inch thick, and still realize substantial increases in the holding power and strength of the associated permanent magnet strips.

In conclusion, it is to be understood that the foregoing detailed description and the accompanying drawings relate to illustrative embodiments of the invention. Various modifications may be made within the scope of the invention. Thus, by way of example, and not of limitation, both of the two permanent magnet strips may be pivotally mounted relative to one another by a mechanical hinge, or by a cloth strip, as well as by the vinyl strip 22 employed for mounting one of the magnet strips as shown in FIG. 1. In addition, instead of using a single strip of magnetic material on each side, two thinner magnetic strips may be employed on each side and secured to or associated with the two covers of the notebook or folio. Similarly, instead of a single long magnet strip assembly on each side, such as the magnet strips 18 and 20, two shorter magnetic assemblies may be employed on each side. Also, the covers of the magnetic folio or notebook may be recessed, or reduced in thickness somewhat in the area of said magnetic assemblies so that the overall thickness of the notebook is not greatly increased by the addition of the magnetic assemblies. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to that precisely as shown in the drawings and as described hereinabove.