Picture, Pattern and Information Carrier and Method for Its Production

The invention relates to a 2-dimensional product, which serves as carrier for textual or pictorial representations, such as pictures, patterns and/or information, as well as to a method for its production. Such an information carrier can form, for example, an integral component of a receptacle, such as a carrier bag or paper bag.

Carrier or paper bags frequently are used as advertising carriers. Their exterior, wide sides are printed with advertising slogans, company names, trademarks, addresses, telephone numbers, etc., and, moreover, in as pleasing a coloration and conformation as possible. After all, such carrier or paper bags virtually represent a calling card for its user, that is, the ultimate consumer or person engaged in a trade or business. There is therefore a considerable need for finding further products or bodies, which serve as information carriers and can be designed from aesthetic points of view.

To solve this problem it is proposed pursuant to the invention for the initially named 2-dimensional carrier that it be produced from a material, which is wavy or corrugated on its surface and the waves or corrugations of which are pressed down or flat within or without contours, which are specified by the picture, pattern and/or information. The contours thus serve as demarcation or boundary lines, within or without which the embossing for producing the desired pattern in the wave structure is to be carried out. The contours correspond to the picture, pattern, etc., which is to be reproduced.

Pursuant to the invention, the representations, which are to be reproduced, are embossed in a ribbed or corded surface structure. The information, which is to be reproduced for the human eye, arises out of the difference between the embossed pattern and the otherwise regular surface structure, it being possible to achieve an original and aesthetically pleasing appearance. Within the scope of the invention, the pattern can be embossed positively as well as negatively. Positive means that those areas of the wavy, corrugated or ribbed surface structure, which are to reproduce the picture, pattern or information, are depressed. Negative embossing means that the wave peaks in the surface region intended for the reproduction are largely not processed and have been left untouched, while the regions adjoining them and separated by contours, are depressed.

It is of benefit for the clear and sharp reproduction of information and identifiability of the embossed pattern if, in a further development of the invention, those waves or corrugations, which are not pressed flat or down, are provided with a color, which contrasts with their adjoining surroundings, at least on their (upper) crests or apexes. For example, if inexpensive, marketable corrugated board, which is brown as such, is used as the production material, the wave crests, which have remained standing after the pattern is embossed, are coated, for example, with a green color. By these means, the pattern, which is to be reproduced, appears to have particularly sharp contours.

A production method for said carrier, which lies within the scope of the invention, consists therein that a flat body with a wavy or corrugated surface, such as corrugated board or sheet metal, is totally or partially pressed mechanically with an embossing tool, such as a pressure piston or an embossing block. The picture, pattern or information is reproduced on the embossing tool in a positive or negative manner, as explained above. A further development of the manufacturing process, which serves to provide the carrier, as mentioned, with a contrasting color, consists therein that, after the pressing process, the corrugation crests or wave crests of the flat body are subjected to a mechanical coloring process. The coloring process can consist, for example, of a dye bath, into which the embossed flat body is immersed only partially. Alternatively, a roller, on the periphery of which a coloring block is mounted, can also be caused to rotate, the embossed flat body slightly touching the coloring block as it is moved past the roller.

Finally, it is within the scope of the invention to use said information carrier as an integral component of receptacles or packaging of any type; in particular, the carrier or flat body can form one or several external sides of a carrying or paper bag, the desired picture or pattern being embossed in the corrugated material of the bag and the still remaining wave crests being provided with contrasting colors.

Further details, characteristics and advantages on the basis of the invention arise out of the subsequent description of a preferred embodiment of the invention as well as of the drawing, in which

FIGS. 1 to 3 show an embossing block, a printing or pressing machine as well as a coloring roller for producing the inventive product,

FIG. 4 shows a plan view of an inventive information carrier and

FIG. 5 shows a section along the line V--V of FIG. 4.

In FIG. 1, a perspective representation of an embossing block 1 is shown, on the base plate 2 of which the shapes (pattern 3, letters 4), specified on the basis of the information that is to be reproduced, are elevated or raised relative to the areas that have not been embossed. The embossing block 1 thus represents a (positive) letterpress printing form, which works according to the principle of stamp printing.

This is evident from the schematic side view of FIG. 2, according to which the embossing block 1 is affixed to the underside of a stamp 5 of a printing machine 6. The embossing block 1 or the pressure stamp 5 lies opposite the bed 7 of the printing machine, on which a flat body 8, with ribs or waves 9 disposed regularly on its surface, is placed. If the pressure stamp 5, to which the embossing plate 1 is attached, is moved downwards in the vertical direction 10 onto the bed 7, those waves or wave areas, with which the raised shapes 3, 4 come into contact, are pressed flat (compare also FIG. 4).

According to FIG. 3, a coloring process is carried out on the flat body as a further production step. On a conveyor belt 11, the flat body 8, embossed as shown in FIG. 2, is moved past a coloring roller 12, which is provided on its periphery with a coloring block 13. This process of moving past the coloring roller 12 is coordinated with the instantaneous peripheral position of the coloring block 13 in such a manner, that the latter comes into contact with the flat body 8 or those of its waves 9, which have not been pressed down and can transfer color to the crests or apexes 14 of the waves 9 (compare FIG. 5).

The effect of this coloring process is shown in FIG. 4. The wave crests 14, which have not been depressed or have remained standing, are optically different from their adjoining surroundings. As a result, the human viewer can recognize the information reproduced in sharp contrast and with distinct contours.

In the sectional representation of FIG. 5, it can be seen that regions 16, which have been pressed flat, alternate with regions 17, which have waves 9, corresponding to the shaping of the pattern 3 and the letters 4 on the base plate 2 of the embossing block 1. The apexes 14 of the waves 9 are capped with dye 15.