US 6,663,311 B1Granted

Report cover with clamping slide bar

OwnerBon S. Onginventor

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Abstract

A document formed of a stack of papers bound at the spine is equipped with a slide bar that achieves locking engagement with a document cover formed of a plurality of sheets of material. The sheets of document cover material are joined to each other at a binding margin. The sheet of cover material that passes around the spine of the cover forms a back cover beneath the stack of papers and a narrow, margin panel or strip that overlies the adjacent edge of the other sheet of binding material, which forms a front cover. The slide bar has a pair of jaws that terminate in distal tips that face each other at an angle of least forty-five degrees across a gap defined between the distal tips of the jaws. The slide bar is inserted onto the binding edge of the stack of papers and the cover encompassing them in a direction parallel to the binding edge from either the top or bottom end of the stack. The narrow margin panel atop the binding edge margin or the stack of papers fits within and is captured by the distal tip of one of the clasp jaws adjacent thereto throughout its length and throughout the length of the binding edge of the stack of papers. The capture of the narrow binding margin panel by the distal tip of the clasp jaw engaged at the junction between the sheets of the material forming the binder prevents the slide bar from being pulled laterally off of the binding edge of the stack.

Claims20

Dependent claims

In combination,

a plurality of sheets of paper disposed one atop another to form a stack having top and bottom sheets and defining a binding edge of said stack, an opposite edge of said stack parallel to said binding edge, and a narrow binding margin on said stack adjacent to said binding edge;
a document cover formed of a plurality of panels including a front cover panel located atop said stack above said top sheet and a back cover panel located beneath said stack and residing below said bottom sheet and having a margin portion located beneath said binding margin, and wherein another of said document cover panels is a narrow margin binding panel having a width no greater than the width of said binding margin of said stack and said front cover panel is formed of a separate sheet of material from said back cover panel and said narrow margin binding panel, and overlaps and is permanently secured to said narrow margin binding panel;
and
a stiff, resilient, elongated channel-shaped clasp of uniform cross section throughout formed with a pair of clamping jaws joined together and projecting outwardly from their junction to form distal tips that define a gap therebetween, and said jaws are oriented in opposition relative to each other and said distal tips are directed toward each other to form an angle therebetween of at least about forty-five degrees, and said binding edge of said stack, said narrow margin binding panel, and said margin portion of said back cover panel are inserted in between said jaws with the remainder of said stack and document cover projecting through said gap so that said distal tip of one of said jaws is engaged with said narrow margin binding panel to restrict relative movement between said clasp and said stack in a direction perpendicular to said binding edge.

1 more element

In combination,

a plurality of pages disposed one atop another to form a stack having top and bottom sheets and defining a binding edge of said stack, an opposite edge of said stack parallel to said binding edge, and a narrow binding margin on said stack adjacent to said binding edge,
a cover for said stack including a first sheet of material forming a margin panel and a back cover panel respectively residing in contact with said top and bottom sheets of said stack and joined together by at least one spine fold located at and parallel to said binding edge of said stack, and said narrow margin panel has an exposed side and an underside and said narrow margin panel extends the length of said binding margin and is limited in width so that it extends no further toward said opposite edge of said stack than said binding margin and thereby defines an inboard boundary proximate said binding margin, and a second sheet of material forming a front cover panel that is permanently secured to said underside of said narrow margin panel, and
a stiff, resilient, elongated clasp of uniform cross section throughout and formed as a channel-shaped structure having a pair of opposing jaws that have mutually facing distal tips oriented in opposition relative to each other and which form an angle therebetween of at least about forty-five degrees and which also define a slot opening therebetween, and said distal tip of one of said jaws is disposed to capture said cover therewithin, whereby said distal tip of said one of said jaws engages said inboard boundary of said margin panel, thereby holding said clasp on said binding edge of said stack.

In combination,

a plurality of sheets of paper disposed one atop another to form a stack having top and bottom sheets and defining a binding edge of said stack, an opposite edge parallel to said binding edge, and a narrow binding edge margin on said stack adjacent to said binding edge,
a document cover including a front cover panel located atop said stack and residing in contact with said top sheet at said binding margin of said stack and a separate sheet of material forming a back cover panel that extends beneath said stack and which also forms a margin binding strip which is delineated from said back cover panel by at least one spine fold, and said margin binding strip overlaps and is permanently secured to said front cover panel, and is as narrow as said binding margin and terminates in a longitudinal binding margin demarcation above said front cover panel and adjacent said narrow binding margin and parallel to said binding edge of said stack,
an elongated document binder clasp configured as a stiff, resilient, channel-shaped structure having a pair of mutually facing jaws with distal tips oriented relative to each other at an angle of no less than about forty-five degrees and which define a gap therebetween, and
wherein said binder clasp encompasses said binding edge of said stack and said margin binding strip of said cover in said gap and between said jaws so that said distal tip of one of said jaws engages said binding margin demarcation throughout the length of said binding margin.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.