US2918921A - Filing unit - Google Patents

Description

Dec. 29, 1959 H. L. CARLSTON 2,913,921

FILINGLUNIT Filed May 9, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 I 0| /-/E 2 I0 O: T/ 1L\ 0| I0. e- 1 r i0 f 0 l gs-Q 0| IO ;IZ:::: J 00.,0000000000000000000 29 2 FIGS 30 K2? 4 29 O I DESCRIPTION IO lNVE NTOR H.L. CAR LSTO N ATTORNEY Dec. 29, 1959 H. L. CARLSTON 2,918,921

' FILING'UNIT Filed May 9, 1956 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 FIG. I?) 1 4* 15 Wooooooooc oooood s20 B2 825 INVENTOR H.L.CARLSTON United States Patent FILING UNIT Herald L. Carlston, Salt Lake City, Utah Application May 9, 1956, Serial No. 583,827

1 Claim. (Cl. 129-161) The present invention relates to information carrying cards and more particularly to filing units or cards which may be separated by means of perforations in the margins thereof. This separation is preferably to be manually accomplished with the use of a sorting needle. No machine sorting device is therefore needed in the segregation of the filing units or cards.

The invention also relates to a filing unit having a pocket which the card forms one wall of the pocket or in which an envelope separate from the card is provided, such pockets or envelope providing means for receiving clippings, photographs, etc., and the filing units are provided with means for separating certain units from other units including the material in the pockets of the units according to perforations or notches in such filing units.

Heretofore various types of information carrying cards have been provided and some of such cards have been provided with apertures or notches to assist in separating certain of the cards from other cards based on classification of material on such cards. In accordance with my previous application on a filing unit, Serial No. 506,268, filed May 5, 1955, a pocket having a wall of transparent material was formed on a card so that additional material could be carried with the card without requiring reference to a separate file, thereby reducing the time required for collecting necessary information, such as employment records and the like. Although the invention according to the previous application has worked out satisfactorily, the pocket used was of reduced size with respect to the card, since the pocket formed of transparent material was entirely within the perforated margins and/ or notches which determined the selection.

An object of the present invention is to overcome the problems of the prior art and to provide a large pocket on a card for the reception of additional material without objectionably increasing the bulk thereof.

A further object is to provide an envelope open at one edge for receiving information in a readily available condition.

Another object is to provide an envelope with selecting perforations therein so one envelope may be separated from others and each envelope may be used to collect information which is thereby readily available for use.

Other and further objects will be apparent as the description proceeds and upon reference to the accompanying drawings wherein:

Fig. 1 is a rear elevation of an information card according to the present invention with a transparent pocket on the rear surface;

Fig. 2, a section taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3, a section taken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4, a section similar to Fig. 2 of a modification in which the perforations are omitted at the bottom of the card and the envelope overlaps the bottom and side edges of the front of the card;

Fig. 5, a section taken on line 5-5 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 6, a front elevation of a transparent envelope Patented. Dec. 29 1959 open at its top and provided with perforations along its top and side edges with an information card therein related to the perforation in the envelope;

Fig. 7, a section taken on line 77 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 8, a section taken on line 8-8 of Fig. 6;

Fig. 9, an oblique perspective view of a number of Visi-Record cards or filing units supported on bars of a file cabinet or drawer, some Visi-Record cards being in envelopes and other cards having pockets within the card outline, and some cards having rows of perforations for separation, the Visi-Recor file unit being provided with notches at the bottom for embracing supporting rods (shown in oblique phantom outline) so that one Visi-Record filing unit with its envelope or pocket may be offset to another exposing the identifying information on each unit;

Fig. 10, a section taken on line 10-10 of Fig. 9 of an imperforate Visi-Record filing unit;

Fig. 10A, a section taken on line 18A-10A of Fig. 9 showing a pocket fixed on the rear surface of a Visi- Recor card above the bottom;

Fig. 11, a section taken on line 11-11 of Fig. 9;-

Fig. 12, a fragmentary horizontal section similar to Fig. 11, showing another manner in which the side edges of the front and rear panels of the transparent envelope may be secured together;

Fig. 12A, a fragmentary section taken on line 12A- 12A of Fig. 9 showing another form of securing the envelope panels together and showing the selection apertures;

Fig. 13, a front elevation of an open top envelope having selection perforations on such open top with the envelope having an identifying card therein, the envelope and card having binding receiving apertures on one side edge for use with a loose-leaf type notebook or hinder;

Fig. 14, a section taken on line 14-14 of Fig, 13;

Fig. 15, a section taken on line 15-15 of Fig. 13;

Fig. 16, a section similar to Fig. 15 showing a modification in the construction of the envelope;

Fig. 17, a modification of a filing unit including an envelope formed by folding a piece of transparent material and securing two of its open edges together by means of transparent adhesive tape;

Fig. 18, a section taken on line 18-18 of Fig. 17;

Fig. 18A, a section similar to Fig. 18 of a modification in which two of the unfolded edges are secured by adhesive directly on the abutting edge portions of the layers of transparent material;

Fig. 19, a section taken on line 19-19 of Fig. 17;

Fig. 19A, a section taken on line 19A-19A of Fig. 18A; I

Fig. 20, another form of filing unit including a duplex card folded at its mid-portion and provided with additional pockets formed of a sheet of plastic folded on the same line as said duplex card and secured at its ends to the duplex card; i

Fig. 21, a section taken on line 21-21 of Fig. 20;

,Fig. 22, a section taken on line 22-22 of Fig. 20;

Fig. 22A, a section similar to Fig. 22 of a modification in which the transparent material forming the additional pockets extends to the end extremities of the duplex card;

Fig. 23, an elevation of a further modification in which a card is embraced by a folded sheet of transparent Mylar material and secured in position by transparent adhesive tape; 9

Fig. 24, a section taken on line 24-24 of Fig. 23;

Fig. 25, a section taken on line 25-25 of Fig. 23; and

Fig. 25A, a fragmentary section similar to Fig. 25

H of a modification in which the transparent material is secured directly to the card by adhesive on the end edge portions.

Briefly stated, the present invention includes filing units, such as cards with pockets formed with the card section as a wall or with the pockets being independent of the card so that additional information, such as photographs, newspaper clippings and the like may be filed with such card. The cards with the information associated therewith are manually separated by means of a needle on the basis of marginal perforations either in the card or in the envelope or both, so that cards having a certain type of information may be readily selected from others without requiring reading of the information and selection is obtained by the use of needles which pass through the perforations raising the card with its pocket and/or envelope with the perforations from associated cards having notches at the location of the selecting perforations.

Referring more particularly to Figs. 1, 2 and 3 of the drawings, a conventional needle sorting le card 2t having identifying information on one surface 21 has a layer of transparent material such as Mylar 22 secured to the card along its bottom and two sides by means of adhesive material 23 or the like around the bottom and side margin. Perforations 24 are provided on the top, both sides and bottom margins on the card 29 and transparent material 22. The adhesive 23 securely maintains the side edges and bottom of the card and transparent material together to form a pocket 25 defined by the card 20, the transparent material 22 and the marginal edges, the pocket receiving other material 26, such as newspaper clippings, photographs, microfilm, sound records, or the like, corresponding to other information on the said one face of the card. It will also be apparent that some information may be printed on the transparent material.

The adhesive action may be obtained from thermoplastic characteristics of certain transparent materials 22 which may be secured by heat in a well-known manner and the pocket 25 formed by the transparent material 22 and card 20 is shown expanded in an exaggerated manner and when there is no information in the pocket it will be understood that the transparent material remains in approximately smooth contact with the adjacent surface of the card 20 and that both the face without the pocket and the face of the card with the pocket are I smooth to permit easy sliding of one card on another in handling and separating. One manner of separating the cards is by the provision of one or more notches 26 formed by cutting the material of the margin into a perforation 26 and when a key-sort needle is passed through perforations in a number of cards the cards having perforations at that particular location may be raised by the needle and the cards with a notch at that particular location will remain or will drop out from the cards which do not have such notch, thereby separating the notched cards from the cards with only perforations.

In Fig. 5, a modified form of card with a pocket includes a conventional filing card 27 on which a sheet of transparent material 28 of larger size than the card is applied with the side margins 29 and bottom margin 30 folded over against the front of the card 27 and secured in such marginal portion by a suitable adhesive 31 or by means of a plastic characteristic of the transparent material or by other suitable means. Various types of information may be collected in the pocket 32 formed by the transparent material and the card 27 and such cards may be separated in a manner similar to that previously described.

In the modification shown in Figs. 6 to 8, inclusive, an envelope is formed from a sheet of transparent material folded along a transverse line 33 defining the bottom thereby forming a front wall 34 and a back wall 35 and the side edges of such walls being secured together by an adhesive 36. Perforations 37 are provided in the side margins and top margin of the pocket and certain of such perforations may be modified to form notches 38 for the purpose of selection of the proper envelope; one corner may be removed by a diagonal cut 39 to serve as an index mark to assure the proper association of similar envelopes in the arrangement for the sorting operation. Within the envelope a principal information containing card it) is insertable and such card may carry various markings including squares or lines if to indicate the meaning of a particular notch or perforation and such card may include other information relative to the material being indexed and it will be evident that the pocket formed by the envelope may be used to receive related material, such as photographs, newspaper clippings, letters of recommendation, or the like.

The modification shown in Figs. 68 inclusive may have two rows of perforations such as those shown at 54A and 545 in the intermediate card 54 in Fig. 9 for special sorting advantages and the insert may be correspondingly printed to identify both rows of sorting perforations.

in Figs. 9 to 12 inclusive, other uses of open top envelopes are shown for providing pockets through which the contents may be observed. One form of a record filing sheet known as Visi-Record 42 includes a back panel 43 of the full size of the record sheet, a lower front panel 44 which is integral with the back panel being connected thereto by a fold 45 at the bottom edge. The front bottompanel 44 and the rear panel 43 are adhesively bonded by an adhesive 46 along the side edges thereby forming a pocket, the contents of which cannot be seen since the Visi-Record is normally made of opaque material. A top front panel 47 is connected by a fold 48 to the top of the rear panel 43 as shown in Fig. 10 and the top panel and the adjacent portion of the rear panel are formed to provide an oblique edge 49 along with identification material 50, such as the name and social security number of a person is inscribed. The bottom edge of the Visi-Record is provided with a plurality of notches 51 which normally embrace supporting rods 52 (shown in phantom) of a filing cabinet and other Visi-Record sheets 53 and 54 (shown in phantom) are arranged in offset relation by the arrangement of the notches 51 on the supporting rods 52 so that the names will be visible on the sheets located behind thereby facilitating the desired selection. Although these sheets have a pocket 55 formed by the lower front and rear panels 43 and 44, the contents of such pockets cannot be observed without removal of the contents from the pocket.

The present improvement includes a transparent envelope 56 having a front wall 57 and rear wall 58 which are connected along a fold line 59 by merely folding the material of the front wall against the adjacent material of the rear wall and the edges of the front wall preferably include side extensions 60, 60 which are folded over and against the rear surface of the back wall to which such extensions are connected by suitable adhesive 61 or the like; such adhesive may be in the nature of thermoplastic or the transparent material of the envelope 56 may be made of thermoplastic which may be connected together with a heat sealing process. The bottom edge adjacent the fold line 59 of the envelope 56 is provided with notches 62 which register with notches 51 for embracing the supporting rods 52, 52 so that the envelope 56 and the Visi-Record sheets 42 may be arranged in the offset relation previously described so that the identifying characteristics such as the name and social security number of each card is readily visible. Additional information may be placed in the envelope 56 between the Visi-Record 42 and the front of rear walls 57 and 55 of the transparent envelope and such material may include a punch card 63 such as is conventionally used in punch card sorting machines making such punch card readily available for use and also making it possible to note its presence without removal from the envelope. It will be apparent that other items of information may be included in the transparent envelope 56. It should be observed that the material of which the transparent envelope is formed is preferably extremely thin and tough so as to avoid objectionably increasing the thickness of the record column, although, to effectively show the structure, the thickness has been exaggerated.

In Fig. 12. a modified form of transparent envelope is shown to include a front wall 64, a rear wall 65 connected together by a strip of adhesive tape 66 overlapping the side edges of the envelope, the pocket formed by the envelope receiving a Visi-Record 42 and both pocket and Visi-Record connected by notches as previously described to obtain proper registration.

The Visi-Record card may be a single card without folds and may have sorting perforations along its periphery including its top and sides so that when the perforated Visi-Record cards are removed from the supporting rods 52 (Fig. 9) of a file drawer or cabinet such cards may be segregated according to the perforation and notch characteristics thereof. After such segregation, the cards may be returned to the file drawer or cabinet and placed on the supporting rods 52 as shown in Fig. 9.

Referring to Figs. 9, 10A, and 12A, a modified form of Visi-Record card 53 is shown as being a single-ply card having two rows of perforations 53A and 53B, the lower portion of such card 53 being received in an envelope formed of a front ply 53C and a rear ply 53D (Fig. 12A) which are parts of the same sheet folded along the lower edge of the card 53. The side edge portions of the plies 53C and 531) are secured by adhesive 53E, and the envelope is provided with perforations 53F and 536 which register with apertures 53A and 53B respectively whereby the Visi-Record cards can be separated on the basis of perforations and notches provided on the card and/ or the envelope.

A modified form of card 54 (Figs. 9 and 10A) is provided with a series of apertures 54A along its sides and top edges to provide for separation and a pocket formed by a sheet of transparent plastic 54B is secured to the rear face of the card 54 by means of adhesive 540 at the bottom edge and side edges of the transparent sheet 54B and perforations are provided in the sheet 5413 so that such perforations register with the perforations 54A of the card thereby providing for separation of such Visi- Recor cards on the basis of the perforations therein. In this modification the pocket formed by sheet 5413 does not extend to the bottom of the card and notches 54D in the bottom edges of such cards which register with bars 52 do not extend into the pocket.

The modified form of card 54 is shown with two series of apertures 54A, 54B and such apertures may merge into notches 54F or 546 formed from the edge into the aperture or apertures to provide for hand needle sorting.

It will be evident that the transparent film may be made of any suitable transparent material including acetate, polyester films or the like, and that such films may extend over the apertures to reinforce the material of the card.

A further modification of the invention is shown in Figs. 13 to 15 inclusive, including a transparent envelope 67 having a front wall 68 and a rear wall 69 connected by a fold 70 along the bottom and by the side edges 71, 71A of the front wall being folded over the side edges of the rear wall and secured thereto with an adhesive 72 or the like, thereby providing a pocket with the top thereof being open for insertion and removal of a filing card 73. The filing card 73 is provided with information desired including a plurality of identifying squares 74 corresponding to adjacent perforations 75 in the upper edge portions of the front and rear 68 and 69 of the transparent envelope 67, certain of such perforations being open at the extreme edge forming notches 76 for facilitating separation of certain envelopes from others. Along one side edge 71 of the envelope 67 a plurality of apertures 77 are provided which apertures may register with corresponding apertures 78 in the card 73 for cooperation with binding means conventionally used in looseleaf type notebooks so that the cards will be maintained in the envelope.

It will be evident that additional information may be included in the envelope besides the cards, such as photographs, speech recordings, microfilm, newspaper clippings and the like, and that such envelopes may be separated in the manner previously described when the envelopes are removed from their binder. It will also be evident that when the binder means loosely engage the material adjacent the apertures 77 and 78 a selection may take place while the envelopes are secured in the binder and the selected envelope may then be removed from the unselected envelope or the selected envelope may be made available for observation without removal from the binder by merely turning the unselected envelope away from the selected envelopes in the manner of turning pages of a book.

Referring to Fig. 16, a similar envelope includes a front wall 79 and rear wall 89 connected together by side extensions 8-1, 81A which side extensions project from the front wall 79 and against the front surface of the rear wall 84) being secured thereto by adhesive 82 or the like, suitable perforations and apertures being provided for the purpose previously described.

In fragmentary Fig. 16A, another form of envelope for receiving a card 82A includes a single sheet of material folded along a fold line at its bottom edge providing a front ply 82B and a rear ply 820 with the side margins of such plies being connected by adhesive 82D. The card is provided with binder ring receiving apertures 82B and the envelope is provided with registering apertures 82F for also receiving the binder rings. In addition to having top selection apertures, the envelope is provided with selection apeltures 826 on its left edge and selection apertures 82H on its right edge thereby increasing the groups into which the envelopes can be segregated.

Referring to Figs. 17 to 19 inclusive, a modified form of envelope including a front wall 83 and a rear wall 84 connected by a fold 85 and held together by strips of adhesive tape 86, 86 along two edges is adapted to receive a card 87 or the like, and/or other material, and such envelopes may be separated from one another by perforations 88 some of which may be open to the edge forming notches 89 so that various envelopes may be separated from others by means of the conventional needle or key-sort devices. It will be apparent that perforations may be provided in the strips of adhesive 86 so that openings adjacent the adhesive strips may also be used for separation.

Referring to the modification shown in Figs. 18A and 19A, a card 87 is received in an envelope formed of a front ply 89A and a rear ply 898 secured together along its side and top edges by adhesive 89C over an area of sufiicient width to provide for selection apertures 89D along the top and side edges.

In Figs. 20 to 22, a modified form of the invention may include a pair of cards 90, 91 which may be connected together along their bottom edges, such as by the cards being formed of a single sheet of material scored along a line 923 for separation if desired. Both side edges 92, 92A of cards and 91 may be secured by means of adhesive or the like. A sheet of transparent material including front wall 93 and rear wall 94 connected together by fold 95 embraces the major portion of the cards and is secured along its edges 96, 96A, 97, 97A by suitable adhesive preferably within the outline of the cards, the top margin 98 of the cards and the side edges 92 and 92A being provided with perforations 99 some of which may be open to the edge providing notches 100 for assisting in sorting as described above.

In Fig. 22A a modification of the pocket shown in Figs. 2222 includes a duplex card pocket formed of card ply 1011A and GB connected together along a fold line similar to fold line 923 and secured by adhesive along their end edges.

Over the duplex card 1011A, 10GB an envelope including a front ply 196C and a-rear ply 199D connected by a fold line similar to fold 95 are secured together along their end edges by layers of adhesive 109E to the adjacent edge portion of the duplex card and selection apertures IMF are provided in the edge margins similar to apertures 99 and the selection of cards is accomplished in a similar manner to that previously described.

Referring to Figs. 23 to 25, a further modification includes a card 101 to which an envelope including a front wall 102 and a rear wall 103 is applied. Such envelope includes a fold 104 against which the bottom of the card 101 rests, the envelope being retained on the card 1111 by means of strips of preferably transparent adhesive tape 105, 105 along its side edges and, if desired, a strip 106 along the top edge of the rear wall 1173 of the envelope. The pocket formed between the envelope and the card 101 may receive various types of materials such as a data sheet 167 relating to the card. The card 191 is provided with perforations 111} along its top and side edges and certain of such perforations may be open to the edges to form notches 111 for assisting in the sorting operation as previously described.

In Fig. A a modified form of card 112 is partially covered on its front and back face by plies of transparent material 113, 114 connected together along a fold line similar to fold 194 and the end edge margins of such plies are connected by adhesive 115 to the card 112 and suitable selection apertures 116 are provided so that the filing units may be separated in the manner previously described.

The selection apertures on any or all of the cards may have a single row of perforations as shown in the Visi-Record card 54 and in the other forms illustrated, or the selection perforations of each form of card may be in the form of two rows of perforations as shown on card 53.

It will thus be seen that applicant has provided a useful filing unit which may be provided with additional information other than information that can be directly applied to the filing unit, thereby avoiding the necessity of duplicate files relating to the same specific subject matter and such filing units of the present invention may be readily separated from other filing units by a simple mechanical expedient without requiring a high degree of skill and without requiring reading of the material on the cards or the envelopes or pockets related thereto.

It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made in the invention without departing from the spirit and scope thereof and therefore the invention is not limited by that which is illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification, but only as indicated in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

A hand-operated filing pocket of quadrilateral conformation adapted for use in a filing system where one pocket may be selectively separated from another by a hand-operated needle, comprising a single substantially rectangular sheet of transparent material having a fold centrally of the length to form the front and rear panel of said pocket, the edges of said front panel substantially coinciding with the edges of said rear panel, said fold being along the longest side of the pocket, the opposing edges of the front and back panel adjacent the fold being adhesively sealed together, said sealing extending substantially the length from the fold to a point adjacent the open edge, the edges opposite the fold of the pocket being open for insertion and removal of filing material, the front and rear panels having registering aligned apertures disposed in closely adjacent relationship along said opposing and said open edges of the pocket and extending substantially parallel to the edges, said adhesive sealing the edges adjacent the fold extending marginally inwardly beyond the apertures to circumscribedly seal the opposing edges of the apertures of the front and back panel to each other thereby providing a common passageway therethrough and preventing any filing material within the pocket from intruding between the opposing apertures and obstructing the path of a needle passing through the apertures, and the marginal sealing of the edges a substantial distance inwardly also acting to restrain the panels of the pocket, when empty, in fiat intimate parallel contact with each other so as to consume a minimum amount of space.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

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