FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates in general to flexible holder sheets for holding thin or substantially thin items to be stored and protected, and/or displayed, such as photographic slides, prints or negatives, baseball cards, stamps, coins business cards, and the like, in general, and in particular to a new and useful holder of thin items to be stored and protected, and/or displayed, wherein the thin items can be readily inserted for storage, viewing and/or transporting, and will be retrained from being inadvertently dislodged from the holders, but readily removed when desired.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Flexible holder sheets are known such as Ozeki, U.S. patent 4,533,048 and others. However, these are cumbersome to load, allow introduction of dust or moisture, and may allow inadvertent dislodgement of the contents.

The present invention provides pockets with shallow side walls so that the material above the walls acts as a flap and in cooperation with a like oppositely functioning flap from above can function advantageously as a loading guide, a dust and

moisture guard, and a security flap.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides a holder for thin items to be stor and/or displayed and protected which comprises a flexible backi sheet on which are fastened two or more parallel front stri with at least one overlapping region. The front strips are ea sealed once to the backing sheet along a longitudinal axis of t front strips and at least twice along a transverse axis of t front strips. The top front strip, however, has only longitudinal seal. The longitudinal seals may be continuous discontinuous. The transverse seals are spaced apart a parallel, and are perpendicular to, and intersect or near intersect the longitudinal seals.

The arrangement of the front strip, or strips, each seal once longitudinally and at least twice transversely to t backing sheet, form at least one pocket into which are insert the thin items to be stored and protected.

In accordance with the invention the longitudinal seals m seal the front strips to the backing sheet along the enti length. In the preferred embodiment, the strips, are arranged that a strip-bottom flap, below the strip longitudinal se underlies the pocket of the strip blow. The transverse seals r from the longitudinal seal toward the top of the backing she but not to the top edge of the individual strip. The transver seal top edge defining a lower edge of a strip-top flap. T strip-top flap overlaps or underlaps the top front strip which

in the topmost overlap region. By providing a plurality of t strips with lateral seals each strip-bottom flap will overlap underlap the strip-top flap of the strip immediately below it the respective overlap region. The bottom-most strip with one more pockets has no strip-bottom flap because there is no overl region below the bottom-most pocket or pockets.

In accordance with the invention the top strip flap or t strip-bottom flap or flaps, interact with the strip-top flap flaps, to achieve three distinctly different function positions. These positions are: the item loading position, which the top strip flap or the strip-bottom flap underlies t strip-top flap of the strip below it in the overlap region; t protection position, in which the top strip flap or the stri bottom flap, or flaps, overlies both the inserted item and t strip-top flap in the overlapping region; and the locki position in which the top strip flap or the strip-bottom flap, flaps, underlies the strip-top flap, or flaps, and overlaps t inserted item, in the overlap region.

The holder may be in the form of pages which can in turn provided with a means for filing in a ring binder or a hangi file. It is important in keeping with the invention that t transverse seals along the sides of the pages do not extend a higher than the transverse seals within the interior of t page, therefore not disrupting the function of the flap or flap If the holder is to be made to accommodate a thin hangi bar to facilitate hanging in a hanging file then an addition

A longitudinal seal is made at a distance from the topmo longitudinal seal in the top front strip to allow the inserti of the hanging bar. According to an embodiment of the inventio the transverse weight of the page should be such as to allow f the double sealing in the top strip without interfering with t function of the flaps.

In a further embodiment, with holes allowing for storage the holder in a ring binder, additional transverse seals shou be made parallel to the edge seals at a distance allowing holes into which are inserted the rings of a ring binder and t like with enough material to maintain the structural integrity the page. . Accordingly, the page must be of extended width allow for the material to receive the holes.

The holder can be made of any flexible durable seala material preferably of the archival type. The materials include; polypropylene, polyethylene, polyester, triaceta polyvinylchloride, or paper and the like. The material may transparent, translucent, or opaque. The transparent materi preferably of goods optical clarity. The sealing may include heat sealing, ultrasonic, ra frequency, adhesive sealing, mechanical sealing or any ot appropriate means for sealing.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the invention to provide a protect storage holding device for thin items such as photograp slides, photographic prints, coins, baseball cards, and the li

which allows for rapid and easy insertion and removal of items into and from the holder, while reducing the man dexterity demands of the item loader.

It is another object of the invention to provide an eas achieved intermediate functional position which includes a h level of dust protection and a reasonably high level protection against dislodgement while still allowing for rap interchangeability of the inserted items for desired ordering items. It is a further object of the invention to provide a locki functional position which includes a high level of du protection and a ^' very high level of protection again dislodgement.

It is a still further object of the invention to provide holder of convenient dimensions to allow for the possib placement of the holder in a ring binder or hanging file.

The various features of novelty which characterize t invention are pointed out with particularity in the clai annexed to and forming a part of this disclosure. For a bett understanding of the invention, its operating advantages a specific objects obtained by its uses, reference is made to t accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which preferr embodiments of the invention are illustrated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS In the drawings:

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Fig. 1 is an elevational view of one embodiment of t invention which shows a page size holder for photographic slide Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the hold shown in Fig. 1, taken along the line II-II; Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the hold shown in Fig. 1, taken along the line III-III;

Fig. 4 is a vertical cross-sectional view of the hold shown in Fig. 1, taken along the line IV-IV; and

Fig. 5 is a horizontal cross-sectional view of the hold shown in Fig. 1, taken along the line V-V.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Referring to the drawings in particular where like numera indicate like parts. Fig. 1 shows a holder page 10 for holdin protecting, and storing photographic slides, generally number 12, between a backing sheet 14 and a plurality of front strip 16, 17, 18 19, 20 and 21. The front strips being sealed to t backing sheet at longitudinal connection lines or longitudin seals 24 and transverse connection lines or transverse seals providing pockets generally numbered 28, in which are insert the slides 12.

Three functional positions of the flaps; the loadi position, the protection position, and the locking position, a shown in overlap regions ?,S, 34 and 32 respectively in Fig. and again respectively in Figs. 2, 3 and 4. The bottom front strip 16 is sealed to the backing shee along one longitudinal edge at longitudinal seal 24. T

transverse seals 26 stop at a distance before the top edge; i about 12 mm, of the strip 16, thus creating a pocket-top flap in the bottommost overlap region 32. Cooperating with pocket-top flap 30 in the overlap region 32 is the pocket bot flap 38 which is integrally connected to front flap 17 and wh extends a distance below longitudinal seal 24, i.e. about 15 - Flaps 30 and 38 in overlap region 32 are in the locked positi This can be seen more clearly in Fig. 4 which is a vertical cr section cut through that portion of the page in Fig. 1 contain slide 12'. It is apparent from Fig. 4 that the slide 12' securely held in pocket 28 by the interactive cooperation flaps 32 and 38. Flap 38 rest firmly on the slide and flap securely keeps flap 38 in place thereby ensuring that dislodgement of the slide is virtually impossible. Fig. 3 is a vertical cross-section cut through the hol page in Fig. 1 in the region of slide 12" which shows the str bottom flap 38 of front strip 19 overlapping the strip-top f of front strip 18 which in turn overlaps the slide 12" overlap region 34. Strip-bottom flap 38 functions to protect contents of pocket 28 from dust and/or moisture.

Fig. 2 is a vertical cross section cut through the page shown in Fig. 1 in the region of slide 12". The top strip fl 39, of front strip 21, and the strip-top flap 30 of the fr strip 20 cooperate to form a funnel arrangement 42 to facilit easy and rapid loading of slide 12' " in the direction shown arrow 44.

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Fig. 5 is a horizontal cross-sectional view of the holder Fig. 1 which shows the slide 12" in the pocket ^' 24. The fro strip 18 is also shown sealed to the backing sheet 14 transverse seals 26. Unloading is easily accomplished according to the inventi embodiment because the slide protrudes from the top of the pock allowing for the easy grasping of the slide.

Either of the other two functional positions of the page c easily be arranged from the first because none of the transver seals protrude into any of the overlap regions thus allowing f the free manipulation of the cooperating flaps by pivoting t portion of the page above- the manipulated overlap - regi relative the portion below the region about a longitudinal ax inside the overlap region while easily avoiding any disruption the flaps above or below the manipulated region.

As shown in the Figures, the preferred embodiment includes binding region 46 with holders 48 therein to receive the rings a ring binder in which the pages may be stored.

In another similar embodiment, the page may be of increas height to accommodate two spaced apart longitudinal seals for insertion of a file hanger bar therebetween. Instead of or addition to the hanger bar holes may be punched to allow for insertion of rings or bars and the like.

While specific embodiments of the invention have been sh and described in detail to illustrate the application of principles of the invention, it will be understood that the invention may be embodied otherwise without departing from s principles.