In recent years there have been increasing demands
to produce multi-functioning printed products that can be personalized
or imprinted on impact or non-impact printers. In response to the
increasing demand, manufacturers have developed a variety of ways
to produce a combined set of printed products which are referred to
as "integrated" and "affixed" products. Integrated
and affixed products effectively meet the needs generated by the considerable
growth of document handling equipment, for both pre and post-processing
activities.
The introduction of the laser printer has been responsible
for the greatest changes in developing integrated products that can
now provide processing options and product functions not previously
considered. To provide greater functionality for the printed product,
concepts such as affixing, integration and single-pass processing
have been developed. As examples there are cards or marketing materials
affixed to forms, cards and labels integrated into the form for laser
processing, and single sheet products that can be laser processed,
folded and secured, ready for distribution. The integrated product
applications are currently being designed to increase the efficiency
and function of standard printed products that may have previously
required several components or printed pieces to be gathered together
in order to accomplish the same objective.
Five specific integrated products will be discussed
in this section. They are defined by the method used to combine the
multiple components. The products, which will be examined, are cards
and labels that are either integrated with the carrier sheet or affixed
to the carrier sheet. They are defined as follows:
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