1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a product including parts which are formed of thermoplastic resins and can be recycled.
2. Discussion of the Background
Today, various kinds of products including printers, facsimile apparatuses and other image forming apparatuses and electronic apparatuses are extensively used. It is a common practice to adhere sheet-like pieces called decals to such products. Decals are implemented as, e.g., flexible or rigid thin sheets, films or thin plates formed of resins. Particular information is indicated on the front of each decal. Decals adhered to the various parts of a copier, for example, show the user or a serviceman how the parts should be handled, numbers indicative of how the parts should be replaced, and other various information. For the information, use is made not only of characters but also of arrows and other symbols, figures, and colors.
There is an increasing demand for products which can be easily recycled in order to protect the environment and to further enhance the effective use of limited resources. Various products have their parts formed of thermoplastic resins, so that the parts can be recycled when the lives of the products expire. For example, the parts are broken into pellets by a shredder, melted by hear, and then molded to produce desired parts.
Assume that a decal adhered to a part which can be recycled is formed of a material insoluble to the material constituting the part. Then, when the part with the decal is broken into pieces and melted without the decal peeled off, they do not dissolve in each other. The resulting molding has mechanical strength which is too low to withstand practical use. This problem will be solved if the decal is removed from the part by, e.g., a grinder and then recycled independently of the part. However, such a procedure is time- and labor-consuming and thereby increases the recycling cost.
In light of the above, Japanese Patent Application No. 6-192152 proposes to form parts and decals of thermoplastic resins soluble to each other, and to indicate on the decals character messages showing that the parts can be recycled without peeling off the decals. This kind of scheme allows the reproduced moldings to have sufficient mechanical strength because the materials of the parts and decals are soluble to each other. In addition, the messages provided on the decals allow recycling traders to immediately see that the parts should be dealt without peeling off the decals, thereby enhancing efficient recycling operation.
However, the above prior art scheme has some problems yet to be solved, as follows. The messages provided on the decals may read as "You can recycle a part with this sheet without peeling off the sheet". However, how the parts should be handled, the numbers indicative of how the parts should be replaced, and other primary information are indicated on the decals. Therefore, when the decals are relatively small in size, it is likely that they cannot accommodate the message showing the traders that the decals do not have to to be peeled off.
The information indicated on the decals are sometimes implemented as symbols or pictures, as distinguished from characters, so that they can be understood in any country. For example, information relating to the handling of the product may be represented by pictures so as to be understood in any country. This makes it needless to prepare particular decals for each country and thereby reduces the production cost of the decals. In this sense, the message "You can recycle a part with this sheet without peeling off the sheet" provided on the decals in English is meaningless.
As stated above, although forming the decals and parts of materials soluble to each other and indicating on the decals the character message showing that the parts can be recycled without peeling off the decals is useful, such a message cannot sometimes be indicated.