According to an aspect of the invention, a binding device includes a first rotary member including a first serrated portion on its circumferential surface, a second rotary member including, on its circumferential surface, a second serrated portion to be engaged with the first serrated portion at an engaging position and configured to perform a binding process by rotating together with the first rotary member with a bundle of sheets pinched therebetween to form serrations in the sheet bundle in thickness direction and bring the sheets into engagement with each other while relatively moving the sheet bundle in a predetermined moving direction, and a clamping unit configured to, when the binding process is performed, clamp the sheet bundle at a clamping position upstream of the engaging position to apply a predetermined pulling force acting in a direction opposite to the moving direction to the sheet bundle.

The embossing device for embossing packaging material comprises a set of embossing rollers with male die and female die rollers co-operating with one another, the surface of which is provided with texture elements, wherein the texture elements (M6R6) on the surface of the female die roller (M6), which are assigned to the texture elements (P6E6) on the surface of the male die roller (P6) are not inversely congruent by an amount of above 15 m in axial and radial direction and the texture elements of the male die and female roller associated with one another comprise facets (F) for the purpose of local pressure elevation. A facet (F) comprises faces (FN), which with respect to the imaginary, continuous surface of the texture is inclined. With such facetted rollers, a very large variety of films can be embossed in an aesthetically appealing manner, wherein the films can be mainly employed in the tobacco and foodstuff industry.

A process for providing indicia and an elastic-like behavior to a web substrate is disclosed. The process comprises the steps of: providing a web substrate; printing indicia on the web substrate; and, providing the web substrate with a plurality of first regions and a plurality of second regions comprising the same material composition. A portion of the first regions extend in a first direction while the remainder of the first regions extend in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction to intersect one another. The first regions form a boundary completely surrounding the second regions. The second regions comprise a plurality of raised rib-like elements. The first regions undergo a molecular level and geometric deformation and the second regions initially undergo a substantially geometric deformation when the web material is subjected to an applied elongation along at least one axis.

A method for embossing a barrier paper, wherein the barrier paper comprises paper and a protective layer on at least one of its sides. The method comprises providing a first embossing system with a first embossing tool and a second embossing tool cooperating with the first embossing tool to emboss the barrier paper: providing a patrix structure on the first embossing tool: providing a matrix structure on the second embossing tool: whereby the matrix structure corresponds to the patrix structure in such a manner that when embossing the barrier paper, a functionality of the protective layer is preserved. The method further comprises embossing the barrier paper by inserting the barrier paper between the first and the second embossing tools, applying pressure between the patrix and the matrix structures to press the patrix structure on a paper side which is a side of the barrier paper opposite to the side with the protective layer of the barrier paper, and push the barrier paper in the matrix structure, whereby the protective layer faces the matrix structure, thereby modifying a fiber structure of the paper in the barrier paper by at least one of the following effects: breaking of paper fibers, compressing of the paper fibers, densifying of the paper fibers; resulting in a modified folding behavior of the barrier paper and in maintaining a substantially unchanged shape of the barrier paper over its lifetime.