AU2006100930B4 - A Label - Google Patents

Description

-1- SA Label

C)

0 Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a label upon which information can be written. Suitably, the Sinformation may be written on the label using a ballpoint pen.

Background to the Invention C ri Mothers of school aged children have often faced difficulty in being able to simply label items that the children take to school. Examples of such items include lunch boxes, drink bottles, cups, items of cutlery, plates, bowls and the like. One traditional solution to naming such products involved writing the child's name on a piece of paper and sticking the piece of paper on to the item using sticky tape. This suffers from the disadvantage that washing of the item causes rapid deterioration in that type of label. This deterioration occurs even if the sticky tape completely covers the paper with the writing on it.

There have been some attempts to produce labels that have a region where a child's name may be written. Again, it has been found that such labels suffer from either a rapid deterioration of the writing on the label or peeling or other detachment of the regions upon which the writing can be placed. Further, such labels typically do not except writing from a ballpoint pen.

The applicant does not concede that the prior art discussed in the specification forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia or elsewhere.

Throughout the specification, the word comprising and its grammatical equivalents are to be taken to have an inclusive meaning, unless the context of use clearly indicates otherwise.

Brief Description of the Invention It is an object of the present invention to provide a label that overcomes or at least O -2ameliorates one or more of the above problems.

C)

0 In the first aspect, the present invention provides a label incorporating at least a region upon which information can be written, the label comprising a base selected from a vinyl material or a polyester material and an ink layer on the base, with the ink layer including an ink selected from a thermal printing ink or a screen printing ink, said ink layer forming the region upon which information can be written.

INO

SIn some embodiments, the information can be written on the region using a ballpoint pen.

In some embodiments, the label further comprises an adhesive layer. This enables the label to be stuck onto items. The adhesive layout may be provided with a protective backing sheet that can be removed therefrom when it is desired to stick the label onto an item.

In an embodiment of the invention, the base comprises a vinyl material. For example, the vinyl material may comprise polyvinyl chloride. The final material may be in the form of a sheet or film. The vinyl material may have an adhesive backing thereon.

Examples of suitable vinyl materials for use in the present invention include Avery 700PF, Avery 800PF, Avery 900PF and Avery Supertak (both available from Avery Denison Materials of Castle Hill, NSW, 2154), Scotchcal 50 series and Scotchcal 36-90 Series, both available from 3M Australia, 950 Pacific Highway, Pymble NSW 2073), Arlon Calon 5000 Series (available from Arlon, 2811 South Harbour Boulevarde, Santa Ana CA 92704- 5805, USA). Generally, vinyl materials that are most suitable for use in the present invention should be of a quality at least equivalent to Avery 700PF.

In another embodiment of the invention, the base comprises a polyester material. The polyester material may be a high gloss polyester. The polyester material may comprise on each sheet or a film. The polyester material may have an adhesive backing thereon. An example of a suitable polyester material is Polyester Oraguard 330HG, available from Oracal USA of Jacksonville, Florida).

ID-3- O In embodiments where the ink layer is applied by thermal printing, the thermal printing ink Smay be provided in the form of a thermal printing foil. The thermal printing of oil may the resulting application of a matt pigment to the base material. The matt pigment is suitably a O 5 white matt pigment. Thermal printing foil typically comprises a carrier, the ink to be applied to the material being printed in upon and an adhesive to assist in maintaining the ink on the _substrate material. The persons cooling out would readily understand that thermal printing ION foils are widely available from a number of suppliers.

An example of an appropriate thermal printing foil is a Gerber foil, available from Spandex Asia Pacific, PO Box 575, Hornsby, NSW, 1630. One particularly suitable thermal printing foil available from this supplier is the GerberColour GCS Series White Foil. Equivalent thermal printing foils from other suppliers may also be used.

Thermal printing inks are especially suitable for use in the present invention in embodiments where the base material is the vinyl material.

If a screen printing ink is used, a suitable ink includes Polyplast LN EL Screen Inks, available from Fujifilm Sericol, 4 Coronation Avenue, Kings Park, NSW, 2148. Such inks often have an acrylic resin base The inks that may be used include those that can form a film or coherent mass upon drying.

Suitable inks may include those that have an acrylic resin base. The inks may contain adhesion promoters. The acrylic base resins may include a methylmethacrylate polymer or a methylmethacrylate-acrylic copolymer. The inks will contain pigments.

The inks may also contain one or more of extenders, surfactants, stabilizers, reodorants, biocides, identifying tracers, defoamers and flow aids.

IN -4- If using screen printing inks, it may be desirable to add a matting agent to the ink. The O matting agent may be added in amounts of up to 10% by weight, more suitably up to about 6% by weight, of the ink mixture. The matting agent may be, for example, silica, such as that sold under the trade names Aerosil (Degussa AG) and Cab-o-sil (Cabot Gmbh). Other O 5 matting agents may be used.

_It may also be desirable to add Silicon Carbide to the ink mixture. For example, Silicon S Carbide may be added in an amount of up to more suitably up to by weight, of the ink mixture. Adding Silicon Carbide to the ink mixture has been found to provide especially suitable results if the ink layer is not to be overlaid with a further protective layer once the information has been written on to the region.

It will also be understood that other screen printing inks that are compatible with the base material used in the label may also be used in the present invention.

The present inventor has discovered that in producing a label in accordance with the present invention unexpectedly results in a label that can be satisfactorily adhered to items and withstand the rigours of being placed repeatedly in a dishwasher. The labels are resistant to being removed from the items in the dishwasher. Further, the labels may be written on using standard ballpoint pens. The labels exhibit good resistance to removal of the information written on them.

In some embodiments, the labels may include a further protective layer overlaying the at least one region. The further protective layer may be applied after the information has been written on the at least one region. The further protective layer may take the form of a transparent, adhesive film or sheet. In one embodiment, the further protective layer comprises the same material from which the base is made.

In embodiments where a thermal printing ink is used, the label may be made by a method which includes the steps of passing the base material through a thermal printing machine and printing the ink layer onto the base layer in the thermal printing machine. In thermal NO printing, the ink is applied using a thermal printing head. There is no curing time required O with thermal printing.

t'q In embodiments where a screen printing ink is used, standard screen printing techniques may O 5 be used to apply the ink layer. The screen printing ink would be applied to the base material and allowed to dry, typically by air drying.

InO In some embodiments of the present invention, the at least one region substantially covers the entirety of the base material. In other embodiments of the present invention, the at least one region covers only a part of the base material. The at least one region may comprise one region. The at least one region may comprise two or more regions. The at least one region is desirability of a white colour or of another light shade of colour.

Brief Description of the Drawings Figure 1 shows a plan view of a label in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a cross sectional side view of a label in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In figure 2, the label is shown in exaggerated scale; and Figure 3 shows a cross sectional side view of a label in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention. In figure 3, the label is shown in exaggerated scale.

Detailed Description of the Drawings It will be understood that the drawings accompanying the specification have been provided for the purposes of illustrating preferred embodiments of the present invention. Therefore, it will be appreciated that the present invention should not be considered to be restricted solely to the features as shown and described in the attached drawings.

IN -6-

O

O

Turning to figure 1, a label 10 in accordance with the present invention includes a base O material 12 having a layer of ink 14 printed thereon. As can be seen from figure 1, the ink layer 14 forms a region that covers only part of the surface of the label 10. However, it will be appreciated that the ink layer 14 may form a region that covers all of the surface of the label 10. Further, the label 10 may include additional regions of ink layers. This is desirable in instances where separate regions for writing different information on the label is provided.

IThe ink layer 14 shown in figure 1 is suitably formed from a white ink or an ink of another light shade of colour. This allows for good contrast between the region formed by the ink layer and any information written on the ink layout. The information it may be written on to the region and 14 using a ballpoint pen, a felt pen, a permanent marker, a pencil, or other writing instrument.

If a thermal printing ink is used, the ink layer is applied using a thermal printing ink machine. In thermal printing methods, the base material, which is typically in the form of a roll of film or sheet, is passed through the printing machine. The printing machine is arranged such that the ink layer is printed onto the desired regions of the base material as it passes through the machine. Thermal printing machines include printing heads that heat the thermal printing ink (which is frequently in the form of a thermal printing foil) to cause the thermal printing ink being applied to and adhere to the base material. Once the printed base material has been removed from the printing machine, it may be cut to desired shape. In this regard, it will be understood that typically a plurality of labels are printed as the base material passes through the thermal printing machine. The base material is then cut to obtain labels of the desired size.

If a screen printing ink mixture is used, the regions are applied to the base material using screen printing methods. The desired screen printing ink mixture is formed (which may involve obtaining a screen printing ink and adding a matting agent and/or Silicon Carbide) in declined to the base layer using standard screen printing techniques. The printed inks are then allowed to dry, typically by air drying.

ID-7- O It is believed that screen printing methods would be useful if large volumes of labels are to Cc be produced as screen printing is typically more economical than thermal printing.

However, for low-volume runs, thermal printing may be more cost efficient because the O 5 setup costs would be lower than in screen printing.

Figure 2 shows a cross-sectional view of the label 20 in accordance with an embodiment of Ithe present invention. The label 20 includes a base material 22. The base material may Scomprise a vinyl material or a polyester material. The vinyl material 22 has an ink layer 24 applied thereto. The ink layer 24 may comprise a thermal printing ink applied by a thermal printing method. Alternatively, the ink layer 24 may comprise a screen printing ink or a screen printing ink mixture applied by a screen printing process.

The label 20 also includes an adhesive layer 26 located on the lower surface of the label. A backing layer 28, which may be in the form of a protective release coating, is applied to adhesive layer 26. Any suitable pressure sensitive adhesive and release layer may be used in layers 26 and 28.

Figure 3 shows a further embodiment of the present invention which has many similarities to the embodiment shown in figure 2. For ease of description, those features shown in figure 3 that are similar to those shown in figure 2 denoted by using the same reference but with the addition of a These features need not be described further. The embodiment shown in figure 3 differs from that shown in figure 2 in that the protective layer of 30 has been applied over the ink layer 24' and the top surface of the base 22'. The protective layer of 30 is suitably applied to the label 20' after information has been written on to the region formed by the ink layer 22'. The protective layer of 30 may be in the form of a transparent adhesive layer. Suitably, the protective layer of 30 may comprise a vinyl material or a polyester material having an adhesive layer thereon.

Claims (2)

1. 2. A label as claimed in claim 1 further comprising an adhesive layer. c'i 10 3. A label as claimed in claim I or claim 2 wherein the vinyl materal is polyvinyl chloride and the polyester material is a high gloss polyester.
2. 4. A label as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the ink comprises a screen printing ink having a matting agent therein in an amount of up to about 10% by weight of the ink. A label as claimed in any one of the preceding claims substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. Date: 13 September 2007 COMS ID No: ARCS-160855 Received by IP Australia: Time 16:02 Date 2007-09-13