AU631368B2 - Paper working apparatus - Google Patents

Description

4 63 368 COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA ~0 it- The Patents Act 1952-1969 4 e 04 0 0 0 9* 0 Name of Applicant: Address of Applicant; Actual Inventor: Address for Service: 119 Commodore Drive Paradise Waters Qld 4217 JASON PAUL -&HGBA-E+AR O LAJi JASON PAUL SHOENAUER G.R. CULLEN COMPANY, Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, Dalgety House, 79 .Eagle Street, Brisbane, Qld. 4000, Australia.

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COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR THE INVENTION ENTITLED: PAPER WORKING APPARATUS The following statement is a full description of the invention including the best tmethod of performing it known to me:

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2 9# 0@ THIS INVENTION relates to paper working apparatus which is responsible for the working or deformation of paper or paper products. The invention is particularly useful for creasing or folding edges of various types of crepe paper so as to give a decorative effect to the crepe paper, though it is not intended to be so limited.

Throughout this specification, the term "paper" is So intended to cover all material worked in a manner analogous a 0 o* to paper, for example, plastics sheet materials, laminated 0 o 0 materials, metal foils, or some textile material.

The paper working apparatus of the invention is 0 especially directed to paper which may be used as wrapping paper for goods after purchase although it will be appreciated that the paper working apparatus of the invention may be applied to other kinds of paper.

An important aspect in the retailing industry is 0 the presentation of goods for sale, and also, the way in which goods are wrapped after purchase. The better the presentation of the goods before and after purchase, the more attractive the goods are to the consumer, and hence, the consumer is more likely to purchase the goods. However, the extra costs incurred in improving the presentation of the goods must be. carefully weighed-up against any increase in purchase price an6. liely consumer reaction to such an increase. The end result must be that the perceived value of the goods must increase, or the improved presentation is 4

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3 wasted. An ideal result would be a significant increase in perceived value at very little or no cost to the retailer.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which may deform a paper product in such a manner so as to provide a decorative effect.

In one aspect the invention provides a paper working apparatus for producing a decorative effect on an edge of a sheet of paper comprising: a pair of engageable rollers to hold a portion of said paper sheet captive therebetween, the rollers being oppositely rotatable relative to one another to move the paper sheet therebetween, one roller having an annular groove therein and the other roller having an annular projection to engage with the groove of said one roller; a guide means to guide the edge of the paper sheet towards the rollers and to fold the edge of the paper sheet back upon itself; whereby upon rotation of the rollers, the edge of o the paper sheet is progressively folded by the guide means and stretched in the direction of the edge by the rollers to produce the decorative effect.

The apparatus described above is particularly useful S in producing a scalloped edge on a sheet of crepe paper that may be used, for example, to wrap a bouquet of flowers. This enhances the presentation of the bouquet when compared to conventional wrappings of tissue paper or cellophane paper.

S Presentation of the bouquet can be further enhanced by choosing a colour of crepe paper which complements or T57 ,Contrasts with the colour of the blooms chosen in the bouquet.

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14 Preferably, the apparatus includes a mounting means which may comprise a clamp means whereby the paper working apparatus may be clamped to a suitable support such as a bench or table top. Advantageously, the clamp means is screw operated to define a screw clamp which can be adjusted to suit bench tops of various thicknesses.

Preferably, the paper working apparatus of the invention may also include a body part which advantageously includes a support base which suitably comprises a planar support surface. Suitably the clamp means is attached to the support base.

Advantageously the said one roller comprises a disc rotatably mounted on said body part. Preferably the said another roller comprises a nipping roller rotatably mounted on said body part.

Desirably, the said one roller includes gripping means so that the edge of the paper is positively gripped by S the disc and roller, and hence, the grip of the paper is improved. Advantageously, the gripping means comprises a 0 2Q t plurality of equispaced grooves oriented in a direction S parallel to the axis of rotation of the disc. Alternatively, the gripping means may comprise a plurality of equispaced q* 0 0: serrations or striations oriented in the same direction as the equispaced grooves.

p Advantageously, the nipping roller further includes a frustum or chamfered portion located coaxially with the annular projection, with the larger diameter of the frustum adjacent said annular projection and in bearing engagement with a peripheral edge of the peripheral groove. Desirably 'r 0 nr 'on

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the inclined surface of the frustum is oriented at an angle of between 30° 45° to the axis of rotation of the roller.

Preferably there is also included biassing means associated with the pair of rollers so as to bias the rollers into an engagement position where they engage with each other.

It is preferred that the biassing means be used in conjunction with the nipping roller although it may be used in conjunction with the disc if required.

Advantageously, the nipping roller is rotatably mounted on an arm, with the arm pivotally mounted on the support base and biased by the biasing means so that the nipping roller is in bearing engagement with the disc.

Preferably, the biasing means comprises a suitable spring.

The biasing means allows the disc and roller to exert a substantially constant tension on the edge of the paper sheet as it is fed between the engagement surfaces.

The' actuating means which may be used to rotate S either the disc or the nipping roller may be of any suitable type and thus may be in one form may comprise a crank and handle to allow for manual operation. Optionally, the disc or roller may be actuated by any suitable mechanical means, as for example, a gear means. Alternatively, a suitable drive K |means may be used to drive the actuating means and this may include for example an electric motor, or a hydraulic or pneumatic-powered motor.

Preferably, the guide' means has a progressively decreasing transverse dimension, from a leading end with the largest transverse dimension located remote from the !ngagement surfaces, to a trailing end 'located adjacent the f 'i

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i i r engagement surfaces. When so oriented, the guide means guides the edge of the paper towards the engagement surfaces and also assists in folding the edge back upon itself. Advantageously the guide means is in the shape of a spiral, though other shapes may be suitable.

o* a 9 9 9 So 9 o 9 9 99 9 9 9 9 9 I 6 9 tl oe i 9 9 Ir iY 9 9 9 9 9 o9 6« 6| 06 6 a 9 9 *9 9 99 I 9 4e .9t ti ft t 904$ 9~t tf09 9 9 7 A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the following drawings whereii,: Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the invention when i'wunted on a bench; Fig. 2 is another perspective view depicting a sheet of paper being fed into the invention; Fig. 2a is a detail of the inter-relationship 0 between the disc and the nipping roller of the invention; o Fig. 3 is an elevation of the invention depicting f 0 the guide means and disc in detail with the nipping roller 0 removed for clarity; and Fig. 4 is a plan view of the invention depicting a sheet of paper being fed into the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, there is shown a support or bench 7 having a top surface 8 and lower surface 9.

Apparatus 10 has a support base 11 and an attachment means or clamp 12. Clamp 12 includes an L-shaped bracket 13 secured at its upper end to support base 11. Spindle 14 threadedly engages bracket 13, and includes a handle 15 at its lower end, Clamp 12 secures support base 11 to bench 7 by gripping the upper and lower surfaces 8 and 9 between jaws 16 and 17 respectively.

Disc 18 is rotatably mounted on support base 11 by any suitable method. Circumferential surface 19 of disc 18 includes a peripheral groove 20. Nipping roller 21 is rotatably attached at 14 to arm 25 which in turn, is pivotally attached at 26 to support base 11. Biasing means or spring 27 biases arm 25 so that annular projection 22 of roller 21 is maintained in bearing engagement with peripheral groove 20 of disc 18.

Actuating means 28 is coupled to disc 17 and consists of crank 29 and handle 30. Rotation of crank 29 the opposite direction to disc 18 due to the bearing Referrrotates disc 18, which in turn, causes roller 21 to rotate ind Sor spiral 31 is attached to support base 11 such that the 14 t engagement of the disc 18 and roller 21.

Q° r 1 Theet of crepe paper guide means has been omitted from Fig. 1 Thefor clarity.

is fed into the apparatus 10, crank 29 is rotated clockwise Referring to Fig. 2, features already described with respect to Fig. 1 are similarly numbered. Guide means or spiral 31 is attached to support base 11 such that the I .5 apex of the spiral is adjacent disc 18. Nipping roller 21 includes frustum 23 positioned with its large diameter A sheet of crepe paper 40 having an edge 41 is fed t into apparatus 10 in the direction shown by the arrow 36.

The corrugations or crinkles 42 of sheet 40 are oriented substantially normal to the direction of feed. tdge 41 is fed into the spiral 31 so that as the spiral 31 decreases in size, edge 41 tends to roll back over sheet 40. As sheet is fed into the apparatus 10, crank 29 is rotated clockwise as shown by arrow 37.

Referring to Figs. 3 and 4, as edge 41 of sheet 9 is fed into spiral 31, it is guided between engagement surfaces 34 and 32 of nipping roller 21 and disc 18 respectively. Surface 34 is the circumferential surface of annular projection 22, while surface 32 is the circumferential surface of peripheral groove As edge 41 passes between surfaces 32 and 34, it is longitudinally strs:ched so as to substantially remove corrugations 42, and while still stretched, folded back upon 00 6 0 0 0 S" itself, so as to give a new edge 43. This causes edge 43 to o o 051 assume a scalloped shape since this edge will remain o0 0 0 ,o stretched with respect to the remainder of sheet 40, even 0 when the sheet is removed from the apparatus 10, A plurality of equispaced grooves or serrations 33 are formed in surface 32 to improve the grip on sheet (,16 Once edge 41 has initially passed between engagement surfaces 32 and 34, continued rotation of crank 29 in the clockwise direction will result in the remainder of edge 41 being pulled or fed through and folded.

SIf only a part of edge 41 is required to be folded, then paper 40 can be removed from apparatus 10 by rotating arm 25 in the direction of arrow 38 (see Fig. 2) so as to remove surface 34 from bearing engagement with surface 32.

Once the paper has been removed, spring 27 will bias surfaces 32 and 34 back into bearing engagement.

Alte rnatively, edge 41 can be eased out of spiral 31 as the sheet 40 is fed through. This will result in a steadily decreasing amount of folding until edge 41 falls free of engagement surfaces 32 and 34.

The foregoing has been provided to illustrate the invention. The invention includes within its scope other modifications or improvements which may be obvious to a person skilled ii the art. The disc and 7oller, for example, may be heated by any suitable method, and the apparatus could then be used with elasticised plastic fabrics. In this application, the scalloping effect would be maintained by f fusing an edge of the plastic fabric. Similar comments could 44, 'd apply to rubberised or elastomeric fabrics, Sti Alternatively, the apparatus could be used in t conjunction with a paper cutter or guillotine so that paper could be fed off a roll through the apparatus and then cut to (tit size, rather than feeding sheets of paper through the I t apparatus. In this modification, the complete process could be mechanised, so that the disc or roller is powered by a suitable electric motor. This application would be particularly useful when large quantities of paper must be processed,

Claims (14)

1. Paper working apparatus for producing a decorative effect on an edge of a sheet of paper comprising: a pair of engageable rollers to hold a portion of said paper sheet captive therebetween, the rollers being oppositely rotatable relative to one another to move the paper sheet therebetween, one roller having an annular groove therein and the other roller having an annular projection to engage with the groove of said one roller; a guide means to guide the edge of the paper sheet towards the rollers and to fold the edge of the paper sheet back upon itself; whereby upon rotation of the rollers, the edge of the paper sheet is progressively folded by the guide means and stretched in the direction of the edge by the rollers to produce the decorative effect.

2. Paper working apparatus as claimed in claim 1 A be Sfurther including mounting means releasably attachable to a support.

3. Paper working apparatus as claimed in claim 2 wherein said mounting means comprises a clamp for clamping said apparatus to a suitable support. S,

4. Paper working apparatus as claimed in claim 2 t 8 wherein said clamp means may be screw operated to define a screw clamp which can be adjusted to suit supports of various thicknesses. S

5. Paper working apparatus as claimed in any one of claims 1-4 wherein said one roller comprises a disc rotatably S mounted to a body part of the paper working apparatus. 12

6. Paper working apparatus as ,laimed in claim wherein said other roller comprises a nipping roller rotatably mounted to said body part,

7. Paper working apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said one roller member includes a gripping means so that the edge of the paper is positively gripped to improve the grip of the paper by the pair of rollers.

8. Paper working apparatus as claimed in claim 7 wherein said gripping means comprises a plurality of equispaced grooves oriented in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of said one ioller.

9. Paper working apparatus as claimed in claim 8 wherein said gripping means comprises a plurality of equispaced serrations or striations oriented in a direction parallel to the axis of rotation of said another roller. Paper working apparatus as claimed in any one of the S preceding claims further including a biasing means asBVoiated S'i with said pair of rollers so as to bias said rolleo into an 4 engagement position where they engage with each other.

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11 Paper 'working apparatus as claimed in claim wherein said biasing means is associated with a mounting arm Which supports said another roller whereby said 'another roller is biased to said engagement position.

12. Paper working apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said guide means has a progressively decreasing transverse dimension, from a leading end with the largest transverse dimension located remote from said bearing ,:jJK surfaces, to a trailing end located adjacent said bearing 0 13 surfaces.

13. Paper wcr:king apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims wherein said guide means is in the form of a spiral.

14. Papr,-.r working apparatus substantially as described 1-rrein with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED this sixteenth day of September 1992. JASON PAUL SCHOENAUER By his patent attorneys CULLEN CO. I t 4* #5 4 S S 4~ S 4. 4# 4 54 4 4* t5 t444 44 9' 4* 54 S 4 *1 4 *4 I 44 4S4S 4 U S 4 44 *4 *4*4 44 44