AU670601B2

AU670601B2 - Method and apparatus for producing tubular printed product packs with a tear-out aid

Info

Publication number: AU670601B2
Application number: AU44390/93A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Hans-Ulrich Stauber
Original assignee: Ferag AG
Current assignee: Ferag AG
Priority date: 1992-09-15
Filing date: 1993-08-03
Publication date: 1996-07-25
Anticipated expiration: 2013-08-03
Also published as: EP0588758B1; CA2104184A1; EP0588758A1; AU4439093A

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Applicant(s): FERAG AG Invention Title: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING TUBULAR PRINTED PRODUCT PACKS WITH A TEAR-OUT AID o to oo a oe ooe see The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to me/us: 1ft METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING TUBULAR PRINTED PRODUCT PACKS WITH A TEAR-OUT AID The invention is in the field of the further processing of printed products and relates to a method and an apparatus according to the preambles of the corresponding claims for the production of tubular packs, which contain at least one wound, bendable, flat article, particularly a wound scale formation of printed products and which are enveloped with a protective/holding element. The invention also relates to a pack produced according to said method in accordance with the preamble of the corresponding, independent claim.

According to the prior art flexible, flat articles or objects and in particular printed products are wound or rolled up into tubular packs for transportation purposes.

During the same winding process the packs are normally wrapped with a protective/holding element in the form of a o. paper sheet or a piece of plastic sheeting. The protective/holding element is so dimensioned that there are two overlapping areas on the pack, i.e. one area thereof with an outer edge parallel to the pack axis rests on another area thereof with an inner edge parallel to the pack axis. The outer area with the outer edge engages with its inwardly directed surface on the outwardly directed surface of the inner area with the inner edge. These two overlapping areas adhere together, e.g. by means of an adhesive., by welding or by the use of adhesive films as the 0: protective/holding element as a result of the corresponding characteristics of the surfaces.

Methods and apparatuses for the production of such packs are e.g. described in European patent 243906 (F225) and European patent application 474999 (F337) of the same applicant.

According to these methods it is in particular possible to produce packs with variable diameters, the protective/ holding element also having a variable length, in such a way 2 that the overlap area is always the same independently of the pack diameter.

For opening such packs the protective/holding element must be torn open and removed. For this purpose, e.g. the outer edge parallel to the pack axis or one corner of the protective/holding element can be gripped and by pulling thereon the adhesion between the two overlapping areas can be ended. This is not always simple, because the edge is often not readily visible and also not readily grippable, particularly if the protective/holding element consists of a transparent adhesive film. for this reason the consumer often makes use of a sharp object for opening :the pack, which can easily damage the outside printed within the pack, which must naturally be avoided.

15 The problem of the invention is therefore to provide a method and an apparatus for producing tubular packs of printed products, which are enveloped by a protective/holding element, improved in such a way that the tearing of the protective/holding element for opening the 20 pack is made easier. In particular, the method according to the invention is to be used if each protective/holding element is e.g. separated from a storage reel and has a length variable as a function of the pack to be enveloped.

It is also the problem of the invention to 25 provide an apparatus for performing the method. This apparatus must be simple and must differ from corresponding prior art apparatuses only through an additional partial device. Thus, in accordance with this invention, there is provided a method of producing a tubular pack of selectable diameter containing a wound scale formation of printed products enveloped in a self adhering transparent film material with two parts of the film material overlapping and adhering to each other in an overlapping area substantially parallel to a central pack axis, comprising the steps of delivering to a winding location printe products in scale formation, delivering to the winding Slocation a web of self-adhesive transparent film material, 2a winding a predetermined number of the printed products in scale formation onto a winding mandrel to form a tube of would printed products having an outer surface, beginning at a trailing part of the scale formation with a leading edge of the film material, winding the film material onto the outer surface of the tube of wound printed products, cutting the web of self adhesive film material to leave a length of film material on the tube greater than the circumference of the outer surface of the tube, pressing a trailing edge of the cut film material against the leading edge of the film material to cause the trailing edge to overlap and adhere to the underlying film material, coating a portion of the cut trailing edge of the film material with a visible and adhesion-resisting coating, whereby 15 adhesion of the film material to itself at the overlap is partly prevented to provide a grippable region for removal and the grippable region is made clearly visible.

The invention also resides in an apparatus for producing a tubular pack of selectable diameter containing a wound scale formation of printed products enveloped in a self-adhering transparent film material with two parts of the film material overlapping and adhering to each other in an overlapping area substantially parallel to a central opack axis, comprising the combination of a winding station 25 with a winding mandrel; means for providing a stream of printed products in scale formation to said winding station and for winding said stream onto said winding mandrel to form a tube of wound printed products; means for delivering a web of self-adhesive film material to said tube at said winding station and for wrapping a layer of said film material around said tube with ends of said film overlapping, means between said means for delivering a web and said winding station for selectively and controllably coating a surface of said film material; and means for selectively cutting said web as material therefrom is applied to said tube.

2b According to the method of the invention the outer edge of the protective/holding element parallel to the pack axis, i.e. the trailing edge of the protective/holding element in the winding process is to be clearly visibly marked oooo o o o o •coo o oe e o* 3 immediately prior to or during winding in such a way that it can immediately and clearly be identified on the finished pack by the person having to open the latter. This is brought about by a corresponding, edge-marking coating of the protective/holding element in the vicinity of the trailing edge in the winding process, immediately before the area of the protective/holding element carrying said edge is wound up, or by wrapping a special marking element with the corresponding area of the protectivg/holding element. The coated area or in particular the marking element can simultaneously be designed in such a way that gripping thereof is possible for the opening of the pack. Simultaneously the coated area or the marking element can carry information e.g. relating to the pack.

If the outer edge of the protective/holding element parallel to the pack axis is marked by a marking element, advantage- *,ct ously said marking element is so positioned between the two overlapping areas of the protective/holding element, that 4* f* the connection between said two areas is interrupted at the location of the marking element. This leads to a point at which the outer edge can be directly or indirectly gripped and from where e.g. the connection between the two over- 'lapping areas of the protective/holding element can be torn open. As a function of the design and material of the protective/holding element by pulling on the marking element or on the outer edge of the protective/holding element the latter can also be torn. As a function of the material and thickness of the protective/holding element for said purpose a predetermined tearing point can be provided therein.

The marking element is advantageously a colour-contrasting tear-open strip, which is wound onto the pack coordinated with the winding or rolling up of the protective/holding element.

If the outer edge of the protective/holding element parallel to the pack axis is realized with an edge-marking coating of 4 said element, in the case of transparent material said coating can be applied to the surface of the protective/ holding element facing the pack. Such a coating is then located on the finished pack between the two overlapping areas of the protective/holding element and in the same way as a tear-open strip can interrupt the connection of the two overlap areas and in this way produce a gripping or application point on the edge. If the protective/holding element is made from a non-transparent material, then the coating is to be applied to the pack on the outwardly directed surface.

As will be shown hereinafter, it can then be ensured in another way that the edge can still be easily gripped.

For both cases a method is possible in which also in the case of a varying pack diameter and a protective/holding element length matched to said diameter, the element can be supplied from a storage reel of a corresponding material.

As will be described in detail hereinafter, the tear-open function can also be fulfilled by an element or a corresponding opening of the protective/holding element, which o o extends over the entire length of the latter and which can o o therefore be wound beforehand with the material for the protective/holding element or can be applied thereto. Such S"elements or coatings can only be used to a limited extent for the marking of the outer edge.

0 Hereinafter embodiments of the inventive, tubular pack with the protective/holding element and marking of the outer edge 0. of the protective/holding element parallel to the pack axis .00. will be described, together with a number of exemplified method variants for producing such packs and exemplified embodiments of a corresponding apparatus for performing the method and this will take place in conjunction with the attached drawings, wherein show: Fig. 1 An exemplified embodiment of the tubular pack according to the invention with a protective/holding element and marking of the outer edge of said element.

Figs. 2 to 7 Embodiments of the protective/holding element with a marking of the outer edge of the protective/holding element.

Figs. 8 and 9 Diagrammatic representations of two exemplified embodiments of the apparatus according to the invention for producing packs with a protective/holding element and marking element.

Fig. 10 A diagrammatic representation of an exemplified embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention for producing packs with a protective/holding element and edge-marking coating.

Fig. 1 shows an exemplified pack P according to the invention with a protective/holding element 10, which is advantageously somewhat wider than the wound printed products and is longer by at least one overlap area 11 than the pack circumference. An outer area of the protective/ holding element with its inwardly directed surface on the packs rests on the outwardly directed surface of an inner area over the length of the overlap area. As t result of the characteristics of the material of the protective/ holding element adhesivc film) or by the application of bonding agents adhesives) to said surface areas, the two areas are at least partly interconnected. Between the two interconnected surface areas is provided a marking *4 S" element 20 in the form of a tear-open strip, which interrupts the connection between the two overlapping surface areas.

The marking element 20 projects over the outer edge 12 of the protective/holding element 10 parallel to the pack axis, the projecting parts serving as a gripping point. The length of the tear-open strip (marking element) is 6 advantageously at least such that it extends at least over the entire overlap area. The tear-open strip width is variable.

It is obviously also possible to produce a pack, which is provided with several tear-open strips distributed over the width of the wound printed products.

Figs. 2 to 7 show various exemplified embodiments of protective/holding elements 10 with different adapted edge markings in the form of marking elements 20 or corresponding, edge-marking coatings 30 for which, as is apparent from the description of the drawings, the same conditions largely apply. The drawings show the protective/holding elements in an extended state not wound onto a pack, the surface directed inwards in the pack facing the observer and the separate marking elements and naturally also the coatings are shown in those positions relative to the protective/ holding element 10, which they also assume on the pack. On the protective/holding element are indicated by broken lines 9 the two overlapping areas 11.1 (outer area with outer edge 12 parallel to the pack axis) and 1i1.2 (inner area with inner edge 14 parallel to the pack axis), between which extends a length which is the same as the pack circumfer- S' ence, minus the length of the overlap area 11. All the protective/holding elements shown have a length, which is greater by the overlap area length than the pack circumference. Obviously the protective/holding element can also be longer.

Fig. 2 shows the exemplified embodiment of the protective/ holding element 10 and marking element 20 in the form of a tear-open strip, which is also shown in Fig. 1. The tearopen strip projects over the outer edge 12 of the protective/holding element. The tear-open strip length is advantageously at least such that it extends over the entire overlap area. The drawing shows two lengths of tear-open strips, namely a continuous line, short strip 20' sub- 7 stantially only covering the overlap area and a dot-dash, longer, strip 20", which extends almost around the entire pack circumference.

The advantageous or necessary length of such a tear-open strip is on the one hand dependent on the adhesion between the surfaces of the protective/holding element and the tearopen strip. The stronger said adhesion, the shorter can be the tear-open strip, without it being pulled out on tearing open between the overlap areas of the protective/holding element.

If the protective/holding element is made from a transparent material it is possible to see the tear-open strip over its entire length. In order to be able to fulfil its function as a marking element, it should not extend around the entire pack circumference, so that its one end can be detected as a tear-open point, which represents a second condition for the strip length. Advantageously the tear-open strip for the marking function also has a colour which clearly contrasts with respect to the pack content, so that it can easily be recognized as a marking element.

In addition, in the case of a transparent protective/holdin element, the tear-open strip can carry on its outwardly directed surface on the pack e.g. pack-specific information, such as e.g. an address. In this case the tear-open strip is as long as possible (dot-dash line variant) and the information is repeated over its entire length.

If the material of the protective/holding element is not transparent, then on the pack only the part of the tear-open strip projecting over the outer edge 12 of the said element is visible. Therefore the strip length is not limited by its marking function.

When using an adhesive film as the material for the protective/holding element, the tear-open strip can e.g. be 8 made from strong paper or non-adhesive plastic. When paper is used for the protective/holding element a plastic tearopen strip is advantageous.

If on tearing open the pack the connection between the two overlapping areas of the protective/holding element is not to tear and instead tearing of the protective/holding element is to take place, when strong material is used for the latter it can be advantageous to provide in the protective/holding element 10 predetermined tearing points along the lines running along said element 10 representing the tzar-open strip 20 in Fig. 2.

Fig. 3 again shows a protective/holding element 10 with a marking element 20, which does not project over the protective/holding element edge 20 to the outside on the pack. This embodiment is suitable for flexible protective/holding element materials, so that the local interruption in the connection between the two overlapping areas of the protective/holding element resulting from the marking element 20 is sufficient to serve as an application or gripping point for tearing open. This embodiment can also be realized with a corresponding copting of the protective/holding element surface directed inwards on the pack and the coated are 30 can have the same form as the representative marking element 20. It is also possible to provide a coated area 30' on the protective/holding element surface directed outwards on the pack and it must then be positioned at the point indicated in dot-dash line manner.

*0 An edge-marking coating as indicated at 30 can have numerous different forms. It can e.g. point in arrow-like manner to the edge 12 or extend in strip form along the entire edge 12 or parts thereof corner areas), as will be described in conjunction with Fig. 7.

Fig. 4 shows an embodiment with a coated area 30, which still has a part projecting over the outer edge of the 9 protective/holding element 10 for gripping purposes. For this purpose the corresponding edge 12.1 is not linear and instead has a corresponding projection 13. If the protective/holding element is to be obtained from a storage reel, the inner edge 14 will fcrm an indentation 15 corresponding to the projection 13. This embodiment can also have a separate marking element in place of an edge-marking coating Figs. 5 and 6 show embodiments of protective/holdip elements 10 with marking elements 20 or coated areas 30, the marking element or coating having the same length as the protective/holding element, so that the material for the marking element can be wound onto the same storage reel as the material for the protective/holding element, or the coating can be applied beforehand to said materiai which greatly simplifies the method for the production of the packs. Fig. 5 shows an embodiment with linear edges of the protective/holding element and Fig. 6 an embodiment with edges, which form a projection 13 or an indentation corresponding to Fig. 4. In the embodiment of Fig. 5 both in the case of transparent and opaque protective/holding elements, there is no marking function, i.e. the user must seek the loose area of the edge on the pack circumference unless it is marked in some other way. In the embodiment shown in Fig. 6 the projection 13 assumes the marking function, which is the case with opaque protective/holding elements.

Fig. 7 shows a final exemplified embodiment of the protective/holding element. It is e.g. a corresponding strong paper element, which for closing the pack is coated with adhesive in an area 16. The adhesive area 16 must be chosen in such a way that it does not extend up to the edge 12. So that the edge 12 can also be easily recognized, on the surface of the protective/holding element facing the glued surface is applied a corresponding, edge-marking 10 coating 30' which, e.g. as shown, can extenc over the entire length of the edge 12 to be marked. The edge 12 is made recognizable by the marking and can easily be gripped, because it does not adhere to the underlying surface of the protective/holding element.

If the protective/holding element is made from a transparent adhesive film, there is no need for the adhesive area 16 and a coating area 30" is sufficient. In this case it is applied to the protective/holding element surface facing the observer (in the interior of the pack) and prevents the adhesion of the edge 12 to the underlying area of the protective/holding element. Such an embodiment only differs through the form of the coating area from the coating areas described in conjunction with Figs. 2 to 6.

Fig. 8 shows in highly diagrammatic form an exemplified embodiment of an apparatus enabling the performance of the tubular packs using the method according to the invention.

This apparatus has the following per se known partial devices: a winding device 70 for winding a scale formation of printed products with a winding direction according to arrow 70', a supply device for the scale formation 71 with a supply direction according to arrow 71' and a supply device for the material S for the protective/holding elements, which comprises a supply reel 72 with an unwinding direction according to the arrow 72', a controllable supply means 73 e and a separating or cutting device 74.

For the supply of the material A for the marking elements (tear-off strips) is provided a storage reel 75 with the unwinding direction according to the arrow 75', a controllable supply device, e.g. in the form of a feed roller pair 76 and a supply channel 77, as well as a controllable separating or cutting device 78, e.g.

comprising a blade and an opposite blade.

11 The materials S and A for the protective/holding elements and for the tear-off strips are wound onto the corresponding supply reels in the unseparated state. Towards the end of the scale formation winding process the supply device 73 starts to supply material S from the supply reel 72 for the protective/holding element in the winding device. Coordinated with this supply and, if necessary, with the circumference of the pack being formed, starts the supply of material A for the tear-off strip through the feed roller pair 76, so that the leading edge of the protective/holding element during the winding process is wound simultaneously with or prior to the corresponding edge of the tear-off strip. The two cutting devices 74, 78 are advantageously coordinated in such a way that the trailing edge of the protective/holding element during the winding process is wound shortly before the corresponding edge of the tear-off strip, so ihat the latter slightly overlaps the edge of the protective/holding element, as shown in Fig. 1.

Additionally the apparatus can have a controllable printing, punching or similar device 79 enabling e.g. pack-specific information, such as an address, to' be applied to the tearoff strip surface directed towards the outside on the pack S* and this e.g. takes place by printing. This is only appropriate if the protective/holding element is made from a transparent material. Advantageously the informationcarrying tear-off strip is long and the information is repeated over the pack circumference. The partial devices of the apparatus according to Fig. 8 are known from the prior art and consequently need not be described in detail here.

Instead of supplying the two materials S and A from supply reels with pack-specific separation, the protective/holding elements and the tear-off strips can be supolied with e.g.

corresponding feeders from stacks of precut protective/ holding elements and tear-off strips.

12 Fig. 9 shows another exemplified embodiment of an apparatus for performing the method according to the invention. As this embodiment only differs from that of Fig. 8 through the relative arrangement of the individual partial devices, the functional units are gi-/en the same reference numerals.

Unlike in the embodiment of Fig. 8 the material A for the marking element (tear-off strip) is supplied from the same side as the material S for the protective/holding element.

A cutting or separating device 74/78 is provided for separating the two materials. This means that the trailing edge of the tear-off strip in the winding process always rests on the corresponding edge of the protective/holdir element. Therefore if in this case a gripping point projecting over the edge is to be created, the separating element must be designed in such a way that the edges of the protective/holding element facing one another in the sipply direction are shaped in accordance with Fig. 4.

Fig. 10 shows an exemplified embodiment of an apparatus for producing tuoular packs with an edge-marking coating applied °to the inwardly directed surface of the protective/holding element on the pack immediately prior to the winding process, leading to the marking of the outer edge of the protective/holding element parallel to the pack axis and possibly the formation of a gripping point on said edge.

The partial devices for supplying and winding printed products and protective/holding elements substantially correspond to those of Fig. 8 and are given the same reference numerals. These partial devices include a device for the application of a preferably liquid material drying to a coating on the protective/holding element surface, e.g.

a correspondingly controllable spray head 90, whose spray nozzle is laterally bounded in such a way that the spray track on the protective/holding element has a predetermined width. As a function of the sprayed material and the distance between the spray nozzle and winding device, it is 13 possible to have a not shown drying device following the spraying device in the supply cirection 71'.

With the apparatus according to Fig. 10 and a corresponding control of the spray head it is possible to produce coatings 30", as described in conjunction with Figs. 3 to 7. For a coating 16 with adhesive (Fig. the represented device can be used for applying glue and a similar device can be used for applying the edge-marking coating 30', e.g. in the vicinity of the cutting device 74 on the other side of the material S for the protective/holding elements.

For producing packs with protective/holding elements and marking elements or edge-marking coatings according to Figs.

and 6 the prior art devices are adequate, if the material for the marking elements are rolled together with the mater'al for the protective/holding element onto the same storage reel or if the material us-d for the protective/ holding element is such that a corresponding coating has already been applied in strip form over the entire length.

If the material for the protective/holding elements is cut at right angles, the outer edge 12 and inner edge 14 in the pack are parallel to its axis. It is obviously also possible to cut the material at an obtuse angle, so that the two edges are no longer parallel to the pack axis. Howev'r, the method can still be performed in the described way and e.go using the same means.

4 «o 0o

Claims

1. A method of producing a tubular pack of selectable diameter containing a wound scale formation of printed products enveloped in a self-adhering transparent film material with two parts of the film material overlapping and adhering to each other in an overlapping area substantially parallel to a central pack axis, comprising the steps of delivering to a winding location printed products in scale formation, delivering to the winding location a web of self-adhesive transparent film material, winding a predetermined number of the printed products in scale formation onto a winding mandrel to form :a tube of wound printed products having an outer surface, beginning at a trailing part of the scale formation with a 15 leading edge of the film material, winding the film material onto the outer surface of the tube of wound printed products, cutting the web of self-adhesive film 2 material to leave a length of film material on the tube greater than the circumference of the outer surface of the tube, pressing a trailing edge of the cut film material against the leading edge of the film material to cause the trailing edge to overlap and adhere to the underlying film material, coating a portion of the cut trailing edge of the film material with a visible and adhesion-resisting coating, whereby adhesion of the film material to itself at the overlap is partly prevented to provide a grippable region for removal and the grippable region is made clearly visible.

2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the step of coating includes coating the film along the entire trailing edge.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the step of cutting includes cutting the film along a straight line substantially parallel with the central axis of the tube. I 15

4. A method according to claim 2 wherein the step of cutting includes cutting the film along a line forming a protrusion from the trailing end.

A method according to claim 4 wherein the coating is applied to a surface of the protrusion facing the tube.

6. An apparatus for producing a tubular pack of selectable diameter containing a wound scale formation of printed products enveloped in a self-adhering transparent film material with two parts of the film material overlapping and adhering to each other in an overlapping area substantially parallel to a central pack axis, eeee comprising the combination of a winding station with a winding mandrel; means for providing a stream of printed products in scale formation to said winding station and for winding said stream onto said winding mandrel to form a tube of wound printed products; means for delivering a web of self-adhesive film material to said tube at said winding station and for wrapping a layer of said film material 2 around said tube with ends of said film overlapping; means 20 between said means for delivering a web and said winding station for selectively and controllably coating a surface of said film material; and means for selectively cutting *said web as material therefrom is applied to said tube. DATED THIS 9th DAY OF MAY 1996 FERAG AG By its patent Attorneys: GRIFFITH HACK CO Fellows Institute of Patent Attorneys of Australia