CA2430289C

CA2430289C - Labeling machine

Info

Publication number: CA2430289C
Application number: CA002430289A
Authority: CA
Inventors: Peter Heymann; James E. Heider
Original assignee: Gerro Plast GmbH
Current assignee: Gerro Plast GmbH
Priority date: 2000-11-30
Filing date: 2000-11-30
Publication date: 2008-11-25
Anticipated expiration: 2020-11-30
Also published as: EP1337434B1; CN1461274A; EP1337434A1; AU2001221642B2; DE60020172T2; CA2430289A1; AU2164201A; JP2004514609A; WO2002044029A1; ES2242654T3; DE60020172D1; ATE295303T1; CN1213906C

Abstract

The invention is concerned with a labeling machine for applying labels to containers with an adhesive station for applying adhesive to a back side of a label having an outer rim (17), whereby the adhesive is sprayed (7) on the label to said outer rim with excess adhesive being sprayed beyond said outer rim, further with label transfer means, said transfer means having a holding plate for holding the label (13), which transfer means transfer labels from a label individualisation position to a label applying position, whereby the adhesive is applied to the label while on the label transfer means, between the label individualisation position and the label applying position, and wi th an adhesive receiving element (18) having portions thereof located outwardly of the holding plate for receiving excess adhesive being sprayed.

Description

00001 Labeling machine 00003 The invention is concerned with a labeling machine for 00004 applying labels to containers, with an adhesive station 00005 for applying adhesive to a back side of a label whereby 00006 the adhesive is sprayed on the label, further with 00007 label transfer means, having a holding plate with an 00008 outer rim for holding the label, which transfer means 00009 transfer labels from a label individualisation position 00010 to a label applying position, whereby the adhesive is 00011 applied to the label while on the label tranfer means, 00012 between the label individualisation position and the 00013 label applying position.

00015 The invention is also concerned with a labeling machine 00016 with an adhesive station for applying adhesive to a 00017 container and applying thereafter the label on the 00018 container by means of the adhesive previously applied 00019 to the container.

00021 It is known in the state of the art a labeling machine 00022 for example according to French patent 14 46 880 to 00023 spray adhesive onto a container and to press the label 00024 against the container in the area the adhesive has been 00025 applied to. Further it is known from this state of the 00026 art, to spray the adhesive through a frame in order to 00027 define exactly the area of the adhesive on the bottle.
00028 This area should match as much as possible, in its 00029 borderlines, with the label.

00031 It has also already been proposed, to spray the ad-00032 hesive, also through a frame, onto the back side of the 00033 label while on a holding plate and to apply the label 00034 thereafter to the container (see also the mentioned 00035 French patent).

SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 26~

00035 In both cases, it is difficult, to confine the area, 00036 the adhesive is applied to. As far as the application 00037 to the bottle is concerned, there might be parts of the 00038 area which go beyond the rim of the label, applied 00039 lateron. In this case the results are unpleasant ad-00040 hesive accumulations outside of the label. Also, it 00041 might be that the adhesive does not cover the whole 00042 area upto the rim of the label. In this case, the bord-00043 er of the label may become unsightly due to wrinkles.
00044 As far as the adhesive is applied to the back side of 00045 the label, there might be some amount of adhesive which 00046 goes outside of the rim of the label and does soil 00047 the further parts of the label holder or other parts of 00048 the labeling machine. In case the adhesive does not 00049 cover completely at least the border regions of the 00050 back side of the label, again the applied label may 00051 become unsightly due to wrinkles.

00053 The invention is concerned with the object to have a 00054 labeling machine for linerless pressure sensitive labe-00055 ling with an application of adhesive by spraying, 00056 whereby very precise matching with the borderlines of 00057 the label is reached.

00059 According to a first idea of the invention, in order to 00060 reach the object outlined before, there is provided an 00061 adhesive receiving element surrounding the holding 00062 plate for the label. In case of applying the adhesive 00063 to the bottle, such adhesive receiving element can be 00064 laid over the bottle for the time, the adhesive is 00065 applied to the bottle. Or the bottle can be pressed 00066 against the element at the moment the adhesive is 00067 applied The adhesive receiving element is preferably 00068 made framelike. This element is further, in case it is 00069 related to a label holding plate, for exampleon a 1 turret, preferably divided in at least two parts so that it 2 can be removed from the holding plate. Further, the receiving 3 element is located in or moveable in the plane of the 4 receiving plate of the holding element or, in flow direction of the adhesive, behind the plane of the holding plate. The 6 adhesive can be sprayed to the area, especially to the back 7 side of a label, in a manner that it goes clearly beyond the 8 outer rim of such label. The excess adhesive is then received 9 on the adhesive receiving element. The adhesive receiving element has further means or is engagable with means to remove 11 the excess adhesive from time to time from the receiving 12 element. A first means to do so may be to heat the receiving 13 element, which is then made from a metal material, at a 14 temperature above the melting temperature of the adhesive. A
further means can be to have the receiving element coated with 16 a non-sticky surface, such a silicone. The adhesive may then 17 fall down from time to time or it can be scraped from time to 18 time from the surface.

19 The receiving element can be also described as a rear or catcher picture frame which has an outside dimension much 21 larger than the label dimension and an inner hole that is 22 smaller. The rear frame will catch and control the over-spray.
23 The hole in the picture frame located between the spray 24 source, the spray nozzle and the label (focus picture frame) can be such that the adhesive spray will cover the full 26 backside surface of the label all the way to and over the 27 edges. The rear catcher frame located behind the label 28 (between the label and the machine mechanism) will catch all 29 the over-spray. The rear catcher frame can be designed to rotate or index with the turret resulting in a catcher for 21641730.1 1 each station, or it could be designed to stay in a stationary 2 position across from the focus picture frame and adhesive 3 spray equipment. The focus picture frame is heated to allow 4 the over-spray to melt and run down into a collection container. The catcher frame can also be heated or it can be 6 designed to hold a paper or other removable material that 7 would accept the over spray. The material could be replaced 8 quickly when needed. The material could be adhered to the 9 catcher frame with a POST IT -type adhesive to hold it in place. This would allow a very fast change.

11 For the cleaning of the adhesive receiving element also other 12 methods are possible. For example the element can be vibrated 13 from time to time, for example by exposure to ultrasonic.
14 Dried adhesive may then be separated thereby. It is also possible, maybe also from time to time, as already mentioned, 16 to heat the element to a temperature above the melting 17 temperature of the adhesive. The adhesive may flow thereby 18 into a groove at the bottom of the element and from there into 19 a recycle receptacle.

As to a coating of the receiving element, especially preferred 21 is also a coating as described in German laid open publication 22 195 44 763.

23 In case the receiving element is located behind the holding 24 plate, it is further preferred, that the receiving element extends inwardly over the rim of the holding plate. Thereby, 26 it is assured, that any excess adhesive, which goes over the 27 rim of the holding plate, which does match with the rim of 28 label, is received on the adhesive receiving element.

21641730.1 1 The adhesive receiving element can also be partly behind the 2 holding plate and partly be flush with the holding plate. In 3 this case, it is of advantage to have the receiving element 4 made with a step, matching with the rim of the holding plate.

5 Such element is then moveable from a position, in which the 6 step is flush with the rim of the holding plate to a position, 7 in which the step is distant to the rim of the plate.

8 In order to avoid any threads or threadlets of the adhesive 9 between the label and the label receiving element, it is also of advantage, to heat the respective rim of the holding plate.
11 Additionally or alter natively can be also of advantage to 12 heat the respective rim of the label. The heating of the label 13 can also be done simply by contact heating of the label on the 14 holding plate, which then only needs to be heated.

It is also proposed by the invention, alternatively or in 16 combination, to apply the adhesive within an electrical field.
17 This can be done in different ways, for example by spraying 18 the adhesive through a metallic net having a negative 19 electrical charge. By such high charge, the molecules, especially the air molecules, get ionized. Such ionized 21 molecules go then to the container or to the label, having a 22 different electrical charge or no electrical charge. In this 23 connection it can be of advantage, to have at least the rim of 24 the label or the rim of the respective area on the container metallized and electrically connected to the respective 26 electrical potential. The mentioned net is not absolutely 27 necessary. In some cases it might be sufficient to charge 28 electrically only the frame, having no net inside but just an 29 opening and being positioned in distance to the label.

21641730.1 1 A further idea of the invention is a label material, to be cut 2 into individual labels. The label material has for each 3 individual label electrically conductive material following a 4 rim portion of the desired label.

Further, the conductive part can cover to whole area of the 6 label and also the whole area of the label material. Such 7 electrically conductive parts can for example be made by 8 printing either to the back side or to the front side or per 9 incorporating in between into the label respective electrically conductive parts.

11 A further idea of the invention are also containers applied 12 with label having electrically conductive parts, at least at 13 the rims of the labels.

14 Further, the invention is described with respect to the enclosed drawings, which are however only examples.

16 The figures of the drawings show:

17 fig. 1 a schematic view from above onto the labeling machine 18 fig. 2 a schematic view from the side of a detail of the 19 holding plate with the adhesive receiving element;

fig. 3 a perspective view showing a container being applied 21 with adhesive;

22 fig. 4 a perspective view of an adhesive spraying onto the 23 back side of a label, explaining the electrostatic charging of 24 the adhesive and fig. 5 a respective label from its back side.
21641730.1 1 With reference to fig. 1 there is first shown a label supply 1 2 in form of a roll. The label band goes to a separation station 3 not shown in detail here. For the separation station, 4 reference is made for example to US-PS 4,336,095, with the difference, that the labels are not caught after separation by 6 a vacuum drum but are collected in a supply holder 2 as 7 described here.

8 The holder 2 works together with a turret 3, which has 9 individual label holding plates 5, which move intermittently in a clockwise direction. The turret 3 has four arms 4 each of 11 them having at their outer ends a label holding plate 5. The 12 label holding plate 5 is also moveable in an axial direction 13 D. It is moved against a label in the holder 2 and then 14 backward to separate one of the labels out of the label supply. This is reached by a vacuum, applied to several holes 16 in the holding plate. Then the holding plate is moved 17 backward, in the opposite direction of direction D and further 18 moved in clockwise direction to the adhesive applying position 19 6. In the adhesive applying position, the label is in front of a spray nozzle 7, by which adhesive 8 is sprayed onto the back 21 side of the label being held on the holding plate 5. The 22 adhesive applying station especially is only shown 23 schematically, without the frames described below in more 24 detail. Then the label with such adhesive on its back side is further moved to the label applying position 9. By a further 26 movement of the holding plate 5 in the direction D, the label 27 is applied to a container 10. Further, the vacuum is 28 interrupted while the holding plate 5 is again moved in the 29 opposite direction of the direction D. The label is fixed to 21641730.1 1 the container and the turret can be further moved in clockwise 2 direction.

3 As shown schematically in fig. 2 in the adhesive applying 4 position, the adhesive is first sprayed through a frame 11.
The frame 11 has an inner orifice 12, having nearly the same 6 shape as the label 13.

7 The adhesive in the arrangement shown is sprayed with an spray 8 angle Gamma extending between a center line L of the overall 9 spray jet 14 and a borderline 15 of such spray jet.

The frame 11 extends radially, in case the spray jet has a 11 circular cross section, over the outer line of the spray jet.
12 This radial extension can be different, as a spray jet with a 13 round cross section can be transformed by the frame 11 into 14 one with for example rectangular cross section. Therefore, a first outer part of the spray jet in the area a, as shown in 16 fig. 2 in cross section, is sprayed against the surface of the 17 frame 11 facing the spray nozzle 7 of the adhesive. A further 18 part b between an angle Beta between the center line L and a 19 line 16 emitting from the spray nozzle 7 and going just along the rim 15, defining the orifice 12, of the frame 11 and an 21 angle Alpha between the center line L of the spray jet and a 22 line 17, originating from the nozzle 7 and hitting just the 23 outer rim 20 of the label 13, goes outside of the label 13.
24 The adhesive of the spray jet in this area b goes around the label 13 and is caught by the adhesive receiving element 18.
26 The adhesive receiving element 18 is 21641730.1 00280 located in a distance d behind the label 13 and the 00281 label holding plate. Further, the label receiving ele-00282 ment is also frame-like designed. Further, what is not 00283 shown, this element 18 is divided into two parts, so 00284 that one can move for example one part upwardly and the 00285 other part downwardly. This is of advantage for having 00286 a stationary adhesive receiving element 18.

00288 Fig. 3 shows an embodiment in which the adhesive nozzle 00289 7 is directed, through the frame 11, directly to the 00290 container 10. Reference is made to a machine and method 00291 as basically described in French patent 1446880. As 00292 shown the container 10 is held from behind against the 00293 adhesive receiving element 18, which is stationary with 00294 the first frame 11. The container is actually pressed 00295 from behind against the adhesive receiving element 18 00296 and similarly as explained before, it is reached, that 00297 the adhesive is exactly on the area the label 13, 00298 applied lateron, needs. The area A, in which the ad-00299 hesive is applied to the container does exactly match 00300 with the dimensions of the label 13.

00302 The further embodiment according to fig. 4 shows a part 00303 of the arrangement according to fig. 1. It is a perspe-00304 ctive view onto a holding plate 5 with a label 13 00305 thereon. A back side of the label is facing to the 00306 nozzle 7. The spray nozzle sprays adhesive through a 00307 first frame 11. This frame 11 has additionally a metal-00308 lic net 19 which covers the orifice 12 of the frame.
00309 This is however only optional. The principle described 00310 with respect to this embodiment would also function 00311 with a frame 11 described before, for example in 00312 connection with fig. 2.

00314 Of importance is, that the frame 11 and especially the 00315 net in the frame has a negative electrical potential of 00316 for example 10kV. On the other hand, the label holder 5 00317 and the label 13 itself, at least at its rim portion is 00318 on the elctrical potential zero. Thereby, the adhesive, 00319 the single different jets of the adhesive, are -00320 concerning the rim of the label 13 - directed at the 00321 outer borderline of the label 13 exactly on the rim 20 00322 of the label 13 by the lines of the electrical field 00323 created between the frame 11 and the label 13.

00325 It is also possible to dispense with the frame 11 and 00326 to create the electrical potential difference only 00327 between the nozzle 7 and the label 13 (the rim 20 00328 thereof).

00330 In fig. 5, a respective label is shown principally. Of 00331 importance is, that the rim portion P of the label 13 00332 (shown is the back side of the label) is electrically 00333 conducting. Further, there is an electrically conduct-00334 ing connection between the label holder and the label 00335 itself, ensuring, that the label, at least its rim 00336 portion P, is on the said electrical potential zero 00337 while held on the holder.

00339 The electrically conducting rim portion P on the label 00340 is made for example by a printed application of electri-00341 cally conducting particles. Only the rim portion P of 00342 the label 13 needs to be printed with such electri-00343 cally conducting particles. However, it is also possi-00344 ble to print the whole back side of the label with such 00345 conducting particles.

00347 Also in connection with the embodiments described with 00348 respect to fig. 1 and 2, such label could be of advant-00349 age. In this respect, it is possible to heat such label 00350 or at least its rim portion, while on the label holder, 00351 by electrically inductive heating. This is of advantage 00352 in respect of any tendency of the adhesive to build 00353 threads between the rim portion of the label and the 00354 adhesive receiving element, for example because the 00355 adhesive has not enough temperature when reaching the 00356 label.

Claims

1. Labeling machine for applying labels to containers with an adhesive station for applying adhesive to a back side of a label having an outer rim, whereby the adhesive is sprayed on the label to said outer rim with excess adhesive being sprayed beyond said outer rim, further with label transfer means, said transfer means having a holding plate for holding the label, which transfer means transfer labels from a label individualisation position to a label applying position, whereby the adhesive is applied to the label while on the label transfer means, between the label individualisation position and the label applying position, and with an adhesive receiving element having portions thereof located outwardly of the holding plate for receiving excess adhesive being sprayed.

2. Labeling machine according to claim 1, whereby the receiving element is located behind the holding plate, in a spray direction of the adhesive.

3. Labeling machine according to claim 1 or claim 2, whereby the receiving element extends inwardly over a rim of the holding plate.

4. Labeling machine according to claim 3, whereby the rim of the holding plate is heated.

5. Labeling machine according to claim 1 or claim 2, whereby a rim of the holding plate is heated.

6. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-5, whereby the receiving element is heated.

7. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-6, whereby said receiving element moves with the holding plate.

8. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-7, whereby said receiving element is divided into two parts and is stationary.

9. Labeling machine according to claim 1 or claim 2, whereby the receiving element has a step matching with a rim of the holding plate and the receiving element is moveable from a position, in which the step is flush with a rim to a position, in which said step is distant to the rim of said holding plate.

10. Labeling machine according to any one of the claims 3-8, whereby the receiving element has a step matching with the rim of the holding plate and the receiving element is moveable from a position, in which the step is flush with a rim to a position, in which said step is distant to the rim of said holding plate.

11. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-10, whereby the label is at least partly of a material being electrically conductive.

12. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-11, whereby the holding plate has means for heating the label by induction.

13. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-12, whereby said adhesive receiving element is a frame-like structure and said holding plate extends through said adhesive receiving element.

14. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-13, whereby said holding plate maintains said label in spaced relationship with said adhesive receiving element when adhesive is applied to said label.

15. Labeling machine according to any one of claims 1-14, whereby said receiving element has a coating on the surface which receives said excess adhesive.