DE1436484A1 - Device for printing hollow plastic bodies - Google Patents

Description

'"''""'\."''"Essen, April 24, 1963 * ■ ·" ·. .. ¹ ^ - '' 15 512

Company German Plax G _e m _{o e} H., Velbert / Rheinland., Hixholzerweg

"Device for printing hollow plastic bodies"

Bottles, cups or other hollow bodies made of plastic, In particular, thermoplastic plastics are nowadays often printed with one or more colors provided »For this purpose, the screen printing process is mainly used, in which the dye is passed through a sieve-like Stencil pressed through with a squeegee and attached to difi objects adjacent to the underside of the stencil screen * The screen printing process requires an accelerated Each print is dried at an elevated temperature before the next print is made.

There are screen printing devices for printing hollow plastic bodies o * the like * known, in which the to be printed The object is inserted into a receptacle by hand, which is

closes. '

then mechanically tensioned and actuated by means of a nüotorisch Gear is moved upwards against the underside of the screen template or the screen frame. The bottle leads into the Recording during the printing process from a pivoting movement, so that Bie is on the underside of the reciprocating

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The printing stencil rolls off,! Times the printing, the bottle holder lowers o The printed bottle is placed on a conveyor belt and is now fed to a drying oven or other drying device, from which, if it is a multi-color print, it is fed to a second, similarly working printing machine » This arrangement has several disadvantages _e

A major drawback is that for everyone individual imprint a special complete Druckeinriohtung must be provided. It is also unfavorable that the individual printing stations are comparatively far apart, so that they are not observed by the same operator or “can be monitored” It is also difficult or “practically not possible to have all printing stations from the same drive motor to operate in a rigid mechanical coupling to each other. So there still need to be special facilities for the register accuracy of the individual printing processes is provided will·

The invention, the aim of which is to remedy the above-mentioned deficiencies, now essentially consists in? that the rotatable holder for the object to be printed is arranged on an approximately U-shaped carrier, which the conveyor belt, on which the objects are fed and deposited again after printing, encompasses the conveyor belt in the usual way

Way with one

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Drive equipped for the transport of the bottles.

The U-shaped carrier leads in the vertical direction a reciprocating movement through which the object clamped in the holder against the underside of the Printing stencil is moved and then lowered again to its original position «,

This arrangement of the bracket makes it possible to move the conveyor belt through all of the printing stations and one after the other to pass the drying devices assigned to them, the printing stations being independent of the drive of the respective Position of the conveyor belt. An essential feature of the invention is the ability to use the printing stations regardless of the treatment equipment provided for this purpose, such as drying ovens, drying flames Oodglo close to be arranged next to each other and to be coupled mechanically in such a way that they work exactly synchronously with high register accuracy «, Die Printing stations can be in a horizontal or vertical direction, depending on the path of movement of the endless conveyor belt be arranged one after the other «, it is possible to print them - even if it is a three- or four-color print acts - supervised by a single sedation man without leaving his location »

The drawing shows an advantageous embodiment of a printing device designed according to the invention, intended for bottles with an oval body,

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shown and that shows

1 shows the entire printing device in a top view and partly in section,

Pigο 2 on a larger scale a side view of the provided on the device according to FIG Parts that make up the printing stations,

3 shows a larger view of a part of a transport chain together with one of those provided on the chain channel-shaped receptacles for a bottle to be printed, and

4 shows a section along line IY-IV in FIG. 2, in a larger one Scale.

In the illustrated embodiment are in the housing 1 arranged the drive and force transmission means for the pressure elements and their movement. These parts of the Devices are known per se and are therefore not shown in detail.

At the front of the housing 1, two guide rails 3, 3 'are attached to support arms, between the guide rails 3.3 'runs an endless link chain 4, which is outside the area of the guide rails 3.3 * via chain rollers 5.5 ', which are rotatable on vertical stub axles 6 and attached to support arms 7 of the housing 1.

The channel-shaped receptacles 8 for the bottles 9 to be printed are fastened at regular intervals from one another, and consist of appropriately bent steel sheets o ₀ like _{0 , on the endless link chain in such a way that the bottles Z 0} B ₀

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are approximately perpendicular to the direction of movement of the chain 4 «

The general mode of operation of the device shown is as follows:

The chain 4 is gradually and awar in each case by the distance of the central axis of two adjacent bottle receptacles 8 moved forward in the direction of arrow 10 «While the chain 4 is at a standstill, the

if necessary also by hand bottles individually Ve-A-HStHt * - »eter automatically / placed in the receptacle, which is in each case at the point marked 8 ¹ within the area of the guide rails 3,3 '· The bottles to be printed arrive when the Chain 4 initially in the area of the first printing station, generally designated 11, where they are provided with the first imprint. "The printed bottle is then placed back in its * receptacle 8 on the chain and goes over the chain wheel 5 to a drying oven 12" Bottles move gradually through the channel of the drying oven, where, for example, by infrared radiation, for treatment with cold or warm or over or a flame
heated air / the color print is dried or hardened.

The bottle treated in this way then goes over the chain wheel 5 ^! to the left inlet of the guide track 3, 3 * and thus arrives in the area of the second printing station, which is generally designated 13. The bottle printed there is placed back on the chain and finally reaches the ^{position indicated at 8 1} 'in this is the bottle in front of the opening of a channel 14 »into which the bottle means

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an ejector 15 is pushed in. The bottle turns off in the inclined channel 14 downwards and thereby reaches the area of the mouth of a horizontal channel 16, in the the bottle is pushed in by means of a movable pressure plate 17 in order to slide over a slide 18 onto a conveyor belt 19 to get through a second drying tunnel

Color-20 runs, in which the final drying and / hardening of the print

took place

The guide rails 3 »3 * have, as can be seen from Figo 4, at the end of each an upwardly directed, rounded edge strip 21, on which the bottom part 22 of the bottle holder (Figo 3) slides. At the bottoms 22 a vertical one closes Wall 23 of the receptacle on and on the other side an inclined wall 24 »The parts 23,22,24 thus form a kind Channel that is open at both ends, and in which the bottle to be printed 9 is freely inserted so that they in Fig. 3 and 2 indicated inclined position assumes "

Over the length of the path of movement of the bottle receptacles 8, several pairs of γοη fixed parallel guide rails 51 are advantageously arranged, between whose diverging ends 51 ^f the bottles lying on the receptacles 8 run in and are evenly aligned. The rails 51 expediently extend over the entire length of the web from the beginning of the printing station 13 to the end of the station 11; with the exception of the rails at the ejection station.

As can be seen from Fig. 2, the chain is fed

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lioh, a driver 26 pivotable about an axis 25, the behind the front wall 23 of the plasma receptacles 8 summarizes. Of the Driver 26 is designed as a double lever. At his free The end of a counterweight 27 is attached, which holds the driver resiliently against the stop 28, which is at one of the Pivot 25 carrying carriage 29 is attached. The carriage 29 can be moved on rails 30 which are attached to the Carrying straps 2 for the chain guides 3.3 'are also attached are.

At a uL-angled extension 31 of the carriage 29 adjustably engages the piston rod 32, the piston 33 of which is in the compressed air cylinder arranged parallel to the rails 30 34 is movable. The latter is provided at the ends with compressed air inlets 35,35 'so that the piston 33 and with it, the piston rod 32 and the carriage 29 together with the driver 26 can be moved to the left or right as desired can·

If the carriage 29 from the in lig. 2 moves to the left, it gives way ^{downwards when it hits the adjacent bottle holder 8 1} 'and finally straightens up again into the end position 26' shown in dashed lines, in which the driver reaches into the space in front of the holder 8 ¹¹ . If the driver 26 is then pushed back to the right into its starting position, it presses the receptacle 8 * 'into the position that the bracket receptacle 8' had previously assumed *. This movement makes the whole thing

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endless chain along with the bottle mounts attached to it, which thus move forward step by step at a distance from the center axes of two adjacent bottle mounts ₀ Through this step-by-step movement, all ^{bottles inserted at 8 1} (Mg.1) pass one after the other the two printing stations 11, 13 and finally arrive finished two-color printed in the position 8 ^M , in which they are brought out of the area of the endless chain 4 by the ejector 15 in order to get to the final drying oven 20 _{or the like}

The following takes place on the two printing stations 11, 13 themselves:

The hatch 9 'arriving at the printing station 13, for example, is when the transport chain 4 has finished its movement, with the bottle mouth 9 ″ in the area of a centering spike 36, which is fixed to the free arm 37 of an IT-shaped support bracket 38 or axially The TJ-shaped support bracket 38 is fastened at its other end 38 * to a disk 39 which is keyed onto the shaft 40. On the back of the disk 39, a compressed air cylinder 41 is fastened coaxially to the centering pin 36 42 carries a cup-shaped plate 43 which has a cavity adapted to the shape of the bottom of the bottle 9 ', so that the bottom part of the "bottle 9 ^{1 is} appropriately encompassed by the receiving part 43 without the latter from the profile of the bottle 9 ¹ laterally or ·· protrudes transversely to the bottle axis. As soon as the piston rod 42 is introduced by pressing

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air is pushed forward into the cylinder 41 »is therefore the Piasehe 9 * awisohen the centering pin 36 and the receiving cup 43 pinched. The arrangement of parts 41 and 36 relative to

the transport chain 4 or its guide rails 3, 3 ' such} that one on the Piasohenaufnahme 8 in the out Pig · 3 shown position bottle 9, which is in the Area of the printing station 13 comes, between the centering pin 36 and the receiving cup 43 is flexibly clamped without essentially to change their position in relation to their groove-shaped receptacle 8

As soon as the hook is removed from the mounts of the disk 39 and the U-shaped bracket 38 is held, it is from the Recording 8, which has arrived at the print station 13, lifted upwards · For this purpose, the support shaft 40 is mounted in a support 44 which is attached to one of the two guides

45 of the nasal frame vertically displaceable crosshead

46 is attached This crosshead 46 has an elongated hole 47 into which the driver pin 48 of a lever 49 engages, which is mounted on a shaft 50 of the machine frame, which periodically rotates in the opposite direction to the direction of rotation of the clock hand and then back to that shown in Pig.2 Auagangelage is swiveled back · The required for this Transmission eye is known to sioh and is not shown.

When the lever 49 is actuated, the crosshead 46 goes upwards, the shaft 40 reaching the pressure position indicated at 40 *. The stroke that the shaft 40 takes in this

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Movement executes is in! Ig, 2 marked with a Above the printing station is in the machine frame

Rails 55 longitudinally displaceable an undivided or given

Ί Screen stencil if a split screen printing frame 56 is provided, each with a base screen for each color of the imprint. This screen printing frame 56 makes a reciprocating movement that is brought about by the shaft 58 connected to the drive via a crank 59 and the pin 61 mounted in a gate 60. The gate 60 is attached to an extension 62 of the screen printing frame 56. As can be seen without further ado, the pressure frame 56 executes a back and forth movement in the direction of the arrow 63 when the shaft 58 rotates.

wave

The arrangement of the screen printing frame relative to / in the raised position 40 is such that the bottle F to be printed in each case initially touches the printing screen 57 at approximately A when the shaft 40 is raised, ie the beginning of the printing set to be produced Point A of the * bottle F hits from below against the pressure screen 57, the circumference of the disk 39 connected to the shaft 40 also rests against the longitudinal spar of the pressure frame or a friction rail connected to it.The resulting frictional connection between the pressure frame 56 and disk 39 causes the latter to be turned over to the right when the frame 56 moves, the pressure side of the bottle F rolling on the underside of the pressure screen 57 until the bottle has reached the end position indicated ^{at F 1.} The pressure in question is now in the

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finished as desired «

At the moment of the completion of the printing process, the shaft 40 and mi ± her the bottle goes through a corresponding one Movement of the lever 49 downwards so that the bottle is lifted from the pressure screen "" occurs immediately afterwards then the return movement of the bottle to that shown in Mg «2 Starting position in which the bottle is placed back on the receptacle 8 «. Once the bottle is on the shot is or shortly before the clamping device 43 is released by actuating the compressed air cylinder 41. The bottle is now free. The conveyor chain moves forward by one cycle so that the next bottle is in the area of the clamping device comes ο The processes are then repeated accordingly «

A corresponding arrangement is provided on the second printing station 11, consisting of the U-shaped bracket 37 »of the disk 39 and the shaft 40, etc. These parts are held by the support of the crosshead designated ^{in FIG. 2 with 44 f.} Should more than two colors printed, it is practice for each color a corresponding printing station provided with the described devices.

The screen printing frame 56 is provided with parquet feeds and squeegees in the known manner. These parts are on not shown in the drawing for the sake of clarity.

Instead of the one shown in the example oval bottles can also be printed with the printing machine according to the invention, for example bottles with a cylindrical body. In

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In this case, however, it is advisable that the bottle has a mechanical or optical register device, so that the bottle is fed to the individual printing stations in exactly the same angular position and the respective one Print at the desired point on the circumference of the bottle

Finally, the device according to the invention can also be used for printing square or polygonal bottles. In this case, however, it is necessary to carry out the printing using the planographic printing process, whereby the shaft 40 is locked so that it can be used during the raising and lowering of the crosshead and thus the clamped bottle body not rotating movement executed the Flaschenaufnahmsi8 must then be designed in accordance with different ,, When flat printing, screen printing frame stays 56 are also ₀ the color is this which are useful connected in this case to the crank mechanism 59 by the reciprocating lolling, by the Pressure screen 57 pressed through

Instead of a single-track path of motion for the bottles can be U ₀ U ₀ leave the printing machine according to the invention also operate several lanes, wherein the bottle format, and the print can be identical or different in the two tracks "This arrangement has the advantage that the drying device and drives convenient for all work tracks the same are ₀

In the device shown, the control takes place in the following way:

When the Vorsehubkolben 33 and its associated

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Piston rod 32 has come to the end position shown in the drawing (Mg. 2), "the plunger 60 actuates the limit switch 61 shown schematically. This actuates an electromagnetic clutch assigned to the drive motor for moving the shafts 50 and 58, so that the shafts 50,58 can be rotated in the desired manner, for example by interposing gear or cam drives between the motor and the shafts 50,58 At the moment when the object to be printed touches the screen stencil 57, the shaft 58 rotates, the return movement to the starting position shown in the drawing (Pig. 2) taking place while the crosshead 46 is being lowered Make printing frame 56 in the position shown in Figo 1 only while lifting the crosshead 46, then b make egg stand emden crosshead the pressure movement of the frame 56 (ie, from left to right in L? ig _e 2), then shut down the frame and then lower the crosshead again "

Of the upward and downward movement of the crosshead 46 also controls the Preßluftleitungen I, be effected II "These lines are led via a suitable ■ four-way valve, which is switched during traction of the crosshead so can that through line 35 the right side of

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Cylinder 34 compressed air is supplied and the piston 33 goes to the left, and that when the downward movement of the Crosshead 46, the four-way valve is switched so that pressure medium through the line 35 'of the left cylinder side is supplied so that the piston 33 and with it the piston rod 32 move the conveyor belt 4 by one step further.

In the compressed air line 1.11 there is also a second one Four-way valve 65 (Figo 1) switched on, which the pressure medium supply to the clamping cylinder 41, to the cylinder 15 'of the ejector 15 and to the cylinder 17 * of the pusher 17

The four-way valve 65 is the feed piston 33 or the _o set connected to this piston rod 32 into the position shown in Fig. 1 position, in which pressure medium flows from the line I in the line III. This causes the bottle lying in front of the clamping device. 9 * clamped under actuation of the cup-shaped part 43 before the crosshead 46 and shortly before with it the clamping device begins its upward movement. At the same time, the ejector 15 is actuated

in the receptacle and the pusher 16, so that the bottle / 8 ^{fl is moved} laterally out of the area of the conveyor belt 4 and space is created for the supply of a new, unprinted bottle. In the drawing, the loading device for the new bottle 9 **, which is to be fed to the receptacle 8 ^1, is not shown for the sake of clarity. It comprises a ram similar to the push button 15 to which a suitable magazine or the like is assigned

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is, from which the unprinted bottle is removed ^{to be pushed over into the receptacle 8 f} ,, instead of a special loading device, by the way, the printed bottle from the receptacle 8 ^{1 y} through the ejector 15 with the interposition of an unprinted bottle from the area of the Conveyor belt 4 are moved "By the pressure medium fed from the line III to the cylinder 17 'of the pusher, the pusher 17 is retracted so that the opening of the channel 16 is free for the printed bottle transported away by the ejector 15"

The four-way valve 65 is short in its other position before the end of the downward movement of the crosshead 46 switched over · Here pressure medium is introduced into the line IV, whereby the following is effected:

The plunger of the jig is printed on by the Bottle lifted} the ejector 15 comes back to the starting position shown in the drawing (Fig. 1) and the The slide 17 is moved forward from the position shown in FIG Pushes the bottle on. At the same time the line III with connected to the atmosphere.

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Claims (9)

Patent claims? 1) Device for automatic printing, in particular in multi-color or multi-line printing, of hollow plastic bodies Oodgle, ZoB ₀ bottles or cups, using the screen printing process, whereby the object to be printed is clamped in a rotatable holder that lifts relative to the printing stencil frame that can be pushed back and forth above - Can be lowered and is coupled in the raised position with the printing stencil, characterized in that the rotatable holder (36,4-3) for the object to be printed is arranged on an approximately TJ-shaped carrier (37) which holds the objects in spaced apart mounts. (8) feeding endless conveyor belt (4) grips " 2) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that that the conveyor belt (4) is connected to a drive (26,32,38) for incremental feed in such a way that the conveyor belt stands still before clamping the object in a holder and only after the printed object has been put down moved forward » . 3) Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the U-shaped carrier (37) about an axis which is unequally axially to the Plaschenaehse, is pivotably mounted " 4) Device according to claim 1, 2 or 3 »characterized in that that the conveyor belt with approximately trough-shaped recordings is provided for the bottles to be printed, whereby 9 O 9 8 2 k / OO 1 5 the side walls extending from the bottom of the receptacles, if applicable have a different angular position to the ground to allow the printing of oval hooks ο «the like. to enable. 5) Device according to claim 4, characterized in that the inclination of the side walls of the receptacles is variable is. 6) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that a printing station and drying oven are arranged on a whole turn of the conveyor belt _e 7) Device according to claim 6, characterized in that or more that the conveyor belt in a turn two / printing stations (11.12) are assigned, between which on the one hand an ejector device (15) and on the other hand a drying device (12) is provided, with the drying device from the second Bottles that are still moist from pressure are coming from the printing station and are located outside of the path of movement of the conveyor belt (4) Drying device (20) is used, 8) Device according to claim 1, characterized in that that several U-shaped holders (37) on one functionally common Carrier (46) are arranged, which is displaceable with the organs attached to it in a guide (45) « 9) device according to claim 1 or 8, characterized closely
draws that the / adjacent printing stations (11.13) a functionally common screen printing frame (56) is assigned to a sieve template (57) for each recording contains. ^ _he patent attorney 909824/00 Blank page