EP0106930B1 - Backing plate for skin-packaging small articles - Google Patents

Abstract

1. Backing plate for skin packaging, composed of a support (1 and 1') for small objects (4, 4', 4") and permeable to air and intended to receive a sheet (2) and then a film (3) applied by vacuum which takes the shape of these objects, the support (1 and 1') being shaped to have raised areas, being adhered under the dense and relatively rigid sheet (2), which is also permeable to air through the raised areas which are in contact with the sheet, characterised in that the sheet (2) is provided with at least one opening (5, 5', 5") for positioning the objects.

Description

The subject of the invention is a laminating packaging plate according to the preamble of claim 1, as described in patent US-A-3,380,583.

We know that plates of this kind are used in the packaging technique by laminating, which consists of depositing on the plate resting on a loading table the objects to be packaged, then transferring the plate onto the lower plate of a packaging machine. laminating, which has an upper plate supporting a transparent film. By displacement of the lower plate towards the upper plate and simultaneous heating, the film adheres to the plate by enveloping the objects thanks to a suction practiced under the lower plate, suction which is exerted on the film since the support constituting the plate is permeable to the air. Finally, if the plate is made up of several elementary plates, a last operation consists in separating these elementary plates by cutting.

The advantages of this technique are well known. It is fast, inexpensive and makes it possible to deliver conditioned objects in an attractive appearance.

However, these advantages come with significant disadvantages.

In the first place, the plates often lack flatness. Such warping is particularly harmful at the loading stage, since objects, even if they are relatively stable, tend to move by sliding, as well as at the final stage of packaging itself, because, if the plate does not adhere suitably on the lower plate of the machine, the vacuum created below it will suck air laterally and no longer through it.

But the main disadvantage of known plates lies in the impossibility of using them to condition cylindrical, spherical, conical objects, as well as all unstable objects.

Indeed, even if these objects are carefully placed by the worker at the desired location on the loading table, it is obvious that during the transfer between the table and the machine they will move, that the plate either perfectly flat or slightly warped.

However, if the objects move slightly, the finished product loses its aesthetics and regularity. If they move a little more, the finished product should be discarded. At the limit. the object may be on the path of the cutting blade during the separation into elementary plates; the object itself and the blade can then be damaged.

We have, moreover, tried by various means to resolve this problem. For example, some conditioners use a double-sided adhesive or a light point of glue between the plate and the object, but it is understood that the loading time is thus often more than doubled. The same is true if objects are attached to the plate by any other means.

Another solution consists in housing the objects beforehand in a container, but in this way a double packaging is finally practiced. first in the container, then on the plate, and we strike the cost price of the price of the container.

Also known from patent FR-A-2 410 611 is a packaging plate consisting of a support provided with an opening to leave visible the back of an additional plate whose front which carries the object to be packaged is also visible. thanks to the transparency of the material constituting the thermoformed plate glued or heat sealed on the support.

This technique, however, which does not use laminating, does not solve the problem of positioning unstable objects.

The object of the present invention is to make available to packers a plate free from the above-mentioned drawbacks without any noticeable increase in its cost price and for this purpose it relates to a packaging plate which is characterized in that the sheet is provided with at least one opening for positioning objects. Advantageously, the compact sheet is pre-printed and the support is fluted.

Thanks to the invention, the positioning of objects is facilitated, their location being defined by the cutout. In addition, the reliefs revealed by this cut constitute an excellent setting of the objects. Unstable objects placed there are wedged by the roughness of the sheet and therefore remain in place, even if the plate is transported without great care from the loading table to the machine table. This also overcomes the major drawback arising from this mobility of objects when the plate is made up of several elementary plates that have to be cut.

It is possible to adapt the size and shape of the reliefs to the dimensions and shapes of the objects to be packaged. Likewise. one is free from the orientation to be given to the reliefs and in particular to the grooves which may be the objects on the plate can, if necessary, apply light pressure on these objects which deforms some of the reliefs or part of the grooves and which results in create a housing for objects without increasing the handling time, which is particularly useful for spherical objects.

The shape of the openings adapts to that of the objects which can be single or multiple on the same plate or form sets. The finished object benefits from aesthetic qualities never before obtained in the technique of laminating.

From another point of view, it is obvious that the assembly constituted by the plate provided with reliefs and the relatively rigid sheet under which it is wedged can be produced by machines working continuously with almost perfect flatness and keeping this flatness up to the laminating stage, which eliminates all the drawbacks resulting from the warping of the plates used to date.

Finally, it is extremely advantageous to have a packaging plate whose visible face constituted by the compact and relatively rigid sheet can be pre-printed. because this pre-printing can be done in large series at an extremely low cost price.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the plate comprises a second air-permeable sheet, wedged like the first under the support and which can also be pre-printed.

Thanks to this arrangement, the plate sees its rigidity further increased and it can be provided on its rear face with an extremely useful pre-printing, because often users wish to include on this face certain technical indications such as the composition of the product or its instructions.

• Les figures 1 et 2 représentent une plaque conforme à l'invention, après conditionnement, en vue de face avec arrachement partiel à la figure 1 et en coupe à échelle agrandie selon la ligne II/II à la figure 2 ; et
• Les figures 3, à 6 représentent de même deux autres plaques conformes à l'invention.

Three embodiments of the invention are described below with reference to the appended drawing in which:

• Figures 1 and 2 show a plate according to the invention, after packaging, in front view with partial cutaway in Figure 1 and in section on an enlarged scale along line II / II in Figure 2; and
• Figures 3 to 6 also show two other plates according to the invention.

The conditioned plate shown in FIG. 1 successively comprises a bi-corrugated support 1, a relatively rigid sheet 2 and the transparent film 3 which adheres to the sheet 2 and to the conditioned objects. These objects are in the example chosen two electric batteries 4 placed parallel to the generators of the bi-corrugated support. It will be recalled in this connection that the term bi-wavy applies to bodies provided with undulations whose generatrices are themselves undulated. The choice of a support thus conformed was dictated by the desire to obtain a better rigidity of the whole. In fact, the support 1 is glued to the sheet 2 by the tops of the corrugations and it is understood that the rigidity is thus obtained perpendicular to these generators, but also parallel to these generators thanks to the fact that they are they - same wavy.

According to one of the most advantageous features of the invention, the compact sheet 2 has been provided, before bonding, with an opening 5 which is here rectangular to match the outline of the assembly formed by the two stacks 4.

In the same way before gluing, this sheet 2 was printed as seen in 6 and 7 where there was shown by way of example a mark and a certain number of indications at the top of the sheet and an acronym in bottom of the sheet.

It will be noted in this connection that the cutting operations to constitute the opening 5 and printing to provide the inscriptions 6 and the acronym 7 can be done, in large series, on the continuous strip in which the sheets 2 will be cut. for an extremely low cost price. The plate formed by the support 1 and the sheet 2 bonded to each other is most often an elementary plate, constituting one of the elements of a larger assembly treated in a single operation by the packaging and which is cut after packaging.

Whether it is an elementary plate as shown or an assembly of the type which has just been described above, these are, for packaging, arranged on a loading table and it is while the worker must place the batteries 4, operation facilitated by the opening 5 which positions them. The worker can then exert a slight manual pressure on the stacks, so that some of the undulations of the generators of the support will be deformed. This deformation is not visible in the drawings, because Figure 2 is a section along a line II-Ille, along which the batteries are exactly between two generators. But it goes without saying that in front or behind this line 11-11, the generators being wavy, they are slightly deformed by the batteries.

In any case, the corrugations themselves, and a fortiori if they are deformed, position the two piles which will remain in place when the worker transfers the whole of the loading table to the lower plate of the laminating machine. The laminating operation can then take place as indicated above, that is to say by moving the lower plate of the machine to the upper plate and heating the transparent film supported by the upper plate. The suction practiced under the lower plate then causes the transparent film 3 to adhere, thanks to the air permeability of the support 1 and of the sheet 2, successively to the sheet 2, as seen in 8, to the support itself. 1, as seen in 9, and the two batteries, as seen in 10. This gives the conditioned assembly as shown in Figure 1, whose aesthetic qualities are remarkable and in which the conditioned objects are placed in relief thanks to the opening 5.

The assembly represented in FIGS. 3 and 4 differs from the previous one only by the use of a support 1 ′ simply fluted and by the presence of a second sheet 11 permeable to air glued like sheet 2, but under the support 1 '. This sheet 11, which may be thinner than the previous one, may also include certain pre-printed indications which will generally be indications relating to the characteristics and the instructions for use of the conditioned object, which here is a drill 4 ' . It is, moreover, the essentially cylindrical shape of this drill which has led to the use of a support 1 'simply fluted instead of the bi-corrugated support 1. For the clarity of the drawing, the pre-printed indications on the sheet 2 have been omitted. The opening 5 'has naturally been adapted to the shape of the drill. We see in Figure 4 that the film 3 successively adheres to the upper sheet 2 to a few grooves in the support and to the 4 'drill.

The plate shown is used exactly like the previous plate. It can also constitute one of the elementary plates of a larger assembly which will be cut out after laminating.

In an embodiment shown in Figures 5 and 6. use is made, as before. of a plate consisting successively of a lower sheet 11, of a fluted support 1 ′ whose grooves are here transverse and of an upper sheet 2 whose impressions have also been omitted there for reasons of clarity.

The plate shown is used to package three 4 "balls which are bodies which are particularly difficult to process by laminating, because of their spherical shape. But with reference to FIG. 6, it will be seen that, by simple manual pressure, the worker whose gesture is guided by the 5 "opening, has deformed as can be seen very clearly in 12, one of the grooves and has thus created, for the balls, housings which hold them in place. In the transverse direction, this retention of the balls by the housings created in the grooves is combined with the restraint exerted by the edges of the opening 5 ".

Claims (5)

1. Backing plate for skin packaging, composed of a support (1 and 1') for small objects (4, 4'. 4") and permeable to air and intended to receive a sheet (2) and then a film (3) applied by vacuum which takes the shape of these objects, the support (1 and 1') being shaped to have raised areas, being adhered under the dense and relatively rigid sheet (2), which is also permeable to air through the raised areas which are in contact with the sheet, characterised in that the sheet (2) is provided with at least one opening (5, 5', 5") for positioning the objects.

2. Backing plate according to Claim 1, characterised in that the dense sheet is pre-printed (6.7).

3. Backing plate according to Claim 1 or 2. characterised in that the support (1') is corrugated.

4. Backing plate according to any one of the Claims 1 to 3, characterised in that it comprises a second sheet (11) permeable to air and stuck under the support (1') by its raised areas which are in contact with the sheet.

5. Backing plate according to Claim 4, characterised in that the second sheet (11) is pre-printed.

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