EP1393903B1 - Rotary press for applying a pattern on a web like substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

The press has a driver to propel a strip material (4) through transfer rollers with a defined speed of a support strip (1). Reorientation units modify direction of the material from transverse to same direction of the support strip so as to deliver the material and the strip to the rollers. A storage disposal joins successive reels of the material without interruption of the delivery of the material to the rollers.

Description

The present invention relates to a rotary press for reporting patterns on a strip substrate, comprising means for longitudinally driving said substrate at a predetermined speed band, means for feeding at least one support strip of the material of said patterns, means for transferring said patterns, from said carrier strip at predetermined locations of said strip substrate, means for driving said carrier strip through said transfer means intermittently at said determined speed of the strip substrate.

It has already been proposed in the patent EP 441 596 a device for transferring, from a carrier web of a deposition material, reported images of this material at predetermined locations of a web substrate driven at a constant speed. In such a device, it is obvious that the length of the deposited material consumed is only a fraction of that of the strip substrate. However, the support strip of the material to be deposited is formed of a laminate whose price is high. This is the reason why the aforementioned document has proposed displacement means comprising means for reversing the longitudinal displacement of the support strip of the material to be deposited, these means of displacement in the opposite direction being respectively arranged upstream and downstream. means for transferring the image of the carrier strip to the strip substrate, so as to reduce the space separating two successive images on the carrier strip, in order to economize as much as possible on the consumption of this support strip.

In such a device, the support strip of the material to be transferred and the strip substrate have two parallel longitudinal paths to allow the transfer means to press them against each other with an appropriate pressure, temperature and time so that the transfer of the image can be realized. As a result, the feed means of the support strip are necessarily superimposed on the strip substrate which is to pass through several successive workstations situated along an installation that can reach more than ten meters long, so that the supply of the support strip must be above the workstations, which makes the work of loading the support tape replacement coils relatively difficult and painful.

The object of the present invention is to overcome, at least in part, the aforementioned drawbacks.

For this purpose, the present invention relates to a rotary press for reporting patterns on a web substrate of the aforementioned type, as defined in claim 1.

Access to the feed station strips material support to be deposited on the web substrate is easy. Given the lateral position of this feed station relative to the web substrate, the feed station may have several units that can be superimposed while remaining accessible from the ground for easy recharging. Such an arrangement saves the area occupied while multiplying the number of patterns reported.

This arrangement also favors the possibility of an automatic connection without stopping the production, allowing for this purpose the incorporation of a support tape accumulator which can be filled as the support tape feed reel becomes empty. This reserve of support tape can thus be used during the joining operation between the end of a support band and the beginning of the next band.

Other features will become apparent from the following description, made with the aid of the accompanying drawings which illustrate, schematically and by way of example, an embodiment of the rotary press to report patterns on a substrate. band, object of the present invention.

• la figure 2 est une vue en élévation latérale de la figure 1;
• la figure 3 est une vue de dessus de la figure 2;
• la figure 4 est une vue partielle agrandie et simplifiée de la figure 2;
• les figures 5 à 8 sont des vues partielles simplifiées de la figure 1, montrant les différentes phases d'une opération de raccord de deux bandes support du matériau des motifs à rapporter sur le substrat en bande et la figure 9 représente une variante d'exécution d'un organe de modulation de la vitesse de bande.

The figure 1 is an elevational view of this embodiment, transverse to the advancing direction of the web substrate on which the reported patterns are deposited;

• the figure 2 is a side elevation view of the figure 1 ;
• the figure 3 is a top view of the figure 2 ;
• the figure 4 is a partial enlarged and simplified view of the figure 2 ;
• the Figures 5 to 8 are simplified partial views of the figure 1 , showing the different phases of a connection operation of two support strips of the material of the patterns to be reported on the strip substrate and the figure 9 represents an alternative embodiment of a band speed modulation member.

The rotary press illustrated by the Figures 1 to 3 is a rotary press which is more particularly, although not exclusively intended to be inserted into a print line on a web substrate. This line In particular, a printing line may be a line for printing, cutting and ribbing cardboard articles, in particular a line for making blanks of cardboard boxes which are subsequently used to form the boxes by folding along the ribs. arranged at the places of folding.

This rotary press is thus arranged in the longitudinal direction of travel of a strip substrate 1 which moves in the direction indicated by the arrow F ( figure 3 ) and which is driven and guided along a path determined by a series of driving and guiding cylinders 100 ( figure 2 ), not only through the rotary press, but all along the printing line. This band substrate 1 is fed between two cylinders 2, 3 ( figure 2 ) of a transfer mechanism, arranged transversely to the longitudinal direction of the strip substrate 1 and whose role will be explained later.

The material of the patterns to be deposited at predetermined locations of the strip substrate 1, which may be in particular a metal film, is secured to a support strip 4. There may be several support strips 4 carrying similar films or materials and / or different colors, depending on the color of the patterns to be deposited on the strip substrate 1. These support strips 4 consist of laminates generally comprising a polyester strip, a wax separation layer, a color varnish formed by a resin, an aluminum layer and finally an adhesive layer.

These support strips 4 are stored in the form of supply coils 5, respectively and alternately of reserve, arranged in one or more superimposed feed units 6, 6a, 6b ( figure 1 ) which in this example can be up to three. As shown by figures 1 and 3 , the support strips 4 emerging from the supply coils 5 arrive laterally towards the strip substrate 1.

As shown in figure 3 , three support strips 4, 4a, 4b are thus perpendicularly directed towards the strip substrate 1. Three guides 7, 7a, 7b are constituted by bars arranged on the bisector of the angle formed between the 45 ° strands of the support strips 4, 4a, 4b located upstream of the guides 7, 7a, 7b and the strands disposed downstream of these guides. The direction of these last strands is parallel to the direction of the strip substrate 1. By rotating each of these support strips 4, 4a, 4b around its respective guide 7, 7a, 7b by 180 °, the positions of the faces are reversed. lower and upper of each support strip and the directions of these support strips 4, 4a, 4b change by 90 ° to align with the direction of the strip substrate 1.

In the illustrated example, these support strips 4, 4a, 4b are directed from the guides 7, 7a, 7b in the opposite direction to that of the strip substrate 1. One or more transverse drive rollers 8 serve to rotate again these support strips 4, 4a, 4b of 180 ° to bring them in the direction F of displacement of the substrate in strip 1. These rollers 8, associated with pressure rollers 8a, constitute drive devices of the support strips 4, 4a, 4b at constant speed. Each transverse roller 8 may have a speed different from that of the other transverse roller, depending on the material consumption to be deposited from each support strip 4, 4a, 4b, which may vary depending on the size and the spacing of the patterns. respectively.

A series of intermittent driving devices 9 ( figures 2 and 4 ) is arranged downstream of the transverse drive rollers 8. Each intermittent drive device 9 comprises as illustrated by the figure 4 a drive roller 10 rotating at a modulated speed, around which the support band 4, 4a, 4b rotates 180 °, and a counter roll 11 secured to a rocker 12 in mesh with a cross member 13 actuated by two cylinders 14. Next the position of the rocker 12, the support band 4, 4a, 4b is pressed between the drive roller 10 and the counter roller 11, so that it is driven at the speed of the drive roller 10. During the transfer operation of the pattern of the support strip 4 to the substrate 1, when the support strip 4 and this substrate strip pass between the transfer rollers 2, 3, as soon as the strips 4, 4a, 4b passing on the same roll 10 do not are more engaged between the shots of the tool 2 and the counter roller 3, their speed can be modulated. The driving speed of the rollers 10 is chosen to be equal to that of the strip substrate 1, so that the speed of this strip substrate 1 and the support strip or bands 4, 4a, 4b are the same. Since each support strip 4, 4a, 4b is intended for the transfer of a specific pattern whose size and position on the strip substrate 1 differs from those of another pattern, each support strip 4, 4a, 4b must be driven at different times from another support band. This is the reason why several intermittent drive devices are provided, there being for example six in the illustrated embodiment, but this number may vary more or less depending on the particular applications. .

An accumulation device 15 is arranged between the transverse drive rollers 8, driving the support strips 4, 4a, 4b continuously and the intermittent drive devices 9, to allow absorbing the lengths of support strips 4, 4a, 4b emerging from the transverse roller or rollers 8 for continuous driving of these support strips, while these are not driven by the intermittent drive devices 9.

This accumulation device comprises an accumulation chamber 16 having at the front an inlet 17 for receiving the support strips 4 4a, 4b downstream of the drive rollers 8 and an outlet 18 for bringing these support strips around the rollers. respective drive. The rear of this accumulation chamber 16 is connected to a suction source 19 intended to create a depression to form with the support strips 4, 4a, 4b loops of varying length inside the chamber of accumulation 16 during the stopping of the drive of the intermittent drive devices. By loop, two detectors 20, 20a serve to detect respectively the maximum loop and the minimum loop formed by the support strip. These detectors 20, 20a allow, when starting a new series of impressions to be performed on the rotary press, to adjust the constant speed of the transverse feed rollers 8, so that the loop formed by each support band 4, 4a, 4b does not exceed both limits. Once the theoretical constant speed of the roller 8 set using the detectors 20, 20a, it is increased slightly by a programmed setpoint. The intermittent loops formed by the bands 4, 4a, 4b will therefore tend to grow. When the detectors 20 receive a signal, they control a brief lifting of the corresponding press 8a, which has the effect of slightly reducing the flow and thus shorten the incriminated loop. To improve the effect of the system, all the upstream return rollers are subdivided into several adjacent portions, so as not to bind the strips 4, 4a, 4b therebetween.

As we see on the figures 1 , 5 to 8 each feed unit 6, 6a, 6b comprises a rectangular coil support 21, pivotally mounted about a central axis 22. Each coil carrier 21 has two pivoting seats 23, 23a for receiving pivot shafts (30). , 30a) supply coils 5, alternatively reserve 5a, support strips 4, 4a, 4b. These seats 23, 23a respectively open on two opposite sides of the rectangular support of coils 21, as seen on the figure 1 . Each pivoting seat 23, 23a is associated with a lever locking 24, 24a to retain the pivot axes of the coils 5 and 5a when the pivot seat 23, 23a opens downwards.

Preferably and when it is desired that the junction between the support strips 4, 4a, 4b is fully automated, the central axis 22 of each coil support 21 is associated with a motor 25 ( figure 3 ) to rotate in 180 ° steps to replace an empty supply coil with a spare coil 5a. Each pivoting seat 23, 23a is again associated with a support 26, 26a for the joining of the support strips 4, 4a, 4b. Guides 27, constituted by rollers at the four corners of the rectangular support of coils 21, serve to engage the support strip 4, 4a, 4b during feeding, to pass it to the periphery of the coil support 21 during the rotation of this coil support 21, at the moment when a supply coil 5 has to be replaced by a reserve coil 5a.

As can be seen, each half of the coil support 21 in the longitudinal direction of the rectangle formed by this support 21 has a symmetry with respect to the central pivot axis 22 of the support 21, so that by turning it 180 °, each half of the support 21 replaces the other half of the support 21. A connecting member 29 is further provided to make the junction between the end of a coil 5 and the beginning of the next.

Before describing the operation of the joining system, mention should also be made of the presence, in each supply unit, of a reserve device 28 of support strips 4, 4a, 4b disposed between the rectangular coil support 21 and the rollers transverse drive 8, to allow continued feeding of these support strips 4 during the joining of the strips, during which the supply of the support strip 4, 4a, 4b is interrupted to allow connection to the support strip of the replacement coil 5.

The Figures 5 to 8 illustrate the different phases of the joining process of the support strips 4, 4a, 4b using simplified diagrams. The figure 5 shows the end of a coil 5. The figure 6 shows the support of coils 21 following its rotation of 180 ° in the opposite direction to that of clockwise. It can be seen that, during this rotation, the support strip 4 is guided by two of the return rollers 27. The front end of the new reserve coil 5a is ready for the joining operation. In figure 7 , the connecting member 29 has come to press the two support strips 4, 4a, 4b to be joined against the support 26a to glue them to one another. During this paste operation, the support strips 4, 4a, 4b are momentarily immobilized. It is then that the strip material accumulated in the reserve device 28 empties to allow the transverse feed rollers 8 to continuously supply the rotary press in support strips 4, 4a, 4b of the material to be reported on the substrate. in band 1.

Cutting means (not shown), which may be associated with the joining member 29, then cut the rest of the support band of the empty spool 5 and the joining member 29 returns to its inactive position as illustrated by FIG. figure 8 , so that the new supply coil which previously constituted the reserve coil 5a begins to feed the rotary press. At first, the spare device 28 fills up again for the next coil change. In the meantime, it will be necessary to replace the empty coil 5 with a new spare coil 5a full. This operation which is carried out manually is made easy because of the lateral arrangement of the feeding device of the rotary press which facilitates access to the support of coils 21 and in particular to the pivoting seats 23, 23a of the supply coils 5 and reserve 5a on the coil support 21, especially since the pivot seat 23, 23a, on which the empty supply coil 5 to be exchanged, protrudes outside the unit. 6, 6a, 6b, as shown in FIG. figure 1 .

Downstream of the workstation 2, 3 is another accumulation device 15a, which is associated with an output traction unit 50, equipped with pressers 50a, which are laterally adjusted to be positioned on the strips 4, 4a, 4b, etc .... Now, these bands can come from several floors (6, 6a, 6b of the figure 1 ) and therefore have different average speeds. Note that the group 50, 50a rotates at a constant speed, more precisely at the speed of the fastest group of traction groups 8. To obtain a lower average speed rate, corresponding to a group 8 at reduced flow, the pressers Associates 50a are periodically raised. In doing so, they block the associated band 4. The bands 4 whose flow is to be reduced thus make a movement of the stop / walk type. The activation / deactivation of the pressers 50a can be done directly by controlling the loops in the accumulation device 15a, or else by calculating a regular basic cycle and by superimposing any corrections from the monitoring of the individual loops in the accumulation device 15a. the accumulation device 15a.

Another solution provided is to install an additional group 50, 50a, which would then adopt a specific average speed.

The figure 9 represents a variant embodiment of a band-speed modulation device by replacing the elements 8, 15, and 10, 11 of the figure 4 . Indeed, it may be desirable to have a second embodiment, for example to create a compact stamping unit in the form of insert. The aim is to create a speed modulation for at least one metallized strip 44. This passes a first roller 40, linked to a suitable motor with a vacuum supply 41 and unmounted means but known to bring the vacuum to the periphery of the cylinder, selectively between the generators A and E through B. The strip 44 is driven at a continuous speed vc by the roller 40, whose rotation speed wc is constant and chosen according to the average consumption required. The band 44 passes through the generators A, a point between B and B ', a point between C and C', D, and leaves the device with a speed vi. The roll 43 is constructed as the roll 40, the only difference being that for wi the rotation speed is modulated to obtain a strip economy as described in the text referring to figures 2 , 4 . The average flow rate induced by the intermittent rotation wi of the roll 42 is identical to the flow rate given by the roll 40. It is easily understood that the path BC is only true at one point in the cycle. Separation points B and C junction walk on the surfaces according to the profile of wi. We take advantage of the extremely low mass of the band 44 to thereby create a trajectory and vel modulation vi perfectly controlled through the cycles. There is no slip between 44 and 40, and between 44 and 42; vacuums 41 and / or 44 could therefore be replaced by a pressure or external pressure. The speed wc can be influenced by a trajectory control between the rollers 40, 42. If the points B and C tend to descend, this can be intercepted by a means of the kind photocell (not shown) which will slightly increase the speed wc . And the opposite can be obtained by analogous means placed above B, C. In this way, the software is free to superimpose position corrections roller 42 for the installation of holograms for example. Special modulation can also be supported, which can be very useful for passing a band 44 out of the meshing of a snapshot, for example.

Claims (16)

1. Rotary press for transferring patterns joined to at least one support strip onto a web substrate (1), comprising

   - a set of cylinders to drive and guide the web substrate at a determined speed and along a longitudinal direction (100),

   - an unit to supply the support strip,

   - rollers (2, 3) to transfer said patterns, from said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) to determined locations of said web substrate (1), and

   - devices (9) to drive intermittently the support strip between said transfer rollers (2, 3) at said determined speed of the web substrate (1),

   characterized in that it comprises several supplying units (6, 6a, 6b),

   - which are arranged laterally to the longitudinal driving direction of said web substrate (1), guides (7, 7a, 7b) being arranged along the path of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) and modifying the direction of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b), from a transverse supplying direction to the longitudinal driving direction of said web substrate (1) to a transfer direction of said patterns, parallel to the longitudinal driving direction of said web substrate (1),

   - which are stacked, and

   - which comprise constant speed driving devices (8), a junction device (21, 26, 26a, 29) to connect the end of a support strip (4, 4a, 4b) to the beginning of another support strip and a reserve (28) of a definite length of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) between said junction device (21, 26, 26a, 29) and the constant speed driving devices (8), to allow constant supply of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) during the junction.
2. Press according to claim 1, in which constant speed devices for driving support strip (8) are arranged downstream the supplying unit or units (6, 6a, 6b), a storage device (15) for said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) being arranged between said constant speed driving devices (8) and said intermittent driving devices (9).
3. Press according to claim 2, in which said intermittent driving devices (9) comprises a driving roller (10), with which said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) is put in contact at the outlet of said storage means (15), a free rotation roller (11), parallel to said driving roller (10) and rocking means (12, 13, 14) selectively applying this free rotation roller (11) against the driving roller (10), said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) being pinched between said rollers (10, 11) and thus driven by friction.
4. Press according to claim 1, in which the constant speed driving devices (8) comprise rollers (8a) and a set of pressure wheels (8a), related to one of the strips (4, 4a), raised intermittently, varying the flow of strip (4) on the roller (8), and controlling the average position of a loop of strip (4, 4a) in the storage chamber (16), the whole being run in automatic feed-back loop by the software of the machine.
5. Press according to claim 4, in which the back rollers upstream the constant speed driving devices (8) are subdivided in several adjacent parts, disconnecting the advance of the strips (4, 4a, 4b) from each other.
6. Press according to claim 1, in which said junction device (21, 26, 26a, 29) comprises a support (21) for at least one supplying reel (5) and one reserve reel (5a) for each supplying reel (5) of said support strips (4, 4a, 4b), connected to a frame by a central pivoting axis (22) and comprising pivoting means (23, 23a) receiving said reels (5) in parallel and symmetric positions to said central pivoting axis (22), guides (27) and bearings (26, 26a) for said support strips (4, 4a, 4b), related to each of said supplying reels (5) on one hand and said reserve reels (5a) on the other hand, these guides (27) and these bearings (26, 26a) being disposed symmetrically to said central axis (22), driving means (25) driving said reels support (21) by 180° steps and junction means (29) applying an end portion of the support strip (4, 4a, 4b) of said replacement reel (5a) against an initial portion of the support strip (4, 4a, 4b) of said supplying reel (5) against one of said bearings (26a) realizing the junction of said adjacent portions.
7. Press according to claim 2, in which said storage device (15) of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) comprises a storage chamber (16) for reserve portions of said support strip, having an inlet (17) for said support strip coming from the supplying unit or units (6, 6a, 6b) and an outlet (18) for said support strip to said intermittent driving devices (9), suction means (19) creating a depression being connected to said storage chamber (16) that comprises detectors (20, 20a) detecting two storage limit positions of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) inside said storage chamber.
8. Press according to claim 2, in which said constant speed driving devices (8), related to the supplying unit or units (6, 6a, 6b), are arranged downstream of said guides (7, 7a, 7b) of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) to maintain continuously under strain the portion of this support strip passing around said guides (7, 7a, 7b).
9. Press according to any one of the preceding claims, in which said guides (7, 7a, 7b) comprise a straight guiding member, arranged on a bisectrix of the angle formed between the supplying direction of said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) and the longitudinal driving direction of said web substrate (1), so that after said support strip (4, 4a, 4b) has been rotated of 180° around it, the longitudinal direction of this support strip forms a 90° angle between its strand located upstream and the one located downstream of said straight guiding member (7, 7a, 7b).
10. Press according to claim 1, in which the out-going strips (4, 4a, 4b) are driven through another storage device (15a) by a pulling equipment (50, 50a), where the speed of the latter is adjusted by controlling the average position of the loops in the device (15a).
11. Press according to claim 10, in which the pulling equipment (50, 50a) is split in two and a pulling equipment (50, 50a) having the same base speed is related to each equipment (8, 8a)
12. Press according to claim 10, in which the storage devices (15, 15a) are identical.
13. Press according to claim 10, in which the pressers (50a) are periodically raised and the related strips are blocked with a movement of the on-off type, the activation and deactivation of the pressers (50a) being directly made by controlling the loops in the storage device (15a).
14. Press according to claim 2, in which said intermittent driving devices (9) comprise a combination of two rollers (40, 42), with a first roller (40) rotating at a constant rotation speed (wc) and a second roller (42) rotating at an intermittent rotation speed (wi).
15. Press according to claim 14, in which strips (44) are maintained without friction over the rollers surfaces (40, 42) by vacuum (41, 43).
16. Press according to claim 14, in which the constant rotation speed (wc) is regulated by controlling the path of the strip (44) between the rollers (40, 42) by control means located above and below the zone (B, C) between the rollers (40, 42).

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