FR2578193A1 - Cold laminating machine - Google Patents

Abstract

Machine for laminating, gluing, sticking. The present invention relates to a machine for protecting documents by cold application of a transparent film and sticking them onto a rigid support. It includes an upper motorised cylinder 9 rotating on bearings which are attached to the side plate 1. A lower idle cylinder 15, rocking and sliding in slots of the side plate 1 in order to press against the upper cylinder by two hydraulic jacks receiving their fluid at a monitored pressure generated by a jack with a piston pushed by a manually controlled screw. The roll of protective film 29 is mounted on a spindle 34 attached to the side plates via the intermediary of conical friction bearings allowing transverse adjustment of the position of the film as well as its unwinding tension. Two horizontal cylinders 40-41 receive the protective sheet 38 of the transparent adhesive film which is automatically rewound by the rotation of the said cylinders. This invention relates more particularly to protecting any photographic document, archive or product requiring a film as a finishing or utilisation surface.

Description

The present invention relates to an adhesive machine, glue, cold laminate all types of documents on all types of media. For example: photographs pasted on a rigid support serving as a frame, then protected by an unalterable transparent film, or manuscripts thus covered to be protected from any alteration.

The existing technique consists in continuously pressing the document to be protected against an adhesive sheet on the front or two sheets on the back.

The application process uses a machine fitted with two pressing rollers, generally covered with a flexible bandage, applied strongly against each other, driven in a rotational movement causing both the document to be protected and the film. protective adhesive.

The machines are further characterized by the woolen fabric they can protect and by their ability to process the front or front and back.

Long documents are presented in rolls which run continuously against the protective film, then rewound afterwards.

The protective film is chosen to be of equivalent width, also in rolls of great length and the adhesive of which is protected by a non-stick interlayer film - which is unwound as the protective film is applied, and rewinds for convenience before being disposed of as waste.

In the case of adhesive bonding of a document on a rigid support of dimension limited in width to the capacity of the machine and in length in document format, the pressure exerted by the cylinders to transfer the cold glue from its flexible support to the support rigid above must be applied uniformly over its entire width, whatever the variations in thickness which may in practice represent more than 15% in relative value.

Similarly, the quality of transparency and therefore of appearance of the document protected by an adhesive film is due to the regularity of pressure to avoid any reflection or even any air bubble included between the document and the transparent film.

Measuring this effort is essential, especially since for the same machine, documents of different width can be processed, requiring a variable pressure in force and point of application which is not measurable on current machines, contenting themselves with differentiating between thicknesses of the document alone or of the document plus its rigid support.

The number and variety of documents to be processed in the different phases of bonding, adhesive bonding, plasticization leads to numerous handling operations, the rewinding of the protective film is not the least tedious, especially since it is intended to be thrown away every time you change the protective film in kind or size.

The machine according to the present invention makes it possible to remedy these drawbacks while providing other advantages both in the quality of production and in reliability, in simplicity of handling and safety of implementation.

To do this, it comprises - a set of traditional pressing cylinders, with the difference that the upper cylinder being fixed and motorized, the lower cylinder is raised by hydraulic pressure acting on each of its ends by means of its vertically sliding bearings - a set of parallel cylinders with fixed center distance, horizontally disposed at the rear of the pressing rollers and the axis of the reel of the film rolls, rotated at a speed greater than or equal in development to the peripheral speed of the driving cylinder so that the simple pre-winding on a tubular mandrel of the non-stick film ensures its recovery without other handling.

 All of these cylinders are symmetrically reproduced for the case where the machine has to process double-sided documents.

It is easy to see that the elimination of waste is done by the simple gesture of removing from the horizontal rewind rollers avoiding any complicated broaching and unplugging system of driving in rotation at synchronous speed or sliding, source of breakdown or disturbance by wrong setting.

The hydraulic lifting of the lower cylinder controlled by the simple operation of a flywheel acting on the piston of a hydraulic jack pushing its fluid content towards the two jacks placed under each of the end bearings authorizes from the moment that said cylinder is free in rotation and in horizontal inclination thanks to ball joints arranged for this purpose, any variation in thickness of the document or of the support within the entire limit of the maximum spacing stroke of the opposed cylinders.

This arrangement, in addition to not calling on any external source of energy other than the muscular force limited by the multiplying effect of the jacks and the flywheel, allows the perfect balance of pressure over the entire surface of application of the adhesive film devoting the most perfect regularity of work.

The measurement of the total pressure force is done by direct reading of the fluid pressure generated by the operation of the flywheel. By displaying the width of the format of the document to be laminated, we ensure the best pressure v zer for the desired result whatever the thickness to be worked, protecting the quality of the work as much as it is often single documents.

The process and the machine are also secured by placing an overpressure indicator on the hydraulic circuit which can thus automatically stop the machine.

The judicious arrangement of the oscillating and crazy lower cylinder is not dangerous for the operator because since he introduces his hand at any point between the two cylinders there is no "swallowing" effect of the arm because the hollow of the hand with strong grip is against the stationary cylinder The back of the hand is only slightly affected by the contact against the upper motorized cylinder.

Added to this is that if the hand is placed towards the ends of the lower cylinder, the latter oscillates and moving away from the upper cylinder provides sufficient space to free the hand.

Note that the machine is equipped with regulatory detector systems theoretically preventing this false maneuver.

Likewise, this faculty of free oscillation of the lower cylinder is precious for preserving the cylinders from the accidental introduction, locally, of a hard object such as a knife, scissors, frequently used with these machines. Cylinders by their nature in perfectly machined soft material are expensive and fragile products, to be protected from any attack.

Another advantage of choosing an oscillating cylinder is that each machine defined by a capacity of maximum document passage width can be used to laminate documents of smaller width.

Daily practice shows that operators always place narrow documents at the same end of the cylinders. Irrespective of the fact that the clamping pressure is not differentiated on existing machines according to the width of the document, the overpressure generated applying at the end of the cylinders creates a rapid deterioration of the more fragile coating at this location than in his full body.

The subject invention prohibits this misuse because the balance of the cylinders is obtained only for a central arrangement of the document, guarantee of longevity of the cylinders.

The construction from opposite flat flanges, connecting the cylinders, unwinder axis and rewinder axes assembled by reinforcement brackets, constitutes a non-deformable box enveloping all the organs.

The size of the flanges reduced to the assembly of the functional members allows perfect center-to-center alignments ensuring their parallelism in the vertical plane.

In the horizontal plane, the size of the documents to be processed can go up to two meters or more, the parallelism of the axes is guaranteed by the arrangement of a spirit level on each flange which it is enough to adjust by playing on the rear screw supports.

 ! absence of devices flush with the flanges such as pulleys, belts or the like allows rapid disassembly of the cylinders carried by easily accessible cap bearings.

The pin axis of the film rolls is carried by the fitting of two female cones receiving its male ends. The female cones are threaded and screwed into the flanges so that one being blocked the other by -pressure more or less brakes the unwinding of the film for more regularity of application.

In the case where the film roll has an irregular winding which can create a pleating in the pressure cylinders, it suffices to center it by playing by screwing one and unscrewing the other female cone.

Note that the weight of the film roll being a disadvantage for the ease of handling, the simple unscrewing of the two female cones until the inside of the flanges is flush allows the operator after having placed it on the two horizontal rewinding cylinders, to push it on horizontal mini-rails to bring it effortlessly in front of the cones that just need to be screwed back.

The same operation is done for the installation of the lower roller in the case of double-sided application by direct access without moving anything or dismantling the machine saving the pain and time.

The invention described is presented according to an embodiment which does not exclude variants of the above principles.

Figure 1 is a sectional view showing the so-called "plasticization" application with rewinding of the protective film of the adhesive film in rectoverso version.

Figure 2 is a sectional view of the so-called "adhesive coating" application showing the motorization of the rewinding cylinders not used in this case.

Figure 3 is a front view showing the fixed motorized upper cylinder, the lower cylinder on ball joints, the hydraulic cylinders and the film roll with its attachment.

Figure 1 shows one of the flanges 1 having the adjustment level 3 by the screw 4 supporting the machine with the foot 5. An upper bracket 7 and lower 8 provide transverse rigidity.

The upper cylinder 9 coated with a soft coating 10 is provided with pins 11 rotating in fixed bearings 13 and 14 (shown in Figure 3) integral with the flanges.

The lower cylinder 15 coated with soft material 16 is provided with pins 17 rotating in ball joints 19 and 20 oscillating in bearings 21 - 22 (shown in Figure 3) sliding vertically in the flanges.

A pulley 23 secured to the upper roller associated with a belt 24 and a drive pulley 25 secured to the motor 26 constitute the drive assembly in rotation in the direction of the arrow 27. The document 28 to be coated on both sides, caught between the film upper 29, the lower film 30 and pressed by the two cylinders in contact scrolls in the direction of arrow 31.

A table 32 of introduction and 33 of exit facilitates the presentation of the document by their anchoring on the sliding bearings 21 - 22 (figure 3).

The film rolls 28 - 29 mounted on the axes 34 and 35 are therefore rotated and unwound as the document to be covered is scrolled.

Their handling is facilitated by pressing on the mini-rails 36 and 37.

The protective film 38 - 39 of the adhesive of each roll is automatically rewound by the rotational drive of the support cylinders 40 - 41 and 42 - 43 whose motorization is ensured by the belts 44 - 45 and 46 - 47 shown figure 2.

This same FIG. 2 shows the so-called "bonding" application which consists of depositing on a support 48 a film 49 - 50 cold glued with the path of said film following the arrows 51 - 52 to be at the end of the process according to the direction 53 applied to the support 48. In this application the rewind cylinders are not used.

FIG. 3 also shows: the pulleys 54 - 55 for driving the rewinding cylinders by the driving cylinder 10; the film 49 stapled on the axis 34 with its tapered bearing surfaces 56 - 57 coiled in the female cones of the friction elements 59 - 60 screwed onto the flanges 1 - 2.

The alternating screwing and unscrewing of the above friction elements move the film roll according to arrow 61 to the right or to the left to eliminate any wrinkling of the film.

The lower cylinder 16 oscillating on the ball joints 19 - 20 is pressed against the upper cylinder 49 fixed by two jacks 63 - 64 acting on the bearings 21 - 22 sliding in the flanges 1 - 2.

The transmission fluid passing through the pipes 65 - 66 comes from the jack 67 with a movable piston 68 displaced by the rotation of a screw 69 controlled by the flywheel 70.

The value of the pressure generating the adhesion force of the films on the documents is displayed on the pressure gauge 71 as a function of the width of the document to be covered. This hydraulic assembly makes it possible to apply the precise force according to the width and the nature of the document while guaranteeing its distribution whatever the transverse regularity of the support, the thickness of which can vary between the right side and the left side.

This laminating, adhesive bonding and bonding machine is more particularly suitable for protecting fragile documents on the surface and for bonding them to rigid supports allowing them to be fixed, as well as for coating the surface of products requiring a particular appearance or use for the film. used.

Claims (9)

10 - Laminating, adhesive-bonding, bonding machine characterized in that the metal pressure rollers coated with flexible material are applied one against the other by upward vertical thrust exerted on the lower cylinder. 20 - Machine according to claim 1 characterized in that the thrust applies to the lower cylinder by the force of two hydraulic cylinders acting on the movable bearings in guide housings provided in the flanges for this purpose. 30 - Machine according to claim 2 characterized in that the movable bearings of the lower cylinder are articulated on ball joints so that said cylinder can take the inclination depending on the thickness variations of the product to be laminated, adhesive or glue. 40 - Machine according to claim 2 characterized in that the hydraulic cylinders for pushing the lower cylinder receive their pressure from a piston cylinder containing the fluid necessary for the transmission of the force produced on a crank which moves the piston by the rotational drive of a screw secured to the crank. 50 - Machine according to claim 4 characterized in that the value of the hydraulic pressure controlled by a pressure switch being a direct relationship of the force to be applied to laminate, adhesive or paste documents is displayed in width of the document guaranteeing the best result whatever the width of said documents. 60 - Machine according to claim 1 characterized in that the upper cylinder is only motorized while the lower cylinder is free to rotate as long as there is no document being laminated, adhesive or glued securing the operator whose the palm of the hand can accidentally bear on the latter cylinder without risk of entrainment of the operator's arm. 70 - Machine characterized in that two horizontal cylinders are arranged at a fixed axis which can receive the film roll in support, which it will suffice to push on mini-rails to its clamping position avoiding any handling effort.  o0 - Machine according to claim 7 characterized in that the two parallel cylinders are rotated by a set of belts connecting to the upper cylinder, at a linear speed slightly greater than or equal to the development of said cylinder allowing by simple winding on it- even or on a sleeve to rewind the non-stick protective film from the plasticizing film. 90 - Machine characterized in that the rolls of film used for laminating are stapled on shafts carrying male conical ends fitting into female conical ends of friction support screwed into the flanges constituting the structure. The clamping force exerted axially on the spindle defines a braking force regulating the unwinding of the film. Likewise, the unscrewing of the right support and the corresponding screwing of the left support allows the perfect alignment of the film to be checked between the pressure rollers. 100 - Machine characterized in that the structure from parallel flanges including all the moving parts, the replacement of the upper cylinder or of the lower cylinder is done by simple dismantling of the caps of the cylinder support bearings.