GB2396145A

GB2396145A - Printing packaging and an item to be packaged

Info

Publication number: GB2396145A
Application number: GB0228325A
Authority: GB
Inventors: David Hill
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2002-12-05
Filing date: 2002-12-05
Publication date: 2004-06-16
Anticipated expiration: 2022-12-05
Also published as: GB0228325D0; GB2396145B

Abstract

A method of packaging comprises printing upon an article 12 such as a compact disc, printing on packaging 14 for said article and packing said article in said packaging. The printing may be performed at separate printing stations for the articles and the packaging, adjacent to one another, or at the same station 18. If printed at a common station, the articles and packaging may either be printed alternately or in batches, or simultaneously. A conveyer 11 is used to transport the articles and packaging between printing stations and packing stations, and can either stop as the printing takes place, or continue, the printing being performed on the moving articles/packaging. The information printed is unique to each article and its corresponding packaging, and is retrieved from computer 25 and printed by ink jet, laser, or thermal transfer apparatus, and may of the type that is cured by UV light exposure. The article may contain software information, in which case the printed information may be key information 28, 29 required to use said software. Optical identifying apparatus 30 can also be provided to ensure the article and the packaging are matching before packing.

Description

Title: A Method of Providing a Packaged Article Description of Invention

This invention relates to a method of providing a packaged article and more particularly to a method of providing an article such as a compact disc, DVD disc or other data carrying media disc or other article, in a package such as a case of the type commonly known as a jewel case, or other packaging.

10 Presently it is known to print information directly onto the data carrying discs. Inserts, usually of paper are printed remotely from where the data carrying discs are produced and printed upon, and then the inserts are transported to an assembly station, for example adjacent where the articles are produced. The inserts (they may be several in the example of a jewel case) are 15 then inserted into the packages and then the discs are packed.

This method of providing a packaged article presents problems in that if it is desired to change the information printed on the inserts at least, fresh inserts have to be ordered, produced and transported from the remote location to where the discs are produced/printed upon. Thus the current method does not 20 lend itself economically to short production runs.

According to a first aspect of the invention I provide a method of providing a packaged article including the steps of transporting the article to a printing station, printing first information on the article at the printing station, transporting a package to a printing station, printing second information on the 25 package at the printing station, transporting the article and the package to a packaging station and packing the article into the package.

Thus utilising the method of the invention for packing data discs in packages, paper or the like inserts need not be provided, although additionally

to printing the second information on the package, an insert may be provided as required. Desirably, the printing stations at which the article and the package are printed, are adjacent one another at a common location, so that for example, the 5 articles and packages may be printed upon generally simultaneously and then brought together at the packaging station wherein the articles are packed into the packages.

However in another example, the printing stations at which the article and the package are printed, may be a common printing station, with a batch of 10 articles being printed upon with the first information and then a batch of packages being printed upon with the second information.

In another example, the articles and packages may be alternately printed upon at the common printing station.

In yet another example, an article and a package may be simultaneously 15 printed upon at a common printing station.

In this way, by printing the articles and packages together, each article may have a unique corresponding package which may be indicated by unique identifying information being printed upon the article and corresponding package. 20 In each case, the articles and packages may be transported to the printing station or stations on a conveyor or conveyors. The articles and packages may be halted at the printing station while printing is performed, or may be printed upon as the articles and packages move through the printing station or stations.

In each case the invention facilitates the rapid setting up of a printing 25 and packaging line as the information to be printed upon the articles and the packages may be retrieved from a computerised database or data file and printed on the articles and packages, using a computer controlled printing apparatus.

Printing may be performed on the articles and packages by at least one printing apparatus which may include a print head having a plurality of nozzles through which marking medium may be jetted onto the article or substrate. For example the print head may include a computer controlled piezoelectric 5 actuator for each nozzle, each actuator being individually addressable by a computer controller, so that marking medium may be jetted from selected nozzles at predetermined times in order to print pixels making up an image.

However, other kinds of printing apparatus may be utilised such as for example a laser or thermal transfer printing apparatus.

10 Where the printing apparatus is of the jetting kind, the marking medium used will depend upon the nature of the article/package onto which printing is to be performed. In one example, where the articles and packages are made of a plastic material, the marking medium may be of the kind which is jetted onto the articles/packages and then is cured upon being exposed to ultraviolet light.

15 Such a printing apparatus requires that there is relative movement between an article/package and the print head during printing so that an image may be made up of rows and columns of marking medium.

In one arrangement, the article/package may be retained generally stationary at the printing station during printing with the print head being 20 traversed across the article/package but preferably the print head is maintained stationary at the printing station while the article/package is moved relative to the print head.

Desirably the article is marked with first key information which may be unique to the article and the package, and the package may be marked with 25 second key information which may be unique to the article and the package.

Where the article is a data containing disc or similar media article in which the data is computer software, the computer software may require the input of the first and second key information before the software can be utilised. This makes counterfeiting of the disc more difficult as each disc would require the

application by printing, of the unique first key information and a corresponding or matching package with the second matching key information. Whereas in an environment in which the present invention is performed, this may readily be achieved, this can present obstacles to counterfeiting.

5 In the method of the invention, each article and matching package may be marked with a machine readable identifier such as a bar code or text, so that downstream of the printing station or stations, a bar code reader or optical character recognition equipment may be used to check that an article and a package are matching before packing the article into the package.

10 Examples of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: FIGURE 1 is an illustrative diagram of a printing and packaging line in which the method of the invention may be performed; FIGURE 2 is a perspective illustrative view of an article and package 15 packaged by a method in accordance with the invention.

Referring to the drawings a printing and packaging line 10 includes a single conveyor 11 onto which articles 12, in this case data-carrying discs, are deposited upstream e.g. by a hopper, and the packages are in this case, so-called jewel cases 14 having a base 15 and a hinged lid 16. In this example the base 15 20 and hinged lid 16 are shown assembled as the packages 14 approach a printing station 18, but in another method, assembly of the lids 16 and bases 15 may be achieved downstream.

At the printing station 18 there is provided a printing apparatus 20 of the inkjetting kind in which jets of marking medium i.e. ink, are jetted from 25 selected of a plurality of nozzles of a print head 22 which typically are arranged in a linear array, by the action of piezoelectric actuators of the print head 22, there being one actuator for each nozzle, and the actuator being individually addressable by a computer controller 25.

The printing apparatus 20 in this example is carried on a carriage 26 which traverses the conveyor 11, so that the print head 22 can be positioned appropriately over a disc 12 or a package 14 at the printing station 18 so that the array of nozzles can be utilised for printing.

5 During printing in this example, the discs 12 and packages 14 are maintained generally stationary at the printing station 18. This may be achieved by the controller 25 halting the conveyor it or by an independent control system. In each case, during printing the print head 22 traverses the conveyor l l so that there is relative movement between the print head and disc 12 or 10 package 14 and so an image and/or other information is built up from pixels of marking medium arranged in rows and columns. In another preferred arrangement, such essential differential movement may be achieved by moving the disc 12 and/or package 14 relative to a generally stationary print head 22 or both the print head 22 and disc 12/article 14 may be moved.

15 In the present example the array of nozzles is parallel to the direction of movement A of the discs 12 and packages 14 on the conveyor 11 to and from the printing station 18, but in another example may be arranged generally transverse to such direction A. During printing the discs 12 are printed with first information retrieved 20 from a first file of a computer database by the controller 25. The information may contain an image and/or text, but preferably includes first key information 28 which in this example is a text/number string but could in another example be a bar code or symbol or a mixture of these.

Further, the jewel cases 14 are printed with second information rekieved 25 from a second file of a computer database, and the information may include second key information 29 (again a text/number string) which corresponds to the first key information in the sense that the first and second key information have a unique relationship between them, i.e. they are a matching pair of information which may be the same or different.

Because the discs 12 and jewel cases 14 are usually made of a plastic material, in order to mark them successfully, the ink or marking medium employed by the printing apparatus 20 may be of the kind which may be cured upon exposure to ultraviolet light. Methods of utilization of such inks is well 5 established and this do not form a crucial part of this invention and thus further detailed discussion is not considered to be necessary. Essentially though, a suitable marking medium will need to be selected appropriately for the nature of the articles/packages to be printed upon.

Where the articles 12 and packages 14 are for example made of different 10 materials, at the printing station 18, there may be provided separate printing apparatus 20 for the articles 12 and the packages 14 so that appropriate marking medium may be used for each of them, or indeed, separate printing stations 18 may be used for the articles 12 and packages 14 although desirably these are close to one another i.e. in a common location so that articles 12 and packages 15 14 may be brought together for packaging soon after printing.

In the example shown in the drawings, the lids 16 of the cases 14 are printed on the inside. The lids 16 are transparent, and thus the information needs to be printed in reverse so that the information can easily be read through the transparent lid 16 when closed.

20 In another example the lids 16 may be printed on the outside. The bases 15 may be printed upon too as desired.

Thus there is no need separately to print a paper or the like insert and then insert it into the jewel case 14 although such an insert could be provided in addition to the second information being printed on the packages 14 where this 25 is required.

After printing, at a downstream packaging station, the discs 14 are assembled in the jewel cases 14.

Whereas preferably the discs 12 and jewel cases 14 are preferably generally printed simultaneously at a common printing station 18, they may be

printed in batches, i.e. a batch of discs 12 may be printed at the printing station 18, and then a batch of jewel cases 14, may be printed upon, or the discs and corresponding jewel cases 14 may be printed alternately at the common printing station 18.

5 Instead of the packages 14 being jewel cases, the invention may be applied to other packages, such as so called J-cases, for the discs 12, or indeed the invention may be applied to any article and package onto which information is to be printed prior to packing the article 12 in the package 14.

Where the article is a data-carrying disc containing computer software, 10 in order to utilise the software in a computer, if desired both the first and second key information 28, 29 may need to be input upon set-up.

Thus if desired, the data-carrying disc, or other software carrying article, may include a code or codes which may be read prior to printing to ensure that appropriate key information 29, 29 unique to the code or codes is printed on the 15 article 12 and package 14 in production.

Such code or codes may be provided on a protectable part of the article from which data is not copyable, at least by readily available means. Thus, even in the event that the first and second key information 28, 29 is copied during counterfeiting, copied software will not operate even with the correct 20 key information in the absence of the protected code or codes on the original data carrying article.

Such security features may be used in conjunction with remote authentication methods which require the key information 28, 29 at least to be combined with a user name, i.e. that of the original purchaser of the software, 25 to a remote server before the software can be actuated. Such procedure may enable the user to re-load the software a given number of times before the remote server would not allow further use without verification of legitimate ownership of the software.

Moreover the printing and packaging line 10 may include optical character recognition equipment 30 downstream of the printing station 18 to read the key information 28, 29 data strings printed on the article 12 and package 14 so that prior to packaging, a check can be made that the disc 12 and 5 package 14 are a matching pair. If desired, specific data strings printed on the article 12 and package 14 could be used to identify the need for additional or special packaging, or farther treatment or the like, for example as appropriate to different downstream customer requirements. Alternatively, another unique identifier separate from the key information 28, 29 such as a bar code or the 10 like may be printed on the article 17 and package 14 with there being a bar code reader to check that the article 17 and package 14 into which the article 12 is to be packaged are a matching pair.

The features disclosed in the foregoing description, or the following

claims, or the accompanying drawings, expressed in their specific forms or in 15 terms of a means for performing the disclosed function, or a method or process for attaining the disclosed result, as appropriate, may, separately, or in any combination of such features, be utilised for realising the invention in diverse forms thereof.

Claims

1. A method of providing a packaged article including the steps of transporting the article to a printing station, printing first information on the 5 article at the printing station, transporting a package to a printing station, printing second information on the package at the printing station, transporting the article and the package to a packaging station and packing the article into the package.

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2. A method according to claim 1 wherein the printing stations at which the article and the package are printed, are adjacent one another at a common location.

3. A method according to claim 2 wherein the article and package are 15 printed upon generally simultaneously and then brought together at the packaging station wherein the article is packed into the package.

4. A method according to claim 1 wherein the printing stations at which the article and the package are printed is a common printing station, with a batch of 20 articles being printed upon with the first information and then a batch of packages being printed upon with the second information.

5. A method according to claim 1 wherein articles and packages are alternately printed upon at the common printing station.

6. A method according to claim 1 wherein an article and a package are simultaneously printed upon at a common printing station.

7. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein each article has a unique corresponding package indicated by unique identifying information being printed upon the article and the corresponding package.

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8. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the article and package are transported to the printing station or stations on a conveyor or conveyors.

9. A method according to claim 8 wherein the article and package are 10 halted at the printing station while printing is performed.

10. A method according to claim 8 wherein the article and package are printed upon as the article and package move through the printing station or stations.

11. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the information to be printed upon the articles and the packages is retrieved from a computerised database or data file and printed on the articles and packages, using a computer controlled printing apparatus.

12. A method according to claim 11 wherein printing is performed on the article and package by at least one printing apparatus which includes a print head having a plurality of nozzles through which marking medium is jetted onto the article or package.

13. A method according to claim 12 wherein the print head includes a computer controlled piezoelectric actuator for each nozzle, each actuator being individually addressable by a computer controller, so that marking medium may

be jetted from selected nozzles at predetermined times in order to print pixels making up the information.

14. A method according to claim 12 or claim 13 wherein the marking 5 medium used for printing on at least one of the article and the package is of the kind which is jetted onto the articles/packages and then is cured upon being exposed to ultraviolet light.

15. A method according to any one of claims 12 to 14 wherein there is 10 relative movement between the article/package and the print head during printing so that an image is made up of rows and columns of marking medium.

16. A method according to claim 15 wherein the print head is retained generally stationary at the printing station during printing with the 15 article/package being moved relative to the print head.

17. A method according to any one of the preceding claims wherein the article is marked with first key information unique to the article and the package, and the package is marked with second key information is unique to 20 the article and the package.

18. A method according to claim 17 wherein the article is a data containing media article in which the data is computer software, and the computer software requires the input of the first and second key information before the 25 software can be utilised.

19. A method according to any one of claims 17 to 19 wherein the article and matching package are marked with a machine readable identifier and downstream of the printing station or stations, a reader reads the identifiers to

check that an article and a package are matching before packing the article into the package.

20. A method of providing a packaged article substantially as hereinbefore 5 described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

21. Any novel feature or novel combination of features described herein and/or as shown in the accompanying drawings.