JPH06166190A - Label printing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To print on correct printing position at a high speed by a device wherein it is detected by a sensor assuredly and speedily that a label in which various items of information is to be written with laser is positioned on a predetermined writing position, and information writing operation is carried out automatically only when the label is on the predetermined writing position. CONSTITUTION:A laser writing device 6 comprises a laser generator 40 for outputting a shot signal Ss when pulse-like laser outgoing operation is completed and outputting a generation failure signal SF when laser generation is not carried out, a cylindrical lens 41, a mask changer 43 for automatically exchanging a mask 42, a focus lens 44, and a reflective sensor 45 for detecting the presence of a label based on reflection factor and directly outputting a label detection signal LD to the laser generator 40. The label detection signal LD becomes H level when a high reflection factor corresponding to a thermal coloring printing area is obtained, and becomes L level in other case than the above. As a result, in the case of the H level, the mask 42 is immediately irradiated with pulse laser so as to write on a label 20 by transmitting laser beam.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a device for printing on a label or other various display bodies, and particularly for printing a label attached to a container such as a bottle, such as a manufacturing time and lot number of the contents of the container. The present invention relates to a label printing device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 6 shows the structure of the main part of a conventional label sticking machine. The label applicator 1P includes a cylinder 3P having a plurality of vacuum holders 13 for transporting labels by vacuum suction on its peripheral surface, and a label magazine that supplies labels in the counterclockwise direction around the cylinder 3P. 5, a laser writing device 6P for writing information such as lot number and manufacturing time on the label, and a gluing device 12 for gluing the label held in the vacuum holder 13 by a rotating roller. Has been done.

The vacuum holder 13 provided on the peripheral surface of the cylinder 3 rotates as the cylinder 3 rotates.
The label is received from the label magazine by vacuum suction, glued on the back surface of the label by the glue device, then the label is conveyed to the bottle B side supplied by the belt conveyor C, and the label is attached to the bottle B.

Further, the cylinder 3 is rotationally driven and is not shown.
The absolute drive position data P of the cylinder 3_A
The absolute encoder 11 that outputs
Output by this absolute encoder 11.
Rotation absolute position data P _ABased on (timing signal)
Then, the laser writing device 6P is moved by the vacuum holder 13.
Manufacturing date, lot number, manufacturing plant
It was supposed to write various information such as numbers.

[0005]

The absolute encoder 11 for detecting the absolute position used in the conventional label sticking machine has a response variation of about 0.5 ms.

Further, a label of about 5 × 6 cm is 1000
Assuming the case of sticking at a speed of sheet / min, the relative moving speed of the label with respect to the writing position of the laser writing device 6P is about 2 mm / ms. This means that if the print start time is delayed by 1 ms, the print position will shift by about 2 mm.

Therefore, when the response of the absolute encoder 11 varies, a printing position shift of 1 to 2 mm occurs. Further, in the above conventional label applicator, it does not detect the actual label position,
Since the position of the cylinder 3P for holding and conveying the label is detected, if there is a deviation between the detected position of the cylinder 3P and the actual label holding position, printing cannot be performed at the correct position. The problem arises.

Further, even when the vacuum holder 13 does not hold the label, the writing is performed by the laser, which wastefully consumes power and prevents the vacuum holder 13 from being damaged. In order to do so, a new problem has arisen that complicated control must be performed.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to control easily,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a label printing apparatus capable of performing printing at a correct printing position at high speed without performing unnecessary operation.

[0010]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention relates to a label having an information writing area including a thermosensitive coloring ink layer, and writing information preset in the information writing area. In a label printing apparatus for writing with a laser beam, label supply means for sequentially supplying a plurality of the labels to a predetermined writing position and a label for discriminating whether or not the label exists at the predetermined writing position. A sensor that outputs a presence / absence signal, a light source that emits the laser beam, and a label presence / absence signal when the label is present at the predetermined writing position, the light source is controlled to use the laser beam. And a writing control means for writing the writing information to the label.

[0011]

According to the present invention, the label supply means such as the label magazine, the pallet and the cylinder for driving the pallet sequentially supplies the plurality of labels to the predetermined writing position.

A sensor such as a reflection type sensor determines whether or not a label is present at a predetermined writing position and outputs a label presence / absence signal to a writing control means such as a laser oscillator. As a result, the writing control means controls the light source to use the laser beam to manufacture the label on the label when the label is present at the predetermined writing position based on the label presence / absence signal. The writing information such as the manufacturing factory number is written.

Thus, it is possible to surely detect that the label is at the predetermined writing position, and perform the information writing operation only when the label is at the predetermined writing position.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. Fig. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of the labeling machine.

The label applicator 1 is equipped with a cylinder 3 having a plurality of pallets 2 for carrying labels, and the labels are pasted through the pallets 2 in the counterclockwise direction around the cylinder 3. The glue roller 4, the label magazine 5 for supplying the label, the laser writing device 6 for writing information such as lot number and manufacturing time on the label, and the label for which the information is written are received from the pallet 2 by vacuum suction or the like. , A belt conveyor C on which the bottle B is being conveyed
Gripper 7 that conveys the label to the bottle and conveys it to the side, and system controller 8 that controls the entire device
And are provided.

The pallets 2 provided on the upper surface of the cylinder 3 each rotate about a rotation shaft 2C and rotate with the rotation of the cylinder 3 so that the glue roller 4 can rotate.
After gluing is performed on the surface by means of, the label is held by utilizing the adhesive force of this glue and conveyed to the gripper 7.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the label. Figure 2 (a)
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a printing surface of the label 20, in which the normal printing area 21 in which printing is performed using normal ink and the thermosensitive coloring printing in which the thermosensitive coloring ink is applied on the surface of the label 20. A region 22 is provided.

In the normal printing area 21, for example, a product name,
Information common to the product, such as the content, product description, and bar code, is printed. In the thermosensitive coloring printing area 22, for example, the manufacturing time information 22a of the contents and the lot number information 22
b, information about each product, such as the manufacturing factory information 22c, is printed.

FIG. 2B shows a cross-sectional view of the label 20 on the side of the heat-sensitive color printing area 22. The label 20 includes a base material 25 such as paper and a precoat layer 2 of amino / alkyd resin.
6 (thickness 4 μm). An aluminum vapor deposition layer 27 having aluminum vapor deposited on the precoat layer 26.
(Thickness 300 to 1000 μm) is provided. An anchor coat layer 28 made of acrylic resin, which is a base treatment layer, is further provided on the aluminum vapor deposition layer 27.
A pattern portion ink layer 29 (nitrocellulose resin) is provided through (thickness 1.5 μm).

Further, a coloring ink layer 30 (thickness 2 μm) which develops a color in response to heat generated by the irradiation of laser light is provided on the upper part of the ink layer 29 of the pattern portion.
An overcoat layer 31 containing a nitrocellulose resin as a vehicle for protecting the color-forming ink layer 30 is provided on the upper part of the
(Thickness 2 μm) is provided.

The color-forming ink layer 30 will be described below. The thermosensitive coloring ink that constitutes the coloring ink layer 30 is
It is composed of a background color-developing agent, a binder resin, a solvent, a color-developing agent, a developer, and the like.

The background color inhibitor contains one or more substances selected from the group consisting of amino acids, ammonium salts, pH buffers and surfactants. Further, the binder resin contains a neutral resin which is soluble in a lower alcohol or a mixture of a lower alcohol and water and which is capable of forming a film.

Further, the solvent may contain a lower alcohol or a mixture of a lower alcohol and water. Furthermore, a leuco dye may be contained as the color former.

The developer may contain an acidic substance and may be a phenolic compound, or the phenolic compound may be a gallic acid derivative.

Furthermore, the sensitizer for laser marking may contain one or more insoluble compounds selected from the group consisting of borate salts, phosphate salts and silicates. Furthermore, zinc borate may be contained as a sensitizer for laser marking.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the laser writing device 6. The laser writing device 6 is a laser light source such as a TEA-CO ₂ laser and a YAG laser, and outputs a shot signal S _S when the pulsed laser emission operation is completed, and laser oscillation cannot be performed due to a failure or the like. Oscillation failure signal S
A laser oscillator 40 that outputs _M , a cylindrical lens 41 for adjusting the energy density and irradiation range of the laser light emitted from the laser oscillator 40, and a plurality of masks 42 in which characters are cut out by etching, Mask changer 4 for automatically changing the mask 42
3, a focusing lens 44 that focuses the laser light that has passed through the mask 42 and focuses on the label, the presence or absence of the label is detected based on the reflectance, and the label detection signal L _D is directly output to the laser oscillator 40. And a reflective sensor 45.

The reason why the pulse laser is used as the laser oscillator 40 is that the scanning type laser has a great influence on the change in the moving speed of the label, such as printing deviation and flow.

As the reflection type sensor 45, for example, a high-speed response type with a response time of 0.05 ms is used, and the detection sensitivity is no label (pallet only), the label detection signal is at "L" level, and the label is present (thermosensitive color printing The threshold value is set so that the label detection signal becomes "H" level in the area 22 detection). Specifically, the thermal color printing area 2
In order to print black characters on 2, the heat-sensitive color-developing print area 22 is light in the initial state. On the other hand, the pallet 2 is dark and has a large difference in lightness as compared with the heat-sensitive color print area 22, and the reflective sensor 45 distinguishes the heat-sensitive color print area 22 by using the difference in reflectance.
Further, the label detection signal L which is the output of the reflection type sensor 45
_The reason why _D is directly output to the laser oscillator 40 is to prevent print misalignment.
In other words, if the label detection signal L _D is once output to the system controller 8 controlling the label sticking machine 1 and laser writing is performed under the control of the system controller 8, the system controller 8 performs time division processing. This is because the variation in the processing time caused by the occurrence of the printing deviation causes the printing deviation, and the printing deviation can be prevented by eliminating the influence of the variation in the processing time.

Further, by driving the focusing lens 44 to change the distance between the focusing lens 44 and the mask 42,
The printing magnification (ratio between the size of the characters cut out on the mask 42 and the size of the characters printed on the label 20) can be changed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. First, when the drive switch (not shown) of the label sticking machine 1 is turned on at time t ₁ , the labeler start signal becomes “H” level (see FIG. 4A). As a result, the label magazine 5 moves to the operating position (see FIG. 1), and when the movement is completed at time t ₂ , the magazine output signal becomes "H" level (see FIG. 4 (b)).

At the same time, the cylinder 3 and the pallet 2 on the cylinder 3 start rotating motion by a driving means (not shown), and glue is applied to the pallet 2 by the glue roller 4.

The pallet 2 to which the glue is applied is a cylinder 3
When the label magazine 5 rotates on its axis (revolution) and is positioned in front of the label magazine 5, the label magazine 5 is faced and the label 20 is received. As a result, the pallet 2 holds the label 20 with the applied glue and, at the same time, applies the glue to the back surface of the label 20.

The pallet 2 holding the label 20 further moves as the cylinder 3 rotates, and the laser writing device 6
Move to a position facing. As a result, the reflective sensor 45 of the laser writing device 6 emits the label detection light S _L ,
A label detection signal L _D indicating the presence or absence of the label 20 is output to the laser oscillator 40.

Specifically, the label detection signal L _D becomes “H” level when a high reflectance corresponding to the heat-sensitive color printing area 22 is obtained, and otherwise it becomes “L” level. Become.

As a result, the laser oscillator 40 determines the presence or absence of a label based on the label detection signal L _D (step S
1) When the label detection signal L _D is at the “H” level, that is, when there is a label (see time t _{3 in} FIG. 4C), the pulse laser is immediately changed to the cylindrical lens 41.
The mask 42 in the mask changer 43 is irradiated with the transmitted laser light through the focusing lens 44.
Various information (manufacturing date, lot number,
The manufacturing factory number, etc. will be written (step S
2).

At the same time, the laser oscillator 40 outputs to the system controller 8 a shot signal S _S indicating that the operation for irradiating the laser has been completed. The system controller 8 outputs the magazine output signal at the “H” level,
And, in the state that the labeler start signal is "H" level,
Shot signal S _S output from the laser oscillator 40, it is determined whether it is output from the previous shot signal S _S output within a predetermined time (step S3), and shot signal S _S is output within a predetermined time If not, it is considered that the reflective sensor 45 is defective, and the reject signal S _R is output to the reject device 9 (see FIG. 1) provided at the subsequent stage of the belt conveyor C that conveys the bottle (step S).
8). As a result, the reject device 9 is
That is, the product to which the label on which the information is not printed is attached is removed as a defective product.

[0037] Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, in the magazine output signal "H" level, and, in the labeler activation signal "H" level state, the time t ₄ the label detection signal L _D " Elapsed time Δ from the time of becoming "H" level to the time t ₅ when the label detection signal L _D becomes "H" level next time
When t is longer than the reference elapsed time t _REF , the system controller 8 outputs the reject signal S _R to the reject device 9.

On the other hand, in the determination of step S3, the show
Signal S_SIs judged to have been output within the specified time
In this case, the system controller 8 will
Issue S _MIs output (step S
4).

Here, the oscillation failure signal will be described.
The laser oscillator 40 is in a state where it cannot oscillate due to a voltage drop or the like (miss shot). Generally, this miss shot occurs with a probability of about 10 ppm, but assuming the manufacturing process of bottled beer, it is about 30 per line per day.
~ If you manufacture 700,000 pieces, 3 ~ per line
This is equivalent to generating 7 defective products. Therefore, when the laser oscillator 40 itself detects a miss shot,
By outputting the oscillation error signal S _M , the defective product can be easily removed without providing a defective product inspection process in the subsequent process.

If it is determined in step S4 that the oscillation error signal S _M is not output, it is determined whether the writing process is completed because the information writing is normally performed.

If the writing process is not completed, the process returns to step S1 and the processes of steps S1 to S5 are repeated until the process is completed. When the writing process is completed, the laser oscillator 40 is stopped, the label sticking machine 1 is stopped (step S6), and the process is ended.

On the other hand, if it is determined in step S4 that the oscillation miss signal S _M is output (see time t _{6 in} FIG. 4 (e)), the system controller 8 repeats the oscillation miss signal S twice. It is determined whether _M is output (step S7).

In the determination in step S7, if the oscillation failure signal S _M is output twice in succession, it is considered that the laser oscillator 40 has failed. Therefore, the operation of the laser oscillator 40 is stopped and the labeling machine 1 To stop. At the same time, a display device (not shown) displays a message indicating an abnormality to notify the operator.

If it is determined in step S7 that the single-shot oscillation error signal S _M is output, it is considered that the laser oscillator 40 is temporarily malfunctioning,
The reject signal S _R is output to the reject device 9 provided at the subsequent stage of the belt conveyor C that conveys the bottle B (step S8). As a result, the reject device 9 removes the corresponding product, that is, the product to which the label in which the information is not printed is attached in the heat-sensitive color development printing area 22 as a defective product.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
Since the label detection signal L _D , which is the output of the reflective sensor 45, is directly input to the laser oscillator 40, it is possible to significantly reduce the print deviation (about 0.3 mm or less). Further, since it is possible to easily detect whether or not the label 20 is held on the pallet 2 at the correct position by using the reflective sensor 45, malfunction does not occur. Further, when the label 20 is not held, the writing by the laser is not performed, so that wasteful power is not consumed and the pallet 2 holding the label 20 is not damaged by the laser irradiation.

Further, since the printing accuracy is improved, the heat-sensitive color printing area can be reduced, and the label manufacturing cost can be reduced. Further, even if a defective product is generated due to an oscillation error of the laser oscillator 40, it can be easily removed, and the product can be manufactured with high reliability. In addition, it is not necessary to install a print inspection machine in a subsequent process, which can significantly reduce the cost and save the space.

In the above embodiments, the case where printing is performed on a fixed type of label has been described. However, even when the type of label is changed, the reflective sensor is adapted to the label to be printed. If the threshold of is automatically set from the outside, it is possible to print on various labels.

Specifically, a threshold value may be set to an intermediate value between the reflectance of the palette and the reflectance of the heat-sensitive color printing area.

[0049]

According to the present invention, it is ensured that the label on which various information is to be written by the laser is at the predetermined writing position, and the label is at the predetermined writing position by promptly detecting by the sensor. In this case, the information writing operation is automatically performed, so that it is easy to control the label printing device and
There is no useless operation. In addition, printing can be performed at a correct printing position at high speed, and the occurrence of defective products can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a labeling machine.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a structure of a label.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a laser writing device.

FIG. 4 is a timing chart illustrating a label printing operation of the label sticking machine.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart illustrating a label printing operation of the label sticking machine.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram showing a configuration of a main part of a conventional labeling machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Labeling machine 2 ... Pallet 3 ... Cylinder 4 ... Glue roller 5 ... Label magazine 6 ... Laser writing device 7 ... Gripper 8 ... System controller 9 ... Rejection device 20 ... Label 21 ... Normal printing area 22 ... Thermal color printing area 22a ... Manufacturing time information 22b ... Lot number information 22c ... Manufacturing factory information 25 ... Substrate 26 ... Precoat layer 27 ... Aluminum deposition layer 28 ... Anchor coat layer 29 ... Pattern ink layer 30 ... Coloring ink layer 31 ... Overcoat layer

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (72) Inventor Naoyuki Nagae 6-26-1 Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Kirin Brewery Co., Ltd. (72) Shinichi Ogata 6-26-1 Jingumae Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Kirin Beer Incorporated (72) Inventor Toshiyuki Kiyonari 5-8-6-Higashi, Hasuda City, Saitama Prefecture

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A label printing apparatus for writing writing information preset in the information writing area with a laser beam to a label having an information writing area including a thermosensitive color-forming ink layer, wherein A label supply unit that sequentially supplies labels to predetermined writing positions, a sensor that determines whether the labels are present at the predetermined writing positions and outputs a label presence / absence signal, and a light source that emits the laser light. And a writing control means for controlling the light source to write the writing information to the label by using the laser light when the label is present at the predetermined writing position according to the label presence / absence signal. And a label printing apparatus characterized by including. 2. The label printing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sensor is a reflective sensor, and whether the reflectance of the obtained reflected light has a predetermined reflectance corresponding to the information writing area. A label printing apparatus, which outputs the label presence / absence signal based on