US3659522A - Automatic machine for silk-screen printing on filled bottles of flexible material with flat faces - Google Patents

Abstract

Improvements in machines for silk-screen printing on filled bottles of flexible material with flat faces, in which the bottle is compressed transversely during the printing operation in order to stiffen the face to be printed.

Description

D United States Patent [151 3,659,522

Dubuit 1 51 May 2, 1972 54] AUTOMATIC MACHINE FOR SILK- 2,602,393 7/1952 Hirschey ..101/37 SCREEN PRINTING 0 FILLED 2,818,799 1/1958 Hayward ..53/131 x 3,024,722 3/1962 1311115011, S1. 8t 8]... ..i0]/40 AT FACES 3,072,044 l/1963 Jones ..101/35 WITH 3,078,792 2/1963 KefStm'L... 101/124 x 3,090,300 5/1963 Dubuit ..10l/123 [72] Inventor gzg' g zl's g 60 Rue 3,267,842 8/1966 Resnick et a1. ..101/40 3,302,559 2/1967 Va1yi 101/36 [22] Filed: Sept. 19, 1969 3,524,295 8/1970 Spaulding ..53/l4 pp N03 859,444 3,221,643 12/1965 Rudolph et a1 ..l01/115 X FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS [3 F r ign Application Priority Data 595,772 4/1934 Germany ..53/131 Oct. 31, 1968 France ..172134 Primary Examiner ,Roben E Pumey Assistant Examiner-Clifford D. Crowder [52] [1.8. CI ..l01/35, 53/131, 101/126 Atmmey Young & Thompson [51] Int. Cl. ..B41f 17/24 [58] Field of Search ..101/3537, 123, 57 ABSTRACT Improvements in machmes for silk-screen printing on filled 56] References Cited bottles of flexible material with flat faces, in which the bottle is compressed transversely during the printing operation in order to stiffen the face to be printed.

9 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patented May 2, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 mm at 2 Q [00/5 6/4 aaer 3060/;-

Patented May 2, 1972 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 m ul AUTOMATIC MACHINE FOR SILK-SCREEN PRINTING ON FILLED BOTTLES OF FLEXIBLE MATERIAL WITH FLAT FACES The present invention relates to silk-screen printing on bottles, filled and of flexible material, with flat faces.

The technique of silk-screen printing is well-known; it consists of passing the printing ink by means of a squeegee through a screen of silk or other material, of which some of the meshes are free and represent the design to be printed, while the others are closed.

Automatic machines which utilize a technique of this kind thus generally comprise a screen-carrier and a squeegee carrier, both of which are given a vertical lifting movement necessary for the presentation and withdrawal of the objects to be printed, and which are further actuated with respect to each other in a relative horizontal reciprocating movement necessary for the printing itself; the screen-carrier may be fixed and the squeegee-carrier may be movable, or conversely the squeegee-carrier may be fixed and the screen-carrier movable.

Up to the present time, bottles of so-called plastic flexible material were printed while empty, both in the case of bottles with flat faces, cylindrical bottles, conical bottles or oval bottles.

In all cases, the precaution was taken of blowing, compressed air into the interior of the bottle at the moment of printing, which rendered the wall of the bottle to be printed sufficiently rigid to receive its correct printing.

Now, there is being developed at the present time a technique in which plastic bottles are filled and closed immediately after they have been blown.

Machines for silk-screen printing utilized up to the present day are therefore inoperative in this case, since as the bottles are filled and closed, it is impossible to blow air into them at the time of printing while moreover this operation cannot be carried out correctly.

The present invention has for its object a machine which enables this drawback to be obviated.

According to the invention, an automatic machine for printing with a silk screen, of the kind comprising a screen-carrier and a squeegee-carrier each actuated with a vertical lifting movement and further actuated with respect to each other in a relative horizontal reciprocating movement, is characterized in that, for printing filled bottles of flexible material with flat faces, it comprises, in synchronism with the said movements, on the one hand a forward-movement means adapted to cause the bottles to move step-by-step under the silk screen, the said bottles lying down flat, and on the other hand, a compression means adapted to apply lateral pressure to each bottle at the time of printing.

It is this compression, a characteristic feature of the invention, which provides a stiffening effect sufficient to permit correct printing and which is fairly analogous to that previously obtained by inflation.

According to a particular form of embodiment, the screencarrier is horizontally movable in a to-and-fro movement, while the squeegee-carrier is fixed, and the associated forward-movement means comprises at least one moving finger fixed on the said screen-carrier and co-operating with a guiding passage in which the said finger pushes forward the bottles to be printed one by one, this guiding passage being formed by two walls which come gradually closer together over at least part of their length, thereby ensuring the desired compression of the bottles.

At each cycle of the machine, a bottle is engaged in the guiding passage; pushed by the upstream bottle or bottles engaged in a similar manner in this passage by the moving finger during the course of the following cycles, it progressively arrives directly underneath the silk screen and is driven with this latter to receive the desired impression while it is compressed laterally by the walls of the said passage.

This constitutes a simple and effective solution, economic in its utilization and advantageously easy to fit on machines already in existence.

The characteristic features and advantages of the invention will be further brought out in the description which follows below, given by way of example with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings, in which:

F161 is a plan view of a machine according to the invention;

F162 is a view of this machine in elevation;

FIG.3 is a lateral view of the machine;

FIGA shows a detail of FIGJ to a larger scale;

FIG.5 is a view in cross-section taken along the line V-V of FIGA, for a first position of a bottle to be printed;

FIG.6 is a view in cross-section similar to FIGS, for a second position of the said bottle;

F1G.7 is a view similar to that of FIG.6, and relates to an alternative form of embodiment;

FIGSB and 9 are views similar to that of P164, and relate respectively each to an alternative form of construction.

For the sake of cleamess, certain parts of the machine according to the invention have been eliminated from certain of these figures, so that they cannot always be found on all the figures.

In accordance with the form of embodiment shown in these figures, the invention has been applied to a silk-screen printing machine of the same type as that described in U.S. Pat. No.3,090,300.

A machine of this type will only be described briefly in the present text.

It comprises essentially two horizontal fixed rods 2, 2' and two moving horizontal rods 3, 3' coupled together by articulated arms 4, 4 and 5, 5', and forming with these arms an assembly of deformable parallelograrns.

On these rods there are slidably mounted, on the one hand a screen-carrier l0 and on the other hand, a squeegee-carrier 11.

The screen-carrier is constituted by two vertical arms 12, 13, slidably mounted on the rods 3, 3' and carrying a double horizontal guide-bar 14. This double guide-bar 14 carries in its turn, in a manner adjustable in position, horizontal arms 15, 15 on which a screen can be fitted. A screen of this kind has been shown diagrammatically in chain-dotted lines in FIG.1.

As can be seen from FlG.1, the double guidebar 14 is further rigidly fixed to a driving unit 16, the function of which will be explained later.

The squeegee-carrier 11 comprises a horizontal arm 17 (FlG.1) slidably mounted on the rods 2, 3; this arm 17 is extended towards the front, where it is articulated on a vertical arm 19(FIG.3). This vertical arm 18 is articulated at its lower portion on an arm 19 slidably mounted on the rod 3', and carries a horizontal arm 20 on which a squeegee 21 can be mounted in an adjustable position.

The general movement of the machine is effected by means of a motor 25 (F162), which drives through a transmission 26, the input shaft of a speed-reduction gear 27, which comprises two output shafts. On one of these output shafts, at the rear of the machine, is keyed a pinion 28 which drives, by means of a chain 29, a pinion 30 which is keyed on the main shaft 31 of the machine.

On this shaft 31 are keyed a cam 32 and a cam 33 (see FIGJ).

As described below, the cam 32 ensures the lifting move ment of the screen-carrier and the squeegee-carrier. In order to do this, a substantially horizontal lever 34 is pivoted at 35 on the frame of the machine and carries a roller 36 held in contact with the periphery of the cam 32. At its other extremity, the lever 34 is coupled by a tie-rod 38 to the lever 5, extended towards the rear for that purpose.

The profile of the cam 32 is such that the lever 34 is alternately lowered and lifted, which causes an alternate lowering and lifting of the movable rods 3, 3' with respect to the fixed rods 2, 2 and therefore a lowering and a lifting of the screen-carrier 10, and the squeegee-carrier 1 l.

As described below, the cam 33 effects the to-and-fro movement of a trolley 40 (1 10.1), slidably mounted on the rod 2' and capable of being coupled by a fork 41 either to the driving unit 16 of the screen-carrier 10, as shown, or to the arm 17 of the squeegee-carrier 11.

For the reciprocating drive of the trolley 40, the cam 33 cooperates with two rollers 43, 43' carried by a horizontal guidebar 44 mounted so as to slide longitudinally in a fixed block 45, and this guide-bar 44 carries a roller 143 which cooperates with a lever 145, pivotally mounted at 146 and coupled by a crank-arm 46 to the trolley 40.

According to the invention, the frame of the machine is provided with a table 50 on which pass the bottles B to be printed. These bottles are of flexible material, and they are closed after being filled with a contents of any kind. In addition, these bottles have flat faces; in the example shown, they have a square transverse section.

The travel of the bottles B on the table 50 is effected successively by means of a supply conveyor 51, a guiding passage 52,

an evacuation conveyor 53 and a collecting table 54 (see FlG.1).

In accordance with the form of embodiment shown, the conveyor 51 comprises two parallel driving chains 55, 55' each passing over two pinions 56, 56 (see F163). The pinions 56 which are keyed on a common shaft 57, are driving pinions, the said shaft 57 carrying (see FlG.2) a pinion 58 driven by the front outputshaft of the reduction gear 27 through the intermediary successively of a chain 59, a bevel gear 60, a chain 61 and a pinion 62.

The chains 55, 55 extend substantially perpendicularly to the rods 2, 2 and 3, 3' of the machine and are provided at regular intervals with driving lugs 65.

As can be more clearly seen from FIG.2, these chains 55, 55 travel on each side of a plate 66 on which the bottles B slide when they are impelled by the lugs .65 of the said chains, the bottles B being guided laterally in this movement by two vertical parallel end plates 67, 67 and being laid down flat, transversely with respect to the chains 55, 55.

The guiding passage 52 extends parallel to the rods 2, 2' an 3, 3' of the machine, directly below the screen-carrier 10.

This guiding passage is constituted by two vertical guiding end-plates 68, 68', the front plate 68 being interrupted at the outlet of the supply conveyor 51, as is more clearly seen from FlG.l, and being provided at this outlet with a bent-back extremity 69 forming an enlarged mouth for the passage 52. The end- plates 68, 68 preferably come closer to each other in the direction away from this mouth, until they are arranged with respect to each other at a distance which is just equal to or slightly less than the width of a bottle B.

The evacuation conveyor 53 is a rolling belt arranged in the extension of the guiding passage 52. It passes over two drums 70, .70', the drum 70 being driven by the front output shaft of the reduction gear 27 through the intennediary successively of a chain 71 and a pinion 72 (see FIG.2).

At the extremity of this travelling belt 53 an abutment plate 73 is arranged transversely, in co-operation with a double-acting pneumatic jack 75 which is arranged upstream of the abutment 73, and the rod 76 of which carries a push-plate 77. The control electro-valve of this jack (not shown) is controlled by a micro-contract acting in dependence on a cam 78 keyed on the rear extremity of the general driving shaft 31 of the machine (see FlG.l).

In addition, according to the invention, the double guidebar 14 of the screen-carrier trolley is provided with an additional arm 80. This arm itself carries a forward-movement finger 81 arranged in the axis of the guiding passage 52.

The installation is completed by two burners, one 90 arranged transversely above the supply means 51, the other 91 arranged transversely above the evacuation belt 53.

The operation of this machine will now be described.

For the description of this operation, it will be assumed that,

as shown, the screen-carrier 10 which is movable in a to-andfro horizontal motion, due to the coupling of its block 16 to are;

the trolley 40, and the squeegee-carrier 1 1 are in the lowered position. It will also be assumed that in the axis of the guiding passage 52, the bottles B1, B2, B3 and B4 are successively arranged end-to-end lying flat, the bottle Bl having already been printed and the bottle B2 being about to be printed, and that the moving finger 81 is in the immediate vicinity of the bottom of the bottle B4.

The screen 1 10, FIG. 1 is in contact with the bottle B2.

The trolley 40 then drives it horizontally in the direction of the arrow 100 of FlG.1, while the squeegee 21 remains fixed. During the course of this movement of the screen, the forward-movement finger 81 pushes the bottle B4 and therefore the bottles B3 and B2, so that this latter remainsfixed with respect to the screen.

During such an accompanying movement of the screen and the bottle B2, the ink forced by the squeegee 21 passes through the meshes of the screen and thus effects the printing desired.

During this printing operation, the bottle B2 is strongly clamped laterally by the side-plates 68, 68' of the guiding passage 52, so that it offers a relatively rigid surface to the screen, in a similar manner to that which takes place in the usual machines in which the bottles are internally inflated for that purpose.

As regards the bottle B1 which had been previously printed. this is pushed by the bottle B2 on to the belt 53 which evacuates it in the direction of the table 54 as will be described later.

At the end of the printing movement, the screen-carrier and the squeegee-carrier nove upwards and the screen-carrier 10 is returned to the rear with a movement in the opposite direction to that of the arrow 100. I

During this return movement, the lugs 65 of the supply conveyor 51 bring a fresh bottle into application against the rear side-plate 68 of the guiding passage 52 to replace the bottle B4 which has been previously introduced into the mouth 69 of this passage. I

As it passed by, the burner has treated this bottle following the known technique of treatment of surfaces of synthetic material so as to prepare them for printing, and at the same time it has eliminated any water which could soil the surface to be printed.

At the end of its return movement, the screen-carrier 10 is again lowered and during the course of this movement, the moving finger 81 comes into place behind the bottle which has taken the place of the bottle B4. At the same time, the squeegee-carrier l 1 is also lowered.

A fresh printing impression is then possible, this operation being applied in this case to the bottle B3.

The bottles B carried away by the evacuation belt 53 pass directly under the burner 91 which effects the drying of the printing which has just been carried out; these bottles then come into contact with the abutment-plate 73 arranged at the extremity of the evacuation belt.

The jack 75 which is synchronized with all the parts of the machine by the cam 78, then comes into action, its piston 77 pushing the bottles successively one by one on to the table 54, from which they are evacuated or transferred by any desired means.

To facilitate understanding of the invention, FlG.4 shows to a larger scale a detail of FlG.l. It can be seen that in accordance with the form of application shown, the distance L1 between the sideplates 68, 68' is slightly less than the width L2 of a bottle.

FlG.5 is a cross-section taken along the line VV of FIGA, passing through a bottle which has not yet been introduced into the passage 52.

FIG.6 is a similar view after the bottle has passed into this passage. It can be seen that the compression effect applied by the walls 68, 68 results in a stifiening effect of the surface of this bottle to be printed.

A similar effect is obtained if, in an alternative form, shown in FIG.7, the wall 68' is replaced by a piston 168 actuated by a jack 169, or by any other mechanical compression means.

FlG.8 is similar to FIG.4 and relates to an alternative form in which the bent-back portion 69 of the passage 52 is coupled to the side-plate 68 by an oblique section 69.

FlG.9 is similar to F164 and illustrates an alternative form, in which, for the simultaneous printing of several bottles by means of a single screen and a single squeegee, the machine is provided with a plurality of parallel guiding passages 52A, 52B, 52C, each respectively associated with a forwardmovement finger (not shown) carried by the said screen.

It will of course be understood that the present invention is not limited to the form of construction described and shown, but covers all alternative forms of construction.

In particular, the presentation of the bottles underneath the screen for the purpose of printing could be effected by means of a continuous belt, parallel or perpendicular to the axis of the machine, by means of a lifting means, the upward movement of which is carried out at each cycle of the machine, or by the aid of any other appropriate means.

If this presentation is effected by an advancing finger as described, this finger, instead of being fixed to the screen and being lowered with it, could be carried by a conveyor mounted on the table of the machine, in such manner as to be withdrawn at the end of its travel and return to the rear to engage another bottle.

Instead of the printing being effected by means of a moving screen and a fixed squeegee, this printing could also be made by means of a fixed screen and a moving squeegee.

It has been seen that for this purpose it is only necessary to free the driving unit 16 of the screen-carrier from the driving trolley 40 and to couple this driving trolley to the arm 17 of the squeegee-carrier 1 1, it being understood that in this case the moving finger 81 is replaced by any other appropriate forward movement means adapted to push the bottles while the screen-carrier and the squeegee-carrier are lifted, and while the squeegee-carrier carries out its return movement.

The relative horizontal movement of the screen-carrier and the squeegee-carrier can be effected in any manner other than that described above, and in particular it may be actuated by pneumatic, electro-mechanical or like means.

What I claim is:

1. An automatic silk-screen printing machine for printing on filled flexible containers having flat faces, comprising a printing station including a silk-screen printing mechanism, means for step-wise feeding said containers resting on one of their sides to said printing station, and compression means comprising a pair of walls spaced apart a distance less than the uncompressed width of the containers that compress the container between them and that engage substantial areas of the compressed container on opposite sides of the compressed containers and rigidify the face of the containers to be printed both before the containers arrive in the printing station and during the printing on the containers, said compression means being independent of the printing mechanism and acting in a direction transverse to the effective direction of operation of the printing mechanism.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 said walls being convergent in the direction of movement of said containers over at least a part of the length of said walls.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and means for moving one of said walls transversely of the path of movement of the containers.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for feeding comprises a moving finger carried by a conveyor mounted on the frame of said machine.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a supply conveyor for supplying containers to said means for feeding, the direction of movement of said conveyor being perpendicular to that of said means for feeding.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the silk-screen printing mechanism comprises a screen and a squeegee movable relative to one another, and wherein the movement of the squeegee relative to the screen is coordinated with said stepwise movement.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 6 wherein the screen 15 horizontally reciprocably movable and said squeegee is fixed, and said means for feeding comprises at least one finger fixed relative to a screen and cooperating with a guiding passage in which said finger pushes the containers to be printed.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein said guiding passage is extended by an evacuation conveyor.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein, for the simultaneous printing of a plurality of containers there are provided a plurality of parallel guiding passages, each associated with means for feeding.

Claims (9)

1. An automatic silk-screen printing machine for printing on filled flexible containers having flat faces, comprising a printing station including a silk-screen printing mechanism, means for step-wise feeding said containers resting on one of their sides to said printing station, and compression means comprising a pair of walls spaced apart a distance less than the uncompressed width of the containers that compress the container beTween them and that engage substantial areas of the compressed container on opposite sides of the compressed containers and rigidify the face of the containers to be printed both before the containers arrive in the printing station and during the printing on the containers, said compression means being independent of the printing mechanism and acting in a direction transverse to the effective direction of operation of the printing mechanism.

2. A machine as claimed in claim 1 said walls being convergent in the direction of movement of said containers over at least a part of the length of said walls.

3. A machine as claimed in claim 1 and means for moving one of said walls transversely of the path of movement of the containers.

4. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein means for feeding comprises a moving finger carried by a conveyor mounted on the frame of said machine.

5. A machine as claimed in claim 1 further comprising a supply conveyor for supplying containers to said means for feeding, the direction of movement of said conveyor being perpendicular to that of said means for feeding.

6. A machine as claimed in claim 1 wherein the silk-screen printing mechanism comprises a screen and a squeegee movable relative to one another, and wherein the movement of the squeegee relative to the screen is coordinated with said step-wise movement.

7. A machine as claimed in claim 6 wherein the screen is horizontally reciprocably movable and said squeegee is fixed, and said means for feeding comprises at least one finger fixed relative to a screen and cooperating with a guiding passage in which said finger pushes the containers to be printed.

8. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein said guiding passage is extended by an evacuation conveyor.

9. A machine as claimed in claim 7 wherein, for the simultaneous printing of a plurality of containers there are provided a plurality of parallel guiding passages, each associated with means for feeding.

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