Classifications

• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D77/00—Packages formed by enclosing articles or materials in preformed containers, e.g. boxes, cartons, sacks or bags
  • B65D77/003—Articles enclosed in rigid or semi-rigid containers, the whole being wrapped
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B11/00—Wrapping, e.g. partially or wholly enclosing, articles or quantities of material, in strips, sheets or blanks, of flexible material
  • B65B11/06—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths
  • B65B11/08—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths in a single straight path
  • B65B11/10—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths in a single straight path to fold the wrappers in tubular form about contents
  • B65B11/105—Wrapping articles, or quantities of material, by conveying wrapper and contents in common defined paths in a single straight path to fold the wrappers in tubular form about contents the axis of the tube being parallel to the conveying direction
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65B—MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGING ARTICLES OR MATERIALS; UNPACKING
  • B65B61/00—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages
  • B65B61/02—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages for perforating, scoring, slitting, or applying code or date marks on material prior to packaging
  • B65B61/025—Auxiliary devices, not otherwise provided for, for operating on sheets, blanks, webs, binding material, containers or packages for perforating, scoring, slitting, or applying code or date marks on material prior to packaging for applying, e.g. printing, code or date marks on material prior to packaging
• • B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
  • B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
  • B65D—CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS, e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES, DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKAGES
  • B65D2203/00—Decoration means, markings, information elements, contents indicators

Definitions

• This invention relates to a method of printing and applying sleeves used in packaging.
• the invention also relates to apparatus for use in the method, and to packages formed with sleeves.
• the present invention provides a method of applying a sleeve to an article, comprising: providing a web of a heat-sealable material; forming on the web a series of portions each corresponding to a sleeve to be applied, and each comprising at least one printed area; severing sequential portions from the web; applying each severed portion around an article with two opposed edges overlapping; and applying heat to seal the two opposed edges together.
• the heat sealable material is clear, and each portion comprises at least one printed area and at least one area left clear to form a window, the printing comprising printing a base colour on selected areas of the portion, and overprinting the base colour with desired text and/or images. This permits one or more windows to be formed in any desired area of the sleeve, giving a high degree of design flexibility.
• the printing may suitably be flexographic printing, preferably UV flexographic printing.
• the printing may optionally use water based inks, which are more environmentally-friendly by virtue of being biodegradable.
• the base colour is preferably dense white, particularly where an appearance resembling paper labels is desired, and may be applied by plate cell patterning to give maximum coatweight and opacity.
• Additional printing may be performed on-the-fly in association with the severing and wrapping steps, for example in order to print catch weights.
• the web is reeled after printing, optionally preceded by trimming, and subsequently unreeled and applied in a separate operation, typically at a location remote from the printing location.
• the printing step preferably includes the printing of one or more index marks on each printed sieeve portion, for use in controlling severing and application of the portion.
• One suitable material is polypropylene, preferably biaxially oriented polypropylene copolymer film.
• the thickness of the film may typically be between 48 microns to 90 microns.
• the film will typically be clear or white, although preferably clear.
• Other suitable materials include turns made from cornstarch or corn flour. The material should be heat-sealable and may typically be around 40 microns thick.
• the film will typically be clear or white, although preferably. clear.
• Heat may be applied by radiant heat, or by the application of a heated presser bar.
• a further aspect of the invention provides a reeled web of clear, heat- sealable material formed by a series of identical portions each of which has part of its area printed with a base colour and overprinted with selected text and/or graphics, part of each portion being left unprinted to form one or more windows.
• the invention provides apparatus for use with the web defined in the preceding paragraph, the apparatus comprising a reel stand for holding and unreeling a reeled web, a guillotine for severing the web into portions, an applicator for applying each portion around an article with two opposed edges of the portion overlapping, and heating means for applying heat to the opposed edges.
• the apparatus also includes an optical reader for detecting index marks printed on the web, and control means responsive to the optical reader to controi the guiiiotining position.
• the apparatus may further include a printer for printing additional information, such as a catch weight, on each portion.
• additional information such as a catch weight
• the additional information is printed before guillotining.
• Rg. 1 is a perspective view, of a sleeve applied to a packaging tray; .
• Fig. 2 shows the sleeve of Fig. 1 before application, with various forms of possible print area;
• Fig. 3 is a schematic side view illustrating the application of sleeves to trays.
• a sleeve 10 is applied around a packaging tray 12. As seen in Fig. 2, the sleeve 10 has a top portion 14, two side portions 16, and two base portions 18 which are overlapped when applied.
• the sleeve 10 can be printed in a variety of areas as seen in Fig. 2, and a print area 20 can include one or more windows 22.
• the sleeve is formed from a clear, heat sealable plastic film.
• the preferred material is BOPP (bi-axially oriented polypropylene) co-extruded film of food grade, both sides heat sealable and one side coated for UV flexographic printing, and formulated with antistatic and antislip additives. Such materials are well known and commercially available. Other suitable film materials and printing methods may be used. Alternatively, the material may be a food grade film made from corn flour or cornstarch, which offers the additional benefit of being biodegradable after disposal.
• Fig. 2 shows a number of possible print layouts. At (a), only the top 24 is printed, with a window 22 left clear, (b) shows the same plus one side 26 printed leaving clear windows 28. (c) adds print to the adjacent half-base 30, while (d) additionally has print on the other side 32 (with windows 34) and the other half-base 36. Many other layouts are possible. The printing of these areas is carried out by applying a base colour over the whole print area and then printing the desired text and/or graphics on the base colour.
• the most suitable base colour is a dense white, which is applied in the preferred embodiment by plate cell patterning using appropriately formulated inks.
• the remainder of the desired print is then applied by standard UV flexography which may typically be up to eight colours plus varnish.
• the inks and varnishes employed may optionally be water- based, thereby providing a degree of biodegradability after disposal.
• the printing is carried out on a continuous web supplied as a reel which is passed through a suitable flexo press in the usual way.
• the printed web could be utilised straight from the press, but it is more economical and convenient for these to be separated. Accordingly, in the preferred method, the printed web is re-reeled onto a suitable carrier such as a cardboard tube.
• a suitable carrier such as a cardboard tube.
• the sides of the web may be trimmed prior to re-reeling. This can be used to reduce a stock web to a desired smaller size, and also to obtain a sleeve with print extending right to the edge.
• FIG. 3 there is shown schematically an apparatus for using the printed and re-reeled film web 40 to form sleeves around articles, in this examples trays 42 which will typically contain meat or other food products.
• the web is unreeled at 44 and aligned with trays 42 moving along a conveyor or the like.
• a guillotine 46 severs the web into sleeve portions 48.
• the web 44 may have index marks among the print matter, which can be detected optically to control the positioning of the guillotine relative to the print area.
• Each sleeve portion 48 is wrapped around a respective tray, for example by being fed over a smooth forming plate with the loose ends being ploughed around the tray, and the overlapped ends are sealed together at 50 by heating, for example by application of a heat seal bar 52.
• the apparatus may optionally include a printer, such as an inkjet printer, for adding package-specific information such as catchweight or best- before date.
• a printer such as an inkjet printer, for adding package-specific information such as catchweight or best- before date.
• a second printer could be used to print on the reverse of the film, for example so as to be visible through a window area. Where such fly printing is used, the preferred sequence is print-guillotine-apply, such that the printing is performed on the web before severing.
• the invention enables sleeves to be provided which have wide flexibility of printed and clear areas, including windows within print areas.
• the use of plastic film provides sleeves with high transparency and gloss, and resistance to deterioration from environmental and storage effects.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• Wrappers (AREA)
• Lining Or Joining Of Plastics Or The Like (AREA)
• Making Paper Articles (AREA)
• Auxiliary Devices For And Details Of Packaging Control (AREA)
• Measuring Pulse, Heart Rate, Blood Pressure Or Blood Flow (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (4)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=37499708

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (5)

Cited By (3)

Citations (13)

• 2006
  • 2006-09-18 AT AT06794544T patent/ATE465088T1/de not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2006-09-18 WO PCT/GB2006/003456 patent/WO2007031784A1/en active Application Filing
  • 2006-09-18 EP EP06794544A patent/EP1937556B1/de active Active
  • 2006-09-18 DE DE602006013856T patent/DE602006013856D1/de active Active
  • 2006-09-18 DK DK06794544.4T patent/DK1937556T3/da active

Patent Citations (13)

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