WO2009124843A1

WO2009124843A1 - Laser device and method for applying bar codes to objects

Info

Publication number: WO2009124843A1
Application number: PCT/EP2009/053492
Authority: WO
Inventors: Kathrin Schaaf; Michael Wanjek
Original assignee: Mühlbauer Ag
Priority date: 2008-04-11
Filing date: 2009-03-25
Publication date: 2009-10-15
Also published as: TW200947308A; EP2259894A1; DE102008018486B4; DE102008018486A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a laser device and a method for applying bar codes (8, 13) to objects, in particular personalization documents (6), wherein the laser device (1, 2) issues at least two laser beams (3, 4) and each bar code (8, 13) is made up of a plurality of laser inscription lines (12a, 12b), wherein a first portion (9, 14) of the plurality of laser inscription lines (12a, 12b) can be applied by the first laser beam (3) and a second portion (10, 15) of the plurality of laser inscription lines (12a, 12b) can be applied by the second laser beam (4) simultaneously.

Description

Laser apparatus and method for applying bar codes to objects

description

The invention relates to a laser device for applying barcodes to objects, in particular personalization documents, wherein the laser device emits at least two laser beams and each barcode is applied from a plurality of laser inscription lines, according to the preamble of claim 1. There is also a method for applying Barcodes on objects, in particular personalization documents according to the preamble of claim 9 shown.

Traditionally, lasers have been used to inscribe various materials, such as materials for personalization documents, such as by ablation of document substrate surfaces. In this case, both font data and image data and the like data can be applied to the personalization document by means of a laser, wherein a change in the labeling time can be influenced by changing the laser parameters relevant for the application of the data.

In particular, in devices for personalizing a large number of personalization documents, it is hereby desirable that the inscription times or, in general, the times for applying the data are kept very low in order to be able to provide as many personalization documents as possible per unit of time with data. So far, several lasers are used for this purpose, which are arranged parallel to one another and carry out a parallel processing with regard to the application of data to a plurality of personalization documents to be personalized. However, this requires that the high number preferably on a common conveyor belt steadily moving personalization documents in parallel workstations, each of which has at least one laser are redirected. This requires a high design cost of the entire personalization system and high production costs.

In particular, when applying barcodes by means of laser beams emitted by a laser, a high throughput of the overall device is desired, each barcode having a plurality of barcode bars of different widths. Depending on the width of the individual bar code bars, it is necessary that a laser beam for the application of a single bar code bar has to be moved back and forth or up and down several times in order to use a barcode bar with the aid of a plurality of laser marking lines obtained therefrom with a given width. Accordingly, a complete bar code is composed of a plurality of laser marking lines or a plurality of vectors, which are arranged either immediately adjacent to each other without gaps, to thereby obtain a bar code bar with a certain width representing a plurality of laser marking lines or one Barcode to be arranged with the width of exactly one laser marking line.

Such barcodes are time consuming in their application, since each laser marking line must be generated by the laser beam. As a result, only a limited number of barcodes can be applied within a unit of time, and thus only a limited number of items, such as personalization documents, can pass through the device.

Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a laser apparatus for applying bar codes to articles that provide high throughput of articles to be traversed to the laser device and a method of applying bar codes to articles at a high throughput.

This object is achieved by the device side by the features of claim 1 and process side by the features of claim 9. An essential point of the invention is that in a laser device for applying bar codes to objects, in particular personalization documents, in which the laser device radiates at least two laser beams and each barcode is constructed from a plurality of laser marking lines, a first portion of the plurality of laser marking lines through the first laser beam and a second portion of the plurality of laser marking lines can be applied by the second laser beam at the same time. Such a simultaneous application of at least two portions of the plurality of laser marking lines advantageously makes it possible for at least two laser beams of a common or several lasers to simultaneously apply a bar code in its shape and thus ideally to halve the actual processing time of the laser apparatus.

Advantageously, the first laser beam is associated with a first laser and the second laser beam is associated with a second laser arranged next to the first laser. This makes it possible for the first laser to be assigned a first object with a first barcode and at the same time the second laser for a second article with a second barcode. For example, if the articles are disposed on a continuous conveyor belt, the conveyor belt may, with a short stop on the first laser, allow the first article to be provided with a first portion of the bar code by the first laser beam while the second laser beam may provide a second one Proportion of a further barcode, which is arranged on a further object, applies, wherein the further or the second object has already received in the previous step, the first portion of the laser marking lines of the barcode.

Alternatively, the first and the second laser or - if it is a common laser - the first and the second laser beam of a common laser together a single object to be assigned, on which the barcode is applied with its first and its second portion at the same time.

According to a preferred embodiment, the first and second portions are the same size. Alternatively, the first and second portions may be approximately equal in size with a selectable difference in the number of laser marking lines, with the difference being kept as small / minimal as possible. In a sequence-like count of the laser marking lines of the bar code, the first portion of the plurality of laser marking lines includes the few laser marking lines with the odd numbers and the second portion of the plurality of laser marking lines those even letter laser marking lines. As a result, every second laser marking line is applied by a second laser beam and each laser marking line between them is applied by the first laser beam.

As an alternative to such a division of the laser marking lines into two parts, the first part of the plurality of laser marking lines may include the locally at least approximately half of the laser marking lines of the bar code. The second portion then includes the locally approximately half of the laser marking lines of the barcode. Thus, a division of the barcode takes place in a first and a second half, each of which is labeled by a laser beam associated here.

In this case, the local division of the barcode into the first and the second portion is preferably arranged between two barcode bars so that the barcode arranged to the left of it in the width direction of the barcode is completely completely surrounded by the first laser beam and the barcode arranged to the right of this division bar regardless of how wide the bar code is, how many laser marking lines are still necessary for the production of the bar code in order to fully apply it.

In a method for applying the bar codes to the objects, in particular the personalization documents, by means of the at least two laser beams of the laser device, each barcode being constructed from the plurality of laser marking lines, a first portion of the plurality of laser marking lines is simultaneously detected by the first laser beam and a second portion of the plurality of laser marking lines are applied by the second laser beam.

In such a method, when the laser marking lines are numbered, the first laser beam will apply those laser marking lines having the odd number, and at the same time, the second laser beam will apply those even laser marking lines. As an alternative, the first laser beam may apply the localized at least approximately first half and the second laser beam at least approximately the second half at the same time.

The first portion of the plurality of laser marking lines for a first bar code can be applied by the first laser beam of the first laser of the laser device arranged at a first location, while the second portion of the plurality of laser marking lines for a second bar code is applied by the second laser beam of the second Laser of the laser device, which is arranged at a second location is applied.

Further advantageous embodiments will become apparent from the dependent claims.

Advantages and expediencies can be found in the following description in conjunction with the drawing. Hereby show:

1 shows a schematic side view of a laser device according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 shows a top view of a bar code together with an enlarged detail view; FIG.

3 is a plan view of a schematic representation of the division of a barcode into two parts, each of which is applied to the document by a laser, according to an embodiment of the invention, and FIG

4 shows a plan view of the division of a barcode into two parts, each of which is applied by a laser, according to a second embodiment of the invention.

In Fig. 1 is a schematic representation of a laser device according to the present invention is shown. This illustration shows that the laser device has a first laser 1 and a second laser 2, which are arranged one behind the other along the transport direction 7 of a conveyor belt 5. The first laser 1 transmits a first laser beam 3 and the second laser 2 emits a second laser beam 4.

On the conveyor belt 5 individual personalization documents 6 are arranged in rows whose surface should be labeled by means of the laser beams 3, 4 with a bar code.

A personalization document 6a is labeled with a first portion of laser marking lines of the bar code to be produced by means of the laser beam 3, while a second personalization document 6b is provided with a second portion of the laser marking lines for the bar code by means of the laser beam 4.

For example, a complete barcode can consist of 260 vectors which are output with the two lasers 1, 2, such a production process of a barcode in the conventional sense, ie when only one laser beam is used to apply the entire barcode, a laser process time of, for example, approx 0.83 s needed.

In the inventive use of a total of two lasers 1, 2, the number of vectors to be applied or laser marking lines on both laser beams 3, 4 are equally divided by the first portion of laser marking lines of the first laser beam 3 and the second portion of the laser marking lines of the second Laser beam 4 is applied.

Such a division has the consequence that, for example, 130 vectors are applied as the first component by the first laser beam 3 to the document 6a, while the second 130 vectors are simultaneously applied to the document 6b by the laser beam 4. As soon as the document 6a has reached the second laser beam 4 by stepwise and / or continuous movement of the conveyor belt 5 in the direction of the arrow 7, this document 6a likewise applies the second component, ie the second 130 vectors or laser marking lines, to the document. so that after passing through both lasers 1, 2 each document has a completely applied barcode. To illustrate the effect of such a division of the laser marking lines to be applied on two or more lasers, it is shown with reference to the following tables with two examples, how much such a division ("barcode division") over a conventional application ("without barcode division ") on the throughput and the total time of a device, which as a secondary time has other processes independent of the laser process time affects.

Table 1 :

Without barcode sharing:

Table 2:

With barcode sharing:

The two Tables 1 and 2 show that in a conventional production method as shown in Table 1, a laser process time of 0.83 s is to be scheduled for a plot of 1 x 260 vectors. As an auxiliary time for the other time-consuming transport movements and the like, 0.6 s is to be estimated and thus results in a plot of 260 vectors according to Example 1, a total time of 1, 43 s, which at a throughput of 2517 with a barcode to be provided objects per Hour leads. In Example 2, 148 vectors or laser marking lines would result in a laser process runtime of 0.5 s, and thus for a total time of 1.1 s, a throughput of 3273 units per hour (uph) would result.

In Table 2, on the other hand, a division of the applied laser marking lines in a first portion and a second portion, each portion of which is applied with separate laser beams has been performed. This results in a breakdown of the 260 vectors listed in Example 1 on two equal proportions ä 130 vectors. This results in a halving of the laser process time from 0.83 s to 0.415 s. This results in a total run time of 1.015 s and a throughput of 3547 uph.

In example 2, halving the number of vectors to 2 × 74 would halve the laser process time to 0.25 s and thus allow a throughput of 4235 uph for a total run time of 0.85 s.

It is clear from a comparison of the total time and throughput values of Tables 1 and 2 that machine throughput increase of up to 41% is possible over the conventional application method.

FIG. 2 again shows a barcode 8, as it is commonly used. In accordance with the reference numeral 8a a detail of an enlarged representation of the bar code 8 is reproduced. This sectional view shows that the bar code bars 8b, 8c, 8d and 8e may well have different bar code bar widths, wherein each bar code bar from a plurality of laser marking lines, preferably extending from top to bottom or along the Longitudinal side of a bar code bar run, composed.

In Fig. 3 is a schematic plan view of the division of the laser marking lines for the production of a bar code with a device according to a first embodiment of the invention.

A bar code 8 to be applied to the article has a plurality of bar code bars, and for simplicity in this illustration, each bar code bar has the width of a laser inscription line. The first, third, fifth,..., X th bar code bars or the laser marking line 12a representing this bar code bar is applied by the first laser beam of the first laser. This results in a barcode image according to reference numeral 9.

The bar code image according to reference numeral 10 comprises the laser marking lines 12b, which represent the second, fourth, sixth,..., X + 1th bar code bars. With a simultaneous application of the laser marking lines, the first laser beam would thus apply the laser marking image according to reference numeral 9 and the second laser beam the laser marking image according to reference numeral 10.

As soon as an object or a document has passed through both laser beams of the two lasers 1 and 2 completely, the composite code according to reference numeral 11 is obtained, which corresponds to the originally desired barcode according to reference numeral 8 and again from the laser marking lines 12a and 12b composed. This leads to a considerable reduction in the process run times of the lasers, which can work simultaneously with their first and second laser beams.

Another different division of the laser marking lines, from which the bar code is composed, is shown in FIG. According to this plan view of a bar code, the left portion or the first half 14 of the bar code 13 is locally applied with the first laser beam of the first laser, whereas the right side portion or the second half 15 of the bar code 13 is applied with a second laser beam of the second laser has been.

A dividing line 13a is drawn such that both parts 14, 15 are divided into an equal number of laser marking lines, the bar code bars, as represented for example by the reference numerals 16, 17, 18 and 19, of a different number of laser marking lines , which extend from top to bottom, and are arranged parallel to each other, may be composed.

Ideally, the dividing line 13a is arranged such that it is arranged between two barcode bars, whereby it is accepted that the first fraction 14 is attached to the laser beam. a little less or slightly more laser marking lines than the second part 15.

The above-mentioned divisions according to the representations in FIGS. 3 and 4 advantageously allow a laser beam of a laser to now only apply half of the laser marking lines in contrast to the total number of laser marking lines, and thus a shorter laser processing time and thus a higher laser marking line Throughput of the entire device is obtained.

All disclosed in the application documents features are claimed as essential to the invention, provided they are new individually or in combination over the prior art.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1, 2 lasers

7 transport direction

5 conveyor belt

3, 4 laser beam

6, 6a, 6b Personalization documents 8 Barcode

8a a detail enlarged representation of the barcode

8b, 8c, 8d, 8e different bar code bar widths

12a, 12b laser marking lines

9 Barcode image 10 Laser marking image

1 1 compound code

14 left / first share of barcode 13 barcode

15 right / second share from barcode 13a dividing line

16, 17, 18, 19 different numbers of laser marking lines

Claims

Laser apparatus and method for applying bar codes to objects Patent claims

A laser device for applying bar codes (8, 13) to objects, in particular personalization documents (6), wherein the laser device (1, 2) emits at least two laser beams (3, 4) and each bar code (8, 13) consists of a plurality Laser marking lines (12a, 12b) is constructed so that at the same time a first portion (9, 14) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b) by the first laser beam (3) and a second portion (10, 15) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b) by the second laser beam (4) can be applied.

2. Apparatus according to claim 1, d ad u rch ge ken n ze i ch n et that the first laser beam (3) a first laser (1) and the second laser beam (4) adjacent to the first laser (1) arranged second Laser (2) is assigned or the first and the second laser beam (3, 4) are assigned to a common laser.

3. Device according to claim 2, characterized in that the first laser (1) has a first article (6a) with a first barcode (8, 13) and at the same time the second laser (2) a second article (6b) with a second one

Barcode (8, 13) is assigned.

4. Device according to claim 3, characterized in that the first and the second laser (1, 2) together have an object (6) with a

Barcode (8, 13) is assigned.

5. A device according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the first and second portions (9, 10, 14, 15) are equal or approximately equal in size with a selectable difference in the number of laser marking lines (12a, 12b), preferably should be kept as small / minimal as possible (12a, 12b).

6. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that in a series-like counting of the laser marking lines of the bar code (18) the first portion (9) of the plurality of labeling lines (12a, 12b) those Laser marking lines (12a) with the odd number and the second portion (10) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b) those laser marking lines

(12b) with the even number.

7. Device according to one of claims 1 -5, d ad u rch ge ken n ze i ch n et that the first portion (14) of the plurality of laser marking lines locally considered at least approximately first half of the laser marking lines of the bar code (13) and the second portion (15) locally at least approximately second half of the laser marking lines of the bar code (13) includes.

8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that the local division of the bar code (13) into the first and the second part (14, 15) between two bar code bars (16-19 ) lies.

9. A method for applying bar codes (8, 13) on objects, in particular personalization documents (6) by means of at least two laser beams (3, 4) of a laser device (1, 2), each bar code (8, 13) of a plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b), that at the same time a first portion (9, 14) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a,

12b) by the first laser beam (3) and a second portion (10, 15) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b) by the second laser beam (4) is applied.

10. The method according to claim 9, characterized in that, when the laser marking lines (12a, 12b) are numbered, the first laser beam (3) contains those laser marking lines (12a) with the odd number and at the same time the second laser beam ( 4) those laser marking lines (12b) with the even number applies.

11. Method according to claim 9, wherein at the same time the first laser beam (3) is at least approximately the first locally viewed

Half (14) and the second laser beam (4) locally applied at least approximately second half (15).

12. The method according to claim 9, wherein the first component (9, 14) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b) for a first barcode (8, 13) is detected by the first laser beam (3) a first laser (1) of the laser device, which is arranged at a first location, while the second portion (10, 15) of the plurality of laser marking lines (12a, 12b) for a second bar code (8, 13) the second laser beam (4) of a second laser (2) of the laser device, which is arranged at a second location, is applied.