Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Reexamination Certificate
2002-03-12
2004-07-06
Osele, Mark A. (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
C156S187000, C156S357000, C156S450000, C156S578000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06758923
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus and methods for web converting machinery, and more particularly to apparatuses and methods for applying adhesive in web converting machinery.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
An important objective of most paper converting machinery is to quickly and efficiently produce packaged web product at low cost. For example, machines that operate to attach a sheet of material to a core for winding the material upon the core must perform this operation quickly and consistently for acceptance in the marketplace. As another example, machines that operate to complete a roll of wound product by attaching the tail of the product to the roll must also perform this operation quickly and consistently for acceptance in the marketplace. However, the demand for higher productivity from machines that perform such web rewinding operations has generated significant challenges in machine design.
With reference again to tail sealing operations, there exists a number of well-known ways in which the tail end can be secured or “sealed” (e.g., by gluing, moistening, etc.) to a log. Each such manner of tail sealing requires some manipulation of the tail end for correct alignment in glue application, proper rewinding, etc. Preferably, the tail of a product log is laid flat and unwrinkled against the log, with the tail being secured to the log at a position a short distance from the end of the tail. This tail sealing arrangement leaves a small length of the end of the tail unsecured to enable the end user to grasp, unseal, and unwind the rolled product. Improper tail end manipulation during the tail sealing process can lead to a number of undesirable results, including inconsistent tail end length and wrinkles in the sealed tail.
Other design challenges involve the application of adhesive to a core, log, or log tail in order to attach a sheet of material to a core or to attach a tail to a log. Although many different devices exist for applying adhesive to sheet product, logs, and cores, conventional adhesive applicators are often inefficient, messy, and require frequent cleaning and maintenance of the adhesive applicator and other equipment exposed to adhesive from the adhesive applicator. Adhesive rollers, brushes, and other applicators are commonly used, but are often slow, take up precious space in sheet rewinding and manipulating machines, and offer little control over the amount of adhesive applied. Although adhesive sprayers offer a number of advantages over rollers, brushes, and other adhesive applicators (including speed and relatively small size), they have not been widely accepted for applying adhesive due to mess from overspray and lack of spray control. As a result of these problems, the design of adhesive applicators in conventional sheet product manipulating apparatuses remains relatively simple and crude at the expense of speed and efficiency.
The foregoing and following discussion concerning the sheet rewinding industry is particularly relevant to paper rewinding. Accordingly, the problems and solutions described below are presented by way of illustration in the context of paper rewinding operations, such as rewinding operations on tissue paper, toilet paper, paper toweling, and the like. However, the present invention is not limited to paper rewinding or even to the paper industry. The present invention finds applicability in any operation in which rolled material is manipulated and/or wound. As such, reference in the present application and appended claims to “logs” of material include rolled product made of any material, such as paper, plastic, rubber, metal, composites, fabric, and the like. Also, the rolled product referred to herein and in the appended claims as product in “sheet” or “web” form can be of any shape and size, including material in sheet, strip, laminate, multi-ply or other form.
A number of conventional adhesive applicator methods and systems exist in the art. However, in order to limit the spread of adhesive in conventional sheet rewinding and manipulating devices, a number of adhesive applicators and applicator designs are not employed. As a result, many current adhesive applicator methods and systems are somewhat crude, providing little control over the amount and placement of adhesive on a tail, log, or core, generating inconsistent adhesive application results, and producing unreliable bonds.
Similarly, a number of conventional tail sealer methods and systems exist in the art. Several of these methods and systems are designed to avoid the aforementioned undesirable results of improper tail manipulation while maintaining a high rate of product output (i.e., sealed logs per minute). However, conventional tail sealers are usually quite complex, employing expensive systems and subsystems to separate and orient a measured length of the tail of each roll in a precise manner, apply adhesive to the tail or log in a precise location, and seal the tail on the log without wrinkling. Four examples of such conventional tail sealers are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,525 issued to Biagiotti, U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,974 issued to Perini, U.S. Pat. No. 3,393,105 issued to C. W. Teller, Jr., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,489 issued to Biagiotti. The teachings of the above-listed patents are incorporated herein by reference insofar as they relate to mechanisms and assemblies for manipulating tails of product rolls or logs. Due to their complexity, such conventional systems are invariably expensive and difficult to maintain. Also, an important limitation common to virtually all conventional systems is the maximum speed at which the systems can operate. In modern systems where a fraction of a second in each rewinding operation can significantly impact output and productivity, conventional tail sealing systems typically operate adequately at low speeds but display considerable inefficiencies when run to their highest speeds. The above-mentioned system complexity and bottlenecks caused thereby are often the cause of these inefficiencies. Additionally, such systems are generally less than precise and reliable in their sealing operations, particularly when run at higher speeds.
In light of the problems and limitations of the prior art described above, a need exists for an apparatus and method which can cleanly and reliably apply adhesive to a core, log tail, and/or log in a clean and precise manner, can reliably seal rolled products at a high rate, can produce a consistent and controllable length of tails sealed to the logs, can generate sealed tails which have few to no wrinkles, and can do so by employing a simplified system design which lowers system and maintenance cost. Each embodiment of the present invention achieves one of more of these results.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Some embodiments of the present invention provide an apparatus and method by which adhesive can be applied to a tail of a log of wound product and/or to the log product itself in order to attach the tail to the log. In other embodiments, this apparatus and method is employed to apply adhesive to a core in order to attach sheet product to the core for subsequent winding. The present invention also provides an apparatus and method by which tails of rolled products can be controlled during tail sealing operations of the rolled products.
To quickly accomplish tail sealing operations while maintaining sufficient control of a tail during tail sealing, some preferred embodiments of the present invention include a rotary indexer assembly for controllably feeding rolled products into the tail sealer system, an upper conveyor assembly which rolls the rolled products through the tail sealer system, a lower conveyor assembly which rolls each rolled product within the tail sealer system to unroll the tail to a glue applying position and indexes the proper tail length of each rolled product, an adhesive assembly for applying adhesive to each tail and/or to each rolled product, and an ironing roller assembly which ensures contact between the tail and the rolled product for permit
Butterworth Tad T.
LaChapelle, Jr. John W.
C.G. Bretting Manufacturing Company, Inc.
Michael & Best & Friedrich LLP
Osele Mark A.
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