Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – Means joining flexible indefinite length or endless bodies...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-10-18
2002-07-23
Osele, Mark A. (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
Means joining flexible indefinite length or endless bodies...
C156S157000, C156S502000, C156S238000, C156S541000, C242S556100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06422282
ABSTRACT:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED CASES
This application claims the priority of German patent application Serial No. 198 47 800.3 filed Oct. 16, 1998. The disclosure of the German patent application, as well as that of each United States and/or foreign patent and patent application mentioned in the specification of the present application, is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to improvements in web splicers, and more particularly to improvements in apparatus for treating adhesive commodities ahead of the actual splicing station. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus for transferring thin commodities, which comprise pairs of adherent sides, from a normally flexible strip-shaped carrier of such commodities to one side of a first web which is to be spliced to a second web by means of the transferred commodities.
Apparatus of the above outlined character are utilized in various types of machines or production lines for the making and/or processing of smokers' products, e.g., rod-shaped smokers' products. For example, it is customary to make plain cigarettes in a machine wherein a continuous rod-shaped filler of natural, reconstituted and/or substitute tobacco is draped into a continuous web of cigarette paper. Webs of convoluted cigarette paper are stored on reels, and the trailing end of a running cigarette paper web (which is being drawn off the core of a first or preceding reel) must be spliced to the leader or leading end of a (fresh) web which is convoluted onto the core of a (fresh) reel. Such mode of splicing (namely while the wrapping mechanism of the cigarette making machine continues to receive a web of cigarette paper) renders it possible to achieve pronounced savings, not only because the number of rejects (which are invariably produced in response to each starting and each stoppage of a cigarette maker) is greatly reduced but also because each stoppage of a modern high-speed cigarette maker involves huge losses in output.
Similar or analogous splicers are or can be utilized in machines for the making of filter mouthpieces for tobacco smoke, in so-called tipping machines wherein plain cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars are united with filter mouthpieces to obtain filter cigarettes, cigarillos or cigars of unit length or multiple unit length, and in cigarette packing machines wherein webs of (for example) cellophane, metallic foil and/or plastic foil are draped around arrays of plain or filter cigarettes (or other rod-shaped smokers' products).
Apparatus of the type to which the present invention pertains are employed ahead (upstream) of the aforedescribed or analogous splicers (for use in tobacco processing or numerous other plants) to apply to the leaders of successive fresh webs thin commodities in the form of patches of paper, plastic or other suitable material. Such commodities act as so-called uniting bands and, to this end, have first adhesive sides separably adhering to a normally strip-shaped carrier and second adhesive sides serving to adhere to the leaders of fresh webs. Once the first adhesive side of la uniting band has been separated from its carrier, it can serve to adhere to the trailing end of an expiring web.
The first step of utilizing such uniting bands (having pairs of adhesive sides) involves attachment of the exposed (second) adhesive side of at least one uniting band (the first adhesive side of which adheres to its carrier) to the leader of a fresh web, and the second step of the method involves separation of the first side of the uniting band from its carrier (i.e., while the second adhesive side already adheres and continues to adhere to the leader of a fresh web). The next-following (third) step constitutes the splicing of the leader of the fresh web to the trailing end of the expiring (preceding) web in that the first adhesive side is caused to contact the trailing end of the expiring web while the second adhesive side continues to adhere to the leader of the fresh web. The expiring (or expired) web then proceeds to entrain the leader of the fresh web into the wrapping mechanism of the web-consuming or processing machine.
Published German patent application Serial No. 43 03 171 A1 discloses an apparatus employing a carriage which is movable transversely of a fresh web (while the fresh web is at a standstill) along a linear path. The carriage supports a roller which serves to press the exposed adhesive-coated side(s) of one or more uniting bands on a strip-shaped carrier against the leader of a fresh web while the other side of each uniting band adheres to the carrier. The carrier is drawn off a supply reel in response to movement of the roller against the stationary fresh web, and a takeup reel collects the leading end of the carrier subsequent to transfer of one or more uniting bands onto the fresh web. The transferred uniting bands form a file or row extending transversely of the leader of the fresh web.
A drawback of the just described conventional apparatus for manipulating uniting bands having dual adhesive sides or surfaces is that they are rather complex, bulky and expensive. Moreover, such conventional apparatus (including those described in the aforementioned published German patent application) are designed exclusively for automated or automatic transfer of uniting bands. On the other hand, it is often desirable to employ an apparatus which can be operated automatically, semiautomatically, as well as or by hand. Furthermore, it is not always desirable to apply a series of two or more uniting bands to the leader of the fresh web (e.g., a web of wrapping paper including cigarette paper or the like) in such a way that the applied uniting bands form a file or row extending transversely of the leader of a fresh web, i.e., of the web which is to be spliced to the trailing end or to another portion of an expiring or (in the meantime) expired web.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide (for the manipulation of thin commodities having first and second adhesive sides and being utilized in web splicers) an apparatus which is simpler, more compact, more reliable and less expensive than the aforedescribed and other conventional apparatus.
Another object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which is more versatile than heretofore known apparatus, for example, because it can be operated automatically (e.g., in response to signals from a sensor monitoring the supply of running (unexpired) web on an expiring reel, as well as by hand.
A further object of the invention is to provide an apparatus which can be installed in existing web-consuming or web-processing machines as a superior substitute for apparatus presently used in cigarette making, cigarette filter tipping, cigarette wrapping and/or other machines.
An addition object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved method of manipulating, in or ahead of a web splicer, uniting bands of the type having pairs of opposed adhesive sides or surfaces.
Still another object of the invention is to provide the above outlined apparatus with novel and improved means for reliably separating uniting bands from their carrier and for reliably attaching the thus separated uniting bands to predetermined portions (e.g., to the leaders) of webs of cigarette paper, cellophane, other plastic materials, tipping paper, wrapping paper and/or other types of webs which can be attached to preceding or next-following webs by means of an adhesive substance.
A further object of the invention is to provide a novel and improved combination of a web splicer and a uniting band dispensing or applying apparatus of the above outlined character.
Another object of the invention is to provide a machine or production line which processes running webs of wrapping material or the like and employs one or more splicers and uniting band-treating or processing apparatus of the above outlined character.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention resides in the provision of an apparatus for transferring th
Kinberg Robert
Osele Mark A.
Topack Verpackungstechnik GmbH
Venable
Voorhees Catherine M.
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