Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor – With work feeding or handling means
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-21
2001-07-24
Crispino, Richard (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Surface bonding means and/or assembly means therefor
With work feeding or handling means
C156S566000, C156S540000, C156S086000, C053S399000, C053S585000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06263940
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to automatic labeling machines for bottles, containers, and the like, and more particularly to an in-line continuous sleeve or label applying machine that allows labels to be applied to the central portion of the bottle while the bottles remain in-line with the input and output bottle conveyors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Container or bottle banding and sleeving have become more important in the recent past. Recent consumer concerns about health and safety issues regarding the intact and untampered nature of product purchases led manufacturers and suppliers to seal the tops of containers with bands or the like that cannot be tampered with without showing evidence of such tampering. Such banding usually addresses only the top portion of the bottle or container and does not encounter the difficulties arising from sleeving the central portion of a bottle, such as a beverage bottle of the one-, two-, or three-liter variety.
With the advent of stronger plastics, beverage containers are often constructed of plastic or the like. The material is lightweight, easy to manufacture, generally inert with respect to the contents held within, and may be recyclable. For carbonated beverages, plastics that withstand the pressures generated by such a carbonated beverage safely hold the beverage within the container until the top is removed. Often the top is of the twist-off variety. Such bottles are generally not embossed, printed, nor otherwise incorporate a label of the contents as the manufacturer of the bottle may not know what contents will ultimately go into the bottle. Such bottles may be manufactured to certain specifications imposed by either the manufacturer, the Government or other regulatory agency, or both. By supplying a fungible good in the form of a beverage container, the purchaser or bottler can then fill the empty bottle with purified water, soda pop, pre-mixed tea, or the like for future sale. In order to inform the buying public of the bottle's contents, a label must go on the front conforming with the seller's preferences and any Government regulations involved. In the past, it has become a matter of convenience and economic efficiency to provide sleeves for the central portion of the bottle that act as the label identifying the bottler, the bottle's contents, and complying with any Governmental regulations regarding nutrition or otherwise.
The sleeves that are used to label plastic beverage containers are generally made of thin plastic and slip about the bottle to snugly engage the central portion thereof. By labeling generic or fungible bottles, the bottler or seller can use the same or similar bottles in marketing a variety of products under similar or different labels.
As separate sleeves are provided to label the bottle and its contents, it then becomes a problem in the art to provide a means, preferably high-speed automated means, by which such labels can be applied to plastic beverage containers. The prior art has attempted to address a machine that provides labeling of bottles at their center. However, all previous attempts generally do not maintain the in-line nature of the travel path of the bottle so that it travels in a generally straight line between the input conveyor to the sleeving/labeling machine and then on to the output conveyor.
As mentioned above, banding machines and the like (for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,553, issued to Strub et al. on Jun. 14, 1983) do not provide the central sleeving required by bottlers and as provided by the present invention. Such banding machines only allow banding of the top of the container and completely fail to provide sleeving or banding of the central portion of the bottle. In the Strub et al. '553 patent, certain structures integral to the finger articulation and disengagement of the band onto the bottle prevent any central sleeving of the bottle as the label carrier cannot properly engage the bottle.
Consequently, sleevers and the like have attained generally complicated configurations such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,783 issued to Lerner et al. on Jan. 16, 1996. In the Lerner et al. '783 patent, bottles are essentially sleeved or banded. However, elevator pedestals that change the vertical disposition of the bottle as well as circular carousals that change the horizontal disposition of the bottle are present and prevent the bottles from being sleeved in an in-line fashion. Consequently, machines along the lines of the Lerner et al. '783 patent take up more space on the bottling room floor and provide a generally more complicated process avoided by the present invention. As is well known in the art, greater complexity in machinery generally leads to greater risk of failure, as there are more things to go wrong. Additionally, maintenance is greater and there are more adjustments necessary in order to provide proper bottle sleeving with more complicated machinery.
Consequently, there is a need in the art and a demand in the marketplace to provide an in-line and continuous feed bottle sleeving machine that enables bottles to be centrally sleeved while doing so in an in-line, continuous, and preferably high-speed fashion.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides means by which sleeves may be applied to plastic beverage containers or the like in an in-line fashion. As set forth herein, sleeves and labels are considered to be equivalent to one another as are bottles and containers.
The present invention provides in-line and continuous feed sleeving of beverage containers by coordination between bottle entry into the machine, an iris carrier that applies the sleeve to the bottle, and pedestals that support the bottle during the sleeving process. A label feeder, as is known in the art, presents and provides sleeve labels to the iris carriers.
Each sleeve carrier, or iris carrier, has an open bottle-receiving central aperture circumscribed by a controllable label holder in the form of dilating finger rods. An iris carrier transport system shuttles the iris carriers between a label feeder and the unlabeled bottles. During the labeling process, the bottles are maintained at a constant elevation, neither rising nor falling, increasing mechanical efficiency in labeling, requiring machinery that is less mechanically complicated, and providing easier retrofitting for current bottle-labeling lines.
A timing screw receives bottles in flood feeder conveyor fashion to controllably space apart and move the bottles to the pedestals from the conveyor over a low-friction transition area. The bottles are then supported by the pedestals as the iris carriers circumscribe the top portions of the bottles. For an individual bottle, upstanding fingers present on the iris carrier fit the sleeve over the bottle as the iris carrier descends about the pedestal-supported bottle. Upon descending about the bottle to a preset level, the fingers of the iris carrier collapse slightly by moving radially inward in order to affix the sleeve to the bottle. The iris carrier then descends past the bottle, pulling the fingers downwardly and away from the label. The label disengages the fingers, freeing the iris carrier. The fingers dilate or expand slightly to move away from the labeled bottle. The iris carrier then ascends upwardly towards the top of the bottle. The bottle travels along to an output conveyor from the pedestals. The bottle is now sleeved and the iris carrier disengages the bottle and travels back to the label feeder to receive another sleeve in order to ensleeve another bottle.
The iris carriers are maintained in a horizontal position by having offset pivot points that travel along offset chain or other traveling carriers. By having offset points of rotation, the iris carriers are held in a horizontal position. The iris carrier does not rock or sway, especially during its engagement and ensleevement of the traveling bottle. By means of an articulated linkage driven by a circumferentially-sliding link ring, upstanding artic
Axon Corporation
Cislo & Thomas LLP
Crispino Richard
Purvis Sue A.
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