Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Methods – Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
Patent
1988-02-11
1989-02-21
Ball, Michael W.
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Methods
Surface bonding and/or assembly therefor
53291, 53297, 53585, 156521, B32B 3100
Patent
active
048061875
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for automatically and successively applying tubular pieces of thermoshrinkable material such as labels, cap seals or the like to the outer circumferential surfaces of bottles and other containers.
BACKGROUND ART
There is known in the prior art an apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application No. 59-238769 (Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-115825) filed Nov. 12, 1984 in the name of the present applicant.
This apparatus known in the prior art is provided with a plurality of label applying heads arranged in a rotary manner so that the applying heads apply labels to the bodies of the bottles on a table during one rotation thereof. In this arrangement, a label of a predetermined length is successively cut from a tubular web of thermoshrinkable material folded flat, and the opposite surfaces of the label are sucked by suction pads arranged at the opposite sides thereof. A label applying guide comprising a pair of claws made of a thin plate is inserted from the underside of the tubular label into the space formed in the label by the application of suction thereto, and a bottle fed from below by a lifting table is inserted into the space of the label broadened by the claws. Finally, under the condition that the tubular label is pressed against the body of the bottle by a label presser the claws are pulled out from inside the tubular label so as to apply the tubular label to the body of the bottle.
The above-mentioned prior art apparatus has a characteristic of a high-speed machine and requires as many suction pads, applying guides, label pressers, lifting tables and other devices as there are bottle stations on the rotary mechanism. To operate there devices in timed relation to each other, a large driving power and vacuum pumps are also required. As a result, the apparatus is complicated in construction and very expensive and is not ready to deal with bottles or tubular labels of different sizes.
The object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus for successively applying thermoshrinkable tubular labels to bottles and other containers, which can easily be adjusted to deal with labels of different sizes and shapes by replacement of a minimum number of parts and subsequent adjustment associated therewith, and which is simplified in construction and easy to handle, and in which a large reduction in cost has been achieved.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The method of successively applying thermoshrinkable tubular labels to containers in accordance with the invention comprises: a step of feeding a thermoshrinkable tubular web which has been paid out in a flat condition; a step of smoothing out the pleats at the opposite lateral edges of the web that has been fed and forming a space therein; a step of covering with the thermoshrinkable tubular web with a space formed therein the upper portion of an insertion guide comprising a wedge-shaped upper portion and a lower portion of substantially the same shape in transverse section as that of a container; a step of cutting the thermoshrinkable tubular web covering the upper portion of the insertion guide into a tubular label of a predetermined length; a step of moving the thermoshrinkable tubular label cut to the predetermined length from the upper to the lower portion of the insertion guide by a pair of feed belts pressed against the side surfaces of the insertion guide; a step of feeding a container to a predetermined position below the insertion guide; and a step of moving by the feed belts the thermoshrinkable tubular label that has been moved to the lower portion of the insertion guide downwardly of the insertion guide and applying the tubular label to the container that has been fed to the predetermined position below the insertion guide while simultaneously reforming the tubular label to substantially the same shape in transverse section as the container.
The apparatus for successively applying thermoshrinkable tubular labels to containers in accordance with the present inventi
REFERENCES:
patent: 3974628 (1976-08-01), Konstantin
patent: 4179863 (1979-12-01), Fresnel
patent: 4208857 (1980-06-01), Fujio
patent: 4545181 (1985-10-01), Frankefurt
Ball Michael W.
Fidelman Morris
Fujiyama Giken Co., Ltd.
Maki Steven D.
Wolffe Franklin D.
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