Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture – Differential fluid etching apparatus – With microwave gas energizing means
Reexamination Certificate
2000-05-03
2002-01-15
Osele, Mark A. (Department: 1734)
Adhesive bonding and miscellaneous chemical manufacture
Differential fluid etching apparatus
With microwave gas energizing means
C156S583200
Reexamination Certificate
active
06338771
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention concerns a process and an apparatus for detaching a thin composite material from a central region. In that respect the central region may be in particular a paper or a material comprising a plurality of layers using paper.
This is the case in particular in regard to the restoration of books, manuscripts, notes, magazines and journals, loose-leaf collections, file records and the like, in which the original sheets or leaves are made good by repairing flaws and introducing a core layer.
That results in a composite material comprising a central core layer, to which the original halves of the leaf or format or page of the book, having been separated along the central plane, are glued on both sides by means of a core adhesive, while applied in turn to the above-mentioned halves on the outsides thereof by means of a lining adhesive is a respective lining or laminating backing which serves in particular for the handling procedure in the preceding working steps.
As the last processing stage, the lining on the two sides now has to be removed again in order to regain the original page which has been supplemented by the core layer.
In this respect the composite material generally occurs in the form of substantially endless webs or strips which are wound on to large winding drums, referred to as reels, with the individual pages of the book being disposed on the composite material in part in a multiple configuration in mutually juxtaposed relationship and one behind the other, arranged to constitute what are referred to as formats.
Detachment of the lining is effected by dissolving the above-mentioned lining adhesive, mostly gelatin, by the action of enzymes at an optimum operative temperature. Theoretically, detachment would also be possible only by long-term action of moisture or water, and possibly elevated temperature, which however would result in such a long period of action that treatment in a continuous-operation procedure is difficult. However it is only a continuous treatment procedure that makes it possible overall to achieve low restoration costs.
Therefore the object of the present invention is to provide a process and an apparatus for carrying it into effect, with which rapid and inexpensive detachment of the linings from the central material is possible, while the detachment result can be easily influenced and controlled.
By virtue of the fact that detachment of the lining is implemented in a continuous procedure, on the one hand the efficiency of the process can be increased and on the other hand it is possible to involve control and regulating procedures which are not possible in a single-sheet treatment or batch-wise treatment, as the previous settings in respect of the previous item or the previous batch are no longer available when dealing with the next one.
In order to be able to operate in a continuous procedure, the composite material to be treated is supplied either by being unwound from a delivery reel on which the composite material is wound or directly from the preceding processing unit which first produces the lining composite.
Because of the long path of movement through the present machine, in batch treatment, that is to say when feeding the composite material to be treated from a delivery reel, operation is not effected directly with the beginning of the composite material when starting up the batch treatment. On the contrary, firstly, generally by hand, a flexible pulling or draw band which consists of rubber is pulled in through the machine until the leading end has reached the last drawing or pulling feed rollers near the cutting station. The trailing end of the pulling or draw band is connected to the leading end of the composite material on the delivery reel, for example by a clip fastener involving force-locking engagement.
In that respect, the pulling or draw band is generally somewhat thicker than the composite material to be treated and in particular the pulling or draw band is somewhat wider than the composite material. Shoulders are provided on the direction-changing rollers or pressing rollers at the sides thereof, the internal spacing of the shoulders being only slightly greater than or of the same magnitude as the width of the pulling or draw band. The pulling or draw band is therefore guided in positively engaged relationship in the transverse direction by those shoulders which are present at least in relation to some of the drums or rollers. That already ensures that the pulling or draw band is introduced straight, and the composite material joined thereto is also thereby already roughly aligned. Fine alignment is effected by additional control means which are described hereinafter, but in general the composite material should never reach the further outwardly disposed contact or abutment shoulders on the drums or rollers for the pulling or draw band.
After the machine has started up, the pulling or draw band is removed from the beginning or leading end of the composite material and, when the composite material delivery bobbin is coming to the end, it is joined again to the end of the composite material. The composite material itself thereby again pulls the pulling or draw band through the machine so that it can be left in that position and can thus be used as the leader band for introducing the next length of composite material from the next delivery bobbin. That means that it is only necessary to thread the material into the machine by hand on a single occasion when the machine is first started.
The water from the treatment units is also preferably circulated. In particular it is passed in the dip or immersion tanks or containers in counter-flow relationship with respect to the direction of travel of the composite material to be treated, the above-mentioned direction of flow being achieved by stepped overflows from the rearmost to the foremost dip or immersion tanks.
The water which evaporates out of the immersion tanks or containers is preferably condensed and returned to the water circuit.
The composite material in web form successively passes through preferably a plurality of treatment steps, for example an initial dissolution region, a deactivation region and possibly a rinsing region, in each of which inter alia moisture is supplied to the composite material. The residence times in those individual regions are preferably controllable independently of each other so that in the event of poor detachment or premature detachment of the lining the period of action of the individual dissolution or treatment agents on the composite material can be suitably adjusted.
At the end of each of those regions, the procedure preferably involves an operation for rough or preliminary removal of moisture from the composite material in order to expel the moisture which is absorbed in the composite material and for the major part to prevent the individual agents from passing across into the next following treatment region. After the last treatment step the composite material is finally dried and the lining released from the central material by moving them apart.
In that respect, for carefully detaching the lining from pages of a book which are often very valuable, it is important to be able to accurately adjust the residence time of the composite material in the individual treatment regions. A simple option in that respect is to vary the transit or passage distance of the composite material in strip form which is moved at a uniform speed, so that the residence time in the individual regions is also altered.
In regard to the treatment, attention is to be paid in particular to the physical and chemical properties of the lining adhesives used, in comparison with the core adhesive, by means of which the central material, for example the separated halves of a page of a book, are glued on the core material. The core adhesive is not to lose its adhesion under the physical or chemical conditions under which the lining adhesive loses adhesion, as otherwise the central material disintegrates again.
The treatment r
Becker Ernst
Gaibler Hans-Peter
Schommer Hans-Peter
Wächter Wolfgang
Becker Preservotec GmbH
Crowell & Moring LLP
Osele Mark A.
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