Printing – Processes – Position or alignment
Reexamination Certificate
1999-12-02
2001-09-11
Eickholt, Eugene (Department: 2854)
Printing
Processes
Position or alignment
C101S227000, C053S131500, C053S411000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06286428
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns a method for the printing of packaging parts. In connection with dry offset printing of packaging parts, particularly plastic lids, it is commonly known to feed the lids individually via carriers/chain cassettes, in which the individual lid parts are placed. These are fed forward to a printing section where the dry offset printing takes place. The carriers are disposed on chains at a distance corresponding to about the length of two lids. Normally, there are 20 to 30 carriers for conveying the lids from the insertion stacks and forward to the restacking. Before the printing, there is thus performed a punching out of the lids and a stacking operation. The actual printing is effected by feeding a single lid forward with the carriers to the printing section, where a printing pad is fed down on to the surface of the lid to deposit its print. The packaging is then conveyed further and, after having been dried, a stacking takes place.
This known technique thus suffers the disadvantage that it involves two stacking operations, and also that the printing is carried out on the individual lids when these are fed forward in cassettes. With the known methods, the 30 lids are mounted singly in cassettes from which they are hereafter removed again. This means that a lot of mechanics are involved in the form of stacking, and re-stacking the cassettes. In practice, this means that the stability is not satisfactory when the speed needs to be high. Consequently, the process is inexpediently resource demanding, time-consuming and costly.
It is known from 3,539,085 to guide foils in the form of webbing through, for example, a printing press, and where among other things the control system takes into account and controls the tensions in the webbing by controlling the speed of the rollers. The method does not solve the problem involved in the placing of print on the packaging parts, which packaging parts are not produced in one plane and are consequently unsuitable for the mass production as described in the publication.
From WO 91/15342 there is known an apparatus and a method for the placing of irregularly demarcated pictures on a foil. The publication does not solve the problem involved in the clear control of the individual parts which are desired to be provided with print, and consequently does not permit a mass production in connection with the packaging parts.
Another problem with the printing of lids is that it is difficult to attain high line speeds due to inaccuracies in the positioning of lids on the foil web. According to the prior art, corrections must be made to adjust for these positioning inaccuracies, with consequent delays in production, as the foil web must be adjusted to assure accurate printing on the parts. This may generally require the foil web to move backwards as well as forwards with consequent delays in production.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is the object of the invention to provide a method which is not encumbered with the disadvantages of the known technique, and thus where it is not necessary to stamp-out the packaging before it is printed, and whereby a rational handling of the packaging parts with a minimum of operations is achieved. Further, an object of the invention is to provide an improved method for advancing the foil web so as to stop the web for printing in relation to the actual position of the lids, thereby avoiding the need to adjust for lid position inaccuracies.. It is another object to automatically and periodically determining the position of the lids as they are fed on the foil web.
This object is achieved by a method where the packaging parts comprise a part of a continuous web of foil, the individual packaging parts lying at a distance from one another and are in connection with one another via the foil web, feeding the continuous foil web with the packaging parts forward to a printing section where the printing of the packaging parts takes place in the printing section with printing pads, sensing a leading edge of the packaging parts at the entrance to the printing section, calculating a position advancement necessary for proper positioning for printing, moving the packaging parts to the calculated position, controlling the printing press in response to the sensed edge and printing the packaging parts lying parallel at the side of one another with a distance between them. The packaging parts are then fed forward to a separation section where the individual packaging parts are separated from the foil web by a separation process, and another set of packaging parts are fed forward until they reach the sensing means at the entrance to the printing station, to start another cycle.
The foil web with the formed packaging parts is conveyed directly forward to the printing section, whereby the necessity is avoided of having to stack and subsequently place the packaging parts in the cassettes, which will then transport these forward to the printing section in the manner which is commonly known. The printing according to the invention takes place down in the packaging parts, which can lie expediently along the same line seen in the transverse direction. The foil is hereafter positioned in relation to the next row of printing pads, so that the next transversely-lying row of packaging parts is placed opposite the next row of printing pads. The printed packaging parts are removed from the foil web by a separation process at a time at which the foil web part with the printed data is stationary, and the packaging part can now be stacked or handled as required, in that it is now ready for use.
The process is thus characterized by being a continuous process, where the need for manual operation is minimal.
By using the method according to the invention, there is achieved an expedient and definite positioning of the packaging in relation to the printing station, where the sensor means controls the printing in response to the position of the packaging parts on the foil web so that a high production of printed packaging is possible.
Further, there is disclosed, an expedient configuration of the printing section which makes it possible to effect a high production of the printed packaging parts per unit of time.
By using the method according to the invention as disclosed, an effective and time-saving printing of packaging parts is achieved when, as disclosed, these are formed in plastic material and comprise the lid parts. It is also achieved that the packaging parts can be formed closely at the side of one another in the foil web, in that the positioning movement ensures that there is room for the subsequent print-pad section in the subsequent packaging part's section.
The method also achieves, by means of optical or mechanical sensors, to sense the front edge or the rear edge of the individual packaging parts, and then to calculate to proper movement of the foil web to bring the packaging parts to the correct position for printing. A CNC system regulates the motors for the driving of the foil web as a function of the signal from the sensing means to locate the items in correspondence with the print pads.
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Coleman Sudol Sapone P.C.
Eickholt Eugene
Sapone William J.
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