AU2004203085A1 - Twin shrink-wrap labeling machine - Google Patents

Description

AUSTRALIA

PATENTS ACT 1990 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION FOR A STANDARD PATENT (Original) APPLICATION

NO:

LODGED:

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION

LODGED:

ACCEPTED:

PUBLISHED:

RELATED ART: NAME OF APPLICANT: ACTUAL INVENTOR: ADDRESS FOR SERVICE: INVENTION TITLE: NAN-YUAN HUANG FU-CHUAN HUANG FU-CHUAN HUANG LORD AND COMPANY, Patent Trade Mark Attorneys, of 4 Douro Place, West Perth, Western Australia, 6005, AUSTRALIA.

TWIN SHRINK-WRAP LABELING MACHINE The following Statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to me/us:

TITLE

TWIN SHRINK-WRAP LABELING MACHINE FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a twin shrink-wrap labeling machine and particularly to a shrink-wrap labeling machine for automatically producing two shrink-wrap labels of the same housing space.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The conventional twin shrink-wrap labeling machine generally has a shrink film with a first end bonding to one side of the entire shrink film and a second end bonding to the outer side of the first end, or the other side of the second end is bonded to another side of the entire shrink film to make the first end and the second end spacing from each other to form a dividing wall of a selected length, so that the shrink film forms two housing spaces of the same size or different sizes. In such an approach the amount of bonding glue is difficult to control, hence the shrink film easily peels off. Moreover, the glue contains moisture which is prone to lose adhering power when in contact with liquid. In addition, the bonding approach not only wastes time and affects operation efficiency, product quality also is unstable, and the shrink film wrapped on the goods is easily skewed during conveying. This affects the appearance of the shrink-wrapped goods, and results in increase of defect rate, and product quality suffers.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the aforesaid disadvantages, the present invention provides a twin 2 shrink-wrap labeling machine. It mainly includes a station with a thermosetting device located on one side and a shrink film holding wheel located on another side. There is a shrink film conveying device located above the shrink film holding wheel. The shrink film conveying device has a holding rack with a plurality of roller axles located there on.

Below the roller axles, there is a guiding device that has two sets of center struts (may be round or polygonal) with a cutter device interposed therebetween. There are anchor plates above the center struts and conveying roller sets on an upper, middle and lower periphery of the center struts. There are rollers on the center struts corresponding to the conveying roller sets. The rollers mate with the tuning axles of a tuning device. There are two rotary wheels below the guiding device. The cutter device has a rectangular member in the center and elastic elements on two sides with a cutter mounted thereon. Each rotary wheel has identical arched notches formed on an end surface in an equally spaced manner.

The tuning device adjusts the distance between the rollers and the conveying roller sets.

The conveying roller sets on the periphery of the center struts and the mating rollers rotate corresponding to each other to convey the shrink film.

The guiding device is covered by a upper lid and door panels to protect the mechanisms of the guiding device.

The cutter device is movable horizontally and has cutters located thereon to cut off the shrink film.

The invention thus constructed can produce two shrink-wrap films of the same housing spaces in a simple process, and reduce production time and improve product quality.

The foregoing, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the invention will be more readily apparent from the following detailed description, which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the present invention with the upper lid and door panels removed.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the present invention.

FIG. 4A is a schematic view of the guiding device in an operating condition.

FIG. 4B is a schematic view of the cutter device in an operating condition for cutting off the shrink film.

FIG. 4C is a schematic view of the guiding device in an operating condition for moving the shrink film.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of a shrink film sleeve.

FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the packaged goods being transferred.

FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the packaged goods being transferred to the thermosetting device.

FIG. 8 is a schematic view of the guiding device transporting package goods of a different height.

FIG. 9A is a top view of the tuning device.

FIG. 9B is a schematic view of the tuning device for adjusting up and down, and left and right.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED

EMBODIMENTS

Please referring to FIGS. 1, 2, 3 and 7, the twin shrink-wrap labeling machine of the invention includes a station 1, a shrink film conveying device 2, a guiding device 3, a cutter device 4, a tuning device 5, a thermosetting device 6 and two rotary wheels 7. The shrink film conveying device 2 transfers a shrink film A to a set of first center struts on the upper side of the guiding device 3. The first center struts 30 have first conveying roller sets 31 and 32 to move the shrink film A to second center struts 300 located at a lower side (referring to FIGS. 3 and 4A). The cutter device 4 is located between the first and second center struts 30 and 300 to clamp the shrink film (as shown in FIG. 4B) and cut off the shrink film A through cutter 41 (referring to FIG. 4C). The cutoff shrink film A' is moved downwards and formed a 8-shaped shrink film sleeve A by second conveying roller sets 301 and 302 located on the second center struts 300 (as shown in FIG. Then the shrink film sleeve A drops to the rotary wheels 7 (as shown in FIG. 6) on an inner side of a conveying path to wrap package goods B from outer side. The wrapped package goods B are transported to the thermosetting device 6 in which the shrink film sleeve A is shrunk by heated air to tightly bond to the package goods B (referring to FIG. 7).

On one side of the station 1, there is a shrink film holding wheel 10 to hold a reel of folded shrink film A. The film conveying device 2 is located above the shrink film holding wheel 10 to convey the shrink film A to the guiding device 3.

The film conveying device 2 located above the holding wheel 10 includes a shrink film holding rack 20 which holds a plurality of roller axles 21, 22 and 23. The roller axles 21, 22 and 23 may transmit the shrink film A to the center struts 30 and 300 of the guiding device 3.

The guiding device 3 is located above the station 1 (as shown in FIG. It mainly includes two sets of center struts 30 and 300 (may be round or polygonal) that have respectively anchor plates 33 and 303 mounted on the top end. On the upper, middle and lower peripheral sides of the center struts 30 and 300, there are the conveying roller sets 31, 32, 301 and 302. And there are rollers 310, 320, 311 and 312 corresponding to the conveying roller sets 31, 32, 301 and 302. The rollers 310, 320, 311 and 312 are coupled with tuning axles 50 of the tuning device 5. In addition, the guiding device 3 is covered by an upper lid 34 on the top and door panels 35 at the front side to protect the mechanisms of the guiding device 3 from being damaged.

The cutter device 4 is a rectangular member located between the center struts 30 and 300.

It has two sides containing respectively an elastic element 40. There is a cutter 41 mounting on the elastic element The tuning device 5 is operable manually. It has tuning axles 50 to couple with the rollers 310, 320, 311 and 312 of the guiding device 3 (as shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B).

The thermosetting device 6 is located on one side of the station. It aims to tightly bond the shrink film A on the package goods B (referring to FIG. 7).

The rotary wheel 7 is circular and has a plurality of arched notches 70 formed on desired locations to match the package goods (referring to FIG, 6).

During operation, the shrink film A is conveyed from the holding wheel 10 to the shrink film conveying device 2, and channeled by the holding roller shafts 21, 22 and 23, then conveyed to the guiding device 3. The first roller sets 31 and 32 move the shrink film A to the first center struts 30. Then the shrink film A is moved to the second center struts 300 through the first conveying roller sets 31 and 32, and the first rollers 310 and 320 (as shown in FIG. 4A). When the shrink film A is stretched between the first and second center struts 30 and 300, the cutter 4 clamps the shrink film A (referring to FIG. 4B), and the cutters 41 are moved horizontally to the center to cut off the shrink film A (referring to FIG. 4C). The cutoff shrink film A' is moved downwards and transformed by the second conveying roller sets 301 and 302, and the corresponding second rollers 311 and 312 to a 8-shaped shrink film sleeve A (as shown in FIG. 5) which is transported to the packing goods B on the rotary wheels 7 (as shown in FIG. 6) for wrapping the entire package goods B. Then the wrapped package goods B are transported to the thermosetting device 6 which has heated air to shrink and bond the shrink film A tightly on the package goods B (referring to FIG. 7).

Referring to FIG. 8, when the size of the package goods C increases, the elevation of the center struts 30 and 300 may be adjusted according to the size of the package goods C.

In the event that the distance between the rollers 310, 320, 311 and 312 and the conveying roller sets 31, 32, 301 and 302 is too large or too small, the tuning axles 50 of the tuning device 5 may be moved to adjust the distance between the rollers 310, 320, 311 and 312 and the conveying roller sets 31, 32, 301 and 302 (referring to FIGS. 9A and 9B).

Claims (7)

1. A twin shrink-wrap labeling machine, comprising: a station having one side mounting a thermosetting device and another side mounting a shrink film holding wheel; a film conveying device located above the shrink film holding wheel having a holding rack to hold a plurality of roller axles; a guiding device located below the roller axles including two sets of center struts each having an anchor plate located the top thereof and conveying roller sets located on an upper side, a middle side and a lower side of the periphery thereof, and rollers corresponding to the conveying roller sets; a cutter device located between the two sets of center struts and formed in a rectangular member which has two sides containing respectively an elastic element, the elastic element being coupled with a cutter; a tuning device having a tuning axle to couple with the rollers of the guiding device; and two circular rotary wheels located below the guiding device having equally spaced arched notches of the same shape formed on an end surface thereof; wherein the rotary wheels are rotated in opposite directions to carry two identical or different package goods that have been wrapped by a shrink film conveyed by the guiding device and cut off by the cutter device.

2. The twin shrink-wrap labeling machine of claim 1, wherein the distance between the rollers and the conveying roller sets is adjustable by the tuning device.

3. The twin shrink-wrap labeling machine of claim 1, wherein the center struts are formed in a round shape or a polygonal shape.

4. The twin shrink-wrap labeling machine of claim 1, wherein the conveying roller sets on the periphery of the center struts and the rollers are rotated correspondingly to move the shrink film.

5. The twin shrink-wrap labeling machine of claim 1, wherein the guiding device is covered by an upper lid and door panels to protect mechanisms contained therein.

6. The twin shrink-wrap labeling machine of claim 1, wherein the cutters of the cutter device are moved horizontally to the center to cut off the shrink film.

7. A twin shrink-wrap labeling machine substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings. DATED THIS 9TH DAY OF JULY 2004 Nan-Yuan Huang Fu-Chuan Huang By their Patent Attorneys LORD AND COMPANY PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA