Apparatus for applying gummed labels to continuously advancing bottles or other objects

Abstract

In an apparatus for the application of gummed labels to continuously advancing bottles or other objects, comprising a rotating or oscillating glue-bearing pickup member, a continuously revolving glue applicator cylinder, a stationary stack of labels, and a continuously revolving gripper or vacuum cylinder, the improvement which comprises means for continuously advancing said pickup member along an endless path whereby it follows the configuration of and successively contacts the glue cylinder, the label stack and the gripper cylinder while assuming their peripheral speeds within the area of contact, said means including a non-uniform drive for the pickup member comprising a driving shaft, a lever on said driving shaft, and a cam-controlled driven shaft which is displaceable in axial direction and which carries the pickup member, said means further including an intermediate shaft carrying a pinion, a sun gear disposed concentrically about the driving shaft and meshing with the pinion, a cylindrical cam also disposed concentrically about the driving shaft, and a non-uniform drive mounted on the intermediate shaft, the pick-up member being driven from the driving shaft through the intermediate shaft and the driven shaft.

Description

The invention relates to an apparatus for applying gummed labels to continuously advancing bottles or other objects, in which a rotating or oscillating, glue-bearing pickup member is successively brought into contact, along an endless path, with a continuously revolving applicator cylinder, a stationary stack of labels, and a continuously revolving gripper or vacuum cylinder, and the pickup member not only follows the configuration of the glue cylinder, label stack and gripper cylinder but also assumes their peripheral speeds.

In view of the ever increasing requirements of bottle processing, especially in the handling of large labels within the low output range of labeling machines, of 6000 to 18,000 bottles per hour, it has been necessary to abandon the hitherto-common glue palettes which swing out of the endless path, because, on the one hand, the length of the labels is limited by the rolling range of the glue pallette and, on the other hand, the cost of construction in the low output range is too great. In addition, there has been a shift from moving to stationary label magazines to retain the advantages achieved thereby and to extend them to the low output range.

It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide an apparatus in which the labels are removed from a stationary label magazine by rotating and rolling glue palettes and then are carried to the objects to be labeled by means of an interposed gripper cylinder, which apparatus avoids the above-noted difficulties and disadvantages while still being simple in construction, reliable in operation and easy to attend.

These and other objects and advantages are realized in accordance with the present invention which relates to such a labelling apparatus provided with means for continuously advancing the pickup member along the endless path to follow the configuration of, and successively to contact, the glue cylinder, the label stack and the gripper cylinder while assuming their peripheral speeds within the area of contact. Such continuously advancing means for the pickup member comprises a non-uniform drive for the pickup member in turn comprising a driving shaft, a lever on said driving shaft, and a cam-controlled driven shaft which is displaceable in axial direction and which carries the pickup member, said means further including an intermediate shaft carrying a pinion, a sun gear disposed concentrically about the driving shaft and meshing with the pinion, a cylindrical cam also disposed concentrically about the driving shaft and a non-uniform drive mounted on the intermediate shaft, the pickup member being driven from the driving shaft through the intermediate shaft and the driven shaft.

The non-uniform drive on the intermediate shaft comprises a gear which is displaceable along the axis of the intermediate shaft under the control of a cam so as to perform a rotary motion. The cam control of the gear comprises a steep-spiral groove in said gear cooperating with a steep-spiral spindle portion on the intermediate shaft. Finally, there is provided a cam follower on the gear of the intermediate shaft, said follower following the cylindrical cam on the driving shaft and thereby effecting axial displacement of the gear on the intermediate shaft.

The advantages achieved with the apparatus reside especially in the fact that, through a transmission system of only moderate cost, it has become possible to match the pickup member to the particular shapes and speeds of the glue cylinder, the label magazine and the gripper cylinder. In addition, it is especially advantageous that labels up to a length of 180 mm can be handled by an easily maintained and easily accessible labeling apparatus. Furthermore, replacement of the pickup member for repair or for substitution of a differently constructed pickup member may be performed quickly and conveniently.

One illustrative embodiment of the invention is shown in the accompanying drawings wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic top plan view of the labeling apparatus, and

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the labeling apparatus.

Referring now more particularly to FIG. 1, there is shown a pickup member 1 moving along a stationary, flat, curved track 2 within an area bounded by a glue cylinder 3, a label magazine 4 and a gripper cylinder 5, the pickup member 1, with its active surface which is the glue palette 6, being adapted by means of the transmission described hereinbelow to the various shapes and the various speeds of the above-named labeling members 3, 4 and 5.

The manner of operation of the transmission for the pickup member 1 is best understood from the perspective representation in FIG. 2. A driving shaft 7 through its affixed lever 8 drives a pin 9 which with pinion 10 and shaft 11 forms an eccentric. A larger gear 12 is disposed on a stationary tube 13, the eccentrically mounted pinion 10 meshing in a non-uniform manner with the larger gear 12 and imparting to a double-arm lever 14, which is mounted for rotation on tube 13, not only the advancing movement of the pickup member 1 but also a slightly oscillating relative movement whose importance will be explained further below. Parallel to the lever 14 there is mounted on the lower portion of tube 13 a guiding arm 15 whose free end 16 serves as the bearing for the intermediate shaft 17. Intermediate shaft 17, having a second bearing, is at the free end 18 of lever 14, at its bottom end 19 carries a pinion 20. The intermediate section of shaft 17 carries a portion of a non-uniform drive, generally indicated at 21, which cooperates with a cylindrical cam 22 disposed concentrically about drive shaft 7 and fixed on the tube 13.

The pinion 20, which meshes with a stationary sun gear 23, transmits the rotational movement by means of gear 24 to gear 25 which is mounted on a driven shaft 26. This driven shaft 26, which is mounted in two arms 27 and 28, at its upper end carries the pickup member 1, which is of the quick-mounting type and thus is easily replaceable.

During one rotation of the intermediate shaft 17, the pinion 20 rolls on the sun gear 23 and sets the intermediate shaft 17 into rotation. At the same time a cam follower 29 runs in the cylindrical cam 22 and, pursuant to its configuration, longitudinally shifts a guding ring 30 and hence gear 24 of the non-uniform drive 21 on the intermediate shaft 17. Since this portion of the intermediate shaft 17 is constructed as a steep-sprial spindle 31, the gear 24 performs a relative rotation that will be more or less strong depending on the degree of axial displacement, this relative rotation being transmitted through gear 25 to the pickup member 1. In this manner the glue palette speed is matched to the peripheral speed of the glue roll 3, which is in contact with the glue segment 6, and of the label magazine 4, and of gripper cylinder 5. To achieve a proper application of glue to the palette, a proper label pickup or a proper label transfer, the active surface of the pickup member 1, that is the glue palette 6, must move along and contact the peculiar configuration of the labeling members 3, 4 and 5 and must be adapted to their speed, this being accomplished by means of a cam follower 32 mounted at the free end of arm 27 and guided in the curved track 2.

Thus, driving shaft 7 rotates on its own axis. Lever 8 is keyed to shaft 7 and through double-arm lever 14 causes intermediate shaft 17 to move about the axis of shaft 7, proper guiding being ensured by arm 15 and meshing of planetary pinion gear 20 with sun gear 23. Because arms 27 and 28 connect intermediate shaft 17 with driven shaft 26, movement of shaft 17 about the axis of shaft 7 causes shaft 26 also to move bout the axis of shaft 7, engagement of cam follower 32 in cam track 2 controlling the path of shaft 26 and of pickup member 1 carried thereon.

While shaft 7 rotates on its own axis cam 22 also rotates and engagement of follower 29 therein results in rise and fall of follower 29 and of ring 30 and gear 24 carried therewith. As gear 24 rises, inclined track 31 causes gear 24 to rotate on its own axis in one direction; as gear 24 falls it rotates in the opposite direction. These rotations are imparted through gear 25 and driven shaft 26 to pickup member 1 so the latter will pivot on its own axis at the same time it is being carried about track 2. This permits its speed at predetermined locations to be established at predetermined values.

To prevent the pickup member 1, which can pivot about the intermediate shaft 17, from being adapted to a change in the configuration of a particular labeling member 3, 4 and 5, on an arcuate path corresponding to a radius formed by the distance between intermediate shaft 17 and driven shaft 26, the initially described eccentric 9, 10 and 11 has been inserted into the drive. In this manner, by means of lever 14, the pivot point, namely the intermediate shaft 17, is always displaced during the revolution to such an extent that the pickup member 1 will move rectilinearly relative to the glue cylinder axis 33, gripper cylinder axis 34, or in the direction of the longitudinal axis of the label magazine 4, as the case may be. This ensures that the particular rolling action involved will be performed with a uniform speed.

For each particular speed of axes 33-34 there will be a particular speed of driving shaft 7 either through direct coupling (not shown) or independently adjusted motors.

It will be appreciated that the instant application and examples are set forth by way of illustration and not limitation, and that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. In an apparatus for the application of gummed labels to continuously advancing bottles or other objects, comprising a rotating or oscillating glue-bearing pickup member, a continuously revolving glue applicator cylinder, a stationary stack of labels, and a continuously revolving gripper or vacuum cylinder, the improvement which comprises means for continuously advancing said pickup member along an endless path whereby it follows the configuration of and successively contacts the glue cylinder, the label stack and the gripper cylinder while assuming their peripheral speeds within the area of contact, said means including a drive for the pickup member comprising a driving shaft, an intermediate shaft and a driven shaft, said driven shaft carrying the pickup member, a first arm linking the driving shaft and the intermediate shaft, a second arm linking the intermediate shaft and the driven shaft, a first cam about said driving shaft, a stationary gun gear about said driving shaft, a first cam follower carried on said intermediate shaft, a planetary gear on said intermediate shaft rotated therewith and meshing with said sun gear, whereby rotation of said driving shaft through said first arm causes said intermediate shaft to rotate about said driving shaft, engagement of the first cam follower with the first cam causing the follower to move up and down, a first gear on said intermediate shaft connected to said first cam follower so as to move up and down therewith, an inclined track connecting said first gear and said intermediate shaft, whereby upward movement of said first gear in response to the first cam configuration is transformed into rotational movement of said first gear in one direction and downward movement to opposite rotational movement, a second gear on said driven shaft driven by said first gear and causing said pickup member to rotate in one or the opposite direction in dependence upon the first cam configuration, a second cam generally surrounding said driving, intermediate and driven shafts, and a second cam follower on said second arm, whereby said second cam follower causes said driven shaft and pickup member to follow a closed rotary path while said pickup member is additionally caused to rotate more or less by the interengagement of said second and first gears, said first gear and inclined track and said first cam follower and first cam.