Technical field

The present invention relates to a labelling machine for labels printed on pre-pasted continuous film.

Background art

Labelling machines are known that are designed for the application on containers of labels printed on a continuous film that is wound in the form of a reel.

Such machines comprise a rotating carousel provided with supporting plates for the individual containers, adapted to turn the containers about their own axis, and the continuous film that unwinds from the reel arrives, after being passed through several devices that ensure its alignment and correct tension, at a rotating drum provided with blades which is adapted to receive and retain, so that it clings to its own surface, the film in order to cut the labels and bring the individual labels, separated after cutting, into contact with corresponding containers supported by the carousel. The rotating drum is called "cutting and transfer drum".

Such machines suffer a lack of functional flexibility because they can function correctly only if they are used to operate on labels that have a length proximate to an optimal length that coincides substantially with the distance between two contiguous blades on the cutting and transfer drum, which is called the "pitch"; only in this case are the containers designed to receive the labels imparted a rotation speed about their own axis which first and foremost does not cause problems of stability for the containers which feature increasingly lower characteristics of resilience, and also ensures a good quality of tack of the label.

Disclosure of the invention

The aim of the present invention is therefore to devise a labelling machine that is provided with good characteristics of functional flexibility, so as to be capable of operating correctly on labels that have different lengths.

This aim and other objects that will become better apparent hereinafter are achieved by a labelling machine according to the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

Brief description of the drawings

Further characteristics and advantages of the invention will become better apparent from the description of a preferred, but not exclusive, embodiment of the invention, illustrated by way of non-limiting example in the accompanying drawings wherein:

- Figure 1 shows a schematic plan view of a labelling machine according to the invention;

- Figure 2 is a perspective view of the cutting and transfer drum of the machine;

- Figure 3 is a perspective view of the cutting and transfer drum with two circumferential portions of peripheral shells removed;

- Figure 4 shows a plan view of the cutting and transfer drum with the peripheral shells removed;

- Figures 5, 6 and 7 show the three possible configurations that can be assumed by the cutting and transfer drum, with the circumferential portions of peripheral shells in a slightly exploded view.

Ways of carrying out the invention

With reference to figure 1, the machine according to the invention comprises a carousel 1 which rotates in the direction of the arrow, and is provided with supporting means such as supporting plates 2 for individual containers turned about their own axis according to the arrows in the figure. The containers are arranged to arrive at the supports of the carousel by means of an intake star wheel 3 a, and to be removed by means of an exit star wheel 3b.

The reference numeral 4 indicates a reel of pre-pasted film 5 that continuously produces the printed labels.

Upon unwinding from the reel 4, the film 5 passes to a device 6 for alignment and adjustment of tension and to a feeder 7, and finally arrives at a cutting and transfer drum 8 which is shown in figure 1 and which is now described in detail with reference to figures 2 to 7.

In these figures the reference numeral 9 indicates a structure for supporting actuation means for individual blades designed to cut the labels, which are indicated respectively with 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 and are associated respectively, as shown in figure 4, with the blades 10a, 11a, 12a, 13a, 14a, 15a, 16a and 17a.

Figure 4 shows the mutual positioning of the actuation means, and therefore of the respective blades, on the supporting structure 9, and it can be seen that the blades 10a, 11a and the blades 11a, 12a are mutually spaced by 60°, the blades 12a, 13a and the blades 13a, 14a are spaced by 30°, the blades 14a and 15a and the blades 15a, 16a are spaced by 60° and, finally, the blades 16a, 17a and the blades 17a, 10a are spaced by 30°.

Figure 3 illustrates the shape of the actuation means for the blades designed to cut the labels. These means are all the same, and therefore only the means associated with the blade 12a will be described.

The means thus comprise a slider 12b actuated by a linear electric motor 12c, and provided with means for the quick coupling and uncoupling of the blade, in their turn comprising a plate 12d adapted to hold the blade against a ridge that stems from the slider following an action on screws by the user.

The actuation means are each provided with the corresponding blade according to three distinct groupings, such that each one causes the presence of a determined number of circumferentially equidistant blades.

With the addition of portions of peripheral shells which will now be described, three different configurations are defined.

A first configuration, shown in figures 2, 3 and 5, provides for the presence of three blades 10a, 12a, 15a mutually spaced by 120°, and this configuration is completed by the first group of portions of peripheral shells provided with the drum according to the invention, indicated respectively with 18, 19, 20, provided with known means for retaining the film 5, so that it clings to its own surface, by aspiration of air through holes 18a, and removably locked by means of pressure levers 21. Such portions of peripheral shells are adapted to be inserted between the blades that are present so as to form, as can clearly be seen in figure 2 in particular, a continuous cylindrical surface for supporting the film.

The second configuration, shown in figure 6, provides for the presence of four blades 11a, 13a, 15a, 17a mutually spaced by 90°, and this configuration is completed by the second group of portions of peripheral shells provided with the drum, indicated respectively with 22, 23, 24, 25.

The third configuration, shown in figure 7, provides for the presence of six blades 10a, 11a, 12a, 14a, 15a, 16a mutually spaced by 60°, and this configuration is completed by the third group of portions of peripheral shells provided with the drum, indicated respectively with 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31.

It can thus immediately be seen how it is possible to optimise the functioning of the labelling machine according to the invention simply by changing, with very simple manoeuvres, the configuration of the cutting and transfer drum, thus passing from one of the configurations described above to the next, each configuration being characterised by a well-determined value of the pitch of the corresponding blades. Obviously the configuration to be selected will be the one which has the pitch value that is most proximate to the value of the length of the labels that the machine has to handle, and in this way the condition, which as previously disclosed underlies the optimisation of the operation, and which requires a substantial correspondence between the value of the pitch of the blades and the value of the length of the labels, will be sufficiently approximated.

The invention as described is susceptible of numerous modifications and variations, all of which are within the scope of the appended claims.

Moreover, all the details may be replaced with other technically equivalent elements.

The disclosures in Italian Patent Application No. MI2009A002131 from which this application claims priority are incorporated herein by reference.

Where technical features mentioned in any claim are followed by reference signs, those reference signs have been included for the sole purpose of increasing the intelligibility of the claims and accordingly, such reference signs do not have any limiting effect on the interpretation of each element identified by way of example by such reference signs.