Containers of this kind are used for packag- ing e. g. pharmaceutical, dental or cosmetic products such that blind or visually impaired people can recognise the container by their sense of touch.

Background Art Known containers of this kind, as described in US 6,227, 371, are usually difficult and expensive to produce and/or are not suited for a wide spread use and acceptance by general customers which rely not on a re- lief-like surface as a recognition aid.

It is known to create a relief-like surface during an injection moulding process. This method has the disadvantage that changing the design of the relief can be very costly and time consuming. For every change the mould has to be adapted or be remade and the containers cannot be prefabricated. In the case of tubes, the only part which is fabricated by injection moulding is usually the head or shoulder of the tube. Generally, however, it is desirable to provide the main body of the container with a relief-like label.

It is also known to create a relief-like sur- face by hot-stamping or engraving a laminate foil, which is then used for making tubes. The engraving has to be performed in an early stage of the production of the laminate foil, since engraving at a later stage would im- pair its barrier function, in particular by harming lay-

ers of lacquer and/or foil. The disadvantages are similar to those of the injection moulding process described above. Changing the design of the relief is very costly and time consuming. The process is therefore not suited for small lots. For every change a new kind of laminate foil has to be made and it is not possible to prefabri- cate entire tubes.

A relief-like surface can also be created by attaching an embossed sticker or label to the container.

Such a sticker has the disadvantage, that it is usually not suited for flexible containers. In addition, only certain shapes of containers are suited for attaching stickers. Finally the overall visual appearance of a con- tainer with sticker is usually not as good as if the printing or embossment is applied directly on the con- tainer.

Disclosure of Invention A problem to be solved by the present inven- tion lies therefore in providing a container of the kind mentioned at the outset, which can be produced at a low price, and which allows to change the design of the re- lief more flexible than it is possible with known con- tainers.

This problem is solved by independent claim 1 by providing a container with a relief-like outer surface comprising in at least one area a layer of silk screen printing lacquer which is at least partially covered by a layer of hot-stamping foil.

A further problem to be solved by the present invention lies in providing a method for producing a con- tainer of the kind mentioned at the outset, which is less costly and allows to change the design of the relief faster and at a lower price.

This problem is solved by independent claim 8 by providing a method for creating a relief-like surface on a container wall which comprises the steps of applying a layer of silk screen printing lac- quer by silk screen printing to at least one first area applying a layer of hot stamping foil by hot stamping to at least one second area, wherein the at least one first area and the at least one second area overlap at least partially.

Brief Description of Drawings Further preferred features and aspects of the present invention are described in the dependent claims as well as in the following description, which makes ref- erence to the enclosed figures. These figures show: Figs. la to le cross sectional partial views of a preferred embodiment of a container with a relief- like outer surface according to the invention in differ- ent stages of its production, Fig. 2 a three dimensional cross sectional partial view of a container with a relief-like outer sur- face according to the invention, Fig. 3 a cross sectional partial view of a further embodiment of a container with a relief-like outer surface according to the invention, Fig. 4 a cross sectional partial view of a further embodiment of a container with a relief-like outer surface according to the invention, Fig. 5 a view of a tube with Braille symbols according to the invention, Fig. 6 a hot stamping apparatus and a tube in a cross sectional partial view.

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention The method for producing a container accord- ing to the invention is illustrated by Figs. la to le.

Each figure shows the container in a cross sectional par- tial view in a particular production stage. The method for applying a relief to a container according to the in- vention comprises substantially four steps.

Fig. la shows the container wall 1 before ap- plying the method according to the invention. The con- tainer wall is for example a laminate, comprising plas- tics and a metal layer. The container wall 1 is in par- ticular a Neopac Polyfoil0 laminate. The production proc- ess of the container body is substantially finished ex- cept for its outer surface.

In the first step a layer of W-lacquer 2 is applied. The lacquer is applied to the entire outer sur- face of the container wall 1. It provides a base for the subsequent silk screen printing. The lacquer is hardened using W-light. Lacquers suitable for application in this step are e. g. provided by Schekolin AG, Liechtenstein.

The container at the end of the first step is shown in Fig. lb.

Up to this point, no information about the shape, text and/or design of the particular label or re- lief is necessary. Therefore the processing up to this point is preferably done"inline". The following steps involve such label information and are therefore prefera- bly performed"off line".

In a second step a layer of silk screen printing lacquer 3 is applied to certain areas using a silk screen printing technique. By this step the actual relief is defined. The pattern of the relief can for ex- ample comprise Braille symbols, textures, letters and brand logos. The layer of silk screen printing lacquer 3 has preferably a thickness in the range of about 10 um to 100 um, in particular about 40 um which can be well per-

ceived by the sense of touch. The silk screen printing lacquer 3 is hardened using UV-light. It is also possible to perform the silk screen printing more than once to ob- tain a greater thickness. The container at the end of the second step is shown in Fig. Ic.

In a third step a layer of lacquer 4 is ap- plied to the entire surface, i. e. onto the areas with and without silk screen printing lacquer 3. The lacquer 4 is heat hardened. Heat hardened lacquers have the advantage that they have a better elasticity than UV hardened lac- quers. Lacquers suitable for application in this step are e. g. provided by Valspar Corp. , Minneapolis. The con- tainer at the end of the third step is shown in Fig. Id.

In a fourth step a foil 5 is applied to cer- tain areas and in particular to the printed areas using a hot stamping technique. In this process hot stamping is not applied to create a negative relief, but is rather applied to enhance the positive relief created by the silk screen printing of the second step, in particular by providing it with a protective layer. The hot stamping is therefore preferably performed using a relatively soft polymer cliche with a shore value of 90 or less, in par- ticular with a shore value between 85 and 60. Using a soft cliche assures that the positive relief created by the silk screen printing is not impaired. The use of a soft cliche also assures, that the barrier function of the container wall is not impaired. Hot stamping a nega- tive relief, in particular by using a hard cliche, would damage barrier layers. The hot stamping foil has prefera- bly a thickness between 10 and 15 um. The hot stamping foil can be transparent, coloured and/or metallised.

Suited hot stamping foils are e. g. provided by Leonhard Kurz GmbH & Co. KG, Furth, Germany. The container at the end of the fourth step, i. e. the finished container, is shown in Fig. le.

Fig. 2 shows a three dimensional cross sec- tional partial view of a container with a relief-like

outer surface according to the invention. A container wall 1 carries W-hardened lacquer 2, silk screen print lacquer 3, a heat hardened lacquer 4 and hot stamping foil 5. The shown arrangement can e. g. be used for Braille symbols. The arrangement of screen printing lac- quer 3 covered by hot stamping foil 5 is more resistant to wear than a sole layer of screen printing lacquer 3.

Fig. 3 shows a cross sectional partial view of a container with a relief-like outer surface according to the invention. The method for producing a container according to the invention allows to create different kinds of areas: First areas 7 to which silk screen print lacquer 3 was applied, second areas 8 to which hot stamp- ing foil 5 was applied, and third areas 9 to which both screen printing lacquer 3 and hot stamping foil 5 was ap- plied. By arranging these different kinds of areas be- sides of a relief various visual effects can be achieved without additional process steps. The UV-hardened lacquer 2 and the heat hardened lacquer 4 are both applied to the entire surface, i. e. to all areas.

Fig. 4 shows a cross sectional partial view of a further embodiment of a container with a relief-like outer surface according to the invention. In this embodi- ment a 3D texture is created using the method according to the invention. Containers which are designed in this way can be recognised by the blind very quickly, since large portions of the container can have a certain char- acteristic relief, than rather just a small field of Braille symbols. These textures have also the advantage that also special visual effects can be achieved e. g. by applying a metallised hot stamping foil 5 to certain ar- eas of the texture.

Fig. 5 shows a view of a tube 11 with Braille symbols 10 according to the invention. The Braille sym- bols are created by a layer of silk screen printing lac- quer 3 and hot stamping foil 5 as described above refer- ring to fig. 2. The tube 11 is flexible and preferably

made from a laminate material, such as the NEOPAC Poly- foil@ tube. The container according to the invention can also be a bottle or a flacon.

Fig. 6 shows a hot stamping apparatus and tube 11 in a cross sectional partial view. The tube 11 is carried by a rotatable mandrel 13. During hot stamping the mandrel 13 is rotated while the cliche 12 is moved horizontally along with the rotation. A similar arrange- ment can also be used in the lacquering or silk-screen printing. In each case a mandrel is rotated while the particular lacquer is applied.

According to embodiments of the invention de- scribed so far the method for creating a relief-like sur- face is applied to a prefabricated container, in particu- lar to a prefabricated tube. Alternatively the method for creating a relief-like surface can also be applied to a foil, wherein the container is fabricated later using this foil. However prefabricating containers has the ad- vantage that changing the text and design of the label or relief can be done faster and at a lower price.

The invention is in particular suitable for Braille labelling primary packages. In many known packag- ing systems only the secondary package is Braille la- belled. Braille labelling primary packages according to the invention reduces the risk that packages and thereby also their contents are mixed up significantly.