Patent Application
20060260740
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for laminating substrates with laminating film. More particularly, the present invention relates to a home or office use, cold seal, manual, pull though, thermal trimmed continuous adhesive web laminating device.
2. Background Information
Laminating devices are commonly used for encapsulating media such as cardstock, paper or the like between thin laminating coating, namely clear or transparent plastic film sheets. The plastic encapsulation provides a more durable article that is less disposed to damage from water, is smear-proof, and which maintains its original shape and appearance for a much longer period of time. Items such as driver's licenses, photo ID cards, business cards, display articles and photographs, are a few examples of items that may be protected using laminating techniques.
Originally, laminating devices employed thermal setting adhesives in order to activate the encapsulation coating. These methods normally required an electrical power source for the laminating coating and were designed for larger commercial office operations. Later, cold lamination methods were developed, using adhesives. These cold laminating devices are also typically designed for large scale operations, and not economical for an individual or small business operation. Within the meaning of this application, such non-thermal setting laminating coatings will be referred to as cold sealing or cold seal coatings or laminations.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,580,417, 5,735,998, 5788,806 and 5,961,779 all disclose a complex multi-purpose laminating and adhesive transfer apparatus which has a frame or housing with mounting means for receiving a cartridge which is insertable to supply material to perform the necessary laminating or adhesive transfer operation. The cartridge has a box-like housing in which upper and lower supply rolls containing webs of laminating or adhesive transfer material are rotatively secured. The rolls have tensioning caps which can be adjusted to prevent the supply rolls from overrunning as they pay-out material. The caps are pre-set in accordance with the operation being performed and the characteristics of the material. The tensioning caps may be pre-set by the material supplier at the time they are inserted into the cartridge. The user selects the cartridge appropriate to the operation to be performed for either adhesive transfer (e.g. label making) or laminating.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,431244 describes a complex laminating apparatus having a pair of upper and lower pinch rollers that are disposed at the paper feed-out side of the sheet cassette. Both pinch rollers are structured so as to rotate in synchronization with a turn of an external handle. Paper put on a paper supply tray is fed to the gap between the upper and lower sheet rollers, and the paper is sandwiched there between and laminated while drawing the upper and lower sheets. A laminate thus formed is cut in a direction perpendicular to a feed direction of the paper) using a lateral cutter blade. Accordingly, the paper laminated by sheets of a PET film (laminate) can be obtained. However, in the previous laminating apparatus of this type, the paper, which is a laminate target, is manually inserted into a sheet laminating unit for laminating an upper and lower sheet in the sheet cassette after putting the paper on the paper feed tray. Therefore, this patent suggests that there is a problem that it is burdensome to manually perform the inserting operation. In response, this patent proposed a motor-driven laminating apparatus. The paper feed rollers, the pinch rollers, and a pair of paper feed-out rollers are synchronized with each other and driven via an electric motor and a power transmission mechanism, thereby automatically supplying paper on the paper supply tray to the sheet laminating unit.
These prior art devices, however, include are costly and inefficient to operate and maintain, and thus unacceptable for convenient home and office use.
The various embodiments and examples of the present invention as presented herein are understood to be illustrative of the present invention and not restrictive thereof and are non-limiting with respect to the scope of the invention.
According to one embodiment of the present invention addressing at least some of the above stated objects a laminating device includes a housing having an open end configured to receive a substrate to be laminated there in, a pair of rolls of adhesive backed laminating film rotatably coupled to the housing and adapted to have the laminating film feed there from, and a thermal trimming unit provided with an electrical resistance-heating element designed to melt and sever the laminating film to trim the final laminated substrate.
In one non-limiting embodiment of the present invention the invention includes that the thermal trimming unit is moveably mounted on the housing. The thermal trimming unit may include a switch that is configured to be closed as the thermal trimming unit is moved to a trimming position. The electrical resistance heating element of the thermal trimming unit may be a wire that is battery powered. The housing may include a base with a groove therein, wherein the wire of the thermal trimming unit is configured to at least be partially received within the groove when in the trimming position. The rolls may be configured to manually advance the laminating film through a manual pulling of the laminating film from a forward end of the housing.
In one non-limiting embodiment of the present invention the invention includes that the rolls are formed as part of a replaceable cartridge. The compact, cold seal, thermal trimmed laminating device according to one non-limiting embodiment may further comprise a pair of curved guides disposed between the tape rolls which are formed integral with the replaceable cartridge.
In one non-limiting embodiment of the present invention the invention includes that the housing has brackets configured to receive the rolls in a replaceable position, and that the housing is of a molded construction.
The compact, cold seal, thermal trimmed laminating device according to one non-limiting embodiment may further comprise a side trimming unit that can trim the width of the laminating film. The side trimming unit may be adjustable to selectively trim the laminating film to a desired lamination width.
The compact, cold seal, thermal trimmed laminating device according to one non-limiting embodiment may further comprise pressure roller or rollers disposed transversely between side walls of the housing and configured to engage against the laminating film and the substrate.
The present invention further provides, in one non-limiting aspect of the invention, a method of laminating a substrate. The method comprising the step of providing a compact, cold seal, thermal trimmed laminating device including a housing having an open end configured to receive a substrate to be laminated there in, a pair of rolls of adhesive backed laminating film rotatably coupled to the housing and adapted to have the laminating film feed there from, and a thermal trimming unit provided with an electrical resistance-heating element designed to melt and sever the laminating film to trim the final laminated substrate. The method further includes the steps of manually inserting the substrate to be laminated in the open end of the housing engaging the opposed film from the rolls, whereby the adhesive backed film will engage both surfaces of the substrate securing the substrate to the laminating films; manually grasping the leading ends of the film from the rolls at another end of the housing; pulling the film to rotate the rolls and manually advance the film and the associated substrate until the substrate is entirely passed the trimming location of the trimming unit; and actuating the thermal trimming unit to engage the laminating film and sever the laminating film to form the laminated substrate.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be clarified in the description of the preferred embodiments taken together with the attached figures.
The device 10 includes a pair of generally clear plastic adhesive backed tape rolls 12, 14 that form the laminating film. The rolls 12 and 14 may have different grades of film and adhesive coating thereon as known in the art. For example a transparent tinted film could be used for a color lamination. A relatively thick film could be used for a relatively heavy duty lamination. The adhesive must have a low enough shear strength to allow the laminating film to be peeled from the roll, which is of general skill in the art. It is preferable that the rolls 12 and 14 do not use a release layer construction which would increase the scrap generated with machine use. The rolls 12 and 14 may be referenced as tape rolls, adhesive rolls, laminating film rolls, adhesive webs, or other terms generally known in the art to reference the roll of adhesive backed laminating film. The rolls 12 and 14 obviously form a finite length of laminating film, however such rolls 12 and 14 are far longer than typical substrates 40 to be laminated, such that, relative to the substrate 40, the rolls 12 and 14 are “continuous adhesive webs”. The continuous references that the same web or roll 12 and 14 is used for multiple substrates 40, whereas certain prior art lamination systems have discrete lamination sheets (i.e. non-continuous) that conform to a single substrate 40. As described below the device 10 is designed as a “pull through” system to advance the substrate and the film from the rolls 12 and 14. Hand crank gear coupled drive rollers could also be used for manual advancement (as known from prior art systems), but the pull through system of the present invention, as shown, is considered to be less complex, easier for replacement of the rolls 12 and 14, and more economical. Consequently the pull through current system is preferred.
The rolls 12 and 14 are mountable on spools 16 and 18, respectively, which traverse the laminating device 10, through the tape rolls 12 and 14, between sidewalls of the housing 20. The spools 16 and 18 may have any conventional construction that allows for easy rotational mounting of the rolls 12 and 14 on the housing 20. The housing 20, or frame assembly, of the laminating device 10 will generally be a molded plastic unit for ease of manufacture and to easily provide an atheistically pleasing overall configuration.
As shown in the embodiments of
The device 10 includes a thermal trimming unit 30, also called a cutting bar, moveably mounted on the housing 20. The unit 30 may be spring biased to the non-trimming position shown in
As shown in
Further, the device 10 may have a side trimming unit 48 that can trim the width of the laminating film to a desired lamination width. This alternative may be preferable to a series of different width machines or devices 10 such as shown in
One or more guide or pressure rollers 46 may be provided disposed transversely between side walls of the housing 20. The guide roller 46 (or rollers) will provide a pressure roller to engage against the laminating film and the substrate 40 to form a tight connection between the opposed laminating film to form a final laminated substrate 50 with minimal imperfections (e.g. air bubbles). The roller(s) 46 may be mounted directly between the side walls of the housing 20 with a resilient construction (i.e. rubber or the like) sufficient to maintain pressure on the substrate 40 and associated film while accommodating substrates of some variable thickness. A spring biased mounting of the roller(s) 46 may also be used to maintain pressure on the laminating film and substrate 40.
In operation the user will merely manually insert the substrate to be laminated in the open rear side of the housing 20 between the guides 22 and 24 and engaging the opposed film from the rolls 12 and 14. The adhesive backed film will engage both surfaces of the substrate 40 securing the substrate 40 to the laminating films. The user can then grasp the leading ends of the film from the rolls 12 and 14 at the forward end of the housing 20, which will typically be on the base 42 immediately adjacent the groove 38 (due to the previous trimming operation). The user will pull the film, which will rotate the rolls 12 and 14 and advance the film and the associated substrate 40. If the substrate 40 is a relatively long member then the user can pull the film at the forward end of the device 40 with one hand while supporting and pushing the substrate 40 with the other, however in most application the initial coupling between the film and the substrate 40 at the initial insertion of the substrate 40 will be sufficient coupling to have the film pull the substrate through without further assistance. The substrate 40 and laminating film from rolls 12 and 14 will be advanced through the device until the substrate 40 is entirely passed the trimming location of the trimming unit 30 (i.e. beyond the groove 38). At this point the trimming unit 30 is slid downward, closing the switch 36, activating the heating element 32 of the cutting wire to heat and sever the laminating film to form the laminated substrate 50. The leading ends of the laminating film from rolls 12 and 14 will be adjacent the groove 38, ready for the next lamination of a subsequent substrate 40.
The laminated substrate 50 may have the width of the laminating films trimmed with separate tools as desired, or, in an alternative embodiment, the side trimming unit 48 can be slid into a desired trimming position on the base 42 prior to the lamination procedure to provide for a width adjustment.
Whereas particular embodiments of this invention have been described above for purposes of illustration and in the attached summary sheet, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that numerous variations of the details of the present invention may be made without departing from the invention.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/682,156 entitled “Adhesive Roll Laminating Device” filed May 18, 2005.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 60682156 | May 2005 | US |
