Patent Application
20110122212
The invention relates to the manufacture of packages in a process that includes at least printing and cutting stages. Especially, the invention relates to the integration of such a manufacturing process into a complex, the centralized digital control of which provides flexibility and reliability and enables a product-specific verification and authentication.
Generally, product packages are manufactured from cardboard and similar materials, which can be processed as webs or sheets and on which colours, figures and symbols can be printed in a printing machine. In addition to printing, the manufacturing of the package can include surface treatment and cutting stages, folding, applying of size and other stages.
The printing that is included in the package manufacturing has conventionally been carried out by the offset technology that has well-known advantages, such as a uniform and high print quality, a relatively easy and quick manufacturing of the printing plates, and the long useful life of the plates. As an extension to the printing machine, there can be a lacquering stage, wherein the surface of the printed material is protected and it is given its desired final appearance either by using a water-thinnable or soluble lacquer. Other types of surface treatments are also feasible. At the following stage, package blanks are cut out of the printed material by a die-cutting press, and the creases, required by folds, are made. Size is applied on desired spots of the blanks and they are folded into their final form at the end of the manufacturing process.
One disadvantage of the conventional manufacturing process of the packages is its poor applicability to manufacturing of individual pieces or small series. It is difficult or impossible to join to the printing plates of the offset technology any part, which would produce varying figures. For example, the pharmaceutical industry needs packages, which can be individualized at an accuracy of a single package to enable the traceability required by the product liability, and so that the features of the package could be used to further the follow-up of the distribution chains and to distinguish original products from counterfeits. Providing the packages with individual identifiers in printing plants that use the offset technology has required the use of a separate inkjet, matrix or other printhead, in addition to the actual printing machine.
The pharmaceutical industry is also a good example of a client of the packaging industry that demands a high safety level. Different packages are not allowed to mix during the manufacturing process, so that no products packed in a misleading way would end up in the distribution and consumers' hands. The strictest safety regulations require that when the type of package produced on a production line changes, the workers must empty the machines and their surroundings of the materials related to the previous type of package before bringing in new materials. Moving the materials causes down time that is unproductive for the production, decreasing the effectiveness of the manufacturing; particularly, if the batches to be produced are relatively small.
The object of the present invention is to provide a method and an arrangement for manufacturing packages, so that the manufacture of single pieces and small series is quick, smooth and safe. Another object of the present invention is to improve the possibilities of the packaging industry to support the traceability and authentication of the products. A further object of the invention is to provide methods and arrangements for employing modular solutions on the production line of packages, so that the line can be flexibly designed and constructed to serve various purposes, wherein the high quality and safety requirements set for the packages and smooth production are emphasized.
The objects of the invention are achieved by assembling the production line of the packages from digitally controlled modules, which are capable of producing, distributing and/or utilizing digital control information at an accuracy of a single work-piece.
The manufacturing arrangement of packages according to the invention is characterized in that the arrangement comprises:
The manufacturing method of packages according to the invention is characterized in that the method comprises:
The digital printing machine has the feature known as such that even in series production it can produce individually changing prints and parts of prints, such as identifiers. A less known thing is that the digital control of the printing process also comprises other production and use of the control information that can be individualized at the accuracy of a single workpiece, when needed. For example, the digital printing machine can measure the success of alignment and, at the accuracy of a single printed sheet, store information about where the print fell on a sheet. The original use of the alignment information relates to the inner automatic adjustments of the digital printing machine, but if it is transmitted out of the printing machine, it can be utilized in the other stages of the manufacturing line, for example, in controlling the cutting or another subsequent processing stage.
When there are several stages on the manufacturing line of the packages, such as printing and cutting, other advantages are also achieved by the common digital control. The mutually different products may not necessarily need to be manufactured in separate runs, but the machines of the manufacturing line, which perform the various stages, can change their functioning smoothly during the run according to what kind of control information they are given and what kinds of observations they independently make, for example, by reading the identifiers printed on the workpieces. Through the centralized control, information generated at one stage of the process can be forwarded in advance, so that any of the subsequent working phases can be prepared for the coming change well before the first workpiece requiring the change arrives at the said subsequent working phase. Correspondingly, information generated at one stage of the process can also be transmitted backwards, for example, so that new workpieces are automatically prepared to replace those that have been removed from the process in midstream because of a defect. The centralized control can follow the advance of production lots and even single workpieces in the manufacturing process. It can be used to ensure, both during and after the manufacture that a correct number of workpieces have passed through each working phase in the right order.
The centralized digital control of the manufacturing line of packages provides many advantages. The manufacture of packages turns into a continuous process that works on the on-demand principle, from creating a work file all the way to individually identifiable end products, wherein the end products are packaging blanks, which have been subjected to at least one of the following operations: printing, cutting, creasing, sizing and folding. The process requires neither intermediate phases that are carried out by hand nor separate intermediate storing or moving of the products from one machine to another. The decrease in extra removals of items, interruptions and adjustment work saves time and energy, due to which the carbon footprint of the manufacturing process of the packages becomes smaller than previously.
In the following, the invention is described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, which are presented by way of an example, and the appended drawings, wherein
When the packages are manufactured, it could be assumed that the majority of prints produced by the digital printing machine 101 remain the same from one workpiece to another throughout a specific production series, but an individual identifier part can be printed on each workpiece. In order to easily utilize the information conveyed by the individual identifier part at the subsequent mechanical processing stages of the workpiece and/or the package that is later on made of the same, it preferably contains a machine readable identifier, such as a character string, bar code, two-dimensional bar code or another machine readable code. If the digital printing machine 101 is capable of handling electrically conductive printing inks, these can even be used to form on the workpieces electrical printed circuits, which can be fully or partly individual.
As an assumption about the sheet-fed machine was made above, the piece of raw material that is fed into the digital printing machine 101 can be called a sheet 102. The piece coming out is a printed workpiece 103.
The arrangement according to
One printed workpiece can be turned into one or more packaging blanks. There can be one identifier produced by the digital printing machine per printed work-piece or, more preferably, one per packaging blank. Several identifiers per printed workpiece and/or several identifiers per packaging blank can also be used. In that case, the identifiers can utilize the same technology (e.g., two bar codes in different parts of the package blank) or they can be completely different (e.g., a bar code printed with an ordinary ink and an electric circuit printed with a conductive ink). The identifiers can have different levels of hierarchy, e.g., so that a printed workpiece has an identifier of its own and the packaging blanks cut from the work-piece each have theirs, or that the packaging blanks cut from the same printed workpiece each have a common part, which individualizes the printed workpiece, and a specific part, which individualizes the packaging blank that is cut from the printed workpiece in question.
For transferring the printed workpieces 103 automatically from the digital printing machine 101 to the cutting machine 104, the arrangement of
Examples of digital printing machines, which can be used in the arrangement according to
Generally, folding the package mechanically into its final form requires creasing, which is carried out before the folding stage and which can be carried out in a separate creasing machine or be combined with the cutting or folding machines. As the advantages of the digitally controlled arrangement are brought out the best, if all of its stages use the technology suitable for the automatic handling of individual pieces, one preferred solution is to use a water cutter both as the cutting machine and the creasing machine. In that case, the water cutter is arranged to use a relatively high-speed water jet for cutting the packaging blanks from the work-pieces, and a considerably lower-speed water jet and/or a protective coating, which is placed between the water spray head and the workpiece and which stops the water jet, for making the creases. Another example of a creasing method, which is suitable for treating single pieces, is to use a digitally controlled creasing wheel or a pin-like creasing head. The head can have a bearing part, similar to the writing head of a ball-point pen.
The capacity (workpieces handled per a time unit) of a cutting machine that employs the die-cutting technology, in particular, can be considerably higher than that of a digital printing machine, the technique of which is known at the moment of writing this text. The difference in capacity can be exploited, so that any stage of the process between the printing and die-cutting is used as a buffer, which is arranged to temporarily store the printed workpieces, e.g., for the time of changing the die-cutting tool, so that they do not exit the scope of the digitally controlled process for the time of the temporary storage. The buffer is arranged to feed the temporarily stored, printed workpieces forward, when the die-cutting stage is operating again. The centralized digital control makes the fully automatic buffering possible: switching off the die-cutting machine produces a piece of control information, on the basis of which the digital control system transmits to the buffer stage instructions to start buffering. Correspondingly, restarting the die-cutting machine produces another piece of control information, on the basis of which the digital control system transmits to the buffer stage instructions to start feeding forward the temporarily stored printed workpieces.
In the arrangement according to
In the arrangement according to
Each supporting tube 402 has, by means of an L-profile 409, an E-profile 410 attached thereto, which extends on the side of the module almost throughout the length of the module. The grooves that belong to the E-profile are outside the outer sides of the module, which makes it easier to provide various attachments on the sides of the module. For example, the L-profiles 409 and the identifier holders 411 are attached to the grooves of the E-profiles by screws, which fit through the narrow part of the groove, their corresponding screws being in the wide part of the groove. To perceive the shape and position of the E-profile 410 more easily, the screws are not shown in
As the part that transfers the items to be conveyed, the conveyor module comprises one or more belts 412. The module example described herein comprises two sequential belts 412. The motor(s), belt pulleys and other parts that are needed to move the belts are provided inside the module in the space that remains inside the space defined by the belt(s). The same space also contains the electric circuits required by the power supply and the control logic of the module. The E-profiles 410 can be provided with a suitable number of holes, connectors and similar parts for arranging the power supply and information transfer between the module and the other parts of the system.
An essential controlling part of the module consists of a control logic 706, which can be, for example, a programmable logic circuit or a simple microprocessor.
For the items that are conveyed to move forward, the control logic gives to the next module, through the control information bus, a message about the items in space 808 and examines in space 809, whether the next module reports being ready. If it is not ready, the control logic returns to space 807. When the next module reports being ready, the control logic starts the motor(s) in the space 805 and then again goes around the loop formed by the spaces 805 and 806, until the items have moved as desired (e.g., until the photocell on the edge of the side of the next module has first reported a beam of light breaking and then again about a free passage of the beam). Thereafter, the execution of the program ends at stopping the belt in space 807 and the control logic is ready to execute the same program again.
Naturally, the program shown in
At stage 903, the printing machine takes in a sheet and, at stage 904, measures the alignment of the sheet. At stage 905, the printing machine prints the desired prints on the sheet, whereby it becomes a printed workpiece. At stage 906, the printing machine delivers the printed workpiece forward in the process. The delivery stage 906 may include reading the identifier on the printed workpiece, whereby information about having forwarded such a printed workpiece is stored in the memory of the printing machine. The stages 901-906 are known as such in the digital printing machine technology.
The process that employs the centralized digital control differs from the conventional use of a mere digital printing machine in that the information collected at one stage of the process can be utilized at the other stages of the process even at an accuracy of a single workpiece. Part of the activity of the process can be based on what is called metainformation, which consists of information that forms during the handling of printed workpieces and is stored in electric form, and which in the memory of the digital control system that controls the arrangement unambiguously pertains to a specific printed workpiece or batch of workpieces. Being a concrete part of the printed workpiece, the individual identifier that is formed on the work-piece by the digital printing machine is not metainformation as such. Instead, examples of metainformation comprise the information that the digital printing machine can store at stages 907 and 908: It may store in its memory, e.g., information about the moment at which a printed workpiece identified by a specific identifier was produced, how its alignment at the printing stage succeeded, when it was forwarded from the printing machine, which larger work unity it belongs to, and even what kinds of ambient conditions (temperature, humidity, dust concentration, vibration etc.) prevailed at the moment of its production. In
Another difference compared to the known digital printing machine technology, which uses batch processing for printing, is that the reading of input information described by the stage 901 may also include reading of supplementary input information, by which the digital control system directs the printing machine to produce substitute printed workpieces in place of those possibly produced earlier, which for one reason or another have not passed through the entire manufacturing process, as intended. For example, if a feeding failure occurs in the cutting machine, due to which some printed workpieces are ruined and it is not possible to cut proper packaging blanks from them, information about such packaging blanks (that are provided with individual identifiers) missing is formed at some reading stage of identifiers that pertains to the process, and may even circulate completely without the user's interaction through the digital control system to the printing machine, which automatically prints new ones to replace those.
At stage 911, the stacker receives information from the digital control system, concerning the size of stacks the printed workpieces should be stacked in and how their individual identifiers influence the stacking: e.g., workpieces provided with what kinds of identifiers should not be stacked in the same stack. When a specific printed workpiece is taken into the stacker at stage 912, its individual identifier is read at stage 913. On the basis of the identifier that was read and the input information received from the control system, a decision is made at stage 914 concerning the handling of the printed workpiece in question: should it be added to the stack being prepared or should a new stack be set up for it. Collecting the stack takes place at stage 915. The stage 916 describes the storage of workpiece-specific information in the stacker; this information may indicate, for example, when a specific printed workpiece identified by an individual identifier was transferred to the stack. When a stack according to the input information received earlier is ready, it is moved forward at stage 917.
In
At stage 923, the conveyor line carries out the transfers and possible turns of the conveyed items, which are needed to transfer the items to be conveyed to the next section of the arrangement. It is assumed above that the conveyor modules of the modular conveyor line contain an integrated logic, which controls the mutual communication of the modules and takes care of the advance of the conveyance. Naturally, it is possible to separately connect each conveyor module to the centralized digital control system of the arrangement, which would then arrange the control of the modules, but this would cause more complications in the control functionality required of the control system and impair the scalability of the solution that includes changing the number of conveyor modules.
The conveyor line does not necessarily contain any information collection functionality. For the sake of completeness, however, it is assumed in
At stage 1001, the cutting machine receives input information from the digital control system, e.g., about how the individual identifier of a printed workpiece indicates, by which cutting tool (or according to which digitally-provided cutting instruction) it should be cut. At stage 1002, the cutting machine receives a stack from the conveyor line and picks from it the printed workpiece next in turn to be cut at stage 1003. Reading the identifier is presented as stage 1004 and, on the basis of this; a decision about handling the workpiece is made at stage 1005. For example, if cutting tools that are replaced by hand are used, which the cutting machine however automatically identifies, the decision at the stage 1005 may allow cutting right away, if the right tool is in use, or discontinue the operation and call the user to replace the tool with a proper cutting tool. The actual cutting is shown as stage 1006 and collecting the information that describes the handling of the said workpiece and delivering it to the digital control system as stage 1007. The cutting machine (as well as the other machines) may include several identifier-reading stages, if the intention is, e.g., to monitor and identify the workpieces coming into the machine, but to also ensure, which ones of them have successfully passed through the machine.
As an example, a situation is conceivable, wherein the intention is to produce N number of type a packages and M number of type b packages, wherein N and M are integers, and a and b merely names of the package types used herein. Each package receives an individual identifier. The identifiers of the first packages form a series a(1), a(2), a(3), . . . , a(N) and those of the second packages form a series b(1), b(2), b(3), . . . , b(M). At the first stage, the digital printing machine prints a sufficient number of workpieces in order to produce from them the required N number of type a packages. At the same time, the digital printing machine produces the identifiers a1, a2, a3, . . . , aN on the printed workpieces. All of this takes place by going around the working phases 901-908 of
Let us assume that between the digital printing machine and the stacker, a failure occurs, as a consequence of which the printed workpieces fall off the process, which should have been used for manufacturing type a packages with the identifiers a(k), a(k+1), a(k+2), . . . , a(k+t), wherein k and t are integers and (k+t)≦N. Let us also assume that this takes place at such a late stage of printing the type a packages that the printing of type b packages has already started, when the consequences of the failure are discovered. When each printed workpiece arrives at the stacker, its identifier is read, corresponding to the stage 913. From the stage 916 and/or stage 918, information goes to the digital control system, indicating that given identifiers were lacking.
Depending on the way of programming the functions of the digital control system, it can correct the situation in various ways. In one example, the control system orders the stacker to stop stacking the printed workpieces that are related to the type a packages at stage 915, immediately after discovering that the following identifier that was read was not correct in sequence. The accumulated stack (the identifiers a(1), a(2), a(3), . . . , a(k−1)) is forwarded on the conveyor line and the rest of the printed workpieces (the identifiers a(k+t+1), a(k+t+2), a(k+t+3), . . . , a(N)) are stacked in a stack of their own. At stage 1001, the digital control system transmits information to the cutting machine, indicating that these two stacks should be cut in the manner of the type a packages and that, thereafter, a few type b packages are coming to be cut, and then again type a packages.
In the meantime, the digital control system, in the form of stage 901, has transmitted to the digital printing machine, a instructions to discontinue the production of printed workpieces for the type b packages and to reproduce the printed workpieces, from which the type a packages with the identifiers a(k), a(k+1), a(k+2), . . . , a(k+t) are manufactured. When the first one of these arrives at the stacker, the machine detects it at stage 913, stops stacking the printed workpieces, which have accumulated so far and which relate to the type b packages, at stage 915, and starts collecting a new stack of the printed workpieces related to the type a packages. Thus, the missing type a packages are manufactured quite automatically, and they merely come to the cutting machine slightly later than the others. Mixing the order can be avoided, if the conveoyr line includes a “side track”, which is parallel to the actual propagation path and onto which the conveyor line can transfer the stacks, which are collected in the right order as such to wait and after which one or more stacks of the printed workpieces that were missing from the previous order arrive. The final verification about a desired print succeeding is obtained by examining the information collected at stage 1007, indicating that all the desired identifiers on the packaging blanks coming out of the cutting machine have been read.
For example, the digital printing machine has its own bus interface 1121 for a connection to the control bus 1111. The processor 1122 of the printing machine communicates, through the bus interface 1121 and the control bus 1111, with the control computer 1101 and, inside the digital printing machine, with possible identifier readers 1123 and actuators 1124 of the digital printing machine. The corresponding control functions are also found in the other digitally controlled machines of the process: An example shows the stacker that comprises a bus interface 1131, processor of the stacker 1132, identifier reader(s) 1133 and actuators 1134. The other corresponding devices may include the conveyor line, cutting machine, creasing machine etc. As typical control bus solutions easily support dozens or even hundreds of units connected to the same bus, an optional number of digitally controlled machines that have a similar control can be connected through the control bus 1111 to function under the control computer 1101.
For the user, the control computer 1101 comprises a user interface 1106 and the actual user equipment interfaced therewith, such as a keyboard 1161, display 1171 and audio parts 1181. The audio parts may include, e.g., acoustic signalling devices or earphones. According to an embodiment of the invention, a local sound reproducer, such as an MP3 player, can be integrated into the control computer. It can be implemented, for example, so that the required programs are stored in the program memory 1103, and by executing these programs, the central processor 1102 (or an auxiliary processor provided for the purpose) can process, store and reproduce the digital audio files that are stored in the information memory 1104. The sound to be produced is directed through the earphones that pertain to the audio parts 1181 for the user to listen. The user is offered a chance to influence the execution of the programs, such as the selection of the audio files to be reproduced, by the keyboard 1161. The display 1171 can display information that is related to the execution of programs in a similar manner as the MP3 players that are implemented as off-line equipment or parts of personal computers.
The recording and reproducing equipment of audio files that is integrated into the control computer can also be used for purposes other than reproducing music to entertain the worker who operates the machine. Various instructions related to the performance of work tasks and the control of the package manufacturing process can be stored in the audio files, which instructions the worker can selectively listen to in various situations, as needed. One possibility is to connect a wireless microphone to the audio parts 1181, which the user in a state of emergency can take near the part of process that is malfunctioning and store the noise it makes in the form of a digital audio file in the information memory 1104. When the machine repairer later on comes to the site, (s)he may make use of the stored audio files when troubleshooting the failure in question.
For remote control and a possibility for large-scale automation of the processes, the control computer 1101 is preferably provided with a network interface 1107, through which two-way remote connections 1191 are feasible.
Only relatively short conveyor lines are dealt with above, their length from one machine to another comprising a few modules only. The invention does not limit the length of the conveyor line, i.e., the number of conveyor modules contained therein, if assembled from conveyor modules. For example, it should be taken into account that, for disturbance-free operation, the printing machine sets considerably stricter requirements for environmental factors (temperature, humidity, dustlessness, vibration etc.) than, e.g., the cutting machine. Therefore, it may be preferable to locate them in different rooms in the production area, whereby the conveyor line can be long enough to continue from one room to another, bypassing walls, columns and other obstacles, if necessary.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20085356 | Apr 2008 | FI | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/FI2009/050325 | 4/24/2009 | WO | 00 | 12/29/2010 |
