Patent Grant
11298911
The present application is a United States national stage application of International patent application PCT/IB2018/050602 that was filed on Jan. 31, 2018 designating the United States, and claims foreign priority to European patent application EP 17175901.2 that was filed on Jun. 14, 2017, the contents of both documents being herewith incorporated by reference in their entirety.
The invention is in the field of foil embossing. More particularly the invention relates to a method for making checkered style embossings as described in International patent application W02018116156, which is incorporated herein by reference, and for providing corresponding embossing rolls, and their use in a pair of embossing rolls for providing foils with shadowed areas.
The area of fine embossing of thin foils having a thickness in an approximate range from 30 μm to 120 μm using the rotational process, the foils being intended for packaging uses or decorative purposes, has been gaining in interest since the 1980s.
It is well known in the tobacco industry and food industries to emboss packaging foils using rotational embossing with rolls. Such packaging foils may for example be so-called innerliners that are intended to be wrapped around a bunch of cigarettes, or to be used as packaging material for chocolate, butter or similar food products, as well as electronics, jewelry or watches.
The innerliners used to be made from pure aluminum foils, such as aluminum foils used in households. These foils were embossed by feeding them into a roll nip between a pair of rolls. At least one the rolls comprised a topographical structure that defined for example a logo. Until the 1980s such a pair of rolls would comprise mostly one steel roll on which a profile would be formed, and a counter roll made from a resilient material, e.g., rubber, paper or Plexiglas. The imprinting or embossing of the profile of the logo-carrying roll, also called the pater roll, into the counter roll, also called the mater roll, would allow to obtain the mirror imprint of the logo in the foil.
More demanding logos would require to reproduce the topography of the pater roll in a layer of the mater roll, and the recessed parts on the mater roll corresponding to elevated parts of the pater roll would be excavated by etching or any other appropriate process. More recently such excavating and carving as been obtained using lasers. Since the achievable mechanical tolerances using mechanical tools were limited, the recesses could only be made in a relatively coarse grid, and were then used in the cooperation between a dedicated pater roll and mater counter roll. It was therefor always necessary to produce spare rolls in pairs, which is expensive. This made the manufacturing of such rolls prohibitively expensive for industrial embossing of for example innerliners for the tobacco industry.
In the search for an alternative embossing solution, from 1980 on, and following the filing of US patent application underlying U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,271 to the present applicant, a so-called pin up-pin up system has been introduced, wherein two identical steel rolls carrying a very large number of small teeth that intertwine to grip between each other and emboss paper that is fed in between. Logos are embossed by leaving out teeth entirely or partly from one of the rolls. Technical manufacturing constraints imposed between a roll and the counter roll a distance of a half step-length—this prohibited any brilliant embossing if any risk of perforating the material to be embossed was to be avoided.
Furthermore the pin up-pin up made it possible to produce a so-called satinizing effect whereby a large number of small recesses produced by the teeth give to the surface a matt, velvet-like appearance—which incidentally confers a more distinguished look to the embossed material.
Parallel to the evolution in the embossing technology and the manufacture of embossing rolls, there was also a change in the area of packaging materials. The initially massive aluminum foils were replaced by paper foils, the surfaces of which were coated with a thin metal layer, which has been getting thinner ever since the beginning for obvious environmental reasons. Most recently the metal layer was sputtered on the paper surface. It is expected that the metallization of the paper surface will become even thinner in future, or perhaps entirely disappear.
There are also considerations to depart from the classic cigarette packaging, wherein the cigarettes are wrapped in an innerliner, and this pack of wrapped cigarettes is stuck into a cardboard case. It is aimed to use instead a so-called soft-package, wherein there is merely an outer wrapping foil that performs both functions of firstly keeping the humidity inside the cigarettes and protecting the cigarettes from outer odors, and secondly conferring a determined stiffness to the package to mechanically protect the cigarettes.
The development of the roll manufacturing technology, in particular as known from the present applicant in for example U.S. Pat. No. 7,036,347, is allowing an ever larger diversity of decorative effects on innerliners and attractive visual effects for publicity. This is widely being used in the tobacco industry and in the food industry. There is however an incentive to reduce and sometimes eliminate the publicity, and hence it will not anymore be possible to emboss visually effective publicity to the same extent as today.
It is to be considered also that a fine embossing may only be achieved at the expense of a high cost and tremendous efforts for the manufacturing of appropriate rolls. Also, in such a case, when a pater roll and an inversely congruent mater roll are used to compress a foil that is passed between them, there are tensions produced in axial direction, which are no longer acceptable for the tobacco product paper. Moreover, there is a difficult to master limit to the occurrence of holes and very high pressures are required in a high-speed foil embossing process, in which the embossing time lies in the millisecond range. Finally, there appears to be a tendency to use thicker qualities of foil.
Patent publication EP 3 038 822 describes fine embossing for surface structures as described and mentioned herein above, and for various types of materials in an online process, whereby this encompasses figurative patterns and topographies. In EP 3 038 822 fine embossing comprises that the outlines of fine embossing structures on the rolls have a total linear mistake of less than +/−10 μm and an angle error of less than 5°.
Inverse congruent pairs of rolls allow as described in EP 3 038 822 to produce surface logos without having unacceptable tension in axial direction.
The solution of EP 3 038 822 is adapted mostly for relatively restricted surfaces.
Coming back to the already discussed pin up-pin up technology, this made it possible to produce a so-called satinizing whereby a large number of small recesses produced by the teeth give to the surface a matt, velvet-like appearance—which incidentally confers a more distinguished look to the embossed material. This technology has continued to be developed by the present applicant, and EP 0 925 911 B2 to the applicant describes a satinizing embossing by means of which, as described in column 4, line 18 of the publication, one tooth of a roller is surrounded at the time of embossing by 4 teeth of the counter roller, whereby this is in a rather lose manner in which the teeth only come into contact along their edges. Also, as described in column 3, line 48 of the publication, there is a relative axial play with which the rollers are mutually displaceable, which preferably corresponds to 0.75 of the tooth pitch. Hence the rollers are axially displaceable.
The publication EP 1 324 877 B1 to the present applicant, describes a system for making embossings that embosses packaging foils with signs that produce viewing position and/or light source dependent optical effects, hence enabling esthetic and security features. This is obtained with non-diffracting, but light reflecting topographical relief elements. Furthermore, it is essential for the use of the optical effects, that there be a reflecting layer (sputtered or laminated) on the foil, and that this layer has a sufficient reflectivity in the visible spectrum. As described in ¶10 of the publication, the effect is obtained using two rollers, one roller comprising non-modified teeth T1 and modified relief teeth T2—see
The process as described in publication EP 1 324 877 B1 does not take into consideration the already described evolution of the foils, since the increased requirements for brilliance and uniform pressure cannot anymore be achieved solely by means of teeth contact at the edges. The process accordingly merely produces a product by which the illuminating intensity is only reflected as a beam, which is diminished in intensity.
Prior art patent publication DK131333 teaches a checkered and uniform embossing pattern such as the one shown in
European patent application EP16205224.5 to the applicant makes use of the idea from the embossing pattern shown in DK131333, except that it does away with the hills H in the embossing pattern. This is, for example, shown in
It is an aim of the invention to provide an apparatus and a roller pair for a rotative embossing of structures in metalized foils, which produce optical reflective effects for decorative and security features, departing from technology described in EP16205224.5 and herein above, more particularly the embossing with a pair of rollers using on a first of the rollers a checker board like embossing pattern of positive projections and negative projections, whereby the positive projections are on the imaginative black squares, and the negative projections are on the imaginative white squares, and on a second of the rollers a matching embossing pattern which is positioned such that at a time of embossing, both embossing patterns interact like seamlessly and gaplessly homogeneously jointed intertwining structures to emboss the metallized foil such that each of the projections on each roll becomes surrounded on all sides by projections of the other roll. However, in contrast to the prior art technology, where the optical reflective effect produced by the embossed product is a shading effect that darkens the embossed product being viewed, i.e., less light amplitude is reflected at a determined viewing angle, the present invention aims not only to produce a shading effect but also an angle dependent adjustment of reflected light intensity.
Further, it is an aim of the invention to also provide a solution for fine embossing that allows to produce checkered-style and larger uniformly embossed areas in a step length of about 50 to 250 μm, the reflectivity of the embossed foil side of which may theoretically reach the same value as that of a blank mirroring surface of the foil.
Further, it is an aim of the invention to provide a configuration, which also reduces uncontrollable contraction in the axial direction while foils are being embossed.
Further, it is an aim of the invention to provide a solution that allows producing the fine embossing over areas in a homogeneous manner on the foil.
Further, it is an aim of the invention, in contrast to EP 1 324 877 B1 where the illuminating intensity may only be reflected as a beam diminished in intensity, to enable sharply adjustable reflection angles to produce new esthetic effects with the embossed foils.
In a first aspect, the invention provides a method of embossing individually light reflecting areas on a foil material, the method comprising feeding a foil material into a roller nip between a pair of rollers, wherein the pair of rollers comprises a motor roller and a counter roller, providing each of the motor roller and counter roller at least in a determined perimeter with a plurality of positive and negative projections on a checkered layout whereby positive and negative projections alternate in axial and radial directions. The positive projections of the motor roller together with alternating corresponding negative projections on the counter roller form during the operation of the rollers and in the roller nip, a first straight line substantially parallel to the axial direction. The negative projections of the motor roller together with alternating corresponding positive projections on the counter roller forming during the operation of the rollers and in the roller nip, a second straight line substantially parallel to the axial direction. Each positive projection extends from a base surface of its roller to a top side of the positive projection in a direction away from a rotation axis of its roller, and each negative projection extends from the base surface of its roller to a bottom side of the negative projection in a direction towards the rotation axis of its roller. During an embossing operation of the motor roller and the counter roller and in the roller nip, each projection of the motor roller is surrounded on all lateral sides by projections of the counter roller. On a roller each positive or negative projection not situated at the determined perimeter, is axially offset relative to the peripherally adjacent positive or negative projections respectively on the same roller. The method further comprises that the plurality of positive and negative projections of the counter roller seamlessly and gaplessly join with those corresponding negative and positive projections of the motor roller at the intended embossing of the foil material, hence enabling a homogeneously jointed embossed polyhedron shape in the foil, and shaping each positive and negative projection on the motor roller as an n-cornered polyhedron with a specific surface intended to produce on the embossed foil surface a corresponding individually light reflecting area, for each positive projection its specific surface corresponding to its top side, and for each negative projection its specific surface corresponding to its bottom side.
In a preferred embodiment, in the step of shaping, for the positive projections, the specific surfaces at the top sides belong to a first set of a plurality of specific surfaces, each of the specific surfaces intended to produce on the embossed foil surface a corresponding individually light reflecting area reflecting in respective different directions, and similarly for the negative projections the specific surfaces of the bottom sides belong to a second set of a plurality of specific surfaces, each of the specific surfaces intended to produce on the embossed foil surface a corresponding individually light reflecting area reflecting in respective different directions.
In a further preferred embodiment, in the step of shaping, for the positive projections, the specific surface extends down to the roller surface.
In a further preferred embodiment, the motor roller and the counter roller comprise steel, and are removably mounted in an interchangeable unit of an embossing system.
In a further preferred embodiment, the motor roller transmits its drive to the counter roller by means of toothed wheels.
In a further preferred embodiment, the method further comprises selecting a first set of side surfaces of the n-cornered polyhedron structures, that each extends from a bottom side of a negative projection to a top side of a positive projection, and are each parallel to each other and to a first plane, and engraving each of the side surface of the first set in a similar manner with a first light-diffusing element.
In a further preferred embodiment, the method further comprises selecting a second set of side surfaces of the n-cornered polyhedron structures, that each extends from a bottom side of a negative projection to a top side of a positive projection, and are each parallel to each other and to a second plane, whereby the second plane intersects with the first plane, and engraving each of the side surface of the second set in a similar manner with a second light-diffusing element.
In a further preferred embodiment, the first set of side surfaces is representative of a first pattern, and the second set of side surfaces representative of a second pattern, whereby when the embossed foil material is illuminated in a determined first angle and viewed in a corresponding second angle, an first image of the first pattern may be viewed, and when the embossed foil material is illuminated in a determined third angle distinct from the first angle, and viewed in a corresponding fourth angle, a second image of the second pattern may be viewed.
In a second aspect, the invention provides a roller stand for embossing individually light reflecting areas on a foil material, comprising a pair of a first roller and a second roller defining a roller nip within which said material is adapted to be fed, each roller being provided at least in a determined perimeter with a plurality of positive and negative projections on a checkered layout whereby positive and negative projections alternate in axial and radial directions. The positive projections of the motor roller together with alternating corresponding negative projections on the counter roller form during the operation of the rolls and in the roller nip, a first straight line substantially parallel to the axial direction, and the negative projections of the motor roller together with alternating corresponding positive projections on the counter roller forming during the operation of the rollers and in the roller nip, a second straight line substantially parallel to the axial direction. Each positive projection extends from a base surface of its roller to a top side of the positive projection in a direction away from a rotation axis of its roller, and each negative projection extends from the base surface of its roller to a bottom side of the negative projection in a direction towards the rotation axis of its roller. During an embossing operation of the motor roller and the counter roller and in the roller nip, each projection of the motor roller is surrounded on all lateral sides by projections of the counter roller. On a roller each positive or negative projection not situated at the determined perimeter, is axially offset relative to the peripherally adjacent positive or negative projections respectively on the same roller. Further the plurality of positive and negative projections of the counter roller seamlessly and gaplessly join with those corresponding negative and positive projections of the motor roller at the intended embossing of the foil material, hence enabling a homogeneously jointed embossed polyhedron shape in the foil. Each positive and negative projection on the motor roller is shaped as an n-cornered polyhedron with a specific surface intended to produce on the embossed foil surface a corresponding individually light reflecting area, for each positive projection its specific surface corresponding to its top side, and for each negative projection its specific surface corresponding to its bottom side.
The invention will be understood better through the description of preferred embodiments, and in light of the drawings, wherein
The roller surface 60 may be located on a motor roll, which cooperates with a counter roll to emboss a foil material that is fed into a roll nip between the motor roll and the counter roll (not shown in
The roller surface 60 comprises a plurality of positive projections P and P′, and negative projections N and N′. The positive projections P and negative projections N are laid out in a first checkered layout 61 whereby positive and negative projections alternate in axial direction d-d′ and radial direction r-r′. Similarly, the positive projections P′ and the negative projection N′ are in a second checkered layout 62 whereby positive and negative projections alternate in axial direction d-d′ and radial direction r-r′.
The first checkered layout 61 is delimited partly by a substantially flat surface S, which is surrounded by positive projections P and negative projections N. The surface S is empty of any positive projections P and negative projections N, and at a time of embossing with a counter roller (not shown in
The second checkered layout 62 is delimited by an L-shaped perimeter, which for sakes of an example is 6 projections high in axial direction d-d′ and 4 projections wide in radial direction r-r′, each bar of the L-shape being 2 projections wide. The L-shaped perimeter is surrounded by the surface S.
For each respective first and second checkered layouts 61 and 62, the positive projections P and P′ of the motor roll form with alternating corresponding negative projections on the counter roller (not shown in
Similarly for each respective first and second checkered layouts 61 and 62, the negative projections N and N′ of the motor roll form with alternating corresponding positive projections of the counter roller (not shown in
Each positive projection P extends from a base surface of the motor roll—which in
Similarly each positive projection P′ extends from a base surface of the motor roll—which in
In
While the shape of the positive projections P′ is shaped as a pillar with oval circumference, this is also not an actual shape envisaged, but only a generic shape, the pillar being selected only to differentiate from the positive projection P, and indicated that the shape of the positive projections P′ may be different from the shape of the positive projections P. In other words, the shape of the positive projections P′ may be a n-cornered polyhedron—same or different as positive projection P—with its specific surface intended to produce on the embossed foil surface (not shown in
An order of magnitude for the structures in the embossing pattern of
Also represented in a generic manner in
The specific surfaces are light reflecting areas of the embossed foil material intended to reflect light incident. This is a property of the embossed structures, resulting from the shape of the n-cornered polyhedrons, which is not explicitly illustrated in
On the motor roller 83, a series of positive projections P1, P2, P4, P4 alternate with a series of negative projections N1, N2, N3, N4, all negative and positive projections being aligned according to axial direction d-d′. The positive projections P1, P2, P3, and P4 comprise specific surfaces SP1, SP2, SP3, and SP4 at their top side intended to emboss light reflecting surfaces R1, R2, R3, R4 in the foil material 80, as shown in the sectional view of embossed foil material 80 in
The counter roller 84 comprises negative projections CP1, CP2, CP3, CP4 corresponding to positive projections P1, P2, P3, P4 respectively, and positive projections CN1, CN2, CN3, CN4 corresponding to negative projections N1, N2, N3, N4 respectively.
The motor roller 83 and the counter roller 84 are illustrated separated at a distance with a foil material 80 to be embossed between the two rollers. At the time of embossing the motor roller 83 and the counter roller 84 are moved towards each other, forming a roll nip—not shown in
In a particular embodiment, in which the specific light reflecting surfaces R1, R2, R3, R4, RR1, RR2, RR3, RR4 have an angle of 45° with the mean surface of the embossed foil material, light incident along the first direction perpendicular to the foil material is reflected in a direction parallel to the embossed foil material mean surface (not illustrated in
A distance separating two specific surfaces of negative projections 1103 is indicated by X2.
As a result of the embossing with the embossing structures of
The first roller 1200 and the second roller 1201 may comprise steel, and may be removably mounted in an interchangeable unit of an embossing system.
In the present example, the female die roller is driven by the driven male die roller 1306 in each case via toothed wheels 1309 and 1310, which are located at an end of the rollers. In order to ensure the demanded high precision of synchronization, the toothed wheels are produced very finely. Other synchronization means are also possible, e.g., electric motors.
When pushed into the mountings, a roller axle (not shown in the
As will be shown through
Returning now to
When shining the beam of directional light 1403 from a light source 1404 onto the side surface 1401 without any light-diffusing element 1402, as shown in
By extending light-diffusing elements as discussed in relation to
A limiting element of the image formation is the contrast necessary to create the visual dimming effect of the light-diffusing element, e.g., the light-diffusing element 1402 of
The combination of all four detrimental effects will determine the final quality and the contrast of the picture formed by modulating the reflections on the individual faces of the embossing structure.
Mechanical Tolerances
The embossing pattern according to the invention is for use in fine embossing.
Fine embossing may be defined by mechanical tolerances that are applicable to the manufacture of the fine embossing structures on the rollers, i.e., to positive and negative projections. More precisely, in case of fine embossing, the outline of the embossing structures on the rollers may have a total linear mistake in axial or radial direction of less than +/−7 μm and/or a radial angle mistake of less than 0.4°.
The tolerances for fine embossing structures are applicable for example to the manufacture of positive projection structures P and negative projection structures N of the embossing configuration shown in
In a further preferred embodiment, a roller having a length of 150 mm—thus measured in axial direction—and a diameter of 70 mm will show positioning errors for the projections which may deviate from the desired position by
whereby a height of a positive projection or depth of negative projection is in the order of 0.1 mm and this height has a tolerance of +/−5 μm. For an angle of two oblique lateral surfaces that are adjacent, 1 from a positive projection and the other from a negative projection on the counter roller, of for example 80°, it is desired to achieve a tolerance of less than 5°. Hence, rollers manufactured in this way will have a maximal linear mistake of +/−7 μm, and errors resulting from embossing with such rollers will be below 20 μm.
It may only be affirmed that a difference that was explicitly wanted is there if a linear deviation between the positive projection and negative projection of approximately 5 μm or more is present, as well as an angle deviation of at least 4°. The upper limit in the differences between the geometrical structures is set by the requirement that the rollers must in any case be able to cooperate with each other in an undisturbed manner.
As a matter of principle, any mechanical or laser manufacturing fails to produce absolutely plane walls when working on steel because of the natural properties of steel. This of course makes is difficult to determine angles between walls.
Any deliberate difference on an embossed foil, embossed by two corresponding and mutually attributed structures from cooperating rolls, will finally be dependent from the type of foil material, of its consistency as well as of the thickness of the material to be embossed.
Hence, for example, the total linear difference for the embossing of a foil with 30 μm thickness will be around 40 μm, but for the embossing of a foil with, e.g., 300 μm thickness, it will be around 120 μm relative to an axial embossing length of 150 mm.
Shading Structures
The embossing structures according to the invention may—in at least a preferred embodiment—be configured to enable the embossing of additional shading structures intended for producing an optical shading effect when light is projected on the embossed material. Generally speaking, such configuration involves providing at least a lateral surface of a positive and/or a negative projection, on at least one of the rolls in the pair of rolls, with shading structures.
Shading structures have been provided as scratches on material's surfaces in prior art, for example when rendering surfaces of gold wristwatches bodies matt. In the case of thin films or foil materials, such as used to make package innerliners, for example, it was to date only possible to produce shading effects by grading or deforming the pyramids—see for example EP 0 925 911 and EP 1 324 877. When using gradations it remains challenging to produce a local shading effect by which the shadow effect is independent from an angle of view. One exception, which allows obtaining a better contrast, consists in removing embossing structures, generally pyramidal structure—this enables the creation of optical logo surfaces.
The technology known as pixelization involves making on the surfaces of the thin films or foil materials a relatively large number of densely packed and randomly arranged pixels, which have individual heights of for example 10 μm from the embossing surface. This enables to prevent any direct reflection of light projected on the surface rather than having the surface acting as a mirror. Light projected on the thus modified surface may even be absorbed depending on the size of the pixelization. Hence, this allows producing very fine gradations that produce pleasing esthetical effects.
The shading structures fit on the lateral surfaces of the positive and negative projections without impeding the process of fine embossing. In case the positive projections and negative projections have respectively a flattened top or bottom, the shading structures may also be made on the flattened top or bottom surfaces of the projections.
In a further preferred embodiment, the shading structures may for example be fitted on selected lateral surfaces of the truncated pyramid 1102 shown in
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17175901 | Jun 2017 | EP | regional |
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| PCT/IB2018/050602 | 1/31/2018 | WO | 00 |
| Publishing Document | Publishing Date | Country | Kind |
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| WO2018/229557 | 12/20/2018 | WO | A |
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