This application claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. ยง119, of German application DE 10 2008 019 482.4, filed Apr. 17, 2008; the prior application is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The invention relates to a packaging machine for goods in blister shell moldings to be sealed with a blister film. The packaging machine has a first transport system for a blister film web, a second transport system for blister shell moldings, a sealing apparatus for connecting a blister shell molding to a portion of the blister film web to seal the blister shell molding, a printing apparatus for applying optical information to the blister film web, and a dancing roller system for motional decoupling being arranged between the position at which the printing apparatus prints on the blister film web and the position of the sealing apparatus along the blister film.
A large number of different goods or products are bound, and/or presented to a potential customer or user, in blister packs. For this purpose, a blister pack contains a blister shell molding, which has at least one shell-shaped, concave, dimensionally stable shaping, in which one or more goods items can be accommodated. Familiar blister shell moldings typically consist of transparent or opaque plastic. The blister shell moldings provided with the goods are sealed with a blister film. Familiar blister films typically have one or more layers, with polymers, papers, boards or metals, such as, in particular, aluminum, being used as the materials. The packaging of pharmaceuticals, for example tablets, pills or capsules, in blister packs is particularly widespread. The blister film of these pharmaceutical packs is here frequently provided with an imprint.
The majority of such printed blister films, particularly in the form of webs, are today provided with an imprint outside of the actual packaging plants or packaging machines, in particular are produced in flexographic printing presses. Where the blister shell moldings are sealed within a packaging machine, the problem then arises that the length of the premade imprint on the blister film web does not always exactly conform to the length of the blister shell moldings, so that a stretching apparatus becomes necessary to draw the blister film to the necessary length before this is connected to the blister shell moldings.
Alternatively, it is also known to integrate a printing apparatus in a packaging machine in order to provide an initially unprinted blister film web with an imprint before it is fed to blister shell moldings to be sealed. Such an arrangement is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,200. In order to achieve a correlation of the printing onto the blister film web with the supply of blister shell moldings to a sealing apparatus in the form of a sealing roller, the printing apparatus is driven such that it is triggered in dependence on the sensor-detected location of the supplied blister shell moldings. In order to decouple the movement of the blister film web during the sealing operation from that during printing, a web accumulator for the blister film web is additionally provided between the position of the printing apparatus and the position of the sealing roller.
It has been shown in practice, however, that the print is exposed within a packaging machine to various influences which have a disturbing, in particular degrading effect upon the precision of the location of the print. For example, speed changes or speed variations arise in the supply of the blister film or blister shell moldings to the sealing apparatus, so that the time of generation of the triggering signal is defective. A web accumulator also gives rise to an additional inaccuracy. On top of this, the actual length of a blister shell molding, by dint of its production, can fluctuate about an ideal, theoretical length. In practice, it is therefore necessary to adopt further measures to increase the precision of the location of the print on the blister film.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a packaging machine for goods in blister shell moldings to be sealed with a blister film that overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art devices of this general type, which alleviates disturbing, in particularly mechanically conditioned influences upon the precision of the location of the blister film relative to the blister shell molding.
An inventive packaging machine for goods in blister shell moldings to be sealed with a blister film contains a first transport system for a blister film web, a second transport system for blister shell moldings, a sealing apparatus, the effect of which is to connect a blister shell molding to a portion of the blister film web in order to seal the blister shell molding, a printing apparatus for applying optical information to the blister film web, and a dancing roller system for motional decoupling being disposed between the position at which the printing apparatus prints on the blister film web and the position of the sealing apparatus along the blister film. According to the invention, the printing apparatus and/or the first transport system for the blister film web has/have an apparatus for insulating against occurring vibrations of the rest of the packaging machine at the position at which the printing apparatus prints on the blister film web.
Disturbing vibrations or movements of the packaging machine, particularly uneven movements or accelerations induced by the sealing apparatus, are advantageously prevented, according to the invention, from having a degrading influence upon the print. The printing apparatus, and/or that portion of the blister film web which is assigned to the printing apparatus for printing, is/are decoupled from undesirable movements of other parts of the packaging machine. In this way, in advantageous consequence, a precise target print onto the blister film can be achieved with the printing apparatus in the packaging machine. In other words, the quality of the imprint onto the blister film web fed to the printing apparatus, in particular of a multitude of different substrate types, can be enhanced. The influence of mechanical disturbances in the feed system is minimized. No dedicated (costly) drive mechanism for the printing system, the portion of blister film web under the printing apparatus, is necessary.
The packaging machine according to the invention can be, in particular, a pharmaceuticals packaging machine, for example, for tablets, pills or capsules. The packaging machine can also be referred to as a blistering machine. The print can be realized on one side or both sides of the blister film web. A one-sided printing on the subsequent outer side of the blister film of the blister pack is common. The sealing apparatus can operate in a timed or cyclical manner. The sealing of the blister shell moldings can be realized, in particular, by heat fusion or gluing. The printing apparatus can preferably be disposed along the blister film web before the sealing apparatus. The printing apparatus can be a digital printing apparatus, so that the imprint can be realized variably, in particular variably both in terms of its content and in terms of its size or shape. In other words, the length and/or position of an imprint produced with a digital printing apparatus is/are freely controllable. The printing apparatus can print on the blister film web, in particular also without contact. Directly before the printing apparatus, a displacement transducer can be provided. In particular, a blister shell molding, which is transported with the second transport device to the sealing apparatus, can be detected before the sealing apparatus. The sensor can be a reflex light barrier. The generation of the triggering signal can be realized, in particular, using a threshold value process. The blister shell moldings can be fed with the second transport device to the sealing apparatus linked or joined together in the form of a web. Alternatively, in one group of embodiments, the sealing apparatus can also be fed single blister shell moldings. For the purpose of sealing a blister shell molding with a piece of blister film, a portion can be cut off from the blister film web before the sealing apparatus. Alternatively, the end of the blister film web can first be connected in the sealing apparatus to the end of the web of linked blister shell moldings, and sealed blister shell moldings are then cut off from the web. The blister film web can consist, in particular, of a material mentioned in the introduction, for example an aluminum layer. The optical information can, in particular, be visible or visual.
Particularly preferably, in the process according to the invention, the printing apparatus is an inkjet printing system. In particular, the inkjet printing system can have one or more modules of drop-on-demand inkjet printing apparatuses. In other words, the use of an inkjet printing system is preferred. The inkjet printing apparatuses can have a plurality of discharge nozzles, which can be arranged, in particular, in lines. The inkjet printing system can preferably have a resolution greater than 600 dpi (dots per inch), in particular, for example, 720 dpi. The inkjet printing system can be constructed in page width for the entire width of the blister film web due to be printed on.
In one group of embodiments of the packaging machine according to the invention, the dancing roller system has a deflection roll, displaceable counter to the force of a restoring element, for damping longitudinal running vibrations of the blister film web. In other words, an apparatus for insulating against occurring vibrations of the rest of the packaging machine is integrated in the dancing roller system.
In a series of packaging machines, the transport system contains an unreeling device or an unwinding apparatus for the blister film web. The blister film web can here initially be unprinted, or printed only with static or general information.
In one refinement of the packaging machine according to the invention of the aforesaid series, along the blister film web, a further dancing roller system for motional decoupling is disposed between the position of the unreeling device and the position at which the printing apparatus prints on the blister film web.
In addition or alternatively to the described features, the packaging machine can have a number of mechanical vibration pickups (vibration dampers), by which vibrations acting on the printing apparatus are damped. In particular, the number of mechanical vibration pickups can be rubber-metal buffers or steel-wire-damped springs.
The packaging machine according to the invention can have a single motor drive for moving the blister film web along the printing apparatus.
In one refinement of the packaging machine, ink which can be dried with ultraviolet radiation is used, and the ink imprinted on a portion of the blister film web with the inkjet printing system is dried before the portion reaches the sealing apparatus. In particular, the packaging machine can for this purpose have a UV drying apparatus, which is disposed downstream of the printing apparatus along the path of the blister film web through the packaging machine, in particular is disposed upstream of the sealing roller. This prevents the print image from being destroyed on the printed side when the blister film web is deflected via rolls.
At least one deflection roll for the blister film web in the packaging machine according to the invention can be of crowned construction.
In addition or alternatively to the described features, in one refinement of the packaging machine a control unit can be provided, with which a guide mechanism for stabilizing the movement of the blister film web in the direction transversely to the feed can be driven.
In advantageous and preferred embodiments, the inkjet printing system contains a number of printing modules disposed in a carrier plate and a drain pan or purge pan with a cleaning apparatus accommodated on one side of the purge pan. The number of printing modules are movable in the vertical direction and are advanceable to the blister film web. The purge pan with the cleaning apparatus is movable in the horizontal direction from a parking position into a cleaning position below the printing modules, and back. In particular, the cleaning apparatus can contain a contactless vacuum extraction for ink from the printing modules.
For a person of ordinary skill in the art addressed by this representation, it will be immediately and abundantly clear that the cited features are herewith disclosed individually, and in feature groupings combined therefrom, and can be provided in processes according to the invention. In particular, from the order in which individual features are represented, it cannot be inferred that the first-named features must necessarily also be present in a specific combination of features.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a packaging machine for goods in blister shell moldings to be sealed with a blister film, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to the figures of the drawing in detail and first, particularly, to
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At the user interface (not diagrammatized) for the control of the printing apparatus 28, the following parameters, in particular, can be specified or selected: the number of cleaning cycles, the variation in cleaning speed and the variation in underpressure in the vacuum suction.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2008 019 482.4 | Apr 2008 | DE | national |