1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to rotatable labels, and more particularly to a system and method for constructing a rotatable label device.
2. Description of the Background Art
Most consumer product containers are labeled with various types of information, such as product directions for use, warnings, dosage amounts, ingredients, advertisements, artwork, and the like. This information normally takes the form of written indicia presented on a label wrapped around the container. In many instances, however, the available space on a single label is insufficient to display all the information a product manufacturer may wish to present.
To provide additional space for the presentation of information on a given container, it has been proposed that an outer label positioned around an inner label may be employed. The outer label typically has a transparent portion and, by rotating the outer label relative to an inner label attached to the container, the information on the inner label can be viewed through the transparent portion. Such a construction permits information to be presented on both the outer and inner labels, thus substantially increasing the available space upon which information may be presented.
Despite the advantages of having a rotating label on a container, it has been cumbersome to employ rotating labels, in most circumstances due, to the high cost and difficulty of applying such a rotating label to a container. One significant difficulty has been that the cost of applying rotating labels to containers (on a mass production scale) has been prohibitive for many applications. Conventionally, labels are applied to containers by applying a permanent adhesive to either the label or the container and then wrapping the label around the container to adhere the label to the container. This manner of application yields a label that is fixed, and not rotatable, relative to the container. This manner of application has, in the past, not been useful in mounting rotatable labels to containers because of the need for the rotatable label to rotate about, and not be permanently affixed to, the container.
Consequently, a need exists to provide a system and method by which a rotatable label may be cost-effectively mounted on a container without preventing the label from being rotatable relative to the container. Additionally, a need exists to provide an effective manner of mounting a rotating label to a container utilizing conventional label application machinery.
The present invention overcomes or substantially alleviates prior problems associated with the provision of a rotatable label. In general, an outer label, having a temporary adhesive disposed on a back surface adjacent to the label's leading edge, is temporarily coupled to a container. The outer label is then wrapped and secured around the container by placing the back surface trailing edge of the label, which has a permanent adhesive disposed on it, in contact with the leading edge front surface of the outer label. After the outer label is permanently secured about the container, the outer label is rotated relative to the container thereby subjecting the temporary adhesion to shear stresses and causing the temporary adhesion between the outer label and the inner container to fail. Once the temporary adhesion between the outer label and the container has been broken, the outer label may freely rotate about the container. Hence, the temporary adhesive temporarily couples the outer label to the container while the label is being wrapped about the container, but easily breaks free to permit the outer label to rotate relative to the container.
An alternative embodiment of the present invention entails applying the temporary adhesive to the container's exterior surface instead of applying the temporary adhesive to the back surface of the outer label. In another embodiment, the container has a fixed inner label and an outer rotatable label is coupled to the container via the fixed inner label. In addition to the above embodiments, in order to facilitate rotation of the outer label with respect to the inner label, a slip agent can be applied between the back surface of the outer label and the front surface of the inner label.
Additional features, advantages, and details will be apparent from the drawings and the detailed description as set forth below.
An adhesive 110, such as glue droplets or dots, is disposed on the outer label back surface 102 adjacent to a label leading edge 112 for temporarily adhering or coupling the outer label 100 to the inner label 205 as discussed below. In one embodiment, the adhesive 110 is temporary adhesive. Alternatively, the adhesive 110 is disposed on the inner label front surface 272. In another embodiment, there is no inner label 205 and the adhesive 110 is disposed directly on an exterior surface of the container 200. Further note that instead of temporary adhesive, other materials or methods may be used to temporary couple the outer label 100 to the inner label 205 such as applying water between the inner label 205 and the outer label 100, providing static electricity between the inner label 205 and the outer label 100, or applying a pressure to the outer label (e.g., near a leading edge 112) positioned against the container 200. An advantage to using adhesive alternatives is that it makes recycling of the inner label 205 and the outer label 100 easier.
A permanent adhesive 114 is also disposed on the outer label back surface 102 adjacent to an outer label trailing edge 116 and is further defined by an edge 118. Alternatively, adhesive 114 comprises a temporary adhesive to allow the outer label 100 to be easily removed from about the container 200. Once the outer label 100 is removed from the container 200, the label 100 could then be used as a game piece or coupon and/or have written indicia disposed on the back surface 102 of outer label 100.
Preferably, with the exception of the adhesive 110 and the adhesive 114, the label back surface 102 is substantially non-adhesive. Also note that a slip agent may be applied to outer label back surface 102 and/or inner label front surface 272 in this embodiment or the embodiments discussed below to create a coefficient of friction between 1.5 to 2.0 between the surfaces 102 and 272. The slip agent also prevents temporary adhesive 110 from getting into the pores of inner label front surface 272, thereby further lessening the strength of the bond between surfaces 102 and 272.
In this embodiment, and the embodiments discussed below, inner label front surface 272 may be coated with a varnish. The varnish impedes adhesive 110 from making a strong, permanent bond with inner label front surface 272. Further, if inner label 205 is coated with a varnish or a slip agent, the temporary adhesive can be replaced with a permanent adhesive, which will not permanently adhere to the inner label front surface 272 due to the presence of the varnish or slip agent disposed thereon.
As shown in
Preferably, the adhesive 110 should be in a sufficient amount, size, and geometry to temporarily adhere the outer label 100 to the inner label 205 while the outer label 100 is wrapped around the container 200. The adhesive 110 should also permit the adhered connection of the outer label 100 and the inner label 205 along the dots 110 to be easily broken by rotating the outer label 100 relative to the inner label 205 as discussed below. To accomplish this result, an adhesive that has decreased adhesive strength over time, such as a time-release adhesive, may be employed. An example of an acceptable adhesive 110 for this embodiment and the embodiments discussed below (also referred to herein as temporary adhesive) is hot pick-up cement sold under product number 284-332 by Ato Findlay Inc. of Milwaukee, Wis. An example of an acceptable permanent adhesive 114 is hot melt adhesive sold under product number 335-335 by Ato Findlay Inc. of Milwaukee, Wis.
Hot pickup cement 284-332 is a resin with a soft point of 165° F. It typically comes in the form of pick-ets (pellets) and has a low viscosity of about 278 cP at 250 °F. at 100 rpm. Its normal operating range is about 250° to 275° F. and has a staining point of 150° F. This temporary adhesive has an excellent pick-up bond that cools to a brittle bond, which is easily broken.
Hot melt adhesive 335-335 has a softening point of 162° F. and a thermal viscosity of 1,240 cP at 325° F. at 100 rpm. The density of hot melt adhesive 335-335 is 0.98 g/cc and has a suggested running temperature of 320° F. to 340° F. This permanent adhesive is versatile and adheres well to a variety of surfaces.
With the outer label 100 secured about the container 200 as shown in
In addition, a permanent adhesive 620 (illustrated with phantom lines) is disposed adjacent to trailing edge 630 on the back surface of inner label 605. As shown in
Instead, as shown in
As shown in
With the outer label 800 secured about the container 600 as shown in
In this embodiment, labeling machinery (not shown) may be used to cut the outer label 1800 from a roll of labels before applying the outer label 1800 to container 1400 as shown in
In
With the outer label 1800 secured about the container 1400 as shown in
At step 2350, labeling machinery places the leading edge of the outer label back surface in contact with the inner label, thereby temporarily securing, or adhering, the outer label to the inner label. At step 2360, the labeling machinery wraps and secures the outer label around the inner label so that the trailing edge of outer label back surface comes in contact with, and adhered to, the leading edge of the outer label front surface.
At step 2370, the outer label is rotated with respect to the inner label to break the adhesive bond formed by the temporary adhesive between the outer label and the inner label.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that either the cut-and-stack labeling machinery, roll-fed labeling machinery, or both, may be employed to apply the inner and outer labels to the container. For example, a roll-fed machine may apply the inner label and a cut-and-stack machine may apply the outer label, or vice versa. Alternatively, cut-and-stack machinery or roll-fed machinery may be used to mount both an inner label and an outer label to a container.
The outer label 3100 also includes a transparent portion 3112. The transparent portion 3112 is illustrated as being defined by edges 3114, 3116, 3118, and 3120. The transparent portion 3112 may include an open window with no material disposed between the edges 3114–3120. Alternatively, the transparent portion 3112 may comprise a transparent film or the like to permit viewing through the transparent portion 3112. As discussed in more detail below, the transparent portion 3112 permits an exterior of an underlying container, or underlying label, to be viewed through the outer label 3100.
A strip of adhesive 3122 is shown as being disposed on a rear surface 3124 of the outer label 3100 adjacent to the label second end 3104 and is further defined by an edge 3128. Advantageously, with the exception of the strip of adhesive 3122, the outer label 3100 rear surface 3124 is substantially non-adhesive. As is discussed in more detail below, the adhesive strip 3122 secures the label second end 3104 to the outer label front surface 3180 to form a rotatable label when the outer label 3100 is wrapped about an object, such as a container.
The release tab 3106, as discussed above, is releasably attached to the outer label 3100. In particular, the release tab 3106 has a rear surface 3126 with an adhesive applied thereon. The release tab 3106 is used to couple the outer label 3100 to a container, while the outer label 3100 is being wrapped around the object. In this embodiment, the release tab 3106 is advantageously shaped in a substantially triangular manner with a release tab back edge 3127 being positioned opposite a release tab apex 3129. As shown, the release tab apex 3129 is located at the intersection of the perforated edges 3108 and 3110.
The top label panel 3148, as shown in
In the configuration depicted in
The invention has been described above with reference to specific embodiments. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims. The foregoing description and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.
This application is a divisional application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/551,985 filed Apr. 15, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,402,872 entitled “Rotating Label System and Method” which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. Ser. No. 09/126,010 filed on Jul. 29, 1998 commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,086,697 issued Jul. 11, 2000 and entitled “Rotating Label System and Method” by Stephen M. Key, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference. The present application is also related to and incorporates by reference the following patents and patent application: (i) U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,269 issued May 29, 2001 for an invention entitled “Roll-Fed Method for Constructing a Rotatable Label System”; (ii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,809,674 issued Sep. 22, 1998, entitled “Apparatus and Method For Increasing An Effective Information Carrying Surface Area On A Container”; (iii) U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,421 issued Mar. 23, 1999 entitled “Apparatus and Method for Constructing a Rotatable Label Device”; (iv) U.S. Pat. No. 6,129,802 issued Oct. 10, 2000, entitled “Rotatable Label System and Method for Constructing the Same”; and (v) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/247,245 filed Feb. 9, 1999 entitled “Rotatable label System Including Tamper-Evident Feature And Method For Constructing Same”.
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Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 09551985 | Apr 2000 | US |
Child | 10005428 | US | |
Parent | 09126010 | Jul 1998 | US |
Child | 09551985 | US |