APPARATUS FOR PROCESS FOR WRAPPING A ROLL OF PRESSURE-SENSITIVE SHEET MATERIAL

Abstract: Apparatus for wrapping a roll of pressure sensitive sheet material comprising means for rotating a roll about its longitudinal axis at a wrapping location and means for feeding interleaved foam and synthetic plastics film material and wrapping it around said roll whilst it is rotated.

Description: The present invention relates to apparatus and a process for wrapping a roll of pressure sensitive sheet material and is particularly although not exclusively applicable to a process for wrapping and protecting a roll of pressure-sensitive carbonless copy paper by simultaneously wrapping interleaved layers of stretch film and packaging foam onto the roll of carbonless paper. Heretofore, stretch wrapping machinery manufacuturers have marketed equipment which combines spiral wrapping of stretch film with limited non-spiral wrapping of a single face corrugated medium or a kraft wrap. Machines have also been developed which provided foam wrap in one operation and then kraft wrap in second operation, and have required a substantial amount of the wrapping process to be performed by hand. Problems have occurred in the prior art with the existing foam/kraft packages. Sepcifically, these packages using kraft wrap cannot apply foam over the edge of a roll of pressure-sensitive carbonless paper without producing a bulkly edge that makes roll stacking difficult. The absence of foam over the edge if the roll of carbonless paper leaves the roll subject to edge damage. Prior to this time a sufficient wrapping procedure of a final wrapped package has not been achieved in the art which would require only a relatively limited capital cost and produce a resultant packaged product which is easy to handle. United States Patent Specification 4565051 discloses a method and apparatus for wrapping a cylyndrical article with layers of stretch film. The article is rotated about an axis and the stretch film is wound around the article substantially in the axis of the article. A further layer of material is also wrapped around the article by rotating the roll of material around the article itself. The winding of the second layer is interrupted a in pre-determined position and the rotation of the article continues the stretch film is laterally reversed so that the film is wound in the opposite winding direction. This method employs two separate strips of stretch material and although it covers the edges of the aricle being wound for example a roll of paper, the apparatus is complicated because one of the rolls of stretch material has to be rotated around the article itself, thus requiring additional mechanisms. Even with this arrangement the edges of the roll or article are only protected by a thin layer of film which is insufficient to prevent damage if the article is dropped onto its edge. In this specification there is also reference to the wrapping material being paper board or the like. Once again this would provide inadequate protection. Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide apparatus and a process for producing a foam wrap package for protecting for example a roll of pressure-sensitive carbonless paper utilising the simultaneous wrapping of interleaved layers of film and packaging foam. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a unique foam wrap package which can be easily handled without damaging the sheet material and which can be achieved with low production costs. According to the present invention apparatus for wrapping a roll of pressure sensitive sheet material comprises means for rotating a roll about its longitudinal axis at a wrapping location and means for feeding interleaved layers of foam and synthetic plastics film material and wrapping them around said roll whilst it is rotated such that the interleaved layers extend over the edges of said roll. In preferred construction said feeding means causes said interleaved foam and film to overlap the peripheral edges and onto the end walls of said roll. The invention also includes a process for wrapping a roll of pressure-sensitive sheet material which includes rotating a roll about its longitudinal axis and wrapping it with interleaved layers of foam and synthetic plastics film material whilst it is rotated, and to a roll of sheet material wrapped by the process set forth. The invention can be performed in various ways and two embodiments of apparatus and processes will now be described by way of example and in which: Figure 1 is a side view of apparatus for providing interleaved film and foam wrapping around a roll of carbonless paper with its longitudinal axis substantially horizontal; Figure 2 is a side view of apparatus for providing interleaved film and foam wrapping around a roll of carbonless paper with its longitudinal axis substantially vertical; Figure 3 is a plan view of the core-vertical wrapping apparatus of Figure 2; and, Figure 4 is an exploded view of a completed wrapped package of the present invention. Figure 1 is a side view of a device for providing core-horizontal interleaved film and foam wrapping around a roll of carbonless paper with its longitudinal axis horizontal. A roll of carbonless paper typically varies from 24 inches in diameter such as that shown at 10, to 51 inches as a maximum diameter such as that shown at 12. Depending upon the end use of the carbonless paper, the width thereof will also vary. Unprotected rolls of pressure-sensitive paper are loaded onto a movable conveyor 14 prior to a wrapping operation. The conveyor 14 is then actuated to position the roll 10 or 12 in a rest position between a kicker roller 16 shown in its rest position and a nip roller 18 positioned in an opposing relationship to kicker roller 16. Nip roller 18 is affixed to one end of a nip roller arm 19 which pivots about a nip roller pivot shaft 17. Kicker roller 16 is supported by a pivoting kicker arm 30, the kicker arm 30 being automatically actuated by hydraulic cylinder 20 to press the kicker roller 16 against a roll of carbonless paper, either roll 10 or roll 12, and press the same up into a wrapping position such that the weight of the roll of carbonless paper substantially rests on driver roller 22. The carbonless roll of paper is thus securely positioned in a supporting relationship by kicker roller 16, drive roller 22, and nip roller 18. The hydraulic cylinder 20 grips the kicker arm 30 via a mounting bracket 32 and is anchored at its opposing end to a rotator roller support 34. The rotator roller support 34 is fixed to base 28 of the wrapping structure. A hold-down arm 24 is supported by a vertically extensible support beam 26 in an inverted "L" shape. The base 28 supports the remainder of the film and foam wrapping subassemblies. A pair of opposing roll stabilizers 35 descend from wrapping arm 24 in combination with positioning rollers 36 to securely position the carbonless roll of paper in its wrapping position as it rests on drive roller 22. At the start of the wrapping operation, drive roller 22 rotates in a counterclockwise direction in order to rotate the carbonless roll in a clockwise direction. Rotation of the drive roller 22 is accomplished by a first d.c. motor 38 or other similar power source which causes rotation of a drive sprocket 42 attached to base 28. A belt or chain 40 passes around drive sprocket 42 and the axis of drive roller 22 to cause rotation thereof upon power-up of the motor 38. Upon initiation of the rotation of the carbonless roll (10 or 12), stretch film 46 is fed from film roll 44 toward the rotating roll of carbonless paper. The leading edge of stretch film 46 may be secured to the carbonless roll by a double-faced splicing tape 88 at a vacuum plate 90 so that the stretch film 46 is attached to the carbonless roll upon its initial contact with the stretch film 46. The vacuum plate 90 is supported by a vacuum plate actuator arm 94 which is in turn operated by a vacuum plate air cylinder 92. The roll of stretch film 44 is held in a film cradle 48 and is in frictional contact with a plurality of spring retarded omni rollers 50 set in the film cradle 48. The stretch film is guided through a pin through a pinch roll gib 52 including an idler pinch roll 54 and a driven pinch roll 56. A spring return air cylinder 58 is provided in a position beneath the pinch roll gib 52 for selectively bringing the idler pinch roll 54 into contact with the driven pinch roll 56 when stretch film 46 is being fed toward the rotating carbonless roll. After approximately one-half rotation of the carbonless roll, wrapping foam 60 is fed from a foam wrapping roll 62 through a foam guide 64 and a pinch roll mounting angle 66 toward the rotating roll until it is inserted between the stretch film 46 and the rotating carbonless roll at a tangential angle to the rotating carbonless roll. The pinch roll mounting angle 66 includes a foam idler pinch roll 68 and a foam driven pinch roll 70. A spring return air cylinder 72 is mounted to the pinch roll mounting angle 66 by a cylinder mounting plate 74. The spring return air cylinder 72 selectively brings the idler pinch roll 68 into contact with the driven pinch roll 70 when foam 60 is being fed from microfoam roll 62 toward the rotating carbonless roll. The carbonless roll rotates so that stretch film 46 and packaging foam 60 are interleaved in a layered type relationship around the periphery of the carbonless roll. Usually three rotations of the carbonless roll are performed to adequately protect the carbonless roll, but any number of rotations required to achieve a desired roll protection are acceptable. When a sufficient number of rotations have occurred to provide an adequately wrapped package, a foam cutting knife 76 operates to slice the packaging foam 60. The foam cutting knife 76 is mounted within a foam cutoff slide plate 78 which is in turn formed on a foam cutoff mounting bracket 80. The foam cutting knife is responsive to the actuation of a spring return air cylinder 82 provided in connection with the foam cutoff slide plate 78. Subsequent to the cuting operation performed by the foam cutting knife 76, an adhesive applicator assembly, shown generally at 84, is positioned by an air cylinder 86 to direct adhesive toward the trailing edge of foam 60. The stretch film 46 is cut by film cutting knife 96 after cutting of the packaging foam 60 has occurred so that the stretch film 46 will have a longer trailing edge than the packaging foam 60. Preferably, an additional two rotations of the carbonless roll should be provided in order to finish the wrapped carbonless roll with stretch film. As the stretch film 46 is wrapped around the carbonless roll, it is stretched at the peripheral surface of the roll such that any portions of stretch film 46 overlapping the roll edges tend to shrink and draw the packaging foam 60 up against the ends of the carbonless roll. Thus, there is a differential in the amount of tension applied to the stretch film 46 once it is wrapped around the carbonless roll, which aids in producing a compact final roll package. Rotation of drive roller 22 terminates when the wrapped package is complete, and kicker roll 16 falls backward to allow the wrapped package to come to rest once again on conveyor 14. Subsequently, conveyor 14 operates to move the wrapped package away from its position between kicker roller 16 and nip roller 18. The wrapped package can then be manually or automatically removed for convenient stacking and shipping without fear of damaging the carbonless paper thereunder. The foam utilized in the present process is preferably a fixed width of 35.6 cm (14 inches). Whenever a carbonless roll of paper being wrapped is greater in width than about 26.7 cm (10-1/2 inches), spiral wrapping is employed to provide sufficient roll surface protection and overlap at the edges of the carbonless roll. Spiral wrapping is achieved by automatically traversing frame member 98 which supports the foam packaging roll 62 and associated feeding elements, the stretch film roll 44 and associated feed elements, across the width of the carbonless roll until the entire width has been spirally wrapped. The remaining procedures are identical to that described in connection with the process of interleaving foam and film onto the carbonless roll in Figure 1. In order to provide three layers of spiral wrapped foam it will obviously be necessary to rotate the carbonless roll more than three times. It should be noted that the drive roller 22 may be substantially greater in width than the width of nip roller 18. This is due to the fact that nip roller 18 need not be of a much greater width than either the packaging foam 60 or stretch film 46 which is being applied to the carbonless roll of paper. The drive roller 22, however, should be of a great enough width to rotate a relatively large cross-section of a carbonless roll. As such, a large roll can easily be rotated by drive roller 22, and the carbonless roll can then be spiral wrapped for protection. This arrangement eliminates the need for varying widths of stretch film 46 and packaging foam 60, thus reducing material costs and the problems associated with predicting the widths of supplies. Figure 2 is a side view of a device for providing core-vertical interleaved film and foam wrapping around a roll of carbonless paper. In the core-vertical wrapping operation, frame 100 supports a top platen 102 upon which are provided air bags 104. Beneath the roll of carbonless paper 10 or 12, pop-up arms 106 are provided for lifting the carbonless roll off the conveyor 14 during a wrapping operation. Conveyor side frames 108 support a plurality of conveyor rollers 110 and a film clamping device 112. In the vertical wrapping operation, there is provided a vertical foam roll drive device 114, and a foam turning bar 116 with a foam dispensing head 118. Figure 3 is a top view of the core-vertical wrapping device shown in Figure 2. It can be seen from Figure 3 that there are two sources of packaging foam 60 wich are fed from a foam roll mandrel 120 toward the foam dispensing head 118, such that upon depletion of one roll of foam, another may be immediately initiated in order to prevent substantial downtime during wrapping operations. Similar to the device shown in Figure 1, stretch film roll 44 dispenses stretch film 46 toward a rotating roll of carbonless paper. Subsequent to the initiation of wrapping by the stretch film 46, the packaging foam 60 is introduced at a tangential angle between the film 46 and the rotating carbonless roll. Spiral wrapping may also be achieved by a vertical traversing film dispenser 122 and a vertical traversing foam dispenser 144 which traverse up and down the length of the rotating carbonless roll during the wrapping operation. As is also shown in Figure 3, there is provided an infeed conveyor section 124, a spinning conveyor portion 126, and an outfeed conveyor 128 which eliminates the need for manual handling of the rolls of carbonless paper except for initial loading and final unloading onto and from the conveyor, respectively. The roll of carbonless paper 10 is rotated by a spinning conveyor 126 in a clockwise direction while packaging foam 60 and stretch film 46 are applied thereto. A turntable 130 is positioned such that pop-up arms 106 are centrally located beneath the carbonless roll and the spinning conveyor 126. The spinning conveyor 126 acts as a turntable in the wrapping operation, but then aids in the removal of the wrapped carbonless roll toward the outfeed conveyor 128 subsequent to a wrapping operation. Figure 4 is an exploded plan view of a completed wrapped package of the present invention. Regardless of the width of the roll of carbonless paper, the roll is covered with interleaved film and foam to a thickness of from 0.64 cm to 1.3 cm (1/4 to 1/2 inch). The film and foam will overlap the edge of the carbonless roll as shown at 132 from about 5.1 cm to 12.7 cm (2 to about 5 inches). Segments of a 1.9 cm (3/4 inch) wide double-faces tape 134 are applied to the film overlap 132 in a circular pattern approximately 3.8 (1 1/2 inches) from the edge of the roll to the center of the tape so that end covers 136 and 138 can be firmly affixed in a manual press-on type fashion to the film edge. The covers are substantially the diameter of the wrapped package roll so that the entire roll of carbonless paper is protected by either film and foam or the end covers. Core plugs 140 and 142 are pushed into the core of the carbonless roll in order to position and hold the end covers flush to the roll. The resulting package is produced as a result of the wrapping process performed by the foam wrapper, and yield interleaved foam and film layers tightly wrapped about the face and edges of a roll of carbonless paper to provide a total package material thickness of from 0.64 cm to 1.3 cm (1/4 to 1/2 inch). The finished package is free of wrinkles, bagginess and waffling and has a smooth tight overlap around the edges. To provide the foam wrap process and package of the present invention, a stretch film of 150 gauge to 200 gauge of either low linear density polyethylene (LLDPE) or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) stretch film may be used. Additionally, any one of several polyolefin packaging foams, such as polypropylene or polyethylene having approximately a 0.32 cm (1/8 inch) thockness may be used. A double-faced splicing tape, preferably approximately 1.9 cm (3/4 inch) wide is also used. The end covers can be corrugate headers of the "E" type with a 7.6 cm (3 inch) diameter center hole to correspond to the core of the roll of carbonless paper. The core plugs utilized are generally of a plastic flanged type. The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same may be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications as would be obvious to one skilled in the art are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.

Claims: 1. Apparatus for wrapping a roll of pressure sensitive sheet material (10, 12) comprising means (22, 38) for rotating a roll (10, 12) about its longitudinal axis at a wrapping location and means (52, 56, 58, 64, 68, 70) for feeding interleaved layers of foam (60) and synthetic plastics film material (46) and wrapping them around said roll about its longitudinal axis, whilst the roll is rotated such that the interleaved layers (60, 46) extend over the edges of said roll. 2. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 in which said feeding means (52, 56, 58, 64, 68, 70) causes said interleaved foam (60) and film (46) to overlap the peripheral edges and onto the end walls of said roll. 3. Apparatus as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 in which the width of said film (46) is less than the length of said roll (10, 12) and said feeding means (52, 56, 58, 64, 68, 70) are moved in a transverse direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the roll during rotation of the roll to provide spiral wrapping of the foam and film material (60, 46). 4. Apparatus as claimed in claims 1 to 3 including conveyor means (14, 124) for moving said roll (10, 12) into its wrapping position. 5. Apparatus as claimed in claim 4 in which said roll (10, 12) is supported on its periphery with its axis substantially horizontal when at the wrapping position. 6. Apparatus as claimed in claim 5 in which said roll is rotated by a drive roller (22). 7. Apparatus as claimed in claim 6 including a lifting device including a lifting roller (16) which can be operated to lift the roll (10, 12) from the conveyor (14) to the wrapping location where the roll (10, 12) is supported between said drive roller (22), a pinch roller (18) and said lifting roller (16). 8. Apparatus as claimed in claims 1-4 in which said roll (10, 12) is supported with its axis substantially vertical when at the wrapping location. 9. Apparatus as claimed in claim 8 in which said conveyor (124) delivers said roll (10, 12) to a rotatable turntable (126) on which the roll is supported during wrapping. 10. Apparatus as claimed in any one of the preceding claims in which said foam (60) and said film (46) are fed from individual rolls (62, 44) and are interleaved during the wrapping operation. 11. Apparatus as claimed in claim 10 in which said feeding means (52, 56, 58, 64, 68, 70) includes cutting means (76) which act to cut said foam (60) and terminate its feed after a predetermined number of rotations of said roll (10, 12) and before cutting and terminating the feed of the film (46). 12. Apparatus as claimed in claim 11 including means (90) for applying means for attaching the leading film edge to said roll (10, 12). 13. A process for wrapping a roll of pressure sensitive sheet material (10, 12) which includes rotating a roll (10, 12) about its longitudinal axis and wrapping it about said axis with interleaved layers of foam (60) and synthetic plastics film material (46) whilst it is rotated. 14. A process as claimed in claim 13 in which said synthetic plastics film material (46) is a stretch material applied under tension. 15. A process as claimed in claim 14 in which said foam (60) is a polyolefin packaging foam. 16. A process as claimed in claim 13, claim 14 or claim 15 in which three wraps of foam (60) are provided about the periphery of said roll (10, 12). 17. A process as claimed in claims 13 to 16, 20 in which said interleaved foam (60) and film (46) are caused to overlap the peripheral edges and onto the end walls of said roll (10, 12). 18. A process as claimed in claim 13 to 17 in which the width of said foam (60) and said film (46) are less than the length of said roll (10, 12) and the interleaved foam (60) and film (46) are caused to traverse the length of the roll (10, 12) during rotation thereof to cause spiral wrapping of the foam and film. 19. A process as claimed in claims 13 to 18 in which said roll (10, 12) is supported on its periphery with its axis substantially horizontal when wrapped. 20. A process as claimed in claims 13 to 18 in which said roll (10, 12) is supported with its axis substantially vertical during wrapping. 21. A process as claimed in any one of the preceding claims 13 to 19 in which said foam (60) and said film (46) are fed from individual rolls (62, 44) and are interleaved during the wrapping operation. 22. A process as claimed in claim 13 in which said film (46) is fed onto the roll prior to feeding said foam (60) thereon. 23. A process as claimed in any one of the preceding claims 13 to 22 which includes attaching end covers (36, 38) to the end walls of the wrapped roll (10, 12). 24. A process as claimed in claim 23 which includes attaching said end covers (136, 138) by double faced adhesive tape (134). 25. A process as claimed in claim 23 or claim 24 which includes pushing core plugs (140, 142) through openings in said end covers (136, 138) and into a central core opening in said roll.

Inventors: LAWRENCE, JOSEPH CASEY, LEWIS, CHARLES EDWARD, MUSHINSKI, ROGER JOHN
Applicants: APPLETON PAPERS INC.
Application year: 1988
Main classification: B65B11
IPC codes: B65B25