Patent Publication Number: US-2021163197-A1

Title: Wrapping Web Assembly And Wrapping Method

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 14/907,683, filed on Feb. 26, 2016, which is a national stage application of International Patent Application No. PCT/AU2013/001352, filed Nov. 25, 2013, which claims priority to Australian Application Number 2013902776, filed Jul. 26, 2013, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference. 
    
    
     FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     This invention relates to a wrapping web assembly and a wrapping method employing same. This invention has particular application to a wrapping film assembly and method for field-baling cotton, and for illustrative purposes the invention will be described with reference to this application. However we envisage that this invention may find use in other applications such as wrapping pallets, rolls of goods and other like applications. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     The reference to any prior art in this specification is not, and should not be taken as, an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that the referenced prior art forms part of the common general knowledge in Australia. 
     AU2003292463 (B2) discloses a method and material for wrapping items using a wrapping material made up of separate wrapping portions of a predetermined length. The wrapping portions are attached and released at their ends using a Z-lock system. The Z-lock system holds the wrapping portions together during manufacturing but can also easily release or separate the wrapping portions at a desired point in the wrapping process. The separating of the wrapping portions exposes an adhesive that is use to securely bond at least one wrapping portion to the item being wrapped at the end of a wrapping cycle. 
     The essential features of the wrapping material are a plurality of first wrapping portions, a plurality of second wrapping portions, at least one of said plurality of first wrapping portions and at least one of said plurality of second wrapping portions bonded at their respective lateral ends to form at least one bonded wrapping segment, at least one laminate portion capable of holding together and subsequently releasing said at least one of said plurality of first wrapping portions and said at least one of said plurality of said second wrapping portions during a wrapping cycle, wherein a plurality of bonded wrapping segments together form a continuous roll of wrapping material. 
     AU2005300259 (B2) discloses a method and material for wrapping items using a wrapping material made up of separate wrapping portions of a predetermined length. The wrapping portions are attached and released at their ends using a Z-lock system including a discrete laminate. The discrete laminate of the Z-lock system holds the wrapping portions together during manufacturing but can also easily release or separate the wrapping portions at a desired point in the wrapping process. The separating of the wrapping portions exposes an adhesive that is use to securely bond at least one wrapping portion to the item being wrapped at the end of a wrapping cycle. 
     The essential features of the invention were a wrapping material comprising a first wrapping portion having a first end and an opposite second end, a second wrapping portion having a first end and an opposite second end that correspond to the first end and opposite second end of said first wrapping portion, a discrete laminate comprising a substrate having a first portion and a second portion, each of said first and second portions having an adhesive thereon, said first portion of said discrete laminate forming a permanent bond between said first end of said first wrapping portion and said second portion of said discrete laminate forming a releasable bond between said opposite second end of said second wrapping portion for holding together said first and second wrapping portions thereby forming a continuous wrapping material, when an item is being wrapped with said continuous wrapping material, said first wrapping portion is released from said second wrapping portion via said releasable bond between said second portion of said laminate and said opposite second end of said second wrapping portion, and one of said first end of said first wrapping portion, said second end of said second wrapping portion, or said discrete laminate is folded back on itself. 
     Another aspect differs in having a plurality of wrapping portions each having a first end and an opposite second end. 
     A further aspect has a right wrapping portion having a first end folded back on itself to form a V-shaped fold and an opposite second end and a left wrapping portion having a first end and an opposite second end that overlaps a portion of said V-shaped fold of said first end of said first wrapping portion, the discrete laminate in this case having its first portion permanently adhered to a surface of the V-shaped fold and its second portion releasably adhered to a surface of the opposite second end of the left wrapping portion so as to form a continuous web of wrapping material that releases said right wrapping portion from said continuous web of wrapping material during a wrapping cycle, and when an item is being wrapped with said right wrapping portion during the wrapping cycle, said second portion of said discrete laminate releases from said respective opposite second end of said left wrapping portion. 
     In a yet further aspect there is provided a wrapping material comprising a right wrapping portion having a first end and an opposite second end, a left wrapping portion having a first end and an opposite second end folded back on itself to form a V-shaped fold and said first end of said right wrapping portion overlaps only a portion of said V-shaped fold, and a discrete laminate comprising a substrate having a first portion and a second portion, each of said first and second portions having an adhesive layer thereon, said adhesive layer facing said right and left wrapping portions, said first portion of said discrete laminate being releasably adhered over an upper surface of said V-shaped fold and said second portion of said discrete laminate being permanently adhered to an upper surface of said first end of said right wrapping portion so as to form a continuous web of wrapping material that releases said first and second portions during a wrapping cycle, and when an item is being wrapped with said right wrapping portion during the wrapping. 
     A principal disadvantage of such constructs is the need to assemble the continuous web from elements of predetermined length, rather than produce the film as a continuous web. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     In one aspect the present invention resides broadly in a wrapping web assembly including: 
     a substantially continuous web of a wrapping material; and 
     a plurality of elongate tape assemblies located substantially transversely on and in spaced relation along said web, each said tape assembly comprising an adhesive tape portion adhered to one surface of said web and having a release surface, and a double sided adhesive tape portion releasably adhered to said release surface and adapted to adhere to the other surface of said web as it is spooled about an axis transverse its substantially continuous direction to form a roll. 
     The substantially continuous web may comprise a polyolefin or copolymer film, woven or non-woven material, netting or the like. For cotton baling the substantially continuous web may comprise polyethylene (PE) or other suitable polymeric material. Typically a PE wrapping film for cotton baling purposes is between 20 to 120 microns thick and 0.5 to 4.0 m in width. The film is selected to have a combination of plastic and elastic deformation to bale cotton cylindrically under tension. The baling film may be transparent or opaque. 
     In the elongate tape assemblies, the adhesive tape portion may have any number of physical layers to impart the desired properties of having a bonding surface adhering to the web and a release surface against which the double sided adhesive tape portion is releasably adhered. The adhesive tape portion may comprise a paper, polyolefin, polyester, fabric or other tape body having one surface coated with a contact or pressure sensitive adhesive layer and the other surface coated or finished in a release surface. The tape body does not have a high specification requirement and thus may be paper or standard PE film. 
     For example, the adhesive tape portion may comprise a polyethylene tape having a siliconized release coating adjacent the double sided adhesive tape portion and a synthetic rubber adhesive layer. 
     The adhesive side of the adhesive tape portion may be any suitable adhesive as would be apparent to a person skilled in the art; the adhesive in use must only resist peeling forces in competition with the release surface and it is not necessary to optimise the adhesive for sheer. In addition it is not necessary that the adhesive be particularly high tenacity or high tack. For example, economical rubber based adhesive will suffice. The release surface may for example include a low surface energy polymer coating such as selected polyolefin or poly(haloalkene) polymer such as polytetrafluoroethylene and/or an applied treatment such as a silicone coating. 
     The double sided adhesive tape portion may take any form consistent with high coherence in adhesion to the web of an exposed adhesive surface on spooling of the web, good release properties from the release surface of the adhesive tape portion as the spooled web is unrolled, and good sheer strength of the adhesion of the released adhesive layer to the web on wrapping of an article. The double sided adhesive tape portion is in its nature a relatively high wet-grab double-sided tape. The double sided adhesive tape portion may comprise any number of physical layers to provide the properties of a tape carrier body having adhesive on both major surfaces of the tape. 
     The unspooling action produces a peeling action permitting separation of the adhesive tape portion and double sided adhesive tape portion, leaving the now-redundant adhesive tape portion secured to the web and presenting only its release surface, while the attached double sided adhesive tape portion exposes a high wet-grab contact or pressure sensitive adhesive surface. This exposed adhesive surface is thus substantially uncontaminated and available to close the web about an object to be baled such as a roll of harvested cotton. 
     In practice it has been found that a degree of resistance to stretching and/or flex is desirable in the double sided adhesive tape portion. This is to enable a fine tuned selection of adhesive properties to allow the freed double sided adhesive tape on unrolling of the rolled web to pass with the web through rollers in the wrapping process. For example it has been found that low stretch films may be selected empirically for the purpose, such as PVC, polyester, and uniaxially- or biaxially-oriented or stereoregular polyolefin or copolymer films may also be used. 
     At its simplest, the double sided tape laminate is a double-sided adhesive biaxially oriented polypropylene (BOPP) tape such as that marketed by BiesSse® as “221”, based on a transparent rigid BOPP tape carrier and high tenacity rubber pressure sensitive adhesive on both sides. The carrier may have the same or different adhesives on each side of the carrier. The BOPP carrier tape is a low-stretch tape and as such may be substituted by any comparable material such as oriented polyvinylchloride (PVC). The rubber adhesive may be substituted by an acrylic adhesive or the like, as would be appreciated by a person skilled in the art. 
     The tape assembly may be of any width selected to provide a selected sheer strength for the anticipated use, having regard to the selected adhesive layer properties. For example, for cotton baling the tape assembly may be between 150 and 300 mm wide, and typically about 250 mm for BOPP tape double sided with high tenacity rubber pressure sensitive adhesive. 
     The tape assembly may be provided for attachment to the web as a tape assembly stock. In order to store and deliver the tape assembly stock to an applicator apparatus setting the tape assemblies to the web, the stock may be spooled. The spooled stock may have the exposed adhesive surfaces of the adhesive tape and double sided adhesive tape separated by a single, double sided release film. For example, the respective exposed adhesive surfaces may be separated by a silicone coated film such as transparent silicone coated pattern film. 
     In a further aspect this invention resides in an elongate tape stock including: 
     an adhesive tape portion having a release surface; 
     a double sided adhesive tape portion releasably adhered to said release surface; and 
     a double sided release film adapted to separate exposed adhesive surfaces of the adhesive tape and the double sided adhesive tape portions when rolled. 
     As the elongate tape stock is spooled, the double sided release layer closes over the exposed adhesive layer double surfaced release layer, permitting the elongate tape stock to be rolled up for storage and deployment. 
     The wrapping web assembly of the present invention may be assembled by any process as would be apparent to a person skilled in the art. In a further aspect the invention resides broadly in a method of forming a wrapping web assembly, including the steps of: 
     providing a substantially continuous web of a wrapping material; 
     providing an elongate tape stock comprising an adhesive tape portion having a release surface, and a double sided adhesive tape portion releasably adhered to said release surface; 
     feeding said substantially continuous web of a wrapping material past a laminating station to an accumulator spool adapted to spool said web about an axis transverse its substantially continuous direction; 
     feeding said elongate tape stock to said laminating station and cutting the elongate tape stock into discrete tape assemblies; 
     adhering said discrete tape assemblies substantially transversely in spaced relation on one surface of said web; and 
     spooling said web to said accumulator spool whereby an exposed adhesive layer of the tape assembly adheres in the spool to the other surface of the web. 
     For example the substantially continuous web of a wrapping material may pass from a source spool to a delivery spool, exposing a running web surface. The elongate tape assembly may be provided as a spooled tape stock wherein a double sided release film is adapted to separate exposed adhesive surfaces of the adhesive tape and the double sided adhesive tape portions when rolled. A spool of the elongate tape stock may be fed via a release film stripper assembly to an applicator assembly adapted to shuttle across the face of the web to deploy the tape assembly and cut it to length, and roll back to engage the tape assembly with the web. The process may be made substantially continuous by mounting the applicator assembly slidably on a transversely-reciprocating beam. In this arrangement the relative speed of the web and applicator are the same at least for the engagement phase. 
     The spacing of the elongate tape assemblies along the web may be selected having regard to the size of the article to be wrapped. For example, for wrapping by rotation of the item to be wrapped or winding of the wrapping web assembly about the object, the spacing is selected such that the adhesive surface exposed by separation of the first and second tape laminate portions self-adheres to the overlap of web about the wrapped article. 
     When baling cotton, the diameter of a roll of cotton is approximately 2.4 metres and standard practice has 3 complete wraps of the cotton bale made with the green PE baling film, which calculates as 22 metres of wrap when wrapped. In practice, with baling tension in the film, 21 lineal metres (approx.) of spooled product is required. 
     Accordingly, the tape laminate assemblies may be laid every 21 metres on the green baling poly film, and the green baling poly film may be perforated across the width of the web adjacent to the tape laminate position. There are generally 24 applications, of 21 lineal metres each (24 applications×21 lineal metres=504 lineal metres) comprising 1 roll which may be set inside a cotton harvester. 
     The tape laminate is applied parallel to the perforation, offset slightly from the perforation, for example, by a few millimetres. This is so when the final wrap is performed and the tape sandwich is holding down that final layer, the edge of the tape sandwich is as close to the edge of the perforation as possible to prevent any extended lip of the film ‘lifting away’ because of wind, dust, water penetration or the like. 
     The spooled wrapping web assembly may be delivered to and integrated with machinery such as a cotton harvester having a wrapping mechanism such as that described in AU2003292463 and AU2005300259. In this application the wrapping web assembly tension-wraps the nascent bale, the tension being selected having regard to both the sheer strength of the adhesive bond and the plastic/elastic properties of the web. 
     As the unspooled web exposes the adhesive surface, the baling equipment film laying rollers must either act on the obverse surface of the web relative to the adhesive surface side, or must include rollers of low surface energy, that is, of substantially non-stick character. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The invention will be described with reference to the following non-limiting embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the drawings and wherein: 
         FIG. 1  is a diagram of the act of assembly of a wrapping web assembly in accordance with the present invention; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view of the apparatus of  FIG. 1 , after application of the tape laminate assembly and being rolled up to form the deployable form of the invention; 
         FIG. 3  is a detail view of the mode of tape portion separation of the wrapping web in use; and 
         FIG. 4  is a perspective view of the deployment of  FIG. 3 , inverted for clarity, wherein the web assembly is being deployed for wrapping. 
     
    
    
     In  FIGS. 1 and 2  there is illustrated the formation of a wrapping web assembly from a green polyethylene baling web  11 . Adhered along the baling web  11  are transverse, 250 mm-wide elongate tape assemblies  12  on a 21-metre spacing and which have been released from a supply spool (not shown) by separation from a double sided release film  13  and cutting to length. The tape assemblies  12  comprise a double sided adhesive tape portion  14  adhered to the baling web  11  and an adhesive tape laminate portion  15  having a release surface overlying the double sided adhesive tape portion  14 . 
     The adhesive tape portion  15  comprises a white polyethylene tape  16  having a siliconized release coating adjacent the double sided adhesive tape portion and a synthetic rubber adhesive layer  17 . The release coating is not a layer per se but in instead a thin coating modifying the surface energy of the polyethylene tape  16 . 
     The double sided adhesive tape portion  14  comprises a BiesSse® 221 BOPP carrier tape  19  having rubber-based adhesive layer  20  overlying said release coating and an exposed rubber-based adhesive layer  21 . 
     The elongate tape assemblies  12  are laid up at the said about 21-metre spaced relation on the front surface  25  of the web  11  as it passes from a supply spool  22  to an accumulator spool  23 . The spacing is selected having regard to what is being wrapped. In the present case the spacing is selected to poly bale cotton. The elongate tape assemblies are adjacent perforations  26  defining discrete tear-off locations, whereby there is little tendency for wind, dust, water penetration or the like tending to unbale the cotton. 
     The exposed adhesive layer  17  of the adhesive tape  15  means that, when the web  11  is rolled up after application of the elongate tape assemblies  12 , the exposed adhesive layer  17  permanently adheres to the back surface  24  of the web  11 . This is best understood with reference to  FIG. 2 . The rolled up wrapping web assembly  10  on its accumulator spool  23  may then be transhipped to the point of use, in this case to a cotton harvester having integrated field baling equipment. 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 3 , the wrapping web assembly  10  is deployed by unwinding from the accumulator spool  23  directly into a baling assembly (not shown). The elongate tape assemblies  12  are permanently bonded to the outer  24  and inner  25  surfaces of the web  11  by the synthetic rubber adhesive layer  17  of the adhesive tape portion  14  and adhesive layer  21  of the double sided adhesive tape portion  15 . 
     As the web  11  unspools from the accumulator spool  23 , peel forces are applied to the tape assembly  12  at the point where the web  11  leaves the spool  23 . This causes separation of the adhesive  14  and double sided adhesive  15  tape portions, with the release coating of the adhesive tape portion  14  peeling away from and exposing the rubber adhesive layer  20  of the double sided adhesive tape portion  15 . The unspooling wrapping web assembly  10  feeds a conventional poly baling machine, with rollers adapted to allow the rubber adhesive layer  20  to pass. The baling machine cuts the trailing portion of the web  11 , as the bale is secured by bonding of the exposed rubber adhesive layer  20  to the web  11 , by tearing along perforations  26 . 
     Apparatus in accordance with the foregoing embodiment has the advantage of being on a continuous web, avoiding the need to fabricate an assembly of discrete portions. Manufacture is cheaper and field deployment is more reliable. 
     It will of course be realised that while the above has been given by way of illustrative example of this invention, all such and other modifications and variations thereto as would be apparent to persons skilled in the art are deemed to fall within the broad scope and ambit of this invention as is set forth in the claims appended hereto.