Patent Document

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
       [0001]    This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application 61/819,783 filed May 6, 2013 and hereby incorporated by reference. 
     
    
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0002]    The present invention relates generally to shrink sleeve labels and more particularly to shrink sleeve labels providing for lenticular images. 
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0003]    Lenticular images provide for animated or 3-D effects by placing a lenticular lens over multiple (2 or more) interlaced images. The lenticular lens selectively displays one of the interleaved images depending on the angle of the viewer. An animated effect is produced by selecting images that represent different “frames” of an animation so that the animation is viewable as one changes the angle of viewing. A 3-D image is produced by selecting images that reproduce the binocular disparity of images viewed at slightly different angles by each eye. The lenticular lens then presents a different image to each of the viewer&#39;s eyes to generate a stereographic effect. 
         [0004]    The lenticular lens is normally a transparent plastic sheet that includes a set of ribs on a front of the sheet each providing a set of parallel semi-cylindrical lenses each having a line focus on the interlaced images for an anticipated viewing distance. The term “semi-cylindrical lens” is not intended, and does not require a constant curvature radius but should be considered to include all elongate lens shapes that conform in cross-section to cylinders, ellipses, pyramids, trapezoids, parabolas and the like. In one form the semi-cylindrical lens will closely approximate a hemi-cylindrical lens 
         [0005]    The interlaced image associated with the lenticular lens is typically printed directly on the flat back surface of the lenticular lens. However, it is also possible to first print the interlaced image to a substrate (e.g., paper, plastic, metal, glass or wood) and then join, for example, using an adhesive, the substrate bearing the image to the lenticular lens (i.e., thereby creating the lenticular image). 
         [0006]    The plastic material of a lenticular lens is commonly extruded, cast, calendared or embossed. This latter embossing process employs a precisely made lenticular pattern-forming roller (e.g., an engraved cylinder) having a groove pattern on its outer surface that presses into the plastic the shape of the lenticular lenses. When the groove pattern extends parallel to the axis of the cylinder, the roller may be used to emboss material in a continuous longitudinally-extending web so that lenticules run across or transverse to the length of the web. Such a pattern-forming device can be referred to as a “transverse pattern-forming roller”. U.S. Pat. No. 6,624,946 hereby incorporated by reference, describes a transverse pattern-forming roller used to emboss web material. 
         [0007]    The lenticular lenses must ordinarily be manufactured with precise tolerances in order to avoid image problems matched to the interleaved images, for example, “bleed through” where a multiple (more than one) of the interleaved images are visible at one angle at the same time. U.S. Pat. No. 6,060,003 describes special techniques to inhibit distortion in the lenticular pattern as the plastic sheet cools. Distortion of the lenses may adversely affect viewing or “flip” of the images as the image angle changes. 
         [0008]    While lenticular images are used in a variety of applications, use of lenticular images for labeling consumer packaging using curved containers, such as cans and bottles, has been largely limited by difficulties attendant to attaching the lenticular images to a curved or irregular surface, such as an hour glass shape, that may be resistant to common adhesive attachment. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0009]    The present invention provides a lenticular image formed in heat shrinkable material of the type that may be fashioned into a tube and then applied to a container by shrinking the tube around the container. Distortion of the lenticular material in the heat shrinking process may be accommodated by one or more of the mechanisms of: corresponding shrinkage of the interleaved images and the lenticular lenses when the image is printed directly on the rear surface of the lenticular lens sheet, selective placement of image elements to favor low distortion portions of the lenticular lens sheet when applied to the container, embossing the lenses after stretching of the shrink-wrap material, and providing a compensating, pre-distortion to the shape of the lenticular lenses to offset distortions in the shrinking process. 
         [0010]    In one embodiment, the invention provides a lenticular heat shrinking material constructed of a polymer sheet pre-processed to contract with the application of heat along a shrinkage axis in the plane of the sheet by at least 20 percent. The polymer sheet has lenticular lenses formed on a front surface of the polymer sheet and adapted to image interleaved images proximate to the rear surface of the polymer sheet opposite the front surface. 
         [0011]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a versatile product labeling and packaging material that may provide for lenticular effects such as animation. 
         [0012]    The lenticular lenses may be distorted to image the interleaved images applied to the rear surface after shrinkage of the polymer sheet. 
         [0013]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to address the problem of lens distortion inherent in a shrinking film. 
         [0014]    The distortion may reduce a radius of curvature of front surfaces of the lenticular lenses. 
         [0015]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to change the focus of the lenticular lenses so that shrinkage refocuses them onto an image at the rear of the film. 
         [0016]    The lenticular lenses may be semi-cylindrical and the axes of the semi-cylindrical lenticular lenses may be perpendicular to the shrinkage axis to shrink substantially to hemi-cylindrical lenses when heat is applied to the polymer sheet. 
         [0017]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide an ability to orient the lenses for animation that will be visible to users walking by products positioned on store shelves while accommodating the lens distortion inherent in that orientation. 
         [0018]    The lenticular heat shrinking material may further include an ink layer providing interleaved images and applied to a rear surface opposite the front surface and an opaque coating material applied over the ink layer on the rear surface. 
         [0019]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to compensate for registration problems caused by shrinkage by employing inks that may shrink with the polymer sheet applied directly on the rear surface of the polymer sheet. 
         [0020]    The polymer sheet may be formed into a cylindrical sleeve having two opposite edges seamed to each other and wherein the axes of the semi-cylindrical lenses are substantially parallel with an axis of the cylindrical sleeve. 
         [0021]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to provide a sleeve that may be used for product packaging. 
         [0022]    In an alternative embodiment, the lenticular lenses are substantially hemi-cylindrical and the axes of the hemi-cylindrical lenticular lenses are parallel to the shrinkage axis. 
         [0023]    It is thus a feature of at least one embodiment of the invention to address the problem of lens distortion by aligning the lenses with their extent parallel to material shrinkage such as provides reduced affect on the optical properties of the lenses. 
         [0024]    These particular objects and advantages may apply to only some embodiments falling within the claims and thus do not define the scope of the invention. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0025]      FIG. 1  is a view of a container fit within a shrink-wrap sleeve before shrinking of the sleeve showing an enlarged portion of the sleeve with transverse lens orientation; 
           [0026]      FIG. 2  is a fragmentary cross-section through the assembly of  FIG. 1  showing the lenticular array on the outer surface of the sleeve and the printed layer on the inner surface of the sleeve to abut the outer surface of the container which will receive the sleeve after shrinking; 
           [0027]      FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b  are simplified side and top views of the shrink sleeve manufacturing line showing the embossment of the shrink-wrap material prior to receipt by a tenter frame; 
           [0028]      FIG. 4  is a fragmentary front elevational view of a container having an applied lenticular shrink-wrap showing regions of high and low distortion from a target distortion; 
           [0029]      FIG. 5  is a front elevational view of the sleeve of  FIG. 1  showing regions of different image selection and interlacing technique to accommodate difference in distortion with respect to a target distortion; 
           [0030]      FIG. 6  is a side elevational view of a roller used in the manufacturing line of  FIGS. 3 and 4  providing transverse embossment; 
           [0031]      FIG. 7  is a figure similar to that of  FIG. 6  showing a roller for longitudinal embossment; 
           [0032]      FIG. 8  is a figure similar to  FIG. 1  showing a longitudinal lens orientation; 
           [0033]      FIG. 9  is a cross-section through the lenticular material of  FIG. 2  showing lens curvature with a target shrink amount as manufactured; 
           [0034]      FIGS. 10   a  and  10   b  are figures similar to  FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b  showing simplified side and top views of the shrink sleeve manufacturing line employing a machine direction stretching of the material instead of a tenter frame. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
       [0035]    Referring now to  FIG. 1 , the present invention may provide for a shrink-wrap sleeve  10  that may fit loosely about a container  12  and then be shrunk to conform to the outer container surface using a steam or heat tunnel technique well known in the art. 
         [0036]    The container  12  may, for example, have a neck  14  of smaller diameter than a body  16 . In this respect, the container may have walls that are neither a simple cylinder nor frustoconical conical shape but, for example, may have a narrowed neck or base that require a curvature of the outer walls along an axis of the wall symmetry. The sleeve  10  may be sized to wrap tightly not only around the neck  14  and body  16  when it is shrunk but also over a top  18  of the neck  14  and over a bottom  20  of the container  12  to both retain the sleeve  10  in the shrunk configuration and to provide tamper resistance as may be desired. The sleeve  10  may include perforations or the like well known in the art allowing it to be removed from the top  18  for access to the product in the container  12  and/or from the entire container  12  for recycling of the container  12 . Generally the container  12  will be of a different material than that of the sleeve  10   
         [0037]    Referring now also to  FIG. 2 , in one embodiment the sleeve  10  is a tube constructed of a thin sheet  22  of a transparent and optically clear thermoplastic such as PVC, APET, PETG or the like. An outer surface  24  of the sheet  22  may be embossed with a lenticular lens providing multiple semi-cylindrical lenses  26  whose axes are generally parallel to a central axis of the tube of the sleeve  10  and which have a focal length approximately equal to the thickness of the material. An interlaced image  28  comprised of adjacent image stripes  29  (shown in  FIG. 1 ) may he printed on the rear surface of the sheet  22  in image layer  30  and typically covered within an opaque white ink in a backer layer  32  providing improved reflectivity to the printed interlaced image  28  when viewed through the lenses  26 . As is understood in the art, an interlaced image  28  will be comprised of a set of image strips approximately equal in width to a width of the semi-cylindrical lenses  26  where adjacent strips provide portions of different images. Lenticular lenses are well known and commercially available. Methods for using lenticular lens technology are described in detail in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,113,213; 5,266,995; 5,488,451; 5,617,178; 5,847,808; and 5,896,230 (all of which are incorporated herein by reference). 
         [0038]    Referring to  FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b , in one embodiment, the sheet  22  may be produced by a tenter frame process. In this process, thermoplastic pellets  40  of the appropriate thermoplastic are plasticized and conveyed by an auger  42  to an extruder nozzle  44  adjacent to the outer surface of a rotating chilled roller  46 . The extruded molten plastic contacts the roller  46  to coat the roller  46  with a thin plastic sheet. The extruder nozzle may be, for example, a 600 to 1500 mm wide coat hanger slit-nozzle or die for even material flow. The chilled roller  46  may be, for example, partially submerged in a water bath, but more commonly has an internal water-jacketed cooling system. 
         [0039]    The surface of the chilled roller  46  is very smooth to provide a substantially flat inner surface free from irregularities. An air knife (not shown) may be used to force proper contact of molten polymer from the nozzle  44  against the chilled roller  46 . 
         [0040]    A resulting cooled web material  48  proceeds over a tensioning roller  50  and may pass through one or more additional cooling rollers or through a machine direction orientation (MDO) roller set (not shown) imparting a slight stretching to the web material  48  known to improve surface characteristics and which will also provide for heat shrinking capabilities. 
         [0041]    Other methods of producing the web material  48  are also contemplated including, for example, a calendaring process in which a billet of semi-molten plastic is gradually flattened and stretched through successive calendaring rollers. 
         [0042]    The embossed web material  48  now proceeds to a tenter frame  54  within an oven  55  generally known in the art which provides for a set of clamps  56  (tenter clamps) moving a chain to match the speed of the embossed web material  48 . The clamps  56  grab the edges of the web material  48  and stretch the web in a transverse direction  58  as indicated by an arrow as the web material  48  passes through the tenter frame  54 . In this process, the web material  48  is first preheated at a preheat stage  60  to a temperature slightly below the melting point of the thermoplastic material. As the web material  48  leaves the preheat stage  60  of the oven, the clamps  56  diverge quite rapidly to a ratio of 8:1 to 10:1 in the stretch stage  62 . The web material  48  is then passed on to an annealing area in the oven  55  in an annealing stage  64  where it is maintained at an elevated temperature to reduce the shrinkage of the web material  48 . 
         [0043]    During the annealing process or slightly before that point but after the stretch stage  62 , the web material  48  is received by an embossing roller  52  and a platen roller  53  that clamp the web material  48  between them and together provide the smooth rear surface of the sheet  22  and embossed lenses  26  on the front surface of the sheet  22 . Generally the embossed lenses  26  will run in a machine direction perpendicular to the transverse direction  58 . 
         [0044]    Finally, the web material  48  is cooled to lock in its current expanded dimensions in a cooling stage  66 . Edges of the web material  48  where it was clamped are normally trimmed off by rolling knives (not shown) as the web material  48  leaves the tenter frame  54 . 
         [0045]    The stretched and embossed web material  57  may then be stored or, as shown, provided to a printer  68  which may print the image layer  30  and white backer layer  32  (shown in  FIG. 4 ) on the flat side of the web material  57  as repeating printed patterns  70 . By embossing the web material  48  in its stretched state, being the state in which it will be printed, registration between the printed image and the lenses is ensured even after the shrinking process as will be discussed. At this time perforations may be added to the web material  57 . 
         [0046]    The web material  57  may then be split into its desired size by rotating knives  73  then rolled and glued into tubes by tube former  74  using techniques known in the art and cut to a length approximating the height of the container  12  by a cutter  76 . Resulting sleeves  10  may be stored for future use. 
         [0047]    Referring still to  FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b , an alternative embodiment of the invention contemplates that an embossing roller  52 ′ may be positioned upstream from the tenter frame  54  to emboss the web material  48  before stretching by the tenter frame  54 . This embodiment may improve the retention of the lens shape in the web material  48  and may provide greater predictability in the lens shape with greater shrinkage of the web material  48  when used with the tenter frame  54 , but may raise issues with registration of the printing which is applied only after the web material  48  is stretched. These registration issues may be remedied by an empirical measuring of the amount of stretch in the transverse direction  58  and adjusting the printing process accordingly, for example, using digital printing techniques. In this embodiment, a belt system may be used to press the web material  48  to the embossing roller  52  over a larger portion of the circumference of the embossing roller  52  to provide for better retention of the loop lens shape. 
         [0048]    Referring to  FIG. 6 , for lenticular images that are intended to produce a three-dimensional effect, the embossing roller  52  may provide for a series of circumferential grooves  90  so as to provide for axes of the lenses  26  that lie generally along a length of the web material  48  and perpendicular to the transverse direction  58 . This orientation of the lenses  26  will tend to provide the necessary dimensionality or animation effects to a viewer of the ultimate package walking past a shrink-wrapped package when the package is in its normal upright orientation and facilitates the simplest forming of the web material  57  into a sleeve as described above. 
         [0049]    Referring now to  FIG. 4 , in use, the sleeve  10  is slid over the container  12  and heated to a predetermined temperature to cause the sleeve  10  to shrink primarily in the transverse direction  58  to tightly conform to the outer surface of the container  12 . Such shrinkage will provide for areas of high distortion  75 , for example, around the neck  14  (resulting from substantial shrinkage) and in the transition from the neck  14  to the body  16  (caused by varied shrinkage) and areas of low distortion  77 , for example, around the larger sized and constant radius body  16 . Generally each of these areas of distortion  75  and  77  may also be assessed with respect to a target distortion being an amount of shrinkage in an area of desired lenticular image placement. 
         [0050]    Referring now to  FIG. 5 , recognizing this difference in distortion allows for positioning of lenticular images  80  where lenticular effects are required in the region of low distortion  77  while providing for non-lenticular images  82  where no lenticular effects or coarse lenticular effects are required, for example, uniform color fills in the regions of high distortion  75 . It should be understood that all of the images may have overlying lenses but the “non-lenticular images”  82  are selected to be less important visually or to be images at “key” regions which may not participate in lenticular effects such as dimensionality or animation. Generally in the regions of high distortion  75 , the variation between the images of adjacent strips of the interlaced images  28  will be lower than the variation between images of adjacent strips of the interlaced images  28  in the regions of low distortion  75 . A constant color over a multi-strip area of the interlaced image  28 , for example, would exhibit low variation between images of adjacent strips of the interlaced images  28 . 
         [0051]    Referring to  FIGS. 10   a  and  10   b , in an alternative embodiment, the sheet  22  may be produced by machine direction stretching process. As before, thermoplastic pellets  40  of the appropriate thermoplastic are plasticized and conveyed by an auger  42  to an extruder nozzle  44  adjacent to the outer surface of a rotating chilled roller  46 . A resulting cooled web material  48  proceeds over a tensioning roller  50  and may pass through inter-engaging roller  52 ′ and a roller  53 ′ that clamp the web material  48  between them and pass it along to second inter-engaging roller  52  and roller  53  moving at a slightly different transfer rate to stretch the web material  48  in the machine direction  49  between them. This area of stretching may be within an oven  55  providing the three zones. As before the first stage may be a preheat stage  60  heating the web material  48  to a temperature slightly below the melting point of the thermoplastic material. As the web material  48  leaves the preheat stage  60  of the oven it stretches under the influence of rollers  52  and  53  rapidly to a ratio of 8:1 to 10:1 in the stretch stage  62 . The web material  48  is then passed on to an annealing area in the oven  55  in an annealing stage  64 . 
         [0052]    Either of the rollers  52 ′ or  52  may provide for an embossing of lenses  26  on the front surface of the web material  48  with the advantages and disadvantages described above with respect to  FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b . In this case the embossing roller  52  or  52 ′ may provide lenses  26  that extend in the transverse direction  58 . 
         [0053]    When the embossing of lenses  26  is provided by roller  52 ′, the shape of the lenses may be compressed slightly in the machine direction and when the embossing of lenses  26  is provided by the roller  52 , the shape of the lenses may he expanded slightly in the machine direction to accommodate subsequent expansion and shrinkage as may occur after the embossing up to the time of installation on a container  12 . 
         [0054]    After leaving the oven  55 , the web material  48  is cooled to lock in its current expanded dimensions in a cooling stage  66  and then cut into panels  71  by a rotating knife  73 . The panels  72  may be rotated by 90 degrees as indicated by arrow  78  before or after printing by printer  68  and then rolled and seamed into sleeves by forming machine  79  that may operate on panels  71  rather than a continuous web. In this way the orientation of the lenses  26  may be as shown in  FIG. 1  and generally aligned with the axis of the sleeve  10 . 
         [0055]    As shown in  FIG. 7 , the embossing roller  52  may provide for a series of axial grooves  92  so as to provide for an axis of the lenses  26  that lies generally transversely to the length of the web material  48  and parallel to the transverse direction  58 . This orientation is accommodated by forming the shrink-wrap sleeves  10  after rotation so that the axis of the sleeve is aligned with the extent of the lenses  26  and the principal shrinking direction is across the extent of the lenses. 
         [0056]    Alternatively, the lenses may be allowed to extend circumferentially around the sleeve  10  to provide for animation effects that occur with movement of the viewer in elevation. This may be done using the machine of either  FIGS. 3   a  and  3   b  with the roller  52  of  FIG. 7  or the machine of  FIGS. 10   a  and  10   b  using the roller  52  of  FIG. 6 . Referring now to  FIG. 8 , in either case, the lenses  26  may extend generally perpendicular to the axis of the sleeve  10 . In this case the transverse shrinkage of the sleeve  10  does not affect the profile of the lenses; however, lenses are suitable for animated rather than three-dimensional lenticular displays unless the direction of rolling of the material  48  into sleeves is changed. 
         [0057]    Referring now to  FIG. 9  the shape of the grooves  90  or  92  in either of the embossing rollers  52 , but in particular when used in the configuration shown in  FIG. 3 , may be geometrically stretched to provide for distorted profile  100  wider than a desired profile  102  by an expected factor of target shrinkage in the vicinity of the region of low target distortion  77  shown in  FIG. 4 . In this way, the shrinkage may be set to bring the lens profiles into a desired geometric configuration. Conversely, if the net shrinkage is expected after formation of the lenses, the profile  100  may be distorted to be narrower than a desired profile  102 . Generally, the distorted profile  100  being wider than the desired profile  102  will provide for a longer focal length  103  whereas the desired profile  102  will provide for focal length  103 ′ focused approximately on the rear surface of the sheet  22 . 
         [0058]    In some embodiments, the web material  48  will have a thickness of less than 3.5 mills and 400 lenses per inch. Each may be used to accommodate this thinness suitable for shrink-wrap. The invention contemplates that the lenticular lenses may be spot applied or other lens designs, such as “fisheye” lenses, instead of semi-cylindrical lenses as discussed above. 
         [0059]    The invention contemplates that the web material may be formed and the lenticular pattern created by any of extrusion, casting, calendaring, or embossing. The lenticular pattern may be formed either before or after the stretching of the material by properly pre-distorting the lenticular pattern to accommodate subsequent shrinkage. The shrink material may be capable of shrinking greater than 20 percent and typically more than 50 percent with ranges from 60 to 70 percent. 
         [0060]    When introducing elements or features of the present disclosure and the exemplary embodiments, the articles “a”, “an”, “the” and “said” are intended to mean that there are one or more of such elements or features. The terms “comprising”, “including” and “having” are intended to be inclusive and mean that there may be additional elements or features other than those specifically noted. it is further to be understood that the method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order discussed or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It is also to be understood that additional or alternative steps may be employed. 
         [0061]    It is specifically intended that the present invention not be limited to the embodiments and illustrations contained herein and the claims should be understood to include modified forms of those embodiments including portions of the embodiments and combinations of elements of different embodiments as come within the scope of the following claims. All of the publications described herein, including patents and non-patent publications, are hereby incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.

Technology Category: 7