Apparatus for picking up labels from a supply stack and directly applying the labels to containers

Abstract

Abstract In a container-labeling machine, a cycloidal motion-inducing cam controls the pivoting movement of rotating label-holding shoes, causing all of the points of each shoe to move along a cycloidal path as the shoe approaches, picks up a label and withdraws from a stationary label stack holder. The cycloidal cusp approach-retreat path of the label shoe approximates uniform rolling contact of each shoe with a fresh label, assuring the application of smooth, untorn, unwrinkled labels to each new container. The camming arrangement is further adapted to maintain the arcuate-shaped, peripheral surface of each label shoe coincident with a circle having its center point on the central axis of rotation as the label-holding shoe passes into contact with an adhesion-inducing apparatus and then applies the label to the container. The label is held in intimate contact with the shoe by vacuum, and the labels applied to the container by disconnecting the vacuum or by supplying a pressure to the shoe''s holding surface which is greater than atmospheric pressure. In the preferred embodiment, the labeling machine comprises three label-holding shoes each of which continually rotates at a constant speed about a central axis while having its pivoted positions about a second rotating axis controlled by the camming arrangement.

Inventors

• 👤 H Schaltegger

Bibliographic Details