System for applying heat shrink film to containers and other articles and heat shrinking the same

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 wherein said strips of adhesive are in the form of hot melt glue.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein the article has an upper and a lower inwardly sloping end portion and both edge portion of the film segment are heat shrunk onto the article.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1 wherein in step (c) the trailing end of the segment is lapped over and is adhered to the leading end of the segment by its narrow strip of adhesive.

Claim 8

The method of claim 5 wherein said heat shrinking is caused by spinning the article about its longitudinal axis and applying hot air to the overlapping edge portion or portions as the article spins.

Claim 9

The method of claim 6 wherein the hot air comes from an elongated nozzle and the article is caused to move while spinning along the length of the nozzle.

Claim 10

The method of claim 5 wherein said adhesive is a hot melt glue.

Claim 11

The method of claim 5 wherein the trailing end of the segment is lapped over the leading end of the segment and is secured thereto by its narrow strip of adhesive.

Claim 12

A continuous method of applying heat shrinkable film to containers which comprises: (a) providing a continuous supply of such film in unshrunken form, (b) continuously severing the film into segments of desired length, each segment having a leading end, a trailing end, an upper edge portion and a lower edge portion extending between the leading end and the trailing end of the segment, (c) continuously transporting the severed segments to a film applicator station, (d) providing containers, each having a top extremity, a bottom extremity, a longitudinal axis extending between such extremities, a body portion between such extremities which has an outer surface parallel to such axis and at least one end portion between the body portion and an extremity and sloping inwardly from the outer surface of the body portion toward the longitudinal axis, (e) continuously transporting such containers to the film applicator station, (f) causing at such applicator station the leading end of each segment of film to be bonded to the body portion of a container solely by a narrow strip of adhesive with at least one edge portion overlapping but unattached to the container, said edge portions not extending beyond the extremities of the container, (g) spinning each container about its longitudinal axis to wrap the film segment about the body portion and bonding the trailing end of the segment to the container solely by a narrow strip of adhesive, thus providing a container with a film segment wrapped about its body portion and bonded to such body portion solely by said narrow strips of adhesive, at least one edge portion of the film segment overlapping an end portion but unattached thereto, and (h) applying heat to the overlapping edge portion or portions of each segment of film to shrink it onto the container.

Claim 13

A continuous method of applying heat shrinkable film to containers which comprises: (a) providing a continuous supply of such film in unshrunken form, (b) continuously severing the film into segments of desired length, each segment having a leading end, a trailing end, an upper edge portion and a lower edge portion extending between the leading end and the trailing end of the segment, (c) continuously transporting the severed segments to a film applicator station, (d) providing containers, each having a top extremity, a bottom extremity, a longitudinal axis extending between such extremities, a body portion between such extremities which has an outer surface parallel to such axis and at least one end portion between the body portion and an extremity and sloping inwardly from the outer surface of the body portion toward the longitudinal axis, (e) continuously transporting such containers to the film applicator station, (f) causing at such applicator station the leading end of each segment of film to be bonded to the body portion of a container solely by a narrow strip of adhesive with at least one edge portion overlapping but unattached to the container, said edge portions not extending beyond the extremities of the container, (g) spinning each container about its longitudinal axis to wrap the film segment about the body portion and bonding the trailing end of the segment to the container solely by a narrow strip of adhesive, thus providing a container with a film segment wrapped about its body portion and bonded to such body portion solely by said narrow strips of adhesive, at least one edge portion of the film segment overlapping an end portion but unattached thereto, and (h) applying heat to the overlapping edge portion or portions of each segment of film to shrink it onto the container.

Claim 14

The method of claim 10 wherein the heat applied in step (h) is applied in separate stages to cause partial heat shrinking of the edge portion or portions in the first stage and further heat shrinking of the edge portion or portions in each following stage.

Claim 15

The method of claim 10 wherein the body portions of the containers are cylindrical and the containers are transported continuously in a circular path from a container input station to a container output station, the containers are caused to spin about their longitudinal axes during such transport, the leading end of each segment of film is applied by means of an adhesive strip to the body portion of each container at a label applying station located in said circular path and is wrapped around the body portion of the container by reason of the spinning motion of the container and its trailing end is bonded to the body portion by an adhesive strip and heat is applied to the resulting overlap or overlaps of the edge portion or portions of the applied segment of film to heat shrink the same onto the sloping end portion or portions of the container.

Claim 16

The method of claim 12 wherein the trailing end of each segment of film is caused to overlap the leading end on the container and is adhered thereto by means of a strip of adhesive thereby forming a seam.

Claim 17

The method of claim 13 wherein the application of heat is interrupted or diminished whenever a seam is juxtaposed to the source of heat.

Claim 18

The method of claim 10 wherein the strips of adhesive are hot melt glue.

Claim 19

The method of claim 10 wherein the trailing end of each segment is lapped over and is secured to the leading end by its narrow strip of adhesive.

Claim 20

The method of claim 16 wherein the adhesive is a hot melt glue.