Westvaco Corporation

Theodore E Kosciuczyk

Harland S Fisher

Joseph M Murphy

Richard C Brown

Stephen F Cook

A machine design is taught for automatically applying adhesive coated labels to folded cartons at a precisely adjusted location on a carton. Both labels and cartons are supplied singularly from bottom feed magazines. A cam oscillated vacuum picker curls one end of a label out of the magazine to be vacuum gripped to the peripheral surface of a rotating transfer drum. Continued rotation of the drum withdraws the remainder of the label from the magazine stack bottom and lays it to the drum periphery surface. A singular carton is slidably removed from the bottom of a respective magazine stack by a lugged conveyor belt and pushed into a timed nip proximity with the label carrying transfer drum. Between the label receiving and delivery positions, the label is carried past a fountain roll for surface coating of water or adhesive.

Label applicator

A rotary envelope machine gum box construction is taught which provides an independent frame assembly of the meter roll and gum pond elements. The independent frame is pivotally secured to the primary machine frame at one end of the independent frame with micro-adjusting jack screw abutments at the other independent frame end. Differential adjustment of the jack screws will skew the meter roll axis to the picker roll axis. The edge line of the doctor blade may be skewed relative to the meter roll surface by push/pull screws between the independent frame and the doctor blade ends. Liquid gum is pumped from a remote supply reservoir, the gum box pond level being controlled by a fiber optic liquid level sensor which regulates the gum pump operation. Gum is delivered from the pump to a removable manifold block which distributes the gum to the pond ends for a nonstagnation zone, end-to-middle pond flow pattern. The meter roll is provided with an auxiliary drive to permit continued roll rotation during periods of primary machine drive interruption. An actuator at the jack screw end of the frame lifts the meter roll off the picker at such times of primary drive interruption.

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Worcester, MA, United States of America

Theodore E Kosciuczyk