Roll holder for a label roll

Abstract

The invention relates to a roll holder for a label roll, in particular for a label printer for a packaging machine for wrapping products with a packaging film, having an horizontally arranged, fixed-position holding mandrel whose one end is fastened to a carrier and whose other end projects in an unsupported manner from the carrier, and having a first roll mount and a second roll mount separate from the first roll mount, wherein the first roll mount is configured to engage into a first end of the label roll, and wherein the second roll mount is configured to engage into a second end of the label roll, such that the label roll is receivable between the two roll mounts, with the second roll mount being pushable onto the holding mandrel from the unsupported end of the holding mandrel.

Claims

1. A roll holder for a label roll, comprising: a horizontally arranged, fixed-position holding mandrel whose one end is fastened to a carrier and whose other end projects in an unsupported manner from the carrier; and a first roll mount and a second roll mount, separate from the first roll mount, with the first roll mount being configured to engage into a first end of the label roll, and with the second roll mount being configured to engage into a second end of the label roll such that the label roll is receivable between the first roll mount and the second roll mount, wherein the second roll mount is configured to be pushed onto the holding mandrel from the unsupported end of the holding mandrel, and wherein the second roll mount comprises an inner element axially spaced from the first roll mount and configured to be pushed onto the holding mandrel, an outer element that engages into the second end of the label roll and that is axially fixedly and rotatably supported on the inner element, and a clamping mechanism configured to fix the inner element rotationally fixedly and axially fixedly on the holding mandrel.

2. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein: the clamping mechanism comprises a clamping insert that is coaxial to the inner element and is arranged between the holding mandrel and the inner element, and that is adjustable by an axial adjustment between a release position in which the inner element is displaceable on the holding mandrel and a blocked position in which the inner element is rotationally fixedly and axially fixedly fixed on the holding mandrel.

3. The roll holder in accordance with claim 2, wherein: the clamping insert has a clamping section having a conical outer diameter and the inner element has a contact section having a counter-shaped conical inner diameter to form a conical clamping connection in the blocked position of the clamping insert.

4. The roll holder in accordance with claim 2, wherein: the clamping mechanism comprises an actuation element coupled to the clamping insert to adjust the clamping insert between the release position and the blocked position.

5. The roll holder in accordance with claim 4, wherein: the actuation element is axially fixedly coupled to the inner element and is configured as a ring nut having an internal thread that is screwed onto an external thread of a coupling section of the clamping insert for coupling to the clamping insert.

6. The roll holder in accordance with claim 5, wherein: the actuation element has an undercut at its end section facing the inner element and at least one securing element that is screwed to the inner element is inserted into said undercut.

7. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein: the outer element is rotatably supported on the inner element by at least one roller element bearing provided between the outer element and the inner element.

8. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein: the first roll mount and the second roll mount each comprise a flange to each of which a respective boundary disk for the label roll is fastened.

9. The roll holder in accordance with-claim 1, wherein: the first roll mount comprises a first mount section to engage into the first end of the label roll and the second roll mount comprises a second mount section to engage into the second end of the label roll.

10. The roll holder in accordance with claim 9, wherein the two mount sections each taper conically.

11. The roll holder in accordance with claim 9, wherein: the two mount sections each have at least one sharp-edged rib, said ribs pressing into the respective end of the label roll on engagement.

12. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein: the first roll mount is formed as an assembly that can be handled in common; and/or in that the second roll mount is formed as an assembly that can be handled in common.

13. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein: the first roll mount is arranged axially fixedly with respect to the holding mandrel in the roll holder; and/or in that the first roll mount or at least a part thereof is rotatably supported with respect to the holding mandrel.

14. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein: a fixed position support element, is provided for a sliding support of the first roll mount and/or as an axial end abutment for the first roll mount.

15. The roll holder in accordance with claim 1, wherein the roll holder comprises a brake mechanism for the label roll.

16. The roll holder in accordance with claim 15, wherein: the brake mechanism comprises a tensioning roll fixedly connected to the first roll mount and a belt wrapping around the tensioning roll, with the one end of the belt being fixed to a fixed-position fastening and the other end of the belt being coupled to a deflection roller for a label band of the label roll that is movable between a release position in which the belt is loosened at the tensioning roll and a braked position in which the belt is tensioned at the tensioning roll.

17. The roll holder in accordance with claim 16, wherein: the other end of the belt is coupled to the deflection roller via a lever mechanism; and/or in that the deflection roller is preloaded in the direction of the braked position by means of a tension spring.

18. A label printer for a packaging machine for wrapping products with a packaging film, comprising a roll holder in accordance with claim 1.

19. A packaging machine for wrapping products with a packaging film, comprising at least one label printer in accordance with claim 18.

Description

(1) A non-restrictive embodiment of the invention is illustrated in the drawing and will be described in the following. There are shown

(2) FIG. 1 a schematic representation of a film packaging machine;

(3) FIG. 2 a label printer for the film packaging machine of FIG. 1 with a roll holder for a label roll;

(4) FIG. 3 a section through the roll holder of FIG. 2 with a first and a second roll holder;

(5) FIG. 4 an enlarged representation of the second roll holder in accordance with FIG. 3;

(6) FIG. 5a an exploded representation of the second roll holder in accordance with FIG. 4;

(7) FIG. 5b a perspective view of a part of the second roll holder in accordance with FIG. 4;

(8) FIG. 6a a perspective view of the first and second roll holders of FIG. 3;

(9) FIG. 6b a further perspective view of the first and second roll holders of FIG. 3; and

(10) FIG. 7 a brake mechanism for the label roll in accordance with FIG. 2.

(11) In FIG. 1, a schematic plan view is shown in the upper part of the Figure and a side view of a packaging machine 100 is shown in the lower part of the Figure.

(12) The packaging machine 100 comprises a film dispensing device 217, a film supply device 216, a film transport device 214, and a film cutting device 215 arranged between the film supply device 216 and the film transport device 214. A roll of a packaging film K, in particular of a plastic film, can be placed into the film dispensing device 217 and can be held there by a film holder or roll holder. An unwound end of the film K can then be transferred to the film transport device 214 by means of the film supply device 216.

(13) The film transport device 214 has two belt conveying devices 201 and 22 that are arranged spaced apart in parallel with one another to convey the supplied film K to two mutually oppositely disposed sides in a direction of transport X until the front edge of the film K has arrived at the end of the film transport device 214 at the front viewed in the direction of transport X, whereupon the film transport is stopped and the film K is cut off from the remaining film roll via the film cutting device 215. The belt conveying devices 201 and 202 are furthermore configured to hold the film K, in particular the cut-off film K, clampingly at two mutually opposite sides. For this purpose, for example, lifting actuators, not shown, can be provided such as are generally known from the prior art.

(14) The packaging machine 100 furthermore has a supply belt 102 via which packaging trays P wrapped with the film K and having food products located therein can be supplied to a lifting table 105 of the packaging machine 100. The lifting table 105 is configured to transport a respective tray P upwardly to the film K held in the film transport device 214 such that the tray P is pressed toward the tray K from below such that the film K is automatically placed around the tray P during the lifting procedure.

(15) For the further wrapping of the packing trays P, the film K is led downwardly at the sides and at the rear by means of lateral folding tongs 108a and 108b as well as by rear folding tongs 110 about the tray P after the lifting of the packaging tray P and is folded beneath the tray P or beneath the base of the tray P. The tray P is subsequently pushed out of the film packaging zone by means of a pusher 109 onto a sealing plate 107, whereby the front end of the film K is also folded beneath the tray P. The sealing plate 107 is heated to a temperature at which the ends of the film K folded beneath the tray P are welded to one another and sealed.

(16) The packed tray P can subsequently be provided with a label by a labeling apparatus not shown in FIG. 1. A scale 101 is arranged beneath the supply belt 102 for this purpose and the weight of the supplied packaging trays P having the food products can be determined by it. A respective label printer, not shown in FIG. 1, that is respectively connected to the scale 101 is provided approximately in front of the lateral folding tongs 108a in the direction of transport X and behind the lateral folding tongs 108b—or to the left and right of the lifting table 105 in a front view of the packaging machine 100. The two printers can alternatingly print a label on which the weight of a respective filled tray P is specified. The labeling apparatus takes over the label from the printer and applies it to the packed tray P. The packed and labeled tray P can finally be transported off via a transverse conveyor belt 106.

(17) An embodiment in accordance with the invention of the label printer to the right of the lifting table 105 is shown in FIG. 2. The label printer 11 comprises a printing unit 12 having a printhead, as well as a roll holder 13 in accordance with the invention that is equipped with a label roll, not shown, having a roll core and a label band wound thereon and that will be explained in more detail in connection with the further FIGS. 3 to 7, a winding mandrel 15 for the aforesaid label band once the label band has passed the printer 11, and an electric motor rotationally driving the winding mandrel 15.

(18) The roll holder 13 in accordance with FIG. 3 first comprises a fixed-position holding mandrel 17 whose one end is fastened to a carrier in the form of a housing wall 18 and that horizontally projects from it. The roll holder 13 furthermore comprises a first roll mount 19 and a second roll mount 20 that is separate from the first roll mount 19. The two roll mounts 19, 20 are configured such that the aforesaid label roll is arranged between the two roll mounts 19, 20 in the received state. For this purpose, first and second mounting sections, 21, 22 respectively of the two roll mounts 19, 20 that each taper conically engage into the first and second ends respectively of the hollow cylindrical roll core of the label roll so that the label roll is held between the two roll mounts 19, 20. The first roll mount 19 is axially fixedly preinstalled in the roll holder 13 via a brake mechanism explained in more detail below. The label roll and subsequently the second roll mount 20 can then be pushed onto the holding mandrel 17 to load the holding mandrel 17. Label rolls having different widths and having mutually different inner diameters of the hollow cylindrical roll cores of the label rolls can be used by a roll holder 13 setup in this manner.

(19) The two roll mounts 19, 20 further comprise a respective peripheral first and second flange 23, 24, to which a respective first and second boundary disk 25, 26 for the label roll received between the two roll mounts 19, 20 is fastened via screw connections. Furthermore, the two roll mounts 19, 20 are each formed as assemblies so that the roll holder 13 only comprises exactly two loose parts, namely the first roll mount 19 and the second roll mount 20, whereby high operating comfort of the roll holder 13 is ensured.

(20) As can be recognized in detail from FIGS. 4 and 5, the second roll mount 20 is assembled from a plurality of elements. The second roll mount 20 in particular comprises a sleeve-like inner element 27 and an outer element 28. The second roll mount 20 can be pushed onto the holding mandrel 17 via the inner element 27. The outer element 28 comprises the second mount section 22 and the second flange 24 and is rotatably supported on the inner element 27 via two ball bearings 29 arranged directly next to one another.

(21) A clamping mechanism 30 is furthermore provided by which the inner element 27 can be rotationally fixedly and axially fixedly fixed to the holding mandrel 17. The clamping mechanism 30 for this purpose comprises a clamping sleeve 31 that is coaxial to the inner element 27 in the placed on state, that is arranged between the holding mandrel 17 and the inner element 27, and that has a clamping section 33, a coupling section 34, and a ring nut 32. The clamping section 33 of the clamping sleeve 31 has a conical outer diameter. Corresponding to this, the inner element 27 has a contact section 35 that is likewise conical, but is formed in a counter-shape, so that by displacing the clamping sleeve 31 in the axial direction into a blocked position, a clamping connection can resulting from the two cones can be established between the clamping sleeve 31 and the inner element 27 to fix the inner element 27 in a rotationally fixed and axially fixed manner to the holding mandrel 17. The label roll can thus be fixed rotatably, on the one hand, and axially fixedly, on the other hand, on the fixed-position holding mandrel 17. To release the second roll mount 20 from the holding mandrel 17, the two cones are released from one another again, i.e. the clamping sleeve 31 is displaced into a corresponding release position.

(22) To displace the clamping sleeve 31, the coupling section 34 of the clamping sleeve 31 is provided with an external thread onto which the ring nut 32 provided with a matching internal thread is screwed, with the ring nut 32 simultaneously being axially fixedly coupled to the inner element 27. The axially fixed coupling of the ring nut 32 to the inner element 27 is achieved in that the ring nut 32 has an undercut 36 at its end section facing the inner element 27, with two securing elements in the form of two semicircular ring washers 37 being plugged into said undercut 36 and subsequently being screwed to a flange 48 of the inner element 27 facing the ring nut 32 such as is shown in FIG. 5b, with only one of the two semicircular ring washers 37 being shown in FIG. 5b.

(23) It can additionally be seen from FIGS. 6a and 6b that the two mount sections 21, 22 each have a plurality of prolongations 38 that are arranged distributed in the peripheral direction. The prolongations 38 of the two mount sections 21, 22 are configured here such that they can engage into one another in a finger-like manner on at least a discrete rotational position of the two mount sections 21, 22 toward one another so that the two mount sections 21, 22 can be pushed into one another. The roll holder 13 in accordance with the invention can hereby also be used with particularly narrow label rolls.

(24) It can furthermore be seen from FIGS. 6a and 6b that the prolongations 38 of the two mount sections 21, 22 are each provided with a sharp-edged rib 39, said ribs 39 tapering to a point in the axial direction, in each case toward the label roll. The ribs 39 press into the respective end of the roll core of the label roll on engagement so that the label roll is securely held on the two mount sections 21, 22, in particular on the prolongations 38.

(25) A fixed-position bearing plate 40 is furthermore provided that is pushed onto the holding mandrel 17 up to the housing wall 18 (cf. FIG. 3) and is fastened to the housing wall 18. The bearing plate 40, on the one hand, serves as an axial abutment and, on the other hand, as part of a plain bearing for the first roll mount 19. To form the plain bearing, a roll 41 is provided at the rear side of the first boundary disk 25 and is fixedly connected to the first boundary disk 25 or is fixedly connected to the first roll mount 19 and is slidingly supported on the bearing plate 40.

(26) The roll 41 is simultaneously part of a brake mechanism 42 for the label roll and acts as a tensioning roll 41 in so doing. The brake mechanism 42 further comprises a belt 43, such as is shown in FIG. 7, that wraps around the tensioning roll 41, with the tensioning roll 41 being omitted there. The one end of the belt 43 is here attached to a fixed-position fastening 44 and the other end of the belt 43 is coupled to a deflection roll 45 for the aforesaid label band of the label roll not shown in FIG. 7. The coupling between the belt 43 and the deflection roll 45 takes place via a lever mechanism 46, with the deflection roll 45 being downwardly pivoted into a release position with a label band under tensile loading, whereby the belt 43 is loosened at the tensioning roll 41. If the tensile loading on the label band is removed, the deflection roll 45 is pivoted back into a braked position by means of a tension spring 47, whereby the belt 43 is tensioned at the tensioning roll 41 and a braking effect is thus initiated on the label roll. The first roll mount 19 is in another respect also axially fixedly held in the roll holder 13 by the brake mechanism 42, in particular by the belt 43 and by the tensioning roll 41.

REFERENCE NUMERAL LIST

(27) 11 label printer 12 print unit 13 roll holder 15 winding mandrel 16 electric motor 17 holding mandrel 18 housing wall 19 first roll mount 20 second roll mount 21 first mount section 22 second mount section 23 first flange 24 second flange 25 first boundary disk 26 second boundary disk 27 inner element 28 outer element 29 ball bearing 30 clamping mechanism 31 clamping sleeve 32 ring nut 33 clamping section 34 coupling section 35 contact section 36 undercut 37 semicircular ring nut 38 prolongation 39 rib 40 bearing plate 41 tensioning roll 42 brake mechanism 43 belt 44 fastening 45 deflection roller 46 lever mechanism 47 tension spring 48 flange 100 packaging machine 101 scale 102 supply belt 104 light barrier 105 lifting table 106 transverse conveyor belt 107 sealing plate 108a lateral folding tongs 108b lateral folding tongs 109 pusher 110 rear folding tongs 201 belt conveying device 202 belt conveying device 214 film transport device 215 film cutting device 216 film supply device 217 film dispensing device K packaging film P packaging tray (having the food product) X direction of transport