IES950350A2 - "A label manufacturing apparatus" - Google Patents

Abstract

A set of label printing plates are prepared and mounted on a sheet printing machine (10). Sheets are fed through the printing machine (10) to print indicia associated with a number of labels on each sheet. After passing through a checking station (15), the sheets may be either embossed with a design and/or have a foil design applied to the labels on each sheet at an embossing or foiling station (16). At the foiling station (16), each printed sheet is fed from a magazine onto a rotatable cylinder. Upon rotation of the cylinder, the sheet is engaged with a metal foil web. The web is pressed against the sheet by means of a hot die carried on a heated sliding bed to transfer a foil design onto labels printed on the sheet. The sliding bed is movable on a support frame between a retracted disengaged position and an extended foil transfer position beneath the cylinder. A web of foil is fed over the bed and incrementally advanced across the bed for applying foil designs to successive sheets on the cylinder. The sheets are delivered to a cutting station (7) and cut into stacks of generally rectangular labels. The labels are then conveyed to a shaping station (72) and pushed through a shaped cutter to cut the labels to a desired shape. At an outlet of the cutter, the shaped labels are fed along a discharge chute in a controlled manner to a packing station (77).