Apparatus for formation of packaging material
OwnerDonald E. Beckettinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A pattern is formed in rapid and continuous manner on aluminized polymer film by printing the aluminum surface with a sodium hydroxide-resistant material, which may be pigmented, contacting the non-overprinted areas of the aluminum with hot aqueous sodium hydroxide solution to dissolve the aluminum rapidly from the base polymeric film and leave unaffected the overprinted areas, and washing the spent sodium hydroxide solution from the film. The steps are carried on a continuous web of aluminized film and result in pattern of opaque areas and transparent areas, corresponding to the overprinted and non-overprinted areas of the film.
Claims5
Apparatus for forming a repetitive pattern on a roll of aluminized polymer film, comprising
- holder means for holding said roll of aluminized polymer film so that a web may be drawn therefrom;
- printing station means for printing a desired pattern on said web, said printing station means including a rotary patterned printing surface for engagement with the aluminized surface of said web and etchant-resistant material application means for applying etchant-resistant material to said pattern on said printing surface;
- etchant material-applying station means located spaced from said printing station means in a direction downstream of the intended direction of motion of said web, said etchant-material applying station means including a rotary surface for engagement with the patterned surface of said web and etchant-material application means for applying a film of sodium hydroxide solution to said rotary surface;
- washing station means located spaced from said etchant material-applying station means in a direction downstream of the intended direction of motion of said web, said washing station means including wash water applying and removal means for application of wash water to the etchant-applied surface of the web to wash spent sodium hydroxide therefrom and removal of the resulting spent wash water therefrom
- drying means for drying said washed web;
- and
- take up means for taking up a roll of the dried web of patterned film.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.