Article labeling machine

An apparatus for transferring a horizontally flat-wise presented label from a label dispenser to an article to be labeled which is situated at a lower level and in sidewise displaced position relative to said dispenser, said apparatus comprising:

• a vacuum shoe carried at the bottom end of a vertically extending tube which is connected to a vacuum source and is vertically reciprocal in a housing member, said tube having an apertured side wall portion thereof which is normally vacuum sealed by said housing but is exposed to ambient atmosphere when said tube is in its lowermost extended position relative to said housing;
• means for shifting said tube carrying housing laterally back and forth between label pickup and label applying positions;
• and
• means for simultaneously causing said tube to move downwardly within said housing when traveling away from said label dispenser to said label applying position, whereby said vacuum foot is enabled to carry a label in a laterally and downwardly smoothly curving path toward the article to be labeled and whereby upon arrival at said label applying position said apertured tube portion is exposed to intake air at ambient atmospheric pressure operative to break the vacuum and release the label from said shoe for adhesive attachment to said article.

A labeling machine of the type comprising in combination a high speed operating conveyor adapted to carry a succession of articles each of which is to be labeled as it arrives at a labeling station with an appropriately printed label carrying previously ascertained marketing information(s) specifically applicable to each such article, said machine including a printed label dispenser means located to one side of and at an elevation above said conveyor dispensing in sequence and in horizontally flat-wise attitude labels having pressure sensitive adhesive on one side and with appropriate marketing information(s) printed on the other side in a standard orientation readout relationship to the vertical axes of said labels;

• said machine having an improved carrying means for transferring such printed labels to such articles and applying them thereto in any preferred readout vertical axis orientation relative to the article to be labeled;
• said carrying means comprising:
• pickup means operable for temporary attachments in succession to the first in line of said labels presented by said dispenser means, and for transporting said labels while in flat-wise attitude throughout a smoothly curving composite horizontally sidewise and vertically descending path, and then depositing said labels on said articles as they pass through said labeling station, said pickup means comprises a vacuum shoe depending from a hollow spindle, and rack and pinion gear means is provided for rotating said spindle about the vertical axes of said labels while being transferred, whereby to deliver said labels to said articles in an angularly adjusted readout position compared to the standard readout orientation of said labels when picked up from said dispenser means.

A labeling machine of the type comprising in combination a high speed operating conveyor adapted to carry a succession of articles each of which is to be labeled as it arrives at a labeling station with an appropriately printed label carrying previously ascertained marketing information(s) specifically applicable to each such article, said machine including a printed label dispenser means located to one side of and at an elevation above said conveyor for dispensing in sequence and in horizontally flat-wise attitude labels having pressure sensitive adhesive on one side and with appropriate marketing information(s) printed on the other side in a standard orientation readout relationship to the vertical axes of said labels;

• said machine having an improved carrying means for transferring such printed labels to such articles and applying them thereto in any preferred readout vertical axis orientation relative to the article to be labeled;
• said carrying means comprising:
• pickup means operable for temporary attachments in succession to the first in line of said labels presented by said dispenser means, and for transporting said labels while in flat-wise attitude throughout a smoothly curving composite horizontally sidewise and vertically descending path, and then depositing said labels on said articles as they pass through said labeling station, said pickup means comprises a stationary means, a support plate mounted on said stationary means for horizontal reciprocating movements relative thereto, a vertically standing hollow tube carried by said support plate for vertically reciprocating and axial rotational movements relative thereto, a vacuum shoe carried by a lower end of said tube, means for reciprocating said support plate relative to said stationary means and said tube relative to said support plate for causing said vacuum shoe to be displaced simultaneously laterally and vertically in smoothly curving arcuate paths between the positions of said dispenser means and the articles to be labeled, a vacuum source connected into communication with the interior of said tube for holding said labels to said vacuum shoe during transport thereof, and means for selectively and adjustably effecting rotational movements of said tube relative to said support plate.