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OwnerMitchell J. Rackovan, Kushalkumar M. Baid +2inventors
InventorsMitchell J. Rackovan, Kushalkumar M. Baid, Gerald G. Popely, Ronald V. Lloyd
Estimating the term…
An oriented polymeric in-mold label film includes a hot-stretched, annealed, linerless self-wound film lamina and has a face layer for printing and a base layer which includes a heat-activatable adhesive. The film may be hot-stretched and annealed at softening and annealing temperatures exceeding the temperature at which the adhesive is activated by passing the film across rolls for imparting heat to and removing heat from the film under controlled time-temperature-direction conditions to heat at least the majority of the thickness of the film to such softening and annealing temperatures without sticking of the adhesive to the rolls. The heat-shrinkability of the film is balanced thickness-wise to minimize curl and allow the film to be printed in conventional label-printing presses. An antistat may be included only in the charge for the base layer which includes the heat-activatable adhesive. In the manufacture of labelled blow-molded containers, sheets and labels formed from the film may be handled at high speeds while maintaining accurate registration and dimensional and positional integrity even in the absence of any reinforcing backing, yet the labels perform well on deformable containers such as shampoo bottles.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of coextruding a plurality of at least two charges of film-forming resin, coextruding said charges to thereby form a construction in the form of a multilayer extrudate having a face side and a back side, preselecting said charges to provide a printable face on said face side and a heat-activated adhesive at said back side, hot-stretching and annealing said extrudate using hot-stretching and annealing means to thereby provide a machine direction stiffness differential and enhance the dimensional stability of the free-film extrudate sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the extrudate, each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said face side and said back side of said multilayer extrudate, printing the face side of the free-film extrudate and exposing the extrudate to a drying agent to dry the ink, die-cutting the free-film extrudate to form individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surface of a mold for bonding onto successive workpieces as said workpieces and said molding surface are brought together in the presence of heat whereby said adhesive is activated and contacted with said workpieces, wherein the face side of said extrudate has an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said hot workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it, said step of annealing further including heating at least a majority of the thickness of the extrudate to above the annealing temperature without activating the adhesive to an extent which results in sticking of the adhesive to the annealing means despite said annealing temperature being above the temperature at which said workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of combining a plurality of at least first and second laminas of film-forming resin to form a label film, said label film having a face side provided by said first lamina and a back side provided by said second lamina, said first lamina including a top layer at said face side and said second lamina including a base layer at said back side, and either before, during or after said combining step, hot-stretching and annealing said laminae using hot-stretching and annealing means to thereby provide a machine direction stiffness differential and enhance the dimensional stability of said label film which is to be, is being, or has been formed, sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the label film, said first lamina including at least two differing layers, and each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said at least two layers of said first lamina, and before all the aforesaid steps, preselecting a first film-forming resin for forming said top layer to provide a printable face at said face side of said label film and preselecting a second film-forming resin for forming said base layer to provide a heat-activated adhesive at said back side of said label film, and following said combining, hot-stretching and annealing steps, printing the face side of the film and exposing the film to a drying agent to dry the ink, die-cutting the film as individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surface of a mold for bonding onto successive workpieces to form said workpieces and said molding surface are brought together in the presence of heat whereby said adhesive is activated and contacted with said workplaces, wherein the face side of said laminas has an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said hot workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it, said step of annealing further including heating at least a majority of the thickness of the laminas to above the annealing temperature without activating the adhesive to an extent which results in sticking of the adhesive to the annealing means despite said annealing temperature being above the temperature at which said workplaces contact said adhesive to activate it.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of coextruding a plurality of at least two charges of film-forming resin, coextruding said charges to thereby form a construction in the form of a multilayer extrudate having a face side and a back side, preselecting said charges to provide a printable face on said face side and a heat-activated adhesive at said back side, uniaxially hot-stretching and annealing said extrudate using hot-stretching and annealing means to thereby enhance the dimensional stability of the free-film extrudate sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the extrudate, each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said face side and said back side of said multilayer extrudate, printing the face side of the free-film extrudate and exposing the extrudate to a drying agent to dry the ink, die-cutting the free-film extrudate to form individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surfaces of a blow mold for bonding onto successive hot workpieces as said workpieces are blown and expanded against said molding surface and against said label whereby contact by said hot workpieces activates said adhesive, wherein the face side of said extrudate has an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said hot workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it, said step of annealing further including heating at least a majority of the thickness of the extrudate to above the annealing temperature without activating the adhesive to an extent which results in sticking of the adhesive to the annealing means despite said annealing temperature being above the temperature at which said workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of coextruding a plurality of at least three charges of film-forming resin, coextruding said charges to thereby form a construction in the form of a multilayer extrudate having a face layer, a back layer, and a core layer, preselecting said charges to provide a printable face at the face of said face layer and a heat activated adhesive at said back layer, uniaxially hot-stretching and annealing said extrudate using hot-stretching and annealing means to thereby enhance the dimensional stability of the free-film extrudate sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the extrudate, each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said face side and said back side of said multilayer extrudate, printing said face of the face layer, die-cutting the free-film extrudate to form individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surface of a blow mold for bonding onto successive hot workpieces as said workpieces are blown and expanded against said molding surface and against said label whereby contact by said hot workpieces activates said adhesive, wherein the face side of said extrudate has an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said hot workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it, said step of annealing further including heating at least a majority of the thickness of the extrudate to above the annealing temperature without activating the adhesive to an extent which results in sticking of the adhesive to the annealing means despite said annealing temperature being above the temperature at which said workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of coextruding a plurality of at least two charges of film-forming resin, coextruding said charges to thereby form a construction in the form of a multilayer extrudate having a face side and a back side, preselecting said charges to provide a printable face on said face side and a heat-activated adhesive at said back side, hot-stretching and annealing said extrudate to thereby enhance the dimensional stability of the free-film extrudate sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the extrudate, each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said face side and said back side of said multilayer extrudate, printing the face side of the free-film extrudate and exposing the extrudate to a drying agent to dry the ink, die-cutting the free-film extrudate to form individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surface of a mold for bonding onto successive workpieces as said workpieces and said molding surface are brought together in the presence of heat whereby said adhesive is activated and contacted with said workpieces, wherein the face side of said extrudate has an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said adhesive is activated, said step of hot-stretching and annealing including passing said extrudate across heating and cooling means including roll means contacting said extrudate to thereby impart heat to and remove heat from said extrudate under time-temperature-direction conditions established by line speed, temperature of said heating and cooling means and side of heat contact, said step of hot-stretching and annealing further including controlling said time-temperature-direction conditions to heat at least a majority of the thickness of the extrudate to above its annealing temperature following stretching without sticking of said adhesive to said roll means, despite said annealing temperature being above the temperature at which said adhesive is activated.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of coextruding a plurality of at least two charges of film-forming resin, coextruding said charges to thereby form a construction in the form of a multilayer free-film extrudate having a face side and a back side, preselecting said charges to provide a printable face on said face side and a heat-activated adhesive at said back side, hot-stretching and annealing said extrudate using hot-stretching and annealing means to thereby provide a machine direction stiffness differential and enhance the dimensional stability of the free-film extrudate sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the extrudate, each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said face side and said back side of said multilayer extrudate, printing the face side of the free-film extrudate and exposing the extrudate to a drying agent to dry the ink, die-cutting the free-film extrudate to form individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surface of a mold for bonding onto successive workpieces as said workpieces and said molding surface are brought together in the presence of heat whereby said adhesive is activated and contacted with said workpieces, the face side of said extrudate having an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said hot workpieces contact said adhesive to activate it, said step of annealing further including heating at least a majority of the thickness of the extrudate to above the annealing temperature while the adhesive at the surface on the back side remains at a temperature below the activation temperature, said preselecting step including preselecting said charges to contain major proportions of like film-forming resins and said hot-stretching and annealing step including similarly hot-stretching the face side and the back side of the free-film extrudate, to thereby balance the heat-shrinkability at each side of said extrudate to a sufficient extent to limit curling of the extrudate following hot-stretching.
An in-mold labelling method comprising the steps of combining a plurality of at least first and second laminas of film-forming resin to form a label film having a face side provided by said first lamina and a back side provided by said second lamina, said first lamina including a top layer at said face side and said second lamina including a base layer at said back side, and either before, during or after said combining step, hot-stretching and annealing said laminas using hot-stretching and annealing means to thereby provide a machine direction stiffness differential and enhance the dimensional stability of said label film which is to be, is being, or has been formed, sufficiently to enable linerless printing of the label film, said first lamina including at least two differing layers, and each of said hot-stretching and annealing steps being simultaneously performed on said at least two layers of said first lamina, and before all the aforesaid steps, preselecting a first film-forming resin for forming said top layer to provide a printable face at said face side of said label film and preselecting a second film-forming resin for forming said base layer to provide a heat-activated adhesive at said back side of said label film, and following said combining, hot-stretching and annealing steps, printing the face side of the film and exposing the film to a drying agent to dry the ink, die-cutting the film as individual labels, and sequentially deploying the labels on a molding surface of a mold for bonding onto successive workpieces to form said workpieces and said molding surface are brought together in the presence of heat whereby said adhesive is activated and contacted with said workpieces, the face side of said label film having an annealing temperature above the temperature at which said adhesive is said step of annealing further including heating at least a majority of the thickness of the laminae to above the annealing temperature while the adhesive at the surface on the back side remains at a temperature blow the activation temperature, said preselecting step including preselecting said charges to contain major proportions of like film-forming resins and said hot-stretching and annealing step including similarly hot-stretching the face side and the back side of the label film to thereby balance the heat-shrinkability at each side of the label film to a sufficient extent to limit curling of the label film following hot-stretching.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.