LABEL SHRINK OVEN

• Main Authors: FRANK JOSEPH DIFRANK, RUSSELL WILLIAM HECKMAN, ROBERT JAMES BURMEISTER
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 30.12.1986
• Edition: 4
• Subjects: ACCESSORIES, CLOSURES, OR FITTINGS THEREFOR; AFTER-TREATMENT OF THE SHAPED PRODUCTS, e.g. REPAIRING; BLASTING; CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF GLASSES, GLAZES, OR VITREOUSENAMELS; CHEMISTRY; CONTAINERS FOR STORAGE OR TRANSPORT OF ARTICLES OR MATERIALS,e.g. BAGS, BARRELS, BOTTLES, BOXES, CANS, CARTONS, CRATES,DRUMS, JARS, TANKS, HOPPERS, FORWARDING CONTAINERS; CONVEYING; DRYING; DRYING SOLID MATERIALS OR OBJECTS BY REMOVING LIQUID THEREFROM; GLASS; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL; HEATING; JOINING GLASS TO GLASS OR OTHER MATERIALS; LIGHTING; MACHINES, APPARATUS OR DEVICES FOR, OR METHODS OF, PACKAGINGARTICLES OR MATERIALS; MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; METALLURGY; MINERAL OR SLAG WOOL; PACKAGES; PACKAGING ELEMENTS; PACKING; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; SHAPING OF MATERIAL IN A PLASTIC STATE, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDEDFOR; SHAPING OR JOINING OF PLASTICS; STORING; SURFACE TREATMENT OF FIBRES OR FILAMENTS MADE FROM GLASS,MINERALS OR SLAGS; SURFACE TREATMENT OF GLASS; TRANSPORTING; UNPACKING; WEAPONS; WORKING OF PLASTICS; WORKING OF SUBSTANCES IN A PLASTIC STATE, IN GENERAL

An infrared heat tunnel with hot air circulation for heat shrinking wraparound labels on containers which are moved through the tunnel in an upright attitude on an open weave conveyor belt. The infrared heating is by electrical strip heaters along the sides of the tunnel and air is blown by blowers across these heaters to impinge on the sides of the containers. The air is drawn down through the conveyor belt since the inlet to the blowers is from beneath the conveyor. A vertical air curtain along each side of the first half of the tunnel is adjustable in length to effectively delay the skin shrinkage of the film-foam material of the labels in order to get wrinkle-free shrinkage of the film and underlying foam about the container wall and heel areas without bottle rotation.