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The Origin of KOYO Labeling Machines
Currently, there is one technology that is employed as a standard for labeling machines both domestic and abroad. We believe KOYO has played a great role in establishing that technology. Then what the KOYO’s technology like or from what kind of idea such technology originated in? This section will track the history of labeling machines from those perspectives.
The oldest labeling machine so far as I know is the semi-automatic labeling machine by Krones AG (Germany) made in 1952 (1st photo below). The machine employed a system to lay down containers for placing labels and its production rate was 60 units per minute.
In 1956, Krones AG then developed a full automatic labeling machine whose production rate was 66 units per minute (2nd photo below) and seemed to become widely used rapidly.
Another older labeling machine was that of Jagenberg AG (Germany). A label magazine containing labels was placed on the conveyor line, swing arms catch the label ends and take out, lower them to the conveyor height and paste them to containers by aligning the label position with the center line of the container. There were a lot of technical challenges including an episode; adjusting work to align with the container center was so difficult that it took many months to solve any troubles. In a system that rotates containers to wrap labels around them, the leading edge of the labels was often folded.
In terms of tack labelers, SATO CORPORATION released a hand labeler in 1961 and Takara Pac Ltd. released an auto labeler in 1962.
KOYO labeling machines
In the midst of such circumstances both domestic and abroad, KOYO Automatic Machine Co., Ltd (founded on January 5, 1968) shipped its first hopper labeler (foliage labeler, Type “LS-80”) to a honey manufacture and sales company on May 9, 1968. It was a challenging project for the company to release a labeling machine that incorporated the world’s first system.
The machine was equipped with all basic features of labeling machines handed down to the present and it is not an overestimate that this machine determined the direction of development of labeling machines. The core technology of this type was to suction paper labels by vacuum, send and pasted them to containers. Until the advent of this model, the vacuum suction system had been believed to be inappropriate for paper labels because of frequent problems of two-label suctioning due to vacuum leaks. Due to this difficulty, the system described earlier had been employed to catch and take out labels from the hopper (magazine) and then paste them.
Employment of a vacuum suction drum
The important decision by KOYO Automatic Machine to employ a suction system for labels using a vacuum pump which was very expensive at that time determined the direction of the development of labeling machines thereafter (Photos and diagrams below). The system invented employed a very simple label suction control system that uses a contact plate and the groove on the rotor board (at first the component was made of gunmetal and fixed type without springs) immediately below the transfer drum.
One of the hard challenges throughout the development process was the method to take out labels one by one from the label hopper (label magazine) where foliage labels (cut labels) are stored.
Delicate operations are necessary in order to take labels held with claws at the take out port on the label hopper smoothly by releasing them off the claws. The mechanism that made this possible was the linkage of a swing hopper that draws a unique track with a cum & link mechanism, and rotation movements of a vacuum suction drum.
This cum & link mechanism draws a trajectory produced by mixing the right and left swinging movement of the crank to the suction drum and the fore and aft swinging movement of the cum. This movement makes the label hopper repeat movement cycles of moving closer to the suction drum until it comes into contact with the drum and then move away from the drum in synchronization with the rotation speed of the drum. More precisely, when the tip of the hopper moves at a slightly higher speed than the rotation of the suction drum, the claws will move off the tip of the labels. At the same time, the portion between the center and the trailing edge of the label will make a positive curvature thus it is separated from the following label (Patent: 1971.12).
Configuration of a hopper labeler
The whole sketch of a one-sheet labeling machine can be seen in several patent documents in 1971 (Diagram below). This machine has almost all of basic elements that are incorporated in the present labeling machines.
The container transfer unit comprises a conveyor, screws, star wheels and a sensor for label takeout container. The label application unit comprises a pasting drum, an adhesive applicator, a label hopper and a pressure bonding plate.<brv
Although this Patent unit does not employ any round finish plates, which will become one of major labeler components, this is because the main purpose of the patent application was the development of a labeling machine that could handle containers made of soft materials. The label finishing unit comprises a finishing belt that completes pasting of a label while rotating containers and an upper belt used for capping containers.
The technique widely used then was to simulate human hand motion to apply a label to a container. Use of a vacuum suction drum to apply labels to a rotating container marked an innovative change. The most important point lied on the extremely simple label application system where the vacuum suction drum rotates and, at the same time, containers rotates and revolves (rotation and revolution) around the drum to wrap and apply labels. The element that enabled this system was the round finish plate (Photos below).
The round finish plate is an arc-shaped pressure bonding plate concentric with the pasting drum and having the size appropriate for the container diameter, and which plates are located in the vicinity of the pasting drum. This round finish plate and the rotating pasting drum work together to rotate containers (rotation and revolution around the drum) (initial rotation) and, at the same speed, labels will be wrapped around the containers.
In addition, a cold glue applicator, a timing screw, a finishing belt and other basic elements of a labeler which later developed to the present models are equipped in an almost perfect forms. Although any patent documents that describe adhesive applicators in detail are not found, the basic configuration of the present models is the same (Patent: 1971.11).
This suction drum type labeling application system employing the configuration above has become the basic model of labeling machines all over the world. The design has disseminated not only throughout Japan but also among a lot of companies around world which fact indicates the model is the global standard of labeling machines.
And the vacuum suction pasting drum that transfers cut labels for the roll labeler that will be later developed is currently employed in all roll labelers in the world (Figures and photos below).
Deployment of hopper labelers
In the course of the deployment of hopper labelers in the following period, the company predicted market needs and improved the speed (improvement of the pasting efficiency), multi-point pasting (front label, back label, shoulder label) and pasting precision and developed new technologies. As described earlier, the hopper labeler has a mechanism to take out labels with the vacuum suction drum in combination with the unique swinging motions of the hopper. As a result, the label take-out capability is limited and the pasting efficiency was about 180 per minute at most.
The company increased this processing efficiency by developing a double- hopper labeler [Type LK-300] (Pasting capability 356 units/min.) that doubled the label pasting capability by installing 2 pairs of label hoppers and suction drums and enabling to transfer to the pasting drums alternately (Photos and diagrams below).
In addition to the improved process speed with the double-hopper labeler, a label position correction unit was born for a higher pasting precision (Patent: 1978.10). This patent document describes the double-hopper labeler equipped with 2 pairs of label hoppers and suction drums (Figure below).
The system has enabled a high-speed supply of labels with double hoppers by making a gap between the suction drum and the pasting drum so that labels will be transferred to the pasting drum that rotates at a peripheral speed faster than that of the suction drum. Reference to a label position correction unit appeared for the first time in this document.
The role of the label position correction unit is, as its name suggests, to improve pasting precision by correcting the label position in the up, down, right and left directions while those labels taken out of the label hopper is rotated and transferred with the suction drum. What has enabled this were the simple mechanism of the correction guide, the correction claws on the suction drum, and vacuum suction opening/closing with the rotor board of the suction drum and their and well-designed linkage operation.
Realization of the hopper labeler (Type LRW) for front/back application of S-character track transferred labels
pasting drums. The front label suction assembly and the back label suction assembly whose pitches are aligned are equipped on the pasting drum, which suctions front and back labels, transfer them and paste on containers (Figure below). The company shipped its first LFB type labeler in June, 1974.
In 1971, the company developed a National Certificate Stamp Applicator “LK-KO” (Figure below) and 5 units were shipped in that fiscal year alone. Various ideas were incorporated in this model not to waste any single certificate stamp and this model has acquired high confidence and, although the number is not limited, have been shipped every year constantly.
