Apparatus and method for coating and in particular plasma coating of containers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11776790-B2
Application number	US-201916705298-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2019
Priority date	Dec 18, 2018
Publication date	Oct 3, 2023
Grant date	Oct 3, 2023

Abstract

Provided is an apparatus and a method for coating objects and in particular containers with at least one first and one second coating station, wherein these coating stations each have at least one first coating electrode and one second coating electrode, and with a supply device for electrical supply of in each case at least one of the coating electrodes. The supply device has a high-frequency generator device for generating an a.c. voltage and/or voltage pulses as well as an a.c. voltage distribution device which distributes this a.c. voltage and/or the voltage pulses respectively to in each case at least one electrode of the first coating station and at least one electrode of the second coating station, wherein the a.c. voltage distribution device is suitable and intended for distributing the a.c. voltages and/or the voltage pulses with a time delay to the electrodes.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An apparatus for coating objects wherein the objects are containers with at least one first and one second coating station, wherein these coating stations each have at least one first coating electrode and one second coating electrode, and with a supply device for electrical supply of at least one of the coating electrodes, wherein the supply device has a high-frequency generator device for generating at least one of an a.c. voltage and voltage pulses as well as at least one of an a.c. voltage distribution device designed as a multiplexer which distributes this a.c. voltage and the voltage pulses respectively to at least one coating electrode of the first coating station and of the second coating station, wherein the a.c. voltage distribution device is suitable and intended for distributing at least one of the a.c. voltages and the voltage pulses with a time delay to the coating electrodes, wherein the a.c. voltage distribution device distributes the pulses output by the high-frequency generator device completely to the individual electrodes in such a way that each pulse is assigned to precisely one coating station and there is no overlap between the pulses going to the individual coating stations.

2. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the voltage pulses have a temporal length less than 40 ms.

3. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus has a movable, rotatable transport device on which the coating stations are arranged.

4. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the coating stations are arranged stationary.

5. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the apparatus has a media feeding device which is suitable and intended for feeding a flowable, gaseous medium to at least one of the containers.

6. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein high-frequency generator outputs the voltage in the form of voltage pulses.

7. The apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein power applied by the high-frequency generator device to a container is adaptable on the basis of a measured value of power reflected by a container.

8. The apparatus according to claim 7 , further comprising a control device with a storage device by which a predetermined target value for a subsequent coating process is adjustable with at least one measurement value of a preceding coating process, wherein at least one measurement value is a measurement value selected from a group which comprises a power reflected by a container, a supplied power, a difference between a supplied and a reflected power, a power applied into a plasma, an optical emission of the plasma, a gas volumetric flow rate, a gas composition, a temperature of a gas lance, and a temperature of a container surface, individually or in combination.

9. The apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising an evaluation device which can determine a factor with which a parameter is included in a calculation for determining a couplable power.

10. The apparatus according to claim 9 , wherein the evaluation device comprises an AI system recognizing patterns and, based thereon, adapting the factor.

11. A method for coating objects wherein the objects are containers with at least one first and one second coating station, wherein these coating stations each have at least one first coating electrode and one second coating electrode, and wherein with a supply device at least one of the coating electrodes is supplied with electrical energy, comprising the steps of: by means of a high-frequency generator device providing a supply device with at least one of an a.c. voltage and voltage pulses, and an a.c. voltage distribution device designed as a multiplexer distributing at least one of this a.c. voltage and the voltage pulses respectively to at least one coating electrode of the first coating station and at least one coating electrode of the second coating station, wherein the a.c. voltage distribution device distributes at least one of the a.c. voltages and the voltage pulses with a time delay to the coating electrodes, and wherein the a.c. voltage distribution device distributes the pulses output by the high-frequency generator device completely to the individual electrodes in such a way that each pulse is assigned to precisely one coating station and there is no overlap between the pulses going to the individual coating stations.

12. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the high-frequency generator outputs the a.c. voltage in the form of voltage pulses.

13. The method according to claim 11 , wherein a control device controls the high-frequency generator device in such a way that the voltage pulses are emitted at predetermined time intervals.

14. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the a.c. voltage distribution device distributes the voltage pulses in such a way that at a predetermined time no more than one coating station is supplied with voltage.

15. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the voltage pulses have a temporal length less than 40 ms.

Assignees

• Krones Ag

Inventors

• Krueger Jochen
• Ortner Nadine

Classifications

• H01J37/32137 Primary

  controlling of the discharge by modulation of energy · CPC title

• C23C16/50

  using electric discharges {(generation and control of plasma in discharge tubes for surface treatment H01J37/32, H01J37/34)} · CPC title

• H01J37/3244

  Gas supply means · CPC title

• H01J37/32146

  Amplitude modulation, includes pulsing · CPC title

• H01J37/32394

  Treating interior parts of workpieces · CPC title