GB416373A - Improvements in or relating to stencil-printing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

416,373. Feeding, winding, and registering webs; printing processes. WHEELWRIGHT, J. S., The Corner, Three Elm Lane, Tonbridge, Kent, and ABELL, G. H., Thurston, Orchard Way, Esher, Surrey. Dec. 10, 1932, Nos. 35072/32, 10381/33, and 19354/33. [Classes 100 (i) and 100 (ii).] Sheet material such as fabric is mounted on a flat support for printing, stencilling, flocking, or other purposes by providing the upper face of the support and the underside of the material each with a waterproof surface, damping one of these surfaces, and laying the material with its waterproof surface downwards on the waterproof surface of the support. The method is particularly adapted for multicolour printing by means of stencils formed of permeable material. As shown, a fabric 26, Fig. 1, temporarily adhered to an endless belt 31, is supported, while passing over a printing table 11, by a conveyer belt 12 moistened by a roller 40, the two belts being made of rubber so that they adhere together by suction whereby movement of the fabric out of register during the printing operation is prevented. The fabric 26 unwinds from a roll 27, and, adhesive having been applied to the belt 31 by a roller 38, the fabric and belt are united by passing between a heated drum 29 and a pressure roller 30 ; the fabric is separated from the belt after printing and is fed to a drying-device by rotary card wheels 42, the outer face of the belt 31 being cleaned before reuse by means of sprayers 46 and rotary scrubbers 48. To maintain lateral register of the conveyer 12, rollers 51 are fixed to one edge thereof so as to engage a groove 52 in the table 11 and peripheral recesses in supporting-rollers 13, 14. In a modification in which the belt 31 is made of paper, the paper is unwound from a roll and rewound after use, cleaning being omitted. Also, a roll of laminated material 59, Fig. 7, formed by uniting the fabric 26 to the belt 31 may be laid on a stationary bed 11, the stencils being moved step-by-step along the bed 7 and the roll 59 being mounted in a carriage 63 adapted to run along rails 64 on the bed. Moisture is applied to the waterproof surface 31 by a roller 67 after which the material passes under a pressure roller 71 and is laid on a waterproof sheet 70 resting on a blanket 69. The card wheels 42, Fig. 1, are fixed to a shaft 43, Fig. 4, driven through differential gearing comprising a crown wheel 83 keyed to the shaft, pinions 81, 82 rotatable in a rotary casing 80 fixed to a sprocket 44 driven by a chain 65, and a second crown wheel 84 adapted to be rotated manually by means of a worm 86 and wormwheel 85 to vary the tension of the web while stationary or moving.