US2256514A - Rotary printing press - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 23, 1941.

M. w. BRUESHABER ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Filed Nov. 12, 1938 ATToRNEYs Patented Sept. 23, 1941 ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Martin W. Brueshaber, Chicago, Ill., assignor to The Goss Printing Press Company, Chicago, 111.,

a corporation of Illinois Application November 12, 1938, Serial No. 240,039

3 Claims.

The present invention relates to fast rotary printing presses and more particularly to fast rotary relief presses adapted to print with exceedingly quick-drying inks.

Objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part hereinafter and in part will be obvious herefrom, or may be learned by practice with the invention, the same being realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and comb nations pointed out in the appended claims.

The invention consists in the novel parts, construction, arrangements, combinations and improvements herein shown and described.

The accompanying drawing, referred to herein and constituting a part hereof, illustrates one embodiment of the invention, and together with the description, serves to explain the principles of the invention.

The drawing snows a side elevation of a typical embodiment of the present invention and illustrative of the manner in which the invention may be applied to a rotary perfecting press, in this figure certain parts being broken away.

The present invention has for its object the provision of a novel and improved inking mechanism for high speed rotary relief presses. Another object is the provision of an inking mechanism for a relief press which is adapted to be used with exceedingly quick drying inks. another object is the provision of a simple, relief inking apparatus in which the ink is substantially enclosed and kept from contact with fresh air after itis removed from the fountain and until it is applied to the stereotype or other printing plate.

Heretofore, in the printing of stereotype and other reliefplates on rotary presses, the ink has been allowed to have free contact with the atmosphere as soon as it has been applied to the ink drum and until. it has been applied to the printing plate. Furthermore, the speed of printing, and particularly in multi-color work, has been largely limited by the time required for the inks to dry in passing through the press. It has been common practice to dry the sheets between successive impressions, so as to avoid wet-printing, or superposing the colors on each other without drying, and this has necessitated running the sheets through the press four times, creating serious diificulties with register when the temperature or humidity varies between the impressions. It has not been practical, heretofore, to drythe colors between impressions in high speed printing inasmuch as the distance the web travels 53 thereon.

Still between successive impressionsis generally less than the distance the ink travels from the fountain to the point of impression.

In accordance with the present invention, many of these difficulties are largely overcome and the others eliminated; and it is possible to use extremely c'uick drying inks, and even to dry the impressions. prior to the next impression, thus obtaining the advantages of this type of printing without encountering the difficulties hitherto presented by this manner of operation.

As embodied, the printing mechanism comprises conventional printing couples adapted to print in one or more colors, and provided with an inking mechanism in which the ink is presentedas a film for only a short distance. The ink is preferably contained within an ink fountain which is substantially air tight, and is applied to the ink drum within this, fountain. Thereafter the amount of inkon the drum is carefully and accurately regulated in accordance with the requirements of the subject being printed and is transferred from the ink drum to the printing surface of the plate by means of form rollers. Means are also provided for preventing free access of the air to the ink on the surface of the ink drum and form rollers and for greatly reducing the circulation of air over these surfaces,

thereby substantially preventing premature oxidation, evaporation or other drying action of the ink. If desired, means may also be provided for substantially reducing the fiow of air over the inked printing surface intermediate the form rollers and impression point.

To prevent accumulation of ink on the surface of the plate and around the edges of the letters or other parts of the printing surfaces, cleaning means are provided for contacting the printing surface and removing the unused ink therefrom. These cleaning means may comprise a soft resilient roller, as of soft rubber, rolling over the printing surface with sufficient pressure to be pressed into the non-printing areas of the plate so as to remove the surplus or unused ink Indicating means are also provided for informing the operator as to the level of ink in the fountain, and the fountains are preferably connected with a supply tank by means of piping so that the ink may be replenished without permitting access of air to the fountain.

The sealing means and .the plate cleaning means are preferably so arranged and constructed as to permit of easy access to the plate cylinder as -.is necessary for changing plates The invention is also particularly useful in connection with multicolor printing and may be advantageously used in connection with a plurality of printing cylinders cooperating with a single impression cylinder, due to the compact arrangement of the inking apparatus made possible by the present invention. Furthermore, due to the extremely short exposed area of ink film, the inkmay be sufliciently quick drying to dry between successive impressions, notwithstanding the short distance between these applications.

It will be understood that the foregoing general description and the following detailed description as well, are exemplary and explanatory of the invention but are not restrictive thereof.

Referring now in detail to the illustrative embodiment shown in the figure of the accompanying drawing, the invention is shown as ap-- plied to a single color perfecting web printing press suitable for the printing of newspapers from stereotype'pla'tes. As embodied, the perfecting couple comprises the two impression cylinders 4, over and between which the web of papers is fed to be printed first on one side and then on the other, the impression cylinders coop-.

crating with their respective printing cylinders 6 on which are mounted the stereotype printing plates 1.

The inking mechanism for each of the printing cylinders 6 are substantial duplicates of each other, and for that reason only one will be described in detail. As shown in the drawing, a portion of the device has been removed from the left hand inking mechanism to reveal the internal construction, while the right hand inking mechanism is shown in elevation.

Below the printing or plate cylinder 6 is mounted an ink fountain formed by an inclined bottom 8, side walls 9 and I0 and end walls H, being relatively deep and rigidly supported on the bed plates of the press. Rotatably mounted within the fountain is an ink drum I! which dips into the mass of ink [3 contained within the fountain and serves to distribute the ink and feed it as needed to the printing surface. Means of the inking mechanism, and an indicator is provided so that the press operator can readily determine the level of the ink within the fountain. This indicator, as embodied, comprises a float I8 floating in the body of ink. l3 and provided. with a guide rod l9 which passes through guide 20 and an aperture 2| in the side wall' 9, which is a close fit for the rod. The upper end of the rod [9 may be calibrated to indicate the exact level of'ink in the fountain.

Means are provided for substantially preventing circulation of air within the fountain and 'over, the surface of the drum l2 and form rollers l6 and forretaining against the surface of these rotating members a body of air which is not constantly being changed, thereby substantially preventing oxidation, evaporation and other deleterious action of the atmosphere on the ink either while it is .contained within the fountain or is distended as a film on the surface of the rollers l6 and drum I2. As embodied, these means comprise a shield 22 extending the length of the left-hand form roller l6 and pivotally mounted on the blade retaining plate 23. Shield 22 preferably is shaped to conform to the surface of the roller l6 and at its upper end extends very close to the plates 1 on cylinder 6, only sufflcient space being left between the shield on the plate to eliminate the danger of contact during operation. A similar shield 24 is provided for the right-hand roller 16- and is pivotally mounted on a plate 23' secured to the upper edge of side wall 9. For enclosing the ends of the form rollers J6, end shields 25 are provided and may be rigidly mounted on the upper edges of the fountain end walls II and are preferably positioned close tothe ends of the rollers l6 and cylinder 6. Shields 22, 24 and the end shields 25 are fitted together, when in closed position, so as to provide a relatively tight closure within which are the fountain drum 1, the form rollers l6 and the lower portion of the printing cylinder 6. I

Due to the rapid drying qualities of the inks used with the device of the present invention,

1 ink sometimes tends to accumulate on the sides are provided, which may be of conventional construction and are not shown, for rotating the drum l2 at a relatively slow speed compared to the speed of. the cylinders 4 and 6. For regulating and accurately controllingthe amount of ink removed from the fountain and transferred I to the printing surface, a blade I4 is mounted on the top of side wall Ill and extends the length of and contacts with the surface of drum l2, its pressure against the drum surface being regulated by means of the columnar adjusting screws l5 which bear against the lower side of the blade and are threaded into the side wall I 0.

For distributing ink on the surface of the drum l2 and for transferring ing from the drum to the printing surface of plates 1, form rollers l6 are provided and contact with the surface of of the type faces of the printing plates 1 and,

in time, will clog the printing surface and result in inferior impressions. vTo overcome this difficulty cleaning mean may be provided for cleaning the printing-surface after impression and before reinking, thereby removing all surplus or unused ink at each revolution of the printing cylinder. These means comprise a soft surfaced rubber roller 30 pressed with considerable pressure against the surface of the printing plates 1 and'serving to remove superfluous ink therefrom. Roller 30 is preferably mounted so that it can be readily removed to facilitate placing and locking of the plates 1 onthe cylinder 6.

Optionally useablemeans are also provided for reducing the circulation of air across the inked surface of the printing plates 1 between the form rollers l6 and the impression point in the direction of rotation of the cylinder 6. These means comprise an arcuate shield 32 extending the length of the cylinder 6 and supported by mean of a connection 33 concentric with cylinder 6. At its ends, shield 32 is bent radially.in-

wardly to substantially close the space at the ends of the cylinder, and the shield extends circumferentially from the shield 24 to a point closely adjacent to the paper web 5 passing over the impression cylinder 4. When desired; shield 32 may be removed, oritv may be omitted altogether in case it is rendered unnecessary by the particular type of ink being used.

For further protecting the main body of ink within'the fountain, an additional resilient blade 35 may be provided and is adapted to close the space between drum I2 and fountain wall 9. Blade 35 may be supported between the top edge of wall 9 and the hinge plate 23 and extends inwardly into contact with the drum l2, or close- 1y adjacent thereto. Blades l4 and 35, together with the fountain walls 9, Ill and II cooperate with the drum I2 to form a substantially airtight enclosure for the ink l3.

In the operation of the hiking device, thefountain is supplied with printing ink to which an amount of drier, greatly in excess of the usual amount employed, has been added, thus producing'an ink which will dry almost immediately upon coming in contact with the paper andhaving free access to the air.

The invention in its broader aspects is not limited to the specific-mechanisms shown and described but departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the accompanying claims without departing from the principles of the invention and without sacrificing its chief advantages.

What I claim is:

1. An inking mechanism for a rotary relief printing press including in combination an ink fountain, a fountain drum rotatable therein, a form roller to transfer ink from the drum to the printing cylinder of the press, a scraper blade the fountain by the drum and means at the sides and ends of the drum for substantially'enclosing the fountain; roller, drum and scraper to prevent rapid drying of the ink by reducing air circulation. 4

2. An inking mechanism for a rotary relief printing press including in combination an ink fountain, a fountain drum rotatably mounted within the fountain, a scraper blade on one side and a sealing means onthe other side of the fountain drum and end walls at the ends of the drum, said blades, sealing means, end walls and fountain cooperating to form a substantially airtight chamber for ink, ink transfer means cooperating with the drum and shields substantially enclosing the transfer means and means operable from without the chamber for varying the position of the scraper blade to regulate the amount of ink supplied to the transfer means. 3. An inking mechanism fora rotary relief printing press including in combination an ink fountain, a fountain drum rotatably mounted within the fountain, end walls at the ends of the drum, a scraper blade on one side and a sealing blade on the other side of the fountain drum cooperating with the fountain and end walls to form a substantially air-tight chamber for ink, ink transfer means cooperating with the drum. shields enclosing the transfer means, and means for supplying ink to the fountain without admitting air thereto.

MARTIN W. BRUESHABER

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