Adjustable stop apparatus for register punch

A register punch has a plurality of punch assemblies for making holes and notches in a sheet member. Adjustable stops located adjacent the punch assemblies cooperate with an edge of the sheet member to locate the sheet member relative to the punch assemblies. The stops have rotatable members with stop faces which provide a plurality of spaced stops for the sheet member.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
The invention is in the field of machines for making holes in sheet 
members. The machines having gauges and adjustable stops to locate the 
sheet members relative to punching tools used to make holes in the sheet 
members. 
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
Pin registration systems are used in the printing industry to register 
printing plates and films for use on printing presses. Registration 
punches are used to make holes and notches in the edges of printing plates 
which are exactly located relative to art work so that no adjustment is 
required for registration. The registration punches must be adjusted to 
accommodate different locations of the holes and notches for use on 
different types of printing presses. A punch for making holes in printing 
plates is shown by N. A. Ternes in U.S. Pat. No. 3,406,262. This punch has 
a fixed stop for determining a first location of holes in printing plates 
and second stops provided by pivoted spaced arms to locate notches or half 
holes in the edges of printing plates. Registration punches have been 
provided with a plurality of pin stops located in holes in the boards of 
the punches to allow the operator of the punches to change the stop 
positions and thereby change the hole locations in printing plates. This 
is a manual operation which is time consuming and provides for a limited 
number of stop positions on the registration punch. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
The invention is directed to an adjustable stop apparatus for a punch for 
placing at least one hole in a sheet member in a selected location. The 
selected location can be changed by adjusting the stop apparatus. The stop 
apparatus has a body mounted on the board of the punch to provide a slot 
for accommodating an edge portion of the sheet member to locate the sheet 
member relative to a punch mechanism operable to place at least one hole 
in the sheet member. A rotatable member mounted on the body has a front 
end facing the slot. The front end has a plurality of transverse faces 
circumferentially and longitudinally spaced from each other which provide 
a plurality of stops for aligning the edge portion of the sheet member 
with the punch mechanism in selected positions. The member having the 
stops is rotatably mounted on body and connected to a control which 
selectively rotates the member to locate a selected stop in a stop 
position. A holder retains the control in a selected position so that the 
stop is maintained in alignment with the edge portion of the sheet member 
during the punching of the hole therein. 
A preferred embodiment of the adjustable stop apparatus is used with a 
register punch having a board with a top surface and a plurality of 
punches for placing holes in a sheet member, such as a printing plate or 
film, at selected locations. The stop apparatus has a body mounted on the 
board adjacent the punch mechanisms. The body has a lip spaced above the 
top surface of the board providing a slot to accommodate an edge of the 
sheet member. A cylindrical member located between the lip and the board 
is rotatably mounted on the body for rotation about an axis generally 
parallel to the top surface of the board. The cylindrical member has a 
front end facing the slot. The front end is provided with a plurality of 
transverse stop faces circumferentially and longitudinally spaced from 
each other providing a plurality of stops for aligning the sheet member 
with the punch mechanism in selected positions so that holes and notches 
can be placed in the sheet member to accommodate different types of 
printing presses. A control is operatively connected to the cylindrical 
member to rotate the cylindrical member to a selected position. The 
control includes a rack and gear drive operativly connected to a manually 
moveable knob located above the plate. The knob and plate have cooperating 
indicia which provide information as to the stop position of each stop 
face that is on the front end of the cylindrical member. A releasable 
holding means, such as a detent, cooperates with the control for retaining 
the cylindrical member in the selected position whereby one of the stop 
faces on the front end of the cylindrcal member provides a stop for the 
sheet member which aligns the sheet member with respect to the punch 
mechanism to replace the holes and/or notches in the sheet member in the 
selected position. 
The adjustable stop apparatus provides the operator with the flexibility to 
quickly change the stop position of the stops of the punch without 
manually interchanging or altering the stops and maintaining the accuracy 
of the stops for the sheet member.

DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a top view of a register punch 
indicated generally at 10 for making a series of holes and notches in a 
sheet member 11, such as printing plates and the like. The term sheet 
member includes printing plates, films, negatives and sheet materials of 
paper, plastic and metal. As shown in FIG. 2, sheet member 11 has a linear 
edge 12 and a number of holes 13 along a transverse line generally 
parallel to the edge 12. Edge 12 has a number of semi-circular notches 14 
aligned with holes 13. The holes 13 and notches 14 or half holes in sheet 
member 11 are for registration of printing plates and films for use with 
printing presses as disclosed by N. A. Ternes in U.S. Pat. 3,406,626. The 
number and location of the holes and notches placed in the sheet member 
can vary according to the requirements of the printing presses. 
Register punch 10 has a plurality of punch assemblies 16, 17, 18 and 19 
mounted on a board or table 20 having a flat top or work surface. The 
punch assemblies are identical in structure and operation. As seen in FIG. 
2, each punch assembly has an eccentric cam 22 mounted on a transverse 
shaft 21. Cam 22 engages a pair of downwardly directed punches 23 and 24 
and operates to move the lower or cutting end of the punches through holes 
26 and 27 in board 20. Returning to FIG. 1, an arm or lever 28 secured to 
shaft 21 is used to manually rotate shaft 21 and thereby move cams 22 in a 
downward direction to activate punches 23 and 24. A cover 29 encloses the 
cams, shaft, and punches. The details of the punch assembly are not part 
of the invention. The adjustable stop apparatus of the invention is usable 
with a number of different types of sheet material punches and register 
punches. 
As seen in FIG. 1, a plurality of adjustable stop apparatuses 31, 32 and 33 
are mounted on board 20 between punch assemblies 16-19. Stop apparatuses 
31-33 cooperate with the linear edge 12 of sheet member 11 to align sheet 
member 11 relative to the punches in selectived positions and thereby 
determine the locations of holes 13 and notches 14 in sheet member 11. The 
adjustable stop apparatuses 31-33 are identical in structure. The 
following description is directed to adjustable stop apparatus 31. 
Referring to FIGS. 3 and 8, adjustable stop apparatus 31 has a body 36 
attached to board 20 adjacent punch assembly 16, as seen in FIG. 1. Body 
36 has a forwardly directed lip 37 located above the top surface of board 
20 and forming therewith a slot 34 for accommodating an edge section of 
sheet member 11. The lower surface of lip 37 has a longitudinal concave 
recess 39 accommodating the upper portion of a cylindrical member 41. As 
seen in FIG. 8, cylindrical member 41 has a longitudinal axial passage 42 
accommodating a rod member or bolt 43 threaded into a first threaded hole 
44 to rotatably mount cylindrical member 41 on body 36 for rotation about 
a generally horizontal axis that is parallel to the top flat surface of 
board 20. Board 20 has a shallow semi-circular and concave recess 46 that 
accommodates a lower portion of cylindrical member 41 so that the lower 
front edge of cylindrical member 41 is below the top surface of board 20. 
This prevents sheet member 11 from sliding under cylindrical member 41. 
The longitudinal position of cylindrical member 41 relative to body 36 is 
controlled by bolt 43 and a set screw 48 threaded into a threaded second 
bore 47 located above threaded bore 44. As seen in FIG. 8, set screw 48 
has a forward end that bears against the back end 49 of cylindrical member 
41 to prevent longitudinal movement of cylindrical member 41 on bolt 43. 
Set screw 48 spaces end 49 from the adjacent wall of body 37 and holds the 
opposite end of cylindrical member 41 in engagement with the head of bolt 
43 to fix the longitudinal position of cylindrical member 41 on bolt 43 
and allow rotation of cylindrical member 41 to change the stop positions 
for sheet member 11. Set screw 48 can be adjusted to allow bolt 43 to 
change the longitudinal location of cylindrical member 41 relative to body 
36 to provide a fine adjustment for stop faces 52-58 at the front end 51 
cylindrical member 41. 
As seen in FIG. 7, front end 51 of cylindrical member 41 has a plurality of 
circumferentially oriented and longitudinally spaced stop faces 52, 53, 
54, 55, 56, 57 and 58. Stop faces 52-58 are located in a spiral stepped 
arrangement circumferentially around the central longitudinal axis of 
cylindrical member 41. Each stop face is longitudinally set back from each 
other to provide a different stop position for sheet member 11. Each of 
faces 52-58 function as a stop or an abutment engageable with edge 12 of 
sheet member 11 relative to punch assemblies 16-19. Front end 51 is shown 
as having seven separate stop faces for locating sheet member 11 in seven 
different punching locations as seen in FIGS. 8 and 10 to 15. The number 
of stop faces can vary from two or more stop faces. 
A manual control mechanism is used to concurrently rotate all of the 
cylindrical members to present the same stop face of each cylindrical 
member in alignment with the slots and thereby provide stops for sheet 
member 11. The control mechanism operates to simultaneously rotate all of 
the cylindrical members of the adjustable stop apparatuses 31, 32 and 33 
so that the same stop face of each cylindrical member is in alignment with 
the adjacent slot of the stop apparatus at the same time. 
As shown in FIG. 5, the control mechanism comprises a plurality of gear 
teeth 59 on the inner end of cylindrical member 41. Teeth 59 engage a 
linear rack 61 located in a linear slot 64 in board 20. Rack 61 is 
attached to control bar 62 with a plurality of bolts 63. Rack 61 and bar 
62 can be a one piece member. Control bar 61 is slideably mounted on the 
bottom of board 20 with a plurality of U-shaped blocks 65, 67 and 68. 
Bolts 66 secure the blocks to e bottom of board 20 whereby control bar 62 
is guided by the blocks for linear movement below board 20. Control bar 62 
is reciprocated to change the circumferential orientation of cylindrical 
members of stop apparatuses 31, 32 and 33 and thereby change the stop 
positions for sheet member 11. 
A manual control indicated generally at 69 operates to move control bar 62 
to simultaneously change the angular positions of cylindrical members of 
stop apparatuses 31, 32 and 33. Manual control 69 comprises a linear rack 
71 secured to the side of control bar 62. Rack 71 has a plurality of teeth 
that engage the teeth of a gear 72 attached to an upright shaft 73. Shaft 
73 projects through a sleeve bearing 74 positioned in a hole in board 20 
to rotatably mount shaft 73 on board 20. A knob 76 having a flat top and a 
cylindrical outer surface is attached to the upper end of shaft 73 to 
allow an operator to turn knob 76. As shown in FIG. 1, the top of knob 76 
has a pointer or mark 77 aligned with one of several reference number 1-7 
located on top of board 20. Reference numbers 1-7 refer to the seven stop 
faces 52-58 of cylindrical member 41. Knob 76 is manually turned to align 
pointer 77 to one of the reference numbers related to the same stop face 
on each cylindrical member. 
Control bar 62 is releasably held in a selected position with a detent 
indicated generally at 78. Detent 78 is a releasable holder or retainer 
for maintaining the selected stop positions of the cylindrical members 
during the punching operation. As shown in FIG. 6, detent 78 located 
adjacent the bottom of board 20 comprises a tube or tubular member 79 
attached with fasteners 81 to the bottom of board 20. A detent ball 82 
located in end of tubular member 79 engages a pair of the teeth of linear 
rack 71 to hold rack 71 and control bar 62 in a selected fixed position. A 
biasing member or spring 83 located in tubular member 79 engages a set 
screw or bolt 84 threaded into tubular member 79 and ball 82. Spring 83 
biases ball 82 into engagement with the teeth of linear rack 71 so that 
ball 82 acts as a releasable stop to retain control bar 62 in a selected 
fixed position. The gear and rack detent drive train between knob 76 and 
cylindrical member 41 is coordinated such that on 30% of rotation of knob 
76 there will be one change in the stop face position of cylindrical 
member 41. Other amounts of rotation of knob 76 can be used to change the 
stop faces of cylindrical member 41. 
FIGS. 8 and 9 illustrate the first stop face location of stop face 52 
engaged by edge 12 of sheet member 11 to fix the location relative to 
punches 16-19. Rack 61 attached to control bar 62 is selectively moved to 
rotate cylindrical member 41 to locate stop faces 52-58 selectively in 
alignment with slot 34 so that edge 12 of sheet member 11 will be located 
in a selected stop position. FIG. 9 shows edge 12 of sheet member 11 in 
engagement with stop face 52. Rotation of knob 76 to the next numbered 
position rotates member 41 in the direction of arrow 50 to place stop face 
53 in alignment with edge 12 of sheet member as seen in FIG. 10. Continued 
rotation of member 41 moves stop face 54 in alignment with groove 34 to 
provide a third stop position for sheet member 11 as seen in FIG. 11. 
Further rotation of knob 76 moves stop face 55 into position for 
engagement with edge 12 of sheet member 11 to provide a fourth stop 
position for stop member 11 as seen in FIG. 12. Additional stop positions 
for sheet member 11 are determined by locating stop faces 56, 57 and 58 in 
alignment with groove 34 as seen in FIGS. 13, 14 and 15. Stop face 58 is 
the last stop location for sheet member 11. Knob 76 is rotated by the 
operator to select the same stop position of all stop apparatuses 31-33 
for sheet member 11. 
When the stop position of sheet member 11 has been determined, sheet member 
11 is moved into slots 34 until edge 12 engages the selected stop faces on 
the cylindrical members. Punch assemblies 16-19 are then simultaneously 
moved downwardly by moving arm 28 and thereby moving the punches which cut 
holes and notches in sheet member 11. Punch assemblies 16-10 can be used 
to only cut holes in the sheet member. The location of the holes and 
notches relative to edge 12 of sheet member 11 is determined by all of the 
same stop position of the cylindrical members of stop apparatuses 31, 32 
and 33. 
While there have been shown and described a preferred embodiment of the 
adjustable stop apparatus for a register punch, it is understood that 
changes and additions can be made to the stop apparatus and punch without 
deviating from the invention. The invention is defined in the following 
claims.