Ink roller for rotary press

Abstract: An ink roller for a keyless inking system which compresses an outer surface of highly wear proof particles (17) imbedded in a suitable bonding matrix (20) so that minute ink-holding gaps (19, 19') are present between the particles.

Description: This invention relates to an ink roller with a doctor blade according to the precharacterizing part of claim 1. This ink roller is to be used in a rotary offset. Prior Art Conventionally, the ink roller used in presses has a steel roller core the surface of which is covered with a hard coating of, for example, copper and ceramic having a surface engraved into irregular topography. The edge of a doctor blade is brought into contact with the outer surface of the coating to adjust the amount of ink reserved in recesses. During use in such an ink roller, raised portions on the surface of the ink roller are worn by the doctor blade through use, with the result that the volume of the recesses in the surface is decreased to reduce the amount of reserved ink and oleophilic and hydrophobic properties are degraded, and an excellent print can not be obtained. Disadvantageously, the thus damaged ink roller must be replaced totally but because of expensiveness of the ink roller, the replacement is uneconomical and besides the edge of the doctor blade is worn to degrade the excessive ink wipe-away action. JP-A-62-167092 discloses an ink roller provided with a coating made of a composite material consisting of an oleophilic substance (copper) and a high hardness operation resistance (chromium carbide ceramic). The substance of this layer does not show any recess for ink holding purposes. FR-A-2 432 388 describes an ink roller which does not have a layer of composite material applied to the roller core. The coating of the roller core is formed by powder particles which are bonded together by heat and compression. No binding material is used into which particles are embedded. It is therefore an object of this invention to solve the above problems encountered in the conventional ink roller and to provide an ink roller which is permitted for a long-term use so as to be highly economical and in which the edge of the doctor blade can be polished through use so as not to degrade excessive ink wipe-away action. To achieve this object, the ink roller of the invention is provided with the features of the characterizing part of claim 1. Other objects and advantages of this invention will be in part obvious and in part explained by reference to the accompanying specification and drawings in which: Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 is a front view illustrating the essential part of a rotary press having an ink roller with doctor; and Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of a portion of Fig. 1 enclosed by lines II, illustrating a fragment of an embodiment of Fig. 1. Specification Fig. 1 illustrates the essential part of a rotary press in which this type of ink roller is provided. To describe this illustration, 1 designates a cylinder having its outer circumferential surface mounted with a lithographic plate 2. Ink 13 in an ink basin 3 is supplied to the lithographic plate 2 through a fountain rubber roller 4, an ink roller 5 and set of rollers 6, 7 and 8 and at the same time water is supplied by a water supply means 11 to the roller 7 through water receiving roller 10, so that the ink under course of supplied is mixed with water. To accomplish the above object, the present utility model features in that as shown in Fig. 2, a composite material 18 composed of a greater number of highly wear-proof hard particles 17 and a binding material 20, which may be a hard polymer, by which the hard particles are bound such that minute gaps 19, 19' into which ink penetrates are formed between hard particles is coated on the outer circumferential surface of a roller core 15. The binder material selected is preferably one which is highly oleophilic and hydrophobic. In the ink roller 5 constructed as above, the surface of the roller 5 into which ink penetrates exhibits oleophilic and hydrophobic properties and during running, in the surface of the roller 5, the hard particles 17 and the binding material 20 are abraded by the action of the doctor blade 9, fountain rubber roller 4, roller 6 and carbon particles in ink so that part of the hard particles 17 always protrudes from the surface, and the doctor blade 9 comes in contact with crests of the protruding particles to squeeze ink, whereby ink penetrating into the minute gaps 19, 19' formed between hard particles 17 can be transferred sequentially to the rollers and the edge of the doctor blade 9 can be ground by the hard particles 17. Referring to Fig. 2, the core 15 was made of steel, having a surface length of 1710 mm and a diameter of 160 mm. Used as the hard particles 17 was aluminum oxide or other oxide or carbide of 20-micron average grain size (the grain size need not always be 20 microns in average but larger grain size and smaller grain size may be mixed together). The hard particles 17 were bound together by the binding material 20 to form the composite material 18, and the composite material was coated and set on the core 15. As the binder 20, phenol resin is used but vitrified, oxychloride rubber, ceramic or other resin may be used. Through binding based on the binding material 20, the minute gaps 19, 19' were formed between hard particles 17, the ink being penetrated through the minute gaps into not only the surface of the composite material 18 but also the interior thereof. In another sample in a roll like that in Fig. 2, the core 15 was made of steel, having a surface length of 1710 mm and a diameter of 160 mm, and the composite material 18 was prepared using a plastic as the binding material 20 and aluminum oxide of 20-micron average grain size as the hard particles 17 and was coated and set on the core 15. The binding material 20 was mixed with the hard particles 17 by 25 percent in volume, Subsequently, the thus set roller 5 was ground to have a diameter of 163.5 mm and finally its outer circumferential surface was polished with emery paper of about #1000, thus forming recesses for ink reservation having a depth of 5 to 10 microns in the surface. Then, with the roller 5 set in the press as shown in Fig. 1 and with the doctor blade 9 having a thickness of 0.2 mm set to make a contact angle to 30°, printing was carried out to obtain an excellent print characteristic. The impression was effected about 1000 thousand times, providing that print quality was not degraded during the impression by ink exfoliation due to interference by water required for printing and optical density was sufficiently high. As described above, since according to the present invention the composite material composed of a great number of highly wear-proof hard particles and the binding material by which the hard particles are bounded such that the minute gaps into which ink penetrates are formed between hard particles is coated on the outer circumferential surface of the roller core, wear-off of hard particles by the doctor blade result in sequential protrusion to the surface of the internal remaining hard particles and minute gaps into which ink penetrates are formed so that the ink can make the surface highly oleophilic and hydrophobic and the minute gaps into which ink penetrates can be protruded to the surface. Since according to the present invention the coating on the core is formed of the composite material composed of the hard material which is highly oleophilic and hydrophobic and a number of wear-proof hard particles and minute recesses for ink reservation are formed in the surface of the composite material, wear-off of hard particles by the doctor blade results in sequential protrusion of the remaining hard particles and minute ink reservation recesses are formed automatically and sequentially. Consequently, the ink roller can be permitted for a long-term use so as to be highly economical, and the cutting edge of the doctor blade can be ground during use so as to be durable against a long-term use and to improve print quality, whereby the generation rate of defective can be reduced and the cost of print running can be reduced as a whole.

Claims: An ink roller (5) with a doctor blade (9) for use in an offset press, wherein a layer of composite material (18) comprising a binding material (20) of an oleophilic and hydrophobic material and a plurality of particles (17) is coated on the outer surface of a roller core (15), characterized in that part of the particles (17), which are harder than the cutting edge of the doctor blade, protrude from the outer surface of the layer forming minute recesses (19) between the protruding parts of the hard particles (17) for retaining ink adjacent the outer surface of the layer. The roller of claim 1 wherein the binding material (20) comprises a polymer.

Inventors: IJICHI YUJI, IJICHI, YUJI
Applicants: ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORP, ROCKWELL INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION
Application year: 1988
Main classification: B41F31
IPC codes: B41N7