Ink-furnishing apparatus with dehydration

Abstract: An ink furnishing apparatus in a lithographic printing press performs printing by furnishing relatively high viscous ink and a dampening water on a printing plate on a plate cylinder. The apparatus includes a water receptacle for downwardly opening a space from the position of a first gap on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller to the position of a second gap with the metering roller via the peripheral surface of downstream side in the rotating direction, and arranging a upper portion opened vessel at a position opposing to the downwardly opened space. Upon drawing out the ink deposited on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller through the first gap by rotation of the fountain roller, a first shearing force being exerted on the ink. On the other hand, upon transition of ink from the peripheral surface of the fountain roller to the peripheral surface of the metering roller acoss the second gap, a second shearing force being exected on the ink due to a difference of peripheral speeds of the fountain roller and the metering roller for separating a water in the ink to collect the separated water in the vessel of the water receptacle means.

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an ink furnishing apparatus for a lithographic printing press which performs printing by furnishing a relatively high viscous ink and dampening water to the surface of a printing plate on a plate cylinder. More specifically, the invention relates to an ink-furnishing apparatus with a dehydrating function which can remove excess dampening water penetrating ink in an ink fountain in a supply path from a dampening water supply apparatus for supplying ink to the surface of the printing plates of the plate cylinder from an apparatus for supply by dampening water in the ink furnishing apparatus with a keyless furnishing, in which adjustment of the amount of ink supplied is unnecessary, and namely, the ink is furnished on the overall surface of the printing plate in substantially uniform thickness by employing a metering roller. Description of the Related Art In the supply of dampening water and ink in a conventional lithographic printing press, it is typical to uniformly supply a substantially constant amount of dampening water to the surface of a printing plate irrespective of proportion and positions of the image printing portion and no image printing portion. Accordingly, it is possible that the dampening water provided for the no image printing portion becomes in excess and is admixed with ink of the peripheral surface of a form roller to penetrate into an ink furnishing apparatus. Then, in a keyless ink furnishing apparatus, the dampening water reaching the peripheral surface of a metering roller forming the ink furnishing apparatus is scraped off together with the ink by means of a doctor means contacting the peripheral surface of the metering roller and recirculated to the most upstream part of the ink furnishing apparatus. With the progress of a printing operation, the amount of water contained in the most upstream part of the ink furnishing equipment is increased. Such water can be a cause of lowering of printing density on the surface of a printing medium, or can be a cause of lowering of the printing quality and/or failure of ink supply, such as roller stripping, etc. Therefore, as a solution to this problem, various attempts have been made to remove water from the ink. The present invention is generally concerned with the removal of water from ink by application of a shearing force to the ink. Background art for such technologies have been disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Showa 62-98537, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-62761, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-160241, and Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Showa 62-109940. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 61- 98537 discloses an ink furnishing apparatus provided with a water separating apparatus in the vicinity thereof. The water separating apparatus includes two rollers rotating to displace their peripheral surfaces in the same direction at different peripheral speeds at the position where the peripheral surfaces thereof are contacting each other, a film thickness control blade located adjacent one of the rollers, a separated ink scraping blade contacting with the other of the two rollers and a separated water receptacle container provided at the lower side of two rollers. With the construction set forth above, the ink scraped off the ink furnishing apparatus is received by a film thickness control blade which transfers the contact position of two rollers by means of the peripheral surface of one of the rollers. Then, by difference of the peripheral speeds of two rollers, a shearing force is applied to the ink to separate the ink and water (dampening water) admixed with the ink. The separated water is then removed to a water receptacle container and the separated ink is returned to the ink tank. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-62761, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-160241 and Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Showa 62-109940 each disclose ink furnishing apparatus incorporating a moisture separating mechanism. The ink furnishing apparatus disclosed in these publications comprise an ink storage tank provided at a lower portion, a piping mechanism including an ink pump for sucking the ink from the ink tank and feeding it under pressure through an ink ejection nozzle connected to the downstream end of the piping mechanism, an ink furnishing roller group, which rollers transfer ink from an ink fountain roller having the peripheral surface positioned in the vicinity of an ejection opening of the ink ejection nozzle and opposite thereto, via a form roller onto the surface of the printing plate of the plate cylinder contacting the peripheral surface thereof, the rollers being associated for rotation to move their peripheral surfaces in the same direction at respective contact positions, and an ink scraping blade for scraping off the excess ink from the peripheral surface of the roller immediately upstream from the form roller. With the construction set forth above, the ink in the ink tank is sucked by the ink pump and fed under pressure to the ink ejection nozzle for ejection to the ink fountain roller. Then, the ink on the ink fountain roller is supplied to the printing plate on the plate cylinder via the ink supply roller group. On the other hand, excess ink from the ink supply is scraped off by the ink scraping blade from the peripheral surface of the roller immediately upstream of the form roller. The ink furnishing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-62761 is provided with a driving device for driving the ink fountain roller and a transfer roller contacting the peripheral surface of the ink fountain roller immediately downstream of the ink fountain roller at mutually different peripheral speeds, and a separated water tank, located below the ink fountain roller and the transfer roller, in addition to the basic mechanism set forth above. The ink fountain roller, the transfer roller, the driving device and the separated water tank from a moisture separating mechanism. With such construction, the ink reaching the contact position between the ink fountain roller and the transfer roller on rotation of the ink fountain roller, a shearing force is applied by the relative peripheral speed difference between the ink fountain roller and the transfer roller. By application of the shearing force, the water admixed with the ink is separated and collected in the separated water tank. The ink furnishing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62- 160241 includes a water separation roller which is located immediately upstream of the ink fountain roller and contacts the peripheral surface of the ink fountain roller to displace the peripheral surface in the same direction as that of the peripheral surface of the ink fountain roller but at different peripheral speeds. An ink ejection nozzle of the basic mechanism is provided with an ejection opening in the vicinity of the peripheral surface of the water separation roller, and the separated water tank below the ink fountain roller and the water separation roller, in addition to the basic mechanism set forth above. The ink fountain roller, the water separation roller and the separated water tank form the water separation mechanism. With the construction set forth above, the ink reaching the contact position between the ink fountain roller and the water separation roller has a shearing force exerted on it due to relative difference in peripheral speed between the water separation roller and the ink fountain roller to separate the water admixed in the ink and to collect the separated water in the separated water tank. The ink furnishing apparatus disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Showa 62-109940, is provided with a water separation roller acting as a rider roller contacting the peripheral surface of the ink fountain roller at a position on the peripheral surface of the ink fountain roller at the downstream side relative to the contact position between the ink fountain roller and a transfer roller immediately at the downstream side of the ink fountain roller, a driving mechanism which drives the water separation roller at a peripheral speed different from the that of the ink transferring roller, and a separated water tank located below the ink transfer roller and the water separation roller, in addition to the basic mechanism. The ink transfer roller, the water separation roller, the driving mechanism and the separated water tank form the water separation mechanism. In the construction set forth above, the ink reaching the contact position between the ink transfer roller and the water separation roller by rotation of the ink transfer roller, has a shearing force exerted on it to the relative difference of the peripheral speeds between the water separation roller and the ink fountain roller to separate the water admixed in the ink and to collect the separated water in the separated water tank. On the other hand, as keyless ink furnishing apparatus adapted to relatively high viscous ink has been known as disclosed US Patent No. 5113761 corresponding to Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 7-45244. The keyless ink furnishing apparatus includes an ink fountain defined by a tilted plate and the peripheral surface of a fountain roller, a form roller contacting with its peripheral surface the surface of the printing plates of the plate cylinder, an inking roller group transferring ink from the fountain roller to the form roller, in which respective adjacent rollers are in contact or opposed with a small gap, a doctor blade for scraping off the ink from the peripheral surface of the roller located immediately upstream of the form roller, and an ink receptacle extending from the power portion of the ink fountain to the lower portion of the roller located immediately downstream of the fountain roller. The ink in the ink fountain deposited on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller is drawn downwardly through the gap between the peripheral surface of the fountain roller and the lower end of the tilted plate by rotation of the fountain roller. The ink carried by the peripheral surface of the fountain roller reaches the downstream side roller which rotates to displace its peripheral surface in the opposite direction to that of the fountain roller. Then, the ink is transferred to this downstream side roller, and further transferred sequentially through rollers in a similar manner to reach the roller located immediately upstream of the form roller. Then, the excess amount of the ink is scraped off the peripheral surface of the roller immediately upstream of the form roller. Thus, a substantially uniform amount of ink is supplied over the overall width of the form roller and then supplied to the printing plate surface. On the other hand, the excess ink scraped off by the doctor blade from the peripheral surface of the roller upstream of the form roller is collected in the ink fountain. However, irrespective of the conventional technologies in the ink furnishing this still has room to be improved. For instance, the keyless ink furnishing apparatus adapted to relatively high viscous ink, as disclosed in the commonly owned US Patent No. 5113761 corresponding to Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. Heisei 7-45244 presents no technical idea for removing the water admixed by ink by separating the same from the ink. The reason is that, upon drawing out of the ink through the gap defined between the peripheral surface of the fountain roller and the lower end of the tilted plate, even when shearing force is exerted on the ink to situate the ink and the water in a condition to be easily separated or separation of water is slightly caused, in the vicinity of the contact position between the fountain roller and roller immediately downstream thereof, since the roller immediately downstream rotates in a direction to move the peripheral surface thereof in the opposite direction to the direction of movement of the peripheral surface of the fountain roller, splashing of the ink can be caused upon transfer of the ink from the fountain roller to the immediately downstream roller without causing a water separation effect. Therefore, the disclosed apparatus cannot prevent the water content in the ink from increasing during printing operations. Furthermore, the amount of the splashing is increased with increase of the relative peripheral speed between the fountain roller and the immediately downstream roller to lower efficiency of ink furnishing. On the other hand, in the case of the technologies disclosed in the above identified Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Showa 61-98537, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-62761, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-160241 and Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Showa 62-109940, in which a shearing force is exerted on the ink for removing the water from the ink, contains the following problems:- Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-98537 has the water separating apparatus independent of the ink furnishing apparatus and located in the vicinity of the latter. Accordingly, it is necessary to provide an installation space in the narrow and congested space. For this reason, the diameters of two rollers exerting the shearing force inherently become too small to have a large enough deflection to make rotation unstable. Thus, processing capacity is small and the water separation efficiency becomes low. Furthermore, since two rollers are in contact, the ink layer passing therethrough is so thin as to make the amount of water to be separated from the ink by the effect of shearing small. Therefore, before a water droplet, formed by aggregating the small amount of water, drops into the separated water tank, it can be transferred through the contact portion of two rollers. Thus, the water is scraped off together with the ink by the ink scraping blade to be returned to the ink tank together with the ink. Therefore, during printing operation, particularly in a high speed printing operation, effective water separation can not be achieved. On the other hand, since the water separating apparatus is provided in the vicinity of the ink furnishing apparatus, ease of maintenance for not only the water separation device, but also for nip adjustment of the rollers of the ink furnishing apparatus, exchanging of the roller and/or blade and so forth is impaired. Furthermore, since the water separating apparatus and the ink furnishing apparatus are independent of each other, not only production costs but also running costs become higher as separate consumable goods are required, such as rollers, blades and so forth. On the other hand, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. Showa 62-62761, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Showa 62-160241 and Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. Showa 62-109940, attempts have been made to avoid problems caused by independently providing the water separating apparatus by building in the water separating mechanism into the ink furnishing apparatus. However, all of the ink furnishing apparatus disclosed in these three publications employ a construction for returning the ink scraped from the peripheral surface of the ink furnishing roller group to the ink tank, sucking and feeding under pressure through the piping mechanism including the ink pump, supplying the ink to the ink ejection nozzle to supply the most upstream roller. Accordingly, the ink supplied to the most upstream roller is significantly stirred through suction and feeding under pressure by the piping mechanism including the ink pump. By stirring the water admixed in the ink, the water is maintained in the ink in a highly stable state. Even when shearing force is exerted by feeding the water ink mixture to the water separating mechanism in the ink furnishing roller group, high water separation efficiency cannot be attained. Furthermore, since the two rollers forming the water separating mechanism are contacting each other, the ink layer passing therethrough is so thin as to make the amount of water to be separated from the ink by the effect of shearing small. Therefore, before the water droplet, formed by aggregating of the small amounts of water, drops into the separated water tank, it can be transferred through the contacting portion of two rollers. Thus, a large proportion of the water admixed in the ink is supplied to the downstream side together with the ink through the roller located downstream of the two rollers forming the water separating mechanism. Therefore, even with the technologies disclosed in the above-identified three publications, the water cannot be separated effectively during printing operation, particularly during high speed printing operation. SUMMARY OF INVENTION The present invention seeks to solve some or all of the problems in the prior art set forth above, and to provide an ink furnishing apparatus which can efficiently remove the water by separating the water from the ink during printing operation without producing a separate water separating mechanism and thus can effectively prevent a water content in the ink from increasing during printing operation. The present invention also seeks to provide an ink furnishing apparatus with a dehydrating function, in which when a relatively high viscous ink is used for a lithographic printing press with a keyless ink furnishing system, in relation to a high viscous ink fluidizing mechanism which provides fluidity for the relatively high viscous ink for facilitating deposition of the ink in the recesses on the peripheral surface of a metering roller, the water admixed in the ink is quite efficiently separated and collected without providing a separate water separating mechanism. According to the invention, there is provided an ink furnishing apparatus in a lithographic printing press for performing printing by supplying relative high viscous ink and dampening water to printing plates of a plate cylinder comprising: an ink fountain positioned at the most upstream side position of the ink feed path, said ink fountain comprising openings at an upper portion and a front portion thereof, side plates and a tilted base plate; a fountain roller having a peripheral surface thereof located at a position for blocking the opening at the front portion of said ink fountain, and located at a position in the vicinity of and rotating so that its peripheral surface moves downwardly in relation to its position blocking the opening at the front portion of said ink fountain at lower speed than that of the peripheral surface of the printing plates of the plate cylinder; intermediate roller means, located at a position directly downstream of said fountain roller, having a peripheral surface thereof located at a position in a vicinity of the peripheral surface of said fountain roller to form a second gap which is narrower than said first gap, these peripheral surfaces of said intermediate roller means and said fountain roller rotating so as to move in the same direction in said vicinity of said second gap and the peripheral speeds of the surfaces of the intermediate roller means and the printing pates of the printing cylinder being equal; whereby, a first shearing force is exerted on said ink upon when the ink is drawn up and deposited on the peripheral surface of said fountain roller through said first gap by rotation of said fountain roller and a second shearing force being exerted on the ink due to a difference of peripheral speeds of said fountain roller and said intermediate roller means upon passage of the ink from the peripheral surface of the fountain roller to the peripheral surface of said intermediate roller means across said second gap, so that water which has penetrated the ink being separated from said ink by force. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The invention will now be described in greater detail, with reference to the drawings in which:- Figure 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of an ink furnishing apparatus according to the present invention; Figure 2 is a partially sectioned enlarged view showing a part of the peripheral surface of one embodiment of a metering roller in the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus according to the invention; Figure 3 is a partially section enlarged view showing a part of the peripheral surface on another embodiment of a metering roller in the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus according to the invention; Figure 4 is a partially sectioned enlarged view of a part of the peripheral surface of one embodiment of a first immediate roller in the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus according to the invention; Figure 5 is a side elevation of the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, illustrating one embodiment of a doctor means constituted of a doctor blade, in the embodiment of Figure 1; Figure 6 is a side elevation of the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, illustrating one embodiment of a doctor means constituted of a doctor bar, in the embodiment of Figure 5; Figure 7 is a side elevation of the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, illustrating one embodiment of a doctor means constituted of a doctor roller; Figure 8 is a sectional side elevation showing the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, in which the first and second intermediate rollers are removed in the embodiment of Figure 5; Figure 9 is a sectional side elevation showing the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, in which the first and second intermediate rollers are removed in the embodiment in the embodiment of Figure 6; Figure 10 is a sectional side elevation showing the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, in which the first and second intermediate rollers are removed in the embodiment of Figure 7; Figure 11 is a sectional side elevation showing the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, in which third and fourth intermediate rollers are additionally provided in the embodiment of Figure 5; Figure 12 is a sectional side elevation showing the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, in which third and fourth intermediate rollers are additionally provided in the embodiment of Figure 6; Figure 13 is a sectional side elevation showing the preferred embodiment of the ink furnishing apparatus, in which third and fourth intermediate rollers are additionally provided in the embodiment of Figure 7; and Figure 14 is a general partly sectioned view of a satellite type offset printing press, in which ink furnishing apparatus of the embodiment of Figure 5 are arranged radially with respect to a common impression cylinder, in the four sets of ink furnishing apparatus, zero to three of downstream side intermediate rollers are appropriately provided between a metering roller and a form roller due to difference of mounting direction and mounting height with respect to the common impression cylinder. DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The preferred embodiments of an ink furnishing apparatus according to the present invention will be discussed hereinafter in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be obvious, however, to those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practised without these specific details. In other instances, well-known structures are not shown in detail in order to unnecessarily obscure the present invention. Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the general construction of the preferred embodiments of ink furnishing apparatus according to the present invention. In Figure 1, an ink fountain 1 is constructed with a base 11 descending toward the peripheral surface of a fountain roller 2 and side plates 12, 12 closing both sides of a groove defined by the base 11 and the fountain roller 2. The ink fountain 1 is opened in the upper portion and stores an ink within the groove. Between the descending lower end of the base 11 and the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2, a first gap 13 is provided. The ink in the first gap 13 is drawn by rotation of the fountain roller 2 by deposition on the peripheral surface thereof. The opened front edge portion of the ink fountain 1 is blocked by the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 which defines the first gap 13 with the lower end of the tilted surface for the base 11. The fountain roller 2 is driven to rotate in a sense such that the peripheral surface thereof blocking the opened front edge portion of the ink fountain moves downwardly. The peripheral speed of rotation of the fountain roller 2 is variable depending upon the peripheral speed of a printing plate but is less than the latter in a ratio between 1/30 to 1/100, for example. Between the fountain roller 2 and the metering roller 5 in ink furnishing, an even number of or no intermediate rollers are interposed at the upstream side. In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 8 to 10, no upstream side intermediate roller is employed. In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 1, 5 to 7 and 14, two upstream side intermediate rollers, namely, a first intermediate roller 3 and a second intermediate roller 4, are interposed. In the embodiment illustrated in Figures 11 to 13, four intermediate rollers, i.e. first, second, third and fourth intermediate rollers 3, 4, 41 and 42, are interposed,. Accordingly, the kind of roller to be arranged immediately downstream of the fountain roller 2 for ink furnishing is different in each embodiment. In the embodiment shown in Figures 8 to 10, the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 is located in the vicinity of the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 via a second gap 21 which is smaller than the first gap 13. In contrast, in the embodiments illustrated in Figures 1, 5 to 7, 11 to 13 and 14, the peripheral surface of the first intermediate roller 3 is arranged in the vicinity of the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 via the second gap 21 smaller than the first gap 13. It is preferred that the first intermediate roller 3 is constructed as an uneven surface roller having substantially uniformly distributed unevenness on the peripheral surface. In Figure 4, a plurality of projections 31 are provided on the peripheral surface of the first intermediate roller 3, the projections 31 being separated by grooves 32 extending therearound so as to facilitate reception of ink from the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2. In conjunction therewith, the projections 31 and the grooves 32 provide different magnitudes of depression force to be exerted on an ink layer passing through the gap between the fountain roller 2 and the uneven surface roller 3. The projections 31 may be triangular, circular or so forth, other than rhombic shaped configuration illustrated in Figure 4. The projections 31 are arranged at a pitch of 0.5 to 5 mm. On the other hand, in place of the regular unevenness as shown in Figure 1, a satin type of unevenness may be uniformly provided on the peripheral surface. In the embodiment of Figures 1, 5 to 7, the second intermediate roller 4, the metering roller 5 and the form roller 7 are arranged in order with contacting peripheral surfaces, at the downstream side of the uneven surface roller 3 to supply ink. The peripheral surface of the form roller 7 is in contact with a printing plate on a plate cylinder 8. The uneven surface roller 3, the second intermediate roller 4, the metering roller 5 and the form roller 7 are driven to rotate at substantially the same peripheral speed as that of the plate cylinder. On the other hand, the fountain roller 2, the first intermediate roller (uneven surface roller) 3, the second intermediate roller 4, the metering roller 5 and the form roller 7 have a respective peripheral displacement in the same direction as the mating roller. The form roller 7 rotates in the same displacement direction and the same peripheral speed as the plate cylinder. In the layout of the rollers as set forth above, during the ink transfer process wherein the ink is transferred from the uneven surface roller 3 to the second intermediate roller 4 and is supplied to the metering roller 5 at the downstream side thereto, the ink is compressed and split twice. By repeated compression and splitting, the ink is temporarily softened and thus is temporarily provided with fluidity. Therefore, good ink transfer condition can be established. It should be noted that the second intermediate roller 4 has a rubber surface layer with a surface hardness of 20 to 40 of Shore A. In the embodiment shown in Figures 11 to 13, employing four upstream side intermediate rollers, the third intermediate roller 41 is a metallic cylinder contacting both the peripheral surface of the second intermediate roller 4 at the upstream side and the peripheral surface of the fourth intermediate roller 42 at the downstream side. The peripheral surface of the third intermediate roller 41 is coated by copper to achieve a good wetting ability by the ink and a good ink transfer performance. The metallic third intermediate roller 41 is driven at substantially equal peripheral speed to the uneven surface roller 3 forming the upstream side first intermediate roller and in the same direction. The rotating direction of the third intermediate roller 41 is such as to cause displacement of its peripheral surface in the same direction as the peripheral surface of the second intermediate roller 4 located immediately upstream, at the contact position therewith. Also, the rotating direction of the third intermediate roller 41 is such as to cause displacement of its peripheral surface in the same direction as the peripheral surface of the fourth intermediate roller 42 located at immediately downstream, at the contact position therewith. The third intermediate roller 41 may be an inking cylinder which is reciprocated in the axial direction thereof with a predetermined stroke in conjunction with the rotation set forth above. At the axial end, the inking cylinder 41 cooperates with an oscillation mechanism (not shown) such as that disclosed in Japanese Examined Patent Publication (Kokoku) No Showa 57-15552. The third intermediate roller 41 cooperates with the oscillation mechanism to reciprocate in the axial direction driving its own rotation. In practice, the reciprocating operation of the inking cylinder 41 may be set in a stroke of 3 to 550 mm per 20 cycles or rotation thereof, for example. The fourth intermediate roller 42 is a rubber roller having a rubber surface layer with surface hardness of 20 to 40 of Shore A. The peripheral surface of the fourth intermediate roller 42 is located in contact with the peripheral surfaces of the third intermediate roller 41 and of the metering roller 5. The peripheral surface of the fourth intermediate roller 42, not only rotates in the same direction and at the same speed of peripheral displacement as the third intermediate roller 41 at the position where the peripheral surface of the fourth intermediate roller 42 is contact with the peripheral surface of the third intermediate roller 41, but also rotates in the same direction and at the same peripheral speed of displacement of the metering roller 5 at the position where the peripheral surface of the fourth intermediate roller 42 is in contact with the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5. As shown in Figure 2, a large number of fine ink receptacle cavities or recesses which may receive a predetermined amount of ink are uniformly distributed on the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5. The fine ink receptacle cavities are defined by fine voids 55 uniformly distributed in a matrix 54 forming an outer peripheral layer 53 of the metering roller 5. More particularly, the outer peripheral layer 53 of the metering roller 5 is formed by a material, in which fine hollow bodies called micro balloons of 5 to 300 µm in diameter are mixed with a synthetic resin matrix for uniform dispersion. The metering roller 5 formed with a uniform dispersion of the fine voids 55 in the matrix 54 forming the outer peripheral layer 53, will not cause significant or noticeable variation of the ink amount to be stored in the cavities on the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 even when the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 is worn by repeated ink scraping actions of a doctor means 6 which will be discussed later, since the lost volume of the ink receptacle amount caused by wearing off of some fine voids can be compensated for by voids newly exposed at the peripheral surface. The metering roller 5 having the outer peripheral layer formed by the dispersion of fine voids in the synthetic resin matrix is formed to have a Shore hardness in a range of 70 to 100 (Shore A). In the alternative, the metering roller 5 with a uniform distribution of fine cavities may also be formed with a large number of regularly arranged recessed cells 51 and ridges 52 surrounding respective cells, as shown in Figure 3. Such recessed cells 51 may be formed by rolling, laser dulling or corrosion of the surface of a material, such as metal, synthetic resin, or tungsten carbide, to provide a density of 80 lines/cm to 200 lines/cm. The doctor means 6 is located to contact the peripheral surface of the metering roller at a position where it is downstream of the contact position with the second intermediate roller 4, in the rotating direction of the metering roller 5, and as well as where it is upstream of the contact position with the form roller 7. The doctor means 6 may comprise a doctor blade 61 shown in Figure 5, a doctor bar 62 as shown in Figure 6, or a doctor roller 63 as shown in Figure 7. All of these contact the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 over its entire length. By contact of these doctor means with the metering roller 5, any excess amount of ink on the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 is scraped off. In Figure 5, the doctor blade 61 includes a blade 611 contacting the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 and a blade holder 612 supporting the blade 611. The doctor blade 61 is supported on a frame (not shown). In Figure 6, the doctor bar 62 comprises a bar 621 contacting the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 and a back-up stay 622 restricting deflecting deformation of the bar. The doctor bar 62 is supported on a frame (not shown). In Figure 7, the doctor roller 653 contacts the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5. The doctor roller 63 is supported on a frame (not shown). The doctor roller 63 is designed to employ various drive mechanisms listed hereinafter, corresponding to various printing modes. Thus, as shown in Figure 12, the doctor roller 63 is provided with a drive mechanism (not shown) which drives the doctor roller 63 to rotate with a peripheral surface displacement in an opposite direction to the direction of displacement of the metering roller 5 at the contacting position, irrespective of the peripheral speed. It should be noted that the doctor roller may be provided with the drive mechanism which can rotate the doctor roller 63 at a peripheral speed lower than the peripheral speed of the metering roller 5 so that the peripheral surface of the doctor roller 63 is displaced in the same direction as the displacement of the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5, at the contact portion therebetween The material and hardness of the portion of the doctor means 6 contacting the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 are selected depending upon the material and hardness of the peripheral surface of the metering roller for minimising wear while maintaining the desired ink scraping performance. The form roller 7 is supplied with ink substantially uniformly over its entire length by the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 which has had it excess amount of ink scraped off. Then, the ink is supplied to the printing plate on the plate cylinder 8 by the form roller 7. It should be noted that the form roller is a roller having a rubber surface layer having a surface hardness of 20 to 40 (Shore A). The peripheral surface of the form roller 7 is in contact with the printing plate. At the contact position, the peripheral surface of the form roller is displaced in the same direction as the direction of displacement of the printing plate and rotates at the same peripheral speed as the printing plate. In the embodiment shown in Figures 1, 5 to 13, the form roller 7 is located immediately downstream of the metering roller 5. In contrast to this, Figure 14 shows a satellite type offset printing press, in which four sets of ink furnishing apparatus IN1, IN2, IN3 and IN4 are arranged radially via the plate cylinder 8 and a blanket cylinder BC, toward a common impression cylinder IC located at the central position. Each ink furnishing apparatus is required to have the same rotation direction notwithstanding any difference in the mounting direction and the mounting position. For this purpose, zero to three downstream side intermediate rollers may be used. As shown a fifth roller 43, a sixth intermediate roller 44 and a seventh intermediate roller 45 are interposed between the metering roller 5 and the form roller 7. The relationship of these downstream side intermediate rollers 43, 44 and 45 is illustrated in Figure 14. A direct coupling between the metering roller 5 and the form roller 7 is only exhibited by the ink furnishing apparatus IN1 at the lower right part of Figure 14. The remaining three ink supply apparatus have interposed downstream side intermediate rollers between the metering roller 5 and the form roller 7. Thus, in the ink furnishing apparatus IN2 at the lower left part, a fifth intermediate roller 43 is interposed. Similarly, in the ink furnishing apparatus IN3, fifth and sixth intermediate rollers 43 and 44 are interposed. On the other hand in the ink furnishing apparatus IN4 located at the upper left part, fifth, sixth and seventh intermediate rollers 43, 44 and 45 are interposed. Thus, the ink is transferred from the metering roller 5 to the form roller 7 via the intermediate rollers. On the other hand, a peripheral surface of a roller for supplying a dampening water in a dampening water-supplying apparatus 9 contacts the surface of the printing plates on the plate cylinder 8, at a position upstream in the rotating direction from the position where the form roller 7 contacts the surface of the printing plates on the plate cylinder 8. Thus, the dampening water is supplied to the surface of the printing plates via the contact position therebetween. The dampening water supplied to the printing plate serves for avoiding deposition of ink on the no image printing portion of the printing plate. However, supply of the dampening water to the printing plate surface is not limited to the no image printing portion and is generally supplied to the overall surface of the printing plate. Therefore, an excess amount of water is produced. The excess water flows back through each intermediate roller to the ink 16 in the ink fountain 1 to cause a problem with the printing density. The phenomenon of the surge flow of the extra water is specific to the keyless type ink furnishing apparatus which reduces the number of rollers and is specific to the keyless ink furnishing apparatus. This is true even in the situation where relatively high viscous ink is employed. In the present invention, in order to remove the excessive dampening water from the ink, a space between the position on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 corresponding to the first gap 13 and at least the position on the roller located at the immediate downstream side of the fountain roller corresponding to the second gap 21 defined therebetween, is opened downwardly. In the embodiment of Figures 1, 5 to 7 and 11 to 13, the roller located at the immediate downstream side of the fountain roller is the uneven surface roller 3 and in the embodiment of Figures 8 to 10, the roller located at the immediate downstream side of the fountain roller is the metering roller. At the position opposite to the opened space, a water receptacle means including a vessel 10 with an upper opened end is provided. In relation to the embodiment set forth above, separation of the dampening water admixed in the ink and removal thereof will now be considered. At first, when the high viscous ink 16 is fed into the ink fountain 1, since such ink 16 has low fluidity, the ink can be maintained in the ink fountain 1 without any of it dropping off through the first gap 13 between the bottom edge of the ink fountain 1 and the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2. In this condition, when the fountain roller 2 is rotated to displace the peripheral surface of the fountain roller downwardly, then, the ink 16 deposited on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 is drawn on by the rotation of the fountain roller 2. Then, the thickness of the ink is adjusted to a thickness permitting it to pass through the first gap 13. By scraping of the front edge of the ink fountain 1, a first shearing force is applied to the ink 16. When the water is admixed in the ink 16, the stable condition is destroyed by the shearing force, so as to cause a part of the water to be separated from the ink. Then, by further application of the shearing force, the ink becomes quite unstable due to application of the shearing and cause variation of the admixing condition. The ink 16 to which the first shearing force is applied is drawn out of the ink fountain and deposited on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2. Then ,the ink 16 is carried on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 to be transferred to the second gap 21 defined between the fountain roller 2 and the first intermediate roller, such as the uneven surface roller 3 (hereinafter it will be assumed that the roller contacting the peripheral surface of the fountain roller is the uneven surface roller). As set forth above, the second gap 21 is narrower than the first gap 13. On the other hand, the uneven surface roller 3 is driven to rotate at a higher peripheral speed than that of the fountain roller and in the same direction. Thus, the ink 16 carried on the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 2 reaches the second gap 21. Then, due to difference of the peripheral speeds between the fountain roller 2 and the uneven surface roller 3, a second shearing force is exerted on the ink. The ink 16 on which the second shearing force has been exerted, has water successfully separated from the ink, since the water in the ink 16 is in a condition to be quite easily separated from the ink 16. In addition, since the ink 16 to be subjected to the shearing force, is relatively thick, the amount of the water separated from the ink 16 becomes relatively large. The separated water has a high fluidity and can be easily caused to drop into the vessel 10. Furthermore, by employing the uneven surface roller 3 as the first intermediate roller adjacent the fountain roller 2, the depressive force to be exerted on the ink 16 passing through the second gap 21 can be locally varied. Therefore, water having higher fluidity than the ink, is easily concentrated locally to combine into a greater volume quickly so as to make removal of the separated water efficient. In the embodiment shown in Figures 8 to 10, the metering roller is located adjacent the fountain roller 2 across the second gap 21. Since there is a slight difference in the peripheral speeds between the fountain roller 2 and the metering roller 5, the second shearing force is exerted on the ink 16 similarly to that set forth above to enable separation of the water from the ink. The ink 16 reaching the second gap 21 is supplied to the metering roller 5 via the peripheral surfaces of the uneven surface roller 3 and the second intermediate roller 4, in the embodiment shown in Figures 1, 5 to 7. On the other hand, in the embodiment of Figures 8 to 10, the ink 16 is directly transferred to the metering roller 5 from the fountain roller 2. Also, in case of the embodiment of Figures 11 to 13, the ink 16 is transferred to the metering roller 5 via the peripheral surfaces of the uneven surface roller 3, the second intermediate roller 4, the third intermediate roller 41 and the fourth intermediate roller 42. The ink 16 supplied to the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5 reaches the contact position of the doctor means 6. Then, the excess amount of ink 16 is scraped off the metering roller 5 by means of the doctor means 6. The scraped ink 16 is collected in the ink fountain provided with an opening at its upper end. The ink 16 within the recesses formed on the peripheral surface of the metering roller 5, from which the excess amount of the ink is scraped off, reaches the form roller 7 by rotation of the metering roller to be transferred thereto. The ink supplied to the peripheral surface of the form roller 7 reaches the contact position with the press plate surface so as to be transferred to surface of the printing plate on the plate cylinder 8. On the peripheral surface of the form roller 7 in contact with the printing plate, dampening water is transferred from the no image printing portion. Furthermore, the water is scraped off together with the ink 16 to drop into the ink fountain 1. The ink 16 collected in the ink fountain 1 is again drawn through the first gap 13 by rotation of the peripheral surface of the fountain roller. On the other hand, the water content of the ink 16 is separated from the ink 16 through the second exertion of the shearing force on the ink 16 and collected in the vessel 10. Accordingly, on the periphery of the metering roller 5, high purity ink 16 containing a lesser content of water can be supplied constantly. The present invention includes an embodiment having a mechanism (not shown) for varying the size of the first gap 13. Figure 14 shows an embodiment of a satellite type offset printing press, in which four ink furnishing apparatus IN1, IN2, IN3 and IN4 according to the present invention are provided in a radial arrangement with respect to the common impression cylinder IC. Each ink furnishing apparatus is constructed to contact the impression cylinder IC via the plate cylinder 8 and the blanket cylinder BC. For the necessity of matching of the rotation direction notwithstanding the mounting direction and the mounting position of respective ink furnishing apparatus, zero to three downstream side intermediate rollers 43, 44 and 45 are incorporated. The rest of the construction is the same as that of the foregoing embodiment. As set forth above, the ink furnishing apparatus according to the present invention can solve the problems caused in the lithographic printing press in the keyless ink furnishing system adapted to application of relatively high viscous ink. Particularly the problem of penetration of the dampening water supplied for the no image printing portion on the printing plate surface of the plate cylinder into the ink furnishing apparatus to cause lowering of the printing quality due to dispersion of the water in the ink, can be solved. Thus, by utilising the construction for improving the depositing ability of the ink into the recesses of the metering roller by temporarily providing fluidity for relatively high viscous ink through the first gap between the ink fountain and the fountain roller and the second gap between and fountain roller and the roller immediately downstream of the fountain roller and having narrower area than the first gap, the water in the high viscous ink can be effectively and efficiently separated and removed from the ink. Accordingly, even when printing operation is continued for a long period, the water contact in the ink will never be increased. Therefore, degradation of the printing quality due to presence of the increased amount of water in the ink will never be caused. Particularly, according to the present invention, since strong stirring by suction and pressure feeding of the ink in the ink fountain which has been performed in the prior art, is not performed, and instead shearing forces are twice applied to the relatively thick ink layer, a large amount of water can be efficiently separated and removed. Furthermore, in the present invention, the first intermediate roller has the uneven surface, so that the water separated from the ink may be concentrated in the recesses of the uneven surface when the second shearing force is applied. Accordingly, the water volume is increased by concentration so that the water may be rapidly removed from the ink, so that the keyless printing press can be operated at high speed. Although the invention has been illustrated and described with respect to exemplary embodiments thereof, it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the foregoing and various other changes, omissions and additions may be made therein and thereto, without departing from the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims.

Claims: An ink furnishing apparatus in a lithographic printing press for performing printing by supplying relative high viscous ink (16) and dampening water to printing plates of a plate cylinder (8), comprising: an ink fountain (1) positioned at the most upstream side position of the ink feed path, said ink fountain (1) comprising openings at an upper portion and a front portion (13) thereof, side plates (12) and a tilted base plate (11); a fountain roller (2) having a peripheral surface thereof located at a position for blocking the opening (13) at the front portion of said ink fountain (1), and located at a position in the vicinity of and rotating so that its peripheral surface moves downwardly in relation to its position blocking the opening at the front portion of said ink fountain (1) at lower speed than that of the peripheral surface of the printing plates of the plate cylinder (8); intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5), located at a position directly downstream of said fountain roller (2), having a peripheral surface thereof located at a position in a vicinity of the peripheral surface of said fountain roller (2) to form a second gap (21) which is narrower than said first gap (13), these peripheral surfaces of said intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) and said fountain roller (2) rotating so as to move in the same direction in said vicinity of said second gap (21) and the peripheral speeds of the surfaces of the intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) and the printing pates of the printing cylinder (8) being equal; whereby, a first shearing force is exerted on said ink (16) upon when the ink (16) is drawn up and deposited on the peripheral surface of said fountain roller (2) through said first gap (13) by rotation of said fountain roller (2) and a second shearing force being exerted on the ink (16) due to a difference of peripheral speeds of said fountain roller (2) and said intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) upon passage of the ink (16) from the peripheral surface of the fountain roller (2) to the peripheral surface of said intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) across said second gap (21), so that water which has penetrated the ink (16) being separated from said ink by force. An ink furnishing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) is a metering roller (5) having a large number of fine cavities being formed on a peripheral surface thereof for accommodating the ink (16). An ink furnishing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) comprises: a first intermediate roller (3) having a peripheral surface thereof rotating to move at the same peripheral speed as the peripheral surface of the printing plates of the printing cylinder (8), and in the same direction as the movement of the peripheral surface of said fountain roller (2); a second intermediate roller (4) being arranged to contact the peripheral surface of said first intermediate roller (3); and a metering roller (5) arrange to contact a peripheral surface of the second intermediate roller (4), the metering roller (5) having a large number of fine cavities being formed on a peripheral surface thereof for accommodating the ink (16). An ink furnishing apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein the intermediate roller means (3, 4, 5) comprises: four or more intermediate rollers (3, 4, 41, 42) in even numbers including said first intermediate roller (3); and a metering roller (5) arranged to contact with a peripheral surface of the most downstream intermediate roller (42), the metering roller (5) having a large number of fine cavities being formed on a peripheral surface thereof for accommodating the ink (16). An ink furnishing apparatus as set forth in claim 3 or 4, wherein said first intermediate roller (3) has an uneven surface with uniformly arranged unevenness. An ink furnishing apparatus as set forth in claim 4, wherein one of the odd numbers of intermediate rollers (3, 4, 5) from the upstream side of said intermediate rollers excluding the first intermediate roller (3) is an inking cylinder (42) reciprocating in an axial direction over a given stroke.

Inventors: ICHIZAWA TAIICHI, IIJIMA TAKASHI, UERA YOSHINORI, YOSHIZAWA KOHJI, ICHIZAWA, TAIICHI, IIJIMA, TAKASHI, UERA, YOSHINORI, YOSHIZAWA, KOHJI
Applicants: TOKYO KIKAI SEISAKUSHO LTD, KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOKYO KIKAI SEISAKUSHO
Application year: 1995
Main classification: B41F31
IPC codes: B41F31