Patent GB-358888-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in rotary printing machines
IPC: B65H5/00
Filed: 1930-07-08
Abstract: 358,888. Printing-machines. BARKER, R. W., 56, Ludgate Hill, London. -(American Bank Note Co. ; 70, Broad Street, Manhattan, New York, U.S.A.) July 8, 1930, No. 20678. [Class 100 (i).] Sheet feed-tables, registering devices, and forwarders. -Rotary steel-plate printing-machines having a plate cylinder, carrying one or more intaglio plates, and a co-operating impression cylinder, are provided with mechanism for removing sheets one at a time from a stack and delivering them to registering and supporting devices adjacent the cylinders, and with mechanism for advancing the sheets into frictional engagement with the cylinders. The sheets are delivered by known mechanism to rollers 62, 63 co-operating with endless tapes 64, Figs. 1 and 3, passing round rolls 63, 68, 69, 67, 70, 71, 72, slack being taken up by a weight 73 engaging a loop in the tapes. The rolls 68, 69 are arranged to interrupt the continuity of the run of the tapes, and, after passing the roll 68, the sheets fall on to the part of the tapes between the rolls 69, 67, the rollers 67 being carried by brackets 66 and projecting through openings in a feed-table 31 so that this part of the tapes is closely adjacent the surface of the table. The table is supported on antifriction rollers 30 and its forward end is adapted to pass over a fixed plate 19 supported closely adjacent the meeting line of the plate cylinder 10 and impression cylinder 17. The sheet is fed by the tapes into engagement with front stops 22 adjustably carried on a shaft 23 and projecting downwardly into notches in the front edge of the plate 19, and in this position side-gauge mechanism 60, located on each side of the machine, positions the sides of the sheet. In its passage to the front stops 22, the sheet passes under raised clamping fingers 43 under the influence of a spring tending to press them into engagement with the sheet on the feed-table. The fingers are carried by a shaft 42 having a projection normally engaged by a catch 50 to hold the fingers 43 in raised position. The catch is connected to a lever 54 actuated by a cam 55 on the shaft of the cylinder 17, the cam acting to release the catch and permit the fingers 43 to clamp the sheet to the table just before the table commences to move. The plate cylinder 10 carries two cams 26, 37, each having as many operative sections as there are printing- plates on the cylinder. The cam 26 acts through a lever 25 to raise the stops 22 and permit the table to be fed forward, and the cam 37 effects the reciprocation of the table through the parts 36, 35, 33, 34. The movement of the table feeds the sheet into the grip of one of the plates on the cylinder 10 and the impression cylinder 17, and, at the conclusion of the feeding-movement of the table, the fingers 43 are raised through the action of a fixed cam 47 on an arm 45 carried by the shaft 42, and in this condition the catch 50 engages the projection on the shaft to retain the fingers 43 in raised position. The movement of the table is short and rapid, and the cylinders take the sheets more rapidly than they are fed by the tapes 64, so that, although the sheets may overlap slightly at the commencement of the movement of the table, sufficient gap will be left after the first sheet has been taken to enable the front stops to be lowered before the tapes complete the movement of the succeeding sheet. Delivery apparatus.-After printing, the sheets are removed by strippers 18 which direct the sheets to tapes 75, 76, Fig. 4, which feed them against an adjustable stop 84. The sheets are then engaged by a picker 91 which feeds them to tapes 88 arranged to feed the sheet downwardly, at an angle permitting inspection, to a collecting shelf.