Patent GB-996144-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to article marking apparatus
IPC: B41F17/22
Filed: 1962-03-27
Abstract: 996,144. Printing on curved surfaces. WESTERN ELECTRIC CO. Inc. March 27, 1962 [March 29, 1961], No. 11570/62. Heading B6C. A cylindrical electrical resistor 12 is printed upon at a printing station by one of three rotatable printing rollers 29 which revolves through one complete revolution in contact with the resistor after being carried in a circular path past a type face 35 which has been previously inked by one of three inking rollers 38 also carried in the circular path. The six printing and inking rollers 29, 38 are fixed on shafts 53 rotatably mounted on a carrier plate 48 which is freely rotatable on a drive shaft 41, the drive to the plate being effected through a planetary gear mechanism, the sun wheel 44 of which is keyed to the shaft 41 whilst the planet wheels 55 are each mounted on a shaft 53 at the opposite ends to the rollers 29 or 38 fixed thereon. Also freely rotatable on the shaft is a ring gear 56 the internal teeth of which mesh with the planet wheels 55. The drive to the shaft 41 is intermittent from a motor 83 through a geneva type mechanism 93 and a two-speed device 82. Spring-loaded bolts 61 and 62, moved simultaneously by a pneumatic piston and cylinder arrangement 69, 64, coact with apertures 57 and 58 formed on the carrier plate 48 and the ring gear 56 respectively, such that in the extended position of the cylinder 69 the bolt 61 locks the plate 48 against rotation whilst bolt 62 is free of the aperture 58 and allows the ring gear to move. The intermittent periods of rotation of the shaft 41 is at alternate low and high speeds, the high speed deriving through the gearing 100, 103 of the device 82 and effecting the rotation through one revolution of the rollers 29, 38 whilst in the position of Fig. 1 in which the plate 48 is locked against rotation by the bolt 61 whilst the ring gear 56 is free to rotate about the shaft 41-to thereby effect the printing of the resistor 12 at the printing station. During the rotation of the shaft at low speed-such rotation deriving through the gearing 101, 102, of the device 82-and with the piston 69 retracted such that the ring gear 56 is locked by the bolt 62 whilst the plate 48 is free to rotate, the six rollers are moved through 120 degrees of their circular path such that one ink roller 38 is supplied with ink from a reservoir 31 through a feed roller 32, another ink roller, which was coated with ink from the reservoir during a previous period of low speed rotation, inks the type face 35 whilst one of the printing rollers 29 contacts the inked face thereby receiving an impression. The operation of the machine is automatic an electrical control system being actuated by various cam devices associated with the rotating parts of the machine. The two speed device 82 has a solenoid-operated clutch mechanism the operation of the piston 69 operating a two-way throw switch controlling the energization of the solenoids. The operation of the piston and cylinder arrangement 69, 64 derives from cams 87, 88 (not shown) carried by the motor shaft 84. The resistor 12 is moved by a conveyer 11 to a position beneath the printing station from which position a vertical lifting device 13 pushes it upwardly such movement actuating a switch 20, which, in conjunction with the closing of a switch 71 by a protuberance 70 on the plate 48 and the closing of a switch 132 (not shown) by a cam 96 on the shaft 95 to which the gearing 100 and 101 is keyed, energizes a solenoid. Such energization causes a pneumatically operated arm supporting cradle rollers 24 to move into the path of the upwardly moving device 13 and remove the resistor 12 therefrom for presentation on the rollers 24 at the printing station.