Patent GB-409107-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in or relating to a method of and apparatus for decorating surface covering material
IPC: B44F9/04
Filed: 1933-02-17
Abstract: 409,107. Ornamenting floor coverings &c. ARMSTRONG CORK CO., Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.-(Assignees of Rottmund, F. G. ; 429, Nevin Street, and Humphreys, C. F.; 512, North President Avenue, both in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.) Feb. 17, 1933, Nos. 4960 and 4961. Convention dates, Feb. 23, 1932. [Class 93.] Felt &c. surface-covering material is decorated by applying colour over a portion of the web, either by printing or dripping and then smoothing the colour by means of an oscillating brush and doctor blade to produce a striated marbled pattern extending over portions only of the web. A web 5, Fig. 1, passes under blocks 7, 8 which deposit small areas of paint, a block 9 which prints a base colour over the selected area, smoothing and striating means 14, and blocks 10, 11, 12, 13 which print a design on the portions of the web left bare. The blocks 7, 8, 9 are offset slightly so that the dragged colours will register with parts not printed by the blocks 10, 11, 12, 13. The web 5 is carried on pin bands 2, Figs. 2 and 6, under the smoothing means 14, which comprise a brush 48 and a flexible doctor blade 53, mounted on shafts 32, 37 respectively. The shafts 32, 37 slide in journals 31, 38 mounted on slides 28 which move in guide rails 27 mounted on a carriage bolted to the machine frame ; the brush and doctor can thus be oscillated in two directions, the shafts 32, 37 being slid in their bearings by the engagement of slotted yokes 72 with eccentric pins on discs 75, and the slides 28 having slots 30 in which engage eccentric pins 57 on gears 56. The brush 28 and doctor 53 can be angularly adjusted by means of hand-wheels 36 acting through toothed segments 33, 39 and worms 34, 40. The smoothing means are adapted to move forward, but at a lesser speed, while the web moves forward, and to move backward while the web is stationary for the printing-step. Thus the brush is never stationary with regard to the web and consequently leaves no brushmarks. Since the pins 79 of the bands 2 would interfere with the movement of the doctor blade, a plate 80, grooved at 81 for the passage of the bands, is interposed between the web and the bands underneath the smoothing means. Narrow rollers 85 mounted on weighted arms 84 are adapted to press down the small projections left by the pins 79. The marbling colours may be applied by dripping instead of by printing-blocks. The dripping means comprise receptacles 108, Fig. 8, with long spouts 109 and carried on arms 110. Narrow pistons 114 are carried by arms 115 and move up and down, admitting a small quantity of paint into the spouts and then expelling it. The pistons are oscillated in time with the printing-blocks 104 (corresponding to block 7 in Fig. 1) by cams 121. The amount of paint emitted from each dropper can be regulated by altering the height of the pistons. Several droppers containing different colours of paint may be mounted on each arm 110 and the bars 110 may be oscillated transversely on slotted cross-bars. The process can also be used with a rotary machine, in which case the marbleizing- mechanism will only need to be oscillated transversely to the web.