Patent GB-190413962-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Rotary Web Printing and Folding Machines.
Inventor: ANNAND ROBERT CUMMING
Filed: 1904-06-20
Granted: 1905-06-15
Abstract: 13,962. Annand, R. C. June 20. Rotary machines ; cutting - apparatus; delivery apparatus; folding paper.-Relates to rotary web-perfecting machines capable of being adjusted to print, cut, and fold sheets of different lengths from a continuous web of paper. The web 2, Fig. 1, is fed to the machine at a speed varying according to the length of the sheet to be produced by rollers 3, 4, driven by change gearing, the constant member 6 of which is carried on an adjustable crank 10. The web then passes over a roller 11 and a looping-roller 12 to two printing-couples, placed apart a distance equal to the length of the shortest sheet the machine is required to print, and consisting of printing-rollers 13,18 and impression rollers 14, 19, of which the circumference is equal to the longest sheet the machine is required to print. Between the two printing- couples is placed a registering - r o l l e r 15, which, when the machine is producing a sheet larger than its smallest, is adjusted by rack-and-pinion gear to ensure that the impressions produced by the two couples will be in register. From the printing - cylinders, the web passes over a looping- roller 23 and around a roller 24 to feeding- mechanism, consisting of a roller 25 and endless tapes 26, passing around rollers 27, 30 and pulleys 29, and operated at any desired speed by bevel gearing 54 and spur gearing 56, 33, 30 from a vertical shaft 53, which feeds the web to the cutting and delivery apparatus. The looping- rollers 12, 23 are carried by a light tubular frame 37, supported by two spiral springs and terminating at the bottom in blocks 38 which slide in vertical grooves 39 in the frame of the machine. When the machine is producing its largest sheet, the whole surface of the printing-rollers is operative and the rollers 12, 23 are held stationary, but, when printing sheets of any other size, part only of the surfaces of the rollers 13, 18 carry plates, and the rollers 12, 23, are moved by means of an interchangeable cam 45 and roller 46 carried by the block 38 to take up the slack in the web while the bare parts of the cylinders 13, 18 are in the operative position. The cam 45 is preferably so shaped as to arrest gradually the motion of the forward part of the web, reverse it, and then allow it to move forwards with a gradually-increasing velocity, which reaches the surface velocity of the printing- rollers just as they come into operation. After the web leaves the feeding-roller 25 and tapes 26, it is conducted around a roller 51 and over a centrally-grooved roller 57, where it is divided longitudinally by a rotary cutter 59 fitting in the groove in the roller 57. The web is pressed on to the roller 57 by four india-rubber discs, and is then conducted over longitudinally-adjustable turning- bars 64, 65, consisting of tubes heated internally by the products of combustion from bunsen burners or by steam or hot water. The divided web then passes over registering-rollers 66, 67, shown in end elevation in Fig. 7, carried by arms 80 on the shafts 81, and adjusted by means of hand-wheels 82, bars 83, and cranks 84 to associating- mechanism comprising rollers 92, 94, geared together and driven from the spur-wheel 56. The double web is then led by tapes 105 to a longitudinal folder 106, which, assisted by rollers 107, folds the web to four ply. From the drawing- rollers 107, the web passes between perforating- cylinders 108, one of which carries one or more cutting-blades 109, and the surface speed of which is equal to that of the web when the smallest sheets are being produced, thus causing the web to be looped between the rollers 107 and the cutting- rollers, The web then passes between rollers 111, the peripheral speed of which is greater than that of the web when the maximum-length sheet is being printed, which straighten out the web and conduct it to tapes 112 which transfer it to folding-apparatus, shown in Fig. 10. The folding- apparatus comprises three equal cylinders 113,114, 115, and one 116 of double the diameter, geared together and driven at a speed greater than the maximum speed of the web by spur gearing from the spur-wheel 162, and is capable of either collecting two sheets and folding them together or folding them separately. The cylinder 113 is provided with spring grippers 117, which are opened by a roller 120 thereon engaging a cam 118 on the machine frame and a movable cam 119 mounted adjustably on a spring-controlled arm 133, mounted on a pin 135. The arm 133 is provided with an extension 136 carrying a roller 137 which may bear upon the periphery of a cam mounted on the shaft of the cylinder 116, or be secured to the frame according as the sheets are required to be folded together or separately. The cylinder 116 is furnished with two sets of diametrically-opposite grippers 126, 127, Fig. 10, which are opened and closed by rollers 129, 130 thereon engaging the surface of a cam 128. As the web 2 conveyed by the tapes 112 reaches the grippers 117, it is nipped between the cylinder 113 and an india-rubber strip 124, and the length severed owing to the greater surface speed of the cylinders. The detached length is then carried round by the tapes until it is forced into the grippers 117 by a second indiarubber strip 125 on the cylinder 115. The sheet is carried round by the cylinder 113 until its centre comes opposite one of the sets of grippers 126,127, into which it is forced by an adjustable folding- blade 123. The grippers 117 are opened, to release the sheet, by the cam 119, which is in this case held in its fixed position, and the folded sheet is then transferred by cylinders 154, 155, Fig. 1, to delivery tapes 156. To collect and fold the sheets two at a time, one of the grippers 126, 127, Fig. 10, is put out of action by any means, and the roller 137 uncoupled from the frame and allowed to rest on its cam. The cam 119 is thus only put into position to open the grippers 117 to release the sheet at every alternate revolution of the cylinder 113. The first sheet taken by the grippers 117 is therefore carried round during a complete revolution of the cylinder 113, when a second sheet is seized and the two thus superposed forced together into the operative set of grippers on the cylinder 116. To enable the folding-blade 123 to be adjusted to the centre of the sheets of various size which the machine is built to produce, it is mounted on a carrier 143, loose on the shaft 144, and secured by bolts 145 to a spur-wheel, loose on the same shaft and gearing with the spur-wheel on the end of the cylinder 116. The spur-wheel is provided with a segmental slot 148, and is secured to the cylinder 113 in the required position by a bolt 147.