Patent GB-191302751-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in Apparatus for Casting, Finishing, and Cooling Curved Stereotype Plates.
IPC: B41D3/00
Filed: 1913-02-03
Granted: 1914-01-29
Abstract: 2751. Printing Machinery Co., [Wood, H. A. W.]. Feb. 3. Printing-surfaces; stereotype. - Relates to apparatus for casting, trimming, and cooling curved stereotype plates, of the kind in which the plate travels by gravity down an inclined runway, and consists in arranging the mould at the same angle as and in prolongation of the runway, and also in the provision of a device for automatically returning the severed riser to the melting-pot. The apparatus comprises a frame A supporting a platform B for the operator, a mould C and a trimming-arch D in alinement, a cooler E, and a melting-pot F. Within the metal pot is a stirrer driven continuously by a shaft 2 driven from a motor K. This shaft drives through a clutch operated by a hand-lever H<2>, a transverse shaft 7, which carries a bevel-wheel in gear with a wheel 12 on the cylindrical mould core 13. The core carries a disk 14 with diametrically opposite peripheral notches, which disengages the clutch and locks the core every half-revolution. The core 13 is furnished with depressions 29<a> for casting lugs, and with two rows of ratchet teeth 30 for casting a central rack r, Fig. 14, on each plate, and is supplied with an internal spray for cooling the mould during casting. It also carries small lugs 31 which are cast into the edge of the plate to hold it during its removal from the mould. Coacting with the core 13 is a water-jacketed back 32 which is moved to and from the core by links 35 connected to cranks 34 on a transverse shaft 33 operated by a handle H'. The back is balanced by a counterweight 40 connected thereto by a link 37. The back is guided by rollers 41 running on tracks 42 on the frame A. The back carries at the bottom end a ring for holding the matrix and forming a bevel on the plate, and at the top a sheet overlapping the top bolster of the matrix. This sheet is formed at one corner with a gate of fireproof material through which the molten metal is admitted to the mould. The mould is closed at the top by a ring 71. Pivoted on axes 61 on each straight edge of the back are matrix clamps 60, normally turned away from the back, as shown in Fig. 12, by rock-shafts encircled by helical springs. The rock-shafts carry arms, which, as the back approaches the core, engage cams thereon, thereby turning the clamps 60 into the casting position. The matrix m is held by jams 69 with inclined slots sliding on studs on the clamp 60, operated by handles pivoted on the back. Pivoted at each side of the back are a pair of plate-lifters 73 held horizontal by a pin 75 engaging arms 74 thereon. As the core rotates to remove a cast plate from the mould, the plate lifters on one side rock upward to allow the plate to pass. When the back rises again to make the next cast, the lifters 74 engage the plate P and force it from the lugs 31 clear of the core. As soon as the plate is detached it commences to move by gravity down the inclined runway, but is retarded in this movement by the engagement of the rack r cast on the inside of the plate with toothed wheels 80. These wheels are furnished with cork inserts 82 forming a friction surface co-operating with a similar surface on a member 83, which can be adjusted by a handwheel 88 to determine the rate of movement of the plate. The plate moves into a shaving- arch D where it is trimmed, for example by mechanism as described in Specification 2750/13. The riser as it is cut off is supported on a tumbling saddle on the central shaft which deposits it in a shoot. The shoot directs the risers to an endless-chain conveyer in an inclined trough 95, from which they drop into the metal pot. Old plates to be re-melted can be fed to the metal pot in the same way. The trimmed plate is finally cooled in the cooler E and is then ready for use.