IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER SURFACES
Year: 1854

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Andrew Barclay and John
Barclay at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 10th June 1854.
We, ANDREW BARCLAY and JOHN BAROLAY, both of Kilmarnock, in the
County of Ayr, North Britain, Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRINTING TEXTILE FABRICS AND OTHER
SURFACES" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates principally to certain improvements upon the printing
machinery, for which Patents were granted to Mr. James Melville, of
Roebank Works, in the years 1852 and 1853. In the printing machinery
referred to, the employment of a drum or cylinder of large diameter for the
impression or printing surface constitutes the main feature. On one end of
this drum is fixed a spur wheel, of the same diameter as the drum, and this
spur wheel drives the printing roller at the side. The ring frames or wheels
upon which the large drum is built have hitherto been constructed in several
segments and pieces, but according to one modification of this Invention they
are each cast in a single piece, so as to insure greater strength and accuracy of
form. The teeth of this large spur wheel, as well as those of the pinion driven
by it, are formed on the stepped or sectionally divided system, to secure
smoothness in working, without the necessity of adopting a very fine pitch in
cach set of teeth. Two or more sets of teeth may be employed, that is to say,
the teeth may be in two or more steps. When the large wheel on this system
is made in segments, the sets or discs of teeth are cast separately, and the
segments are built up so that the joints of each set or disc may be between

page_text: the joints of the adjacent set or sets, so as to break joint. The drum is driven
by a pinion in gear with the large spur wheel, instead of by a pinion in gear
with a separate spur wheel keyed on the shaft of the drum, and the driving
pinion is placed immediately above the printing roller gearing, or in any other
position of convenience for the attendant. An important branch of this
Invention relates to a system of gearing the printing roller with the drum spur
wheel, so as to allow of any size of repeats of pattern being used, which will
divide into the circumference of the drum, without changing the large spur
wheel driving the printing roller details. The spindle of the roller has a
pinion on it driven by a spur wheel on the shaft of the pinion driven by the
drum spur wheel. The pinion driven by the large spur wheel and the pinion
of the printing roller have respectively such numbers of teeth, as, on being
multiplied together, will equal the number of teeth of the large drum spur
wheel; then the spur wheel which drives the printing roller pinion must have
exactly as many teeth as there are required to be repeats of the pattern round
the circumference of the drum. Thus, if a large spur wheel of five hundred
teeth drives a pinion of fifty teeth, the pinion of the printing roller must have
ten teeth; then, if the printing roller is to make forty revolutions for one of the
drum, its pinion must be driven by a spur wheel of forty teeth. This spur wheel
being on the shaft of the pinion of fifty teeth, it will make ten revolutions for
one of the large drum, and it will necessarily cause the roller to make forty
revolutions in the same time. All the small wheels may be changed, so as by
making them of different proportions to obtain such sizes as will be most
convenient, according to the number of repeats required. As it may frequently
save a great deal of expense and trouble to be able to use a pattern which is
of such a size as will not divide into the circumference of the drum, the
following arrangement may be adopted: At that part of the circumference
where a piece is taken out of the drum, a number of wheel teeth are also
omitted, and instead of them a segment is fitted on, having a number of teeth,
the line of which bulges outwards from the line of the regular teeth. This
segment is in a different plane from the regular teeth of the wheel, and it gears
with an elliptical wheel which is on a shaft connected with the printing roller.
These parts are so arranged that the segment shall turn the printing roller_so
much more round than the regular wheel teeth would do, as will bring the
roller to the same position for starting as it had before the revolution of the
drum. The same thing may be effected by regular circular segments placed
at greater or less distances from the centre of the large drum, and acting on
pinions connected in any manner with the printing roller. The pinion of the
printing roller is fitted to the roller with a frictional nut, or similar contrivance,

page_text: so that any slight adjustment of the roller to obtain an accurate register of the
pattern may be easily effected by loosening the nut, and again screwing it up
after the adjustment is made. The printing roller, instead of being carried
in bearings in the traversing carriage, is carried in bearings in the same
frame which carries the color trough, sieve and sieve tension rollers or color
feed apparatus, and this frame can be lifted clear away from the traversing
carriage. The frame is provided with pendant brackets, through which screws
are passed, which screws, abutting against the side of the carriage, serve to
adjust the position of the frame, whilst, on the frame being placed in position,
levers jointed to the carriage are turned up against the outer end of the
screws, so as to retain the carriage against the large drum. With this
arrangement the pressure of the printing roller against the drum may be
adjusted with great facility, it being merely necessary to turn the bracket
screws in one direction or the other. According to another branch of these
improvements it is proposed and intended to wind certain classes of fabrics or
yarns, the latter being in the form of warps or chains, or not, round the large
drum, in a spiral or helical direction, and to print it when so arranged. The
fabric or yarn is wound upon the drum from a roller at one side, set at a slight
angle, and made to traverse in the direction of the drum's axis during the
winding process. The printing roller is set at right angles to the line of fabric,
and is made to traverse longitudinally as it and the drum revolve, so as to
make its continuous line of impression coincide with the spiral line of the
fabric. The printing roller to be used in printing the fabric or yarn, arranged
spirally, as described, may be made in three or more pieces, the central portions
being fixed loosely on the spindle, so as to yield a little to the curvature of the
drum. Further, it is proposed to encompass the large impression drum with
a spiral coil of flat piping, through which a current of steam is passed to dry
the fabric on being printed, the fabric being immediately over the steam
piping. This piping may consist of rings, or it may be a casing, divided by
partitions in any convenient manner, and the current or currents of steam
may be made to take any route that may be found conducive to the best
result.
It is intended to adopt such of the herein-before described improvements
as are applicable in the construction of other kinds of printing machinery
besides the particular arrangement herein referred to.