Improvements in Feeding Apparatus for Printing Machines.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Dec., 1892-Accepted, 4th Mar., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Feeding Apparatus for Printing Machines.
I, CALVERT BARON COTTRELL, of No. 20 Elm Street, Westerly, in the
County of Washington and State of Rhode Island, United States of America,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :-
This invention relates to feeding apparatus for feeding to the impression cylinder
of a printing machine sheets of different lengths, and it is intended more particularly
to be used in connection with a cutting apparatus for cutting sheets of different
lengths from a roll or continuous web of paper.
The improvement consists in certain means hereinafter described whereby sheets
of different length are so carried forward towards the impression cylinder that their
heads or forward ends are always brought into proper relation to the grippers of the
said cylinder when the latter arrive in proper position to take them.
I will proceed to describe the construction and operation of my invention with
reference to the accompanying drawings in which,
Figure 1 is a side elevation of those parts of a two revolution printing machine
which are necessary to illustrate my invention including the impression cylinder
and the feeding apparatus.
Figure 2 represents a longitudinal section corresponding with Figure 1.
Figure 3 represents a horizontal section in the line of Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 4 is a transverse vertical sectional view on a larger scale than Figures 1
and 2, on the line y y of Figure 3, taken looking to the right but omitting the
cylinder.
Figures 5 and 6 are detail views which will be hereinafter explained.
Similar letters of reference designate corresponding parts in all the figures.
A is the side framing of the machine, B the impression cylinder furnished with
the usual grippers B'; and C C C are the feed rollers for feeding a web from a
roll not shown. The shafts c c c² of the said feed rollers C C1 C2 are arranged in
suitable bearings in the side framing A and the said rollers are intended to be
geared together by spur gears c* c* c* on their respective shafts.
A short distance in front of the feed rollers C C C there is arranged a cutting
apparatus which is represented as of a well known kind consisting of two rotating
shafts running in fixed bearings in the side framing and carrying cutter
stocks I I¹ in which are secured the cutter blades i* *. In front of the cutting
apparatus there is arranged a pair of feed rollers F F¹ which always run at the
same surface velocity as the feed rollers C C¹ C² and the shafts u u of which work
in bearings in or on the side framing A. These rollers F F¹ serve the purpose of
feeding that part of the web which has passed beyond the cutters but which has
not yet been cut off and also serve the purpose of feeding the sheets forward some
distance after they have been cut off. As close as practicable behind the cylinder
is arranged another pair of feed rollers G G' which always rotate at the same
surface speed as the cylinder and the shafts vv of which run in fixed bearings in
the side framing.
The distance between these two pairs of feed rollers should be sufficiently greater
than that of the longest sheets that will ever be required to be fed to the cylinder
to provide room behind said rollers G G¹ for an intermediate pair of feed
rollers H H (see Figures 1, 2 and 3) which always rotate at the same surface
velocity as the cylinder and the feed rollers G G and the duty of which is to
receive the cut sheets from the feed rollers F F¹ and give them to the feed
DQ17

page_text: rollers G G next the cylinder, accelerating the velocity of the said sheets when
necessary according as the speed of the web is less than that of the cylinder.
This pair of feed rollers H H must be adjustable further from or nearer to the
rollers F. F¹ and correspondingly nearer to or farther from the rollers G G¹
according to the different lengths of sheet to be cut and fed so that the said
rollers H H may receive the front end of a sheet just as the rear end is about to
leave the rollers F F, and for this purpose the shafts w w of the said rollers.H H¹
have their bearings in a carriage K, a side view of which is given separately in
Figure 6 and which is movable lengthwise of the machine in guides W W on the
side of framing A, the said adjustment as herein represented being provided for by
racks 23 on the sides of said carriage and pinions 24 on a shaft 25 which works in
fixed bearings provided in or on the side framing A, the said shaft being provided
with a hand crank 26 for the purpose of turning it. The pair of rollers F F¹ are
geared together by gears 10, the pair G G' by gears 17, and the pair H H' by
gears 21; and the several pairs are furnished with such pressure springs as are
common to feed rollers and therefore do not require to be represented.
The feed rollers G G¹ next the cylinder B are driven from the cylinder itself
through a gear 19 which turns on a fixed stud 20, the said gear 19 gearing with
and deriving motion from the gear B³ on the cylinder and gearing with a gear 22
on the shaft v of the lower roller G. The rollers H H are driven from the shaft
of the lower feed roller G through a shaft J (see Figures 1 3 and 4) which is
arranged parallel with the length of the machine in brackets L secured to one side
of the machine, the said shaft being furnished with bevel gears 27, 28 which gear
respectively with bevel gears 29, 30 on the shafts v and w of the lower feed
rollers G and H, the said gear 28 being movable with the carriage K lengthwise
of the shaft J that it may be always in gear with the gear 30 notwithstanding the
changes of distance of the rollers H H from the rollers G G¹. The feed
rollers F F are driven as shown in Figures 2 and 3 from the shaft c² of the feed
roller C through the spur gear C2* on the said shaft in the following manner:
The said gear C2* gears with and drives a spur gear n² which turns on a. fixed
stud n' secured in the side framing. The said gear n² gears with and drives a spur
gear 13, which turns on a fixed stud 14 secured in the framing. This gear 13 gears
with and drives a gear 15 which gears with and drives a gear 11 on the shaft u. of
the lower feed roller F.
The said feed-rollers C C C are driven by a train of gearing similar to that
described in my English Letters Patent No. 22,719 dated December 29, 1891 and
the cutters are driven as described in that Patent, but a brief description of the said
train and the means of driving the cutters will facilitate the explanation of the
present invention. On the shaft B2 of the cylinder B there is a bevel gear a
gearing with and driving a bevel gear d on the end of a shaft e (see Figures 1
and 3) which works in bearings in brackets e' outside of the framing A, and on the
other end of which is a bevel gearf gearing with and driving a bevel gear grunning
freely on a stud g' secured in the framing. To this bevel gear 9 is affixed a spur
gear which gears with and drives a spur gear 12 which is loose on the lower cutter
shaft i. The said feed rollers C C C derive their motion from the aforesaid
gear 12 which gears with and drives a spur gear turning freely on a stud secured
in the framing, the said gear j gearing with and driving a spur gear k on the shaft c
of the feed roller C2 which in turn drives Cand C through the gears c* c*
The gear k of this train which is changeable for one of a larger or smaller size is
the same as the changeable gear described in my former Patent for varying the
speed of the said feed rollers C C C and the feed rollers F F¹ relatively to the
speed of the cylinders to supply the paper in quantities sufficient for sheets of
different length.
The cutter shafts i i¹ are geared together by gears I* I* and except, at the time
of cutting, they derive motion from the loose gear 1' at a speed corresponding with
the speed which the web requires to have for the shortest sheets, through a stud p
which is secured to the said gear I' and which acts against an arm q which is fast

page_text: on the lower cutter shaft i but at the time of cutting when the speed or the cutters
may require to be accelerated to correspond with the speed of the feed which the
web is required to have for longer sheets, the said shaft derives motion temporarily
from a spur gear n which is fast to the spur gear n² above mentioned as driven by
the feed rollers C C1 C2 for driving the feed rollers F F¹; a toothed sector t fast on
one of the gears I* by which the cutter shafts are geared together then coming into
gear with the said spur gear n. While the cutters are thus driven by the spur
gearn the arm 9 on the cutter shaft i may run forward away from the stud p, but
in such cases after the cutting has been effected and the sector t has passed out of
gear with the gear n, the arm 7 on the shaft i is returned to contact with the stud p
by means of a spiral spring s applied on a rod s which is connected with a pin r in
the gear I2 and which passes through a swivelling guide s² on the arm 9, said spring
being confined between a shoulder 3 on the said rod and the said swivelling
guide .
I
For the support of the paper between the feed rollers F F' and those H H¹,
provide an endless carrier consisting of a series of tapes or bands E E and
pulleys 42, 43, 44, 45; and for the support of the cut sheets entering between the
rollers H H and passing between the said rollers H H and those G G¹ I provide
an independent series of supports 48 which may be of light wire. The tape or band
pulleys 42 are idlers being loose on the shaft u of the lower feed roller F, the said
roller being made as shown in Figure 3, of a number of short sections fastened to
the said shaft and the said pulleys 42 being arranged between the said sections
and of so much smaller diameter that the tapes may run free of the top roller Fl.
The pulleys 44 and 45 are also idlers. The pulleys 43 which are the drivers, drive
the said bands or tapes at the same surface speed as the cylinder. The shaft 43*
of the latter pulleys has its bearings in the carriage K of the feed rollers H H¹ and
so arranged that the said pulleys are near and on a level with the lower feed
roller H, and the said shaft 43* derives its necessary rotary motion from the
gear 21 on the lower feed roller H through a pinion 46 turning on a stud on
one side of the carriage, the said pinion gearing with a toothed gear 47 on the
said shaft 43*.
The shaft of the pulleys 44 has its bearings so arranged in the back part of
the carriage K, that it is on a level with the shafts of the pulleys 42 and 43
and the roller H; and the shaft of the pulleys 45 has its bearings lower down
in the fixed guides W provided for the said carriage K, the position of the
latter bearings being such that during the whole range of adjustment of the said
carriage and feed rollers H H to and fro, the pulleys 44 will always be behind
and the pulleys 43 will always be in front of the said pulleys 45.
The bands or tapes run forward from the pulleys 42 to the pulleys 43, thence
back to the pulleys 44, and forward to the pulleys 45 and then back to 42. As
the carriage K with the feed rollers H H is adjusted forward or backward, the
carrier. is lengthened or shortened to correspond with the position of the said
rollers so that its forward part will always occupy the same position relatively
to the said rollers, that is to say will be close behind the said rollers. As this
lengthening and shortening of the carrier takes place, the bands or tapes are
kept tight because so much as they are let out or taken up between 42 and 43.
they are taken up or let out between 44 and 45.
The independent wire guides or supports 48 for supporting the sheets between
the tapes E and feed rollers H H and between the said rollers H H' and
G G¹ are arranged lengthwise of the machine at intervals between the pulleys.
and tapes as shown in Figures 3 and 4. They are represented as each consisting
of two light wires stationary one above the other with a space between the n
just sufficient for the sheets of paper to pass freely between them, the lower
wires having their upper surfaces on a level with the tapes. The said wires
extend backward beyond the extreme backward position to which the pulleys 43
may be brought by the backward adjustment of the carriage K and rollers H H'
and the said wires extend forward beyond the feed rollers G G', the lower ones

page_text: extending nearly to the cylinder. Their front ends are supported on cross-bars 49
secured in the side framing A and their rear ends are supported in cross-bars 50
which are carried by standards 51, on the fixed guides W. The upper and
lower feed rollers & G¹ and H H₁ are grooved as shown at 52 in Figures 3
and 4 where the wires 48 cross them in order that the said rollers and the said
wires may not interfere with each other.
In order that the rollers H H¹ may accelerate the movement of the sheets to
the speed of the cylinder without any hindrance from the rollers F F moving
at the same velocity as the web from which the sheets are cut, I provide the
latter rollers with a liberating device. The liberating device is here represented
as a slip connection between the shaft u of the lower roller F and its driving
gear 11, the said slip connection consisting as shown in Figure 5, of a ratchet
wheel 32 fast on the said shaft u and a pawl. 31 on the said driving gear 11.
which is fitted to run freely on the shaft, I prefer to make the same slip connec-
tions between the shafts v and w of the lower feed rollers G and H and their
driving gears 22 and 30, so that after the sheets have been taken by the cylinder
grippers they may not be held back by any slight inaccuracy of the gearing.
between the said shafts v and w and the cylinder.
The operation of cutting the sheets is as follows:-
The paper supplied by the feed rollers C C¹ C2 passing the cutting apparatus
during the intervals between the operations of the cutters, is taken between the
rollers F F moving at the same surface speed as the feed rollers CC¹ C² and the
cutters and is presented by the said rollers F F¹ upon the carrier tapes E E.
These latter moving faster than the said rollers F F drag along under the paper
and keep its front pulled straight. After a sheet has been cut from the web, the
rollers FF continue to carry it forward with the assistance of the carrier tapes E E
until its front edge arrives between the rollers H H' which seizing it, carry it
forward at an accelerated speed corresponding with that of the cylinder, such
acceleration being permitted freely by the slip connection between the rollers F F¹
and their driving gear, the said rollers F F being turned by the sheet until its rear
end has passed through the said rollers which then assume their normal speed
corresponding with that of the web. The rollers H H' moving at the same surface
speed as the rollers G G on the cylinder then carry the sheet through the
stationary supports 48 and give it to the latter rollers which present its front edge
to the cylinder grippers which arrive opposite the said edge in time to receive it.
It will be understood that if the rollers H H' should be set at a distance from
the rollers G G to take the longest sheet and give it at the proper time the
accelerated velocity at which it is transferred to the rollers G G¹ and at which it is
given to the cylinder, it is only necessary in order to give the shortest sheet to the
said rollers G G'in proper time that the said rollers HH'should be set sufficiently
further back from the said rollers G G¹ and nearer to the rollers F F for the said
rollers H H to take the front end of the said sheet and produce its acceleration
sufficiently earlier for the said end to reach and be taken by the said rollers G G
at the same time relatively to the movement of the cylinder and the cylinder
grippers that the corresponding end of the longer sheet would have been taken by:
the said rollers G G¹. Therefore by the proper adjustment of the rollers H H
sheets having any differences of length within the limit of said adjustment may be
timely fed to the cylinder. The tapes E E being adjustable with the rollers HH'
to vary the length of their operative upper portions, though otherwise independent
of said rollers, always keep the sheets properly supported and straightened until
taken by the said rollers H H'; and the stationary guides 48 reaching all the
way between and in both directions beyond the rollers G G and H H
respectively and extending back beyond the forward part of the tapes E E,
keep the sheets properly supported after they leave the said tapes and all the
way to the cylinder.
It is obvious that the cutters * need not be of such character as to entirely
sever the web but may be such as are commonly employed to merely perforate

page_text: the web so that the portion in front of the perforations intended to form a sheet
may be easily parted by a draft upon it, and that in such case the rollers H H¹
may so bite upon the sheet as to be capable of accelerating the draft necessary
to detach it from the portion of the web behind the perforations.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The combination with the impression cylinder and web feeding and cutting
apparatus adapted to feed and cut a web to produce sheets of different lengths,
of feed rollers having the same surface speed as said cylinder, a carriage for
said rollers adjustable towards and from said cylinder, and an endless carrier of
variable length between the web feeding and cutting apparatus and said feed
rollers, substantially as herein set forth.
2. The combination with the impression cylinder and web feeding and cutting
apparatus adapted to feed and cut a web to produce sheets of different lengths,
of a pair of feed rollers arranged in a fixed position relatively to the cylinder
and having the same surface velocity therewith, a second pair of feed rollers behind
said first mentioned pair having the same velocity as said first mentioned pair and
adjustable back and forth toward said first mentioned pair, an endless carrier of
variable length arranged between said web feeding and cutting apparatus and said
second pair of feed rollers, and independent sheet supports between the said first
and second pairs of feed rollers, substantially as herein set forth.
3. The combination with the impression cylinder and web feeding and cutting
apparatus adapted to feed and cut a web to produce sheets of different lengths of a
pair of feed rollers having the same surface speed as the said cylinder, a carriage
movable towards and from the said cylinder and in which the said rollers are
supported, and an endless carrier consisting of four sets of pulleys and shafts there-
for and a set of tapes or bands running on said sets of pulleys, two of said shafts
having fixed bearings and two having bearings on the said carriage and one of the
latter being geared with said feed rollers to drive the said tapes or bands, substan-
tially as herein set forth.
4. The combination with the impression cylinder and web feeding and cutting
apparatus adapted to feed and cut a web to produce sheets of different lengths of a
pair of feed rollers arranged in a fixed position relatively to the cylinder and geared
with the cylinder to run at the same surface velocity therewith, a second pair of
feed rollers and a carriage therefor with which they are adjustable towards and
from the first pair, a shaft carrying bevel gears, fixed bearings for said shaft, bevel
gears one on one of the rollers of each pair gearing with the bevel gears on the
said shaft, one of the latter gears being movable lengthwise on said shaft by the
said carriage for driving the second pair of feed rollers at various distances from
the first set, all substantially as herein set forth.
11000
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant..