Improvements in Rotary Printing Presses.
Year: 1898

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Rotary Printing Presses.
A communication from abroad by The HUBER PRINTING PRESS COMPANY, a cor-
poration organized and operating under the laws of the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts, at Taunton, in the County of Bristol, in said Commonwealth,
United States of America.
I, ALFRED GEORGE BROOKES, of 55 & 56, Chancery Lane, in the County of London,
Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention relates to the class of printing presses in which the impression
cylinder is continually rotated in one direction, and the paper to be printed is in
separate sheets which are fed to grippers mounted in the impression-cylinders.
In such presses it would, in many cases, be possible to do more work or print a
greater number of sheets in a given time were it not for the fact that at a high
rate of speed the gripper mechanism is liable to become inaccurate, on account
of operating quickly and starting the sheet suddenly from the feed board, so as to
cause a slight non-register, which, of course, is objectionable for fine work.
The object of this invention is to obviate this objectionable feature, by providing
means for slowing down the speed of the impression cylinder at about the time
the grippers take the sheet so that the gripper mechanism, when taking the sheet,
will be operated slowly and well within bounds, and the sheet will be started
gently from the feed-board.
This invention is shown as applied to printing presses of a well known style
built on the rotary principle and therefore capable of great speed, a kind of press
to which the invention is particularly adapted.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the press;
Fig. 2 is a vertical section, through side-frames and foundation, on the iine 1-2,
Fig. 1, showing the impression cylinder C¹ and shaft d with their attached parts
in elevation;
Fig. 3 is a vertical section on the line 5-6, Fig. 4; and
Fig. 4 is a horizontal section on line 3-4, Fig. 3, showing a top view of the
cylinders.
The foundation F and side frames S and S¹ furnish a suitable frame with bear-
ings for the three cylinders and two shafts. C is a plate or form carrying cylinder.
Cis an impression cylinder fitted with grippers g, which are operated in any well
known manner to take the sheets to be printed from the feed board g¹. C is a
delivery cylinder fitted with grippers g² to receive the printed sheets from the
impression cylinder C¹ and deliver them to the fly, not shown, in the usual manner.
The driving shaft d, has the pulley d and pinion 2 mounted on it near one end
and the pinion d2 meshes with the gear d³, which is mounted on one end of the
cylinder C, and through it drives said cylinder at a uniform speed at all times.
The pinion also meshes with and drives the gear 4, which is mounted on one
end of the shaft do and on the opposite end of said shaft is eccentrically mounted
the pinion de
The pinion do at certain times, meshes with the cam-shaped segment e, which

page_text: is mounted on one end of the cylinder C, and through it at such times drives the
said cylinder at a varying speed. The segment of mounted on the cylinder C,
meshes at certain times with the gear e, which is mounted on the cylinder C¹ and
operates to drive the cylinder C₁, at such times, in unison with the cylinder C.
The gear meshes with the gear e, which is mounted on the cylinder C2, and
operates to drive said cylinder in unison with the cylinder C¹.
The three cylinders are rotated, at all times, in the directions indicated by
arrows and each makes one revolution to one complete operation of the press.
In the drawings the press is shown in position when the the grippers have just
taken the sheet from the feed-board and the cylinder C is controlled by the
eccentrically mounted pinion d and is being moved at the slowest point of the
varying speed communicated to it by said pinion and, it will be understood, as
the operation of the press continues and during the first quarter revolution of the
cylinder the speed of the cylinder C is increased to a point when it is in unison
with the fixed speed of the cylinder C and at about the time the first quarter revolu-
tion is completed the segment e² comes into mesh with the gear e³ and the pinion de
goes out of mesh with the cam-shaped segment e. During the second and third
quarter revolutions the cylinder C is driven by means of the segment e³ at a
uniform speed with the cylinder C and at about the time the third quarter revolu-
tion is completed the pinion comes into mesh again with the cam shaped seg-
ment e and the segment e² goes out of mesh with the gear e³. During the fourth
quarter revolution the speed of the cylinder C₁ is decreased so that at its comple-
tion it is at its lowest point as has already been noted. That portion of the form
cylinder, opposite to its form surface, and adjacent the impression cylinder, is
used for an ink table.
In the accompanying drawings the invention is shown as applied to a printing
press wherein the relative sizes of the impression and form cylinders are as 3 to 4,
but this proportion could be varied without departing from the scope of the inven-
tion.
It will thus be readily understood that the object of the invention has been
attained, and a printing press shown wherein the speed of the impression cylinder
can be greatly reduced at the time the sheet is taken by the grippers, and there-
fore, any non register obviated which might otherwise be caused by suddenly
starting the sheet from the feed-board or by operating the gripper mechanism at
a high rate of speed.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is
1. The use in a rotary printing press, of a form carrying cylinder rotated at a
uniform speed during each complete revolution of the press; an impression cylinder
rotated in unison with said form carrying cylinder during the period of printing
and at a varying speed during the balance of each revolution of the press, to
enable the sheet to be taken by the grippers, carried by the impression cylinder,
when said cylinder is moving at a slower speed than the uniform speed of the
form carrying cylinder, in the manner and for the purpose substantially as set forth.
2. The use in a rotary printing press, of the following instrumentalities, viz. :-
the form carrying cylinder C with the gear 3 and segment e mounted thereon,
the impression cylinder C₁ with the gear e and cam-shaped segment e mounted
thereon, the pinion ², the gear and the eccentrically mounted pinion d½,
arranged substantially as shown and for the purpose specified.
Dated the Zara
Y1838
WM. BROOKES & SON,
55/56, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant.