Feed Adjustment in connection with Letterpress and Lithographic Printing Machines.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Oct., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 1st July, 1892-Accepted, 6th Aug., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Feed Adjustment in connection with Letterpress and Lithographic
Printing Machines.
JOHN STANLEY HOWDEN, of 10, Whitechapel, Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Printer. I do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
.
I have devised certain sheet-pushing mechanism for attachment to any ordinary
letterpress or lithographic printing machine, for the purpose of facilitating the
accurate feeding of such machine with the sheets to be printed.
Usually the operator lays each sheet on to a feed-board, and his duty is to fix
each such sheet accurately to the front-gauge and the side-gauge, the printing
cylinder taking the sheet from that position, when the next sheet is similarly fixed
up to the gauges, and so on continuously. But it often happens that the feeder
fails to fix sheets true to gauge, resulting in what is termed "bad register." Now,
my invention provides that even when the feeder presents the sheet as much as
(say) two inches out of truth, the sheet will nevertheless he carried to its proper
destination by my pushing mechanism. There is in every ordinary printing machine
a certain main-shaft which only revolves once for every impression. On this shaft
I fix a cam or eccentric, from which I carry a rod or bar up to a moveable plate
which I fix in guides on top of the feed-board. This plate, which is adjustable
for various sizes of sheets, carries a set of pushers, and the plate with its pushers is
actuated to and fro by the said cam or eccentric thereby pushing the sheets up to
the front-gauge. For the simultaneous pushing of the sheets to the side-gauge I
gear a single sideways pusher on to the said plate by a combination of links and
levers; so that the front-gauge pushers and the side-gauge pushers close in upon
the sheet conjointly. All the pushers then withdraw, leaving the sheet against
the front and side gauges. The side pusher is likewise adjustable to various sizes
of sheets. All the pushers ride in suitable grooves. My invention may also be
applied in connection with an automatic sheet-separator.
Dated AL:
1001
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Feed Adjustment in connection with Letterpress and Lithographic
Printing Machines.
I, JOHN STANLEY HOWDEN, of No. 10, Whitechapel, Liverpool, in the County
of Lancaster, Printer, 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 :-
The object of this invention is to accurately adjust to gauge the sheets fed into a
letterpress or lithographic printing machine, or any other machine which requires
to be fed with separate sheets of paper or of other material, whether such sheets
are fed by a person, (hereinafter termed the layer-on,) or by means of automatic
mechanism; though primarily and chiefly my invention. is intended to assist a
layer-on in the operation of his (or her) said feeding, and is principally intended
for letterpress machines.
The duty of such layer-on ordinarily consists in separating sheets one by one
from a pile and laying them consecutively against gauges. Each sheet, after being
thus laid, is, in the case of a letterpress machine, seized in due time by the grippers
Price Sd.1

page_text: of the printing cylinder and conveyed over the design to be impressed. After
one sheet has been so taken from the gauges, another is laid up to them, and so on
continuously.
In the absence of adjusting mechanism, the correct lay of such sheets to gauge
depends entirely upon the ability and care of the layer-on. But it frequently
happens that the layer-on, from inadvertence or from want of skill, lays a greater
or less proportion of the sheets "out of truth."
"
Now, my invention provides an adjusting device which ensures the true lay of
every sheet, even when (within certain limits hereinafter to be described) the layer-
on lays, as aforesaid, the sheet "out of truth
to gauge. His (or her) duty
is thus rendered much less onerous, and the result of his (or her) labour much more
satisfactory.
Referring to the accompanying drawing, I will now particularly describe the
nature of my said invention, and in what manner the same to be performed.
A is a representation of the ordinary feed-board of a letterpress printing machine,
without any moving mechanical device for adjusting the feed.
B shows my invention applied to such a feed-board, and I will now describe the
details of my said invention.
C and D are, respectively, C the front gauge, and D the side gauge, as usually
found on letterpress machines, and it is to these gauges that my invention is intended
to adjust the sheets as before intimated herein.
E is a set of four (or any other appropriate number of) fingers, or pushers, which
I fix at the edge of a plate similar to that shown at F, for the purpose of pushing
the sheet up to the front gauge C.
G is a single side-pusher, so arranged as to push the sheet up to the side gauge D,
synchronously with the pushing action of the said set of pushers, which latter I
shall hereinafter call the back-pushers.
As it is necessary to be able to adjust these various pushers to different sizes of
sheets, I so arrange the plate F, in relation to a lower plate or carrier, H, as that
the said plate F can be slid backwards or forwards upon the said carrier H, and
be fixed at any suitable point thereon by means of the set-screws 1, 2, 3, 4, (or in
any other suitable way).
Similarly, I provide for the adapting of the single side-pusher to different sizes
of sheets, by means of the slotted link 5, which can be slid to or fro, in relation to
the other links 6, 7, 8 and fixed at any suitable point by means of the set-
screw 9.
The combination of links 5, 6, 7, 8 so connect the side-pusher with the set of
back-pushers as that, when a reciprocating motion is given to the said set of back-
pushers, the links cause a similar reciprocating motion on the part of the side-
pusher; the pushing of the sheet to the front gauge by the back-pushers, and the
pushing of the same sheet by the side-pusher to the side gauge, being thus effected
simultaneously.
To give the necessary motion to the said pushing device, I fix a suitable cam, or
eccentric, on any suitable moving part of the printing or like machine, and from
such cam or eccentric I extend a rod or bar, and attach the end of such rod or
bar to the carrier or lower plate H in such a manner as any peculiarity in the
construction of the said printing or like machine may best allow. The drawing,
at Q, shows one mode of attaching the said rod or bar.
In order that the various pushers may be certain to act on the edges of the sheet,
I continue or prolong the points of such pushers into grooves cut into or inserted
in the feed-board, which grooves are shown at V, W, X, Y, Z; so that the
aforesaid points may be below the level of the edges of the sheet when such sheet
is laid on the feed-board, as may be seen on reference to the drawing herewith;
P being the sheet, shown as if laid in a position within the range of action of the
pushers, and awaiting adjustment by the said pushers.
In order to prevent the carrier H from scraping or damaging, in its motion, the
feed-board, I fix on the feed-board sundry strips of metal, as shown at 11, 12, 13, 14,

page_text: for the purpose of bearing the said carrier H off the feed-board and to cause a
smoother motion of the said carrier. And, further, for the purpose of guiding the
said carrier and preventing undue side-play in its motion, I provide guides similar
to those shown at 15 and 16. The said feed-board is, when my apparatus is applied,
lined or mounted or surfaced with metal for its protection where necessary.
The pile of sheets to be fed into the machine is, in cases where my invention is
used to assist a layer-on in his duty, placed on a board appropriately placed over
the carrier H. It is not necessary to show this said board in the drawing, as the
necessity, position, and use of the said board would be fully understood, by any
mechanic conversant with the detailed working of a printing or like machine, from
the foregoing sentence of the present paragraph alone, read in view of the drawing
herewith.
In order to support the front edge of the plate F, and to facilitate its motion, I
fix on the said plate a small wheel (or wheels) of hard wood or other material as
shown at K; the said wheel or wheels rides or ride on the foed-board.
As it is occasionally necessary or desirable, in a letterpress, lithographic, or like
machine, to have the sheet adjusted to the opposite side of the feed-board to that
shown in the drawing, I provide, for this contingency, either suitable means for
transferring the side-pushing mechanism to the said opposite side of the feed-board;
or else, for duplicating the said side-pushing mechanism in such a manner as that
either set can be thrown in or out of gear as required, and the fixed side-gauge D
be thus placed at whichever side of the feed board will best suit the work in hand.
This duplication, or mode of transference, of the said side-pushing mechanism it is
not necessary to show in the drawing, as it would be readily understood by a
competent mechanic without such pictorial representation and from the wording of
the present paragraph alone, read in view of the drawing herewith.
Regarding the combination of links 5, 6, 7, 8, it is only necessary to state that
motion is conveyed from one link to the other; and that the links are connected,
one with another, by the joints or pivots 18, 19, 20; and that the said combination
of links is connected with the carrier H by means of the joint or pivot 21, and with
the side-pusher by the joint or pivot 22; and, further, that the link 7 oscillates on
the pivot 23 which is fixed on or into the feed-board. The part numbered 19 is not
a pivot, but is a stud for tightening the slotted link 5 in relation to the link or
lever 7, by means of the thumb-screw as seen at 9; so that 5 is virtually a prolongation
of 7 as regards motion.
A special feature of my invention is the timing of the reciprocating motion
aforesaid in such a manner as that, immediately after the pushers have performed
their work of adjusting the sheet, they are caused to retire from the pushed edges
of such sheet at a sufficient interval of time, before the feed-board rises or
advances for the "take," to allow for the subsidence, by force of natural
gravity, of any buckling or wrinkling which may be produced in such sheet by
the action on its edges of the said pushers.
Moreover, (if necessary,) in order to resist any tendency on the part of the sheet
to rebound backward, from the gauges which it has been pushed up against, I
arrange, in any convenient way, a small amount of springiness in that part of the
pushers which acts on the edge of the sheet; in order that the slight compression
of such springiness effected in the action of pushing the sheet may, in rebounding in
the direction of the sheet as the pushers retire from the sheet, counteract any
tendency the sheet may have to rebound away from the gauge and follow the
retiring pushers.
In some cases, a greater or less proportion of the pushing mechanism may
preferably be fixed under, instead of on, the feed-board.
The layer-on is only limited in the extent to which he may lay the sheet out of
truth by the limit given to the reciprocal motion of the pushers. Generally, from
two to four inches' travel of the pushers will be advisable; and so long as the
layer-on places the sheet within the limit of such travel, however slantingly

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the pushers will, in closing up against the sheet, drive it home fair, square, and
L true to gauge; and will leave it so in retiring, as aforesaid.
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. In a feed-adjustment for printing or other machines into which sheets have
to be fed one by one, whether by hand or automatically, the right of combining
a set of back-pushers, substantially as described, with a reversible or duplicated
side-pusher, by means of the arrangement of links, substantially as described.
2. In the said feed-adjustment, the special combination of links, substantially as
described, whereby suitable motion is conveyed from the carrier to the side-pusher,
substantially as described, thereby making the same cam serve for imparting motion
to both back-pushers and side-pusher.
3. The timing of the motion of all the said pushers, both back-pushers and side-
pusher, in such a way as that all the said pushers retire from the edges of the laid
sheet at such an interval of time before the grippers seize the sheet as will allow
for the subsidence backward by natural gravity of any buckling produced in the
said sheet in the course of its being pushed up to and against the side and front
gauges respectively: this, in connection with the aforesaid feed-adjustment,
substantially as described, whether for hand-fed or automatically-fed machines.
Dated this 30th day of June 1892.
JOHN STANLEY HOWDEN.