IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRINTING WOVEN AND OTHER FABRICS.
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Nixon at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st September 1879.
THOMAS NIXON, of Alexandria, in the County of Dumbarton, North Britain,
Pentagraph Engraver. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PRINTING WOVEN AND
OTHER FABRICS.
This Invention relates to the printing of woven and other fabrics with com-
binations of patterns comprising centres or fillings with borders by means of engraved
plates, when the end borders require to be at distances greater than can be con-
veniently managed with a single plate, as in the case, for example, of scarfs, dress
pieces, and the like; and it comprises improved apparatus to be used in working
with more than one plate, such apparatus admitting of the plates being brought
into action in their proper succession during one passage of the fabric through the
machine.
In carrying out the Invention according to one modification a carriage corre-
sponding to that usually employed for carrying the printing plate through the
machine is provided, but is made in the form of an open frame, and has jointed
to it by means of a pair of journals at the middles of either the ends or sides, and
in a frame which has two printing plates fixed one on each side of it. The inner
frame is turned in the carriage frame so as to bring uppermost whichever of the
two printing plates is at any time required, one or more latch catches being
provided to hold the inner frame in either of its two positions, and a hand-lever
being attached to the inner frame for turning it over by. The carriage frame has
a pair of doors hinged to its under side, to be closed up against the printing plate
which is undermost, so as to protect its surface when it passes through the machine.
The protecting doors are connected by levers and links to each other, and to a
hand-lever, by means of which last they are opened and closed, the hand-lever
being held by a catch when the doors are closed.
By a second modification two or more separate carriages each bearing a single
printing plate are employed, and a frame is provided at either end of the machine
to receive and hold the carriage or carriages which are not in use at any particular
time. This frame is made with places for the several plate carriages, and is fitted
with guides or guide rollers for the carriages to be moved on, and when a plate
carriage has been moved out of the printing machine into its place on the frame,
.

page_text: this frame is moved to one side to bring the plate carriage that is next required
into position for being moved into the machine.. The frame may be movable
angularly round a vertical post or pillar; or it may be swung or suspended from
an overhead shaft or support; or it may be in the form of a carriage capable of a
transverse movement on wheels or guides across the end of the printing machine.
The first and second modifications may be combined, that is to say, two or more
plate carriages, for the changing of which a movable frame is provided at one end
of the machine, may each be fitted with an inner turning frame having two
printing plates attached to it.