Improvements in the Manufacture of Embossing Plates or Rollers.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 6th Aug., 1897
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Embossing Plates or Rollers.
1, JOHN MCCALLUM, of the Manor House, Harefield, Middlesex, Works Manager
to The United Asbestos Co. Limited, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
to be as follows:-
My invention has especially for its object the improving and rendering more
expeditious and economical the manufacture of male rolls and plates such as are
used for embossing sheets of materials, suitable for wall decorations and the like.
The manufacture of female rollers is necessarily slow, and hitherto the manufacture
of male rollers has also been comparatively slow but my invention enables me to
manufacture in a few hours what usually occupies as many days.
I prepare a metallic female roller in any usual way and I fit this roller into an
embossing machine.
In order to manufacture a male roller which shall be a counterpart of the
engraved roller I fit in the machine a hollow iron roller mounted on tubular
spindles to allow of the admission of steam or other fluid into it so that it can be
rapidly heated or cooled. The surface of the iron roller is grooved diagonally to
enable it to grip and retain the plastic compound which is to form its finished
surface and on which an exact counterpart of the engraved roller is to be formed.
The diameter of the iron roller is somewhat less than that of the engraved
roller.
In order to form the finished surface of the male roller I use a compound of
gutta percha, oxide of zinc (or other metallic oxide) and sulphur.
I heat the iron roller by the admission of steam and apply the compound to its
surface in sheets strips or patches as the nature of the design may demand.
The engraved and male rollers are geared together so that each shall perform
a complete revolution in the same space of time and their distance from each
other is regulated by a screwing arrangement according to the nature of the
design.
When they have revolved sufficiently long for an exact counterpart of the
design to be transferred from the engraved to the male roller I stop the admission
of steam and admit cold water into the male roller and continue it till the com-
pound is of the necessary hardness to enable me at once to emboss rolls or sheets
of more or less impressible materials by passing them between the engraved and
male rollers while the rollers are revolving.
One important advantage in employing this compound for making the male
roller is, that when I have embossed a stock of material I can either remove the
male roller from the embossing machine for use at a future time or I can reheat
it, reduce the compound to a plastic condition, and obliterate the design and form
a fresh design on the same male roller by placing another engraved roller in the
embossing machine and proceeding as already described.
Some designs are from their nature more suitable for being worked on flat
surfaces than on rollers.

page_text: In such cases I engrave or otherwise form the design in intaglio on a metal
plate. I then heat the compound to the required temperature and lay it on the
engraved plate in a sheet, patches or strips as the nature of the design may
require and above it a heated metal plate whose surface is grooved or roughened.
I place the whole in a hydraulic embossing press and subject it to strong pressure
till an exact counterpart of the design on the engraved plate is formed on the.
compound.
I then release the plates from pressure and cool the male plate by the applica-
tion of cold water. When the compound is sufficiently hard I remove the male
plate from the engraved plate when it is ready for embossing work.
Dated this Sirth day of dumt 1907
Improvements in the Manufacture of Embossing Plates or Rollers.
I, JOHN MCCALLUM, of the Manor House, Harefield, Middlesex, Works Manager
to The United Asbestos Co. Limited, 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:-
My invention has especially for its object the improving and rendering more
expeditious and economical the manufacture of male rolls and plates such as are
used for embossing sheets of materials suitable for wall decorations and the like.
The manufacture of female rollers is necessarily slow and hitherto the manufacture
of male rollers has also been comparatively slow but my invention enables me to
manufacture in a few hours what usually occupies as many days.
I prepare a metallic female roller in any usual way and I fit this roller into an
embossing machine.
In order to manufacture a male roller which shall be a counterpart of the
engraved roller I fit in the machine a hollow iron roller mounted on tubular
spindles to allow of the admission of steam or other fluid into it so that it can be
rapidly heated or cooled. The surface of the iron roller is grooved diagonally to
enable it to grip and retain the plastic compound which is to form its finished
surface and on which an exact counterpart of the engraved roller is to be formed.
The diameter of the iron roller is somewhat less than that of the engraved
roller.
In order to form the finished surface of the male roller I use a compound of
gutta percha, oxide of zinc (or other metallic oxide) and sulphur.
The following proportions are suitable: -
Gutta Percha
Oxide of zinc
Sulphur
35 to 44 per cent
521 to 44
"
121 to 12
"
4
I heat the iron roller by the admission of steam and apply the compound to its
surface in sheets strips or patches as the nature of the design' may demand.
The engraved and male rollers are geared together so that each shall perform
a complete revolution in the same space of time and their distance from each
other is regulated by a screwing arrangement according to the nature of the 4
design.
When they have revolved sufficiently long for an exact counterpart of the
design to be transferred from the engraved to the male roller I stop the admission
of steam and admit cold water into the male roller and continue it till the com-

page_text: pound is of the necessary hardness to enable me at once to emboss rolls or sheets
of more or less impressible materials by passing them between the engraved and
male rollers while the rollers are revolving.
One important advantage in employing this compound for making the male
roller is, that when I have embossed a stock of material I can either remove the
male roller from the embossing machine for use at a future time or I can relieat
it, reduce the compound to a plastic condition, and obliterate the design and form
a fresh design on the same male roller by placing another engraved roller in the
embossing machine and proceeding as already described.
Some designs are from their nature more suitable for being worked on flat
surfaces than on rollers.
In such cases I engrave or otherwise form the design in intaglio on a metal
plate. I then heat the compound to the required temperature and lay it on the
engraved plate in a sheet, patches or strips as the nature of the design may
require and above it a heated metal plate whose surface is grooved or roughened.
I place the whole in a hydraulic embossing press and subject it to strong pressure
till an exact counterpart of the design on the engraved plate is formed on the
compound.
I then release the plates from pressure and cool the male plate by the applica-
tion of cold water. When the compound is sufficiently hard I remove the male
plate from the engraved plate when it is ready for embossing work.
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. Pressing material rendered plastic by heat and adhering to a heated plate or
roller against an engraved plate or roller and then cooling the first mentione:l
plate or roller whilst the material is still in contact with the engraved plate or
roller substantially as described.
2. Pressing material rendered plastic by heat and adhering to an internally
heated hollow revolving roller against an engraved roller running at the same
speed as the hollow roller and then cooling the hollow roller whilst the rollers
are revolving substantially as described.
3. The use of a mixture of gutta percha metallic oxide and sulphur for the
manufacture of plates and rollers substantially as described.
Dated this 3rd day of May 1900