Improvements in Inking Apparatus for Printing Presses.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Aug., 1898-Accepted, 24th Sept., 1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Inking Apparatus for Printing Presses.
I, REGINALD HADDAN, of the Firm of Herbert Haddan & Co., of 18, Buckingham
Street, Strand, London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this inven
tion a communication to me from abroad by Samuel Lewis Merchant, of 63,
Washington Street, Gloucester, Essex County, Massachussets, in the United States
of America, Box Manufacturer, and in what manner the same is to be performed
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:
-
My invention relates to the inking apparatus of printing presses and especially
to the construction of the trucks for the inking rollers.
It is a well known fact that the composition rollers for inking the type on
printing presses are gradually reduced in diameter by the shrinking of the
composition and wear caused by constant contact with the type, and also that
it is necessary that said inking rollers should be supported by trucks mounted
upon their shafts and resting upon suitable bearers to prevent injury to said
rollers by the type being forced too far into their yielding surfaces. Owing to
the shrinkage and wear of said inking rollers, it has been found necessary after
using a set of inking rolls for a certain time to apply to their shafts supporting
trucks of a smaller diameter, or have the inking rollers recast or made over, and
hence it has for some years been customary for manufacturers of presses to
furnish two sets of trucks of different diameters with each press. To obviate
the necessity of doing this, and thereby lessen the cost to the manufacturer,
without affecting the length of time that the inking rollers can be used before
recasting them is the object of my present invention; and it consists of sup-
porting trucks for the inking rollers having a length at least twice the width
of the bearers and each truck having its length divided into two sections of
different diameters, all so constructed and arranged that the section having the
largest diameter shall rest upon the bearer when the composition inking roller
is new, and serve to support the same until said roll has become so shrunken or
worn as to require a change either in the diameter of said roll or of the supporting
truck when the bearer truck may be turned end for end upon the roll shaft, and
the section thereof having the smaller diameter will then rest upon the bearer,
and thus permit the roll to bear upon the type form with sufficient force to
properly ink the same.
Fig. 1 of the drawings is a side elevation of the upper portion of a printing
press illustrating my invention, with the bearer trucks shown as they will appear
when the composition rollers are new. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of a portion
of one inking roller, a bearer truck in the position it occupies when the roller
is new and a portion of one of the bearers and Fig. 3 is a similar view of the
same parts with the bearer truck reversed, or in the position it should occupy
after the composition roller has shrunk or been reduced in diameter, say about
one eight of an inch, more or less.

page_text: In the drawings A is the frame of the machine, B the platen, C the ink
distributing plate, 1) the bearers, E, F, G, H, and a train of levers and con-
necting rods for operating the platen and inking rolls, all constructed and arranged
to operate in a well known manner.
Jis the bearer truck fitted to the shaft a of the inking roller J¹ which shaft
projects beyond the truck J a sufficient distance to receive the saddle L. The
bearer truck J has its periphery divided into two sections, b and c of different
diameters, the section c being about one eighth of an inch smaller than the
section b.
When the composition inking roll J₁ is new, the bearer truck J is placed upon
its shaft a, as shown in Fig. 2 with the section 6 resting upon the bearer D);
but when the roller J is reduced in diameter by shrinkage and wear to the size
shown in Fig. 3 the bearer truck is reversed so that the section c will rest upon the
bearer D, as shown in Fig. 3.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim
is:-
In combination with the inking rolls and bearers of a printing press, a bearer
truck having its length divided into two sections of slightly different diameters
and adapted to be used with either section resting upon the bearer, according
as the inking rollers are of full diameter or reduced in diameter by shrinkage
or wear.