Improvements in Printing Machines.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 1st Sept., 1894-Accepted, 31st Aug., 1895
[Communicated from abroad by THE DUPLEX PRINTING PRESS COMPANY, of
Battle Creek, Michigan, United States of America.]
Improvements in Printing Machines.
I, IRVING LEE STONE, of No. 52 Montagu Mansions, Great Russell Street, in
the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer, 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 :-
This invention relates to a printing machine which prints and "perfects" on flat
formes, the paper being fed in separate sheets from a pile, or as severed from
a web.
I shall describe my invention referring to the accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a machine according to my invention. Fig. 14 is a
similar view shewing a modification.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal vertical section.
Fig. 3 is a partial transverse section.
Fig. 3 is a similar section of the press modified as in Fig. 14.
Fig. 4 is a detail face view of the right hand bearer and gripper actuating
mechanism.
Fig. 5 is an end view of the cylinder shewing the gripper motors.
Fig. 6 is a vertical transverse section on line 6-6 of Fig. 2, the cylinders being
shewn in elevation. Figs. 3 to 6 inclusive being drawn to an enlarged scale.
On the frame of the machine near one end are fixed two type beds A A' the one
above the other, and both inclined towards each other at their inner ends. At each
side of the beds are cylinder bearers B B' and racks C gearing with teeth on the
ends of the cylinders.
As the cylinders a al print only while moving in one direction, they have to be
raised off the formes while they move in the other direction.
For this purpose, the bearers B B are made longitudinally moveable, and
slightly tapered from end to end on their lower faces and are placed in tapered
grooves b, in the main frame. The bearers and grooves of the upper bed are
tapered oppositely to those of the lower bed. When these bearers are moved
longitudinally they raise or lower the cylinders, and both bearers being moved
simultaneously in the same direction, the one cylinder is raised off impression and
the other cylinder lowered on impression, so that the one does not print while the
other does print.
The bearers are shifted longitudinally by means of connecting rods D, which
at one end are jointed to the bearers and at the other end to vibrating levers D'
which are pivotted on a rock shaft D' and carry friction rollers engaging in cam
grooves d¹ in discs d fixed on the main shaft M at the end of the machine opposite
to the beds.
On the shaft M are keyed crank driving wheels m m', at opposite sides of the press,
their cranks connected by rods E E to the journals of the cylinders a a', which are
thus caused to travel to and fro over the beds A A' being at the same time caused
to revolve by gearing with the racks C.
The crank wheel m' may gear with a pinion m² on a shaft m³, to which motion is
transmitted from any suitable motor.

page_text: A set of inking and distributing rollers FF is provided for each cylinder, at the
side opposite the driving mechanism, these rollers are journalled in websff, which
are strung upon the cylinder shafts as shewn, or may be otherwise connected to the
cylinders so as to travel with them. Ink is supplied to each set of the rollers from
fountains G G¹.
The cylinders are provided with grippers; when the upper cylinder is at the
extreme of its outstroke the grippers are uppermost in position to receive or take
a sheet of paper from the feed board H. As the upper cylinder moves inwards
the sheet is printed, and when the cylinder stops at the other extreme of its stroke,
the lower cylinder has at the same time reached the extreme limit of its inward.
movement and has stopped with its grippers uppermost. While the cylinders are in
about this position the grippers of the upper cylinder which are then undermost release
the sheet, and the grippers of the lower cylinder catch it, and, as the cylinders move
outwards, the sheet is transferred to and reversed on the lower cylinder and thereby
printed on the lower forme and subsequently taken from the lower cylinder by any
suitable known delivery mechanism.
The upper cylinder in its outstroke and the lower cylinder in its instroke is
raised from the forme. Thus the cylinders sinultaneously move respectively
toward the feed and delivery, the one in impression and the other out of impression,
and they simultaneously move inwards toward each other so that at a certain point
the sheet is transferred from the one to the other and reversed in the transfer, a
sheet being perfected for each complete reciprocation of the cylinders.
The gripping devices and their actuating mechanism may be of any known
kind. In that shewn in the drawings (Fig. 5) the gripper fingers are mounted
on a rod I journalled in the ends of the cylinders, as usual; on the outer end of the
rod is fixed a crosshead J, one end of which is jointed to a rod which slides through
a rocking eye K pivotted on the end of the cylinder, a spring k being interposed
between this eye and a collar on the rod, so as to push the rod outward and hold
the fingers closed or unclosed, when the parts are in the position shewn or in that
indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 5.
When the cylinders reach the end of their outstroke, the crossheads J meet
tappet pieces LL' fixed to the frame as shewn in Fig. 1 and thus the fingers of
the upper cylinder are closed and those of the lower cylinder are opened. When
the cylinders reach the end of their instroke, and the crossheads J are pushed by
tappets N N', on a slide O, which is moved by a connecting rod O' and spring
lever O from a cam projection, on the periphery of one cam disc d.
The
tappet N is on the inside of the frame and N₁ is on the outside and is attached to
the slide O by an arm or lug extending over or through a slot in the side frame;
this is necessary, as the lower cylinder is shorter than the upper cylinder.
tappets are arranged so as to push the inner end of the one crosshead J to close its
grippers and the outer end of the other to open the grippers.
The
R is a roller journalled near the inner end of the upper bed, to prevent contact
of the sheet with the upper bed while the sheet is being transferred from the one
cylinder to the other. As shewn in Fig. 6 the lower cylinder is shorter than the
upper cylinder, to permit the cylinder bearers to be moved as described without
interfering with each other, and to allow the cylinders to be drawn close together
at the inner end of their strokes, when the lower cylinder takes the sheet from the
upper.
Referring now to Figs. 14 and 3 shewing a modification the bearers Band
racks C are rigidly connected, their lower sides being sloped to slide in sloping
grooves of the frames. They are linked by rods Q to a lever S carrying a roller
which runs in a cam slot in a disc T fixed on the main shaft. This cam, when the
cylinders reach the ends of their stroke, noves the bearers and racks so as to raise
the one cylinder and lower the other, and at the same time to turn the cylinders
partly round, so as to bring their grippers to the proper positions. By thus partly
turning the cylinders by means of the movement of the racks, the stroke of the
cylinders is considerably lessened.

page_text: 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 :-
1. A perfecting printing machine having two stationary type beds inclined
towards each other, the one above the other, an impression cylinder and set of
inking rollers caused to reciprocate along each bed, bearers and racks for the
cylinders with mechanism by which each is during its stroke in the one direction
raised off the forme, and during its stroke in the other direction is lowered to effect
printing, and on each cylinder grippers with mechanism operating them in such
manner that a sheet taken by the upper cylinder is printed on the one side, then
taken from it by the lower cylinder and printed on the other side, substantially as
herein described.
2. For raising and lowering the cylinders, bearers inclined on their lower
sides and caused to reciprocate in inclined beds by came, substantially as
described.
3. The modified arrangement according to which the racks reciprocate along
with the bearers, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.
4. For working the grippers the crossheads and spring rods on the cylinders in
combination with the fixed tappet at the one end of each bed and the moving
tappets at the other end and cam and connections for working them, substantially
as described.
Dated this 1st day of September 1894
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.