IMPROVEMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING MACHINES
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Adam Paton of Paragon Works N° 36 Ellend Road
Leeds in the County of York for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING MACHINES"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Adam Paton at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th December 1883.
ADAM PATON of Paragon Works N° 36 Ellend Road Leeds in the County of
York "IMPROVEMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING MACHINES"
•
My invention relates to means of adjusting the inking apparatus of lithographic
printing machines and the guides for feeding the paper or card that is printed by
them. It is often necessary to vary the extent to which the ink ductor roller is
turned at each stroke so as to give more or less ink to the vibrating feed roller.
For this purpose, I work by an eccentric or cam a vertically sliding rod having on
it rack teeth which gear with a pinion loose on the spindle of the ductor roller.
On the same spindle is fixed a finely toothed ratchet wheel with which engages a
spring pawl carried by the pinion above mentioned. I provide a lever with a
spring catch taking into any one of a series of notches by which it can be held
in any desired attitude. This lever forms a stop for the vertically sliding rod, and
can be set so as to allow that rod to make a greater or less downstroke as may be
required. According to the extent of stroke thus permitted to the rod, the pinion
that gears with its rack is turned through a less or greater part of a revolution at
each stroke, and its pawl acting on the ratchet wheel causes the ductor roller to
turn through a corresponding part of a revolution.
In order to adjust the vibrating feed roller so as to take more or less ink at
either end from the ductor roller, I make the rocking arms which carry the
vibrating roller, or one of these arms, in two parts, one part fixed on the rocking
spindle and the other part which carries the roller end loose thereon, but connected
to the other part by a setting screw having two shoulders between which the
tail of the latter part is engaged. By turning this screw, the loose part is set
more or less at an angle to the fixed part, and the end of roller which it carries is
Price BdI

page_text: thus raised or lowered to a corresponding extent, so as to receive more or less ink
from the ductor roller against which it impinges at each stroke. In order to
prevent the noise and wear that attend the dropping of the inking and damping
rollers when they leave the slab, and to adjust their pressure on the forme, I hinge
the brackets which carry their spindles to the frame of the machine, and I provide
these brackets with vertical setting screws having leather or other somewhat
yielding material on their lower faces. I adjust these screws so that when their
yielding faces rest on the frame of the machine, the inking and damping rollers
have the required pressure on the forme, and thus, when the rollers are unsupported
by the slab, they merely drop as far as the screws permit them, the faces of these
screws coming down on the frame without noise, and being free from wear as they
rest on a stationary bed.
In machines hitherto made by me bars are provided at the sides which can be
raised so as to lift the inking and damping rollers out of contact with the slab or
forme. The set screws above mentioned may be arranged to take their bearing on
these bars, so that when the bars are raised the roller brackets and the rollers are
raised also. The feeding table of the machine is provided with guides which can
be adjusted along slots in the table, so as to guide the edge of the paper or card
fed to the machine, these guides having horns which project over the edge of the
paper or card to prevent it from turning upwards when it is pressed against the
guide. In order to adjust such guides to different thicknesses of paper, I hinge
the upper part which projects above the table to the sliding block which passes
through the slot of the table, and I provide a screw and nut pressing this hinged
part downwards in opposition to a spring arranged below it.
In order to move simultaneously in opposite directions the bars under the feed
table which carry the side guides for the paper, I connect the ends of these bars
by a helical spring which tends to pull them towards each other, and I mount on
the underside of the table, between these ends, a lever. A born from one of the
bars engages one arm of this lever, and the end of the other bar bears against the
other arm of the lever. On pulling the former bar a certain distance in opposition
to the spring, the lever is moved by it on its fulcrum, and pushes the other bar an
equal distance in the opposite direction. At the side of each of the bars above
mentioned I mount, parallel to it, a screw which works in the block of one of the
paper guides as a nut. By turning this screw in the one direction or the other, I
can adjust the paper guide with great nicety, and having adjusted it, I, by means
of a nut under the table, clamp the screw and the bar so as to hold the guide
firmly in position.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent and
of an Order of the Lord Chancellor filed by the said Adam Paton in the
Patent Office on the 27th June 1884.
ADAM PATON of Paragon Works No. 36 Ellend Road, Leeds, in the county of
York, "IMPROVEMENTS IN LITHOGRAPHIC PRINTING MACHINES"
My invention relates to means of adjusting the inking apparatus of lithographic
printing machines and the guides for feeding the paper or card that is printed by
them. It is often necessary to vary the extent to which the ink ductor roller is
turned at each stroke, so as to give more or less ink to the vibrating feed roller.
For this purpose, I communicate intermittent motion, variable at pleasure, to the
ductor roller, as shewn in the front elevation, fig. 1, of the accompanying drawings,
fig. 2 being a part side elevation. A is an eccentric or it might be a cam on a
revolving axle of the machine. B is a vertically sliding rod urged downwards by
its weight, so that a roller mounted at its end may bear, when permitted
against A. The upper end of the rod B has rack-teeth C gearing with a pinion D
which is free to revolve on E the spindle of the ductor roller. The pinion D carries
a spring pawl F which engages with the teeth of a ratchet wheel G fixed on the
spindle E. On the rod B is a projecting rib b which bears against the end of a
lever H that can be moved to various positions and held by an ordinary spring
catch in one of a number of notches in an arc h. According as this lever is set,
the downstroke of the rod B is more or less limited, and consequently, its upstroke,
which, through the rack C, pinion D, pawl F and ratchet G, moves the spindle E
partly round, gives the ductor movement through a less or greater part of a
revolution-In order to adjust the vibrating feed roller, so as to take more or less
ink at either end from the ductor roller, I make the rocking arms which carry the
vibrating roller, or one of these, as shewn in the elevation fig. 3 and plan fig. 4.
The arm consists of two parts I fixed on the rocking spindle i, and J which carries
the vibrating roller loose on the spindle, the two parts being connected by a collar
screw K. By turning this screw, the loose part J can be set more or less at an
angle to the fixed part I, and the end of the roller carried by J can thus be raised
or lowered so as to receive more or less ink from the ductor roller against which it
impinges at each stroke.
In order to prevent the noise and wear that attend the dropping of the inking
and damping rollers when they leave the slab or forme, and to adjust their pressure
thereon, I hinge the brackets which carry their spindles, as shewn in fig. 5, to the
frame of the machine, and I provide these brackets with vertical setting screws,
having leather or other somewhat yielding material on their surfaces. Thus L
being the spindle of one of these rollers, it is mounted on an arm / which is pivotted
to the framing at land has an adjusting screw faced with the yielding
material. I adjust the screws 12 so that when their yielding faces rest on the
frame of the machine, the inking rollers have the required pressure on the forme,
and thus when the rollers are unsupported, they nearly drop as far as the screws 12
permit them, the faces of these screws coming down on the frame without noise
and being free from wear as they rest on a stationary bed.
The feeding table of the machine is provided with guides which can be adjusted
along slots in the table so as to guide the edge of the paper or card fed to the
machine, these guides having horns which project over the edge of the paper or
card to prevent it from turning upwards when it is pressed against the guide.
I make these guides adjustable to suit different thicknesses of paper or card as
shewn in fig. 6 where M is part of the feed table and m the guide piece fitted to

page_text: slide on the bar N below it. To the sliding piece m I hinge the horn m¹ which is
pressed upwards by a spring and set downwards by a nut m² so that the depth
under the upwardly curved end of the horn can be adjusted to the desired
thickness. Obviously, instead of the spring and nut, a collar screw might be
employed to raise or lower the hinged horn on its pivot. In order to move
simultaneously in opposite directions, the bars under the feed table which carry
the side guides for the paper, I connect these bars in the manner shewn in the
plan fig. 7 where N and N¹ are the two bars. I connect their ends by a spring n
which tends to pull the bars towards each other, and on the underside of the table,
I mount a lever O, one arm of which bears against the end of N¹. The other arm
of the lever O bears against a stud on a horn P attached to the bar N. When the
bar N is moved lengthwise, in the usual way the other bar N¹ receives an equal
amount of motion in the opposite direction. At the side of each of the bars N
and N' (as shewn only in respect of N) I mount parallel to it a screw Q by which
the sliding piece m which carries the paper guide can be adjusted. After adjusting
the piece m, it can be clamped as shewn in the end view fig 8, by means of a
bolt and nut R so as to hold the parts steady in their relative positions.
Having thus described the nature of my invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, I claim in respect of Lithographic Printing Machines―
First: The apparatus herein described with reference to figs. 1 and 2 for varying
and adjusting the movement of the ink ductor roller.
Second: In combination with the double jawed lever for carrying the vibrating
roller, the collar screw K, whereby the pressure of the said roller against the
ductor roller can be delicately adjusted as described with reference to figs. 3 and 4.
Third: Hinging the bearings of the inking rollers to the framing and providing
them with padded adjusting screws, as described with reference to fig 5.
Fourth: The construction of the pivotted and adjustable guide horn for feed as
described with reference to fig. 6.
Fifth Connecting the sliding bars which carry the feed guides by a lever and
spring arranged as described with reference to fig. 7 so that both are moved
simultaneously in opposite directions.
In witness whereof I the said Adam Paton have hereunto set my hand and
seal this twenty sixth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand, eight
hundred and eighty-four.
ADAM PATON (1.8)