Improvements in Printing Presses.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 13th July, 1897-Accepted, 21st Aug., 1897
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Printing Presses.
I, OLIVER IMRAY, of No. 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County
of London, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
(which has been communicated to me from abroad by Edwin Charles Nichols, of
199 Maple Street, Battle Creek, Calhoun County, Michigan, United States of America,
and Irving Lee Stone, of 239 Maple Street aforesaid) and 'in what manner the same
is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
I
This invention relates to improvements in movable bed and cylinder web-printing
presses, and its chief object is to shorten the travel, or stroke of the cylinder and
thus reduce the length of the machine and increase its speed; or, retaining the same
length of stroke, to admit of the application of additional forme rollers thus improving
the quality of the work, and also giving more time between impressions in which to
shift the web, thus materially contributing to speed.
An additional object of the invention is to cause the reciprocating cylinder to
move the bed in the opposite direction, by the peculiar system of gears and racks,
hereinafter described.
The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a printing press embodying this invention.
Figure 2 is a part plan.
Figure 3 is a vertical section partly in elevation on line 3-3 of Figure 2.
Figure 4 is a section through one bed and cylinder, showing in dotted line the
relative positions of these and the cylinder web-guide rollers, at the extremes of
their strokes.
The type beds h, h¹, are arranged parallel the one over the other to move
longitudinally on guides attached to the main frames.
With these beds cylinders H, H', are arranged to act, these being journaled in
cross heads C supported and guided on the main frames and connected by pitmen w
to crank-pins on large crank-wheels Won the main shaft W₁ at the rear end of the
machine which is driven as in the well known "Cox-Duplex" printing presses such
as are described in the Specifications No. 13460 of 1893 and Nos. 7639 and 16694
of 1894. On the shafts of each cylinder H, H', are keyed pinions D (Figures 2 and 3)
which gear with stationary racks D', fastened to the side frames. On the cylinder
shafts are also fixed wheels d, of the same diameter as the impression cylinders, and
gearing with racks d', d', attached to the type beds h, h. Thus when the cylinders
are moved in the one direction, the beds are moved in the opposite direction.
Practically the gearing is so proportioned as to move the beds about one seventh of
the distance through which the cylinders travel. This relative proportion of travel
can, however, be varied.
On the opposite sides of each cylinder H, H', are web guide rollers f, and fl
respectively, corresponding in function and position to the web guide rollers of the
Gox-Duplex machines, but having an additional important function in machines
according to the present invention, as hereinafter explained.
The web is fed in continuously by suitable feeding mechanism K, and fed out

page_text: continuously by suitable delivery mechanism O, and is carried from the feed over a
looping roller l, down under a stationary guide roller M¹, over guide roller ƒ down
under cylinder H, up over guide roller f, under a stationary roller m¹, up over a
register-adjusting roller mi,
forward to and over roller f¹ beside cylinder H', down
under H, up over roller f, over a stationary guide roller M, down under looping
roller, up to the delivery O. These parts, with the exception of the new function
of rollers and f¹, hereinafter described, have substantially the same construction,
arrangement and mode of operation of corresponding parts in the said Cox-Duplex
machines. That is to say, the web is fed in continuously at K, and is fed out of the
press continuously at O, the loop rollers 1, 1, being raised and lowered by means of
the bars I, lever L' and cams L2, with movements so timed that while the cylinders
are pressing the paper onto the type, the web is stopped from roller M¹ to the
roller M, and immediately after the impression is made the required length of web is
advanced from M' to M, as in the Cox-Duplex printing presses.
In a web press having a movable type bed and oppositely movable cylinder the
part of the web being imprinted must be shifted in accordance with the movement
of the bed during the printing. In a press according to the present invention this
necessary compensating movement of the web is effected by moving the rollers f, f',
in relation to the cylinder while they travel with it, as follows:-
On the end of each cylinder shaft is keyed a pinion p (Figures 3 and 4) gearing
with a toothed segment P fixed on a rock shaft P¹ which is journaled in a suitable
bearing on the cylinder carriage C, above the cylinder. On the shaft P¹ are two
pinions which gear with horizontal racks Q¹ sliding in suitable guides in the inner
faces of the carriage C.
To each rack Q are jointed opposite links R, R, (Figures 2 and 4) which have on
their outer ends friction rollers R₁ running in curved guides S formed in or attached
to the carriage C. The arms R also have on their ends inwardly projecting studs or
journals (Figure 2) upon which are journaled the guide rollers f, f¹. When the
cylinders are reciprocated the shaft P¹ is rocked and the racks Q are moved to
and fro causing the arms R to oscillate in opposite directions, in the guides S,
consequently the web guide rollers f, f are oscillated up and down in opposite
directions, in such a manner that they keep the web in exact position relatively to
the periphery of the cylinder while printing, and move the web as is required
to compensate for the movement of the bed. As the web guides beside each
cylinder have such movements, the web is compensated equally, but independently, a
for each bed.
The operation of the machine is briefly as follows:-
The cross-heads C moving to and fro carrying the impression cylinders H and H¹
with it, cause these cylinders to revolve by means of the wheels D and stationary
racks D¹. As the wheels D are of less diameter than the wheels d, the peripheral
speed of the wheels d, and of the printing surface of the cylinders H and H¹ is
consequently greater than the peripheral speed of the wheels D. The wheels d,
therefore, 'cause the racks d¹, with attached beds h, h¹, to move relatively to the main
frames in a direction opposite to that of cross-heads C.
The speed of and distance travelled by the beds h', depends upon the ratio of
diameters of D and d.
The web is continuously fed in and out of the machine, but that part of the web
extending from one looping roller 1, to the other 1, is intermittently stopped by the
rising and falling action of said rollers 1, 1, as in the Cox-Duplex presses. While
thus stopped the cylinders are moved forward or back over the beds and press the
web onto the type. But, as the beds move contrary to the cylinder, the part of the web
which is being printed has to travel along with the bed. For instance, say the
beds move five inches to the right while the cylinders travel to the left; then five
inches of the web must be shifted under each cylinder in accordance with the travel
of the bed. This movement of the web is automatically accomplished as above
described by the oscillatory movement of the guide rollers f, f; the left hand guide
roller descending so as to allow five inches of web to go under the cylinder, and the

page_text: right hand guide roller rising so as to take up the five inches thus supplied. This
action of the guide rollers is so predetermined and calculated that the tension of web
remains substantially uniform and the web is shifted under the cylinders in accordance
with the movement of the beds during the time of printing, and yet neither of the
guide rollers M, M¹, m, m', are moved; nor is the web, during printing, slipped or
loosened around such guides.
The web does not slip five inches along the surface of the cylinder but, as the
cylinder while printing has five inches more of rotation than it would have were the
bed stationary, this must be provided for without moving the entire portion of
the web in the press, and this is accomplished by the alternate oscillations of the
rollers fand as they travel with the cylinders.
After each impression is completed the web is shifted forward through the press
by the descent of rollers 1, 11, as in the Cox-Duplex machines.
The present invention may be briefly stated as consisting in moving the beds in
the Cox-Duplex press contrary to the cylinders by the peculiar gearing described and
in moving the travelling guide rollers beside the cylinders, independently of their
travel with the cylinders, so as to compensate for the movement of the beds without
necessarily altering the function or mode of operation of any other parts of the
Cox-Duplex press.
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. In a printing press having a reciprocating cylinder and oppositely reciprocating
bed, the combination of the wheels and racks D D¹ and d d for driving the beds
from the cylinders, substantially as described.
2. The mechanisın for allowing the web to accord with the movement of the beds,
comprising oscillating guide rollers as f, f¹, travelling with the cylinders and moved
by gearing worked from the axis of the cylinder, substantially as described.
3. In combination with a movable type bed, and an oppositely movable cylinder,
web guides moving with the cylinder; web guides on the frame of the press, and
means for feeding a web through the press after each impression; means whereby
the web guides beside the cylinder are moved relatively to the cylinder during their
travel with it so as to compensate for the movement of the bed, substantially as and
for the purpose set forth.
4. In combination with a reciprocating bed and oppositely reciprocating cylinder,
a rock shaft moving with and driven by the cylinder; a sliding rack on the cylinder
carriage worked from the rock shaft, a pair of arms pivoted to the rack, and having
their outer ends engaged in guides attached to the carriage; and a pair of web guide
rollers mounted on these arms, so that as the cylinder is reciprocated the guides are
reciprocated with it and simultaneously oscillated in opposite directions, so as to
compensate for the movement of the bed, substantially as and for the purpose
set forth.
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