Baga in Connection with Paper Bag Making Machines.
Year: 1888

page_text: Baga in Connection with Paper Bag Making Machines.
I, WILLIAM AINSWORTH, of the Lancashire Bag Manufacturing Co., Dale Street,
Accrington in the County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of my said
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 improvements in, or applicable to, paper bag making
machinery, whereby paper bags made on such machines may be printed with any
dosired printing matter in the course of, or at the completion of, their, formation,
or after passing from the drying cylinders which are usually attached to such
machines. The improvements are particularly applicable, amongst others, to that
class of paper bag making machine in which the bag is formed direct from the
roll of paper, by the web of paper being continuously drawn from the roll, then
folded into a tube over a former plate-this tube being next cut off into suitable
lengths to form the bags, and the folding, pasting and forming of the bottoms of
the bags being all performed whilst the bag blanks continue in actual motion.
Now this invention consists in the conjunction, and employment therewith, of my
improved rotary printing apparatus, so arranged and placed, as hereinafter described,
as to receive the bags in regular line order and succession as they are delivered
from the paper bag making machine, and to print them with any desired printed
matter.
And in order that this my said invention may be the more readily seen and
understood I have hereunto annexed 2 sheets of drawings, illustrative of my inven-
tion; and will now proceed to describe the same, reference being had to the various
Figures and letters of reference marked thereon.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 a side sectional elevation, and Fig. 3 a plan of my
improved rotary printing machinery, and of so much of a continuous-action paper
bag making machine, and the drying cylinder usually employed therewith, as is
necessary to illustrate my improved arrangements of mechanism for printing the
paper bags at the completion of their formation,

page_text: Fig. 4 is a part sectional elevation, showing an alternative arrangement for releasing
the bags from the impression cylinder.
Fig. 5 is a side sectional elevation, shewing the arrangement of my invention as
applied to printing the paper bags as they are discharged from the drying cylinder
of a paper bag making machine.
In carrying out my invention I employ (see Figs. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5) a cylinder a covered
with a blanket or other suitable covering which I call the blanket cylinder and an
impression cylinder b. On the surface of this latter is arranged and secured the type,
stereotype, zinco-type plate or other printing surface 64, which is required in printing
the paper bags, one or more whole bags being capable of being printed, consecutively
round a single girth, and at each revolution of the impression cylinder.
The girth of the impression cylinder is approximately equal to the length of one or
more whole bags, of the longest length which it is desired to print.
The blanket and impression cylinders, when mentioned together, are hereinafter
referred to as the printing cylinders.
The impression cylinder is driven positively, by an endless pitch chain, c, passing
round a chain wheel, and receiving motion from a similar chain wheel, on any con-
venient shaft or moving part upon the bag making machine (for instance as marked c³,
in Fig. 3).
In this manner I arrange that the impression cylinder shall make one, one half, one
third or other simple factor of a revolution, for each bag made on the bag making
machine, according as one, two, three or more, whole bags are printed in consecutive
order round the single girth of the circumference of the impression cylinder, at its
every revolution.
The impression cylinder may, however, be driven by any other suitable means, such
as by bevil gearing and shafts, or a train of spur gearing. The revolving motion may
also be communicated to any other suitable portion or shaft of the printing apparatus,
and the printing cylinders be driven therefrom. It may also be arranged that the
motion shall be transmitted from the printing apparatus to the bag making machine,
the printing apparatus thus becoming the driver, instead of the drivon machine.
The impression and blanket cylinders are geared together by spur wheels d, d.
It is desirable that these cylinders may be revolved, and adjusted circumferentially,
with regard to the stream of bags passing between them, for printing, so that the
printing matter may be easily adjusted to the desired place on the bags. For this
purpose I make the wheel e which drives these cylinders, capable of being connected
with or disconnected from the printing mechanism, by a friction clutch operated by
a hand wheel e', or I employ other equivalent means of revolving the cylinders alone
and independently, for such purposes of adjustment such means permitting of their
being reconnected at any point at will.
The curved stereo-type plates, or other printed surface b', may be secured to the
impression cylinder by clips, sliding in longitudinal dovetail slots, which admit of
the printing matter being adjusted to any place round the circumference or end ways
along the cylinder, or by any other suitable means of attachment.
The type, stereo-type plates, or other printing surface & on the impression cylinder.
is inked by any of the methods used in rotary printing machines or it may be effected
as follows:-
Inking rollers f₁f, ff with intermediate rider rollers f¹ fare all carried in
suitable brackets secured to the side frames A of the machine. The bottom inking
rollers f, hear both on the ink distributing drum y. and against the printing surface b
Runners are provided on the inking rollers, and suitable runner paths on the
impression cylinder, so that the inking rollers are guided and ink only the printing
surfaces on the cylinder. The ink distributing drum, g, receives ink from an ordinary
ink duct g', by a vibrating roller g, the ink being distributed on the distributing.
drum g by rollers g³, which are vibrated ond ways by a cam or other suitable means.
The distributing drum g is driven at the same surface speed as the impression
cylinder 6 by gearing.

page_text: The impression and blanket cylinders are capable of adjustment, in distance, to and
from each other, by the set screws, h, so that the requisite pressure for printing may
be obtained between them.
In some cases I arrange that the printing cylinders may be slightly separated at
will by a suitable hand motion (for instance, in case the formation of the bags is
interrupted) so as to avoid the inking, or soiling, of the blanket on the blanket
cylinder.
Damping rollers may be added to the impression cylinder if litho-graphic or
zinco-graphic or other such processes are used in the printing.
The printing arrangement may be so mounted, bodily, on a bed plate, B, as to be
capable of sliding, to and fro, thereupon, by a scrow B₁, or other suitable means, to
enable the printing surfaces to be adjusted, sideways, to the line of the bags, without
interfering with the printing surface or the formation of the bags on the bag making
machine.
The surface speed of the printing cylinders should not be less than that at which
the paper passes into the bag making machine, and may exceed it for small bags
to any workable extent; the limit being about 3 or 4 times the speed of the paper.
I will now proceed to describe the arrangements by which the bags are delivered to
be printed and removed from the printing apparatus.
I convey the bags by endless tapes, cords, or webs, i, i, or other suitable means,
(say from the delivery rollers, j, j, of the bag making machine) to the space in front
of the printing cylinders, and on to the feeding bed, K, which 1 place there.
This feeding bed may be described as a travelling surface, formed of endless
moving tapes, cords, or webs, extending from the delivery point of the bag making
machine to the printing cylinders, and which bed receives the bags from the bag
making machine, and, by its traversing motion, conveys and feeds them, as regularly
as they are received, to the printing cylinders. By the lightness of its hold upon the
bags, this bed permits of their being withdrawn from it by the printing cylinders at a
higher speed than the bed travels at-upper tapes, l, cords, webs, or rollers, o may be
used, if required, close to the bed, to supplement the weight of the bags and assist in
keeping them in regular order.
K. K (Figs. 1. 2 and 3) shew the feeding bed so formed of tapes, or cords; the
arrows indicate the direction of its motion; wheels or rollers, K¹, being used to
support and guide the tapes, or cords, of which it is formed. Some or all the tapes,
or cords, may pass round and return over the roller, m, (just in front of the printing
cylinders) or they may pass between the printing cylinders, at points where there
is a space left by the absence of the printing surface, 61, and, being continued on
the other side, may form part of the receiving bed, and return again round any
convenient rollers, or guides, o, to the point of starting.
The tapes, cords, or webs, that form the feeding bed, may also be those that convey
the bags in and from the bag making machine, and may be driven by the rollers
of that machine; or if not used in the bag making machine they may be driven
by that machine, or by the printing apparatus.
On the bags being deposited on this bed they are carried forward towards, and enter
between, the impression and blanket cylinders, and are seized between the printing
surface, 6, and the blanket cylinder a. The bags then immediately assume the speed
of the surface of the printing cylinders, and it is therefore essential that the bags shall
not be firmly held by, or on, the feeding bed, K, or they would be torn asunder.
I, therefore, prefer that the bags shall lie on the feeding bed with their own weight
alone, or be very lightly pressed thereon by tapes, cords, webs, or rollers.
The printing surface 6, being raised above the general surface of the impression
cylinder, allows of cords, or tapes, passing on either side of it, without their being
nipped by the impression cylinder. The printing surface is usually kept narrower
than the bag to be printed, so that these margin tapes, being placed between the bag
and the impression cylinder, cause the bag to strip from the printing surface, should
it have a tendency to stick thereon. These cords, or tapes, may form part of the
feeding and receiving beds, or may be specially arranged for this purpose.

page_text: In order to free the bags from the blanket cylinder, should they have a tendency
to stick thereto, I. employ one or more elastic bands of india rubber, or other soft or
thin material, p, that will not greatly affect the impression should they come upon it;
these bands encircle the blanket cylinder a and pass on, the delivery side, round a
small roller or wheel pl, at a short distance from it. These bands, being thus situated
between the bags and the blanket cylinder, strip off the bags should they stick to
the cylinder. Tupes or cords may also be employed for this purpose, as margin tapes
to the blanket cylindor. As an alternative method of freeing the bags from the
blanket and impression cylinders I employ fixed strips, of thin metal, or other
material, in a similar position to the margin tapes before mentioned; these strips
may be supported from either or both sides of the cylinders. Or I employ a scraper,
as, Fig. 4, approaching very closely to the printing surface, and to the surface of
the cylinders for the whole or a portion of their length.
:
I also use endless moving tapes, or cords, r, placed just above the ferding bed K.
and approaching more or less nearly to the printing cylinders, to prevent the bags
rising from the feeding bed, and to gently hold them thereon, if required; but so
lightly as not to interfere with their being more rapidly withdrawn therefrom by the
printing cylinders than the speed at which the feeling bed is moving.
As an alternative method I use rollers to hold the bags down on the feeding bed,
and I also sometimes form the feeding bed of a series of rollers, lying closely
together, and driven by suitable means.
A receiver bed, s, Figs. 1. 2. 3. & 4 is arranged on the delivery side of the printing
cylinders, to receive and forward the bags to the drying cylinder, or other desired
point. A portion of the drying cylinder, and its surrounding web, is shewn at -2.
Fig. 2.
This receiving bed may be formed by the web of the drying cylinder, or by tapes
or cords, or webs, driven from any suitable point; the margin tapes of the feeding
bed may form a portion of the receiving bed. Upper tapes may be used to guide
the bags.
Fig. 5. shews my invention as applied to printing bags as they are delivered from
the drying cylinder.
The bags, on being freed from the drying cylinder, by scrapers or cords, or tapes,
as usual, are carefully deposited on a feeding bed, as before described; and by it fed
to the printing cylinders, and from them discharged on to a receiving bed, or into a
suitable receptacle.
When placing my printing apparatus to print bags subsequently to their passing
round the drying cylinder, I construct the apparatus, and its adjuncts, as in Figs. 5.
6. 7. 8. and 9. The methods are the same in principle as those illustrated in Figs. 1.
2. 3. and 4, except that the printing cylinders are inverted to the positions there
shewn, and such modifications as I may hereafter naine are made.
Fig. 5. is a part sectional elevation of the apparatus; Fig. 6. is an elevation, in
outline, of an alternative method; Fig. 7. is a plan of same; Figs. 8 and 9 shew
detail of part of driving arrangement of same.
A (Fig. 5) is the blanket cylinder; B the impression cylinder; the printing
surface secured on same; G is the ink drum; g the ink duct; jjjj, the inking
rollers to impression cylinders; ¹¹ the rider rollers; g³ the vibrator roller to duct:
939³ the ink distributing rollers, having the usual endway vibratory motion; K the
feeding bed; k. the receiving bed; Kare rollers round which the tapes and cords,
forming the feeding and receiving beds, pass; p¹ is the roller carrying the out end of
the stripping band, p, of the blanket cylinder; are scrapers for stripping bags from
impression cylinder (a wide scraper close to, and along face of printing cylinder, or
margin tapes may be used instead). E is the driving chain from the bag making
machine; E the driven wheel on the printing apparatus; E the driving wheel on
the bag making machine; e. e. are guide wheels to the chain; D. is the drying
cylinder; the receiving tables; the framing of the printing apparatus; is
the usual felt, nearly encircling drying cylinder; dare the usual strings or cords
that pass between the bags and the surface of the drying cylinder, for the purpose of

page_text: freeing the bags from it, should they stick to it. In Fig. 5., these cords, or tapes,
also form part of the feeding and receiving beds, and act also as margin tapes to the
blanket cylinder-they may however, after stripping the bags from the drying
cylinder, be immediately returned to it, other cords or tapes carried by the rollers, K³
K'K' of the feeding and receiving beds, taking their place.
Arrows shew the direction of the tapes, driving chain, driving cylinder and printing
cylinders.
I make the feeding and receiving beds on the same principle as previously described
in Figs. 1. 2. 3 and 4, and drive them by belt or suitable gearing, at about the same
speed as the surface of the drying cylinder, or other suitable speed; from some
portion of the drying cylinder, bag machine or printing apparatus.
In place of cords to strip the bags from the drying cylinder, I also use an ordinary
scrapers. Fig. 6. and in order to ensure a regular delivery of the bags to the
feeding bed I place a roller to press the bags on to the drying cylinder immediately
in front of the edge of the scraper, and a pair of rolls situated about midway
between the edge of the scraper and the part of the feeding bed, where the bags first
touch. I drive these rollers from some suitable point at about the surface speed of
the drying cylinder. These rollers guide and regulate the delivery of the bag on to
the feeding bed.
The relative rotation of the printing cylinders in regard to the bags made on the
bag making machine, and the adjustment by disconnecting clutch of the printing
cylinder, and presentation by the feeding bed of the bags, are substantially the same
as I have before described for my apparatus placed to print the bags before they reach
the drying cylinder.
As in driving the printing apparatus, when placed after the drying cylinder, the
conditions are somewhat more complicated than when placed before it. I describe
two practicable methods.
1st. The bag making machine and drying cylinder may be driven from a counter-
shaft as usual. The printing apparatus being driven from the bag making machine
-Fast and loose pulleys are placed on the countershaft, and the bag making machine,
drying cylinder and printing apparatus, are started and stopped, as a whole, by
shifting the driving belt on these pulleys.
2nd. On the pulley spindle H of the drying cylinder 1 are placed three pulleys,
on to any one of which the driving belt can be shifted, by suitable strap gear; a is
the loose pulley which receives the belt when the bag machine, drying cylinder and
printing apparatus are to be stopped.
Pulley is fast to the spindle, and drives the drying cylinder I by means of the
pinion and it also drives the printing cylinders by means of the train of wheels
and change wheels 63, the chain wheel b that by means of the driving chain, &* drives
the chain wheel d on the printing apparatus. This wheel d rotates the printing
cylinders. Pulley c is loose on the spindle, but has fast on its sleeve or boss a chain
wheel, c', connecting with the bag machine by pitch chain c, and chain wheel on
the bag machine marked c. This pulley also drives the drying cylinder by means of
a projection, p, on the inside of its rim, and a spring catch p', secured to the centre
portion of the pulley b.
•
When the centre pulley 6 is driven by. the belt, the catch p² is inoperative, as the
rotation is the reverse of that which would cause it to act; but when the pulley c is
driven, the catch comes into operation, and the pulley b is driven by it, and thereby
the drying cylinder and the printing apparatus.
The drying cylinder and the printing apparatus can thus be run alone, and the bag
making machine subsequently started.
In place of pitch chain for driving I also use bevil gear and shafts, or trains of
spur wheels. The train of change wheels, between drying cylinder pulley spindle and
the chain wheel that drives the printing apparatus, is necessary to enable the printing
cylinders to be rotated at proper speeds: wheels of suitable numbers of teeth being
inserted in the train of change wheels for this purpose.

page_text: "
The felt of the drying cylinder may be extended from the cylinder to the bag
machine so as to receive the bags directly from it.
The method of printing the bags, when my apparatus is placed to receive the bags
for printing after they have passed round the drying cylinder, is as follows:-
The bags are conveyed by the usual cords, tapes, or felts, to the drying cylinder,
and round it in as undisturbed and regular succession as possible, to the point at
which they are stripped from the cylinder by the scraper or stripping cords. On
being released from the cylinder they settle on the feeding bed, and are by it fed
between the printing cylinders, there printed as previously described in Figs. 1. 2. 3. 4,
and discharged on the other side on to a receiving bed, or into a suitable receptacle.
I also arrange my invention that the impression and blanket cylinders may be in
any suitable position, vertically, or horizontally, with respect to each other.
either the one or the other uppermost, and also in any suitable position with regard
to the bag making machine, or the drying cylinder; and I also use in front of them,
if advisable, one or more pairs of plain cylinders (running at equal or nearly equal
surface speeds to the printing cylinders) for the purpose of feeding and guiding the bags
to the printing cylinders. These plain cylinders, seizing the bags from the travelling,
bed instead of the printing cylinders, and in this case I may carry margin tapes, or bands
to or from these and the printing cylinders, for the purpose of guiding the bags.
; or with
I also arrange my invention with two or more sets of impression and blanket
cylinders; one set following the other, so that both sides of the bag may be printed;
the sets may also be used to print the bags in several colours.
In the second, and subsequent sets, the blanket cylinder may be fitted with a
set off sheet arrangement, to prevent trouble from tho previously printed surfaces,
setting off" their ink.
One of my printing arrangements may be used to print one side of the bags before
they enter the drying cylinder, and another to again print them when they are
discharged therefrom.
The ink of the first side being dried by the heat while passing round the drying
cylinders, there is less liability for it to "set off" when being printed on the
second side.
If printing in more than one colour is desired extra sets of printing cylinders can
be used, both before and after, the bags enter the drying cylinder.
The method of printing the bags in accordance with my invention may be described
as follows:
The bag, after being formed in the bag making machine, is either before or after
passing round the drying cylinder (should one be used) delivered on to the feeding
bed, with as little disturbance to the regular order and line in which the bags are
formed on the bag machine, as possible. By the feeding bed it is next fed between
the printing cylinders (or plain cylinders if they be used to feed the printing
cylinders) which draw in the bags, and print them, and discharge them on to a
receiving bed, or into a suitable receptacle.
I arrange the printing cylinders to print one bag for each bag made on the paper
bag making machine, the cylinders of which may be of a circumference to print
either one or more whole bags of the longest lengths required to be printed by them,
but their circumference should not be less than the length of one of the longest bags,
if one only is printed at each revolution, or of the aggregate lengths of such bags,
if more than one are so printed per rovolution, or the bag, being printed, will be
delayed, and the succeeding bag will foul against it.
When printing shorter bags the printing cylinders make the same angular advance,
or revolution, as for the longer ones, in order that the printing surfaces on the
impression cylinder shall coincide with the bags as they are presented for printing-
one printing surface to each bag; it therefore follows that the surface speed of the
cylinders is greater than the advance of the stream of bags that is being printed
between the cylinders. It is, therefore, necessary that the bags when presented to.
the printing cylinders shall be but slightly held, or they would be 'injured by being"

page_text: rapidly drawn in; this light holding, accompanied with accurate presentation, is
accomplished by my feeding bed.
The delivery from the printing cylinders is free, so that the bag can settle freely
and acquire the rate of advance of the receiving bed.
By my insertion of a disconnecting arrangement, or friction clutch, in the driving
arrangement, between the printing cylinders and the bag making machine, I am
enabled to turn the printing cylinders independently of the bag making machine,
and thereby adjust them to bring the imprint on the required portion of the bag,
reconnecting when the proper position is obtained.
If the variation of the lengths of the bags. to be made on the paper bag making
machine is very great, the proportion of the gearing driving the printing cylindors
may be varied when printing short bags, so that two, or more, short bags may be
printed round one girth of the printing cylinders in the place occupied by one long
bag the aggregate. lengths of such short bags must not be more than the circum-
ference of the cylinder.
Although only herein before described, generally, as applied to one class of
continuous-action paper bag making machines, it will be obvious that my improved
rotary printing machine may be specially adaptable to be used in conjunction with
other modifications of that class of bag making machine known as Spence's patent
No. 1674 A.D 1861, and also for the purpose of printing paper bags known in the
trado as t
Satchel," or bags made in accordance with Patent Specification No. 2973
A.D. 1873, or any of the various modifications thereof.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of this my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what 1
claim is :-
1st. In a paper bag making machine, the combination of rotary printing machinery,
or arrangements substantially as herein described, (so placed as to receive the bags
in line order and succession as they are delivered from the bag making machine)
with a continuous action paper bag making machine, for the purpose of printing
paper bags, substantially as herein before described.
The continuous action paper bag making machines mentioned in this claim, being
those in which the bag is formed direct from the roll of paper, by the web of paper
being continuously drawn from the roll of paper, and folded into a tube over a former
plate, subsequently to this the cutting off of the tube into lengths to form the bags
and the folding, pasting, and forming of the bottom of the bag, are all done while the
bag blank continues in actual motion in the machine.
.
2nd. In a paper bag making machine, the use and combination of rotary printing
machinery, substantially as hereinbefore described, for the printing of paper bags,
with paper bag making machines of similar class to those known as Spence's, and
described in his Patent No. 1674. A.D. 1861, and with the various modifications of
this class of bag making machine.
3rd. The use of rotary printing machinery, substantially as hereinbefore described,
for the printing of paper bags known in the trade as "Satchel," or bellows shaped
bags, and the combination of such rotary printing machinery with machines for
making such bags as described in Patent No. 2973, A.D. 1873, and with the various
modifications of this class of bag making machine.
4th. In a paper bag making machine, the use and combination of rotary printing
machinery, substantially as berein before described, for the purpose of printing paper
bags after they are discharged from the drying cylinder of the paper bag making
machine substantially as hereinbefore described.
5th. In a paper bag making machine, the means of adapting rotary printing
machinery to print, accurately, various lengths of bags with the saune set of printing
cylinders, in the course of, or at the completion of, their formation, substantially as
and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
6th. In a paper bag making machine, the use and combination of rotary printing

page_text: .
apparatus, substantially as herein before described, with a paper bag making machine
for the purpose of printing paper bags.
I further claim in a rotary printing apparatus combined with a paper bag making
machine :
7th. The use of feeding and receiving beds, mounted and operating substantially
as hereinbefore described.
8th. The use and combination of two or more sets of printing cylinders, for
printing one, or both sides, of the bag in the saine or various colours, substantially
as herein before described.
9th. The employment of tapes, cords- bands, fingers and scrapers, for the purpose
of freeing the bags from the impression and blanket cylinders, substantially as
herein before described.
10th. The use and application of endless tapes, or bands (elastic or otherwise),
passing round the blanket cylinder, and round a special roller in front, substantially
as herein before described.
11th. The method of insuring a truly placed printed impression on each bag
substantially as hereinbefore described.
12th. The use in this invention of stereo-type, moveable typo, zinco-type, litho,
zinco-litho, or other printing surface, secured to the face of the printing cylinder, for
the purpose of printing paper bags, substantially as heroinbefore described.
13th. The disconnection of the printing cylinders from their driving arrangement,
for the purpose of their adjustment, substantially as hereinbefore described.
14th. The combination and separate use of all, or any part, of this improved
mechanism for the purpose of printing paper bags in the process of, or at the
completion of, their formation, substantially as hereinbefore described.
15th. The combination of all or any part of this improved mechanism with any
continuous action paper bag making machine, for the purpose of printing paper bags,
substantially as hereinbefore described.
Dated this 14th day of December 1888.