Patent ID: 7000543

Claim:
An apparatus to aid the loading and unloading of flexographic plates to and from an imager, the apparatus comprising: a magazine containing a plurality of compartments each for holding a single flexographic plate, the compartments arranged vertically, and movable in a vertical direction, each respective compartment having a respective rest vertical position at a rest horizontal position, each respective compartment further having a loading vertical position at which the respective compartment is at a height for loading onto the imager; a lifting mechanism to lift and lower the compartments; and a control system to control the lifting and lowering by the lifting mechanism, such that a particular compartment is moved from its rest vertical position at the rest horizontal position to the loading vertical position at which the particular compartment is at the height for loading onto the imager or unloading from the imager, and when the particular compartment is at its loading vertical position, the particular compartment is movable horizontally from and to the rest horizontal position to and from a loading horizontal position suitable for loading and unloading the plate on the compartment onto and from the imager, the apparatus further comprising: an automatic plate loader to remove the plate from the particular compartment and load the plate onto the imager wherein the automatic plate loader is configured to partially remove the plate from the particular compartment prior to the plate being moved to a plate's loading horizontal position.