Patent ID: 7634964

Claim:
A method for dosing a quantity of ink in an inking system of a printing press including: providing at least one ink dosing device in said inking system; providing at least first and second ink zone openings in said at least one ink dosing device; setting said first ink zone opening at a first magnitude and said second ink zone opening at a second magnitude different from said first magnitude; using said at least first and second ink zone openings in said ink dosing device for controlling first and second quantities of ink transferred by said inking system; providing an ink adjustment device and having an adjustment range for each of said at least first and second ink zone openings in said ink dosing device; dividing said adjustment range of each said adjustment device into a number of adjustment stages, each of a different magnitude, for each of said at least first and second ink adjustment devices; using each of said ink adjustment devices for effecting a change in said ink quantity transferred by each of said first and second ink zone openings in said at least one ink dosing device; determining a current setting of each of said at least first and second ink zone openings in said ink adjustment device; determining a quantity of ink being transferred by each of said at least first and second ink zone openings in said ink dosing device at said current setting; defining a predetermined correlation between said current setting of each of said at least first and second ink zone openings and a desired changed setting of each of said at least first and second ink zone openings; applying a first adjustment input to said first ink zone adjustment device for changing said first magnitude of said opening of said first ink zone opening to a changed first magnitude; applying a second adjustment input to said second ink zone device for changing said second magnitude of said opening of said second ink zone opening to a changed second magnitude; using said defined predetermined correlation for selecting said stages of adjustment of unequal magnitude applied to each said at least first and second ink zone openings in said ink dosing device; keeping a number of said first stages of adjustment and said second stages of adjustment the same and obtaining said first and second changed magnitudes different from each other; maintaining an essentially constant ratio between said change in said ink quantity transferred by each of said at least first and second ink openings in said ink dosing device, as caused by an adjustment of said ink dosing device, relative to said current quantity of ink being transferred by each of said at least first and second ink openings in said ink dosing device at said current setting, using said predetermined correlation; and maintaining said essentially constant ratio with a variance of less than 2% over an entire dosing range of said ink dosing device including said at least first and second ink zone openings.