Patent ID: 7219603

Claim:
An ink supply unit for a flexographic press comprising: an ink chamber including an upper doctor blade and a lower doctor blade, each doctor blade having a free end and an opening between the free ends; an anilox roll for supplying an ink contained in said ink chamber to a printing cylinder; a pivot frame for holding said ink chamber and said anilox roll at given positions, respectively with the free ends of each doctor blade contacting the anilox roll so that the opening between the free ends communicates with the anilox roll; and a stationary frame mounted on a bed and rotatably coupled to an end of said pivot frame by a rotary axle received in a support arm of the stationary frame; said anilox roll being detachably mounted on said pivot frame; said pivot frame being able to move between a printing position where said anilox roll is mounted on the stationary frame to engage said printing cylinder and an exchanging position where said anilox roll is spaced away from said stationary frame to disengage said printing cylinder; said pivot frame also being detachably mounted on said stationary frame wherein the rotary axle of the pivot frame has a pair of opposed parallel flat surfaces having substantially the same width as side edges of an engaging groove in the support arm whereby the pivot frame is rotatably coupled to the stationary frame by displacing the opposed parallel flat surfaces of the axle with the side edges of the engaging groove then rotating the pivot frame to the printing position while rotating the rotary axle in the support arm thereby coupling the pivot frame to the stationary frame; and an ink level of a maximum amount of ink contained in said ink chamber, the level being located near a contact position between said upper doctor blade and said anilox roll when said pivot frame is located at said printing position, and said ink level being located below the contact position between said lower doctor blade and the anilox roll when said pivot frame is located at said exchanging position.