Patent ID: 7331703

Claim:
A viscosity controller for continuously monitoring and adjusting the ink viscosity for a pad printing apparatus to maintain optimal ink viscosity throughout the printing application, comprising: a paddle for stirring the ink contained with the reservoir of the ink cup of the pad printing apparatus; a primary shaft attached to the paddle and extending into the reservoir of the ink cup; a motor coupled to the primary shaft for rotating the paddle; an encoder interconnected to the motor for generating a fixed number of encoder pulses for each rotation of the shaft; a solvent tank in flow communication with the ink cup for incrementally dispensing fixed amounts of solvent to the ink cup for diluting the viscosity of the ink; a valve disposed between the solvent tank and the ink cup that can be selectively opened and closed to allow solvent to flow into the ink cup and to prevent the flow of solvent into the ink cup; a microprocessor in electrical interconnection with the encoder, the motor and the valve so that the microprocessor can continuously monitor the ink viscosity and count the number of encoder pulses transmitted from the encoder per time period storing that number as the actual viscosity number and comparing the actual viscosity number to a pre-selected set point number that represents the desired ink viscosity level for determining if there is a difference thus resulting in the automatic opening of the valve to allow solvent into the ink cup to adjust the ink viscosity so that the ink viscosity returns to the level represented by the set point number; and, a display panel for displaying the actual viscosity number to the operator so that the operator can be continuously apprised of the ink viscosity.