Patent ID: 6910417

Claim:
In a rotary printing press having: a plate cylinder, an ink supply, an inking roller arrangement of conventional design, and a paper feed means, wherein said inking roller arrangement has at least one oscillating drum, at least one transfer roller and at least one form roller, all supported within a pair of spaced frames, an improvement to said inking roller arrangement consisting essentially of: at least one additional ink drum which is rotated by friction contact of its circumferential surface with a roll element in said conventional inking roller arrangement and at least one additional form roller, wherein said form roller is rotatibly supported on each end by a first pair of adjustable support structures which are pivotal about the centerline of said additional ink drum, and wherein said pair of first adjustable support structures are adapted to permit operator adjustment of the pressure between the exterior surfaces of said form roller and said ink drum, and wherein said ink drum is rotatibly supported on each end by a second pair of adjustable support structures which are pivotal about the centerline of said ink drum and about the centerline of an inking roll element in said inking roller arrangement, wherein said second pair of adjustable support structures are adapted to permit operator adjustment of the pressure between the exterior surfaces of said ink drum and said inking roll element, and a means to constrain the centerline of rotation of said ink form roller to move in a predetermined path parallel to the frame, and a pair of connecting links acting on each end of said form roller, and a selectively operable throw-off mechanism acting in unison and combination with each of said connecting links to move said form roller into contact with the printing plate, or alternatively, to move said form roller into a spaced relationship with said plate cylinder, said spaced relationship being sufficiently large to permit the space formerly occupied by said form roller in its operating position to become available to the printing press operator for manually exchanging printing plates.