Claims
- 1. A rotary printing press comprising:as ink fountain including a fountain roller and blade for holding a small supply of viscous, offset printing ink, the ink fountain adapted to cooperate with an ink train for delivering a film of ink to a printing plate; a sensor for sensing the level of ink in the ink fountain, wherein said sensor measures the distance between the sensor and the surface of ink in the ink fountain without contacting the ink; an ink dispenser for selectively dispensing ink through an outlet of said ink dispenser and into said ink fountain; a structure for moving the sensor and said ink dispenser outlet together in tandem along a support mounted above the ink fountain; and a controller in communication with said ink dispenser, wherein said controller receives a plurality of samples of the ink level in said ink fountain from ink level sensor, wherein said plurality samples are taken at discrete intervals along at least one segment of the ink fountain, wherein said controller determines whether ink from the ink dispenser should be dispensed into the ink fountain, wherein said determination is based at least in part on said plurality of received samples of said ink level thereby reducing effects of erroneous indications of ink levels from said sensor resulting from surface irregularities of ink in said ink fountain.
- 2. The rotary printing process of claim 1 wherein a determination to dispense ink is made if a predetermined percentage of the plurality of samples each indicate that the ink is below a predetermined level.
- 3. The rotary printing press of claim 1 wherein the plurality of samples are a predetermined number of most recently taken samples.
- 4. The rotary printing press of claim 3 wherein a determination to dispense ink is made when each sample in a predetermined percentage of the plurality of samples indicates that the ink in the fountain is below a predetermined level.
- 5. The rotary printing press of claim 1, wherein a determination to not dispense ink is made if each of the samples in a predetermined percentage of the plurality of samples indicates that the ink in the fountain is above a predetermined level.
- 6. The rotary printing press of claim 1 wherein the controller determines whether or not ink should be dispensed based on how many of the plurality of samples indicate an ink level below a predetermined level and how many of the plurality of samples indicate an ink level above the predetermined level.
- 7. The rotary printing press of claim 1 wherein the controller determines whether ink should be dispensed based on an average level indicated by the plurality of samples.
- 8. The rotary printing press of claim 1 wherein the ink dispenser lags behind the ink level sensor and a means for actuating actuates the ink dispenser when the outlet passes over where the plurality of samples were taken from the ink level sensor.
- 9. The rotary printing press of claim 1 wherein the outlet is positioned over the fountain roller as the structure for moving traverses the outlet along the ink fountain, whereby ink is dispensed onto the fountain roller and carried down to a convergence of the blade and the fountain roller.
- 10. The rotary printing press of claim 1 wherein the sensor includes an infrared beam transmitter and infrared energy detector spatially arranged for enabling determination of whether a point along the surface of the ink in the ink fountain is within a predetermined distance of the sensor based on an angle of reflection of the infrared beam from the surface.
- 11. The rotary printing press of claim 10, wherein the controller actuates the ink dispenser as the ink dispenser is passing over said at least one segment of the ink fountain.
- 12. A method for maintaining a desired level of ink in an ink fountain of an offset printing press comprising:providing an ink fountain including a fountain roller and blade for holding a supply of viscous, offset printing ink, said ink fountain being adapted to cooperate with an ink train for delivering a film of ink to a printing plate; logically dividing said ink fountain into a plurality of logical segments; laterally traversing above at least one of said plurality of logical segments of said ink fountain a sensor for sensing the level of ink in said at least one segment, wherein said sensor moves in tandem with an ink dispenser, and wherein said sensor measures the distance between said sensor and the surface of ink in said ink fountain without contacting the ink; receiving a plurality of samples of the ink level in said at least one segment, wherein said samples are taken at discrete intervals along said at least one segment of said ink fountain; and dispensing ink through an outlet of said ink dispenser when said plurality of received samples from the ink level sensor indicate a low ink level within said segment, thereby reducing effects of erroneous indications of ink levels from said sensor resulting from surface irregularities of ink in said ink fountain.
- 13. The method of claim 12 wherein a path of said outlet of said ink dispenser as it traverses across the ink fountain is above the fountain roller, whereby ink is dispensed onto the fountain roller and carried into the convergence of the fountain roller with the blade.
- 14. The method of claim 12 wherein the sensor includes an infrared beam transmitter and an infrared energy detector spatially arranged for enabling determination of whether a point along the surface of the ink is within a predetermined distance of the sensor based on an angle of reflection of the infrared beam from the surface.
- 15. The method of claim 12 wherein the plurality of samples from the ink level sensor indicates that ink should be dispensed when a predetermined percentage of samples indicate that the ink in the ink fountain is below a predetermined level.
- 16. The method of claim 12 wherein the plurality of samples are a predetermined number of most recently taken samples.
- 17. The method of claim 16 wherein the plurality of samples from the ink level sensor indicate that ink should be dispensed when each sample in a predetermined percentage of the plurality of samples indicates that the ink is below a predetermined level.
- 18. The method of claim 12 wherein ink is not dispensed when the plurality of samples do not indicate that ink should be dispensed.
- 19. The method of claim 12 wherein the plurality of samples indicate whether ink should be dispensed based on how many of the plurality of samples indicate an ink level below a predetermined level and how many of the plurality of samples indicate an ink level above the predetermined level.
- 20. The method of claim 19 wherein the plurality of samples are a predetermined number of most recently taken samples.
- 21. The method of claim 20 wherein the plurality of samples indicate whether ink should be dispensed based on an average of the plurality of samples.
- 22. The method of claim 12 wherein the ink has a viscosity greater than 200 poise.
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/225,429, filed Jan. 5, 1999; which is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/891,587 filed Jun. 20, 1997, now abandoned; which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/723,693 filed Sep. 30, 1996, now abandoned, which application is incorporated herein for all purposes by reference.
US Referenced Citations (66)
Non-Patent Literature Citations (2)
Entry |
Sick Optic-Electronic, Inc., “Sensick Opto-Electronic Sensors Parts Catalog”, Erwin Sick GmbH Optik-Elektronic, title page, copyright page, pp. 29-30 and 129, (1995). |
Sick Optic-Electronic, Inc., “Photoelectric Proximity Sensor for Small Parts Detection WT 4 Product Sheet”, Erwin Sick GmbH Optik-Elektronic, pp. 1-2, (1995). |
Continuations (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
09/225429 |
Jan 1999 |
US |
Child |
09/814380 |
|
US |
Continuation in Parts (1)
|
Number |
Date |
Country |
Parent |
08/723693 |
Sep 1996 |
US |
Child |
08/891587 |
|
US |