Patent Application
20150158286
The present invention relates generally to printing presses and more specifically to variable cutoff printing presses.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,336, hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses a printing unit with a rotatable print cylinder and a rotatable blanket cylinder. A tubular printing blanket is removably mounted on the blanket cylinder. The printing unit may have an imaging unit mounted therein. A printing member, which is mountable on the print cylinder, is imaged by the imaging unit inside the printing unit. The printing member has a continuous surface and may be removed axially from the print cylinder. The printing unit may be configured as a cantilever printing unit, or, alternatively, may be configured with both a gear side frame and a work side frame for supporting the print and blanket cylinders. In order to provide a variable-cutoff capability, a plurality of print cylinder saddles may be provided. Each print cylinder saddle has the same inner diameter for mounting on the print cylinders. However, in order to provide a variable cut-off, the print cylinder saddles may have a variety of outer diameters.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,694,877 discloses a printing assembly including an image printing cylinder, a transfer printing cylinder and an impression printing cylinder. The image printing cylinder is supported in a fixed position with respect to a U-shaped supporting construction, the transfer printing cylinder is supported on both ends between two supporting elements and the impression printing cylinder is supported on both ends between two supporting elements. The supporting elements are connected to respective bearing arms that are rotatable about a single axis. The bearing arms of the transfer printing cylinder are each rotated by respective first actuating means and the bearing arms of the impression printing cylinder are each rotated by respective second actuating means. The second actuating means are connected to the bearing arms of the transfer printing cylinder, causing the second actuating means to move along with a rotation of the bearing arm of the transfer printing cylinder if the first actuating means are actuated.
U.S. Patent Application No. 2012/0012017 A1, hereby incorporated by reference herein, discloses a variable cutoff printing unit. Two separate actuators move each of a blanket cylinder and an impression cylinder, and permit different sized blankets and plate cylinders to be accommodated. The impression cylinder actuator can move downwardly to move the impression cylinder off impression, the blanket cylinder also moving into an off impression position via a slot and cam interaction on the blanket cylinder actuating mechanism. A stop may be positioned against an adjustable block and the stop position can be set via an adjustable stopping device and smart motor so that center distances between the plate cylinder and the blanket cylinder can be set, for example for different sized cylinders.
If a wrong stop position is set or a cylinder size is changed without proper adjustments, sometimes the actuators can fail or apply too much force, causing damage to the printing press. This is especially so if certain types of mechanisms are used to position the impression and blanket cylinder movement, for example a single pneumatic actuator.
The present invention provides a variable cutoff printing press including a plate cylinder; a plate cylinder support removably supporting the plate cylinder; a blanket cylinder; a blanket cylinder support removably supporting the blanket; an impression cylinder; an impression cylinder support; an actuator for moving the blanket cylinder support to accommodate different blanket cylinder sizes, the actuator further moving the impression cylinder support so that regardless of the blanket cylinder size a gap exists between the blanket cylinder support and the impression cylinder support; and an on impression actuator for moving the impression cylinder support against the blanket cylinder support to set a desired print load.
The present invention also provides a method of operating a variable cutoff printing press including: setting a first desired blanket cylinder position for a first blanket cylinder using a first actuator, the impression cylinder also being moved by the actuator while a gap is maintained between a blanket cylinder support and an impression cylinder support; placing the first blanket cylinder, impression cylinder and a first plate cylinder on impression using a further actuator to force the impression cylinder support against the blanket cylinder support; setting a second desired blanket cylinder position for a different sized second blanket cylinder using the first actuator, the gap being maintained between the blanket cylinder support and the impression cylinder support; and placing the second blanket cylinder the impression cylinder and a second plate cylinder on impression using the further actuator to force the impression cylinder support against the blanket cylinder support.
The present invention is described below by reference to the following drawings, in which:
A variable cutoff printing press as used herein refers to a printing press that can be modified between print jobs so that the printing press can print repeating images of different lengths during different print jobs. The length of the repeating images printing during a particular print job is commonly referred to as a cutoff length or a cutoff. Plate cylinders and blanket cylinders that print the repeating images for the particular print job (and the plates and blanket mounted on the cylinders) may be said to have that cutoff length or cutoff. For example, a variable cutoff printing unit can print repeating images of a first cutoff length on a web or other substrate during a first print job and then can print repeating images of a second cutoff length that varies from the first cutoff length on a web or other substrate during a subsequent second print job. The first print job is printed using a first printing plate and a first printing blanket each having an outer circumference of a length corresponding to the first cutoff length. After the first print job and before the second print job, the first printing plate and the first printing blanket are removed from the printing unit and replaced with a second printing plate and a second printing blanket that each has an outer circumference of a length corresponding to the second cutoff length. A change between print jobs that involves replacing printing plates and blankets having a first cutoff length with printing plates and blankets having a second cutoff length may be referred to as a cutoff change.
The printing press of the present invention preferably is a web offset lithographic printing press.
A pivotable blanket cylinder support 16 is coupled to frame 12 at a pivot point 116, for example by supports 216, and a pivotable impression cylinder support 18 likewise can pivot with respect to frame 10 at a pivot point 118, for example using supports 218.
Cylinder supports 14, 16, 18 are adapted to support a first axial end of a plate cylinder 314, blanket cylinder 316 and impression cylinder 318, respectively. In
Support apparatus 10 has a blanket cylinder support setting device 100 that includes an arm 28, a sliding element 32 and blanket cylinder support actuator 24 for moving blanket cylinder support 16. Arm 28 is fixedly connected to sliding element 32, for example via bolts 33 and can couple sliding element 32 to blanket cylinder support 16 so actuator 24 can lift blanket cylinder support 16. Actuator 24 adjusts the vertical position of blanket cylinder support 16 by moving sliding element 32 in slot 34. Actuator 24 moves sliding element along frame 12 to move blanket cylinder support 16 toward and away from plate cylinder support 14. Arm 28 includes a roller cam 29, which may extends into a blanket cylinder support slot 30 formed in blanket cylinder support 16. The roller cam 29 and slot 30 interaction may be similar to that described in incorporated-by-reference U.S. Patent Application No. 2012/0012017. However, other details differ significantly, including that actuator 24 may be a motor that does not just set a stopping device or move the sliding element as far as possible, but actually both sets and positions the sliding element 32.
In addition, as the sliding element 32 moves through its various positions to accommodate different sized blanket and plate cylinder sizes, during off impression a gap G is maintained between the blanket cylinder support 16 and impression cylinder support 18. A gap thus is also maintained between the blanket cylinder 316 and impression cylinder 318.
The maintenance of gap G is accomplished by a linkage 40 between blanket cylinder support 16 and impression cylinder support 18. Linkage 40 is rotatably connected at connection 42 to blanket cylinder support 16 and at a central connection 44 via a pivot link 46 rotatably connected at a connection 48 to frame 10. A roller 49 at the other end of linkage 40 from connection 42 can roll on a support surface 50 of impression cylinder support 18.
The weight of impression cylinder 318 forces impression cylinder support 18 in contact with linkage 40. A counterbalance cylinder 60 is energized to pull down on impression cylinder support 318 and minimize the force it take for first actuator 24, via linkage 40, to move impression cylinder 318 toward plate cylinder support 14, in
As shown in
During movement by the actuator 24, on impression actuator 70 is de-energized so that its actuator arm 72 is free to move.
Owing to the fact that the gap G between the blanket cylinder support 16 and impression cylinder support 18 is maintained throughout the course of movement of the support apparatus 10 for different sized cylinders, similar pressures can be created by the on impression actuator 70 regardless of the cylinder size. Over-torque situations or fault outs can be minimized or eliminated.
In the preceding specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific exemplary embodiments and examples thereof. It will, however, be evident that various modifications and changes may be made thereto without departing from the broader spirit and scope of invention as set forth in the claims that follow. The specification and drawings are accordingly to be regarded in an illustrative manner rather than a restrictive sense.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 13654117 | Oct 2012 | US |
| Child | 14627980 | US |
