US2702002A - Multicolor rotary printing press - Google Patents

Description

Feb. 15, 1955 w. KOCH MULTICOLOR ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Filed Feb. 7, 1951 Inventor: WERNE R K06 H By W xndx. 96

AGENTS United States Patent I 2,702,002 MULTICOLOR ROTARY PRINTING PRESS Werner Koch, Offenbach am Main, Germany, assignor to Faber & Schleicher Aktiengesellschaft, Offenbach amMain,Germany,afirm My invention relates to a press of the kind in which multi-colour printing offset machines are disposed in series.

In multi-colour printing presses, it is known to print the several colours by means of a train of one-colour printing machines which are coupled by means of drums so as to form a multi-colour printing press, or to use chain grippers conveying the sheets at their tops from one machine to the other. 0 It has also been proposed to produce multi-colour printings by means of two-colour machines, in which the sheets are conveyed at the bottom byh means of drums from one two-colour machine to the 0 er.

All these prior art multi-colour printing machines, however, are disadvantageous and inconvenient in use inasmuch as their overall length is very extensive and, thence, difiicult to survey as one printing operation only can be controlled from one point.

In this way the machine becomes considerably shorter in length and can be controlled much more conveniently than a machine consisting of a number of one-colour printing presses, because the operators stand can be so arranged as to provide ample space and a good surveyance over two printing mechanisms instead of only one, as has been the case heretofore.

The invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which a train of two five-cylinder presses is diagrammatically illustrated by way of example.

The multi-colour printing machine shown in this drawing consists of two self-contained five-cylinder printing units which are denominated by the references 1 and 2 and which can easily be supervised from one side. Such supervision is possible because of the rubberor blanket cylinders 3 and 4 being positioned in known manner laterally of the printing cylinder 5, so that an operator standing on the platform 6, can easily control both printing mechanisms from thatplace including the upper and lower plate cylinders 13 and 14 which are in cooperation with their inking and dampening mechanisms 15 and 16 respectively. The sheets are conveyed by chain grippers 7, below the controlling platform 6, from the printing machine 1 to the machine 2 and by another chain gripper 7 to a delivery pile 8.

In particular, the sheets are moved from a pile 9 to be fed over a feeding table to the first five-cylinder machine 1, then by means of the chain grippers 7 below the platform 6 to the second five-cylinder machine 2 and by means of the second chain 7 below the second platform 6 to the delivery pile 8 The five-cylinder machines, of course, comprise all the usual parts of a printing press such as plate cylinders, distributing and inking means, which are not particularly described.

If the machine according to the invention is to be used to produce multi-colour printings of any odd number of colours, for example, five-colour printings, one colour is printed by means of a three-cylinder machine which is preferably positioned between the five-cylinder machine 1 and the feeding table 10. In this arrangement the sheets are likewise conveyed from said single machine below the operators platform to the first fivecylinder machine. Instead of using a three-cylinder machine to produce multi-colour printings of any odd number of colours one of the five-cylinder machines can be used as a one-colour machine, for example, if a sixcolour machine is to be used for the production of fivecolour printings.

The manner of using and applying the illustrative embodiment of my invention set forth above will be clear from the foregoing description. It is, of course, to be understood that my invention is not limited to the specific embodiment thereof here shown and described for purpose of illustration only.

What I claim is:

In a four-colour rotary printing press, two cooperating five-cylinder printing units each comprising a plate cylinder near the top and a plate cylinder near the bottom of the said units, a blanket cylinder in operative relation to the plate cylinder near the top and a blanket cylinder in operative relation to the plate cylinder near the bottom in each unit, said blanket cylinders being positioned in mutually vertical relation on the sheet-feeding end of each unit, an impression cylinder in operative relation to said blanket cylinders also on the sheet-feeding end of each unit, an operators platform in each of said units at the delivery end thereof, a chain gripper in the first printing unit cooperating with the impression cylinders of the first and second units and arranged to pass underneath the operators platform of the first unit, and a chain gripper cooperating with the impression cylinder in the second unit and the delivery pile at the end of the machine and arranged to pass underneath the operators platform of the second unit.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,849,219 Belluche Mar. 15, 1932 2,100,852 Jacobson Nov. 30, 1937 2,174,865 Barber Oct. 3, 1939 2,245,343 Hunting June 10, 1941 2,542,867 Harrold Feb. 20, 1951 2,554,904 Harrold May 29, 1951 2,593,180 Pritchard Apr. 15, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS Germany Apr. 11, 1930

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