Printing – Printing members and inkers – Rolling-contact printing member
Reexamination Certificate
2001-09-18
2003-02-18
Hirshfeld, Andrew H. (Department: 2854)
Printing
Printing members and inkers
Rolling-contact printing member
C101S328000, C101S333000, C101S405000, C401S048000, C401S209000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06520081
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to brayers, or hand-operated ink-stamping devices of small size typically used for making proofs and, more particularly, to a brayer provided with a brayer ball, fabricated with a patterned ball cover formed on a spherical core body and having an external pattern consisting of a variety of letters, figures and/or characters, thus smoothly rolling on a sheet in any desired direction without being limited in its rolling direction during a stamping process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIGS. 1
a
and
1
b
are views of a conventional brayer. As shown in the drawings, the conventional brayer
100
comprises a roller holder
200
and a cylindrical brayer roller
400
. The roller holder
200
has a handle
110
at its rear portion and two brackets
220
at its front head portion. The two brackets
220
integrally extend downward from opposite sides of the front head portion of the roller holder
200
, with a yoke bearing
210
formed at the lower end of each bracket
220
to hold each end of a roller shaft
300
. The brayer roller
400
is a cylindrical member having a predetermined length, and is fitted over the roller shaft
300
so as to be rotatable around the roller shaft
300
. The brayer roller
400
is made of rubber, and is embossed on its circumferential surface to form a desired pattern, consisting of a variety of letters, figures and/or characters.
In order to stamp a desired pattern onto a sheet using the brayer
100
, a user rolls the brayer roller
400
on an inkpad to allow the patterned surface of the roller
400
to be smeared with ink. Thereafter, the brayer roller
400
is rolled on a target sheet, such as a paper sheet, to stamp the pattern of the roller
400
consisting of letters, figures and/or characters onto the sheet.
During a stamping process using such a conventional brayer
100
, the desired pattern of the brayer roller
400
is effectively stamped onto a sheet only when the user rolls the brayer roller
400
on the sheet by pulling or pushing the brayer
100
linearly by the hand, gripping the handle
110
, to form a linear print. When the brayer roller
400
is rolled on a sheet to form a circular print as shown in
FIG. 1
b,
the inside portion of the longitudinal cylindrical roller
400
around the center of the circular print is rolled at a low speed with a small radius “H
1
”.
On the contrary, the outside portion of the longitudinal cylindrical roller
400
around the outer edge of the circular print is rolled at a high speed with a large radius “H
2
”. Due to such a difference in the radius and rolling speed between the two portions of the brayer roller
400
while rolling the brayer
100
through a circular or curved trace, the letters, figures and/or characters of the pattern stamped onto the sheet are undesirably distorted and deformed. In addition, the stamped effect in such a case is not uniform since the stamped pattern is undesirably, partially faint or broken at a portion stamped by the outside portion of the roller
400
. Furthermore, the inside portion of the stamped pattern is smeared with an excessive amount of ink, and so it is clearly and thickly stamped, but is not easily or quickly dried, thus being likely to undesirably run over the sheet.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a ball brayer, which is provided with a brayer ball fabricated with a patterned ball cover, having an external pattern consisting of letters, figures and/or characters and formed on a spherical core body, the brayer ball thus smoothly rolling on a sheet in any desired direction without being limited in its rolling direction during a stamping process, and preventing a stamped pattern from being distorted, deformed, or undesirably, partially faint or broken.
In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a ball brayer, comprising a roller holder unit having a front head and a handle; a dome-shaped first upper cap unit seated in the front head of the roller holder unit; a dome-shaped second upper cap unit provided with a cylindrical top rod, the second upper cap unit being seated in the first upper cap unit by the top rod inserted into an inner fitting cylinder of the first upper cap unit; a brayer ball rotatably seated in the second upper cap unit and consisting of a spherical core body, and a ball cover formed on the spherical core body and having a pattern on its external surface; and a lower support cap unit detachably mounted to the second upper cap unit, and having an opening for allowing the brayer ball to be partially exposed outside the second upper cap unit.
REFERENCES:
patent: 5495800 (1996-03-01), Weissbein et al.
patent: 6378426 (2002-04-01), Furr et al.
DN Craft Corporation
Hirshfeld Andrew H.
Williams Kevin D.
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