Printing – Processes – Position or alignment
Reexamination Certificate
2000-01-07
2001-05-15
Eickholt, Eugene (Department: 2854)
Printing
Processes
Position or alignment
C101S487000, C101S038100, C101S040000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06230623
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is generally concerned with printing machines including at least one object support rotatably mounted on a conveyor which moves forward stepwise, at least one radiation type drying oven disposed in vertical alignment with the path of movement of the object support and drive means for rotating the object support in line with the drying oven while the conveyor is stopped.
It is more particularly directed to the situation in which, for mechanical reasons, it is possible to rotate the object support only when the conveyor carrying it is completely or substantially completely stopped.
When the object support carrying an object which has previously received printing to be dried reaches the drying oven a non-negligible portion of the perimeter of the object is exposed to the corresponding radiation even before the object begins to rotate and likewise as the object support moves away from the drying oven the same part of the perimeter of the object continues to be exposed to the radiation for some time even though the object is no longer rotating.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present the object support usually rotates at constant speed. The reason for this is that the corresponding drive means are normally coupled to those which drive the printing means and more generally to those which drive the machine as a whole.
The part of the perimeter of the object which is exposed to the radiation before the object begins to rotate and after it begins to rotate therefore receives a much greater quantity of drying energy than the other part of its perimeter, which is prejudicial to the drying process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,592,276 attempts to avoid this drawback by means of a mechanical arrangement.
This is difficult to implement in practise, however.
The object of the present invention is an arrangement which avoids this drawback in a very simple and reliable manner.
It is based on the idea of making the drive means operative during drying independent of the drive means operative during printing, the drive means including separate digitally controlled motors, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
To be more precise, the present invention consists firstly in a method of operating a printing machine including at least one object support rotatably mounted on a conveyor which advances stepwise, at least one radiation type drying oven in vertical alignment with the path of movement of the object support and drive means for driving a rotation cycle of the object support in line with the drying oven when the conveyor is stopped and which modulate the rotation speed of the object support during the rotation cycle as a function of its angular orientation; it also consists in any printing machine using a method of the above kind.
In order to implement the invention, the object support drive means include a digitally controlled motor, for example.
Be this as it may, appropriate operation of the drive means in accordance with the invention has the result that the quantity of drying energy received by an object during its rotation cycle is made as uniform as possible around the perimeter of the object, allowing for the quantity of drying energy individually received by the portion of the perimeter exposed to the radiation before and after the rotation cycle.
This has the advantage that drying can be optimized.
The features and advantages of the invention will emerge further from the following description which is given by way of example and with reference to the accompanying diagrammatic drawings.
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Eickholt Eugene
Societe d'Exploitation des Machines Debuit, a “Societe Anon
Young & Thompson
LandOfFree
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