Multicolor printing apparatus with horizontally rotatable...

Details Multicolor printing apparatus with horizontally rotatable... Multicolor printing apparatus with horizontally rotatable...

1998-11-23

2001-05-08

Asher, Kimberly (Department: 2854)

Printing

Multicolor

Rotary machines

C101S183000, C101S217000, C101S231000, C101S240000, C101S229000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06227109

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a coating apparatus, a printing apparatus, an imaging apparatus, an imaging method, an imaging medium, a printing system, and a printing method.
BACKGROUND ART
As a technique of this type of printing apparatus, there are known the techniques disclosed in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-152504 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,280,406), Examined Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-28860 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,141,293), and Examined Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-71983. All of the above mentioned publications are incorporated by reference.
In the printing apparatus of Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 54-152504, as shown in
FIG. 29
, plate cylinders
1041
to
1044
and blanket cylinders
1051
to
1054
, which were positioned at an ink coating apparatus setting side separately from a feeding side for web paper and a discharging side for paper cut into sheets, were arranged in the same frame to be slidably drawn. This resulted in easy plate replacements, and easy change of a print format, and operability of the printing apparatus was improved.
In Examined Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-28860, as shown in
FIG. 30
, in order to carry out multicolor printing on continuous paper, a plurality of print units was vertically arranged, thereby reducing a setting floor area for the printing apparatus. Also, the ink coating apparatus were provided on the same side, so that easy plate replacements were achieved. In the printing apparatus of Examined Japanese Patent Publication No.3-71983, as shown in
FIG. 31
, spaces for setting dampening water apparatuses are omitted by use of waterless plates. Instead, a plate feed and discharge device was provided to the omitted space for each plate cylinder so as to improve operability.
As a technique of the coating apparatus used in these printing apparatus, there are known the techniques disclosed in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 57-178872, Unexamined Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 56-76438, and Examined Japanese Patent Publication No.4-68147. These techniques are used as an ink coating technique for the printing apparatus, and frequently employed mainly in waterless lithographic printing, a letterpress printing, etc. In particular, Examined Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-68147 disclosed a coating apparatus having a coating roller with an elastic surface, and a doctor blade, which freely moved back and forth to the outer peripheral surface of the coating roller and controlled a thickness of a coated ink film to be formed on the outer peripheral surface. This was an extremely useful coating technique when ink having high viscosity was used.
The feature of the techniques used in these coating apparatus is that the doctor blade is used as a method for setting the thickness of the ink film to be applied onto the coating roller. For example, in the technique of Examined Japanese Patent Publication No. 4-68147, as shown in
FIG. 32
, an ink unit
1002
, serving as an ink coating apparatus, comprises a form roller
1201
, a doctor blade
1202
, an eccentric cam
1203
for controlling the movement of the doctor blade, ink distributing rollers
1210
,
1211
, and an auxiliary form roller
1212
having an elastic surface. The form roller
1201
, the doctor blade
1202
, side plates
1207
and
1208
, which are arranged at both sides of the form roller
1201
in its axial direction, and an ink fountain
1206
form an ink fountain space
1205
, which is filled with printing ink i.
A small gear (not shown) rotating solidly with the form roller
1201
is engaged with a large gear (not shown) rotating solidly with a plate cylinder
1015
. Thus, the form roller
1201
and the plate cylinder
1015
are synchronized with each other and rotated at the same circumferential speed at their contact section.
The ink unit
1002
is configured so that the eccentric cam
1203
attached to a shaft
1204
is rotated so as to move the doctor blade
1202
back and fourth in a direction of an arrow A, thereby changing the engagement between the doctor blade
1202
and the form roller
1201
in order to control the thickness of the coated ink film formed on the outer periphery of the form roller
1201
.
Conventionally, a printing plate, serving as an imaging medium used in such a printing apparatus, has been generally manufactured by a photomechanical process in which a lith type film (lithographic film) for plate-making is applied to a PS plate (presensitized plate or the like). Since the plate-making apparatus and the printing apparatus are normally independent devices, the positioning of the imaging medium of each color in the multicolor printing is carried out by the following process.
At the outset register marks were drawn on the imaging medium for each color. Then, the imaging medium for each color was installed around each plate cylinder of the printing apparatus. Ink was fed to the imaging medium of each color, and printing was performed on a recording medium such as paper. Then, the positions of the imaging mediums of the respective colors in the printing apparatus and the print timing were adjusted until the positions of the register marks printed on the recording mediums of the respective colors coincided with each other. Thus the mutual positions of the imaging mediums of the respective colors were determined.
In recent years, there has been increased the use of the imaging apparatus for making the printing plate, which serves as the imaging medium, based on digital imaging information in accordance with imaging data. As an imaging medium fixing method in these imaging apparatuses, there are known techniques disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No.3-24549 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No.5,094,933) and Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-8366, which are incorporated by reference.
In the apparatus of Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 3-24549, as shown in
FIG. 33
, after imaging on a web imaging medium, the imaging medium is cut to a predetermined size, developed and carried by a transfer roller or a conveyor belt.
In Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-8366, as shown in
FIG. 34
, the imaging medium is wound around an attaching member and rotated, and imaging is executed by irradiation of an energy beam. The imaging medium is fixed to the plate cylinders with flat-headed screws, or adhered thereto with adhesive.
As a technique in which the imaging medium is wound around an attaching member and rotated, and imaging is executed by irradiation of the energy beam, the imaging apparatus disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 5-8366 was configured as described as follows.
That is, the attaching member to which the imaging medium was attached was rotated and the energy beam scans in a circumferential direction of the imaging medium. Also, the laser block having a semiconductor laser is scanned in the axial direction of the attaching member by use of a ball screw.
The shaft of the attaching member and the ball screw are arranged to be parallel with the axial direction of the attaching member. The scanning in the axial direction is executed for each scanning in the circumferential direction while the attaching member is rotated. The scanning is performed over the entire surface of the imaging medium thereby imaging is executed.
The imaging apparatus disclosed in Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 8-72311 is configured as follows.
That is, as shown in
FIG. 35
, the imaging medium, which is wound around the attaching member and rotates, is irradiated with the energy beam from a plurality of recording heads having a plurality of energy beam irradiation sources, so as to execute imaging. The imaging medium, which is wound around the attaching member and rotates, is scanned in the circumferential direction by its rotation and simultaneously, the recording heads are scanned in the axial direction of the attaching member by a linear motor, etc. Therefore, the rotation shaft of th

Affiliated with

Also associated with

Rating

Multicolor printing apparatus with horizontally rotatable... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.

If you have personal experience with Multicolor printing apparatus with horizontally rotatable..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Multicolor printing apparatus with horizontally rotatable... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2565021