Abrading – Precision device or process - or with condition responsive... – With indicating
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-09
2001-08-14
Morgan, Eileen P. (Department: 3723)
Abrading
Precision device or process - or with condition responsive...
With indicating
C451S011000, C451S036000, C451S059000, C451S109000, C451S124000, C451S184000, C451S213000, C451S137000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06273784
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to method and apparatus for treating the surface of a support of a lithographic plate, and more particularly to reducing the abrasion of a graining brush that grains the surface of an aluminum support of the lithographic plate.
2. Description of Related Art
The aluminum plate has widely been used as the support of a photosensitive printing plate or the lithographic plate. The surface of the aluminum support is grained in order to improve the adherence between a sensitive layer and the aluminum support and to provide non-image parts on the plate with the capacity to retain moisture.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 53-123204 discloses a brush graining method, which is now widely used as the surface treatment method for graining the surface of the aluminum support. In the brush graining method, a graining brush, which is made of a material such as nylon, rubs the surface of the aluminum support with abrasive slurry, which contains abrasive particles of materials such as pumice or pumicite, aluminum hydroxide, or alumina, which have new Mohs'scale of 2 or more. According to the brush graining method, it is possible to sequentially obtain the support that has a good printing performance, and the equipment costs can be relatively low. U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,317 discloses the brush graining method in which the graining brush oscillates while it rotates.
The widths of aluminum webs to be the aluminum supports are not uniform, and one graining brush must continuously rubs the surfaces of the narrow aluminum web and the wide aluminum web. However, according to the surface treatment apparatus of Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 53-123204 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,477,317, the bristles of the graining brush are abraded sectionally if the surfaces of the aluminum webs with different widths are grained with the one graining brush continuously. Hence, the graining brush must be replaced by a new one frequently, or the bristles of the graining brush must be trimmed frequently in accordance with the abrasion, and therefore, the surface graining is neither economical nor efficient.
Specifically, since the bristles are abraded at the central part of the graining brush, with which the aluminum webs come into contact, the aluminum webs with different widths must be transported to the surface treatment apparatus sequentially in order of the width of them. Consequently, the bristles become short at the central part of the used graining brush and become relatively long at both ends thereof. To treat the surface of the wide aluminum web again, the graining brush must be replaced by a new one, or the bristles of the graining brush must be trimmed so that they can be uniform length at the central part and both ends of the graining brush.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention has been developed in view of the above-described circumstances, and has as its object the provision of an economical and efficient surface treatment method and apparatus for the support of the lithographic plate that decreases the number of times the graining brushes are changed and this eliminates the necessity for trimming the bristles when the surfaces of a plurality of aluminum webs with different widths are treated.
To achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is directed to a surface treatment method for a support of a lithographic plate, wherein a graining brush rubs a surface of the support with abrasive slurry to thereby grain the surface of the support, the surface treatment method comprising at least one the steps of: moving at least one of the graining brush and the support periodically in a direction perpendicular to a transporting direction of the support, thereby making the entire graining brush uniformly come into contact with the support; and turning at least one of the graining brush and the transporting direction of the support such that the graining brush is placed obliquely against the transporting direction of the support, thereby making the entire graining brush come into contact with the support.
Furthermore, to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention is directed to a surface treatment apparatus for rubbing a surface of a support of a lithographic plate by a graining brush with abrasive slurry to thereby grain the surface of the support, the surface treatment apparatus comprising at least one of: a moving device for moving the graining brush in a direction perpendicular to a transporting direction of the support; and a turning device for turning the graining brush such that the graining brush is placed obliquely against the transporting direction of the support.
According to the present invention, at least one of the graining brush and the support of the lithographic plate is moved periodically in the width direction of the support of the lithographic plate, or at least one of the graining brush and the transporting direction of the support of the lithographic plate is turned so that the graining brush can be placed obliquely against the transporting direction of the support of the lithographic plate. Thus, the entire graining brush uniformly or always comes into contact with the support of the lithographic plate. For this reason, the abrasion in the bristles of the graining brush is maintained uniform.
REFERENCES:
patent: 2702969 (1955-03-01), Klaar
patent: 3548435 (1970-12-01), Comber et al.
patent: 4078905 (1978-03-01), Oya
patent: 4477317 (1984-10-01), Chu et al.
patent: 4646479 (1987-03-01), Walker et al.
patent: 5759089 (1998-06-01), McCoy
patent: 53-123204 (1978-10-01), None
Rachi Yuzo
Yamazaki Toru
Fuji Photo Film Co. , Ltd.
Morgan Eileen P.
Sughrue Mion Zinn Macpeak & Seas, PLLC
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