US1280527A - Registration of printing-plates, &c. - Google Patents

Description

E. E. NOVOTNY.

REGISTRATION 0F PRINTING PLATES APPLICATION FILED MAY 2o.- me. IIEIIEwEn ma. I2. 1918.

, &c.

vao

' a press.

EVIIL E. NOVOTNY, OF RIVERSIDE, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR T0 J'. STOGDELL STOKES, 0F

MGORESTOWN, NEWJ'ERSEY.

REGISTRATION 0F PRINTING-PLATES, &o.

Application led May 20, 1916, Serial No. 98,917.

To all whom it may concern.'

Be it known that I, EMIL E. NoVoTNY, a citizen of the United States, residing at Riverside, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in vRegistration of Printing-Plates, &c., of which the following is a specification.

VThis invention relates to the manufacture of a printing plate from a mold by such a method that the plate may be brought at once into a proper position of exact registration on a printing or supporting base, such as the cylinder of a printing press, in the case of a curved plate, or the flat bed of a press in the case of a flat printing plate, and' furthermore such plate when so registered or positioned may be locked by any suitable means, said printing plate preferably during the molding operation having certain indicatin means formed thereon which correspon to indicate means on the bed, support or saddle for the plate, s0 that the platemay be instantly and accurately positioned in any selected location on the surface of the bed by causingthe indicating means of the plate to coincide with those on the bed, support or saddle-that is to say, the plate may be interchangeably located on its bed or support. In the printing art, as is well known, an infinite variety of printing must be done on For instance, the margins from the printed matter' to the edges of the sheets in size and makeup;

te registration, as l may diifer with different classes of work; the plates, cuts or bodiesof type may differ a particular job may be required to be printed in dierent superimposed colors; and numerous other factors or conditions well known to printers and pressmen may exist which will necessitate locating the printing element or body, such as the plate, cut or body of type 1n a particular position upon the supporting part or bed of the press, and this is commonly referred to as registration. Usually the opera.- tion of attaining proper register on a press requires so much calculation, in the absence of available means for accurate measurement, that the expenditure of a great deal of time and labor on the part of a skilled pressman, with the consequent expense, is unavoidable.

. With my invention I obviatea this tedious and costly operation of obtaining accurate am enabled to accomplish Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Ust. l, 1918.

Renewed February 12, 1918. Serial No. 216,785.

this end by my method of preparing the mold and printing plate so that the completed printing plate may be instantly and exactly fitted in the proper position on the support or bed.

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a -portion of a bed or support with the saddle connected therewith, a printing plate registered on the saddle and a sheet of paper located above the printing plate.

Fig. 2 is a plan view of a type form or body of type locked in the chase.

Fig. 3 is a view in elevation showing the formation of a mold from the form of type illustrated in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a plan view of a portion of a casting box intended to illustrate the positioning ofthe mold in the casting box preparatory to making the plate.

Fig. 5 is a View partly in cross section and partly in elevation showing the making of the plate from the mold in the casting box.

Fig. 6 is a cross sectional view taken through the printing plate and illustrating the uniformly spaced, equi-distant bosses on the back of the plate.

In order to obtain the rapid and exact registration of the printing pla-te upon its support on the press I provide means for enabling the plate to be instantly applied to such support so that the margin of the printing portion or type matter ofthe plate will coincide with the marginal line, imaginary or actual on the paper or sheet being fed into printing relation to such plate. For example, if it is desired to print on a sheet Iso that a blank margin of 1 inchf will exist between the printed matter and the edge or edgesof the sheet, I provide means by which the plate may be so located on its support in the press, relative to the sheet being operated upon, that this margin will be obtained withexactitude without the necessity of frequent trials to secure proper alinement or registration. Of course where l speak of the paper margin or margins it is to be understood that this is to include various kinds of margins as are encountered in printing, as hereinbefore mentioned, such as those relating to column or cut arrangements, superimposition yof colors when necessary, border margins and the like.

As hereinbefore set forth one manner in which my purpose may be accomplished is to provide a plate support of the press, such as a formed cylinder, or a flat bed, as the case maybe, with certain indicating means which are adapted .to ,coincide with certain other indicating 'means formed on: the printin plate, preferably located at the back thereo. occupying a certain predetermined position relative to the printing portion or printing margins at the front face of the plate, that is to say to the top section of the plate.

The indicating means on the plate support of the press may be, as shown herein, in the nature o f small sockets spaced selected and predetermined distances apart, for example 2 inches. The printing plate may be equipped with small projections or bosses likewise spaced apart distances corresponding to the spaces socketed on the support, that is to say 2 inches. The bosses on the back of the printing plate, however, should be, as herein set forth located relative to the margins or edges of the field of the printing portion at the front of the plate so that when the plate is applied to the support with its bosses seated in the sockets of the support, the margins of the field of the printing portions of the plate will properly coincide with desired paper margins, imaginary or actual, on the sheet to be printed upon.

ln practising my invention l preferably proceed as follows, and in order to make my purpose clear l will select a concrete case or example of the ap lication of the invention in connection wit 1 a flat printing plate to be used on a press having a flat bed or support.

Let us assume, for example, that we desire to apply to the printing bed 1 in a particular position thereon, a plate 2 having a printing area of 8 by 10 inches shown at 3, and that the ,sheet of paper i to be printed by this plate is 10 by 12 inches, so that the printed sheet will show a margin 5 of one inch at all sides. l take a body of type 6 which is 8 by 10 inches and lock up` in the chase 7 therewith two cutting rules 8 at right angles to each other, each spaced one inch from the type matter. `When the mold 9 is made from this type body the cutting rules will either score two cutting lines at right angles to each other on the marginal face portions of the mold 9, thus forming indications for/ cutting or trimminthe mold, or will entirely cut or trim onin these edges of the mold, so that the type forming matter l0 of the mold will be set in one inch from each of these edges 11. lf one edge 11 of the mold is to be changed in the casting box C, as is desirable, an extra width of margin, say, onequarter of an inch may be left at one side ofthe mold for this purpose.

When the mold 9 has been thus trimmed it is clamped in the casting box C with the trimmed right" angled edges 11 of the mold abutting against the adjacent sides 18 of the casting nox. ln other words, as the casting 4ing of the relative box is usually much larger than the mold, because one casting box is used to make printing plates of different sizes, I snugly fit the mold in one corner of the casting box. This castin box is provided with a core plate 14C which has the face 15 provided with` Y depressions or sockets 16 spaced selected and preferably uniform distances apart, say, two

lng box and depressing the core plate.

against the plastic material and also the mold. rljhe result is that bosses or projections 19 are formed 0n the back 20 of the printing plate. Considering the back 20 of the plate, these bosses 19 will be spaced two inches apart relative to each other, with the marginal rows of bosses also two inches from the edges of the plate, but considering the front or printing face 21 of the plate, these marginal rows of bosses will lie inward one inch from the marginal printing lines. Furthermore, the sockets 16 of the core plate of the casting box and Consequently the bosses,

19 made on the back of the printing plate are made to correspond or standardized with sockets 22 formed in the bed or saddle l of the press, that is the bed or saddle 1 has `formed in its outer face sockets spaced two inches apart to receive the bosses of the printing plate. i

Now, it will be evident that the marginal trimming lines or edges on the mold are also the marginal printing lines on the paper, or represent the edges of the paper, and that therefore the finer dimension rather than the rough possible shiftable dimension provided for by the bosses on the plate and the sockets in the bed or saddle-on a printing press is further minutely dimensioned by the shiftpositions of the bosses of the plate and the printing margins on the front or face ofthe plate.

ln the casting of the printing plate, core screws 23 are preferably projected through the sockets in the core plate to form screw bores 2a in the bosses of the plate, so that suitable fastening screws, preferably hollow, may be used to secure the plate bosses in the sockets of the saddle.

lt will be noted that my invention e1nbraces this. Given a printing plate having the back thereof provided with indications or markings such as the bosses constitute, which correspond in spacing and relative location to indications or markings on the plate support or bed the sockets constitute,

the plate may be instantly and accurately registered on the bed on the press, such as fio " ent exemplification of the invention I have shown and described the bosses of the plate and the sockets of the bed or saddle asconstituting the corresponding or related indicating or locating means for obtaining the.

proper register of the plate on the bed or saddle, but it will be understood that I do not limit myself to this nor to the formation of the indicating means on the plate during the molding operation, as other indicating means, such as surface lines or points or depressions might be lused on the plate and its supportin saddle or bed, and these might be applie to the plate after as well as before it is made. Furthermore, the invention is applicable to plates orV printing bodies made otherwise than by molding. The example and explanation given herein is merely by way of illustration. I

What I claim is:

1. The herein'described method of registration which comprises providing a printingl plate with a registration indication occupying a predetermined position relative to a marginal printing line of such plate and applying a plate t0 a plate support on the press with such indication so positioned relative to the indication of the plate support of the press that the marginal printing line of the printing plate will coincide with a selected line of the paper printed upon.

2. The herein described method of registration which comprises providing a nonprinting portion of a printing plate with a plurality of spaced registration indications, certain of which indications occupy a predetermined position relative to a marginal printing line of the plate, and applying a plate to a plate support on the press with such indications so positioned relative to an indication on the plate support of the press that amarginal printing line of the printing plate will coincide with a selected printing line of the paper printed upon.

3. The herein described method. which comprises providing a printing plate support with spaced registration indications and providing the printing plate with similarly spaced registration indications adapted to correspond with those of the support, certain of the registration indications of the printing plate being spaced a predetermined or measured distance 'from the printing margin of the plate to cause such printing margin to coincide with a line margin of the paper when the plate is appliedl to the support. y 4. The herein described method of registration or positioning printing body on a,

support which comprises providing nonprinting portions of the body with indicating means adapted to correspond andselec tively register with a plurality of ,spaced indicating means on this support.

5. The herein'described method of registration 0r positioning a printing body on a support whichY comprises. providing a body with a plurality of spaced indicating means adapted tov correspond and selectively register' lwith a plurality of similarly spaced indicating means on a support whereby said printing body may be accurately registered i "on the support in anyldesired location.

6. The herein described method of registering orpositioning a printing body on its support which comprises providing a back face of a printing body with a plurality of spaced indicating means adapted to correspond to andA selectively register with a plurality of Similarly spaced indicating means on the printing or adjacent face of the support.'v

7. The herein described method of registering or positioning a printing plate on 'its support which comprises providing al back face Aof a plate` with a kplurality of uniformly spaced.- projections vadapted to correspond to and selectively coincide with a plurality of similarly' spaced sockets or recesses in the support.

8. 'Ihe herein described method of preparing for registration and registering a printing plate on its support which consists in molding a plate and forming indicating means on the back thereof by means of a device having spaced indications corresponding or standardized to spaced indications on the support and subsequently tting the plate on the 4support to cause the indications of the lplate to coincide with the indications ofthe support.

9. The herein described method of registering or positioning'aprinting body on its support which comprises providing a body with a plurality of spaced indicating

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