US1377754A - Printing-machine - Google Patents

Description

mww-Io A. R. CURTIS AND C. E. OATHOUTI PRINTING MACHINE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 9. IBIS.

V Patented. May MI, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEEVT 1.

Un te SATES a t 11'? rain ARTHUR R. CURTIS AND CHARLES E. OATHOUT, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNORS TO THE KAYNEE COMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

PRINTING-MACHINE.

Application filed May 9, 1919.

To all to 710771 may 0012 cern Be it known that we, ARTHUR R. CURTIS and CHARLES E. On'rnou'r, citizens of the United States, and residents, respectively, of Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, and Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Printing-Machines, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention relates to a printing machine, and has for its object to improve the eiiiciency and utility of certain kinds of printing machines, for example, those adapted to print data repeatedly on severable portions of a card or strip.

In certain industries, as for example, in

the garment making industry, it is customary, especially when the operators are paid on a piece-work basis, to attach to bundles of pieces which are to be made up into garments, cards composed of tabs or sections usually separated by scored linesiso that they can be detached by the operators, 'hesc sections having printed thereon, certain identification data common to all the sections or" a card, as, for example, data identitying or descriptive of the garments, such as the lot number, size, and the number of pieces of which a garment or bundle to which the card is attached is composed.

This data being common to all the sections of a card, can be readily printed thereon, and it is customary for garment manufacturers to print thisdata on the cards by :1 common and simple form of printing ma chine which feeds the card, step by step along the printing platen, and which at the same time prints or stamps the data common to all the sections oi the card successively on the different sections.

However, it is desirable that the diiierent sections of a card be provided in addition to this common data, with different or vary ing data as to the prices to be paid the diftorcnt operators for the different operations that they are to perform. Hence it is customary tor the garment manufacturer to have employees write price data for the diti'ercnt operations on the different sections of each card after the cards have been run through the printing machine which prints thereon the same or common data referred to above. This ordinarily completes the in- Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May it 19921.

Serial No. 295,915.

formation necessary to be provided on a card for attachment to a bundle of pieces.

In practice, the bundle is passed from operator to operator, each of whom performs a given operation on the pieces of the bundle, and when each has completed his or her work, the operator detaches from the card a section or tab corresponding-to the operation which this operator has performed, which tab shows the price that the operator is to be paid for the operation, and at the end'of the day the operator will have a series of these tabs which will be turned into the otlice for use in determining the amount that this operator has earned during the day, the tabs that the operator turns in, being a check on the stubs of the cards which were turned into the office from another source.

This method of making up the cards, 2'. 6., by printing the common data on the difierent sections and writing the different data on the sections is not only exceedingly expensive in a garment making establishment of large size, but errors are liable to be, and frequently are made.

Furthermore, the cards such as above described, and designed to be attached to bundles of parts or pieces which are to be made into garments, obviously are not all required to have the same number 01"- printed tabs or sections since certain bundles require iore operations than others.

By the machine which we have provided, the necessity for writing the data, which is difi'erenttor the different sections, is obvi ated, mechanism being provided to print on the different sections the varying data, at the same time that there is printed thereon the data which is common to all of them.

As a further feature ot the invention, provision is made for automatically stop ping the printing machine or the movement of the printing head after a predetermined number of printing operations have been performed on the'cards, and in fact we provide means whereby as successive cards are run through the machine, each will be sub jected to the desired number ot'printing operations irrespective or the number which is predetermined, and when a particular card has received a number of printing impressions, the printing operations will automatically stop though the cards which preceded it and which follow may receive a different number of printing operations.

Another important feature of theinvention resides in the manner of constructing the printing iead, and especially the support for the printing members which are Preferably in the form of wheels, and which print on the different sections of a card the same data and the varying data, it being one of the specific objects to provide means whereby the printing wheel which carries the type for printing the varying data can be readily and quickly removed from the printing head without disturbing or making it necessary to remove the printing wheels which print the recurring data.

The invention may be further briefly summarized as consisting in certain novel details of construction, and combinations and arrangements of parts which will be described in the specification and set forth in the appended claims. I

In the accompanyingsheets of drawings wherein we have shown the preferred form of the invention, Figure 1 is a top plan view of a machine constructed in accordance with our invention, parts being broken away, and other parts being in section; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view showing a portion of the machine in rear elevation;'Fig. a is a view on an en larged scale, showing partly in elevation and partly in section, some of the printing wheels, and showing the manner in which that wheel which prints the varying data may be readily removed; 5 is a view of the same partly in end elevation and partly in section; andFig. 6 is a view of a card such as maybe printed with the machine.

The machine includes in this instance, a base or stand 10, on which is mounted a horizontal bed or frame 11. A movable printing head designated inits entirety by the reference character 12, is in this case adapted to be moved up and down, or swung vertically, and to that end it is carried by an oscillating arm 13, secured to rockshaft 14, mounted in suitable hearings on the frame, this rock-shaft having a rearwardly extending arm 15, to the rear end of which is connected an actuating link 16, whose upper end is connected at an off-center point, as clearly shown in Fig. 2, to a rotary actuatingdisk 17, which is mounted on a shaft 18, likewise supported in suitable hearings on the frame of the machine. The shaft is driven by a gear 19, engaged by a driving pinion 20, secured to a shaft 21 which issupported on the frame between the shaft 18 and the rock-shaft 14.

Mounted on the shaft 21 is a driving pulley 22 which is normally loose on the shaft and can be moved endwise thereon. This pulley rotates the shaft when it is pressed against a clutch disk 23 which is fixed to the shaft. r

The pulley is moved into and out of en genient with the clutch disk 23 by a lever I on a rock-shaft 25, suitably mounted in aearings on the bed or frame 11, this rock- 'haft being provided on its rear end with a cell-crank, one arm 26 of which projects up wardly and inwardly, and is provided at its free end with a roller 27 engaging the face of the crank disk 1?. This disk prevents disengagement of the pulley and disk 23, except when the roller 27 drops into a slot 28 of the crank disk 17. The other arm 29, of the bell-crank has connected to it a spring 30 which tends to rock the bell-crank and the rock-shaft 25 so as to disconnect the pulley 22 and disk 23, and stop the printing operations. The pulley is pressed into engage ment with the disk 23 by a substantially vertical push rod 31, and a pedal 32, de-

signed to be actuated by the operator, this push-rod being adapted to engage on the under side of bell-crank arm 29, but when moved from beneath said bell-crank arm in the manner hereinafter explained, the spring 39 pulls the driving pulley away from the disk 23 when the opening 28 of the crankdisk 17 comes opposite the roller 27, and thus allows the roller to drop therein. The opening 28 which times the stopping of the machine is so positioned that the machine will always come to a stop with the printing head elevated.

' The printing head 12, previously referred to,'and stated to be mounted on the free end of arm 13, has two side plates 33, 33, con-- 'nected together at their front ends by cross bar The printing members carried by this head are preferably in the form of wheels including normally stationary wheels 35.with printing type on their peripheries, and one or more, but in this instance, one movable wheel 36 which is designed to no moved one step during the cycle of each printing operation, this wheel 36 being connected by a pin 37 to a ratchet disk 38, the pin 37. prqectmg through the ratchet disk and into a slot on one side of the printing wheel 36. This printing wheel has periph- 'eral notches or slots into which are set removable type slugs 39, preferably held in place by rin 's secured to opposite sides of sections or tabs of the cards to be printed,

do not normally rotate on the shaft 41, being held from movement by pawls 13, pressed into peripheral notches of these wheels by leaf springs 44, mounted on the rear part 45 of the printing head, but the end of the shaft.

in the head as there is no occasion ."for re moving them unless they should i ecome broken.

The movable printing wheel 36, which as before stated, is moved one step in the cycle of each printing operation, and which is utilized to print the varying matter or data on the cards, is mounted on a short shait 4-7, which is supported in part by one of the side plates 33 of the printing head, and in part by the shaft 41, the shaft 4'? having a pilot i-Sentering into an opening or soclret the To permit the quick removal of the printinry wheel 36 without disturbing the )rintin wheels 35, or the shaft ll, on which t in endwise direction, and it is designed to be shifted by the operator outwardly beyond the plane of the wheel 36 through the medium 01" a pin 49 which projects outwardly ftrom the shaft 47 through a helical slot 50 in a boss or equivalent member 51 on the inner side or" the adjacent plate of the head. It will be obvious, especially by retercnce to Fig; 4, that it is only'neeessary :tor the operator to move the pin l9 along the spiral slot 50 to shift the shaft 4'? beyond the printing wheel 36, thus permitting the latter to be removed edgewise from the head. Usually there will be provided a separate printingwheel 36. for each of the different sizes or styles of garments, and the construction which we have'providcd, allows the printing wheel 36 to be quickly changed thus enabling cards for the diii erent types and sizes of garments to be printed without any material delay in adapting the ma chines therefor. I

The printing wheel 36 is held trom acci-- dental movement on the sh aft 4:? by a spring pressed pawl engaging peripheral notches of; the w ieel, and it is moved one step 0., the distance from one printing; slug to the next during each printing cycle by a lined pawl 5 (see Figs. 1. and 2) stationarily mounted on a standard 514: of the bed or frame and so arranged that on each up stroke oi the printing; head this pawl will ens; a tooth of the ratchet dish 35: at the side the printing wheel 36 and move the ratchet disk and prin ing; wheel the distance previously stated 6., so as to bring to printing position the slug next to that which was in printing position on the PIQVlOllS down stroke of the printing head. Beneath the printing head there is platen 55, on which the printing; is done, and the cards are moved step by step over the platen along; guideway indicated. at 56, by a pair ot oonumbers (3 the novel and effect...

acting rollers 57 and 58, designed to engage one edge of the cards' At the side ot'one of these rollers 57 is a ratchet dish 59, and on each up stroke of the printing head this ratchet disl; and the roller associated with it are given a movement sutlicient to feed the card a distance equal to a printing space en ti e card. This is accomplished by a pawl 60, which is pivoted at its rear ends to an arm 61, secured to the rock-shaft 14: carrying the arm' 13 to which the printing head is secured. The construction is such that on the down stroke of the printing head t 1e awl moves forwardly, and on the up stroke pawl is moved rcarwardly a sutlicien ..i tance to move the ratchet dish and card ding roller 57 so as to feed the card a L115- nre equal to one printing space.

roller 58 which cooperates with the feeding roller 57', is carried on a pivoted arm 62. to which is fixed hand lever 63, to which is con. acted a spring which normally presses toe roller 58 yieldingly against the roller 5?. operator has simply to press the lever 63 rearwardly to separate the rollers and permit a card to be placed between the same.

In F 6 we have shown a card, printing of which our machine has special utility as betore explained. lhis card has a series of tabs or sections 65 separated from each other by scored lines 66, and from stubs 67 by a scored line 66'. The stubs and adjacent ends ot the tabs orsections 65 have printed thereon. numbers 68, indicating the in he several garment making operations. there hema on each stub in which may h be placed a set of characters (39 i hicatinp; the operator. To the right of the operation 8. the data is adapted to be print ed by this machine in column form, the data in columns 70 71 and 7:? being cornmon to all the sections or tabs of a ward, this data being printed by the normally stationary or normally non-rotating; print-in wheels 35., four of which we have shown in. ie. 4. The price data appearing in column 73 varies for the different tabs or sections and there f -r the different operations to which the ditlerent sections a (riveted. this data being that printed by the s ep by step mow able printing}; wheel 36. which mom ted so that it can be easi removed edgcivise in i, manner already doscribed and which is given step by stc movement by the very edicient mechanism explained above. I

The card shown in 6 has the common or constantly recurring data and the varying data printed on all the tabs or sections,

series of printing operations, with successive series having the same or different numbers of separate printing operations. To that end we have provided automatic stopping mechanism including a rotary dial 74, suitably supported on the frame of the machine, which dial has on its under side, ratchet teeth 75, adapted to be engaged so to move the dial step by step by a'pawl 7 6 which is pressed up into engagement with the teeth by a spring 77, and is mounted on an arm 78, carried by the rock-shaft 14, the whole being so constructed that when the machine is in operation this dial will be stepped along in predetermined relationship with the movement of the printing head. and card feeding rolls. It will be observed that the dial is provided near its periphery with openings or sockets 79 numbered consecutively, and adapted to receive throw-out pins 80, whicn can be positioned to stop the operation of the machine after successive series of printing operations, the number of printing operations in each series depending upon the spacing of these pins, which spacing is predetermined and bears a fixed relation to the number of printing impressions that are to be printed on cards which are successively fed through the machine.

These throw-out pins 80 are moved in a circle by the rotating dial, and when each reaches a given position it engages and moves the beveled end 81 of a trip lever 82, pivoted between its ends at 83 on a standard fixed to theframe of the machine, the lower end 84 of this lever being just beneath the bell-crank arm 29 previously referred to, and at the rear of the upper end of the push rod 31 whenit is in engagement with the lower side of this bell-crank arm.

Assuming that the operator has a series of cards to be printed, which are to have different numbers of tabs printed with the constant and varying data, the operator will set a pin at the zero position, and other pins in the openings around the periphery of the disk, the spacing depending upon the number of printing operations which are to be given to the successive cards.

The operator will then place a card in the machine between the rolls and start the operation by pressing the foot pedal, the upper end of the push rod then engaging under the bell-crank arm 29, as shown in Fig. 2. The machine will operate repeatedly and rapidly, and when the predetermined number of printing operations have been impressed on the card referred to, the pin next to .the pin in zero position will engage the end of trip lever 82, and rock it sufiiciently so that its lower end will push the upper end of rod 31 from beneath the bell-crank arm 29, so as to stop the machine.

The operator will next place the second card in the machine, and, again start the operation, and after a predetermined number of printing operations, determined by the position of the second pin beyond the zero pin, the machinewill be automatically stopped, and this will be repeated for the different cards of the set or series.

In explaining the "construction and operation we have for the sake of clearness referred solely to the printing of cards adapted for use in the garment making industry, but it will be obvious that the machine may be used for printing cards or blanks other than those of the type referred to adapted to be used for the purpose and in the main ner explained, and while We have explained only the preferred construction, it will be obvious that changes may be made in details of construction and arrangement with out affecting the principal features of the invention and the desirable functioning of the machine embodying such features.

Having described our invention, we claim:

1. In a printing machine, a movable print ing head havinga plurality of type carrying printing wheels, part thereof being fixed in said head for rotary adjustment only, and part coaxial with the first-named being removably mounted in said head.

2. In a printing machine, a platen, a plurality of printing wheels, a pair of coaxial shafts for supporting said wheels, each shaft supporting part of the wheels, one of said shafts being mounted for endwise movement away from the wheel or wheels supported thereon.

3. In a printing machine, a platen, a printing head movable toward and from the platen, two shafts coaxially mounted in said head, one being movable in an endwise direction away from the other, and a plurality of printing wheels, part mounted on one shaft and part on the endwise movable shaft.

4. In a printing machine, a platen, a printhead movable toward and from the platen, two shafts coaxially mounted in said head, one being movable in an endwise direction away from the other, and a plurality of printing wheels, part mounted on one shaft and part on the endwise movable shaft, the part on the first mentioned shaft being normally stationary, and means for moving the part on the second mentioned shaft during the cycle of each printing operation.

5. In a printing machine, a platen, a plurality of printing wheels, a pair of coaxial shafts for supporting said wheels, each shaft supporting part of the wheels, one of said shafts being stationary and having a bearing for the second, and the second being mounted for endwise movement away from the first-named.

6. In a printing machine, a platen, a plurality of printing wheels, a pair of coaxial shafts supporting the saidwheels, one of said shafts having a bearing member with a slot, and said shaft having a shifting member extending through said slot, said slot being so disposed that when the shifting member is moved along the same said shaft is moved axially away from the other shaft.

7. In a printing machine, a platen, a movable printing member, means for actuating said printing member, and means for auto matically rendering the actuating means inoperative after each of a number of series of printing operations, each series composed of a predetermined number of operations which may be the same or different than the number in the other series.

8. A printing machine comprising a platen, a movable printing member, actuating means for causing printing impressions to be made, means for starting the operation of the printing member, and means for automatically stopping the actuation of the printing member so that successive blanks will receive oniy predetermined numbers of printing impressions which may be of like or unlike value.

9. A printing machine comprising a platen, a movi ble printing member, actuating means for causing printing impressions to be made, means for starting the operation oi? the printing member, and means for automatically stopping the actuation of the printing member so that successive blanks Will receive only predetermined numbers of printing impressions, said automatic means involving devices by which successive blanks may receive printing impressions of the same or different predetermined or selected numbers.

10. In a printing machine, a platen, a movable printing member, means for actuating said printing member, means for automatically rendering the actuating means inoperative after a set of successive printing operations, and means adapted to be given a preliminary setting for controlling the first-named means whereby successive sets of printing operations may vary in numbers of operations.

11. A printing machine comprising a movable printing member, means for actuating the same and having a clutch by which the printing member is started and stopped, a clutch controlling means adjustable for a plurality of succeeding sets of printing operations and embodying mechanism by which the printing impressions are stopped a 'ter each of a series of printing operations which may vary in number with respect to any other series.

In testimony whereof, we hereunto afiix our signatures.

ARTHUR H. CURTIS. CHARLES E. @ATHOUT.

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