US2699333A

US2699333A - Apparatus and method for feeding sheets to printing presses

Info

Publication number: US2699333A
Application number: US278921A
Authority: US
Inventors: Leslie W Claybourn; Carlton C Claybourn
Original assignee: L W CLAYBOURN Inc
Current assignee: L W CLAYBOURN Inc
Priority date: 1952-03-27
Filing date: 1952-03-27
Publication date: 1955-01-11
Anticipated expiration: 1972-01-11

Description

Jah- 11, 1955 2,699,333

NG SHEETS TO PRINTING PRESSES L. w. CLAYBOURN ETAL APPARATUS AND METHOD EOE FEEDI 'S'Sheeis-Sheet :1

Filed March 27. 1952 Jan. 11, 1955 1.. w. CLAYBOURN ETAL 2,699,333 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING SHEETS TO Filed March 27, 1952 PRINTING PBESSES 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 E ewiflak 502m"); Q7/3527 jiazqrr; ,B/ /@%//W% 2,699,333 RESSES 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 L. w. cLAYBouRN ETAL APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING SHEETS TO PRINTING P Jan. 11, 1955 Filed March 27. 1952 floews:

L. w. CLAYBOURN ET AL 236995-33 NG SHEETS T0 PRINTING PRESSES Jan. 11, 1955 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDI Filed March 27. 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 Jan. 11, 1955 L. w. CLAYBOURN ETAL 2,699,333

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDI NG SHEETS TO PRINTING PRESSES Filed March 27. 1952 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 United States Patent Ofilice 2,699,333 Patented Jan. 11, 1955 APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR FEEDING SHEETS TO PRINTING PRESSES Leslie W. Claybourn and Carlton C. Claybourn, Chicago, Ill., assignors to L. W. Claybourn, Inc., a corporation of Illinois Application March 27, 1952, Serial No. 278,921 17 Claims. (Cl. 271--51) This invention relates to feeding sheets to a printing press and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for feeding sheets to a rotary press to increase production of the press.

b Experience has taught that rotary printing presses can e invention will be described with reference to a preferred embodiment illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a diagrammatic side elevational view of a rotary press showing the relative location of the printing cylinders. sheet feeders and apparatus of this invention; Fig. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary side elevational view of the sheet transferring means of this invention in position to pick up a sheet from the sheet feeder; Fig. 3 is a view like Fig. 2 showing the transfer device in position to release a sheet to the feed-in cylinder; Fig. 4 is a fragmentary sectional view taken substantially along line 4-4 in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional View taken substantially along line 5-5 in Fig. 4; Fig. 6 is a fragmentary top plan view of the transfer device as seen in Fig. 3; Fig. 7 is a fragmentary sectional View taken substantially along mentary sectional view through the sheet gripping device taken substantially along line 8--8 in Fig. 4.

The rotary press as diagrammatically shown in Fig. 1 includes an impression cylinder 10 against which plate cylinders 11 and 12 are pressed to print the sheets. Two plate cylinders are shown since the illustrated press may print two colors and the color rolls (not shown) will be in contact with the plate cylinders olf the right-hand side of the figure. Near the top of the figure, a chain 13 provided with grippers passes around

rolls

14 and 15 for taking printed sheets off the impression cylinder. These sheets are passed to a delivery chain 18 and carried out of the press.

The sheets to be printed are advanced toward the press on sheet feeders 19 and 2,9 which are sloped downwardly toward transfer devices 2.1 and 22. In the case of the upper sheet feeder 19, sheets are taken from the feeder by the transfer device 21 and delivered to the feed-in cylinder 23 from which they are transferred to the impression cylinder. In the case of the lower sheet feeder 29. the sheets are delivered by transfer device 22 to feed-in cylinder 24 and then to the impression cylinder.

The feed-in cylinders and impression cylinder are provided with grippers for grasping the sheets and holding them in aligned position through the press. the impression cylinder is cast iron while the feed-in cylinders may be steel or aluminum.

11 normal operation of traveling in press at a given rate which rate rate of the press. The incoming sheets were stopped for purposes of alignment and then fed into the printing cylinders of the press.

usually picked up and supporting the plates 30.

n arm 31 is mounted between the ner that wi the races for the bearings.

At the outer end of the arms 31 are mounted the sheet gripping means and the means for following the circular track 26. A boss 35 carries a number of rollers 36 which run in the confines of the track 26 upon rotation of the arm 31. The driving force is supplied in the will vary in distance between the outer end and th ready will be travels radially relative to 33 as rollers 36 follow the to release a sheet well understood the arm 31 the shaft on the ball bearings track.

The sheet gripping devices are operated by a pair of

cam surfaces

40 and 41 which are secured to the face of the plate 25. The grippers 42 themselves are mounted on a cross member 43 carried on the outer end of a pair of arms 31, one arm being on each side of the press. Bell crank arms 44 are mounted adjacent the ends of arm 31 and carry a follower 45 adapted to engage the

cam surfaces

40 and 41 to operate the gripping mechanism to the present instance at the highest lineal velocity. The inner end of bell crank 44 has a segment gear 46 in mesh with spur gear 45 on shaft 48 which carries the inner ends of gripper fingers 42. The grippers are pivotally mounted at 49 on the cross member 43. Movement of the bell cranks thus operates the grippers to catch and release sheets.

An example of the operation of the present invention to double the capacity of a printing press may be noted by referring to Fig. 1. If the impression cylinder is run at a printing rate of 5,000 sheets per hour the sheet feeders 19 and 2% may be operated at a feeding rate of only 2,500 sheets per hour. Each sheet must be fed at a velocity to the impression cylinder equal to the surface velocity of the cylinder. The disclosed transfer devices can double the velocity of the sheet transferring it to a feed-in cylinder and thus the velocity of each sheet will be accelerated to the velocity of the impression cylinder. In handling certain types of paper it may be possible to increase the number of sheet feeders by the provision of additional devices or with other papers it may be possible to speed up both the sheet feeders and the printing cylinders. It will be noted that the transfer device will have an arm length from the axis of the shaft 27 to the sheet gripper equal to the radius of the impression cylinder upon the release of a sheet S. This insures that the velocity of the sheet is the same as the surface velocity of the impression cylinder since shaft 27 and the impression cylinder are driven at the same speed. The sheet transfer devices are driven in timed relation to the printing cylinders so that the sheets are fed both alternately and intermittently to the printing cylinders.

While we have shown and described certain embodiments of our invention, it is to be understood that it is capable of many modifications. Changes, therefore, in the construction and arrangement may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as disclosed in the appended claims.

We claim:

1. In a sheet printing press having a plurality of feed mechanisms and an impression cylinder adapted to run at a velocity substantially in excess of the velocity at which said sheets are fed by said feed mechanism, separate means for transferring sheets from each feed mechanism, each of said means being adapted to accelerate the sheets during transfer to the impression cylinder, each of said means including a transfer cylinder adapted to perform one rotation during transfer of one sheet to said impression cylinder, whereby the impression cylinder prints sheets at a rate substantially in excess of the velocity of which sheets are fed by said feed mechanisms, and means for driving said transfer means in timed relation to the rotation of the impression cylinder.

2. Apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein the press is provided with two feed mechanisms with a separate sheet transfer means between each feed mechanism and the impression cylinder, said transfer means including accelerating means secured thereto, and means are provided for driving each feed mechanism at a rate corresponding to substantially one half the printing rate of the impression cylinder.

3. Apparatus for transferring sheets from a source of sheets on a sheet feeder to a printing press cylinder comprising means forming a circular path, a rotary member mounted for travel at a constant angular velocity about an axis eccentric to the circular path, said axis lying between the center of the circular path and a position where a sheet is picked up, means for picking up a sheet from said source at one position during a revolution of a memher and the means for releasing the sheet at another position during the same revolution of a member, said means being adapted to transmit continuous acceleration to said sheet.

4. Apparatus for changing the rate of feed of sheets from a source to a printing press comprising means forming a circular path, a rotary member mounted for travel at a constant angular velocity about an axis eccentric to the circular path, said axis lying between the center of the circular path and a position where a sheet is picked up, sheet gripping means on said rotatable member adjacent said path moveable at. a variable linear velocity, and means for picking up and releasing a sheet at selected positions about said path.

5. Apparatus for transferring sheets from a source of sheets on a sheet feeder to a printing press cylinder comprising, means forming a circular path, an arm having means for following said path, said arm, being rotatable about an axis eccentric to the path at a constant angular velocity whereby the means'following said path moves at variable linear velocity, means on the arm adjacent said circular path for picking a sheet from the sheet feeder at one linear velocity and means for releasing the sheet at another linear velocity.

6. Apparatus for transferring sheets from a source of sheets on a sheet feeder to a printing press cylinder comprising, means forming a circular path, an arm having a follower adapted to track in said path, arm driving means including a shaft eccentric to said path, said arm being secured to the shaft and being slidable radially of the shaft, and sheet grasping means on the arm adjacent the circular path position to take sheets from said source and release them to the press.

7. Apparatus as set forth in claim 6 wherein the press has a plurality of sheet feeders, a sheet transferring means is provided for each sheet feeder and means are provided for driving said transferring means in timed relation to the press cylinder.

8. Apparatus for transferring sheets from a sheet feeder to a printing press cylinder, means for rotating said cylinder, said transfer apparatus comprising, means forming a circular track, a shaft within the track arranged eccentric thereto, an arm mounted on the shaft, sheet gripping means on the arm adjacent the track and following said track, and means for driving said shaft in timed relation to rotation of said printing press cylinder, said sheet gripping means having a variable linear velocity less than or equal to the linear velocity of said printing press cylinder.

9. Apparatus for transferring sheets from a sheet feeder to a printing press cylinder comprising, means forming a circular track, a shaft within the track with its axis eccentric thereto, an arm slidably secured to the shaft for movement laterally of the shaft, a roller on the outer end of the arm adapted to roll in said track, drive means for turning said shaft and arm at constant angular velocity and sheet gripping means on the outer end of the arm adjacent said track.

10. Apparatus as specified in claim 9 wherein said shaft is bifurcated and the arm has two parts with one part secured between the bifurcations, the other part being aligned with said one part and being spaced therefrom by anti-friction bearings.

11. Apparatus as specified in claim 9 wherein a pair of parallel spaced plates are axially secured to the shaft, said arm is slidably receivable between the plates and anti-friction bearings are provided for supporting said arm against the shaft.

12. In a sheet printing press having an impression cylinder and a sheet feeder having a source of sheets, apparatus for transferring sheets from the feeder to said cylinder comprising, means forming a circular path extending generally between the feeder and press, a rotary member adapted to travel around said path at a constant angular velocity about an axis eccentric to the path, and sheet gripping means on the rotary member for grasping and releasing sheets, said axis being spaced from said sheet gripping means during a portion of each revolution of the rotary member a distance equal to the radius of the impression cylinder.

13. In a sheet printing press having cylinder and a sheet feeder, means for pression cylinder at a rate substantially in excess of the feed rate, means for transferring sheets from the sheet feeder to the impression cylinder including a rotary member adapted to travel around a circular path at a constant angular velocity about an axis eccentric to the path, said angular velocity being equal to the angular velocity of the impression cylinder, and means on the rotary member adjacent the path for picking a sheet from the sheet feeder in one position and for releasing the sheet in another position when the distance between said picking means and said axis equal the radius of the impression cylinder.

14. The method which comprises providing a sheet transferring device between a sheet feeder and the printing cylinders of a press, rotating the transferring device at a constant rate of revolution, operating the transferring device to pick sheets from the sheet feeder at one linear velocity and to accelerate them to a different linear velocity equal to the surface velocity of the printing cylinan impression driving the 1mtiers, and then feeding the sheets at the accelerated velocity fer devices one complete rotation during pick up of one to the press. sheet to pick up of succeeding sheet.

15. The method which comprises providing a sheet 17. The method which comprises providing a rotary printing press with a plurality of sheet feeders, providing press having a single impression cylinder with a pair of a sheet transferring device between each sheet feeder and sheet feeders, driving the impression cylinder at a rate the printing cylinders of the press to deliver sheets from in excess of the speed at which sheets are drawn from the feeder to the press cylinders, rotating the transferring t e feeders, providing a sheet transfer device for each evices at a constant rate of revolution, running the press sheet feeder operating the transferring devices at a concyllnders at a velocity substantially greater than the vestant angular velocity and in timed relation to the rotalocity corresponding to the rate of feed of sheets on the 10 tion of the impression cylinder to transfer sheets from sheet feeder, transferring and acceleratingthe sheets from the feeder to the impression cylinder, and operating the the sheet feeder rate to the press velocity while rotating transferring devices to pick sheets from the sheet feeder each of the transferring devices at constant angular and deliver them to the impression cylinder at an accelervelocity. ated rate while rotating said transferring devices during 16. The method which comprises providing a rotary partial rotation during delivery of one sheet to said 1mprinting press having an impression cylinder with a plupression cylinder.

rality of sheet feeders running the impression cylinder at a surface speed substantially in excess of the spged at References Cited in the file of this patent which sheets are drawn from the feeders, provi ing a 1 sheet transfer device for each sheet feeder, operating the UNITED STATES PATENTS transferring devices at a constant angular velocity and in 1,775,677 Huckins Sept. 16, 1930 timed relation to the rotation of the impression cylinder, ,366.56 Horton July 12, 1932 picking sheets from the feeders with said transfer devices 1,93 ,051 Harrold Nov. 14, 1933 and delivering said sheets sequentially to the impression 2,011,7 4 Wormser Aug. 20, 1935 cylinder at a surface speed equal to the surface speed of 2,059,677 Belluche Nov. 3, 1936 said impression cylinder while rotating each of said trans- 2,143,514 Hackbarth Jan. 10, 1939