US2786413A - Washup attachment for printing presses and the like - Google Patents

Description

March 26, 1957 R. R. RICHTER 6,

WASHUP ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING PRESSES AND THE LiKE Filed Nov. 17, 1955 I {Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. RAYMOND R. RICHTER March 26, 1957 R. R. RICHTER 2,786,413

WASHUP ATTACHMENT FOR PRINTING PRESSES AND THE LIKE Filed Nov. l7, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. RAYMOND R. RICHTER United States Patent WASHUP ATTACHMENT FQR PRINTING PRESSES AND TIE LIKE Raymond R. Richter, lvlilwaukee, Wis, assignor to The Dayton Rubber Company, a corporation of Ohio Application November 17, 1953, Serial No. 392,655

9 Claims. (Cl. 101-425) The present invention relates to a novel apparatus for cleaning or washing up coating rollers or inking rollers such as are commonly used in printing presses and the like and is a continuation-in-part of applicants copending application No. 328,110 filed December 26, 1952.

In particular, the present invention relates to the cleaning of a train of printing rollers, all of which are rotating in tangentially contacting sequence and more especially to an improved wash-up mechanism for flatbed presses wherein the ink transfer and printing rollers alternate in the direction of their rotation.

In coating machines, it is necessary that, from time to time, the coating material which is usually used in liquid form, be completely removed and cleaned from the coating or distributing roll. In the case of printing presses, the ink is usually applied or removed through the use of a steel distributing roll cooperating with other rolls in a train. Since there are usually a great many cylinders to be so cleaned in any one such apparatus, it has been found desirable to clean the rollers while they remain in their operating position on the machine, rather than to remove the rollers therefrom to be cleaned individually. To effect this desired objective, it has become the practice to remove the coating material from all of the rotating cylinders in the coating chain simply by wiping, scraping or otherwise removing the coating material from only one or two of the rotating cylinders. This procedure is capable of achieving the desired result of cleaning all of the rollers in the train because of the fact that the inherent cohesive properties of the coating material cause it to flow continuously to the point anywhere within the train of rollers at which it is being drawn therefrom. In order that the coating cylinders may be cleaned in this manner, it is, of course, necessary that the supply of the coating material to the train of cylinders must be shut off; and this may be accomplished in any of the well known manners such as simply breaking the contacting sequence between the cylinders to be cleaned and the cylinders supplying the coating material.

The problem of cleaning a complete train of coating cylinders has thus been reduced to the problem of swiftly and completely removing the coating material from any one roller or cylinder in the contacting sequence. In previous attempts to accomplish this expedient, however, considerable ditficulty has been encountered in providing means for so removing the coating material from any one cylinder so as to achieve the uniformity and thoroughness of cleaning that is demanded. Contributing to this difficulty has been the fact that either the roller from which the coating material is to be drawn, or the blade or similar device which is to do the drawing, will have surface irregularities which, although they are imperceptible and not important so far as the coating operation is concerned, prevent the wiping or drawing off member from contacting the cylinder uniformly at all points. Whereever upon the surface of the cylinder the drawing oif device fails to make operative contact, the coating material will remain on the roller, and the continuity of its 2,786,413 Patented Mar. 26, 1957 flow which is necessary for the complete cleaning of all of the rollers, will be destroyed.

To improve the uniformity of contact between the blade and the train of cylinders, it has previously been proposed to provide either a flexible deformable surface about the cylinder from which the coating material is to be drawn, or a flexible deformable scraping member. The disadvantages inherent in these proposals .includethe fact that, where a flexible wiping or drawing off member is used in connection with a hard surface cylinder or where a rigid drawing ofi member is used in connection with a cylinder having a flexible surface, the wearing and deteriorating effect of the hard or rigid member upon the flexible member has proven excessive resulting in premature failure of the device and much loss of time in repairs and replacements thereof. If, on the other hand, a cylinder having a flexible surface has been brought into contact with a flexible drawing ofi device, the necessary rigidity required for a complete and thorough cleaning action has been lost. Indeed, it has usually developed that even where only one of the members involved in the drawing off process was of a flexible nature, the flexibility necessary for the desired uniform contact between drawing off member and coated cylinder has been so great that the necessary rigidity for a thorough and complete cleaning action has been lost. Furthermore, both rigid and flexible scrapers as used by the priorart become distorted or sag during use so that uniform wiping action over the length of the roll is not obtained.

It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide a cylinder cleaning apparatus capable of effecting thorough and uniform removal of a coating material from a train of coating rollers.

It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide such a wash-up attachment capable of operating upon printing presses wherein the ink transfer rollers alternately reverse their direction of rotation.

It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a washup attachment for printing presses comprising a chain of ink transfer rollers, the only accessible ones of which are characterized by a soft surface of a flexible material, wherein there will be no sacrifice of the necessary rigidity between scraping member and roll surfaces such as is necessary for a complete and efficient cleaning action. i

To achieve the above enumerated objects and others to be apparent from a reading of this disclosure, the present invention provides a unitary scraping or wiping member having a continuous base portion and a' flattoothed cylinder-contact portion, the teeth of this latter portion being of such depth and spacing as to allow for their independent contact with one ofthe cylinders in the coating train. The overall length of this blade member will be equal to the length of the cylinder from which the coating material is to be withdrawn, and the blade will be positioned substantially parallel to the rotational axis of such roller. It is further provided that this blade member will be so mounted that it may be rotated or otherwise moved into tangential contact with such roller whereupon each of the individual flat teeth will be resiliently urged against the cylinder to be evacuated. In :this manner, each of the individual teeth will be free to firmly engage its respective portion of the cylinder from which the coating material is to be removed and any protrusions or depressions in such cylinder will not prevent the remaining blades from similarly establishing uniform contact with their respective portions of the cylinder. The nominal spacing that will separate each of the teeth will be of an inconsequential magnitude, in most cases not to exceed 1 such that the cohesive force of the coating material will not be overcome as it is removed How of this coating materialwill not be interrupted.

Since it will usually be preferred that the toothed portion of. the blademember. shall be of a: relatively. thin 4 only accessible ones of which are of a soft surface which is undesirable from the standpoint of efiicient cleaning or washing up. The present invention shall therefore be described in greater detailin connection with this pre- 'metal, it will be necessary in order to. obtain the necesferred embodiment and adaptation of the present invensary rigidity. throughout the:overal1.length of the scraping tion; and for purposes of .this detailed description refer- .member to provideadded stiffness or: rigidity 'in'thebase once may be had to the appended drawings in which:

portion thereof.- Figure 1 is a' schematic diagram of a wash-up device According to this invention, the necessary rigidity may according to this invention as it is applied toa typical be provided by bending a partof this base portion away flatbed press. 1 from the plane of .theteeth so that a beam will be formed. 7 Figure 2 is a perspective" of awash-upattachment I. In addition to providing the necessary blade rigidity with according to this invention operating in contact with a but theaddition of more metal or. additional reinforcing train ofprinting rollers wherein the components of the 'parts to the baseportion,.. this feature of the invention wash-up attachment are shown in greater detail.

:provides an additionalimprovement-when it is desired to Figure 3 is an elevational view of a complete wash-up .employ the wash-up .attachmentherein described upon a assembly incorporating the features of the present I train of. coatingv cylinders which will. operate from time invention.

to time in reverse rotational direction. .When sucha situ- Figure 4' is a cross-section :on line- 54 of Figure 3 ation'i's'encounte'red,v the bentportion of the base of the "showing more clearly the. construction of the-scraper blade may be continued on to form a 'U-shaped or similar 0' blade reversing means.

tWoQsided blade member which may be so' pivotally Referringnowto Figure l, there is shown inschematic mounted in-iuxtaposition to one of the rollersthat first fashiom'a typicalfiatbed press wherein thereciprocating one.side. and .then the. other side of the trough-shaped bed It) is composed of an inking surface 11 and a type blade may be brought into contactiwith the same cylinder 1 or form bed 12.. The illustration of Figure 1 shows this at opposite pointsthereofl In this situation, both edges reciprocating bed as it is passing through itsinking phase of the tWo-sid edblade. assembly will, of course, be produring which the inking surfacell comes intopcontact .f.vided withthe flat.teethabovedescribed so that the dewith the angle. rollers 13 which spread'the inkxfrom a sired uniform..cl eaning of the cylinder may beachieved source of supply such as atypical fountain (not shown) notwithstanding certain departures of the. surfacethereof upon the inking surface of the. press bed. As the bed "I from true cylindrical proportions. Thus, there is proreciprocates to theleft, the inkthus deposited upon the 'vided a pair of longitudinally spaced blades which are inking surface Ill is carried tothe type bed or form inking alternately contacted with opposite sides of the roll in rollers 14 -1411, 15 and 15a. This inking. contact of the response to reversal of direction of rotation thereof. rollers 14,- 1454, 15 and'lsaiwith' the inking surface 11 Where a U-shapedblade member isv employed on while the latter is in motion, causes the 'rollers'to rotate, presses involving rollers capable of operating in reverse and. they, in turn, impart a similar rotation to thedisdirection, additional blade stiffening means may be protributorrollers 16,1611, 17-and-17a. Theseilast described vided: according to thepresent invention by securing the ink distributor rolls are provided in the printing operation ...base of. the trough-shaped bladeto a catch pan which will to insure an' even distribution of the ink over all of the be coextensive with the length of the blade and project inking'rollers and to provide. a limited reserve of .ink laterally from the base of the samea sufficient distance 49 to guarantee a continuousfiow of; the same to the imto catch the ink or other coating material as it is removed pression plate carried in the type bed 12. For the most ...from the printing or coating rollers. 'elficient distribution of theink, it is usnallypreferred A :further. refinement of the present invention providthat the inking and certain of thedistributor rollers opering yet-anotherimprovement for wash-up devices to be ate in tangential contact with'a steel drum or. hard surused in conjunction with reversally rotating roller trains 5 faced roller. In a typical arrangement as shown in such asare encountered in flatbed presses, is provided in Figure 1; the rollers M, 1411, 25,:and 15a, 16a. and-17a the form of means associated with the blade of U-shaped have a soft or flexible surface of a rubber-like material; cross-section and the catch trough fastened thereto for whereas the intermediate distributor rollers 16 and' 17 regulating theangularrelation between the blade mernwould be composed of a metallicsubstance; In 'certain her and the cylinder fromwhich the coating material is 50 cases these steel rollers oscillate 'axially;thereby further being drawn off. Such means are made responsive to spreading the :ink over' the surfaces of the adjoining the direction of rotation of the roller to be first evacuated rollers.

such'that that side of the two-sided blade member toward As the bed 10 again reverses its direction and moves the direction of rotation of the roller will be in-contact tothe. right to allow the inking surface 11 to again come wi h h s rfa t be Cl d nd th scr ping force f in contact with-the anglelrollers 13 the ink whichhas the blade will be substantially opposed to the rotational been previously ;earried to the linkingroller's 14, 14a, 15 fQ 0f the cylilldefand 15a is drawn 'from these rollers on to-theimpression Wh as i often h case, p ly n fla d plate or form within the type-bed 12. This form, thus pressesfithe-only accessible rollers in the transfer chain inked, willthen come in'. contact with themediumupon have a soft flexible surface, the desired g y 0f which the printing is to be -eiiectedwhich is mounted Y both the blade e e and h roller rf n sary upon the printinglrolier r8 .while the 'bed lflcontinues for an efiicient cleaning action as above described may m i 'tdcthe' l ft at 11 Same ti b i i ink -be'preserved according to this invention by the provision fromzthe. fountain to the if rm rollers via the inking 50f. an additional roller of metallic surface operating in ht ll, V

conjun tion With the lad and tro gh m mb rs and th Awash-up attachment according to the present invenpivotingiicontrol mechanism cooperating therewith. This fi i shown a li d t thi sequence of i k transfe d is Preferably directly associated ithe distributor rollers at thesoft surfaced roncr iea. The

' p y and the assembly must, course, be wash-up assembly may be attached by suitable means mountedsothatthelocal roller is in't'angential contact r h to 3 b ofjgthe 'mouniifigbyackct forming with one of the. rollers in the train of transfer rollers so an integral part of the press; such bar" being designated that it maydrawathe coating materialifrom these rollers.

i From the foregoing.v objects and brief description of 'rnatic representation of Figure l, comprises simply'asteel the-present invention it. can be:seen that it may bemost drawing off tube or drum 2% which'is rotatably mounted advantageously;employed:on fiatbed'spresses or the like I -upo'n-the axle. Ziand is rotated as amesultof; its contact havingitransfernrollersecapablef ofereversegrotation tthe a'sl9. The wash-up attachment as shown in the schc with the rollen loag The vzash up attachmentshown in Figure 1 also comprises the two-sided blade in the form of a U-shaped blade member 22 having a catch pan 23 mounted to the blade member 22 along the dished portion 24 of the former which is contoured to conform to the base of the U-shaped member.

From the mechanism shown and described in connection with Figure 1, it can be seen that the arrangement of the rollers and the operation of the press is such that the inking rollers will rotate in clockwise fashion as the bed moves to the left and will subsequently operate in counter-clockwise fashion as the bed reciprocates and returns to its inking position by moving to the right. Additionally, it can be seen that, because of the roller arrangement, it would be impractical to apply the scraping member 22 directly to the centrally located steel roller such as 16 or 17 in order to provide the desired contact with a hard-surfaced ink carrying cylinder. To circumvent this impracticability, the present invention provides a wash-up device havingits own local drawing off roller 20 which is composed of metal and is so positioned upon the press that it will form a linear contact longitudinally of one of the ink rollers such as 16a so that for wash-up purposes, the hard surface of the former roller will replace the soft surface of the latter.

Since in the illustration of Figure 1 the bed is shown after it has moved toward the right, the inking surface 11 having left the form rollers, the rotation of these rollers immediately prior to their separation from the ink surface 11 was in a counterclockwise direction. This counterclockwise rotation accordingly imparted a clockwise rotation to the central steel roller 16 which in turn imparted a counterclockwise rotation to the soft surfaced roller 16a which in turn was imparting a clockwise rotation to the local steel drawing off roller 20. In order that the most etficient scraping action could take place during this clockwise rotation of the local roller 20 means are provided for causing the right side of the U-shaped blade member 22a to contact the surface of the cylinder 20 so that the scraping effect of the blade would be substantially opposed to the rotational effect of the cylinder. Immediately upon the return of the reciprocating bed moving to its left into contact with the form rollers the rotation of all of the rollers will be reversed and the left side 22b of the blade 22 will be resiliently urged against the surface of the drawing-off roller 20.

The particular construction of the wash-upattachment as it is applied to the inking rollers is shown in greater detail in Figure 2 wherein the soft-surfaced form rollers are designated at 25 and 25a, the steel distributor roller at 26 and the soft-surfaced distributor roller at 26a. The wash-up attachment itself is mounted upon the press by suitable bracket 27 clamped at one end to a mounting bar 28 and holding at its other end the steel drawing-off roller 29. In one preferred form of the invention, the upper portion of the mounting bracket 27 is provided with the longitudinally extending slot 30 in which the axle 31 of the drawing-off. roller 29 is slidably mounted... Acting upon this axle 31 within the slot 30 are a compression spring 32 acting against the bottom of the axle and thumb screw 33 acting against the top thereof. When it is desired that the washing operation be performed, the thumb screw 33 is loosened so that the compression spring 32 acts upon the axis of the roller to resiliently urge it into the above-mentioned desired tangential contact with the soft-surfaced distributor roller 26a. Since the surface of the roller 26a is soft, the rigid local roller 29 may be pressed into a uniform linear contact therewith in spite of certain irregularities which might occur on the surface of either of the rollers. When it is desired to discontinue the wash-up operation, as for example, when it is desired to print upon the printing roll 18 of Figure l,- the wash-up attachment may be conveniently removed from operative engagment with the ink transferring roller train by tightening the thumb screw 33 and forcing the roller 29 downward and away from contact with the roll 261:. In the embodiment illustrated in Figure 2, the movement of the roller 29 relative to roll 26a is attended by a change in the relative position of roller 29 and blade member 34. A considerable range of distances separating these members is available in View of the resilience and pivotal mounting of the latter. The particulars of the constructi-on and operation of the flat-toothed blade member 34 and the catch pan 35 associated therewith will be more fully explained in connection with Figures 3 and 4 below.

In Figure 3 a wash-up attachment of the type described above is shown mounted on a bar 36 by brackets 37 and 38 supporting opposite ends of the axle 39 of the steel drawing-off roller 40. Acting upon this axle and cooperating with the compression springs (not shown) to control the slidable position of this axle in each of the mounting brackets are thumb screws 41 and 42. The drawing-0E roller 40 may be rotatably mounted so that it will be freely driven by the friction of its contact with the rotating rollers of the press such as those previously described in connection with Figures 1 and 2. In the alternative, the rotation of the axle of this roller 40 may be provided by a driving gear 43 connected to the overall gearing of the roller train.

Associated with the axle 39 of the roller 40 at each end thereof are depending hangers 44 and 45 having openings at each end to allow the same to be slidably positioned about the axle 39 at the top and similarly positioned about the supporting shafts 46 and 47 of the catch pan 48 on the bottom thereof. In this particular embodiment, the fixed association of the blade catch pan combination with the axle of the roller 40 is important in that the position of the blade-pan member relative to that of the drawingoff roller 40 will remain constant notwithstanding vertical movement of the axle 39 in the slots of the brackets 37 and 38. As shown in Figure 3, this spacing of the bladepan assembly and the roller is such that, upon partial rotation of the U-shaped blade member 49, the flattoothed cylinder contacting portion 50a thereof will come into contact with the roller 40.

The means by which the partial rotation of the U shaped blade member 49 having the ink catch pan 48 associated therewith is controlled and made responsive to the rotational direction of the drawing-01f roller 40 are best shown in Figure 4 wherein there is shown mounted slidably about the roller axis 39 a pivot washer 51 having a depending pawl 52 the lower end of which engages a slotted rocker hub 53 which is fixedly mounted to the shaft 47 which, in turn, is an integral part of the blade catch pan assembly to be hereinafter more fully described. While the pivot washer 51 may be said to be slidably mounted upon the axle 39, the fit of the same is sufficiently snug that the friction at the contacting surfaces of the axle and washer will cause the washer to turn until the pawl 52 has moved the rocker hub 53 to the stop position at which the blade portion 50a or 50b will be in contact with the drawing-off roller 40. Once such a stop position has been reached, the friction at the contacting surface between axle 39 and washer 51 will be overcome and the washer will continue to slide about the axle while constantly urging the particular blade portion into contact with the drawing-off roller. As shown in Figure 3, the pivot washer 51 may be properly positioned upon the axle 39 relative to the brackets 37, 38, the hangers 44 and 45 or the ends of the drawing-off rollers by means of spacer washers such as 54 and 55. To control the friction characteristics of the mounting of the pivot washer, a thrust washer such as 56 may be employed on either side of the same. A similar pivoting arrangement comprising pivot washer Sla having a pawl 52a engaging a rocker hub 53a and appropriately arranged spacer washers 54a and 55a and thrust washer 56amay be provided at the other end of the axle 39, but such additional pivoting means are not necessary.

As explained above, the U-shaped blade member is preferably fastened to the catchpan 48, and fastening m'ay be achieved by means of rivets or other well known means along the base ofthe blade member which in the preferred example of Figures 3 and 4 is shown to be positioned'in and partially" surrounded by a contoured depression within catch pan &8. Since the catch pan and the blade member are thus'an integral unit, the support shafts 46 and 47 may be fixedly associatedwith the catch pan which is of a sturdier constructionthan the blade member so that the rocking motion which is imparted to the rocker link 53 by the rotation of the pivot washer 51 and which is responsive to the rotation of the roller 40, will be efficiently transferred to the blade member resulting in the desired scraping action herein de scribed. t

The blade 49 as above. described is preferably composed of relatively thin material such as tempered steel, rubber, plastic or the like, with a preferred thickness, in the case of steel, of about 0.004 to 0.010 inch. Other materials such as plastic or rubber may be somewhat thicker, and, in this particular embodiment, is shown to be of a U-shaped cross-section. The scraping or cylinder contacting edges Sfirzand 50b of this blade portion are shown to be serrated or divided into flat-toothed segments to achieve the desired results hereinset forth; to wit: a uniform scraping action resulting from an independent contact of each of the serrated segments with the drawing-off roller 40 so that accentricities and irregularities in the surface 40 will not prevent a thorough'scraping action by each of the individual segments. As stated in the disclosure of the above-mentioned application Serial No. 328,110, of which the present application is a con tinuation-in-part, the length of the individually acting scraping or wiping edges is relatively smallcompared with the overall length of the rollers in connection with which the blades are operating and in comparison with the overall length of the scraping assembly as a whole. The preferred length of the individual scraping or wiping edges is on the'order of 2 inches, and the same are spaced by a nominal distance on the order 'of A inch. In keeping with this individual action of each of the teeth of the Scraping edges, it is important that the greatest resiliency be introduced to their contact with the cylinder. In this invention, the desired resiliency is provided by the construction of the blade member from a thin resilient metal, the serration of this metal at its edges, and the availability of the thin metal blade which results from the fact that the thin blade may be reinforced by its contoured fit in the more rigid catch pan. The resiliency thus provided by the present invention is most capably V utilized by the provision of the pivot washer mounting described in connection with Figure 4 in that the same provides a constantly urging force acting to bring the proper scraping edge of the blade member intocontact with the surface of the cylinder 40 to be evacuated, An examination of Figure 4 will disclose that, as the roller 40is-rotated through the driving. gear 43 or its contact with a rotating ink distributing roller in a clockwise direc: tion, the friction of the fit between the axle 39 of the roller and pivot washer 51 will cause the latter to rotate,

in a similar clockwise direction with the result that the pawl 52 will act upon the rocker link moving the same to the leftthcreby forcing the right-hand edge 56b of the U-shaped blade member 49 into contact with the roller. Conversely, when the roll 40 is operating in a counterclockwise direction, the pawlv52 willbe moved to the right andthe left edgeStla of the scraping member will be brought into contact with the roller surface. it is thus provided that that edge of the blade member 49 which will most directly oppose the direction of rotation of roll 40 will alwaysbe in contact with the evacuated While the present invention has been described tin tpar surface ,to be teeth are substantially 2 in. in length,

in no way to limit: the scope of thisin vention as more one of said rollers and means for alternately resiliently urging the individual teeth onoeach of said sides into substantially linear contact with one of said rollers where by uniform contact between blade 'androller willnbe established notwithstanding irregularities in the roller or the blade member mounting means. t 2.cAn apparatus according to claim 1 wherein said '3. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein. said teeth are axially spaced by adistance of approximately 4. An apparatus according to claim 3 wherein said teeth are composed of a tempered steel having a thickness ranging from 0.004 in. to. 0.010 in.

5. In an apparatus for removing a coating material from a train of fluid transfer rollers, that improvement which comprises an elongated blade member of substantially U-shaped, trough-like cross section having a length corre sponding to the length of said rollers and having the sides divided into a plurality of closely spaced, relatively short flat teeth, said blade'member being a unitary structure composed of a relatively thin resilient metal and the teeth thereof being capable of individual resilient action, a relatively, rigid catch pan coextensive with said blade member and mounted thereto at the base thereof whereby rigidity is imparted to the blade member as a whole without affecting the resiliency of the individual teeth thereof,

'means for mounting said blade and said catch pansubstantially parallel to the rotational axis of at least one of said rollers, and means for alternately,tresiliently urging the individual teeth on each of said sides .into substane tially-linear contact with one of said rollers, whereby uniform contact between blade and roller will be established notwithstanding irregularities in the roller, the

,mounting means, or the catch pan mounted to said blade member.

6. A cylinder cleaning device according to claim 5 wherein said catch pan has a contoured depression and said blade member is mounted within said depression to form an integral unit. r

7. In a wash-up attachment for a printing press, the only accessible ink transfer rollers of which have a relativelysoft surface, thatimprovementwhichcomprises a hard-surfaced roller rotatably mounted parallelto and in axially tangential contact with one of said accessible soft-surfaced rollers along substantially the full length thereof, an elongated blade member of substantially .U- shaped, trough-like cross section havinga length corresponding to the lengthof said hardsurfaced roller and having sides divided .intoa plurality of closely spaced, relatively short flat teeth, said blade memberbeing a unitary structure composed of a relatively thin resilient metal and the teeth thereof being capable of individual resilient action, pivotally mounted parallel and in partially surrounding relationship to saidmetallic roller and means responsive to the direction of rotation of said metallic roller for ,bringing alternate scraping edgescf said U- shaped blade member,into substantially uniform-{linear 9 blade and hard-surfaced roller notwithstanding certain irregularities in the roller or the mounting means.

8. In a wash-up attachment for a printing press, the only accessible ink transfer rollers of which have a relatively soft surface, that improvement which comprises a slidably mounted hard-surfaced drawing-0E roller, an elongated blade member of substantially U-shaped, troughlike cross section having a length corresponding to the length of said rollers and having sides divided into a plurality of closely spaced, relatively short, flat teeth, said blade member being a unitary structure composed of a relatively thin resilient metal and the teeth thereof being capable of individual resilient action, means for regulating the angular position of said blade and the individual teeth thereof relative to said hard-surfaced drawing-off roller operable to cause the teeth to form substantially linear contact with the drawing-off roller, and means for urging said drawing-off roller into uniform linear contact with one of said accessible ink transfer rollers.

10 9. A wash-up attachment according to claim 8 wherein said urging means comprise a compression spring acting to force said hard surfaced roller against said accessible ink transfer roller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 910,691 Klucken Jan. 26, 1909 1,623,723 Gegenheimer et a1. Apr. 5, 1927 1,640,235 Goulding Aug. 23, 1927 1,744,913 Mick Jan. 28, 1930 1,772,470 Snyder Aug. 12, 1930 2,062,154 Welk Nov. 24, 1936 2,161,943 Baue June 13, 1939 2,199,469 Seel et a1. May 7, 1940 2,341,020 Curtis Feb. 8, 1944 2,492,181 Richter Dec. 27, 1949 2,601,325 Richter June 24, 1952 2,691,344 McMullen Oct. 12, 1954

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