US2946280A

US2946280A - Knit goods printing machine

Info

Publication number: US2946280A
Application number: US771045A
Authority: US
Inventors: Ellis V Disch
Original assignee: PLAINFIELD PATENTS CORP
Current assignee: PLAINFIELD PATENTS Corp
Priority date: 1955-07-07
Filing date: 1958-10-31
Publication date: 1960-07-26
Anticipated expiration: 1977-07-26

Description

July 26, 1960 E. v. DISCH KNIT GOODS PRINTING MACHINE.

Original Filed July 7,

etit cc Patented July 26, 1960 KNIT GOODS PRINTING MACHINE ment is used, the accuracy of the respective multi-color registrations is not always obtained. 1 have found that in order to achieve completely uniform results in the multi-color printing of stretchable fabrics with resin base 5 inks it is necessary to subject the printed fabric to a pre- Ems Dlsch 9 g" to liminary drying operation to drive off the liquid constitgz fg g Plamfiel a corpora on 0 uents of the printing ink without correspondingly shrinking or distorting the fabric and then to subject the printed Original application July 7, 1955, Ser. No. 520,487. design to a final heating and cooling operation to cure Divided and this application Oct- 31, 195 S al N 10 and set the ink and stabilize the fabric. Furthermore, in 771,045 order to prevent distortion in the multi-color registrations, I have found it necessary to synchronize the various 2 Claims' (CL 101 178) web feeding elements at the various stages so that at no point is the fabric subjected to any substantial stretch This invention relates to the art of printing designs on or dimensional distortion. readily stretchable fabrics, and especially to the printing Accordingly, in the drawing the numeral 1 represents of multi-color designs on knit goods and the like. a roll of the stretchable fabric to be multi-color printed,

A principal object of the invention is to provide a printsuch as knitted goods or Woven goods as received from ing machine of the multi-color rotary printing drum kind the mill. This mill roll is supported for downward rollwhich is especially designed and adapted to print multiing movement by gravity on a pair of inclined ways or color designs on stretchable fabrics such as knit goods, guides 2, and the weight of the roll holds it in contact with maximum accuracy of color registration by prewith a positively driven unwind roll 3 covered with rubventing the fabric from being stretched or otherwise diher or other similar material. Preferably the Ways 2 mensionally distorted during the printing operations. and the mill roll may be supported on any suitable tilt- Another object is to provide a printing machine of the able frame 43 whose angular position can be adjusted for rotary printing drum multi-color kind for printing on example by a hand wheel 5. The fabric from the roll 1 readily stretchable materials, such as knit goods, with engages the under periphery of the rubber covered roll 3, permanent inks of the resinous base kind. and then passes upwardly and around the nip-forming roll A further object is to provide a machine for insuring 7 Which is mounted as an idler roll and is arranged to accuracy of registration of multi-color printings on readily press the fabric against the printing drum 8, around which stretchable materials such as knit goods and the like. the fabric passes for approximately 75 percent of the A feature of the invention relates to the novel organizadrum periphery. The idler roll 7 is preferably carried tion, arrangement, and relative location and interconby the frame 4 so that by adjustment of the hand wheel nection of parts, which cooperate to provide an improved 5 the pressure between the roll and fabric and against multi-color printing machine for stretchable fabrics. the drum 8 can be accurately controlled.

Other features and advantages not particularly enum- The printing drum 8 is driven by the printing rollers erated will be apparent after a consideration of the fol- 10, 11, 12, and 13, so as to impart a uniform rotational lowing detailed descriptions and the appended claims. p ed [0 the drum 8. Drum 8 drives the idler roll 7 The drawing shows, by way of example, one preferred by its frictional engagement with web 6. Therefore, the embodiment of a rotary drum multi-color fabric printing roll 7 effects no dimensional distorting influence on the machine, for printing and processing printed designs on Web. Furthermore, the inclined or pull roll 3 is also posiknitted fabrics such as sheer nylons, rayons, cotton, or tively driven at a fixed speed ratio With respect to drum wool fabrics, so as to produce a design which is substan- 8, as schematically represented by the dot-dash line and tially free from fading or wash-out when the goods are schematic gearing symbol. This ratio is chosen so that bj t d t w hi the linear speed of movement of the web 6 is uniform While the art of multi-color printing on relatively nonthroughout its length, and thus it is not subjected to any stretchable materials, such as paper and the like, has substantial tension in the direction of its length. reached a high degree of development, the mechanisms n d r t prevent ndwise slippage or skewing of the used in that particular application have not always been fabric the rfa e of drum 8 is lapped by a cotton cloth found practicable for printing in multi-color on stretch- Which h b h ,59. th t the .knit fabric 6 is fricable materials such as knit or Woven fabrics. That is tiOhallY held 011 'llhe drum against pp ge and especially true where the fabrics are to be printed in fi gmulti-color in a continuous feeding operation using en- Located "around the p ng drum 8 r a ri s f graved printing r0113, as distinguished from reciprocating mllltl-COlOI engraved printing I'OllS Of Which 0111 such or linearly moving printing heads. In the latter kind of T0118 are n, namely r0118 These e grav d machine it is possible to hold the fabric stationary against Printing are P y driven at a fiXed Speed 50 a suitable flat ba ki a d th t move th printing that the printing pressure on the fabric does not subject it head into contact with the goods. Consequently, in that to y drag, Stretch, Or other sional distortion. The type of fabric printing, registration of the various colors engraved Printing T0115 EYE Provided With respective ink can be readily achieved and the problem of dimensional p of reservoirs and with respective ink PP distortion of the fabric is not as critical as it is where catof T0115 13*21 and respective dOCtOr' blades 5 the printing is to be done by engraved rollers which con- Each Of the P 7 filled th a re pective C0 016d tinuously contact With and press against the fabric. It P g ink Preferably 0f a kind Which has a s us has been found that when using conventional engraved Plastic base rollers to print multi-color designs and fabrics, the prob- I have found that in order to produce the best results lem of color registration is exceedingly difficult to meet. When mulii-colol P g With Such inks, it is necessary One reason for that is that the fabric, not being self-supto subject the printed design to a preliminary controlled porting and in many cases for example in the case of heat treatment. For that purpose the printed fabric, after nylons, rayons, and synthetic fibers where the fabric leaving the drum 8, is substantially directly transferred is extremely sleazy, unavoidably becomes dimensionally distorted. Even when complicated anti-skewing equipto an endless conveyor belt 26 which extends around a series of rollers 27-32. Rollers 27-31 are idler rollers,

,nwm. whereas roller 32 is a belt driven roller and is driven in fixed speed ratio with respect to drum 8, as indicated schematically by the dot-dash line and gearing symbol in thedrawing, this ratio being chosen so that the linear. movement of the fabric 6 on the conveyor 26 is the same throughout its length. I In order that no substantial unsupported span of the printed fabric exists, the roller 27 is located so that the initial end of the conveyor belt is as close as possible to the drum 8, for example within a space of a few inches. I have found that this is necessary since the sleaziness and non-self-supporting properties of certain fabrics might otherwise entail undesirable sagging and distortion thereof. It will be understood, of course, that a very slight slack is desirable in the fabric between the point where it leaves the drum 8 and the point where it actualengages the conveyor belt 26.

The conveyor 26 is enclosed within a suitable oven 33 provided with a plenum chamber, whose inlet end is connected by a duct 34 to a source of dry heated air which is blown in the direction of the arrow and exits at the opposite end of the oven through an exhaust duct 35 which may be provided with an exhaust fan or the like.

Thus, the liquid vehicle in the inked design on the fabric is subjected to a continuous stream of warm dry air which moves without agitation or recirculation through the plenum chamber of oven 33. It is important that the drying stream be substantially smoothly continuous so as not to subject the printed fabric to any fluttering as it is passing through the oven. Furthermore, this drying stream is controlled so that the evaporation of the liquid vehicle of the printed design is gradually evaporated so as to avoid any shrinkage of the fabric. At this stage, after leaving the oven 33, the printed ink design on the fabric, is neither permanent nor washable.

I have found that in order to achieve the desired degree of permanency and washability of the printed ink design, it is necessary to subject it to an ink curing operation. This is effected by passing the printed fabric in a sinuous path between and around a series of curing rolls, fifteen of which are shown in the drawings and designated 36-50. These rolls are shown mounted in a substantially vertical array in a suitable frame 51, and they are positively driven in fixed speed ratio with respect to drum 8 so that they do not disturb the desired uniformity of linear movement of the printed fabric and thus protect it against any mechanicalstretching.

The roll 50 is driven from motor 9 through suitable gearing schematically illustrated, and the successive rolls 36-50 may be geared together also as schematically illustrated. All of the rolls may be of hollow construction, and the first twelve rolls, namely rolls 36-47 are steam heated, while the remaining three rolls, namely 48-50, are water cooled. It will be understood, of course, that the invention is not limited to any particular manner of heating the rolls 36-47, provided they are maintained at a temperature of approximately 300 degrees F. After the printed fabric has been subjected to the heating and cooling stages to effect curing and permanentizing of the printed design, the fabric is transferred to a double drum rewind comprising for example the positively driven rewind rolls 52, 53, and the receiving roll 54 or 57. Roll 54 may be supported on suitable inclined ways 55 so as to be held by gravity in contact with the rewind roll 53. Preferably, a rubber guide roll 56 is provided between the cooling roll 50 and the rewind :roll 52, it being understood that the rewind rolls 52 and 53 are driven in synchronism with the remaining rolls so as not to disturb the uniform linear motion of the fabric.

One of the outstanding advantages of the machine, in addition to those already described, is the fact that if the fabric 6 has been pro-shrunk by any well known shrinking process prior to feeding it into the printing machine above described, the fabric can be printed without the necessity of further processing or pre-shrinking prior to conversion to consumer goods. Furthermore, by the use of the machine and process a s described, it is possible to print piled knit fabrics with little, if any, stretch or other dimensional distortion. 7 It will be-understood,-of course, that the invention is not limited to the application to openwork designs since'the fabric can be printed all over. its surface with a single solid color. In other words, the machine, while it finds its primary utility in multicolor printing of fabrics, can also be used to apply a single over-all colorcoat to the fabric through the medium of an etched printing roll.

Various changes and modificationsrmay be made in the machine and process as disclosed without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

This application is a division of application Serial No. 520,487, filed July 7, 1955.

What is claimed is:

1. A machine for printing on readily stretchable fabrics and the like with a permanentized ink, comprising a rotary printing drum around which the fabric is wrapped, an inking roll for applying ink to the fabric on said drum, an ink drying oven through which the inked fabric passes substantially immediately after leaving said drum, ink curing means through which the fabric .passes after leaving said oven, said curing means including a series of closely adjacent heating rolls around which the printed fabric passes in a sinuous path whereby alternate rolls heat one face of the printed fabric and the intervening alternate rolls heat the opposite face of the printed fabric, and power driving means for driving said inking roll and said curing rolls positively in synchronized speed ratio while driving said drum frictionally by contact with the moving fabric to maintain a uniform continuous linear speed of movement of the fabric through the printing, drying and ink curing stages, and thereby to maintain the fabric free from any substantial stretch or distortion.

2. A machine for printing a readily stretchable fabric and the like with a resin base ink comprising a rotary printing drum around which the fabric to be printed is fed in a continuous motion, said drum having a surface coat for frictionally holding said fabric thereon against slippage, an engraved printing roll for applying a resin base ink to the fabric on said drum, an unwind roll for continuously unwinding the fabric from a supply roll without any substantial stretch, a variable speed motor connected to said printing roll and to .said unwind roll for positively rotating them in predetermined fixed synchronous speed ratio while driving said drum frictionally by engagement with the moving fabric, an elongated heating oven having its inlet end immediately adjacent said drum, a conveyor belt passing through said oven for conveying in a continuous motion therethrough the printed fabric from said drum to a series of closely adjacent heating rolls and closely adjacent cooling rolls, said rolls being arranged so that the printed fabric passes therearound in a sinuous path to cause alternate heating rolls to heat one face of the fabric and the intervening alternate heating rolls to heat the opposite face of the fabric and means to drive said conveyor and said heating and cooling rolls in synchronous speed ratio with said drum whereby said printed fabric is subjected to negligible tensioning distortion during its continuous feeding movement through the machine.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,315,377 McGiehan Sept. 9, 1919 2,204,802 Gessler June 18, 1940 2,378,444 Smith et a1 June 19, 1945 2,486,259 Chavannes Oct. 25, 1949