US3131632A

US3131632A - Ink fountain

Info

Publication number: US3131632A
Application number: US230387A
Authority: US
Inventors: Darl T Shank
Original assignee: Harris Intertype Corp
Current assignee: Harris Graphics Corp
Priority date: 1962-10-15
Filing date: 1962-10-15
Publication date: 1964-05-05
Anticipated expiration: 1981-05-05

Description

y 5, 196! D. T. SHANK 3,131,632

INK FOUNTAIN Filed on. 15, 1962 'ATTORNEZY United States Patent 3,131,632 INK FOUNTAIN Dari T. Shank, Bellhrook, Ohio, assignor to Harris-Intertype Corporation, Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Delaware Filed Oct. 15, 1962, Ser. No. 230,387 Claims. (Cl. 101-364) This invention relates to printing press ink fountains, and in particular, to an adjustable ink seal for an ink fountain.

In that type of ink fountain in which a flexible blade has an edge for metering the quantity of liquid placed on the surface or periphery of a fountain roller, an ink sealing problem exists at the fountain ends. The blade is normally inclined upwardly from the roller so as to form a trough or reservoir with the roller. At the ends of both the blade and roller, side walls are ordinarily used for journaling and sealing the trough at the ends. In order to achieve proper operation of an ink fountain of this type, it is necessary that the roller be rotated, as by a pawl and ratchet or other equivalent means, and the freedom of operation of the roller must be such that the driving mechanism is not unduly overloaded. Since the rotating roller ordinarily runs in journals in the side walls, it is obvious that the relatively moving parts present an ink sealing problem where they engage. Whenever wear between the roller and journals or bearing surfaces occurs, it frequently happens that ink in the trough flows into the journals. It is generally impossible to clean such ink without entirely dismantling the roller and fountain, except in certain fountain designs in which the roller is not actually journalled in the side walls. In these lat ter designs, the side walls form nothing more than an ink seal. In the fountains of the type disclosed, however, once ink gets into the journal, it can dry there and freeze or lock the roller in its bearings.

According to the present invention, I provide an ink seal which permits free rotation of an ink fountain roller against a blade, such seal being adjustable so that wear at the sealing point between the several parts can be compensated for by an adjustment to maintain the seal, without adversely affecting the rotatability of the fountain roll.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a novel seal for the ends of an ink fountain having a rotatable roller and ink fountain blade, in which the seal may be mechanically adjusted to compensate for wear of the parts, thus maintaining the seal.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description, in which reference is made to the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of an ink fountain embodying the present invention, with certain parts broken away for clarity.

FIG. 2 is an elevational view taken substantially along lines 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary elevational view taken substantially along lines 3-3 of FIG. 2.

Referring first to FIG. 2, it will be seen that an ink fountain roller has riding thereagainst an edge of a fountain blade 11. The blade is fastened to an ink foun tain body 12 by means of screws 13 at a portion thereof remote from the fountain roll 11). The side of the blade adjacent the fountain roll 10 is free to be flexed by a plurality of screws 14 (only one of which is shown), in conventional fashion. Ink 15 is contained in the trough formed by the fountain roller 10 and the blade 11.

In order to contain the ink 15 in the fountain at the ends, side walls 1211 are provided on the fountain body 12, and in the preferred form shown are cast integrally 3,131,632 Patented May 5, 1964 with the body. The body has laterally extending portions 12b which may be bolted to side frames 16 of a printing press.

The fountain roller is preferably intermittently rotated in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 2 by any conventional method (not shown), in journal blocks 17 mounted in the side walls 12a of the fountain body 12. It will be noted at the left end of FIG. 1 and in FIG. 3 that the journal blocks are adapted to be forced laterally inwardly by setscrews 18, a pair of which cooperate with each journal block 17. The setscrews act as jackscrews and are threaded into half-threads in the side walls 12a and engage the bottoms of blind holes 19 in the journal blocks 17. Each end of fountain roller 10 is provided with a square shoulder 20 as shown in FIG. 3. This square shoulder 20 on the fountain roller mates with a similar shoulder on the inwardly facing side of its corresponding journal block 17 so as to form an ink seal between the fountain roller 10 and the journal block 17 at each end thereof. It will be apparent that in the event of wear through use of the ink fountain, the screws 18 may be operated to urge one or both of the journal blocks 17 inwardly into more closely fitting relationship with the square shoulder 20 of the fountain roller, thus maintaining the ink seal.

In order to lubricate the contacting or bearing surfaces of the ink fountain roller and journal blocks 17, a grease fitting 2.1 is provided to communicate with a passage 22 drilled radially through each journal block 17. The facing portions of the square shoulders 20 and the journal blocks 17 are provided with annular grooves 23 which form a pocket for reception of a heavy grease. Passages 24 connect the passages 22 with the grooves 23 in order that fresh grease may be supplied to the grooves as needed. An exit passage 25 is provided for the old grease to be replaced by new.

From the description and drawings, it will be noted that the journal blocks 17 in the preferred form of the invention are fixed against rotation in the side walls 12a of the fountain body 12. The journal blocks journal the shaft portions 26 of the roller 10 so that the roller may be rotated as mentioned earlier. It will also be noted that the journal blocks 17 are cylindrical and of the same diameter as the roller 10. The purpose of this is that inward or outward adjustment of either of the journal blocks 17 will maintain the seal along the fountain blade edge. For example, let us assume that one of the blocks 17 is adjusted A inwardly of the face of its side Wall 12a. By being the same diameter as the fountain roller 10, the jouinal block 17 will maintain a seal which is long with the edge of the fountain blade. This would appear to lessen the effective length of the fountain roller by that amount, but this ordinarily is an unusable portion of the roller anyway, for purposes of transferring ink. The fountain roller ink-carrying surface is generally at least /2" longer than the ductor roller to which it transfers ink.

While I prefer that the journal blocks 17 be cylindrical and of the same diameter as the fountain roller 10, this is not absolutely essential. For example, the block may be any shape so long as the portion engaging the edge of the fountain blade, when adjusted inwardly of the face of the adjacent side wall 12a, maintains the same ink sealing relationship with the fountain blade as that previously provided by the fountain roll 10 against the ink fountain blade 11, and further provided that the remainder of the block stay in sealing engagement with its side wall at least where ink comes in contact with the wall.

It should be further understood that but one journal block may be desired, in which case one end of the roll may be conventional and conventionally journaled.

Various changes may be made in the details of construction of the several parts without departing from the spirit and scope of my invention.

Having described my invention, I claim:

1. In a printing press ink fountain,

a cylindrical fountain roller having an ink carrying surface of uniform diameter throughout its length,

a fountain body having a pair of spaced side walls for rotatably supporting said roller therebetween, said side walls having parallel inner faces lying in planes perpendicular to the roller axis,

a flexible ink metering blade carried by said fountain body and having a side edge thereof adapted to meter ink between the fountain roller and said blade edge, said blade being of a length equal to the distance between the inner faces of said side walls and said roller being substantially the length of said blade, said blade, roller, and side walls together forming a trough in which ink is retained in said fountain,

a shaft extending axially outwardly from at least one end of said roller and being of smaller diameter than the roller diameter,

a journal block mounted in one of said side walls for journaling said shaft, said block having a face directed toward said roller and adapted to closely fit the end of said roller at the juncture of said shaft and roller to provide an ink seal between the face of said block and said roller, said side wall mounting said journal block being constructed to enable adjustment of said block inwardly of the inner face of said side wall and said journal block being constructed to have a portion thereof adjacent the blade coincident with the periphery of the roller,

and means for adjusting said block axially along said shaft and laterally inwardly with respect to the side wall mounting said block.

2. The invention set forth in claim 1 wherein said journal block is cylindrical and of the same diameter as the fountain roller.

3. The invention set forth in claim 1 wherein said adjusting means comprises a pair of jackscrews threaded into the side wall and urging and maintaining the face of the journal block in ink sealing relationship with the end of said roller.

4. The invention set forth in claim 1 wherein a journal block and adjusting means is provided in each side wall and a shaft is provided at each end of the roller.

5. The invention set forth in claim 4 wherein the fountain body and side walls are integral.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 509,569 Eisenhardt Nov. 28, 1893 1,231,661 Stevens July 3, 1917 1,933,887 Wood Nov. 7, 1933 2,328,990 Meyer Sept. 7, 1943 2,362,667 Schmidt Nov. 14, 1944 2,649,337 Ware Aug. 18, 1953 2,732,267 Stover Jan. 24, 1956

Claims

1. IN A PRINTING PRESS INK FOUNTAIN. A CYLINDRICAL FOUNTAIN ROLLER HAVING AN INK CARRYING SURFACE OF UNIFORM DIAMETER THROUGHOUT ITS LENGTH, A FOUNTAIN BODY HAVING A PAIR OF SPACED SIDE WALLS FOR ROTATABLY SUPPORTING SAID ROLLER THEREBETWEEN, SAID SIDE WALLS HAVING PARALLEL INNER FACES LYING IN PLANES PERPENDICULAR TO THE ROLLER AXIS, A FLEXIBLE INK METERING BLADE CARRIED BY SAID FOUNTAIN BODY AND HAVING A SIDE EDGE THEREOF ADAPTED TO METER INK BETWEEN THE FOUNTAIN ROLLER AND SAID BLADE EDGE, SAID BLADE BEING OF A LENGTH EQUAL TO THE DISTANCE BETWEEN THE INNER FACES OF SAID SIDE WALLS AND SAID ROLLER BEING SUBSTANTIALLY THE LENGTH OF SAID BLADE, SAID BLADE, ROLLER, AND SIDE WALLS TOGETHER FORMING A TROUGH IN WHICH INK IS RETAINED IN SAID FOUNTAIN, A SHAFT EXTENDING AXIALLY OUTWARDLY FROM AT LEAST ONE END OF SAID ROLLER AND BEING OF SMALLER DIAMETER THAN THE ROLLER DIAMETER, A JOURNAL BLOCK MOUNTED IN ONE OF SAID SIDE WALLS FOR JOURNALING SAID SHAFT, SAID BLOCK HAVING A FACE DIRECTED TOWARD SAID ROLLER AND ADAPTED TO CLOSELY FIT THE END OF SAID ROLLER AT THE JUNCTURE OF SAID SHAFT AND ROLLER TO PROVIDE AN INK SEAL BETWEEN THE FACE OF SAID BLOCK AND SAID ROLLER, SAID SIDE WALL MOUNTING SAID JOURNAL BLOCK BEING CONSTRUCTED TO ENABLE ADJUSTMENT OF SAID BLOCK INWARDLY OF THE INNER FACE OF SAID SIDE WALL AND SAID JOURNAL BLOCK BEING CONSTRUCTED TO HAVE A PORTION THEREOF ADJACENT THE BLADE COINCIDENT WITH THE PERIPHERY OF THE ROLLER, AND MEANS FOR ADJUSTING SAID BLOCK AXIALLY ALONG SAID SHAFT AND LATERALLY INWARDLY WITH RESPECT TO THE SIDE WALL MOUNTING SAID BLOCK.