US3347123A - Perforator - Google Patents

Description

Oct. 17, 1967 J wo ETAL 3,347,123

- PEBFORATOR Filed June 21, 1965 INVENTORS JflC08 6. WOBNEB M5 4 True/v5 VS United States Patent f 3,347,123 PERFORATOR Jacob E. Worner, Centerville, and RobertC. Edwards, Kettering, Ohio, assignors to Printing Service Company, Dayton, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio Filed .iune 21, 1965, Ser. No. 465,440 4 Claims. (Cl. 83-346) This invention relates to a perforator and more particularly to a perforating mechanism conveniently adaptable for use with a continuous forms printing press. As will become apparent from the following description, the invention is not necessarily so limited.

An object of this invention is to provide simple, reliable and inexpensive mechanism for cutting discontinuous, longitudinal perforations in continuous forms, webs or the like upon which printed matter may or may not appear.

Another object of this invention is to provide a perforating mechanism which may be controlled by the feed or pull mechanism of a printing press.

A further object of this invention is to provide an improved perforating mechanism for forming or cutting perforations at spaced intervals along a continuous form or web or the like wherein the length of the perforated lines and the spacing between perforated lines can easily be varied.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the following description.

Referring to the drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevational view of a portion of a continuous forms printing press provided with an intermittent perforator constructed in accordance with this invention.

FIGURE 2 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of the press and of the perforating mechanism viewed in the direction of arrows 2-2 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of a portion of the structure of FIGURE 1 as viewed in the direction of arrows 3 3 thereof.

FIGURE 4 is a partial side elevational view as viewed in the direction indicated by arrows 4-4 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 5 is a schematic diagram of an electrical circuit connecting portions of the perforating mechanism shown in FIGURES 3 and 4.

Referring to the drawing in greater detail, the invention is shown embodied in a continuous forms printing press generally designated by the reference character 10. The press 10, which is only partially illustrated in the drawing, includes a hood or shield 12 covering parts of a press drive mechanism adapted to intermittently draw a web or continuous form 14 across the face of a press platen 16. The web or continuous form 14 constitutes a paper sheet or the like which is either zig-zag folded in a hopper (not shown) or rolled up, and may or may not be covered with printed matter. The drive mechanism partially covered by the hood or shield 12 may be of the type employed in a press commercially known as the A-K Continuous Forms Press available from Brandtjen & Kluge, Inc. of St. Paul, Minn. As will become apparent from the ensuing description, the invention need not be used with a press drive mechanism. Rather, the invention can be embodied in separate machines designed solely for the purpose of perforating forms and the like.

The drive mechanism partially located under the hood or shield 12 includes a drive shaft 18 projecting from the side of the hood or shield 12 and connected by gearing, generally designated 20, to a driven shaft or pinwheel feed shaft 22 journalled in depending side plate portions of the hood or shield 12. The shaft 22 supports, in this embodiment, a pair of pin wheels 24 upon which are mounted a plurality of radially projecting pins 26 and which are 3,347,1213 Patented Get. 17, 1967 covered by protective, slotted plates 28 depending from the lower front edge of the shield 12. The pins 26 are adapted to enter marginal pinwheel holes 30 in the continuous form 14.

As is well known to those skilled in the art, the drive shaft 18 rotates through increments to draw or pull the continuous form 14 a predetermined distance across the platen 16 and over the hood or shield 12. The continuous form 14 passes over the top of the hood or shield 12 onto another hopper or roller (not shown). For example, the gearing 20 may be designed to pull 28 inches of the continuous form 14 upon each half revolution of the drive shaft 18. The rotary drive for the drive shaft 18 is intermittent so that the printing operation can take place when the drive shaft 18 is not rotating. Further details of the drive mechanism have not been illustrated since they are conventional or may be designed to fit the needs of particular applications.

The continuous form 14 is shown provided with a pinrality of parallel, horizontal perforated lines 32 and a continuous, longitudinal, center perforated line 34. Given the example of a 28 inch pull of the continuous form 14 upon each half rotation of the drive shaft 18, the horizontal perforated lines 32 may be spaced every 3 /2 inches. Thus, there would be a total of eight rectangular panels, designated 14a, bounded by three perforated lines and the margins of web 14 on each side of the center perforated line 34 for each 28 inch form. The horizontal perforated lines 32 are formed in any conventional manner, such as by a perforating rule mounted on a rotating drum. Continuous longitudinal perforations, such as the perforated line 34, can be cut by a perforator wheel constantly engaged with the continuous form 14 during a printing operation.

The form 14 shown in FIGURE 1 also has a pair of parallel, elongate, discontinuous, longitudinal perforated lines 36 extending along several of the rectangular panels 14a on each side of the central perforated line 34 and a pair of parallel, short, longitudinal perforated lines 38 extending along only one of the panels 14a on each side of the center line 34. In the given example involving a 28 inch pull for a 28 inch form, both discontinuous lines 36 may extend for 21 inches, or six panels 14a, on each side of the center line 34. As illustrated, the perforated line 36 to the left of the center line 34 may start two panels lower than the line 36 on the right. The perforated lines 38 are cut in spaced, non-adjacent panels 14a.

Some printing presses are provided with mechanisms capable of cutting a single, discontinuous, longitudinal perforated line during the printing operation. Hence, it is possible, for example, and as illustrated, that the perforated line 36 to the left in FIGURE 1 was cut in a prior printing operation. The perforated line 36 to the right in FIGURE 1 is cut by mechanism made in accordance with this invention during the same operation used to cut the perforated lines 38. The perforated lines 38 can be cut by conventional perforating rules locked in the press chase (not shown) engaging the portion of form 14 covering the press platen 16 when the drive shaft 18 is at rest. The 21 inch perforated line 36 on the right in FIG- URE 1 could be cut by a similar rule in the press chase provided the dimensions of the chase were adequate to accommodate such a long rule. This invention, when forming part of a printing press, is directed to the provision of an intermittent perforator for presses having chases too small to cut the desired length of longitudinal, discontinuous perforated lines. As will become apparent, the perforator mechanism described below may also be used to cut perforated lines which differ in length. Thus, for example, a longitudinal path along a 28 inch form could have perforated lines of 3 /2 inches, 7 inches and 3 /2 inches with two skips (no perforations) between the perforated lines of seven inches each. A variety of other perforated lengths and skips could also be obtained.

Referring to FIGURE 2, the mechanism for cutting the perforated line 36 on the right in FIGURE 1 includes a conventional perforator wheel 40 having a serrated peripheral edge 42 and mounted for rotation upon a yoke 44 of a support stem 46 which passes through an aperture in a perforator holder 48. The support stem 46 is provided with screw threads 50 and is locked on the holder 48by a pair of adjusting nuts 52 engaging the screw threads 50 and straddling a portion, designated 48a, of the holder 48. The holder 48 is in turn mounted, as by a pivot pin 54, upon a perforator support member 56 clamped, as by a set screw 58, to a perforator support shaft 60. The support shaft 60, which has a square crosssection for most of its length to simplify the clamping of the support member 56 thereto, has round ends 62 (see FIGURES 3 and 4) journalled for rotation in spaced perforator support plates 64, 66 welded or otherwise affixed to the opposite sides of the hood or shield 12 from which the entire perforating mechanism derives fixed support.

A perforator platen 70 is, in any suitable manner, mounted upon the driven shaft 22 between the pinwheels 24 and positioned for engagement by the perforator wheel 40.Tl1e perforator support member 56 is adjustable along the length of the support shaft 60 so that the lateral location of the perforations produced by the perforator wheel 40 upon the continuous form 14 may be varied as needed. To maintain a confronting relationship with the perforator wheel 40, the perforator platen 70 is adjustable along the length of the driven shaft 22. To create the desired pressure of the perforator wheel 40 against the perforator platen 70 when perforating, a compression spring 72 actin'g between the perforator support member 56 and the holder 48 biases the wheel 40 about the pivot pin 54 toward the platen 70.. The bias of the spring 72 acts against an adjustable stop provided by an adjusting screw 74 threaded in the perforator holder 48 and engaging an upper surface portion of the support member 56.

Because of its eccentric mounting, the perforator wheel 40 may be moved toward and away from the perforator platen 70 by rotation of the perforator support shaft 60 about its longitudinal axis. To this end, as shown in FIG- URE 4, the mid-portion of a perforator pivot arm 76 is afiixed to the roundend 62 of the shaft 60 projecting through the plate 64. A tension spring 78 connected between one end of the arm 76 and the side of the shield 12 biases the pivot arm 76 in a counterclockwise direction, as viewed in FIGURE 4, about the longitudinal axis of the shaft 60, thereby biasing the perforator wheel 40 out of engagement with the platen 70. A solenoid actuator 80, having an actuating arm 82 afiixed to the other end of the pivot arm 76, is pivotally mounted as by a pivot pin 84, upon the support plate 64. To appropriately align the pivot arm 76 with the actuating arm 82, a spacer 86 is located between the pivot arm 76 and the support plate 64. Also for purposes of alignment, the spring 73 is connected to the side of the shield 12 by an elongate pin 88 adjacent the plate 64. As apparent, the tension spring 78 normally holds the perforator wheel 40 away from the platen 70 by a spacing determined by the length of the solenoid actuating arm 82 when the solenoid actuator 80 is de-energized. When the solenoid actuator 80* is energized, the actuating arm 82 is drawn downwardly and to the left, as viewed in FIGURE 4, thereby rotating the arm 76 in a clockwise direction and drawing the perforator wheel 40 into engagement with the platen 70. Under such circumstance, of course, the portion of the web or continuous form 14 passing between the perforator wheel 40 and the platen 70 will be perforated.

Referring now to the right side of FIGURE 1 and to FIGURES 3 and 5, the solenoid actuator 30 is controlled by a switch 90 operated by a cam follower roller 92 following upon a cam plate 94 which is fixed to the extreme end of the drive shaft 18. The periphery of the cam plate 94 has a profile designed to energize the solenoid actuator during most of the rotation of the drive shaft 18 since the perforated line 36 to the right in FIGURE 1 is to be 21 inches long in the example mentioned above. As indicated in FIGURE 5, the electrical connection between the switch and the solenoid actuator 80 can be a simple series circuit connected to any suitable source S.

The gearing 20 includes a main drive gear mounted on the end of the drive shaft 18, a spur gear 102 meshed with the drive gear 100 and mounted for rotation on a fixed shaft 104, an idler gear 106 fixed to the spur gear 102 and mounted on the same shaft 104, and a driven gear 108 afiixed to the end of the driven shaft 22. The various gears forming the gearing 20 can be removed and replaced by other gears in order to change the pull of the web or continuous form 14 caused by each half rotation of the drive shaft 18. Similarly, the cam plate 94 can be removed and replaced by cam plates having different profiles, thereby changing the length of the lines to be perforated and the length of the skips therebetween.

From the foregoing, it may be observed that a simple, inexpensive, yet reliable, intermittent perforator mechanism may easily be attached to a continuous forms printing'press. The parts of the press remain unchanged. The gearing 20 may or may not be identical to the gearing provided by the press manufacturer. To suit particular applications, the gearing may be changed so long as the cam plate 94 can be mounted to rotate in proportion to the rotation of the drive shaft 18. To accommodate different sizes of gears involved in gear changes, the fixed shaft 104 is desirably easily movable relative to the shafts 18 and 22.. Since the specific mounting of the shaft 104 can take a variety of well known forms, none is detailed herein. As will be appreciated, the parts of the perforator mechanism may easily be mounted upon the shield 12. Platens such as the platen wheel 70 are readily available. As already noted, the platen 70 is adjustable along the length of the driven shaft 22. The pinwheels 24 are also movable along the shaft 22. The details of the mechanism for afiixing the wheels 24 and the platen 70 upon the shaft 22 have not been shown since such details are well known. It will also be apparent that the perforator mech anism described above can be part of a separate machine or another type of press, provided that there is a drive mechanism for the mounting of a cam, such as 94, for rotation through a predetermined angle for a given length of the web or continuous form passing between the perforator element and the perforator platen.

Although the presently preferred embodiment of the device has been described, it will be understood that within the purview of this invention various changes may be made in the form, details, proportion and arrangement of parts, the combination thereof and mode of operation,

. which generally stated consist in a device capable of carrying out the objects set forth, as disclosed and defined in the appended claims. To avoid repetition, the term continuous form used in the appended claims is intended to refer to any type of sheet material which may be drawn between the perforator element and the perforator platen.

Having thus described our invention, we claim:

1. For use in a continuous forms printing press having a feed mechanism, thecombination comprising: a cam driven by said feed mechanism, a switch controlled by said cam, a solenoid actuator connected in electrical circuit with said switch andcontrolled by saidswitch, a perforator wheel for forming a continuous line of perforations when contacting a form drawn through said press, and means connecting said solenoid actuator to said perforator wheel for moving said perforator wheel into and out of perforating contact with a portion of a continuous form drawn through aid press depending upon the energized state of said solenoid actuator.

2. The combination comprising: a fixed support, a

75 perforator platen mounted on said support, a perforator support shaft mounted for rotation on said support in spaced relation to said perforator platen, a perforator wheel eccentrically mounted on said support shaft for rotation therewith toward and away from said perforator platen, bias means connected to said support shaft maintaining said perforator wheel in a predetermined position relative to said perforator platen, a continuous form feed mechanism adapted intermittently to draw a continuous form along a path between said perforator platen and said perforator wheel, and means responsive to operation of said continuous form feed mechanism overcoming said bias means to rotate said support shaft thereby changing the position of said perforator wheel relative to said perforator platen, said means including a pivot arm connected to said support shaft, a solenoid actuator connected to said pivot arm, and cam means responsive to operation of said form feed mechanism intermittently energizing said solenoid actuator.

3. For use with apparatus of the type having a feed mechanism for drawing sheet material along a predetermined path and said feed mechanism including a rotating shaft, a perforator mechanism for forming perforations in said sheet material comprising: a perforator platen mounted on said apparatus on one side of said path, a perforator support shaft mounted for rotation on said apparatus in spaced relation to said perforator platen, a perforator wheel eccentrically mounted on said support shaft for rotation therewith toward and away from said perforator platen, bias means connected to said support shaft maintaining said perforator wheel in a predetermined position relative to said perforator platen, and means overcoming said bias means intermittently to rotate said support shaft thereby changing the position of said perforator wheel relative to said perforator platen, said last mentioned means including a pivot arm connected to said support shaft, a solenoid actuator connected to said pivot arm, and cam means on said rotating shaft inv termittently energizing said solenoid actuator.

4. In a continuous form printing press having a feed mechanism including a drive shaft, a driven shaft, a hood or shield covering a portion of said drive shaft, gearing interconnecting said drive shaft and said driven shaft, and pinwheels mounted on said driven shaft for rotation therewith adapted to engage marginal holes in a continuous form to be drawn through said press, an intermittent perforating mechanism comprising: a pair of perforator support plates attached to said shield, a per forator support shaft journalled in said plates for rotation about a predetermined axis, a perforator wheel mounted on said support shaft, a perforator platen mounted on said driven shaft in confronting relation to said perforator wheel, bias means connected to said support shaft maintaining said perforator wheel in a predetermined position relative to said perforator platen, a solenoid actuator connected to said perforator support shaft for rotating said support shaft about said axis against the bias of said bias means, a cam connected to said drive shaft and rotating in proportion to the notation of said drive shaft, switch means engaging said cam and responsive to rotation of said cam, and electrical circuit means interconnecting said switch means and said solenoid actuator whereby said solenoid actuator is energized and de-energized in response to rotation of said drive shaft.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 852,375 4/ 1907 Carlton 84-426 1,678,410 7/1928 Warrington 83346 2,084,573 6/1937 Cowan 83346 X 2,333,024 10/1943 Mathes 83-285 2,434,624 1/1948 Peterson 83346 X 2,445,843 7/1948 Turner 83337 X 3,057,239 10/1962 Teplitz 83285 X ANDREW R. JUHASZ, Primary Examiner.

Claims (1)

1. FOR USE IN A CONTINUOUS FORMS PRINTING PRESS HAVING A FEED MECHANISM THE COMBINATION COMPRISING:A CAM DRIVEN BY SAID FEED MECHANISM, A SWICH CONTROLLED BY SAID CAM, A SOLENOID ACTUATOR CONNECTED IN ELECTRICAL CIRCUIT WITH SAID SWITCH AND CONTROLLED BY SAID SWITCH, A PERFORATOR WHEEL FOR FORMING A CONTINUOUS LINE OF PERFORATIONS WHEN CONTACTING A FORM DRAWN THROUGH SAID PRESS, AND MEANS CONNECTING SAID SOLEMOID ACTUATOR TO SAID PERFORATOR WHEEL FOR MOVING SAID PERFORATOR WHEEL INTO AND OUT OF PERFORATING CONTACT WITH A PORTION OF A CONTINUOUS FORM DRAWN THROUGH SAID PRESS DEPENDING UPON THE ENERGIZED STATE OF SAID SOLENOID ACTUATOR.

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