US3859914A

US3859914A - Jumbo number printing device

Info

Publication number: US3859914A
Application number: US426044A
Authority: US
Inventors: Glenn L Strickland
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1973-12-19
Filing date: 1973-12-19
Publication date: 1975-01-14
Anticipated expiration: 1992-01-14
Also published as: JPS5095028A; DE2459192A1; GB1490873A; FR2255182B3; FR2255182A1

Abstract

An apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material. The apparatus includes a plurality of stations each having a rotatable cylinder with transverse printing wheels rotatably carried thereon. Positioned on the periphery of the transverse printing wheels are the characters that are to be printed on the sheets of material. Each rotatable printing wheel except the first one, prints one character of a total number that is to be printed on a sheet of material as it passes under a rotatable cylinder. Therefore, the first cylinder is provided for printing units and tens; the second cylinder, hundreds; the third cylinder, thousands; the fourth cylinder, ten thousands; and the fifth cylinder, hundred thousands. Additional cylinders can be added. Indexing mechanisms are provided for indexing the printing wheels at the appropriate time. The various characters can be printed in different colors for providing color coded numbers.

Description

United States Patent [191 Strickland [451 Jan. 14, 1975 JUMBO NUMBER PRINTING DEVICE Glenn L. Strickland, 107 Miami Ave., Rt. 5, Piedmont, SC. 29640 [22] Filed: Dec. 19, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 426,044

[76] Inventor:

Primary Examiner-Robert E. Bagwill AssistantExaminer-Edward M. Coven Attorney, Agent, or FirmBailey & Dority [57] ABSTRACT An apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material. The apparatus includes a plurality of stations each having a rotatable cylinder with transverse printing wheels rotatably car ried thereon. Positioned on the periphery of the transverse printing wheels are the characters that are to be printed on the sheets of material. Each rotatable printing wheel except the first one, prints one character of a total number that is to be printed on a sheet of material as it passes under a rotatable cylinder. Therefore, the first cylinder is provided for printing units and tens; the second cylinder, hundreds; the third cylinder, thousands; the fourth cylinder, ten thousands; and the fifth cylinder, hundred thousands. Additional cylinders can be added. indexing mechanisms are provided for indexing the printing wheels at the appropriate time. The various characters can be printed in different colors for providing color coded numbers.

7 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures JUMBO NUMBER PRINTING DEVICE BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to a printing press and more particularly to a jumbo number or character printing press.

In the printing industry and particularly in printing business forms, there has become a need for printing business forms or invoices with large consecutive jumbo numbers thereon. This is to enable one copy of the invoice to be placed on items for aiding and retrieving the particular item in large warehouses and the like. Heretofore, such jumbo printing numbers have been printed on the sheets of material forming a web by a kluge type press which has an indexing mechanism for indexing the printing numbers. This system is relatively slow compared to the rate that the other matter can be printed on the forms, therefore, slowing down the overall production rate of the forms.

Normally, jumbo numbers are considered to be numbers ranging from 9% inch through 2 inches in height. When the number desired to be printed on the form is smaller than /2 an inch, such can generally be accomplished with conventional printing devices that utilize several printing wheels defining a single printing cylinder. The printing wheels are ratcheted to print consecutive numbers on the sheets passing thereunder.

In US. Pat. No. 1,038,348 granted on Sept. 10, 1912 to R. Gompf, there is disclosed a machine for printing consecutive numbers on sheets of material. The size of the number printed by this apparatus is limited since each of the printing cylinders B through F print a complete number on the sheet passing thereunder.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention is for an apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material. The apparatus includes an elongated housing which has a plurality of spaced axles carried thereby. A rotatable cylinder is carried on each of the axles. In one embodiment each of the cylinders has ten circumferentially and equally spaced transverse printing wheels rotatably carried thereby. jumbo printing characters are carried on the periphery of the printing wheels. Means is provided for feeding the web of mate rial under each of the rotatable cylinders wherein one character of a total number is printed by each cylinder, except the first, on each sheet of the web of material. Indexing means is provided for advancing the printing wheels in a predetermined sequence so that consecutive jumbo numbers are printed on consecutive sheets of the web of material. When the apparatus is being utilized for printing one size material, such as 4 and V4 inch business forms, ten printing wheels are circumferentially spaced around eacy cylinder. However, if it is desired to use the same diameter cylinder for printing forms 8 and 1% inches long, then only five printing wheels would be utilized on each cylinder.

Accordingly, the general object of the present invention is to provide a high speed apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on consecutive sheets of a web of material.

Another important object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for printing jumbo numbers on different size sheets forming a web of material.

Another important object of the present invention is to provide a system for indexing printing wheels carried on a plurality of cylinders so that the printing wheels of each successive cylinder is indexed a multiple on onetenth as many times as the preceding cylinder.

Still another object of the present invention is to provide a system for printing color coded jumbo numbers.

Still another important object of the present invention is to provide a consecutive jumbo number printing apparatus wherein the total number printed can be varied by varying the number of consecutive printing stations.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent upon reference to the following specification, attendant claims and drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a side elevational view with'a portion of the cover plate removed showing one side ofa printing machine constructed in accordance with the present invention,

FIG. 2 is a side elevational view illustrating the other side of the printing machine and more particularly the drive mechanism for the rotatable cylinders,

FIG. 3 is an end, elevational view of the machine shown in FIGS. 1 and 2,

FIG. 4 is an enlarged, side elevational view with parts broken away for purposes of clarity illustrating one of the rotatable cylinders utilized in the printing apparatus,

FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5-5 of FIG. 4,

FIG. 6 is a sectional view taken along 6--6 of FIG.

FIGS. 6a and 6b are schematic diagrams showing counters and micro-switches used in an indexing system for the apparatus, and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged, perspective view illustrating a rear portion of the machine and more particularly the indexing and drive mechanism for the rotatable cylinders.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT In FIG. 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated a plurality of successive printing stations generally designated by the reference characters 10 through 14. A web 15 of material made up of a plurality of sheets 15a is fed past each of these printing stations 10 through 14 for having a number printed thereon which forms part of the total number that is to be printed on the sheet. For example, printing station 10 will print jumbo numbers 1 through 99 on each successive sheet. Printing station number 11 will print the characters representing 100s, printing station 12 will print characters representing thousands, printing station number 13 will print characters representing ten thousands and printing station number 14 will print characters representing hundred thousands. Therefore, for example, if the sheet being printed with the jumbo numbers is 246,873 then the first two digits which includes the 3 and 7 will be printed at the printing station 10, the third digit 8 is printed at the station 1 l, the fourth digit 6 is printed at the station 12, the fifth digit 4 is printed at the station 13 and the sixth digit 2 is printed at the station 14. The reason that two characters are printed at station 10 will be discussed later.

These successive printing stations are carried on a side wall 16 which is constructed of sheet metal. Rotatably journaled on the side wall 16 are a plurality of laterally spaced axles 17 which have their inner ends extending through the wall 16. The axles 17 are journaled within bearing blocks 18a. The inner ends of the axles 17 have miter gears 18 secured thereto which mesh with another gear 19 carried on an elongated drive shaft 20 extending on the rear side of the side wall 16.

The drive shaft 20 is rotated by means of an electric motor 21 which has its output shaft coupled to a gear reduction box 22. An output shaft of the gear reduction box is coupled by means of a belt 23 to an enlarged pulley 24. Carried on the same shaft as the pulley 24 is a gear 25 which meshes with another gear 26 which in turn meshes with another rotatable gear 27. The rotatable gear 27 meshes with another large gear 28 which is carried on and fixed to the axle 17 upon which the main cylinder of the printing station 10 is carried. A miter gear 29 is carried on the end of the axle 17. The

. miter gear 29 meshes with a miter gear 30 carried on the end of. the elongated drive shaft 20 for rotating the drive shaft 20. I a

The drive shaft 20 is journaled in a plurality of spaced bearing blocks 31 carried on vertical braces 32 attached to the rear of the side wall 16.

Referring back to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, each of the stations 10 through 14 includes a rotatable cylinder 33 which has 10 transverse circumferentially and equally spaced radially extending slots provided therein. Transverse printing wheels 34 are rotatably carried within each of the slots for rotation about an axis transverse to the axle 17.

The web of material 15 consisting of the individual sheets 15a is fed from a roll 35 carried on a stand 36 shown on the left hand end of the printing apparatus illustrated in FIG. 1. The web 15 is fed around a first idle roller 37, back around another idle roller 38, over an impression cylinder 39 which causes the web to be brought in contact with the printing wheels 34 carried on the cylinder 33 of the printing station 10.

The web is then fed around a tension roller 40 which is carried on the end of a pivotal arm 41 for adjusting the height thereof. The purpose of the tension roller 40 is to control the length of the web between adjacent impression cylinders so as to insure exact and proper placing of the jumbo numbers thereon. The web of material also has line holes 42 therein which engage line hole pins 43 carried on the impression roll 39 insuring proper placement of the web of material relative to the printing wheels 34. In some particular application, it may be more desirable to place the line hole pins 43 on the idle rolls 37.

I Ink may be deposited on the printing wheels 34 from any suitable conventional inker such as illustrated by the reference character 45. An inker 45 is provided for each of the cylinders 33 and the ink is placed on the characters carried on the periphery of the printing wheel 34 each time such passes thereunder. Different color ink can be placed in the inkers 45 for printing color coded numbers.

The web of material 15 is taken up on a takeup roll 46 suitably supported on a frame 47 carried at the end of the printing machine. A torque motor is provided for winding the web 15 on a roller 48 extending through the roll 46. The details of the torque motor are not described since such is a conventional item for winding webs of material.

As can be seen in FIG. 3, the axles 17 are supported between the bearing blocks 18a and standards 50 carried by a lower supporting frame 51. The inkers 45 are also carried on shafts 52 extending between the side wall 16 and the standard 50a. A sprocket 53 is carried on the shaft 17 around which a chain 54 extends for driving the rollers forming part of the inker 45. The chain 54 extends around a sprocket 55 provided on the rollers of the inker 45. l

Also as seen in FIG. 3, each impression roll 39 is carried on an axle 56 that extends through the rear wall 16 and has the gear 25 fixed to the inner end thereof. On the other end of the axle 56 is a gear 57 such as shown in FIG. 1. The spaced gears 57 have idle rollers 58 positioned therebetween. Extending around the gears 57 and the idle rollers 58 in a zig-zag manner is a continuous elongated chain 59. The purpose of the chain 59 is to insure the exact rotation of the impression cylinders 39 relative to each other.

Each of the main cylinders 33 are constructed to accomodate as many as ten transverse printing wheels 34 such as illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. The cylinder 33 includes a hub 60 which is attached to the axle 17 by means of a set screw 61. The hub 60 has an outwardly extending flange 62 through which bolts 63 extend for securing the hub to a circular spider 64. The spider 64 has elongated radially extending slots 65 defined therein. As shown in FIG. 4, there are ten slots 65. Attached to each leg of the spider by means of bolts 66 such as shown in FIG. 5, is a wedge shaped element 67. The outer edge 68 of the wedge shaped element 67 defines the outer perimeter of the rotatable cylinders 33. The wedge shaped elements 67 have sides which describe the same angle as described by the sides of the spiders 64 (overlying each other as shown) so that the slots 65 extend radially to the outer perimeter of the cylinders 33. As can be seen, the wedge shaped elements 67 extend radially beyond the spiders 64. The printing wheels 34 are rotatably carried within the slots 65 and have conventional numerical characters 69 attached to the surface thereof. As seen in FIG. 4, there are ten characters 69 positioned on the periphery of the wheel 34. Normally these characters range from 0 through 9. In order to permit the printing wheels 34 to rotate transverse to the main cylinders 33, a bolt 70 having an enlarged head is carried within a centrally located recess 71 provided in the printing wheel 34. The bolt 70 extends into a bore 72 provided in the wedge shaped member 67 and is secured thereto by a set screw 73a.

The printing wheels 34 are provided for being ratcheted at predetermined times depending on the particular character that is being printed on the web of the material 15. The ratcheting mechanism includes a slidable ratchet arm 73 which is shifted to the left as shown in FIG. 6 when itis desired to rotate or ratchet the printing wheel 34. Positioned on the side of the printing wheel are 10 circumferentially spaced pins 74. These pins 74 are engaged by aspring-bias pawl 75 when the ratchet arm 73 is shifted to the left. It is noted that the pawl 75 is forced outwardly by a spring 76 carried in a recess in the ratchet arm 73. The inner end of the pawl is pivotally secured to the arm by a pin 77 extending therethrough. After the printing disc 34 has been ratcheted to the left a spring 78 carried on a rod 76a extending between a pair of spaced rearwardly extending

brackets

80 and 81 causes the ratchet arm 73 to return to the right. When the ratchet arm 73 returns to the right, the pawl 75 is forced inwardly passing under the pins 74. In order to insure proper alignment of the printing wheels 34 with the wedge shaped members 67 concave recesses 82 are provided in the side of the printing wheel 34. A spring bias ball 83 (see FIG. 4)

carried in the wedge shaped member 67, is forced into a recess 82 for holding the printing wheel 34 in position. There is sufficient force provided by the spring bias ball 83 to permit the ratchet arm 73 to be retracted to the right as shown in FIG. 6 without rotating the printing wheel 34.

A slot 85 extends through the wedge shaped member 67 for accommodating the ratchet arm 73.'There is also a circular hole through which the rod 76 extends. Another radially spaced slot 86 is provided as shown in FIG. 4 for permitting the pins 74 to pass therethrough when the printing wheel 34 is rotated.

As seen in FIG. 6, the spring 78 carried on the rod 76 has one end pressed against the wedge shaped member 67 and the other end pressed against the arm 80. Such is to return the ratchet arm 73 to the right after ratcheting has takenplace. Positioned on the end of the ratchet arm 73 is a wheel 87 which is carried within a bifurcated end of the ratchet arm 73 and supported on an axle88 for rotating freely.

The transverse wheels 34 are indexedby means of solenoid operated plungers generally designated by the reference character 90 which are suitably supported on the frame of the machine in the path of the ratchet arms 73 of each of the cylinders through 14. Each solenoid operated plunger 90 is supported on an L- shaped bracket 91 which is mounted on a supporting brace 92 by means of a bolt and nut 93 extending therethrough. The solenoid operated plunger includes a solenoid coil 94 which has a plunger 95 extending therethrough. An S-shaped bracket 96 has a downwardly extending portion 97 adjacent one end of the plunger 95 for limiting the movement in that direction. The other end of the S-shaped bracket 96 is secured to the bracket 91 by means of a screw 98. The plunger 95 extends through the coil 94 for engaging a hinged plate 99. The plate 99 is hinged by a hinge member 100 which is, in turn, suitably supported on the bracket 91.

Thus, when the solenoid coil 94 is energized, the plunger as seen in FIG. 5 is extended to the left pushing the plate 99 to the phantom line position shown in FIG. 5. When the plate 99 is extended the rollers 87 carried on the end of the ratchet arm 73 ride along the plate 99 causing the ratchet arm to be forced to the left as shown in FIG. 6. Such causes the printing wheels carried on that particular cylinder to be rotated one segment so that the character on the adjacent segment will be printed on the web of material passing thereunder.

Indexing means such as shown in FIG. 7 is provided for advancing the printing wheels 34 in a predetermined sequence so that a single character is printed on each sheet of said web of material 15 as said web passes under each printing head. Therefore, the complete number is printed on a sheet by means of each of the printing stations 10 through 14 printing characters thereon.

The indexing mechanism includes ratchet type counters 101, 102, 103 and 104. The counter, 101, is provided for controlling the indexing of the cylinder 14 which is used for printing the character representing one hundred thousands. The counter 102 is used for indexing the cylinder 13 which prints the character representing l0,000; the counter 103 is used for printing the character representing one thousand; and the counter 104 is used for printing the character representing hundreds. Each of the counters 101 to 104 includes a plurality of cylinders which are rotated in accordance with the movement of a ratchet arm 105 carried on the side thereof. This ratchet arm 105 is engaged by a cam 106 carried on the rotating shaft 20. Therefore, each time the shaft rotates one revolution each of the counters 101 through 104 is ratcheted one digit. While all of the counters 101,102, 103 and 104 are identical in construction, it is only necessary to utilize the number of cylinders forming a part thereof that is required for maintaining the count for indexing the solenoid associated with that particular counter.

As seen in FIG. 6b, the counter 102 has five rotating cylinders 102b, each of which have 10 characters cir' cumferentially spaced on the perimeter thereof for indicating the number of times that the ratchet arm 105 has been activated. The ratchet arm 105 is activated each time the shaft 20 and the printing cylinders 33 make one revolution.

In order that the counter 10% energize a solenoid 90 associated with the printing cylinder 13 so as to print characters representing ten thousands on each sheet passing thereunder, raised camming members 1020 are placed over the zero digit carried on the wheels 1021) representing tens, hundreds and thousands. When the printing cylinder 13 is rotated 1,000 times, the cams l02c will be aligned as shown in FIG. 6b closing all three of the micro-switches l02dl, 102d2 and 102113. At this time, the electrical power supplied from a source 110 is coupled through the micro-switches l02dl, l02d2 and l02d3 to solenoid 90 causing such to be energized. When the solenoid 90 is energized, the hinge member 99 is forced outwardly to engage the wheels 87 carried on the ten ratchet arms 73 carried on printing cylinder 13. This causes each of the transverse printing cylinders to be ratcheted one digit.

FIG. 6a illustrates the arrangement for ratcheting the transverse printing wheels 34 carried on the main cylinder 11. Only one micro-switch 104a is required since ratching takes place each time the main cylinder 11 makes ten revolutions. As noted, a cam l04c is carried on the 0 digit of the first wheel.

It is to be understood, of course, that the first printing cylinder 10 is capable of printing the numbers 1 to 99. This is accomplished by placing ten characters 0 through 9 on the periphery of the main cylinder adjacent the transverse cylinders 34 for printing the units 0 through 9. The characters 69 carried on the transverse cylinders 34 of the first cylinder 10 are then used for printing the numbers representing tens. Therefore, it can be seen that the first wheel prints the characters representing units and tens. The second main cylinder 11 prints the characters representing hundreds; the third cylinder 12 representing thousands; the fourth cylinder, ten thousands, and the fifth cylinder, one hundred thousands. Each transverse wheel 34 has the characters 0 9 thereon.

1n summarizing the operation of the printing apparatus a web of material 15 is fed through the machine such as shown in FIG. 1. This web is made up of a plurality of sheets of paper upon which it is desired to print consecutive jumbo numbers thereon. In one particular printing process, the width of these sheets are 4% inches long.

In order to print the various characters to make up the total number at the precise location on each sheet of material line hole paper is utilized and such is held in alignment by the pins 43 carried on the impression cylinder 39. These line hole pins 43 could also be placed on the rollers 37. The impression cylinders 39 are rotated by the electric motor 21 through the drive mechanism which rotates the elongated shaft 20 extending along the rear of the machine. The elongated shaft also drives each of the main cylinders 10 through 14 by means of the miter gears 18 and 19. The miter gears 18 are carried on the end of the axles 17.

The impression cylinder 39 is supported on a rotatable axle 56. On one end of the axle 56 is a gear 25 that is driven through

gears

26 and 27 from the rotating shaft 20. The other end of the shaft 56 has gears 57 carried thereon. An elongated looped chain 59 extends around all of the gears 57 so that, in essence, the compression cylinders 56 are driven from both ends. This aids in precisely locating the characters on each sheet.

As the web of material is fed under the first cylinder 10, the characters carried on the periphery of the main cylinder 10 print the units through 9 as the cylinder makes one revolution. The characters carried on the transverse wheels 34 print the characters representing tens on the sheets. Therefore, the wheel prints two characters on each sheet as it passes thereunder representing the numbers 1 through 99. The indexing device 90 for the cylinder 10 is fixed so that the hinge member 99 engages the ratcheting arm 73 each time the arms pass thereby. Therefore, there is a continuous ratcheting of the printing wheels 34 associated with the main printing cylinder 10.

Cylindrical counters 101, 102, 103 and 104 in combination with

micro-switches

101a, 102a, 103a and 104a are provided for energizing the solenoids 90 associated therewith for indexing the cylinders 34 in a predetermined sequence. For example, the cylinder 104 and the micro-switch 104a causes the solenoid 94 to be energized to index the printing cylinders 34 of the main cylinder 11 on each ten revolutions of the main cylinders. The reason that it is indexed each ten revolutions of the main cylinder is that one hundred characters are printed during this period of time.

As previously mentioned, a takeup motor is used for rotating the takeup roll 46 and maintains a uniform torque in the web 15. This torque motor can be any suitable conventional torque motor.

The arrangement of the printing cylinders 34 as shown in the drawings is for printing every sheet of one particular size paper such as 4%. inch linehole paper. If the size of the paper were changed to 8% inch linehole paper, then the printing cylinders 10 through 14 could be modified by removing every other transverse printing wheel 34. Under these conditions, the characters placed on the five printing wheels 34 on the main cylinders would be as follows. On the first wheel the character arrangement around the periphery of the printing wheel 34 would be 1,6; 1,6; 1,6, etc. On the second wheel, the character arrangement would be 2,7; 2,7; 2,7, etc. On the third wheel, the character arrangement would be 3,8; 3,8; 3,8, etc. On the fourth wheel, the character arrangement would be 4,9; 4,9; 4,9, etc. On the fifth wheel, the character arrangement would be 5,0; 5,0; 5,0, etc. Therefore, in order to print the units 0 through 9, it would be necessary to rotate the main cylinder two revolutions. Under these circumstances instead of ratcheting the consecutive main cylinders 10 through 14 each ten revolutions they would then be ratcheted each twenty revolutions.

While a preferred embodiment of the invention has been described using specific terms, such description is for illustrative purposes only, and it is to be understood that changes and variations may be made without departing from the spirit or scope of the following claims.

What is claimed is:

1. an apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material comprising:

A. an elongated housing,

B. a plurality of spacedaxles carried by said housing,

C. a rotatable cylinder carried on each of said axles,

D. each of said cylinders having at least five circumferentially and equally spaced printing wheels rotatably carried thereon, extending radially outwardly from said axles in longitudinal alignment therewith,

E. jumbo printing characters carried on the periphery of said transverse printing wheels,

F. means for feeding said web of material under each of said rotatable cylinders wherein one character of a total number is printed by each cylinder on each sheet of said web of material, and

G. indexing means advancing said printing wheels in a predetermined sequence'for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on said sheet.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said indexing means includes:

an indexing device carriedby each cylinder for indexing said printing wheels upon being activated,

means for activating said indexing devices in a predetermined sequence whereby said printing wheels of respective cylinders are indexed in multiples of ten revolutions, so that said respective cylinders print characters representing multiples of 10.

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said web of material has line holes carried adjacent a border thereof,

an impression cylinder carried adjacent each cylinder, and

line hole pins rotatably supported for engaging said line holes on said web for aiding in aligning said web with said rotatable cylinders as said web passes between said impression cylinders and said rotatable cylinders whereby proper alignment of said characters are maintained as said'consecutive numbers are .built on said sheets.

4. The apparatus as set forth 'in claim 2 wherein said means for activating said indexing devices includes:

an elongated shaft, I

drive means rotating said shaft,

means for coupling said shaft to said axles so as to rotate said cylinders carried on said axles,

said means for activating said indexing devices including counters for counting the number of revolutions .that said cylinders are rotated,

solenoid means provided for engaging said indexing devices for indexing said printing wheels responsive to being energized, and

switch means coupled to said counters for energizing said solenoid means responsive to said cylinders being rotated a predetermined number of times.

5. An apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material comprising:

A. a plurality of successive printing stations,

B. each station including i. an axle,

ii. a rotatable cylinder carried on said axle,

iii. at least five circumferentially and equally spaced radially extending slots carried in said cylinder,

iv. a transverse printing wheel rotatably carried in each of said slots for rotation transverse to said axle,

C. means for feeding said web of material under a transverse printing wheel of each station,

D. numerical characters carried on said printing wheels, and

E. indexing means for advancing said printing wheels at each station in a predetermined sequence so that a single character is printed on each sheet as said web is fed past each printing station,

F. whereby the mignitude of said consecutive jumbo numbers is controlled by the number of printing stations.

6. An apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material comprising:

an elongated housing,

a plurality of cylinders rotatably supported on said housing, drive means for rotating said cylinders, ten circumferentially and equally spaced printing 'wheels rotatably carried by each of said cylinders, extending radially outwardly from said axles in longitudinal alignment therewith,

10 jumbo printing characters carried on the periphery of said printing wheels,

means for feeding said web of material under each of said cylinders wherein one character of a total number is printed by said printing wheels of each of said cylinders on each sheet of said web of material, and

indexing means for advancing said printing wheel in a predetermined sequence for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on said sheet.

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 further comprising:

inking means carried adjacent each of said rotatable cylinders for applying different color ink to said jumbo printing characters of respective cylinders;

whereby color coded consecutive jumbo numbers are printed on said sheets of said web of material.

Claims

1. AN APPARATUS FOR PRINTING CONSECUTIVE JUMBO NUMBERS ON SHEETS FORMING A WEB OF MATERIAL COMPRISING: A. an elongated housing, B. a plurality of spaced axles carried by said housing, C. a rotatable cylinder carried on each of said axles, D. each of said cylinders having at least five circumferentially and equally spaced printing wheels rotatably carried thereon, extending radially outwardly from said axles in longitudinal alignment therewith, E. jumbo printing characters carried on the periphery of said transverse printing wheels, F. means for feeding said web of material under each of said rotatable cylinders wherein one character of a total number is printed by each cylinder on each sheet of said web of material, and G. indexing means advancing said printing wheels in a predetermined sequence for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on said sheet.

2. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said indexing means includes: an indexing device carried by each cylinder for indexing said printing wheels upon being activated, means for activating said indexing devices in a predetermined sequence whereby said printing wheels of respective cylinders are indexed in multiples of ten revolutions, so that said respective cylinders print characters representing multiples of 10.

3. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 wherein said web of material has line holes carried adjacent a border thereof, an impression cylinder carried adjacent each cylinder, and line hole pins rotatably supported for engaging said line holes on said web for aiding in aligning said web with said rotatable cylinders as said web passes between said impression cylinders and said Rotatable cylinders whereby proper alignment of said characters are maintained as said consecutive numbers are built on said sheets.

4. The apparatus as set forth in claim 2 wherein said means for activating said indexing devices includes: an elongated shaft, drive means rotating said shaft, means for coupling said shaft to said axles so as to rotate said cylinders carried on said axles, said means for activating said indexing devices including counters for counting the number of revolutions that said cylinders are rotated, solenoid means provided for engaging said indexing devices for indexing said printing wheels responsive to being energized, and switch means coupled to said counters for energizing said solenoid means responsive to said cylinders being rotated a predetermined number of times.

5. An apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material comprising: A. a plurality of successive printing stations, B. each station including i. an axle, ii. a rotatable cylinder carried on said axle, iii. at least five circumferentially and equally spaced radially extending slots carried in said cylinder, iv. a transverse printing wheel rotatably carried in each of said slots for rotation transverse to said axle, C. means for feeding said web of material under a transverse printing wheel of each station, D. numerical characters carried on said printing wheels, and E. indexing means for advancing said printing wheels at each station in a predetermined sequence so that a single character is printed on each sheet as said web is fed past each printing station, F. whereby the mignitude of said consecutive jumbo numbers is controlled by the number of printing stations.

6. An apparatus for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on sheets forming a web of material comprising: an elongated housing, a plurality of cylinders rotatably supported on said housing, drive means for rotating said cylinders, ten circumferentially and equally spaced printing wheels rotatably carried by each of said cylinders, extending radially outwardly from said axles in longitudinal alignment therewith, 10 jumbo printing characters carried on the periphery of said printing wheels, means for feeding said web of material under each of said cylinders wherein one character of a total number is printed by said printing wheels of each of said cylinders on each sheet of said web of material, and indexing means for advancing said printing wheel in a predetermined sequence for printing consecutive jumbo numbers on said sheet.

7. The apparatus as set forth in claim 1 further comprising: inking means carried adjacent each of said rotatable cylinders for applying different color ink to said jumbo printing characters of respective cylinders; whereby color coded consecutive jumbo numbers are printed on said sheets of said web of material.