Linear ink dispensing system
AssigneeBobst Firenze S.R.L.
InventorsFederico D'ANNUNZIO, Antonio BELLOSI
Life of this patent
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Abstract
This invention discloses an ink dispensing system for a printer using the nip area between the inking cylinder and the gravure/anilox cylinder as the sole source of inking. Our solution solves the problem of reducing the amount of ink present in the inking buffer, i.e. the nip area, of such printing machines, thereby accelerating the reaction time of an ink replacement and reducing the amount of waste and the cleaning time. The idea behind the invention is to provide ink to the nip area at selected locations when needed by using a dispensing apparatus that moves along the nip area.
Claims13
An inking system for a rotary printing unit, the rotary printing unit comprising a nip area between an inking cylinder and an etched cylinder, the nip area being arranged to retain ink,
- the inking system comprising:
- a pipe comprising an ink outlet configured to pour ink to the nip area by pouring the ink on top of the inking cylinder;
- a supply device configured to supply the pipe with the ink;
- a sensor configured to measure a level of the ink in the nip area;
- a carriage configured to carry the ink outlet and the sensor back and forth along a length of the nip area;
- and
- a control system functionally connected to the supply device and to the sensor, the control system being configured to maintain a desired level of ink along the length of the nip area.
A method for inking a rotary printing unit, comprising
- translating an ink outlet back and forth along a nip area containing ink used for printing;
- providing ink to the nip area though the ink outlet by pouring ink on top of an inking cylinder using a flow of ink;
- measuring a local ink level in the nip area with a sensor that translates along with the ink outlet;
- whenever the local ink level is below a first boundary value, increasing the flow of ink to increase the local ink level;
- and
- whenever the local ink level is above a second boundary value, decreasing the flow of ink to decrease the local ink level in the nip area,
- wherein the second boundary value is larger or equal to the first boundary value.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.