Dual printing with single master supply source
AssigneeAddressograph Multigraph Corporation
InventorEber Lyle Goodwin
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Duplicating equipment is provided for printing on both faces of the same sheet or, in the alternative, making two impressions on the same face (e.g., in different colors) by means of two printing heads. Both printing heads are served with masters from a single supply point, the masters being fed in proper order and attached to the master cylinder of the appropriate printing head automatically. In one form of the invention, the single master supply point takes the form of a single master maker and converter.
Claims20
Duplicating apparatus comprising:
- first and second print heads;
- means to feed copy sheets to the print heads, each copy sheet first to the first print head and then to the second;
- a single master supply comprising a plurality of masters and being the sole source of masters for both of said print heads;
- means for taking one master from the supply and conveying it to one of said print heads;
- means for taking an immediately following master from the supply and conveying it to the other print head;
- means for operating the print heads to print on the copy sheet first from said one master and then from the other;
- means for interrupting the printing operation after a desired number of copies have been produced;
- and
- means for sequentially and repetitively removing the masters from the print heads, and activating said taking and conveying means to provide a replacement master on each head after each printing operation;
- whereby the arrangement of images on the printed copy sheets can be precontrolled for a series of printing runs by the arrangement of the masters relative to each other in a single master supply.
Duplicating apparatus as set forth in claim 8, in which the print heads are each provided with print control means and master insertion and ejection means, the said means for at least one print head being independently activatible and deactivatible, and which includes means for selectively deactivating the master insertion and ejection action of one of the print heads without disabling the balance of its printing action, means for selectively activating the master taking and conveying means for the other of said print heads only to feed masters individually to the other of said print heads solely;
- and
- means for converting the circuit means for activating the taking of masters in pairs to a condition activating the taking of masters one by one for each printing cycle, whereby the apparatus may be converted from printing with automatically changeable masters on both heads to printing with a fixed master on one head and automatically changeable masters on the other, and vice versa.
The method of printing copy sheets with two impressions per sheet, on a dual head duplicator, which conprises:
- a. preparing duplicating masters one for each different impression to be made;
- b. arranging the masters in a single sequence of pairs with the masters applicable to any one sheet making up a pair;
- c. mechanically withdrawing a pair of masters, one at a time, in sequence order, from the master sequence;
- d. mechanically feeding the first withdrawn master of the pair to one of the printing heads of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- e. mechanically feeding the second withdrawn master of the pair to the other printing head of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- f. operating the dual head duplicator to print copy sheets bearing images of both masters of the pair;
- g. mechanically counting the operations of the duplicator and mechanically terminating the printing of copy sheets when a preset number has been produced;
- h. mechanically removing the masters from the printing heads;
- i. repeating the cycle of steps (c) to (h) until all masters in the sequence have been used.
The method of printing copy sheets on both sides, on a dual head duplicator having first and second printing heads, and collecting them to form a predetermined number of books with pages arranged in a predetermined sequence which comprises:
- a. preparing duplicating masters, one for each page;
- b. arranging the masters in a single sequence corresponding to the desired page sequence
- c. mechanically withdrawing a pair of masters, one at a time, in sequence order, from the master sequence;
- d. mechanically feeding the first withdrawn master of the pair to the first printing head of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- e. mechanically feeding the second withdrawn master of the pair to the second printing head of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- f. operating the dual head duplicator to print copy sheets bearing the image of the first master of the pair on one side of a copy sheet and then inverting the sheet so that the image of the second master of the pair appears on the other side;
- g. feeding the sheets printed by each master pair in turn to a collator with the side first printed face down, and distributing them into collator pockets, one sheet to each pocket;
- h. mechanically counting the operations of the duplicator and mechanically terminating the printing of copy sheets when said predetermined number have been produced;
- i. mechanically removing the masters from the printing heads;
- and
- j. repeating the cycle of stes (c) to (i) until all masters in the sequence have been used.
The method of printing on a dual head duplicator, copy sheets each of a length to provide two-page areas on each face to produce a four-page signature having a desired page sequence represented by A-B-C-D, which comprises:
- a. preparing four duplicating masters of page area size, one for each page of the signature to be printed, which masters may be considered as designated A-B-C and D in correspondence with the signature pages whose images they bear, and each of which, when viewed in a planar face-up condition, may occupy either an erect position in which its image appears erect to the operator at a predetermined location, or an inverted position in which the master is rotated within its plane from said erect position to one in which its image appears inverted to the operator at said location;
- b. orienting and ordering the four masters to form a sequence which is one selected from the group of sequences consisting of:
- ______________________________________ Sequence 1 master A inverted master C inverted master B erect master D erect Sequence 2 master B erect master D erect master A inverted master C inverted Sequence 3 master C inverted master A inverted master D erect master B erect Sequence 4 master D erect master B erect master C inverted master A inverted ______________________________________
- c. mechanically withdrawing a pair of masters, one at a time, in sequence order from the master sequence;
- d. mechanically feeding the first withdrawn master to one of the print heads of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- e. mechanically feeding the second withdrawn master to the other print head of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- f. operating the dual head duplicator to feed the copy sheets from a copy sheet supply site lengthwise to the print heads in such manner that each sheet is first fed to the first print head which prints the image of the first master of the pair on the leading page area half of one face of the sheet, and then mechanically inverting the sheet end-over-end so than the image of the second master of the pair is printed on the leading page area half of the other face of the sheet by the second print head.
The method of printing on a dual head duplicator, copy sheets each of a length to provide two-page areas on each face to provide a four-page signature having a desired page sequence represented by A-B-C-D, which comprises;
- a. preparing four duplicating masters of page area size, one for each page of the signature to be printed, which masters may be considered as designated A-B-C and D in correspondence with the signature pages whose images they bear, and each of which, when viewed in a planar face-up condition, may occupy either an erect position in which its image appears erect to the operator at a predetermined location, or an inverted position in which the master is rotated within its plane from said erect position to one in which its image appears inverted to the operator at said locations;
- b. orienting and ordering the four masters to form a sequence which is one selected from the group of sequences consisting of:
- ______________________________________ Sequence 1' master A inverted master C inverted master D erect master B erect Sequence 2' master B erect master D erect master C inverted master A inverted Sequence 3' master C inverted master A inverted master B erect master D erect Sequence 4' master D erect master B erect master A inverted master C inverted ______________________________________
- c. mechanically withdrawing a pair of masters, one at a time, in sequence order, from the master sequence;
- d. mechanically feeding the first withdrawn master to one of the print heads of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- e. mechanically feeding the second withdrawn master to the other print head of the dual head duplicator and installing it thereon;
- f. operating the dual head duplicator to feed the copy sheets from a copy sheet supply site lengthwise to the print heads in such manner that each sheet is first fed to the first print head which prints the image of the first master of the pair on the leading page area half of one face of the sheet, and then mechanically inverting the sheet end-over-end so that the image of the second master of the pair is printed on the leading page area half of the other face of the sheet by the second print head;
- g. inverting the stack of printed sheets side-over-side;
- h. thereafter returning the stack of sheets to the copy sheet supply site of the duplicator;
- and
- i. repeating steps (c), (d), (3) and (f) with the partially printed copy sheets as the copy sheet supply.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.