Tape printer and stripper assembly

An assembly for placing series of imprints on a continuous web of material by passing it between a rotating printing plate cylinder and an impression cylinder, with the space between each series of imprints on the strip differing from the space between each imprint within a series, said assembly comprising said plate cylinder carrying a plurality of printing plates in spaced relation around its circumference, drive means for rotating said plate cylinder at uniform speed, control means for halting said plate cylinder for a predetermined time period each time said plate cylinder has moved through a predetermined number of complete revolutions and said impression cylinder is opposite a void between the spaced printing plates, said control means including a control shaft driven by said plate cylinder drive means at a rotational speed which is the 1/n fraction of the rotational speed of said plate cylinder where n is the number of printing plates carried on the circumference of said plate cylinder, an element carried by said control shaft adapted to provide an electrical signal upon each complete revolution of the control shaft, and timing means actuated by said electrical signal for halting said drive means for a predetermined time upon occurrence of said electrical signal, and means for continuously pulling the web between the plate cylinder and the impression cylinder at a speed equal to the surface speed of the rotating printing plate cylinder, whereby with the plate cylinder halted the web moves relative to the plate cylinder only when said impression roller registers with a void between said spaced printing plates, the time interval in which said relative movement occurs defining the length of the space between series of imprints, and the number of imprints in each series being the product of the number of complete revolutions of said plate cylinder between said halted intervals and the number of spaced printing plates carried on said plate cylinder.