Vacuum contact printer

Abstract

A vacuum contact printer for printing indicia formed on a translucent drawing sheet onto a sensitized sheet material. The contact printer includes a vacuum chamber defining an enclosure having a planar upper wall with vertically directed through perforations. Secured to the upper wall of the vacuum chamber is a screen element which is pulled taut and located in fixed relation to an upper surface of the upper wall of the vacuum chamber. A cloth member is positioned over the screen member and secured to the frame of the vacuum chamber. In order to provide an image, the drawing sheet and sensitized sheet material are inserted over the cloth member and sandwiched between a transparent polyester film and the cloth. A light fixture is linearly driven across the upper surface of the vacuum chamber and the various sheet mounting mechanisms in close proximity thereof to permit light to pass through the translucent drawing sheet onto the sensitized sheet material. Absorption of the light by the indicia provides for an image to be transferred to the sensitized paper or other sensitized material. The light fixture is driven in substantially linear and reversible manner to provide for even distribution of the light across the drawing sheet and the sensitized sheet material. The driving mechanism is provided by a motor which drives a pair of endless belts linearly displaceable on opposing transverse sides of the contact printer.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.