Inexpensive and reliable custom programmable phototypesetter

In a phototypesetter:

• a. a character generator for producing images of illuminated characters to be projected along an optical axis;
• b. an x positioning stepping motor;
• c. a first carrige coupled to said x positioning motor, said first carriage having an imaging lens coupled thereto for focusing aerial images of said characters to be typeset at an imaging plane within an imaging station;
• d. an elongated driving member coupled to said first carriage;
• e. a projection lenscarrige having a projection lens coupled thereto for producing an aerial image of said character images;
• f. a collimating lens carriage having a collimating lens coupled thereto for converting said aerial image into collimated light directed at said imaging lens coupled to said first carriage;
• g. projection lens carriage clutch means associated with said projection lens carriage for coupling and decoupling said projection lens carrige to and from said elongated driving member;
• h. collimating lens carriage clutch means associated with said collimating lens carriage for coupling and decoupling said collimating lens carriage to and from said elongated driving member;
• i. x positioning motor drive control means for transmitting electrical pulses to said x position stepping motor for causing said stepping motor to incrementally drive said first carriage and said elongated driving member;
• j. projection lens positioning control means for actuating said projection lens carriage clutch means for mechanically coupling said projection lens carriage to said elongated driving member and for causing said x motor drive control circuit to incrementally step said stepping motor to accurately position said projection lens carriage at a position along said optical axis to produce an aerial image of a selected size;
• and
• k. collimating lens positioning control means for actuating said collimating lens carriage clutch for coupling said collimating lens carriage to said elongated driving member and for causing said x motor drive control circuit to incrementally step said x position stepping motor to position said collimating lens at a distance from said aerial image to collimate said aerial image so that said aerial image is focused at the imaging plane of said imaging station by said imaging lens regardless of the varying distances between said collimating leans and said imaging lens.

A phototypesetter comprising:

• a. an imaging station;
• b. an elongated scanning carriage having optical means thereon for sequentially projecting optical images across said imaging station upon the incremental movement thereof;
• c. an elongated driving member;
• d. coupling means for coupling said elongated driving member to said elongated carriage;
• e. an x positioning stepping motor coupled to said first elongated carriage for incrementally driving said first elongated carriage and thus said elongated driving member;
• f. a movable character generating member having character indicia thereon,
• g. illumination means for sequentially illuminating selected character indicia carried by said character generating member;
• h. a first lens carriage having a first lens means coupled thereto for producing images of said characters;
• i. a second lens carriage having second lens means coupled thereto for relaying said images to said optical means mounted upon aid scanning carriage;
• j. lens carriage positioning means including clutch means for selectively coupling and decoupling said first and second lens carriages to and from said elongated driving member;
• and
• k. character generating member actuation means for selectively shifting said character generating member for causing indicia tracks associated therewith to be selectively viewed by said first lens means without changing the conjugate object distance of said first lens means, said character generating member actuation means including clutch means for selectively coupling and decoupling said actuation means to and from said elongated driving member so that a single x positioning motor may be employed for selectively positioning a plurality of lens carriages and said character generating member.

A phototypesetter comprising:

• a. an imaging station;
• b. an elongated scanning carriage having an imaging lens and an optical scanning element coupled thereto;
• c. an elongated driving member;
• d. coupling means coupled between said elongated scanning carriage and said elongated driving means;
• e. an x position stepping motor for incrementally driving said escapement carriage and thus said elongated driving member;
• f. a rotatable character generating disc;
• g. flash illumination means for selectively illuminating images of characters upon said disc;
• h. a projection lens carriage having a projection lens coupled thereto for producing aerial images of said characters;
• i. a collimating lens carriage having a collimating lens coupled thereto for converting said aerial images into collimated light directed at said imaging lens coupled to said scanning carriage;
• j. character disc actuation means for radially shifting said character disc for causing selected tracks upon said disc to be viewed by said projection means without changing the conjugate object distance of said projection lens;
• k. projection lens carriage clutch means for coupling and decoupling said projection lens carriage to and from said elongated driving member;
• l. collimating lens carriage clutch means for coupling and decoupling said collimating lens carriage to and from said elongated driving member;
• m. x motor drive control means for causing said x stepping motor to drive said scanning carriage and said elongated driving member;
• n. projection lens positioning control means for actuating said projection lens carriage clutch means for mechanically coupling said projection lens carriage to said elongated driving member and for causing said x motor drive control circuit to actuate said x stepping motor to position said projection lens carriage at a position along said optical axis to produce an aerial image of a selected size;
• and
• o. collimating lens positioning control means for actuating said collimating lens carriage clutch for coupling said collimating lens carriage to said elongated driving member and for causing said x motor drive control circuit to actuate said x stepping motor to position said collimating lens at a distance from said aerial image to collimate said aerial images so that said aerial images are focused at the imaging plane of said imaging station by said imaging lens regardless of the varying distances between said collimating lens and said imaging lens.

In a phototypesetter, an improved optical element actuating device comprising:

• a. a first movable carriage means having at least one optical element coupled thereto;
• b. a second movable carriage means having at least one optical element coupled thereto;
• c. an elongated carriage drive member having a flat surface thereon for propelling said first and second movable carriage means;
• d. first carriage coupling means for coupling said elongated carriage drive member to said first movable carriage means including at least one flat clutching surface facing said flat surface of said elongated drive member and slidable with respect thereto together with first clutch means associated with said first movable carriage means for selectively coupling and decoupling said flat clutching surface of said first carriage coupling means to and from said flat surface of said elongated drive member;
• e. second carriage coupling means for coupling said elongated carriage drive member to said second movable carriage means including at least one flat clutching surface facing said flat surface of said elongated drive member and slidable with respect thereto together with second clutch means associated with said second movable carriage means for selectively coupling and decoupling said flat clutch surface of said second carriage coupling means to and from said flat surface of said elongated drive member;
• f. elongated carriage drive member coupling means for actuating said elongated carriage drive member;
• and
• g. a drive motor coupled to said elongated carriage drive member coupling means for transmitting force therethrough for actuating said first and second movable carriage means through said elongated carriage drive member upon selective energization of said first and second clutch means.

In a phototypesetter, an improved optical element actuating device comprising:

• a. an imaging station;
• b. a scanning carriage having optical means for sequentially projecting focused character images across said imaging station;
• c. a first lens carriage means co-acting with the optical means of said scanning carriage;
• d. a second leans carriage means, co-acting with said first lens carriage means, which may be positioned independently of said first lens carriage means;
• e. an elongated lens carriage drive member having flat clutching surfaces thereon;
• f. coupling means for coupling said elongated drive member to said scanning carriage;
• g. said lens carriages having flat clutching surfaces facing said flat surfaces of aid elongated drive member;
• h. clutch means associated with said first lens carriage means and said second lens carriage means for selectively coupling and decoupling said carriages to and from said flat surfaces of said elongated drive member;
• and
• i. a single stepping motor for actuating said scanning carriage and thus said elongated drive member via said coupling means for causing said optical means to scan said imaging plane and for enabling individual actuation of said carriages by activating said clutch means.

In a phototypesetter, an improved optical element actuating device comprising:

• a. an imaging station;
• b. a scanning carriage having optical means for sequentially projection focused character images across said imaging station;
• c. a collimating lens carriage having a collimating lens coupled thereto for directing collimating light at said optical means;
• d. a projection lens carriage having a projection lens for producing variable sized aerial images which are collimated by said collimating lens;
• e. an elongated lens carriage drive member having flat clutching surfaces thereon;
• f. coupling means for coupling said elongated drive member to said scanning carriage;
• g. said lens carriages having flat clutching surfaces facing said flat surfaces of said elongated drive member;
• h. clutch means associated with said collimating lens carriage and said projection lens carriage for selectively coupling and decoupling said carriages to and from said flat surfaces of said elongated drive member;
• and
• i. a single stepping motor for actuating said scanning carriage and thus said elongated drive member via said coupling means for causing said optical means to scan said imaging plane and for enabling actuation of said carriages by activating said clutch means.

A customized method of programming an optical element control system of an individual phototypesetter wherein the optical elements thereof are positioned along an optical axis to produce sharply focused images at an imaging station comprising the steps of:

• a. providing a plurality of lens devices for providing character images at said imaging station and which are supported by movable lens carriages having positions along said optical axis which are a function of the sizes of the characters to be phototypeset;
• b. positioning said lens carriages in accordance with a set of initial positioning codes along said optical axis at positions which would produce a sharply focused image at said imaging station of said phototypesetter if said lens elements had the theoretically correct focal lengths;
• c. examining the resulting images to determine the degree of defocusing due to variations in the theoretically correct focal lengths;
• d. altering said initial positioning codes corresponding to the theoretically correct focal lengths stored within said control system by a given incremental amount;
• e. re-examining said defocused images and again altering the altered positioning codes if necessary until the images are sharply focused, and thereafter;
• f. employing the finally altered positioning codes generated for each character size for positioning said lens carriages in z during subsequent operation of the phototypesetter.

A customized method of programming an optical element control system of an individual phototypesetter wherein the optical elements thereof are positioned along an optical axis to produce sharply focused images at an imaging station comprising the steps of:

• a. providing a plurality of lens devices supported by movable lens carriages having positions along said optical axis controlled by an elongated drive member coupled to a stepping motor capable of moving said elongated drive member in small mechanical increments, at least one of said lens carriages being selectively coupled to said elongated drive member by means of clutches and further including a carriage position command control system for positioning said carriages under the command of positioning command codes stored therein;
• b. positioning said lens carriages by virtue of the operation of the system set forth in paragraph a along said optical axis at positions which would produce a sharply focused image at said imaging station of said phototypeseter if said lens devices had the theoretically correct focal lengths;
• c. examining the resulting images to determine the degree of defocusing due to variations in the theoretically correct focal lengths of said lens elements;
• d. altering the initial positioning codes corresponding to the theoretically correct focal lengths stored within said control system by a given incremental amount;
• e. re-examining said defocused images and again altering the altered positioning codes if necessary until the images are sharply focused, and thereafter;
• f. employing the finally altered positioning codes for positioning said lens carriages during subsequent operation of the phototypesetter.

In a phototypesetter:

• a. a character generator for producing images of illuminated characters to be projected along an optical axis upon a photosensitive medium;
• b. an x positioning motor;
• c. a first carriage coupled to said x positioning motor, for producing relative motion between said medium and said optical axis for sequentially positioning images of said characters to be typeset across said medium;
• d. an elongated driving member coupled to said first carriage;
• e. at least one additional lens carriage having lens means coupled thereto for producing said images of said characters to be typeset across said medium;
• f. carriage clutch means associated with said additional lens carriage(s) for coupling and decoupling said carriage(s) to and from said elongated driving member;
• g. x positioning motor drive control means for causing said positioning motor to drive said first carriage together with said elongated driving member;
• and
• h. carriage positioning control means for actuating said carriage clutch means for selectively coupling said additional carriage(s) to said elongated driving member and for causing said x motor drive control circuit to actuate said x motor to position said additional carriage(s) at a position along said optical axis to produce an image of a selected size.

A customized method of programming an optical element control system of an individual phototypesetter wherein at least one lens device thereof is positioned along an optical axis to produce sharply focused images at an imaging station comprising the steps of:

• a. providing at least one focusing lens device for producing character images at said imaging station and which are supported by at least one movable lens carriage having positions along said optical axis which are a function of the sizes of the characters to be phototypeset;
• b. positioning said lens carriage(s) in accordance with a set of initial positioning codes along said optical axis at positions which would produce a sharply focused image at said imaging station of said phototypesetter if said lens device(s) had the theoretically correct focal lengths;
• c. examining the resulting images to determine the degree of defocusing due to variations in the theoretically correct focal lengths of said lens device(s);
• d. altering the initial positioning codes corresponding to the theoretically correct focal lengths stored within said control system by a given incremental amount;
• e. re-examining the defocused images and again altering the altered positioning codes if necessary until the images are sharply focused, and thereafter;
• f. employing the finally altered positioning codes generated for each character size for positioning said lens carriage(s) in z during subsequent operation of the phototypesetter.