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US 4,482,225 AGranted
Photocomposing machine and method
AssigneeAutologic, S.A.
InventorsLouis M. Moyroud, Michel Bongard, Paul A. Vernez, Michel Moulin
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAutologic, S.A.
InventorsLouis M. Moyroud, Michel Bongard, Paul A. Vernez, Michel Moulin
Estimating the term…
Character matrices are stored in and retrieved from a magazine automatically. The matrices can be complete discs or pie-shaped "petals" which are assembled to form a disc. A single pivotably-mounted support arm is used to support the spinning disc, and to move it for selection of concentric arrays on the disc, as well as for storage and retrieval of matrices. A reversed zoom lens is used to magnify the characters. The character spacing carriage can move continuously in order to increase the speed of operation. Proper location of the characters can be done by simply altering the carriage speed between projections, or by using a shuttling lens for character spacing compensation, together with flash delay and carriage deceleration. A system for inputting images from any one of three separate discs also is provided. A double-dove prism and optical wedges are used for altering the shapes of characters. Rules are formed by operating a flash-lamp very rapidly to shine light through an appropriately-shaped opening and moving the image along the photosensitive surface in a linear path. The matrix can be moved in a varying speed mode in which the matrix is moving slowly or stationary when the character is flashed. This allows the light intensity of the flash lamp to be raised significantly without significant degradation of the quality of the output. Controls are provided for automatically adjusting the base-line of the characters, the margins, the degree of enlargement, the flash intensity, and the focus. A simple attachment is provided for doubling or halving the size of the characters. The machine can produce output on photograhic film or paper or electrophotographic material. Means are provided for automatically inserting graphic matter (pictures) into text matter for composing full pages, and for making half-tones.
In or for a photocomposing machine, output means for moving a flexible photosensitive record medium past an exposure station at which images are projected onto said medium, said output means comprising a hollow drum with holes in its walls, means for dividing the hollow interior of said drum into sections, drive means for rotating said drum, and holding means for partially evacuating at least one selected section of said drum to hold said medium onto the surface of said drum.
In a photocomposing method, the steps of utilizing a hollow drum to hold a photosensitive medium during the photographic exposure of said medium, separating the hollow interior of said drum into chambers whose locations are stationary, partially evacuating selected ones of said chambers so as to hold said medium on said drum while not evacuating the ones of said chambers which are not at least partially covered by said medium.
A photocomposing method utilizing electrophotography, said method comprising moving a first sheet record medium past a corona charging, device to completely charge said medium, simultaneously adhering said sheet to a rotary drum, moving said medium past an exposure station in discrete steps to allow the forming of lines of characters between steps, gradually removing said sheet from said drum to clear successive areas of the surface of said drum and simultaneously charging and gradually adhering a second sheet onto said cleared areas and developing the latent electrostatic images on said first sheet.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.