Apparatus for printing on plastic tubing
AssigneeCello-O-Core
InventorsDavid C. Nelson, Michael J. Fresh, Thomas B. Allen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An apparatus is presented for printing material on an extruded plastic tubing. An extruder forms the plastic tubing of the desired diameter and thickness. The tubing is then drawn through a cooling bath by a pulling mechanism, and cut into desired lengths. The tubing may be dried after the cooling process, and an ink jet printer is utilized to print on the tubing as it is being drawn to be cut. A computer controls the printing process in correlation with the tubing cutter to provide a print signal to the printer in accordance with the desired lengths of tubing. The print heads of the printer are also three-dimensionally adjustable so as to center the printed material on the desired size and length of tubing to be cut.
Claims6
An apparatus to form printed tubing, comprising;
- a means to extrude a continuous tube;
- a means to move said tube through a cooling section, and print section to a tube severing section;
- said print section containing a computer controlled printing head;
- and
- said tube severing section containing means to signal said computer and initiate printing at said printing section upon actuation of said tube severing section to cut said tube.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.