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US 5,113,757 AGranted
Method and apparatus for making printed elastic bands
AssigneeAlliance Rubber Company
InventorRichard R. Spencer
Life of this patent
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AssigneeAlliance Rubber Company
InventorRichard R. Spencer
Estimating the term…
Printed elastic bands are made by piercing, evacuating and flattening an elastic tubing and washing and scrubbing and drying the upper surface of the tubing, aligning a tubing on a conveyor and moving the tubing upward toward a printing head and quickly downward away from the printing head while maintaining the tubing flattened. The printing is devolatilized and cured while the tubing continues to move to the cutoff point. Nip rollers drive a tubing onto a cutoff platen, a final roller near the edge of the platen has a higher surface speed than the nip rollers to flatten the tubing. Printing on the tubing is sensed and rotating knives are sensed and the speed of the nip rollers is controlled to cut the tubing between the printed areas. Severed printed bands are removed by vacuum and are discharged from a cyclone separator.
A method of making printed elastic bands comprising feeding an elastic tubing into a perforating apparatus, perforating the tubing, exhausting fluid from within the tubing, flattening the tubing, cleaning the tubing, drying the tubing, continuously conveying the tubing, keeping the tubing flat, aligning the tubing, printing the tubing, aligning the printed tubing, driving the tubing, drying and curing the printed image, and cutting off lengths of the printed tubing into printed elastic bands and removing the printed elastic bands, wherein the steps if feeding, perforating, exhausting, flattening, cleaning, conveying, printing, driving and cutting further comprise operating synchronous type servo motors to perform the steps and further comprise coordinating the motors with a processor, further comprising sensing width of the tubing and stopping the printing upon sensing out-of-specification width.
A method of making printed elastic bands comprising feeding an elastic tubing into a perforating apparatus, perforating the tubing, exhausting fluid from within the tubing, flattening the tubing, cleaning the tubing, drying the tubing, continuously conveying the tubing, keeping the tubing flat, aligning the tubing, printing the tubing, aligning the printed tubing, driving the tubing, drying and curing the printed image, and cutting off lengths of the tubing into printed elastic bands and removing the printed elastic bands, wherein the steps of feeding, perforating, exhausting, flattening, cleaning, conveying, printing, driving and cutting further comprise operating synchronous type servo motors to perform the steps and further comprise coordinating the motors with a processor, wherein the printing further comprises moving a continuous loop printing belt adjacent the flattened, cleaned, dried, conveyed and aligned tubing, moving the belt and tubing in a juxtaposed manner, depositing ink on the belt on a side opposite a side facing the tubing, squeezing ink through the belt onto the tubing, and sensing the belt following the squeezing for ink occlusions.
A method of making printed elastic bands comprising feeding an elastic tubing into a perforating apparatus, perforating the tubing, exhausting fluid from within the tubing, flattening the tubing, cleaning the tubing, drying the tubing, continuously conveying the tubing, keeping the tube flat aligning the tubing, printing the tubing, aligning the printed tubing, driving the tubing, drying and curing the printed image, and cutting off lengths of the printed tubing into printed elastic bands and removing the printed elastic bands, wherein the steps of feeding, perforating, exhausting, flattening, cleaning, conveying, printing, driving and cutting further comprise operating synchronous type servo motors to perform the steps and further comprise coordinating the motors with a processor, further comprising sensing printed image on the tubing before cutting off lengths of the printed tubing with a line sensor camera, further comprising summing the sensing of the printed images in the processor and controlling an ink supplied to the printing according to the summing of printed image sensing.
Apparatus for manufacturing printed elastic bands comprising collapsing means for collapsing an elastic tubing, flattening means for maintaining the tubing flattened throughout the apparatus, cleaning means for cleaning an upper surface of the tubing for removing ink-adhesion inhibitors, aligning means for aligning the tubing for properly centered printing, positioning means for positioning the tubing for receiving printed images, printing means for printing images on the tubing, devolatilizing and curing means for devolatilizing and curing ink images printed on the tubing, high speed cutting means for cutting ends of the tubing between printed images and discharging means for discharging the finished products as printed elastic bands, wherein the collapsing means, flattening means, cleaning means, printing means and cutting means comprise synchronized servo motors connected to the means for driving the means and further comprising control means connected to the motors for controlling speeds of the motors and processor means connected to the controls for interrelating speeds of the motors, further comprising sensing means mounted adjacent the tubing and light means mounted adjacent the tubing for shining light on the tubing, the sensing means comprising line sensor camera means for sensing a line of light across the tubing, the sensing means being connected to the processor means for providing information to the processor means in response to a line of light sensed on the tubing, wherein the printing means comprises a printing screen, means for depositing ink on the screen, means for moving ink through the screen onto elastic tubing adjacent the screen and means for sensing screen condition following the moving of ink through the screen.
Apparatus for manufacturing printed elastic bands comprising collapsing means for collapsing an elastic tubing flattening means for maintaining the tubing flattened throughout the apparatus, cleaning means for cleaning an upper surface of the tubing for removing ink-adhesion inhibitors, aligning means for aligning the tubing for properly centered printing, positioning means for positioning the tubing for receiving printed images, printing means for printing images on the tubing, devolatilizing and curing means for devolatilizing and curing ink images printed on the tubing, high speed cutting means for cutting ends of the tubing between printed images and discharging means for discharging the finished products as printed elastic bands, wherein the collapsing means, flattening means, cleaning means, printing means and cutting means comprise synchronized servo motors connected to the means for driving the means and further comprising control means connected to the motors for controlling speeds of the motors and processor means connected to the controls for interrelating speeds of the motors, wherein the printing means further comprises ink supply means and control means connected to the ink supply means and connected to the processor and printed image sensing means for sensing printed image on tubing following the printing, the printed image sensing means being connected to the processor for controlling the ink supplying means for increasing and decreasing respectively the ink supplied to the printing means according to decreases and increases respectively in printed image intensity sensed by the image sensing means.
Apparatus for manufacturing printed elastic bands comprising collapsing means for collapsing an elastic tubing, flattening means for maintaining the tubing flattened throughout the apparatus, cleaning means for cleaning an upper surface of the tubing for removing ink-adhesion inhibitors, aligning means for aligning the tubing for properly centered printing, positioning means for positioning the tubing for receiving printed images, printing means for printing images on the tubing, devolatilizing and curing means for devolatilizing and curing ink images printed on the tubing, high speed cutting means for cutting ends of the tubing between printed images and discharging means for discharging the finished products as printed elastic bands, wherein the collapsing means, flattening means, cleaning means, printing means and cutting means comprise synchronized servo motors connected to the means for driving the means and further comprising control means connected to the motors for controlling speeds of the motors and processor means connected to the controls for interrelating speeds of the motors, further comprising tubing width sensing means connected to the processor for communicating width of tubing and tubing stopping means connected to the processor for stopping advance of the tubing and lifting means connected to the printing means for lifting the printing means out of an operative printing position when the tubing width sensing means senses tubing of inappropriate width.
Apparatus for manufacturing printed elastic bands comprising collapsing means for collapsing an elastic tubing flattening means for maintaining the tubing flattened throughout the apparatus, cleaning means for cleaning an upper surface of the tubing for removing ink-adhesion inhibitors, aligning means for aligning the tubing for properly centered printing, positioning means for positioning the tubing for receiving printed images, printing means for printing images on the tubing, devolatilizing and curing means for devolatilizing and curing ink images printed on the tubing, high speed cutting means for cutting ends of the tubing between printed images and discharging means for discharging the finished products as printed elastic bands, wherein the collapsing means, flattening means, cleaning means, printing means and cutting means comprise synchronized servo motors connected to the means for driving the means and further comprising control means connected to the motors for controlling speeds of the motors and processor means connected to the controls for interrelating speeds of the motors, wherein the printing means comprises plural printing stations for printing images on the tubing, wherein the plural printing stations comprise plural stencil means for stencilling images and further comprise stencil position sensor means for sensing position of the stencils, further comprising stencil motor means for driving the stencils and wherein the stencil motor means and stencil position sensor means are connected to a processor means for controlling the stencil motor means according to the stencil position sensor means.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.