US 5,179,899 AGranted

Tower printing system having multiple vertically stacked satellite printing stations

AssigneeMAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG

InventorsRanier Burger, Georg Riescher

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Abstract

Two satellite printing stations (2, 3) are located vertically above each other, and a web (22) is guided first about a common impression cylinder (13) of the lower printing station, then upwardly about a common impression cylinder (4) of the upper printing station (2). To prevent set-off of freshly printed ink in the lower printing station (3) on the common impression cylinder (4) of the upper printing station, blanket cylinders (6, 7, 10, 12) of the upper printing station (2) are so located that, respectively, two blanket cylinders (6, 7, 10, 12) of printing couples of the upper printing stations are in vertical alignment so that a tangent at the nip between these blanket cylinders will be in an essentially horizontal plane (31). The blanket cylinders are spaced from each other to leave a clearance gap, and an image maintenance device (30), for example a spray bar or rod, a washing apparatus or the like, is located in the clearance space to apply a film of liquid against the upper common impression cylinder (4 ) or to clean the upper impression cylinder (4), thereby avoiding set-off of freshly applied ink in the lower printing station (3) on the impression cylinder (4) of the upper printing station, or to periodically or continuously clean the common impression cylinder (4) of the upper printing station. Preferably, the web is guided about the lower printing station in form of a wide-open upstanding U, and guided about the upper printing station in form of a downwardly facing wide-open U to provide access to maintenance and service personnel to the respective printing stations between the leg portions of the web forming the U.

Tower printing system (1) for printing on a substrate web (2) having at least two vertically stacked satellite printing stations (2, 3),

each of said satellite printing stations including
a common impression cylinder (4, 13), whereby one impression cylinder will form a lower impression cylinder and another impression cylinder (4) will form an upper impression cylinder, and
at least four printing couples (5, 6;
8, 7;
9, 10;
11, 12;
14, 15;
17, 16;
19, 18;
20, 21), each of said printing couples having a blanket cylinder and a plate cylinder, two each of said printing couples being operatively associated with a respective one of the common impression cylinders, the blanket cylinders being engageable against the respective impression cylinder, and being selectively engageable against each other,
and wherein, in accordance with the invention,
in at least one of said satellite printing stations, two blanket cylinder of said at least two printing couples (8, 7;
11, 12) form vertically associated blanket cylinder pairs (6, 7;
10, 12) in which the blanket cylinders of the pairs are selectively engageable against each other, and positioned such that a tangent of the engagement line or nip of said two vertically positioned blanket cylinders of the pairs is in an at least approximately horizontal plane (31);
the blanket cylinders (6, 7;
10, 12) of the pairs are horizontally spaced from each other with respect to a vertical center line (32) passing through the respective common impression cylinder (4) to define a clearance space or gap therebetween;
an image maintenance device (30) is provided, located in the clearance space, said image maintenance device being operatively associated with the respective common impression cylinder (4);
and
web guide means (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29) are provided for guiding the web (22) about the lower (13) impression cylinder, then upwardly about the upper (4) impression cylinder.

16 more elements

Abstract

Claims6