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US 5,239,613 AGranted
Method and apparatus for controlling product curing heater
AssigneeAmerican Screen Printing Equipment Company
InventorsPhil Motev, Michael Skrypnik
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A control for the electrical curing elements on screen printing apparatus which applies full power to the elements during a heat-up period, and upon attaining a preselected temperature the control switches to a selected lower percentage of full power which continues as long as the apparatus continues to index through its printing cycles.
Claims17
The combination of a screen printing and a curing apparatus for curing screen printed ink on articles, said combination comprising:
- a screen printer having an indexable turntable with platens to carry articles from station to station about a central pivot axis, said articles being stationary at each station for a predetermined period of time;
- a plurality of printing heads for screen printing ink on the articles at a printing station;
- a curing apparatus at a curing station having electrically powered curing elements for curing ink printed on the articles indexed into the curing station on the turntable;
- circuit means for supplying electrical power to the electrically powered curing elements;
- manually operable power control means in the circuit means for varying the power to a lower level at a percentage of full power to operate the electrically powered curing elements at a desired operating and curing temperature for curing the ink while the articles are stationary for a predetermined time period;
- said power control means having a start circuit for applying a substantially higher level of power to the curing elements to raise said elements toward a temperature substantially higher than the operating temperature to reduce the time needed to warm up the curing elements for the curing;
- and
- sensing means for sensing the temperature of the curing elements and for disabling the start circuit and enabling the manually operable control means to return the circuit means to the control of the power control means to operate the electrically powered curing elements at the preselected lower level of power for providing the desired operating and curing temperature.
5 more elements
Heating apparatus for curing stationary articles on an automatically indexing screen printing machine while the articles are stationary, the heating apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of electrical resistance heating elements disposed adjacent to an article curing station to radiate heat to an article in said station;
- power control means for varying the level of power applied to said heating elements, said power control means operating at a first predetermined high power level in excess of that required to attain an operating temperature for raising the temperature of said heating elements toward the operating temperature and at a second predetermined lower power level;
- an interval timer which is adjustable to produce an output after a predetermined time of the curing while the article is stationary;
- cycle control means responsive to an article being positioned in said curing station to generate a first control signal to initiate operation of said timer;
- said interval timer being connected to said power control to interrupt power to said heating elements after said predetermined time interval.
2 more elements
Apparatus for heat curing ink applied to a substrate comprising:
- a screen printer for printing heat curable ink on each substrate movable sequentially through a series of printing stations at which ink is applied to the substrate;
- a frame;
- electrical resistance heating elements mounted on said frame in proximity to a substrate supported in a curing station to cure said paint;
- control means for supplying electrical power to said heating elements at a first predetermined high level which would raise the heating elements to a temperature in excess of the curing temperature during heat-up of said elements and at a second predetermined lower level suitable for curing after said heating elements have attained a predetermined curing temperature;
- substrate transfer means on the screen printer for moving said substrate from a printing station into said curing station at which the substrate is stationary and, after a predetermined interval of being stationary, moving said substrate out of said curing station;
- an interval timer which is initiated on failure of said substrate transfer means to transfer the stationary article within a predetermined time, said timer being connected to said control means to interrupt power to said heating elements a predetermined time after failure of said transfer means.
3 more elements
A method of controlling the heat curing of articles being processed on an automatically indexing screen printing machine comprising:
- providing resistance heating elements for raising articles to a curing temperature at a curing station to which articles are supplied;
- supplying power to said elements at a first high level to raise said elements to a predetermined elevated curing temperature, said first high level being capable of raising the temperature of said elements to substantially above the curing temperature;
- supplying power to said elements at a second preselected lower level after said elements have attained said elevated curing temperature;
- transferring articles into and out of said curing station while maintaining each article stationary in said station for a predetermined curing time interval in which the article is stationary;
- and
- terminating the application of said second lower level of power responsive to the time an article remains in said curing station exceeding the predetermined time interval.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.