US 5,341,737 AGranted

Flexographic printing system

AssigneesJohn Marozzi, Theresa Pugh, Barbara Batesko

InventorsJohn Marozzi, Greg Rochon, Urmil Patel, Ben Dambly

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A flexographic printing system using mechanical and friction drive at the same time. The print cylinder is rotated by a friction drive only while printing (during the print cycle). The print cylinder is rotated past the anilox roll (during the inking cycle), and the print cylinder is reset to the start position ready for the next printing cycle by a mechanical drive. The print cylinder is preferably less than 360 degrees around, and most preferably measures only 170 degrees around. The print cylinder is made from plastic. Printing plates are pre-mounted permanently to a mylar carrier sheet that is designed with pin and hook holes that line up with pins and hooks that are part of the print cylinder. These plates have drive bearers as part of the mylar carrier sheet. The ink management system circulates the ink, cleans the entire ink system, and separates the ink from the waste and the cleaner. It also measures the pH of the ink or the viscosity level of the ink and automatically adds pH adjuster or thinner.

Claims11

Dependent claims

A printing system comprising:

a flexographic printer having printing means for imprinting a web, inking means for providing ink to said printing means and drive means for moving said printing means into contact with a web, and
said printing means including a print cylinder with a carrier sheet removably mounted on said print cylinder, said carrier sheet including a printing plate and two elongated drive bearers located on opposite sides of said printing plate so that said printing plate and said two elongated drive bearers wear down together at the same rate to maintain print quality with said carrier sheet including said printing plate and said two elongated drive bearers being removable from said print cylinder and being replacable with a new carrier sheet,
a leading edge of said two elongated drive bearers extending to a point closer to a leading edge of said carrier sheet than any printing surfaces defined by said printing plate for buffered initial engagement with an impression cylinder by said two elongated drive bearers prior to contact with the web by any printing surfaces defined by said printing plate.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 08/043,925Filed 8 Apr 1993 · division
Priority: 17 Mar 1992
Granted: 30 Aug 1994
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification4 codes

B41F 31/08
Ducts, containers, supply or metering devices: with ink ejecting means, e.g. pumps, nozzles
B41F 5/24
Rotary letterpress machines: for flexographic printing
B41F 31/00
Inking arrangements or devices
B41F
Printing machines or presses

Family

Serial852,531Parent of this division · filed 17 Mar 1992
US 5,224,422 AParent of this division
US 5,341,737 AThis patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key