Apparatus and method for the silk-screen printing of multiple curved peripheral surfaces of an article defined by multiple curved peripheral surfaces

In apparatus for the silk-screen printing of the surface of an article having a varying degree of curvature comprising an elongated, horizontally disposed fixture bar having upstream and downstream ends and being mounted at said downstream end for reciprocal movement vertically upwardly and downwardly, an elongated spindle having first and second ends being mounted for rotation about its longitudinal axis at the upstream end of the fixture bar and in perpendicular disposition thereto and to the longitudinal direction of the silk-screen printing apparatus, means provided at the first end of the spindle for fixedly supporting and holding the article to be printed relative to the rotational movement of the spindle, a silk-screen carriage being located vertically above the fixture bar comprising a horizontally disposed silk-screen support member capable of reciprocal movement in a horizontal plane parallel to that defined by the fixture bar, the silk-screen support member supporting a silk-screen, a squeegee carriage comprising a horizontally disposed support member extending in cantilever fashion outwardly from said squeegee carriage and being mounted vertically above the silk-screen carriage for reciprocal movement in a horizontal plane parallel to that of the silk-screen carriage and in a direction opposite to that of the silk-screen carriage, and means for driving the squeegee carriage in the direction opposite from that of the silk-screen carriage, the improvement comprising means for driving the silk-screen carriage in a horizontal direction opposite to that of the squeegee carriage which comprises a cam means comprising a first elongated member having a top planar surface disposed in lengthwise direction to the silk-screen printing apparatus and lying in a horizontal plane parallel to that defined by the translation of the squeegee carriage, said first elongated member being fixedly connected to the squeegee carriage and being disposed below the spindle, a plurality of teeth being provided in the top surface of said first elongated member defining a first rack having an inner edge and an outer edge and an intermediate pitch line, a plurality of arcuate-shaped, elongated notches being provided in the top planar surface of the elongated member and in predetermined spaced-apart locations along its length, said notches being so disposed in the first elongated member so that the lengthwise direction thereof is perpendicular to the edges of the first rack, a segmented gear member defined by a predetermined surface outline, a cam roller mount fixedly mounted to the spindle adjacent the second end for rotation with the spindle, and a plurality of spaced-apart circular-shaped elongated cam rollers each being mounted to the cam roller mount for independent rotation about their longitudinal axis and being disposed in parallel disposition to the axis of the spindle, the circular-shaped cam rollers each being capable of nesting in and being capable of being coupled with a respective notch whereby when the squeegee carriage is caused to move in a linear horizontal direction the first elongated member moves in the same linear direction whereby the spindle and supported article to be printed will be operatively rotated at the same time in counterclockwise direction, a horizontally disposed second elongated member comprising a second rack being mounted to the silk-screen carriage and disposed in a fixed horizontal plane parallel to that of said first rack, and a gear member fixedly mounted on the spindle and rotatable therewith, said gear member intermeshing with said horizontally disposed second rack to cause the silk-screen carriage to translate in linear direction on rotation of the spindle and in the opposite direction to that of the squeegee carriage.

Apparatus for the silk-screen printing of the two opposed major curved peripheral surfaces of an oval-shaped bottle in a single printing pass, said apparatus comprising in operative combination:

• (a). elongated means defined by an upstream end and a downstream end and being disposed in and defining a horizontal plane, said elongated means being mounted at the downstream end for pivotal movement vertically upwardly from the horizontal in arcuate manner and then downwardly to the horizontal plane;
• (b). a spindle being rotatably mounted to the upstream end of the pivotal elongated means and being located laterally to its lengthwise direction, said spindle being of circular-shaped cross-section defining a centrally disposed axis of rotation and being defined by a first end and a second end;
• (c). means provided at and fixedly connected to the first end of the spindle comprising a chuck for fixedly holding and rotatably supporting of the oval-shaped bottle to be printed, said chuck being of the same surface outline as the bottle and providing the bottle to be printed in a predetermined angular relationship relative to its axis of rotation;
• (d). a squeegee carriage being disposed a predetermined distance above said pivotal elongated means and being mounted on horizontally disposed, spaced-apart, parallel guide rods for reciprocal movement in a plane parallel to that defined by the pivotal elongated means;
• (e). a pair of squeegees being provided in spaced-apart locations a predetermined distance lengthwise of the silk-screen printing apparatus and being fixedly mounted in vertical disposition to said squeegee carriage;
• (f). a silk-screen carriage being horizontally disposed and being located between the squeegee carriage and said pivotal elongated means and being mounted on spaced-apart, horizontally disposed parallel guide rods for reciprocal movement in a direction opposite to that of the squeegee carriage when such is being moved, said guide rods for the silk-screen carriage and squeegee carriage being located in horizontal planes parallel to one another;
• (g). a horizontally disposed silk-screen being defined by an upstream end and a down stream end and being fixedly connected in a horizontal plane to the silk-screen carriage, a pair of spaced-apart image patterns being provided in the silk screen, each to be printed on respective peripheral surfaces of the oval-shaped bottle, said image patterns being provided in predetermined spaced-apart locations extending between the upstream and downstream ends of the silk-screen;
• (h). a horizontally disposed elongated member capable of linear movement lengthwise being located below the pivotal elongated means and being defined by a planar horizontally disposed top surface being parallel to the plane defined by the pivotal elongated means and extending in lengthwise direction of the apparatus, a pair of elongated arcuate-shaped notches being provided in the top planar surface of said elongated member in predetermined spaced-apart locations and each being disposed laterally to the length of said elongated member;
• (i). an elongated, horizontally disposed first rack defined by a plurality of teeth being provided in the top surface of the elongated member and being operatively associated with the elongated notches and said top planar surface, the teeth of the first rack being defined by an intermediate pitch line lying in the same plane as the top surface of the elongated member;
• (j). a cam roller mount fixedly mounted to and adjacent the second end of the spindle, two opposed elongated circular-shaped cam rollers each being defined by a shape and dimension complementary to the arcuate shape of the notches whereby on translation of the elongated member the opposed elongated cam roller can be sequentially engaged by and disengaged with the respective notches for rotation of the spindle;
• (k). an oval-shaped segmented gear member in operative association with the cam roller mount fixedly mounted to the spindle, the major curved peripheral surfaces of which are of the same predetermined radius of curvature;
• (l). an oval-shaped gear member being adjacent to said segmented gear member and being fixedly mounted to the spindle in predetermined orientation relative to the spindle and to said segmented gear member, the orientation being the same as that of the chuck and conforming to the outline shape and dimensions of the bottle to be printed;
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• (m). an elongated, horizontally disposed second rack mounted to the silk-screen carriage in lengthwise direction and operatively associated with the oval-shaped gear member on said spindle whereby on rotation of the spindle the silk-screen carriage will translate in a direction opposite to that of the squeegee carriage, said second rack being in fixed disposition to the elongated, horizontally disposed first rack.

Apparatus for the silk-screen printing of images on each of a multiple of curved peripheral surfaces of an article defined by a multiple of curved peripheral surfaces in one printing pass, said apparatus comprising in combination:

• (a). an elongated fixture bar disposed in a horizontal plane having an upstream end and a downstream end extending in longitudinal direction of said apparatus, said fixture bar being pivotally mounted at said downstream end for reciprocal movement vertically upwardly and then downwardly to said horizontal plane;
• (b). an elongated spindle being rotatably mounted on the fixture bar at its upstream end and being disposed transversely to said elongated fixture bar and perpendicular thereto, said elongated spindle having first and second ends;
• (c). means provided at said spindle first end for fixedly, rotatably supporting the article to be printed in the horizontal plane defined by the fixture bar and at a predetermined orientation to the spindle;
• (d). a screen support carriage for fixedly supporting a horizontally disposed silk-screen frame having top and bottom surfaces mounted vertically above said fixture bar and being mounted for reciprocal movement back and forth in a horizontal plane, a silk-screen having an upstream end and a downstream end and top and bottom surfaces being supportedly mounted to said screen frame, the screen support carriage being located in a predetermined position above the fixture bar whereby the curved surfaces of the multiple surfaced article to be silk-screen printed can be operatively engaged with the bottom surface of the silk-screen, a multiplicity of image patterns being provided in the silk-screen corresponding to the number of curved surfaces on the article to be provided with a silk-screen printed image, said multiplicity of image patterns being provided in predetermined spaced-apart locations extending in serial fashion from adjacent the upstream end of the screen toward the downstream end of the silk-screen;
• (e). a squeegee support carriage being horizontally disposed above said screen support carriage a predetermined distance vertically and being mounted for reciprocal movement back and forth in a horizontal plane parallel to that of the screen carriage, a horizontally disposed squeegee support member being fixedly mounted to said squeegee support carriage and extending outwardly therefrom in cantilever fashion a predetermined distance, a multiplicity of squeegee holders being provided in predetermined spaced-apart locations supported in vertical disposition by the squeegee support member and being of a like number corresponding to the number of image patterns provided on the silk-screen, said vertically disposed squeegee holders each supporting a rubber squeegee and being provided in serial fashion corresponding operatively to the image patterns provided on the silk-screen whereby the squeegees and silk-screen can be provided in proper synchronization with the image receiving surfaces of the bottle to be printed;
• (f). means for forcing the squeegee carriage in a first direction a predetermined distance whereby the multiplicity of squeegees are each in turn presented to the multiplicity of image patterns so that the multiplicity of image patterns can each be provided, in turn, on one of said multiplicity of curved surfaces of the article to be printed;
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• (g). means operatively associated with the squeegee carriage for forcing the silk-screen support carriage in a second direction opposite to the first direction of the squeegee support carriage and the spindle to be rotatably driven whereby the article to be printed is rotated about its longitudinal axis and the curved surfaces to be printed are each operatively engaged in turn with the bottom surface of the silk-screen and each said squeegee is operatively engaged with the top surface of the screen in synchronized fashion whereby each of the image patterns provided in the silk-screen can be printed sequentially in one pass onto a respective surface of the article to be printed, as desired.

Apparatus for the silk-screen printing of images on each of a multiple of peripheral surfaces of an article having multiple peripheral surfaces in one printing stroke, said apparatus comprising in combination:

• (a). an elongated fixture bar disposed in a horizontal plane having an upstream end and a downstream end extending in longitudinal direction of said apparatus, said fixture bar being pivotally mounted at said downstream end for reciprocal movement vertically upwardly and then downwardly to said horizontal plane;
• (b). an elongated spindle being rotatably mounted on the fixture bar at its upstream end and being disposed transversely in the same horizontal plane to said elongated fixture bar and perpendicular thereto, said elongated spindle being defined by an axis and having first and second ends;
• (c). means provided at said spindle first end for fixedly supporting the article to be printed and for causing the article to be rotated about its own axis and in the proper orientation relative to the elongated spindle;
• (d). a silk-screen support carriage comprising a horizontally disposed body member defined by inner and outer sides and being mounted for movement in a horizontal plane in a direction lengthwise of the silk-screen printing apparatus, a silk-screen frame having top and bottom surfaces being fixedly mounted to the silk-screen carriage so that the bottom surface is disposed vertically above and in a horizontal plane parallel to the plane defined by said fixture bar, a silk-screen having an upstream end and a downstream end and top and bottom surfaces being supportedly mounted to said silk-screen frame, the silk-screen support carriage being located in superposed position above the fixture bar whereby the surfaces of the multiple surfaced article to be silk-screen printed can be operatively engaged and rolled on the bottom surface of the silk-screen, a multiplicity of image patterns each being provided in the silk-screen corresponding to the number of surfaces on the article to be provided with a silk-screen printed image, said multiplicity of image patterns being provided in predetermined spaced-apart locations extending in serial fashion from the upstream end of the silk-screen toward the downstream end of the silk-screen;
• (e). a squeegee support carriage being disposed above said silk-screen support carriage and being mounted for movement in a direction opposite to that of the silk-screen support carriage while said silk-screen support carriage is being moved, a squeegee support member being fixedly mounted to said squeegee support carriage and extending outwardly therefrom in cantilever fashion, a multiplicity of squeegee holders being supported in vertical disposition by the squeegee support member, a squeegee being supported by each of the multiplicity of vertically disposed squeegee holders and each said vertically disposed squeegee holders being mounted so as to provide a squeegee in operative engagement with the top surface of the silk-screen and with a respective image pattern;
• (f). means for driving at least one of the squeegee and silk-screen support carriages so as to force said one of the carriages in one direction a predetermined distance during the printing stroke;
• (g). cam and gear train means provided at the second end of the spindle operatively associated with the at least one of said squeegee support carriage and silk-screen support carriage being forced in said one direction for causing the spindle to be rotated about said axis and the other of said at least one of the squeegee and silk-screen support carriages to be forced in the opposite direction a predetermined distance and the article having multiple peripheral surfaces to be rotated;
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• (h). means for returning the said vertically disposed squeegee support member to its original position at the end of the print stroke for printing one of the multiple image patterns on a respective curved surface in synchronized fashion and causing a vertically disposed squeegee to be operatively engaged again with the top surface of the silk-screen in synchronized fashion and with the next one of said multiple image patterns whereby that image pattern provided in the silk-screen can be printed onto a respective second surface of the article to be printed.

A method for the silk-screen printing of each of a plurality of curved surfaces on an article having a plurality of curved surfaces in a single printing pass said article being defined by an axis of rotation and each curved surface being defined by the center of a circle described by the curved surface comprising the following steps:

• (a). providing a silk-screen having an upstream end and a downstream end, a plurality of image patterns being provided in the silk-screen in predetermined spaced-apart locations extending between said upstream and downstream ends;
• (b). providing a like plurality of squeegees supported above the silk-screen and located in predetermined spaced-apart locations in lengthwise direction relative to the locations of the image patterns provided in the silk-screen;
• (c). causing the plurality of squeegees each to be moved in a direction a predetermined length of travel while causing one of the squeegees to be moved vertically downwardly in operative engagement with the silk-screen;
• (d). causing the article having the curved surfaces to be printed to be rotated on said axis of rotation while being rotated about the center of the circle described by the curved surfaces;
• (e). causing the silk-screen to be moved in a direction opposite to the direction of travel of the plurality of squeegees a predetermined distance and at the same time the plurality of squeegees is moving;
• (f). causing the one of said squeegees to be raised when the first image pattern has been printed on the first of the plurality of curved surfaces, while causing the second of said plurality of squeegees to be lowered in operative engagement with the second of the image patterns provided on the silk screen;
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• (g). causing the travel of the silk-screen and plurality of squeegees to be synchronized whereby each of the plurality of image patterns is silk-screen printed on a desired curved surface of the plurality of curved surfaces on the article to be printed while said article is being rotated.

A method of silk-screen printing each of the two major curved peripheral surfaces of an oval-shaped bottle whose periphery is defined by two major and two minor curved surfaces in a single pass at one printing station said oval-shaped bottle defining an axis of rotation and each major curved peripheral surface being defined by a circle having a predetermined center of rotation comprising:

• (a). providing a silk-screen being defined by top and bottom surfaces and having two image patterns located therein in predetermined spaced-apart locations extending lengthwise of the silk-screen:
• (b). providing two squeegees in spaced-apart locations one behind the other a predetermined distance;
• (c). causing the oval-shaped bottle to be printed to be rotated about said axis of rotation while at the same time being rotated about the center of the circle described by its major curved surfaces, the article being placed in rolling contact with the bottom surface of the silk-screen whereby that portion of the circle described by the curved surface is tangential to the silk screen;
• (d). translating the two squeegees while causing the first of the curved surfaces of the bottle to be rolled on the screen surface a first predetermined linear distance, the first of said squeegees having been lowered into contact with the top surface of the silk-screen whereby the first of said squeegees forces ink through the interstices of the silk-screen providing the first image pattern on the first of the two curved surfaces;
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• (e). translating the two squeegees a second predetermined distance while causing the first of the two squeegees to be raised from the silk-screen and the second of the two squeegees to be placed in contact with the top surface of the silk-screen whereby the second of the plurality of squeegees forces ink through the interstices of the silk-screen providing the second of the plurality of image patterns on the second of the two curved surfaces.