US 5,651,308 AGranted

Apparatus for printing on individual articles

AssigneeWerner Kammann Maschinenfabrik GmbH

InventorsNorbert Rohwetter, Joachim Hellmeier

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Abstract

An apparatus for printing on individual articles has at least two rotatably disposed holders, each of which carries an article. Each of the holders which can comprise first and second holder portions is provided with separate drives for transporting the respective holder and for producing rotational movement thereof so that an article carried by one of the holders can be moved and rotated independently of articles carried by other holders. When printing on articles whose region to be printed upon differs from the shape of a circle or a circular arc, it is also possible for the printing mechanism consisting of a screen printing stencil and a squeegee to be raised or lowered in the printing operation, in dependence on the cross-sectional shape of the region to be printed upon, so that there is no need to alter the position in respect of height of the article during a printing operation.

Claims13

Dependent claims

Apparatus for printing on articles, including:

at least first and second holders for the articles;
means rotatably mounting the holders;
an introduction station at which articles are introduced into the respective holders;
a removal station at which the articles are removed from the respective holders;
at least one printing mechanism having a screen printing stencil, a squeegee and a drive means for producing relative movement between the screen printing stencil and the squeegee, for printing on articles carried by the holders;
a transport means for the holders, for transporting the articles held by the holders between the introduction station and the removal station;
and for each holder a separate drive for the transport means and a separate drive with transmission means for transmitting the rotary movement to the respective holder, the drive means for the transport means and for the transmission means and the drive means for producing the relative movement between the screen printing stencil and the squeegee being in the form of CNC-motors.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.