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US 7,007,601 B2Granted
High speed mounting and printing for colored chips on a sheet
AssigneeColor Communications, Inc.
InventorsSteven B. Winter, Stanley I. Lerner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
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AssigneeColor Communications, Inc.
InventorsSteven B. Winter, Stanley I. Lerner
Estimating the term…
A method and apparatus use an in-line printer to print on chips or swatches mounted on an underlying substrate such as a sheet or web of paper or paperboard. The chips may have varying heights due to variations of thickness of the paint on the chip and/or adhesive mounting the chips to the substrate. The sheets are continuously moving through the chip mounting machine and the printing machine which are synchronized to operate at the same speed. In the illustrated apparatus, conveyor pushers push the sheets through the chip mounting machine and through the printer machine and resilient strips on the printing roller form a nip with an underlying anvil roller to grip and hold the chips against shifting to prevent smearing of the ink as the sheets are pushed through the nip between the printing cylinder and the anvil roller. An in-line trimming apparatus such as die cutter may cut the chips to size and/or shape as to provide rectangularly mounted chips with arcs, curves, circles, etc. The trimmed scrap from a trimmed chip is removed by a vacuum conveying system. In the illustrated apparatus, an in-line folder may fold the printed chip bearing sheets to complete the illustrated in-line apparatus and method.
A method of manufacture of chip bearing sheets having chips with printing thereon, the method comprising:
A method of manufacture of chip bearing sheets having chips adhered to the sheet and having printing on the chips, the method comprising:
An apparatus for manufacture of chip bearing sheets having chips for printing thereon;
A method of in-line handling of swatches and sheets therefor comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.