Abstract: Printed elastic bands are made by piercing, evacuating and flattening an elastic tubing and washing and scrubbing and drying the upper surface of the tubing, aligning a tubing on a conveyor and moving the tubing upward toward a printing head and quickly downward away from the printing head while maintaining the tubing flattened. The printing is devolatilized and cured while the tubing continues to move to the cutoff point. Nip rollers drive a tubing onto a cutoff platen, a final roller near the edge of the platen has a higher surface speed than the nip rollers to flatten the tubing. Printing on the tubing is sensed and rotating knives are sensed and the speed of the nip rollers is controlled to cut the tubing between the printed areas. Severed printed bands are removed by vacuum and are discharged from a cyclone separator.

Abstract: Printed elastic bands are made by piercing, evacuating and flattening an elastic tubing and washing and scrubbing and drying the upper surface of the tubing, aligning a tubing on a conveyor and moving the tubing upward toward a printing head and quickly downward away from the printing head while maintaining the tubing flattened. The printing is devolatilized and cured while the tubing continues to move to the cutoff point. Nip rollers drive a tubing onto a cutoff platen, a final roller near the edge of the platen has a higher surface speed than the nip rollers to flatten the tubing. Printing on the tubing is sensed and rotating knives are sensed and the speed of the nip rollers is controlled to cut the tubing between the printed areas. Severed printed bands are removed by vacuum and are discharged from a cyclone separator.