Abstract: An apparatus for remote control of a printing press having a plurality of printing units each having a number of ink fountain key actuators, avoids duplication of remote control circuitry and of wiring by multiplexing a small number of remote controls and control wires. Command data are produced at a remote station, and temporarily stored there. Command data for all of the printing units which are to be controlled are then transmitted as a serial data stream over a pair of wires to storage registers located at the printing press. Thereafter, all of the actuators are energized in accordance with the data stored in their respective registers. A complete serial data stream is transmitted to the press once for each AC cycle of the power line frequency, and the actuators move in accordance with every such transmission of data.

Abstract: An improved drive system for driving one unit of a printing press includes first and second meshing gears which are fixedly connected with blanket cylinders of the printing unit. Third and fourth gears are driven by the associated blanket cylinder gears and are connected with the plate cylinders of the printing unit through harmonic drive units. To tend to minimize backlash and enable the blanket cylinders to be thrown off while maintaining the gears in meshing engagement, the plate and blanket cylinder gears have design pitch circles which intersect. The harmonic drive units have internal gears which, during operation of the printing press, are effective to rotate the plate cylinders relative to the plate cylinder gears. To enable the plate and blanket cylinders to be driven at the same surface speed, it is necessary to offset or compensate for the effect of the gears in the harmonic drive units.

Abstract: In a printing press, a remote control apparatus for adjusting ink keys to control ink film thickness at various lateral portions of the ink fountain has an inspection table for supporting paper printed with an image by the press and a plurality of switches mounted at the leading edge of the paper on the table. Each switch is aligned with a respective portion of the printed image corresponding to a respective ink key wich can be adjusted by the switch. A display such as a cathode ray tube simultaneously displaying the settings of all of the ink keys is combined with the inspection table and switch arrangement, with the setting of each ink key being displayed in a different horizontal location, arranged in the same horizontal order as the switches that control them. A respective portion of the display image is vertically deflected for each respective key position, with increasing deflection corresponding to increasing ink film thickness, to create an image of the shape of the ink film distribution.

Abstract: A mode-locked cavity-dumped laser in which the dumping is phase-coherently synchronized with the mode locking. An acousto-optic modulator is employed in the cavity for dumping. On two passes through the modulator, an envelope pulse of light has two portions deflected to a common output path, one of the portions being shifted upward in frequency and the other downward, by an amount equal to the acoustic excitation frequency. The ability of the modulator to provide output power is therefore envelope-modulated at twice the acoustic frequency. The power of successive output pulses is maintained uniform by synchronizing the phase of the circulating mode-locked pulses with respect to the phase of the envelope modulation.

Abstract: A tray is adapted to be supported on an elevator mechanism and moves vertically by the elevator mechanism to pick up a shingled array of signatures which are supported on edge in an inclined position adjacent the elevator mechanism. The tray includes a generally horizontally extending support portion adapted to engage the lower edges of the signatures as the tray is raised. A member located at one end of the tray has an inclined surface against which the last signature at one end of the tray rests. A clamp mechanism at the other end of the tray includes a clamp member which is engageable with the last signature in the array to clamp against that last signature.

Abstract: Apparatus for forming graphical configurations, such as alphanumeric characters, on a radiant energy surface, such as the face of a cathode ray tube, with an energy beam. The apparatus includes a path segment length command means which serves to provide a series of sets of coded command signals. Each set of coded command signals defines the length of an associated path segment of a path to be traced on the surface. A beam controller serves to deflect the beam to trace a predetermined scan path on the surface starting from a preselected starting location. The path includes a plurality of successive path segments which are of lengths dependent upon associated successive sets of coded command signals. These path segments alternate between being inside and outside of the area of a configuration to be formed on the surface. The beam is controlled such that it is continuously blanked while tracing the segments which are outside of the configuration area.

Abstract: Sheet delivery device employing a vertically-movable main pile hoist, a horizontally-insertable auxiliary platen and a racking device having board-supporting ledges immediately below the platen. The auxiliary platen and racking device are mounted on framework of a vertically movable auxiliary pile hoist, and thus move in unison between an upper sheet-receiving limit and a lower pile-discharge limit. When used for pile racking, the platen is first inserted below a conventional sheet conveyor to temporarily receive sheets. A racking board is next inserted below the platen, being supported by side ledges of the racking device. Once the board is in position and the ledges have been removed, the platen may be removed to deposit a newly-forming pile of sheets from the platen onto the board for conventional racking of small sheet piles.

Abstract: An improved system for producing different magazines composed of different predetermined combinations of signatures for different subscribers in accordance with predetermined criteria from known subscriber information includes a main gatherer for forming main combinations of signatures. A secondary gatherer provides special combinations of signatures in accordance with the known subscriber criteria. Each special combination of signatures is combined with a main combination of signatures to form a complete magazine. In one form of the invention, if for some reason the secondary gatherer should malfunction, a resulting imperfect special combination of signatures is rejected. A supplemental feed is then activated to replace the rejected special combination of signatures with a standard combination of signatures which is combined with a main combination of signatures to form a magazine.

Abstract: A hopper loader delivers a shingled stream of signatures to a hopper from which the signatures are fed. The hopper loader apparatus is portable and comprises a generally horizontal first conveyor belt section for receiving an array of side-abutted signatures on edge. The apparatus also includes an inclined second conveyor belt section for engaging the side of the signatures and for feeding the signatures from the array in an overlapped stream toward the hopper. The apparatus includes a means for adjusting the speed of the first belt section relative to the second belt section. Also the apparatus includes a presser belt construction which cooperates with the inclined section for pressing on the signatures to provide a sufficient frictional force between the belts and the signatures so that the signatures will be properly moved up the inclined belt section.

Abstract: An electro-optical transducer and data storage device is operated by electrically establishing different electric field levels in a retentive ferroelectric PLZT crystal. The crystal may have a plurality of areas that serve as data storage elements, each of which is defined by crossover areas of rows and columns of transparent electrodes that are on opposite sides of the crystal, each storage element being spaced away from other storage elements of the crystal by surrounding edge regions. When a data storage element is retentively polarized by the application and removal of a voltage pulse to opposite electrodes, the portion of the crystal between the electrodes contracts transversely, establishing a strain gradient in the edge regions surrounding the data storage element. This localized strain gradient, together with a fringing electric field in the edge regions, causes a high level of birefringence there, and permits the edge regions to serve as amplitude modulators of polarized light.

Abstract: The unwind controller drum for metering web material into a web processing machine is positively driven by a positive, fixed-ratio drive train. Several drive ratios are selectively available, each differing only slightly from another to provide minute changes in the drive ratio from the drive to the unwind drum. The changes in drive speed are generally less than .05% to provide positively determined, finite adjustment of the rate that the web material is metered into the web processing equipment.

Abstract: A multiple beam antenna having either a main reflector or a lens is illuminated by a feed system comprising a number of primary radiators such as dipole elements. Primary radiation from each dipole element reflects from the principal reflector to produce a different respective one of the multiple secondary beams in the remote field. A disk-shaped electrically conductive director is located in the primary radiation path near each primary radiator. Each director operates both to shape the primary pattern of its respective primary radiator directly, and also to excite parasitic radiation in neighboring primary radiators so as to produce a primary radiation pattern whose shape approximates a sector of a circle, thereby producing high illumination efficiency at the main reflector. The desired sector shape of primary pattern is achieved despite relatively close lateral spacing between adjacent primary radiators of the feed system.