Abstract: Apparatus for producing large books includes two apparatuses which may be used independently to produce normal books. Each has a printing press for producing signatures, and a bindery. A diverting device is operable to take the output of the first press and combine it with the output of the second press. Thus different halves of a large book may be printed by the two presses and then combined.

Abstract: Apparatus for printing quasi random number tables used in games of chance comprising a flexographic printing press, such as a Victory Kidder Press, provided with a number of cylinders of different circumferences arrayed about a central drum. Each circumference is a multiple of a basic pitch value and each cylinder is arranged to print columns of numbers or other symbols alongside similar columns printed by the other cylinders in a quasi random array.The tables may be printed on a large number of different materials such as; newspaper preprints, plastic film food wrappers, card, etc.

Abstract: A depository envelope printing apparatus prints transaction identifying characters on envelopes deposited into an ATM, which envelopes may be of uneven contour as a result of their containing coins or folded notes or instruments. The apparatus includes a print head (120) and a tracking shoe (121) mounted on a carriage plate (110). The carriage plate is floatably mounted inside the ATM such that the tracking shoe tracks a depository envelope surface which is to accept printing as the envelope is being moved from the ATM customer to a place of storage within the ATM by a transport mechanism. The movements of the tracking shoe are transmitted to the print head so that it follows the contour of the envelope while printing is performed thereon. A probe located ahead of the tracking shoe in the direction of the envelope path tracks the level of the envelope surface a distance in advance of the tracking shoe.

Abstract: A basic snowblower unit powered by an engine has a rectangular shroud housing a fan with a drive member associated with it. A considerable number of special units including lawnmower, vacuum-and-bagger, leaf picker, edger, rotary tiller, leaf blower, sprayer, electric generator, hydraulic pump, and air compressor, are individually attachable for support and powering by the basic snowblower unit, providing for all-year use of it, compact storage and economy in purchase and ownership.

Abstract: The present invention is concerned with the control of the format of documents, such as letters, prepared automatically on a printer in response to code signals read from a record medium (magnetic storage medium), and to mode control means for associated apparatus. The invention concerns itself particularly with the handling of left margins and indentation levels for different paragraphs in a document especially when a document under preparation has line lengths that are either shorter or longer than the line lengths of an original document that was prepared concurrently with the storage of the coded signals on the record media. A preferred embodiment includes an input/output printer having a keyboard for entry of information and a single element print head for printing of information and an associated unit including an associated recorder for recording key entries as code signals on a magnetic tape record medium and an associated reader for subsequently reproducing the code signals for printing.

Abstract: Disclosed herein is a page-turning apparatus which includes a platform which can rest on a piano music rack or the like and upon which a book, sheet music or the like can be supported. Regardless of its size, adjustable clamps are arranged to hold the book centered on the platform, and central page hold-down means are releasably urged against the opened pages. A movable member at one side of the platform can be actuated to frictionally engage and push a single page and during such page turning, correlated means are actuated to release the page hold-down means.

Abstract: A numbering device for an offset printing press including a slide mechanism. The slide mechanism includes a pair of slide plates fixed to frames of the numbering device and two pairs of rollers fixed to frames of the main machine, wherein the slide plates are received between respective pairs of the guide rollers such that the numbering device can be slid towards and away from the main machine. A first gear is mounted on a drive shaft of the main machine, while a second gear is mounted on a numbering impression cylinder of the numbering device. The two gears are engaged when the numbering device is slid towards the main machine and disengaged for the opposite direction of movement of the numbering device. A detent mechanism is provided for fixing the numbering device in either the engaged or disengaged positions of the gears.

Abstract: A snowblower for use particularly with wet and heavy snow formed by a precutting device (8) which rotates about the axis of a blower wheel (4) and is situated in front of the blower wheel in the snow clearing direction. Also included are worm gears (2,3) which rotate about vertical axes and are disposed on both sides in front of the blower wheel (4). The precutting device (8) has radial cutting arms (9) with radii corresponding to the radius of the blower wheel (4). The rotational bodies formed by the precutting device and the worm gears interact with one another without contact.

Abstract: A printing machine including a conveyor equipped with spaced-apart carriers for moving articles to a printing station and then to a discharge station, and an intermittently operating drive for the conveyor whereby the carriers are stopped at the printing station. An ultraviolet reactive ink is used during printing with an ultraviolet curing station. The curing station comprises rotatable pick-up means for a printed article whereby the article is adapted to be rotated during exposure at the curing station. An article drive is provided for rotating the pick-up means about its axis, and the article drive has an axis of rotation which is offset relative to the axis of the pick-up means so that an eccentric drive is imparted to the pick-up means. The article drive is connected to the intermittently operated drive whereby the driving action imparted to said pick-up means is simultaneously influenced by said intermittently operated drive and by said eccentric drive.

Abstract: A sheet-feed mechanism (10) for a rotary print head (12) includes a track (16) that defines a paper path in the form of a partial circular annulus. Belts (40 and 42) carry tabs (36, 38, 72, and 74) that support the lower end of a paper sheet, and movement of the belt causes the tabs to raise the paper sheet as it is printed. A guide structure (60) keeps the paper sheet in the proper cylindrical shape until it has left the track, at which time a curved portion (67) of a cam post (66) urges the paper out so that it pops open to a flat shape and falls into a tray (70).

Abstract: A snow plow is provided comprising a steel member having a mold board at its lower end. A snow plow blade extends below the mold board. The snow plow blade comprises a sheet of lightweight material, preferably urethane. This sheet is resistant to corrosion from moisture and salt and to road abrasion. The sheet has a front surface and a back surface, each of which extends from the top of the sheet to the bottom of the sheet to define the thickness of the blade. The thickness is relatively constant. The bottom of the blade is defined by a relatively straight edge for better snow removal. A steel reinforcing bar is mounted in a groove in either the front or the back surface of the sheet. Bolt means mount the steel bar to the sheet and also to the plow.

Abstract: A printing system for printing characters in various fonts and formats onto webs of sheet stock of various sizes includes apparatus for cutting the web into various lengths to accommodate various formats as well as for providing different lengths of tags which are interposed between batches of tags to permit easy separation of the batches. A stacker is also provided which selectively stacks the tags in a shingle fashion or into piles. Circuitry is provided to detect jams in the system and to assure that the proper size web corresponding to the selected format is used. Also, the system is provided with circuitry for adjusting the line print position to compensate for positioning errors caused by mechanical tolerances in the printers.

Abstract: A machine for spreading and severing cloth from a roll, the machine including an expansible perforated endless belt for conveying the cloth from the roll, a vacuum system for drawing a vacuum through said perforated endless belt, the perforated endless belt having a cloth carrying and return flight, said cloth carrying flight capable of condensing said cloth, and cutter knife means to sever said cloth as desired. The cutter means may be a cutter knife or a cutter hot wire.

Abstract: To transfer ink from an ink trough (2, 3) to an ink receiving roller (1), the ink is transferred in the form of axially adjacent rings or circumferential strips of ink. The rings or strips of ink are generated by placing two superposed plates (4, 5), each having front edges (A, B) with recesses or notches (16, 18) therein, the ink flowing through the notches. The width of the ink strips is controlled by axially shifting one of the plates (5) with respect to the other (4) by engagement of the shiftable plates with an eccenter (11-14). The transferred circumferential strips or rings are then milled in the standard milling roller arrangement of printing machine inkers.

Abstract: A collator for flexible cards which includes a tray for supporting cards which are fed into a chute by action of a pneumatic puller. Pairs of opposed chutes angularly oriented toward linearly movable bins such that bins can collect cards from opposed chutes and then be indexed to an adjacent pair of opposed, fixed chutes. The pullers are carried by reciprocating arms associated with opposed chutes. A hole in each chute allows a puller to pull a card and then be withdrawn from the card stack, but has a size such that a card is freed from the puller and falls in the chute. Cards are supported in the stack by rubs in a card tray such that the bottommost card is accessible to a puller. First a card drops into a bin from one side, then the other side.

Abstract: A printing machine includes a printing drum. A stencil master sheet retaining device for this printing machine includes: a magnet plate extending generally along a generator of the printing drum; a clamp plate, made of magnetically attractable material, which can be selectively positioned either to a position in which it lies against the magnet plate, or to a position in which it is removed away from the magnet plate; a removal strip which extends above the magnet plate generally between the magnet plate and the clamp plate; and a means for raising the removal strip away from the magnet plate, when the clamp plate is removed away from the magnet strip. This removal strip may be thin and elastic, and may be thus raised by being put into compression, optionally by its one end being fixed to the printing drum and its other end being moved towards that fixed end.

Abstract: A buckling-type paper sheet folder comprises at least two pairs of folding cylinders W1 and W2 and two folding pockets F1, F2. The adjustable sheet stops 65,66, embodied by stop rails, of the folding pockets F1, F2 are secured to endless belts 67,68,69 and 70 which are drivable, conjointly two and two, through a manually actuable shaft 79 or 80. Scales of length S1 to S8 are carried on scale bands 48 and 49 which are associated each with one of the folding pockets F1 or F2 and displaceable by, the respective drive shafts 79, 80 in synchronism with the sheet stops 65, 66. The scale bands 48 and 49 are mounted in the housing to be visible through windows which are provided with reference marks. The sheet stops 65 and 66 can be set to the desired position through the closed housing by means of knobs 81 and 82. To facilitate the setting of the sheet stops, a plurality of scales S1 to S8 is provided on each scale band, each associated with a folding manner and sheet size, and made separately noticeable by a light.

Abstract: An apparatus for assembling carrier-mounted documents includes a glue station, a folding station and a document feeding station. Adhesive is selectively applied to an elongate sheet of carrier paper having a plurality of transverse perforations. The carrier paper is fed into a moving paddle belt, the paddles striking the carrier paper proximate selected perforations and causing the carrier paper to fold thereon. The paddle belt moves the partially folded carrier paper past a high-speed document feeder where documents are inserted into the folds in the carrier paper and retained there by the previously applied adhesive. The folds in the carrier paper position and align the documents on the carrier paper as they are received from the document feeder. Pin holes along the elongate margins of the carrier paper cooperate with pin chains and pin rollers on the apparatus to time and position the pre-perforated carrier paper with respect to the apparatus.

Abstract: Apparatus for the re-surfacing of an ice surface particularly the surface of a curling rink. An ice melting machine having a plurality of burners is drawn at a slow and uniform rate of speed along a curling rink by a winch arrangement which is adapted for removable securement adjacent one end of the rink. A cable extends from the melting machine to the winch, and means are provided for stopping the winding of the cable when a predetermined length of cable has been wound on the winch. The winch includes a drum which has a diameter and a speed of rotation such that the machine is drawn along at a speed in the range of between about 3 to 4 feet per minute. This apparatus ensures uniform melting surface ice and frees an attendant for other duties.

Abstract: A folding machine includes an entrance feed for the infeed of materials to be folded which are operated on by a plurality of folding devices arranged along the feed path, each of which feeds the material after folding into a receiving pocket which has an adjustable stop. The stop is adjusted so that the materials being fed are received in the pocket at the correct location so as to position them for subsequent folding or for ejecting at an ejection point. The invention provides a conveyor belt which operates so that an upper transport reach is movable below the ejection point to receive the folded materials. Associated with the conveyor is a brake element which overlies the materials which are fed on the conveyor transport reach. The brake element rests on the folding material and is mounted so that it applies a yieldable pressure on the materials as they moved therealong.