Abstract: An ink jet printing process for improving the water-fastness of an ink jet image comprising: providing an ink jet recording element having a support having thereon an image-recording layer comprising a cross-linkable polymer of gelatin or acetoacetylated poly(vinyl alcohol) and a mordant; applying liquid ink droplets of an anionic, water-soluble dye on the image-recording layer in an image-wise manner; and applying an aqueous solution of a hardener to the image to cross-link the binder.

Abstract: An image forming process capable of forming an image having high fretting resistance and water resistance by an ink-jet ejecting method using an ink containing a pigment which can be dispersed without a dispersant and smoothly transferring into a thermoplastic resin layer.

Abstract: A printing plate or decorator cylinder has a tapered bore for engaging the tapered outer surface of a sleeve member which is mounted on an untapered rotatable drive shaft and the sleeve is adjustably coupled to the shaft to permit accurate registration of the printed indicia when a printing plate is changed.

Abstract: A folded, bound printed product comprising a plurality of printed subproducts is produced in that an initial product is printed sequentially in such a manner as to produce a series of printed subproducts which are to be arranged one after the other, the initial product has a weakening line or the printed subproducts are provided with a weakening line, and the printed subproducts are collated, folded and bound.

Abstract: Doctor blade systems for rotary press ink stations, which include a print cylinder and an ink supplier on a side of the print cylinder to deliver ink to the surface of the print cylinder, have an elongated blade holder extending parallel to the cylinder on one side of the cylinder. The holder mounts a doctor blade, which may be conventional, and a pre-doctor or prewipe blade between the doctor blade and the pan on the one side of the cylinder. The holder includes a first clamp to releasably hold the generally flat, elongated doctor blade in axial line contact with an axial length of the outer circumferential surface of the print cylinder and a second clamp below the first clamp to releasably hold a generally flat, elongated prewipe blade against the outer circumferential surface of the print cylinder below the line contact of the doctor blade so as to remove some ink from the length of the surface before that surface reaches the doctor blade.

Abstract: A method for reducing cyclic print errors. Applicants discovered that the cause of certain cyclic print errors was inconsistent (i.e., unequal) line spacing on the linear encoder strip used by the printer to track the position of the print head. Such inconsistent line spacing was caused by the inability of the device which makes/prints linear encoder strips to consistently match the ideal consistent line spacing desired and expected by the printer. Applicants found that such cyclic print errors were eliminated by choosing, obtaining, and installing a linear encoder strip having a consistent line spacing within the resolution capabilities of the device and, in one example, closest to the ideal consistent line spacing.

Abstract: A drive control mechanism for a scanning head which travels along a scan surface and carries out image reading or image writing. The drive control mechanism includes a driving starting position changing device which changes a driving starting position of the scanning head either outside an image reading range or outside an image writing range, under a predetermined condition. Accordingly, phases of vibration periods are shifted and unevenness in density is less visible.

Abstract: The invention provides a plate handling system for use in an imaging system in which plates of recording media are fed through an imaging unit. The plate handling system includes an input portion for receiving a plate from the imaging engine, a first conveying assembly, a second conveying assembly, an intermediate portion and an output portion. The first conveying assembly extends from the input portion to the intermediate portion, and is provided to direct a plate along a first direction. The second conveying assembly extends toward the output portion of the plate handling system, and is provided to direct a plate along a second direction from the intermediate portion to the output portion. The second direction is generally perpendicular to the first direction.

Abstract: A lithographic printing device has a plurality of plate cylinders for respective colors. A plurality of packing sheets are respectively attached to the plate cylinders, each packing sheet having a series of protruded pieces aligned in a circumferential direction of the respective plate cylinder. A plurality of press plates respectively provided on the packing sheets, each press plate having engaging holes into which the protruded pieces of the respective packing sheet are inserted. Each series of protruded pieces satisfies the following relation: 2D≦P≦4.06×103×D/W, where P is a pitch of the series of protruded pieces, D is a diameter of each protruded piece, and W is a width of the press plate.

Abstract: There is disclosed an endless flexible printing band and method of making such printing bands. A wide endless band having columns and rows of raised printing characters is molded onto a sheet having columns and rows of visually readable characters corresponding to the printing characters. Following molding, the wide band is slit into a plurality of printing bands.

Abstract: A feeder unit for a sheet-processing machine having a plurality of processing units is provided. The feeder unit includes a feeder, a feed table, and a feed drum. The feed drum is double-sized or larger in that it has a diameter at least twice that of the diameter of the plate or blanket cylinder of at least one of the processing units of the sheet-processing machine. The feed drum includes at least two gripper systems distributed symmetrically on a periphery of the feed drum. The feed drum is arranged with its rotational axis on or offset vertically above a horizontal plane formed by the rotational axes of the printing cylinders in the processing units. Each gripper system is pivotally supported on the feed drum and includes a gripper shaft, at least one gripper arranged on the gripper shaft, a gripper stop bar associated with the gripper, and a front guide arranged on the gripper stop bar.

Abstract: A flexible counter for an embossing system provides resilient support under a sheet which opposes pressure from a contoured die forming an embossment in the sheet. The flexible counter includes a resilient mat and a fixed bolster which supports the mat. The bolster has peripheral walls which extend around sides of the mat so that an upper portion of the mat protrudes above the peripheral walls. In addition, the bolster includes a resilient bumper that bounds an upper portion of the mat. An upper edge of the bumper is about flush with an upper surface of the mat. The walls have a peripheral channel in which the bumper is disposed. The bumper is formed of a resilient material having higher rigidity than the mat, thereby controlling the flow and stretching behavior of the upper surface of the mat as compressed during an embossing operation.

Abstract: In a conventional sheet-fed printing machine having a central drive, the dynamic positional deviation with respect to a setpoint value continually increases from printing unit to printing unit due to the elasticity (a vibratory multi-mass system). Thus, the precision is dependent on the number of printing units. A mechanical interconnection of the individual cylinders of the sheet-fed printing machine is partially removed and replaced by individual drives is, therefore, provided. In the multiple motor open-loop drive control described, the fault does not increase because in each printing unit, the torque is supplied separately, and all drives are closed-loop controlled using the same reference variable.

Abstract: A network-type synchronous control system for rotary printing presses in which a driving means of a printing section P and the driven part thereof are combined into a block, and control is exercised so that several sets are brought into synchronous rotation by each set, the improvement comprising master control sections 1 and 2 that can independently control each of sets formed from arbitrary combinations of blocks, slave control sections 3 for controlling each block in the set upon receipt of control information from the master control sections 1 and 2, and a network line 5 connecting the master control sections 1 and 2 to each of the slave control sections 3: the master control sections 1 and 2 having a processing section, an input operation section for entering information, a master value setting section for setting a master phase and a master speed and a master network connecting section; so as to have a high degree of flexibility to ensure flexible response to the circumstances.

Abstract: A printing system including printing device and at least two host devices. Each of the at least two host devices inputs a priority of a print request, and transmits a reason for the priority of the print request together with the print request and the priority, when the priority is higher than a predetermined priority. The printing device performs printing operations requested by a plurality of print requests, in an order in which the plurality of print requests are arranged, and changes ordinal positions of the plurality of print requests in the order according to priorities of the plurality of print requests so that an ordinal position of a print request with a higher priority precedes an ordinal position of a print request with a lower priority. When the printing device receives from a first host device a print request with a priority higher than a predetermined priority, the printing device sends information on the first host device to at least one second host device other than the first host device.

Abstract: A recording apparatus has an automatic feed device for feeding recording media one by one, and a pair of carriage rollers for carrying a recording medium P thus fed, to a recording section. The recording apparatus is constructed to be used in a plurality of recording modes. In the recording apparatus, a registration method of the recording medium P to the recording section is selected depending upon a recording mode selected. The apparatus of this structure solved the prior-art problems that a long time was necessary from sheet feed to recording start in the case of registration of the recording medium P by the nip between the carriage roller pair, so as to be a bottleneck in increase of recording speed and that disturbance of the image became prominent due to registration deviation in the case of registration at the side of the recording medium.

Abstract: In a conveying apparatus, a convey path is divided into a first convey path portion and a second convey path portion, a discharge tray as an escape portion for temporarily escaping a sheet conveyed in the first convey path portion and for conveying the sheet to the second convey path portion with a tail end of the sheet facing forwardly is provided between the first and second convey path portions, and there are provided nip roller and a D-cut roller as a conveying means which does not apply any load to the sheet when the sheet is being conveyed by a conveying system of an image forming means (first processing portion) and which starts to apply a conveying force to the sheet after conveyance of the sheet effected by the conveying system of the first processing portion is finished.

Abstract: An inking cylinder or a dampening cylinder or roller for a rotary printing press is provided with a rubber cover that is adhered to the body of the cylinder or roller. A device for applying the rubber cover to the roller body includes a support table that is pivotably supported.

Abstract: An apparatus for treating a substrate is disclosed in which a propellant stream is passed through a channel and directed toward a substrate. Substrate pre-marking or post-marking treatment material is controllably introduced into the propellant stream and imparted with sufficient kinetic energy thereby to be made incident upon a substrate. A multiplicity of channels for directing the propellant and treatment material allow for high throughput, high resolution in-situ treatment. Marking materials and treatment materials may be introduced into the channel and mixed therein prior to being made incident on the substrate, or mixed or superimposed on the substrate without registration. One example is a single-pass, full-color printer.

Abstract: The invention concerns on the one hand a gripping device (10), particularly for automatic printing and/or inserting machines, with a first and second gripping element (22, 24) of which at least one gripping element (22) can be moved relative to the other gripping element (24) to grab sheet-like materials such as printed pages as well as with a measuring device (42) for the recording of at least one position of the gripping elements (22, 24) towards each other, and on the other hand a method for recording a relative position of gripping elements within a gripping device.