Abstract: In a stencil printing device, a plurality of printing drums are mounted on a turret-like printing drum supporting member, and the indexing rotary movement of the printing drum supporting member and the rotary actuation of each of the printing drums thereon are effected by a common motor without regard to the number of the printing drums so that the overall structure can be simplified, and the control of the indexing rotary movement of the planetary plate disk and the rotary actuation of each of the printing drums can be accomplished in a centralized manner. The present invention is particularly useful in a stencil printing for full color printing.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for direct production of photopolymeric printing plates. The method comprises forming a positive and/or negative image on a substrate by ink-jet printing with a photopolymeric ink composition, optionally preheated. The apparatus for carrying out the method of the invention comprises a rotatable drum adapted for retaining on its inner or outer surface the substrate to be printed; a carriage, displaceable axially in respect of the drum; a container for a photopolymeric ink composition; at least one nozzle communicating with the carriage for ejecting the photopolymeric ink composition; and a UV source located so as to expose the printed surface of the substrate to UV radiation.

Abstract: A magazine for the automated changing of printing plates of a sheet-fed offset printing machine. The magazine includes a guiding apparatus which can be put into place on the plate cylinder for purposes of conveying used printing plates out of the plate cylinder and for feeding new printing plates to the cylinder. The guiding apparatus may be formed by a sheet-metal profile. Provision is made of further guiding surfaces and a holder so that the used printing plate may be locked by the holder. An operator then only need pull the plate a short distance out of the gripping region of a leading edge clamping rail. Stops are provided for a printing plate so that the new printing plate can be deposited on the stops. By virtue of putting the guiding apparatus into place, the new printing plate is shifted toward the plate cylinder and can be fed into the front clamping rail by the operator.

Abstract: A light filter for dental use having a transparent planar member (12) which is colored so as to filter-out visible radiation in the range 400 nm to 520 nm, the range being that to which dental composite materials are sensitive, the filter being arranged to be fitted in front of a dental lamp by means of an attachment device (114) arranged to detachably secure the transparent planar member (12) to the dental lamp.

Abstract: In a stencil printer in which a printing drum is carried by a carrier mounted in a frame body of the printer to be transversely withdrawable from the frame body on its one side for maintenance, etc., the carrier is selectively engaged with a transverse position adjustment device at its operating position inside the frame body, wherein the transverse position adjustment device engages the carrier to adjust its transverse position for adjustment of transverse position of print image via a latching mechanism so that, when the carrier is to be disengaged from the transverse position adjustment device for the withdrawal, the transverse position adjustment device once shifts the carrier to its terminal biasing position toward the withdrawal direction and returns to its standard transverse position, while disengaging the latching mechanism at the moment of reversing its biasing movement.

Abstract: This invention relates to a flood bar and squeegee for printing apparatus. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, the flood bar or squeegee comprises an elongated member having an ink engaging face. A plurality of spaced apart fins are arranged across the face. The fins are generally parallel to one another and each end of the member is bent inwardly so as to inhibit the flow of ink to the sides of the screen.

Abstract: A retractable registration apparatus aligns a printing screen with an image platform. The apparatus has a pair of arms. Each arm extends along a longitudinal axis and has at least two sections with a substantially square cross-section along the longitudinal axis and at least two other sections along the longitudinal axis having a circular cross-section inscribed within the square cross-section. A pair of mounting brackets are associated with each of the arms and each have a substantially square opening extending through the bracket for slideably receiving the substantially square cross-section of the arm. The pair of mounting brackets are mounted to the lower surface of an image platform so that the side walls of each bracket are in the same plane and are parallel to the center line. Each arm has a track formed within the arm, and one of the mounting brackets associated with the arm has a guide pin projecting into the arm for guiding the movement of the arm.

Abstract: A photosensitive lithographic printing plate requiring no fountain solution, which comprises an aluminum base and, formed thereon in the following order, a primer layer, a photosensitive layer, and a silicone rubber layer, wherein the aluminum base has a roughened surface with an average roughness (R.sub.a) of from 0.2 .mu.m to 0.8 .mu.m and a whiteness of from 0.10 to 0.35, and the primer layer is a homogeneous layer comprising a binder as the main component. The lithographic printing plate requiring no fountain solution is excellent in tone reproducibility, suitability for plate inspection, suitability for plate scanner examination, and press life.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for transferring an article from one conveyor to another and a printing system incorporating the same, including an array of endless conveyorized strips carried by a roller and a relatively rigid member, the roller and the member being positioned within the strips, and a mover operatively associated with the roller for effecting its rotation and hence movement of the strips. The apparatus is positioned between and in cooperation with adjacent ends of successive conveyors of a printing system. The surface of each strip is characterized by a series of upwardly extending projections, each projection being of a relatively small diameter in relation to its length. The roller is adjacent to the exit end of the apparatus and has disks positioned longitudinally between the strips and coaxially with and about the roller at intervals across its width.

Abstract: In a cylindrical drum 1 for stencil printing which consists of a porous cylindrical plate 2 and a screen layer 3, in which a stencil sheet is attached to the outer surface of the screen layer having an ink permeability, an ink is supplied from the inner surface of the porous cylindrical body which rotates around its own central axis, the present invention provides a screen layer consisting of a woven fabric of conjugated fibers of a sheath-and-core or a side-by-side type consisting of a lower melting component and a higher melting component and making the intersections of the fibers fixed together through the melt-adhesion of the lower melting point component by means of thermocompression bonding.

Abstract: A dual substrate, single-pass printing process prints a high basis weight substrate and a low basis weight substrate. Ink striking through the low basis weight substrate is collected and absorbed by the high basis weight substrate. The printed substrates are then separated and rewound for subsequent transport and handling.

Abstract: A tape cartridge for use with typewriters, printers, and the like having reusable or non-reusable tape or ribbon. The cartridge has a housing and a take up reel drive member, take up reel post, and supply reel post within the housing. The cartridge has a detachable sub cartridge detachable within the housing. The sub cartridge has a take up reel and supply reel each on hubs, a panel connecting the hubs together, and a reel of tape wound on the supply reel. The sub cartridge's hubs are detachably mounted to the posts of the cartridge housing to detachably mount the sub cartridge to the housing of the cartridge. The cartridge housing has spaced ribbon guides to guide the tape or ribbon of the sub cartridge from the supply reel to the take up reel of the sub cartridge.

Abstract: A sleeve-shaped printing sleeve for a form cylinder of a printing machine is fabricated from a blank of metallic material by cutting the blank to a width corresponding to the form cylinder and to an intermediate length which exceeds the circumference of the intended printing form cylinder. Additionally, the blank is provided with aligning indicia in the regions between each edge of the intermediate-length blank and the corresponding edge to be defined by cutting. Thus, these regions lie outside of the printing area. The blank is bent circularly, held in exact register in a bending/welding device, and cut to the length required for the intended form cylinder by laser beam cutters. As a result of this cutting operation, two waste pieces are produced. The waste pieces are removed and the now defined plate edges forming the beginning and end of the printing form are positioned opposite one another without overlap and welded together, preferably by a laser.

Abstract: A printing apparatus includes a printing head for printing on a bank book, a platen disposed opposite the printing head, and a cam mechanism for moving the platen. A sensor detects the thickness of the bank book which is between the printing head and the platen, and a sensor moving mechanism moves the sensor toward or away from the platen. A controller controls the operation of the cam mechanism and the sensor moving mechanism as the sensor is moved to a measuring position approaching the printing head. The printing head is moved toward the platen according to a detected value and then the sensor is retracted from the measuring position. As a result, after moving the printing head, the sensor does not contact the surface of the bank book, and therefore does not produce jamming or oblique feeding of the bank book during a line feed or printing operation.

Abstract: A keyboard arranged for efficiency in learning and in operating. Home keys are assigned according to the frequency of use of the letters. A user can select a new format with eleven or more keys in the same location as the conventional typewriter letter format. The keyboard is suitable for typewriters, personal computer keyboards. Different keyboards can be selected according to the frequency of use of the letters. By concentrating work on the home row, finger extension, flexion, and travel is reduced, allowing increased speed, accuracy and safety. By maintaining the same locations, most of the difficulty in relearning a new keyboard layout can be eliminated.

Abstract: A coupling for the drive shaft of prophy angles includes an upper drive shaft with a finger-type clutch, and a lower drive shaft having a main drive shaft with a clutch receptacle, and having a drive shaft clamp. The main drive shaft has an expansion slot extending from side to side through the center of the main drive shaft and substantially along the length of the clutch receptacle. The drive shaft clamp also has an expansion slot extending from side to side through the center and substantially along the length of the drive shaft clamp. The drive shaft clamp fits over the clutch receptacle end of the main drive shaft with the expansion slots oriented perpendicular to each other allowing the finger-type clutch of the upper drive shaft assembly to be pressure fitted into the clutch receptacle.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for preparing a printing plate without the need for a photomask formed from a sheet of photographic film bearing the positive or negative of the image to be printed. According to the invention, an ink jet print head deposits ink onto a light-sensitive emulsion in a pattern which corresponds to either the positive or negative of the image to be printed. The printed pattern provides a photomask for subsequent exposure of the emulsion.

Abstract: A printing roller, or form roller, having sufficient pressure-sensitive tack for cleanly removing ink from non-image areas of a waterless planographic plate irrespective of the tackiness of the ink. The roller can be fabricated with the necessary pressure-sensitive tack by disposing a coated sleeve, or coating layer, upon the peripheral surface of a standard roller base. The surface of the coating is elastomeric. Elastomers that will work with this invention can be selected from a group consisting of: butyl rubber, nitrile rubber, styrene butadiene, polychoroprene, polysulfide, polyurethane, polyolefin, polyvinyl acetate, acrylics, gelatine/aldehyde, epoxies, and combinations thereof.

Abstract: A printing plate with a mesh material, a removable substrate, a substrate, and a paper backing on said substrate. The mesh material has interstices and has first and second surfaces. The substrate is adhered to one of the first and second surfaces of the mesh material and forms a well defined at its bottom by the substrate and at its sides by the interstices of the mesh material, wherein the well receives and stores pigment for printing. Multiple colors of pigment may be stored simultaneously within the wells of the printing plate, thereby enabling those multiple colors to be printed concurrently in a single printing pass operation.

Abstract: Lithographic printing constructions and methods of imaging them. The constructions include a grained-metal substrate, a protective layer that can also serve as an adhesion-promoting primer, and an ablatable oleophilic surface layer. In operation, imagewise pulses from an imaging laser interact with the surface layer, causing ablation thereof and, probably, inflicting some damage to the underlying protective layer as well. The imaged plate may then be subjected to a solvent that eliminates the exposed protective layer, but which does no damage either to the surface layer or to the unexposed protective layer lying thereunder.