Abstract: A self driven mobile assembly including an ink agitator is supported on the ink fountain of a printing machine by a beam which is adapted to be mounted parallel to the longitudinal axis of the ink fountain so as to provide a guide track for supporting the mobile assembly for linear displacement along the ink fountain with the ink agitator projecting into the ink. The beam has a rack extending parallel to said ink fountain axis, and the mobile assembly includes a reversible motor and drive means connecting the motor both to rotate the agitator and to linearly displace the assembly along the beam by driving a pinion meshing with the rack. The beam also has an exposed bus electrically insulated from the beam and lying parallel to the rack, and the mobile assembly has a pair of members, one mounted for sliding electrical contact along the bus and the other mounted for sliding electrical contact along a portion of the beam separate from the bus for supplying electrical power to the assembly.

Abstract: An ink supply and ink level control device is mounted on an ink fountain of a printing machine. The device has a control and power head and an ink supply conduit and casing assembly removably connected to the head. The head includes a reciprocable output member, a reversible drive motor connected to produce limited linear displacement in one direction or the other of the output member, a pair of limit switches mounted for operation in response to movement of said output member to the limits, respectively, of its linear displacement, and an electronic proximity detector projecting from said head toward the surface of ink in said ink fountain to sense the relative proximity of the surface of the ink. The assembly includes a conduit for receiving ink from a source of ink and is removably fastened to the output member for limited linear displacement thereby, and an elongated tube-like casing partially enclosing said supply conduit and removably fastened at one end to the head.