Abstract: A printing apparatus employs a rotatable cam having an enclosed cam slot for controlling the rocking motion of an inking roll without the need for a cam follower spring. The apparatus also includes an articulated printing member support assembly which executes a complex curvilinear movement under the control of a fixed cam slot without the use of linear bearings. Complementary cam profiles are used on both cam surfaces in order to maintain tangency between the inking roll and printing element during inking. A yieldable connecting link is used to prevent excessive printing pressures from being applied, and a movable filler plate closes off a slot in a front cover of the printing apparatus through which a portion of the movable printing member protrudes.

Abstract: An article printing system is disclosed wherein successive strips of closely-spaced interconnected articles, such as electronic components, are fed in an intermittent manner by an endless conveyor belt to a printing nip located beneath a continuously rotating offset roll which is arranged for synchronized vertical reciprocation. Belt perforations corresponding in location to each individual article to be printed are sensed by a photoelectric detector to stop the article at a ready position located a predetermined distance from the printing nip. When a printed image on the offset roll rotates to a position of predicted registration with the motionless article surface below, the belt is restarted and the offset roll is lowered to its printing position in order to transfer the image to the article as it traverses the printing nip.