U.S. patent number 3,749,313 [Application Number 05/202,521] was granted by the patent office on 1973-07-31 for device for moistening moving surfaces.
This patent grant is currently assigned to Weitman & Conrad. Invention is credited to Heinz Weitmann.
United States Patent |
3,749,313 |
Weitmann |
July 31, 1973 |
DEVICE FOR MOISTENING MOVING SURFACES
Abstract
A rotating body, preferably conically shaped, is supplied with
liquid which is thrown off by centrifugal force in an atomized form
for moistening a moving surface, the rotating body being confined
within a housing having an opening therein which controls the shape
of the pattern of atomized liquid dispensed.
Inventors: |
Weitmann; Heinz (Leinfelden,
DT) |
Assignee: |
Weitman & Conrad
(Echterdingen, DT)
|
Family
ID: |
5789398 |
Appl.
No.: |
05/202,521 |
Filed: |
November 26, 1971 |
Foreign Application Priority Data
|
|
|
|
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Nov 28, 1970 [DT] |
|
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P 20 58 667.8 |
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Current U.S.
Class: |
239/127; 101/148;
118/315; 118/326; 239/224; 68/205R; 118/259; 118/321; 239/222 |
Current CPC
Class: |
B41F
7/30 (20130101); B41F 23/02 (20130101); B05B
3/085 (20130101); B05B 3/1014 (20130101) |
Current International
Class: |
B41F
7/00 (20060101); B41F 23/00 (20060101); B41F
7/30 (20060101); B41F 23/02 (20060101); B05B
3/08 (20060101); B05B 3/02 (20060101); B05B
3/10 (20060101); B05b 003/02 () |
Field of
Search: |
;239/120,121,127,222,223,224 |
References Cited
[Referenced By]
U.S. Patent Documents
Primary Examiner: Wood, Jr.; M. Henson
Assistant Examiner: Mar; Michael
Claims
I claim:
1. Apparatus for use with printing machines for moistening moving
surfaces such as rolls and webs, comprising a plurality of rotating
bodies positioned in side by side relationship for rotation about
parallel axes adjacent the surface to be moistened, an elongated
housing surrounding said rotating body provided with openings
corresponding to each of the rotating bodies opposite said moving
surface, and means to supply liquid to the rotating body to be
thrown outwardly through said openings in an elongated narrow
pattern onto said moving surface, said elongated housing also
including interior baffle means positioned between each of said
rotating bodies whereby liquid thrown off by each of said bodies
issues from the housing through only the corresponding opening
provided therein.
2. The invention defined in claim 1, wherein said rotating bodies
include a generally conical surface mounted for rotation about a
vertical axis, said surface being provided with a discharge opening
for excess liquid.
3. The invention defined in claim 2, wherein each opening is
elongated to produce a fan-shaped discharge of liquid.
4. The invention defined in claim 3, wherein said housing includes
a plate movably mounted with respect to each opening to vary the
area thereof to change the size of said fan-shaped discharge.
5. The invention defined in claim 2, wherein said housing is
provided with a discharge outlet for excess liquid trapped inside
the housing, including pumping means for recirculating said excess
liquid to the rotating body.
6. The invention defined in claim 5, wherein said means for
recirculating said excess liquid includes filter means.
7. The invention defined in claim 2, wherein said means to supply
liquid to the rotating body includes valve means to vary the amount
of liquid supplied.
8. The invention defined in claim 3, wherein said elongated
openings in the housing are arranged generally in longitudinal
alignment to provide a composite fan-like pattern, said housing
also being provided with a discharge opening for excess liquid
thrown off by the rotating bodies, and pump means for recirculating
excess liquid to said rotating bodies.
9. The invention defined in claim 8, wherein said housing includes
means to adjust the dimensions of said openings to regulate the
fan-like pattern of liquid thrown outwardly of the housing.
10. The invention defined in claim 9, wherein said means to adjust
the dimensions of an opening comprises a flat plate positioned
against a wall of the housing and slidable to change the size of
the opening.
11. The invention defined in claim 1, wherein said housing is
provided with a discharge opening for excess liquid thrown off by
said rotating body, and pump means for recirculating said liquid to
said rotating body.
12. The invention defined in claim 11, wherein said pump means
includes electro-mechanical valve means to control the supply of
liquid to said rotating body.
13. The invention defined in claim 12, wherein said pump means
includes reservoir means, conduit means to return liquid from said
discharge to the reservoir means, and a pump having bypass conduit
means to supply liquid from the reservoir means to said rotating
body.
14. The invention defined in claim 13, wherein said pump means
includes means to filter liquid supplied by the pump to the
rotating body.
15. The invention defined in claim 14, wherein said pump means
includes electro-mechanical valve means to control said liquid
supplied to the rotating body.
Description
The invention relates to a device for moistening moving surfaces
with a liquid, such as are found in printing machines, especially
offset machines.
In printing operations there is often a need to moisten moving
surfaces, namely, a paper web or the jacket surface of a rotating
roll. In the moistening of rolls, it is known, for example, that a
first roll can be allowed to turn in a water bath, and that the
surface of this roll can be connected with distributor, or
friction, rolls which distribute the water taken from the water
bath evenly on the roll that ultimately is to be moistened. This
arrangement has the disadvantage that the last roll can only be
moistened as a whole, and that the moistened surfaces must be
plain, and are not adaptable to changes in configuration or
pressure. Moreover, the total amount of water that is applied, and
therewith the uniformity of the moistening, can only be poorly
controlled.
It has also been proposed to spray a liquid by means of compressed
air fed spray nozzles onto the surface that is to be moistened.
Suitable experiments have failed however, because the water
particles produced were either too fine and were entrained as
aerosol with the air stream, or they bounced on the surface to be
moistened, so that there was no controlled moistening thereof.
Also, in the case of nozzles of this kind, the amount of the liquid
to be applied, that is, between 0.3 to 0.5 liters/hour cannot be
controlled, or only at prohibitive expense. Moreover, chemical
additives in the water often cause clogging of narrow nozzles and,
finally because of the uncontrolled effect of the air flow issuing
from the nozzles there is irregular drying out of the surface to be
moistened, especially if the latter is tempered.
The invention is addressed to the problem of alleviating the
indicated deficiencies, and to propose a device by means of which,
with no excessive outlay, moving surfaces can be moistened
entirely, or be localized application, with adjustable degrees of
fineness.
The problem is solved by means of the invention in that opposite
the surface to be moistened there is positioned a rotating
contrifuging plate supplied with the liquid, and a housing
surrounding said plate which has an opening toward the surface,
from which opening a part of the liquid thrown off from the plate
issues onto the surface in a fanlike configuration.
With this arrangement of a moistening device for moving surfaces,
there is the advantage that operation can be effected with
relatively large, readily controllable amounts of liquid, because
for example only about 10 to 30 percent of the liquid thrown off
issues through the housing opening. The desired fineness of
moistening can therefore be adjusted with precision. In addition,
the relatively large throughput quantities impart less
contamination to the adjusting valves. Finally, no compressed air
is used according to the invention, which air would entrain the
atomized water particles.
In a preferred form of embodiment of the invention, the
cross-section of the opening in the housing is adjustable, for
setting the fan width of the issuing liquid, or there may be
several centrifuging plates in a common housing, with at least one
exit opening coordinated with each plate.
The centrifuging plates can be driven, according to the invention,
by different motors or by a common motor. The amount of liquid fed
to each plate is advantageously regulatable individually.
In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, the liquid is
delivered to the centrifuging plates by a pump from a reservoir,
whereby a part of the liquid flowing down which is not centrifuged
is recycled to the reservoir.
Further characteristics and advantages of the invention are to be
discerned in connection with the attached drawings from the
description and claims below.
FIG. 1 shows a vertical cross-section of an individual centrifuging
plate and housing for moistening surfaces according to the
invention,
FIG. 2 shows a cut away partial top view of a device of the
invention for the moistening of surfaces, and
FIG. 3 shows a schematic view of a device of the invention for
moistening moving surfaces.
The principle of the invention can be best described with reference
to FIGS. 1 and 2. According to FIG. 1, there is a bearing box 4
inside a housing 1 with intermediate floor 2 and removable cover 3,
and in the bearing box 4 there is a shaft 5 which extends beyond
it, both above and below, carried by roller bearings. At the upper
end of shaft 5 there is fixed a corrugated pulley 6. Pulley 6 and
shaft 5 with it are set into rotation by a V belt 7 that is driven
by a motor (not shown). At the lower end of shaft 5 there is fixed
a substantially conical shaped centrifuging plate 8 that rotates
with shaft 5.
In the case of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the
centrifuging plate 8 is held on the shaft 5 in such a way that the
plate is attached by a cup-shaped floor 9 onto the threaded end of
shaft 5. In floor 9 there are discharge openings 10. A liquid
delivery conduit 11 terminates near floor 9 of centrifuging plate 8
and is carried out of the housing at 12, where a hose such as the
liquid conduit 13, for example, is connected. The housing has a
lateral opening 14 which can be wholly or partly closed (FIG. 2) by
a vlave 15. Opening 14 is adjacent to the surface which is to be
moistened, which in the illustrated example of embodiment is the
jacket surface of a rotating roll 16. Housing 1 finally is funnel
shaped at its lower part and is provided with a nipple 18 which is
connected with a hose 17 or the like.
The described apparatus functions in the following way.
Centrifuging plate 8 is set into rapid rotation via motor-driven V
belt 7. A specific amount of liquid is introduced via conduit 11
into floor 9 of centrifuging plate 8. Because of centrifugal force,
the liquid rises as a thin film on the conically shaped inner wall
of plate 8, laterally upwardly to the edge of the plate, from which
it is flung outwardly in a tangential direction. In the region of
opening 14; --see FIG. 2-- the liquid thrown out issues in the form
of a fan 19 and reaches rotating roll 16 which is uniformly
moistened in this way. At the place where the liquid thrown from
plate 8 cannot issue through opening 14, it strikes the inside of
the housing wall and flows, as indicated in FIG. 1, in small
droplets 21, downwardly through conduit 17.
The liquid flowing down through conduit 17 does not need to be
lost, however. It can rather be recycled, as will be described
below, via conduit 11 to centrifuging plate 8. It is not a
disadvantage, but rather an advantage, that only part of the liquid
delivered via conduit 11 to centrifuging plate 8 is flung out
through opening 14 and brought to the surface to be moistened,
because the relatively large quantity of liquid delivered via
conduit 11 is more readily controlled than a correspondingly
smaller amount. By setting valve 15, the openings 14 can be wholly
or partly closed, so that roll 16 or any other surface can be
moistened only in selected areas.
As FIG. 2 shows, there may be a plurality of centrifuging plates 8
in a common housing 100, which plates are separated from each other
by partitions 101.
In FIG. 3, the overall structure of a moistening apparatus of the
invention is shown schematically. In the figure, at the top right,
there is seen the common housing 100 which encloses the plurality
of centrifuging plates 8. The centrifuging plates 8 are driven by a
common motor 22, supplied from an electrical conductor 23, via a
common V belt 7. Instead of this arrangement, each plate 8 could be
associated with its own drive motor.
Liquid may be delivered from a reservoir 24 which, when required,
can be filled via a supply conduit 25. A pump 26 is driven by a
motor 28 connected with the electrical supply by a conductor 27.
Pump 26 sucks the liquid from reservoir 24 through a filter 29 and
forces it through a conduit 31 into a filter vessel 32 which is
furnished with a filter layer 33. From the filter vessel 32 the
liquid, after passing through filter layer 33, reaches a conduit 35
which has a solenoid valve 34, said conduit 35 branching into a
plurality of branch conduits 13a, 13b, 13c, etc. Each of conduits
13 is (in a manner not shown) connected with a conduit 11 which
opens into a centrifuging plate 8. In each conduit 13, there is
moreover a needle valve (not visible in FIG. 3) which can be
electrically controlled by a button 37a, 37b, 37c, etc., by means
of which needle valve the amount of liquid to be delivered to the
centrifuging plate 8 in question is adjustable. For cleaning the
needle valve, the control buttons 37 can be somewhat pulled out,
whereafter the maximum amount of liquid flows through the valve,
flushing it. With release of the button the preset amount of liquid
again flows through conduit 13.
Magnetic valve 34 in conduit 35 is closed upon cutting off of the
printing machine associated with the moistening device of the
invention, so that the individual conduits 13 will not empty. When
the printing machine is started up again, there is thus liquid
immediately available for the moistening.
The liquid flung from centrifuging plates 8 onto the inner wall of
the housing flows down the wall and comes into conduit 17, from
which it is carried back to reservoir 24.
As is further shown in FIG. 3, there is a bypass conduit 38
connected with conduit 31 connected to pump 26, upstream of filter
vessel 32, which bypass opens just before reservoir 24 into conduit
17 which contains the liquid flowing back. In conduit 38 there is
an adjustable valve 41 controlled by a motor 39. Motor 39 is
connected to the electrical supply via a conductor 42, and it can
be switched on and off via a control conductor 43 connected with a
remote control. Depending upon the setting of valve 41, the liquid
flowing through conduit 31 will be forced for the most part into
the filter vessel, or carried back for the most part to reservoir
24. In this way there is a further possibility of regulating the
flow of liquid to the plates 8 as a function of the working speed
of the printing machine. Valve 41 is advantageously always partly
open so that the greatest possible amount of liquid constantly
circulates, whereby deposits of dirt or the like can be
prevented.
In another embodiment of the invention, there can be, in housing
100 which encloses the centrifuging plates 8, a plurality of outlet
openings 14, e.g., opposite one another, so that at the same time,
for example, two rolls can be moistened. With the device of the
invention, instead of the jacket surface of a roll, it is also
possible to a moisten a passing paper web or other print material,
e.g., a textile or plastic web, directly, instead of by means of a
roll. The jacket surface of the roll can also be tempered, that is
to say, cooled or heated. Water is primarly considered as the
moistening liquid, to which if required additives such as alcohol
or the like can be supplied. As already noted, the amount of liquid
delivered to the surface to be moistened depends substantially upon
the operating speed of the printing machine. The amount of liquid
that is delivered can also depend upon the kind of printing that is
being done, and can be correspondingly controlled. Control of
selected areas can be effected by means of valve 15. Control of the
amount of liquid is effected by means of the buttons 37 which
actuate the needle valve, and by means of remote controlled valve
41.
* * * * *