Mounting means for cylindrical screen assemblies with counterbalancing means

Claim 1

In a rotary screen-printing machine having a machine frame and a printing blanket defining a printing thrust plane and traveling in a longitudinal direction of travel to support the material to be printed, improved means for mounting the rotary cylindrical screen assemblies in a counterbalanced manner, including a. a rotary screen support-frame disposed to support a rotary cylindrical screen of a screen assembly with the axis transversely normal to the machine frame and to the longitudinal travel direction of the blanket; b. a rotary screen assembly mounted on said screen support-frame which assembly comprises: 1. a rotary printing screen; 2. screen holders mounted on said frame with means for rotatably supporting said screen; 3. means cooperable with said machine frame adaptable to permit movement of said rotary screen assembly transversely to said thrust plane; and c. counterbalancing means operatively connecting said screen assembly and said machine frame for counterbalancing the weight thereof, said counterbalancing means including: 1. complemental coacting means on said screen-supported frame and on said machine frame to facilitate relative movement of said screen and its frame toward and away from said thrust plane; 2. guide rollers provided on said machine frame at opposite sides adjacent the complemental means on said machine frame; and 3. cables, loaded with compensating weights at one cable end, being slidably guided over said machine-frame supported rollers to be acted upon by gravity and having the other respective cable ends connected to said screen assembly which by its mounting means tends to normally gravitationally move toward the thrust plane, and is counterbalanced by said weights of the counterbalancing means.