Duplicator program control assembly

Claim 2

In an offset duplicating machine having at least one rotatable cylinder for receiving a master-printing sheet; a sheet-holding assembly mounted upon said cylinder to selectively grip said master-printing printing sheet; a support for carrying a stack of at least two master-printing sheets and having associated therewith a master-sheet-forwarding assembly for advancing a first master-printing sheet from said stack; a master-loading assembly including sheet-feeding means mounted upon said duplicating machine between said stack support and said rotatable cylinder adapted to receive said first sheet and load the latter into said sheet-holding assembly, a sensor positioned to respond to said master-printing sheet being advanced to said loading assembly; and a programming unit comprising: a. means responsive to said sensor and operating to disable said master-sheet-forwarding assembly upon said sheet being advanced into said loading assembly; b. means for actuating said master-loading assembly to load said first master-printing sheet into said holding assembly; c. means operative with actuation of said master-loading assembly actuating means for actuating said sheet-holding assembly to a position to receive said master and then to a position to hold said master; d. means for actuating said forwarding assembly subsequent to said master-loading assembly being actuated and effective to advance a second master-printing sheet from said stack into said loading assembly; and e. sheet-sensing means for sensing the presence of a masterprinting sheet in said master-loading assembly, said sheetsensing means operative to disable said master-forwarding and loading assemblies, respectively, upon failure to sense a master-printing - OR + printing sheet.

Claim 3

In a duplicating machine having at least one rotatable cylinder for receiving a master-printing sheet; a sheet-holding assembly mounted upon said rotatable cylinder to selectively grip said master-printing sheet; a master-forwarding assembly for receiving and forwarding a master-printing sheet to said rotatable cylinder and a motor-driven etch unit having an etch applicator mounted for movement into contact with said master cylinder; a program control unit comprising: a. sequencing control means operative to count cylinder rotation; b. sheet-sensing means for sensing the presence of a master-printing sheet in said master-forwarding assembly, said sheet-sensing means operating to prevent machine operation upon failure to sense a master-printing sheet in said master-forwarding assembly; c. forwarding control means connected to activate said sheet-forwarding assembly to cause forwarding of the master-printing sheet to said cylinder; d. clamp control means connected to selectively open said sheet-holding assembly and subsequently close said holding assembly; and e. etch control means for moving said etch applicator into contact with said master cylinder, said forwarding control means, clamp control means and etch control means being simultaneously activated by said sequencing control means upon the registration thereof of a predetermined cycle count.

Claim 4

In a duplicating machine having at least one rotatable cylinder for receiving a master-printing sheet; a sheet-holding assembly mounted upon said rotatable cylinder to selectively grip said master-printing sheet; a master-forwarding assembly for receiving and forwarding a master-printing sheet to said rotatable cylinder and a motor-driven etch unit having an etch applicator mounted for movement into contact with said master cylinder; a program control unit comprising: a. sequencing control means operative to count cylinder rotation; b. sheet-sensing means for sensing the presence of a master-printing sheet in said master-forwarding assembly, said sheet-sensing means operating to prevent machine operation upon failure to sense a master-printing sheet in said master-forwarding assembly; c. forwarding control means connected to activate said sheet-forwarding assembly to cause forwarding of the master-printing sheet to said cylinder; d. clamp control means connected to selectively open said sheet-holding assembly and subsequently close said holding assembly; and e. etch control means for moving said etch applicator into contact with said master cylinder, said forwarding control means, clamp control means and etch control means being simultaneously activated by said sequencing control means upon the registration thereof of a predetermined cycle count.

Claim 5

The combination of claim 2 wherein said program control unit includes a postpreparation counter having another sensing means responsive to said sheet-sensing means indicating presence of a master-printing sheet to activate air switches adapted to initate air drying of said blanket cylinder to continue during a succeeding cycle of operation of said sequencing control.

Claim 6

In a duplicating machine having a rotatable master cylinder for receiving a master-printing sheet from a support for carrying at least two sheets, preduplicating means for operation during a preduplicating phase of the operative cycle of the machine to prepare the machine for a subsequent duplicating phase including a master-printing-sheet-forwarding assembly, a master-printing-sheet-loading assembly and a cylinder carried printing-sheet-holding assembly, duplicating means including a rotatable blanket cylinder for operation during the duplicating phase, said blanket cylinder being adapted to contact said master cylinder to produce an image from said master-printing sheet upon individual copy sheets passing through said machine and postduplicating means for operation during a postduplicating phase to prepare said machine for a subsequent preduplicating phase, a program control unit comprising: a. sequencing control means responsive to both, cycles of cylinder rotation during said preduplicating phase, and to the number of copy sheets passing through said duplicating machine during the subsequent duplicating phase; b. preduplicating control means responsive to the cycle count of said sequencing control means to initiate operation of said master-forwarding assembly to advance said master-printing sheet into said master-loading assembly, initiate operation of said master-loading assembly to load said master-printing sheet into said printing-sheet-holding assembly, and operation of the latter to first receive and then hold said master-printing sheet, said preduplicating control means including sheet-count-activating means operated by said sequencing control means at the end of the preduplicating phase to cause said sequencing control means to count the number of copy sheets passing through the duplicating machine; c. duplicating control means responsive to the sheet count of said sequencing control means to control said duplicating means; and d. a master sheet sensor associated with said preduplicating control means for disabling said preduplicating means of the machine upon failure to sense the presence of a master-printing sheet.

Claim 7

In a duplicating machine having a rotatable master cylinder for receiving a master-printing sheet from a support for carrying at least two sheets, preduplicating means for operation during a preduplicating phase of the operative cycle of the machine to prepare the machine for a subsequent duplicating phase including a master-printing-sheet-forwarding assembly, a master-printing-sheet-loading assembly and a cylinder carried printing-sheet-holding assembly, duplicating means including a rotatable blanket cylinder for operation during the duplicating phase, said blanket cylinder being adapted to contact said master cylinder to produce an image from said master-printing sheet upon individual copy sheets passing through said machine and postduplicating means for operation during a postduplicating phase to prepare said machine for a subsequent preduplicating phase, a program control unit comprising: a. sequencing control means responsive to both, cycles of cylinder rotation during said preduplicating phase, and to the number of copy sheets passing through said duplicating machine during the subsequent duplicating phase; b. preduplicating control means responsive to the cycle count of said sequencing control means to initiate operation of said master-forwarding assembly to advance said master-printing sheet into said master-loading assembly, initiate operation of said master-loading assembly to load said master-printing sheet into said printing-sheet-holding assembly, and operation of the latter to first receive and then hold said master-printing sheet, said preduplicating control means including sheet-count-activating means operated by said sequencing control means at the end of the preduplicating phase to cause said sequencing control means to count the number of copy sheets passing through the duplicating machine; c. duplicating control means responsive to the sheet count of said sequencing control means to control said duplicating means; and d. a master sheet sensor associated with said preduplicating control means for disabling said preduplicating means of the machine upon failure to sense the presence of a master-printing sheet.

Claim 8

The combination of claim 4 wherein said program control unit duplicating control means includes rundown activator means operative in response to a predetermined sheet count by said sequencing control means before the termination of copy sheets being fed through said machine, rundown activator means being operative to cause said duplicating means to terminate contact between said master and blanket cylinders.

Claim 9

The combination of claim 4, said program control unit additionally comprising: d. post-duplicating control means responsive to a cycle count registered by said sequencing control means during the postduplicating phase, said postduplicating control means operating to control the postduplicating means, said duplicating control means operating upon the registration by said sequencing control means of a predetermined sheet count to terminate said duplicating phase and cause the sequencing control means to subsequently register cycles of cylinder rotation.

Claim 10

The combination of claim 6, said program control unit additionally comprising: e1. Sensing means operated by said sequencing control means at the end of said postduplicating phase to sense the presence or absence of a master-printing sheet in said master-loading assembly, said sensing means operating upon sensing a master-printing sheet to cause said sequencing control means to initiate a subsequent preduplicating cycle count.

Claim 11

The combination of claim 6 wherein said program control unit sequencing control means includes a preparation counter responsive to cylinder rotation during the preduplicating phase and a postpreparation counter operative to count copy sheets during said duplicating phase, said postpreparation counter being caused to count cycles of cylinder rotation during said Postduplicating phase.

Claim 12

The combination of claim 8, said program control unit additionally comprising: e2. a switch operable to selectively deactivate said postpreparation counter during the duplicating phase; and f. an auxiliary counter assembly operable upon deactivation of said postpreparation counter, said auxiliary counter assembly including counter means to register the number of copy sheets passing through said duplicating machine and counter activated control means operable by said counter means at a predetermined sheet count to reactivate said postpreparation counter for operation during the postduplicating phase.