Ink fountain trough with seals for fountain roller

Claim 1

An ink fountain assembly including an ink fountain roller rotatable about an axis and an inking trough positionable adjacent the roller for supplying ink to the roller, the combination comprising a support mounted on the frame for receiving the trough, said trough including a blade and a pair of sidewalls with seals for intimately engaging opposite ends of the roller to prevent ink leakage, said blade, sidewalls, and seals joined together to define an ink well adjacent the fountain roller each of said sidewall seals including an edge portion disposed generally transversely to the axis of the roller and a peripheral portion disposed generally parallel to the axis of the roller, said seal peripheral portion extending inwardly from said edge portion and being inclined with respect to said edge portion toward the roller surface and having an arcuate shape with distal ends thereof of a slightly smaller radius than that of the ink fountain roller periphery to make a leak-free engagement with the ink fountain roller, said support including a base for supporting the trough adjacent the fountain roller and at a predetermined angle with respect to a horizontal plane through the fountain roller axis , a lock for releasably receiving a complementarily formed trough portion once the latter is positioned, and selectively operable means for adjusting the gap between an edge of said blade and the fountain roller to control ink feed to the latter.