US3774535A

US3774535A - System of and apparatus for printing business forms

Info

Publication number: US3774535A
Application number: US00133274A
Authority: US
Inventors: R Crissy
Original assignee: NJM Inc HOBOKEN
Current assignee: NJM Inc HOBOKEN
Priority date: 1971-04-12
Filing date: 1971-04-12
Publication date: 1973-11-27
Anticipated expiration: 1990-11-27
Also published as: DE2216942A1; JPS5143404B1; CH563242A5; DE2216942B2; GB1361508A; IT952495B; DE2216942C3; CA971032A; FR2136313A5

Abstract

In the practice of the system herein, there are prepared three image areas for printing two associated, but different business formats utilizing one photographic negative containing peculiar information common to both of the formats. A first image area is provided with information relating to one of the formats, a second image area is provided with information related to the other format, and the third image area prepared from the negative is provided with the peculiar information common to both formats. The printing apparatus contains a roll made of a continuous strip of inexpensive paper, and a stack support on which are alternately placed two stacks of sheets on which the two business forms are to be printed. Means are provided for separately feeding the sheets and portions of the continuous strip to the printing station. During the continuous printing operation one of the forms is initially printed using only the first and third image areas to provide composite impressions that are applied to one stack of sheets. When the feed of sheets from such one stack is stopped, the feed of the continuous strip is started, and the machine run for a number of cycles to clean the ink from the first image area and the information from such first image area on the blanket, and simultaneously to build up the proper degree of ink on the second image area, and the information from such second image area applied to the blanket, while continuing the inking of the third image area. The feed of the continuous strip is then stopped, and the feed of the second stack of sheets is started, so that they are provided with a composite impression of the second and third image areas. The photographic negative is then packaged with the completed order of sheets, so that when it is necessary to reorder the same, all that is need done is to forward the negative to the printer.

Description

United States Patent 1 Crissy [111 3,774,535 [451 Nov. 27, 1973 SYSTEM OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING BUSINESS FORMS [75] Inventor: Robert J. Crissy, West Caldwell,

[73] Assignee: NJM, Inc., Hoboken, NJ. [22] Filed: Apr. 12, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 133,274

[52] US. Cl 101/142, 101/232, 101/426 [51] Int. Cl. B65h 3/44 [58] Field of Search 101/232, 181, 184, 101/136, 137, 141,142, 426

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,149,028 2/1939 Meisel 101/181 2,782,712 2/1957 Claff et a1. 101/144 3,160,094 12/1964 Beam 101/181 3,461,798 8/1969 Bulk 101/184 3,512,479 5/1970 McHenry et a1. 101/232 3,635,159 1/1972 Keeler 101/232 Primary ExaminerEdgar S: Burr Atz0rneySylvester J. Liddy, John J. Hart, Joe E. Daniels and Charles E. Baxley [57] ABSTRACT In the practice of the system herein, there are prepared three image areas for printing two associated, but different business formats utilizing one photographic negative containing peculiar information common to both of the formats. A first image area is provided with information relating to one of the formats, a second image area is provided with information related to the other format, and the third image area prepared from the negative is provided with the peculiar information common to both formats. The printing apparatus contains a roll made of a continuous strip of inexpensive paper, and a stack support on which are alternately placed two stacks of sheets on which the two business forms are to be printed. Means are provided for separately feeding the sheets and portions of the continuous strip to the printing station. During the continuous printing operation one of the forms is initially printed using only the first and third image areas to provide composite impressions that are applied to one stack of sheets. When the feed of sheets from such one stack is stopped, the feed of the continuous strip is started, and the machine run for a number of cycles to clean the ink from the first image area and the information from such first image area on the blanket, and simultaneously to build up the proper degree of ink on the second image area, and the information from such second image area applied to the blanket, while continuing the inking of the third image area. The feed of the continuous strip is then stopped, and the feed of the 'second stack of sheets is started, so that they are provided with a composite impression of the second and third image areas. The photographic negative is then packaged with the completed order of sheets, so that when it is necessary to reorder the same, all that is need done is to forward the negative to the printer.

19 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures United States Patent n 1 nu 3,774,535

Crissy [45] Nov. 27, 1973 Pmmgunuvzv ms I 3.774.535 $511511 SF 4 JOHN J. DOE 55-1 24 OAK Sr 2' GLENCOVE, Nu- 07Zlo GLENCOVE OFFICE GLENCOVE NEW JERSEY HUEI'F' 'UQl L CIEEEI' IEEHUHH /6 /4 AZv A 1 I JOHN 9 og FIG. 2 217 i'Y-iflf SIEF FIG. 8

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INVENTOR. 45 ROBE/ET a, 62/55) BY Ali/L1 AM A T TOENE r SYSTEM OF AND APPARATUS FOR PRINTING BUSINESS FORMS THE INVENTION This invention relates to the printing of business forms which are matched for joint use, such as checks and deposit slips, or which may require the testing and checking of the quality of the print to be used on the manufacture thereof, as in the case of labels made on expensive stock.

The invention is especially advantageous in the printing of bank stationary and since in this field there are encountered most of the problems that occur in the printing of other types of business forms, the invention will be described by way of example, and not in a limiting sense, with relation to this field.

The business of manufacturing and supplying personalized and encoded bank checks and desposit slips entails many challenging production, security, communication and packaging problems. Virtually all bank check and deposit slip fonnats are presently lithographed on large sheets and then cut to smaller multiples of facilitate subsequent imprinting operations. While the practice is not followed to any great extent in connection with the printing of deposit slips, many banks offer their depositors a choice of at least six different check colors and a variety of different check format styles. In addition to printing bank check formats with conventional inks, banks are now required to provide on all checks a code of district and bank identification numbers to facilitate processing through the clearing houses. Many banks have extended such coding to include depositor account numbers on the checks in order to facilitate automatic sorting of the checks in the banks. In addition most banks also include the depositors name and address so as to facilitate manual sorting in the event of failures in the automatic sorting mechanisms. This practice has been extended in many cases to individualized deposit slip formats in order to facilitate their handling. It will be appreciated that since commercial bank stationers service a large number of banks, the use of such a wide variety of forms, styles, printing requirements, etc., has created a complicated and time consuming and costly system of handling orders for such forms and of checking the printed forms, and has confronted such stationers with enormous inventory problems. In addition to the high material handling costs which are necessarily involved in the working of such systems, the very complicated natures of such systems and the mechanisms that have been devised to process the ordering, printing, and delivery of such forms to the depositors, inherently make for error and delay. These disadvantages are compounded by the fact that due to the dissimilarity in the operations which are required in producing the check formats and the deposit slip formats, the orders therefore are frequently taken care of by different suppliers.

It is the primary purpose of the instant invention to provide an improved system and apparatus for ordering and printing business forms without the aforesaid complications and disadvantages. More specifically the invention contemplates the following objects:

1. The provision of a personalized check-deposit slip method of reordering check and deposit slip formats that is simple and readily understandable by bank and stationery employees and which will enable such formats to be produced quickly, economically and completely accurate.

2. The provision of an improved system for efficiently printing the different formats of a multiple business forms unit using one printing plate containing the items that are common to all of such formats and alternately using with such one printing plate other printing plates containing the items that are peculiar to each format.

3. The provision of an improved printing system which readily enables a testing of the printing qualities of a printing machine to be made on an inexpensive paper before applying the print to a product made of expensive stock.

4. The provision of an improved printing system which can be alternately used to print different formats in one press operation and which can be readily placed in condition to print such different formats without deterioration of the printing qualities.

5. The provision of an improved printing system which will automatically provide a record of the different items which have been printed in the practice of such system.

Other objects and advantages of the invention as well as the novel features thereof will appear from a perusal of the following description when read in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a plan view of a negative used as the reorder vehicle in the system of this invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a depositor identification printing plate prepared from the negative in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a plan view of a printing plate provided with the check format of a particular bank;

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a printing plate provided with the deposit slip format of a particular bank;

FIG. 5 is a side elevational view of an offset printing machine used in the practice of the invention;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational detail of the feed control for the continuous paper strip, such view being opposite to that of FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a top plan view showing the means for shifting the blanket cylinder to eliminate an item provided on the plate of FIG. 2 when printing deposit slips;

FIG. 8 is a partial plan view of a dry offset printing plate provided with a general check format; and

FIG. 9 is a partial sectional view of a plate cylinder constructed to utilize both dry and wet offset printing plates.

In accordance with the invention, a depositor at a particular branch bank will reorder his personalized checks and deposit slips by a photographic negative which has been supplied to him for that purpose. This negative contains in detail all of the depositor identification information needed to reproduce the checks and deposit slips that he reorders. Thus, as is shown in FIG. 1 of the drawings, the photographic negative 10 for reordering a particular depositors personalized checks and deposit slips will contain the name and address 11 of the parent banks particular branch at which the depositor does business, the depositors name and address 12, the branch bank and clearing house numbers 13, the depositors code number 14 and the bank and clearing house code number 15. The negative may also include any desired form of line illustrations, half-tone photographs of the particular depositor for security identification, etc., such as may be mutually desirable by the bank and the depositor on the reordered checks.

The negative can be readily produced from information furnished on a tape by the depositors bank. This transmittal tape may be fed into known linofilm or photo composing machines capable of producing accurate photographic positives. To the tape information there can be photographically added any signature, line drawing, photograph, etc., needed to create the permanent transport reorder negative 10 for each of a banks depositors. This negative will be returned to the depositor in a sealed envelope enclosed with his completed check and deposit slip order and will be transported back and forth with each reorder.

When a depositor sends a reorder vehicle 10 to his branch bank for purposes of reordering, the branch bank collects the vehicles sent in by a number of depositors and sends them in bulk to a stationer. The stationer will sort and combine all of the reorders from all of the branches of a particular parent bank into one large group. This large group is then separated into groups of check styles and check colors. From a like group of photographic reorder vehicles for a particular banks check format and color, the vehicles of six depositors are selected and successively mounted on a pin register board of known construction and in produced a lowcost pre-sensitized printing plate 16 in FIG. 2 carrying the name and address 11 of the particular branch bank, the depositors name and address 12, the branch bank and clearing house numbers 13, the magnetically detectable depositor account number 14, the magnetically detectable clearing house and bank number 15, and any other information of a nature peculiar to each of the six selected depositors A, B, C, D,E and F. The printing plate 16 thus created will be used to produce both the checks and the deposit slips for the six different depositors A, B, C, D, E and F.

A previously prepared wet or dry ofi'set plate 17 in FIG. 3 carrying, in sextuplicate, the particular parent banks check format 18 is then selected. For the sake of clearness there is indicated in dotted outline in the top format shown in FIG. 3, the locations in which the

items

11, 12, 13, 14 and on plate 16 will be printed with relation to the format 11 on the printed checks. There is also selected a previously prepared wet or dry offset plate in FIG. 4, carrying, in sextuplicate, the particular parent banks deposit slip format 21. As in FIG. 3, FIG. 4 also shows in dotted outline in the top format the lccations in which the

items

11, 12, 13 and 14 on plate 16 will be printed with relation to the format 21 on the printed deposit slips. It will be noted that the item 15 has been eliminated in a manner which will be hereinafter explained since the magnetically detectable clearing house and bank number is usually not included on deposit slips. These two

plates

17 and 20 will remain attached to the printing apparatus of this invention until all of the different depositors checks and deposit slips for that particular parent bank and for all of its branches have been completed. The plate 16, how ever, will be changed after the required number of checks and deposit slips for the depositors A, B, C, D, E and F have been printed, and a new plate 16 containing the information peculiar to six additional reordering depositors A, B, C, D, E and F ofthat particular parent bank substituted therefor. When all of that particular banks orders have been taken care of, the

plates

17 and 20 will be replaced by similar plates car rying the check and deposit slip formats of a different parent bank to produce the reordered items of its depositors.

The printing apparatus in which the three

printing plates

16, 17 and 20 are utilized to produce the reordered checks and deposit slips is shown in FIGS. 5-7 of the drawings. The plate cylinder 25 of such apparatus is of customary construction and formed to enable the ready securement thereto of the plate 16 carrying the names, addresses and identification code numbers of the bank and the six depositors A, B, C, D, E and F, the plate 17 carrying the check formats of the parent bank with the branch of which such six depositors do business, and the plate 20 carrying the deposit slip formats of such parent bank. It will be noted that the three

plates

16, 17 and 20 are provided with dampening

areas

16, 17' and 20 which are initially dampened by a dampening roller so that each roller for inking one of the plates will first contact the predampened area for such plate before rolling over the material to be printed in the image area thereof, whereby a mixture of ink and water are simultaneously applied to the images, or itmes to be printed by such plate. The three plates may be made of any suitable construction, and preferably are made of a thin, flexible material that can be readily applied to the plate cylinder. The plates are mounted on the cylinder 25 in the usual fashion with gaps between the ends thereof. Their lengths however, are such that except for such gaps the three plates cover the entire periphery of the cylinder which revolves through one revolution in each cycle of operation of the apparatus. It will further be noted that the image areas of the

plates

16, 17 and 20 are approximately of the same length, each being approximately one-sixth the circumferential dimension of the cylinder 25.

Associated with the cylinder 25 is a dampening unit 26 of known construction for applying the wetting solution i.e., water, to the dampening

areas

16, 17 and 20 of the plates. The inking units for applying the required inks to the image areas of the

plates

16, 17 and 20 are designated 27, 28 and 29, respectively. As is known, such inking units are controlled by earns 30, 30, 30, projecting from the periphery of the cylinder 25. These cams 30 also control the applying roll of the dampening unit 26 so that it will move in to apply the wetting material to the dampening

areas

16, 17 and 20' in proper sequence as the cylinder rotates. The dampening unit 26 and the inking

units

27, 28 and 29 are each also provided with a release lever 31 which may be selectively, manually operated at will to withdraw the applying rolls of such units so that they will be inoperative to apply dampening liquid or ink to the plates.

Associated in tangential relation with the plate cylinder 25 is a blanket cylinder 35 having a circumferential dimension one third the circumferential dimension of the cylinder 25 so that it will rotate three revolutions to every one revolution of cylinder 25 in each cycle of operation of the apparatus. The cylinder 35 is provided with a blanket 36 having an active or working circumferential dimension equal to the circumferential length of the image area of each

plate

16, 17 and 20. Thus, there is provided a gap 37 between the ends of the working surface of the blanket 36 of a length approximating the circumferential dimensions of dampening areas 16', 17 and 20', or about one-half the circumferential dimension of the cylinder 35. It will thus be understood that during the three revolutions of the blanket cylinder 35 in each cycle of operation of the machine, the blanket 36 thereof will be successively engaged by the image areas of the

plates

16, 17 and 20. However, since for a given run, say 150 checks or deposit slips, there will be ink applied to only two of such image areas, namely the depositor identification plate 16, and either the check format plate 17, or the deposit slip format plate 20, there will be applied to such blanket 36 the inked images of only the two inked plates in each cycle of operation of the machine. Thus, during such run there will have been applied to the blanket 36 in each cycle all the images to provide a complete inked replica of the check or deposit slip which is to be transferred to the paper appropriate for such item. At the end of such run, if its is desired to produce a run of the other format, the other format plate is inked, while the previously run format plate is no longer supplied with ink. However, ink will continue to be supplied to the depositor identification plate 16 to provide a complete replica of the other format in each cycle of the machine.

The blanket cylinder is tangentially arranged with a hollow impression cylinder 40 having aligned shaft members 41 projecting outwardly from the two end walls 42 thereof and rotatably supported by bearings provided in the spaced the 43 of 25, machine. Bridging the peripheries of the two end cylinder walls 42 with 25,35 in mesh is an arcuately-shaped impression plate 44 forming a transverse peripheral portion of the cylinder 40 that will come into biting contact with the blanket 36 on cylinder 35 during each revolution of the cylinder 40. Like the plate cylinder 25, the impression cylinder 40 rotates through one revolution in each machine cycle so that the impression plate 44 thereof will cooperate 2ith the blanket 36 to transfer the images provided on the latter in every third revolution of the blanket cylinder 35. The

cylinders

25,35 and 40 are driven by a continuously rotating motor 45 connected by a belt 46 to a pulley wheel 47 secured to a shaft 48. Mounted on shaft 48 is a gear 49 whose teeth are in mesh with the teeth of a gear 50 mounted on one of the shaft members 41 provided on an end wall 42 of the cylinder 40. The gear 50 is in mesh with the gear 51 which is associated with the blanket cylinder 35 and which is in turn meshed with a gear 52 mounted on the shaft 53 of the plate cylinder 25. Thus, the

cylinders

25, 35 and 40 are connected to be continuously driven by the motor 45.

The blanket cylinder 35 is mounted to enable it to be translated away from its cooperative relation with the

cylinders

25 and 40 without disconnecting the train of gearing connecting the three cylinders together. This is accomplished by mounting the blanket cylinder shaft 55 on one arm of two bell crank levers 56,56 which are mounted for pivotal movement about the axes of

shafts

57,57 provided on

casing walls

54,54 in FIG. 7. The other arms of the bell crank levers are connected to the stem of a pivotally mounted air piston 58 controlled by a solenoid-operated air valve 59 which is suitably connected to a source of air and electricity and which is actuatable by a manual switch 60. When the switch 60 is operated to withdraw the blanket cylinder 35, the latter will be moved to a position which is not sufficient to break the train of gearing connecting the three cylinders to the motor 45, but which renders the blanket cylinder inoperative to cooperate with the impression plate 44 of cylinder 49 to perform a printing operation. As previously indicated, this operation will normally occur after the blanket cylinder 35 completes the third revolution of one cycle and is starting on the first revolution of its next cycle of operation.

Associated with the impression cylinder 40 is a sheet feeder of known construction, such as the type of feeder now used in a Davidson Duplicator, the Addressograph Duplicator, and the AB. Dick Duplicator. This sheet feeder is attached to the casing of which the side walls 43 form a part, by a bracket member 65 and is driven from the motor 45 through a sprocket 66 secured to shaft 48, a chain 67 and a sprocket 68 secured to the driven shaft 69 of the feeder. There is thus provided a speed relationship between the sheet feeder and the printing apparatus which enables them to function in cooperative relation. The sheet feeder is provided with supporting means 70 constructed to hold a stack 71 of sheets S constituted of either check safety paper or deposit slip paper in predetermined quantity. Associated with the stack holding means 70 is a vacuum sheet feeder 72 suitably connected to a vacuum pump 73. The sheet feeder 72 is mounted for pivotal movement about the axis of a shaft 75 and is actuated to lift one sheet S of paper from the stack 71 and insert it between a pair of feed rolls 76 in each cycle of operation of the machine. This is accomplished by means of a link 77 which connects the vacuum lifter 72 to a bellcrank lever 78 mounted for pivotal movement about the axis of a shaft 79. Another arm of lever 78 is provided with a cam roller 80 that engages the periphery of a cam 81 mounted on the shaft 69. The cam 81 is designed to cause the shaft lifter 72 to feed one sheet to the feed rolls 76 during each rotational movement of the cylinder 40. The sheet feed may be stopped by actuating a valve 74 to disconnect the valve from the pick-up head of the sheet feeder. The lower feed roll 76 which is connected in driven relation to shaft 69 by a drive belt 82, supports one end of a horizontally disposed carrier belt 83 which is supported at its other end by an idler roller 84 rotatably mounted on the outer ends of a supporting bracket 85.

Associated with the outer end of the bracket 85 are a pair of spaced grippers 86 mounted for pivotal movement about the axis of a shaft 87 to which is secured an arm 88 that is connected by a link 89 to a third arm of the bellcrank lever 78. It will thus be understood that when lever 78 is actuated by cam 81, in addition to causing the sheet lifter 72 to feed a sheet from the stack 71, it will through link 89, arm 88 and shaft 87 pivot the spaced grippers 86 to bring the heads thereof adjacent to the associated end of the belt 83. The heads of the grippers 86 have movable jaws 90 which are normally spring closed, but which when the grippers are swung down toward belt 86, have ears that come into engagement with projections 91 provided on the outer end of the bracket 85 and cause such jaws to open against the tension of their associated springs. At the end of the downward movement of the grippers 86, the open jaws 90 thereof form stops for a sheet that has been inserted between the feed rolls 76 and fed forwardly by the belt 83. Each sheet stopped by the spaced open jaws 90 will straighten out under the continued forward motion of the belt 83 and will become correctly aligned with the segment plate 44 on cylinder 40 before it is further advanced by the grippers 86. The cam 81 is constructed to cause the grippers 86 to swing upwardly away from the associated end of the belt 83 as the lead edge of the clockwise moving segment plate 44 moves past such end of the belt 83. The timing of cam 81 is such that as the grippers 86 move away from the projections 91 so that the gripper jaws 90 are enabled to close and grip the leading edge of the sheet stopped by such grippers, the lead edge of the segment plate 44 will be slightly in advance of such projections 91.

It will be noted in FIG. that there is associated with the lead edge of the segment plate 44 a pair of spaced sheet grippers 95 mounted for pivotal movement about the axis of a shaft 96 mounted on one of the end walls 42 of the cylinder 40. The heads of the grippers 95 are normally maintained in sheet gripping relation with the lead edge of plate 44 by a spring 97 connected at one end to an arm 98 secured to the shaft 96 and located on the outer side of such end wall 42, and connected at its other end to the outer surface of such end wall. The inner end 99 of the spring tensioned gripper arm 98 is engageable by the high points of a stationary cam 100 mounted on one of the side frame walls 43. One of these cam high points designated 101 is located adjacent to the inner end of the belt 83 so that as the lead edge of segment plate 44 moves past that belt end the jaws of the grippers 95 will be withdrawn from the plate 44. The velocity of the grippers 86 as they withdraw from such end of the belt 83 is greater than that of the cylinder so that as the closed grippers 86 draw a sheet S from the belt 83 they will bring the leading edge thereof into engagement with the retracted grippers 95. Soon after that occurs the cam 100 will permit the grippers to advance to lock the leading edge of the sheet against the lead edge of the plate 44 as is shown in FIG. 5, and a leaf spring 102 will engage a second projection on the jaws 90 of the grippers 86 to release the grip of such jaws on the leading edge of the sheet. The sheet is thus drawn from the belt 83 by the grippers 86 and transferred to the impression plate 44, to the leading edge of which it is locked by the heads of the grippers 95. The sheet will remain so locked in position on the impression plate 44 as it passes under the blanket cylinder 35 and the blanket 36 thereof transfers its images thereto as is shown in FIG. 5.

As the impression cylinder 40 and the sheet locked to the impression plate thereof continue to rotate, the inner end 99 of the gripper arm 98 comes into engagement with a second high point 103 on the stationary cam to cause the grippers 95 to be withdrawn to release their grips on the sheet. When this occurs, the lead edge of the impression plate 44 will have arrived at a transfer station T where the grippers 95 transfer the sheet gripped thereby to a pair of spaced grippers 105 which at such station will be moving in an arc tangent to the arc of travel of the locked lead edge of the sheet. The grippers 105 are mounted for pivotal movement about the axis of a shaft 106 mounted on an endless delivery chain 107. One end of the chain 107 is carried by a sprocket wheel 108 mounted on a shaft 109 rotatably supported by the frame 43, and the other end of such chain is carried by a sprocket wheel 110 mounted on a shaft 111 rotatably supported by a bracket 112 secured to the machine frame. The chain is driven at the rate of one revolution per machine cycle but at a velocity slower than that of the cylinder 40, so that at the transfer station the velocity of the chain grippers 105 is less than that of the impression cylinder grippers 95. The chain is driven by a gear 115 mounted on the shaft 109 and meshing with the driven gear 50 associated with the impression cylinder 40.

Also mounted on shaft 109 is a gripper opening cam 116 whose peripheral cam surface coacts with a cam member 117 provided on the outer end of an arm 118 mounted on the gripper shaft 106 to retract the gripping jaws of the grippers 105 from an associated chain link 119 while the sheet is being transferred thereto at the transfer station T. It will thus be understood that as the chain 107 moves the grippers 105 in a counterclockwise direction toward the transfer station, such grippers will be pivoted away from the chain link 119 so that their jaws will be in the path of movement of the sheet which is being advanced by the grippers 95 at a greater velocity than that of the grippers 105. At the time that the lead edge of the sheet comes into abutting relation with the jaws of the grippers 105, the cam 116 will cause them to abruptly close upon the sheet and simultaneously the cam point 103 will withdraw the grippers 95 to release their grip on the sheet. The sheet will thus be transferred from the impression cylinder 40 to the chain 107 which will carry it over a container 120 suitably supported on a bracket 121 attached to the frame of the machine. As the grippers 105 with the clamped sheet move over the container 120, a cam 122 mounted on the chain shaft 111 will cooperate with the cam element 117 associated with such grippers to withdraw the same from the link 119, thereby releasing the sheet which drops into the container.

Just prior to the transfer of a sheet S of check paper from the cylinder 40 to the delivery chain 107, each of the six checks printed thereon have applied thereto a similar number in a given series thereof by a consecutive numbering attachment 125 mounted on a shaft 126 rotatably supported by one of the frame walls 43. The shaft 126 is rotated through three revolutions for each cycle of operation of the machine by a gear 127 secured to such shaft and meshing with the teeth of the impression cylinder gear 50. The shaft 127 has associated therewith a manually operable release lever 128 for withdrawing the numbering attachment 125 sufficiently to render it inoperative to print and to advance the numbering mechanism thereof, without wholly disengaging the teeth of the gear 127 from the teeth of the cylinder gear 50.

Located within the impression cylinder 40 is a supply roll 130 of inexpensive, unprinted test paper W that is mounted on a shaft 131 supported at its ends by the end walls 42 of the cylinder. Shaft 131, as is customary in the art, is an idler shaft equipped with a friction disk acting as a braking device to stop the roll 130 from unwinding as soon as the means for drawing the paper strip therefrom stops its drawing action. The paper web or strip W is drawn from the supply roll 130 by the coaction of a pair of feed rolls 132 and 133, the strip passing from the supply roll around an idler roll 134 before being engaged by such feed rolls. Feed roll 132 is a pivotaJly mounted, spring pressed idler roll of a known construction. The feed roll 133 is intermittently driven in those periods in which the sheets S are not fed from the stack 71 to the impression cylinder 40. The intermittent drive of feed roll 133 is such that the paper strip from roll 130 will be stationary relative to the segment 44 of cylinder 40 during the transfer thereto of any images on the blanket 36 of cylinder 35. As previously indicated this will occur once for every revolution of the impression cylinder 40 and although such relationship will exist with respect to the segment 44, the paper strip will be moving relative to the blanket 36 during such image transfer. When the transfer of the images from the blanket 36 to the paper strip has been completed, the paper strip, during such intermittent drive of feed roll 133, is advanced to place a new portion of the strip on the impression segment 44 ready for the next succeeding transfer of any images to such strip in the next revolution of the cylinder 40.

The means controlling the intermittent drive of the feed roll 133 comprises a bell crank lever 140 in FIG. 6 which is pivotally mounted on a pin 141 secured to the side frame of the machine. One arm 142 of the bell crank is also adjustably normally secured to the side frame by a manually operatable bolt 143 extending through an arcuate slot 144 in arm 142 and in threaded engagement with such side frame. A handle 145 is provided on arm 142 by which it may be manually adjusted about the axis of pin 141 when the bolt 143 is operated to release such arm. The extent of adjustment of the arm 142 may be readily determined by viewing the position of a pointer 146 on such arm relative to a scale 147 secured to the machine frame. Such adjustment of arm 142 determines the amount of feed of the paper strip from the roll 130 as will hereinafter become more clear.

The other arm 150 of the bell crank lever 140 is provided on its outer, upper end with a bearing hub 151 which encircles the shaft 41 of the impression cylinder 40. The bell crank arm is so constructed that when the pointer 146 is at the zero setting on the scale 147, the axial center of hub 151 will coincide with the axis of shaft 41. When this condition exists there will be no feed of the paper strip from the supply roll 130. When arm 142 is adjusted as aforesaid, the degree of eccentricity of the center of hub with relation to the axis of shaft 141 will determine the length of the portion of the paper strip that will be fed from the supply roll 130 during each cycle of movement of the impression cylinder 40.

Mounted on the hub 151 of the lever 140 is a ring bearing 152 which revolvably supports for free rotational movement about the hub axis, an arm 153 pivotally connected at its outer end to one end of a link 154 secured at its other end to the shaft 155 of an indexing clutch 156. The clutch 156 is of the over-running type so that it will drive in one direction only, i.e., in the direction of the arrow shown in FIG. 6 of the drawings. The clutch shaft 155 extends through the impression cylinder gear 50 and is rotatably supported by bearings provided in the gear 50 and in the adjoining end wall 42 of the cylinder 40. As a result of this arrangement, shaft 155 which is in spaced parallelism with the cylinder shaft 41, will have a fixed circulatory orbit about the latter, as the gear 50 and cylinder 40 continuously rotate about shaft 41. If during such orbiting movement of shaft 155, the axes of shaft 41 and hub 151 are concentric, link 154 will drag arm 153 about such coincidental axes without change in the relation of such link to such axes. As previously indicated, this condition exists when the pointer 146 registers zero on the scale 147 and there is no paper feed. When however, the bell crank lever 140 has been adjusted to a reading other than zero on the scale 147, as is shown in FIG. 6, so that the hub 151 is eccentric with respect to the axis of shaft 41, the link 154 will be given during such translatory movement of shaft 155, an oscillating motion of a modified harmonic nature about the axis of shaft 155, as indicated by the double-headed arrow 157 in FIG. 6.

Such oscillatory motion of link 154 will cause the shaft 155 to which it is affixed to have a corresponding rotational motion during its translatory movement about shaft 41 and causing the clutch 156 during each half cycle that the link 154 is moving toward the axis of shaft 41 to have a drive movement. The 'clutch will transmit this driving movement through gearing 158 to the feed roll 133 to cause a length of the paper strip corresponding to the adjustment of the lever 140 to be drawn from the supply roll 130.

The paper strip advanced by the feed rolls 132,133 passes around an idler roller 161 mounted on the shaft 96 for the grippers and then through a slot 162 in the lead edge of the impression segment 44 so as not to interfere with the operations of the grippers 95. The paper strip moves from the slot 162 over the impression segment 44 and is taken up by a rewind roll 160 mounted on a shaft 163 supported at its ends by the end walls of the cylinder 40. Mounted on shaft 163 is a sprocket 164 connected by a chain 165 to a drive sprocket 166 mounted on the clutch shaft 155. Since the rewind roll 160 must take up the paper strip at a rate as fast as it is fed out by the feed rolls 132,133, the rewind sprocket ratio is selected to drive the rewind faster than is necessary. A slipping clutch is interposed between the rewind roll 160 and its drive in a manner known to the art so that such roll will accept only the amount of web W that is fed out by the rolls 132,133.

It will be understood from the foregoing that the paper strip W from the supply roll is constituted of an inexpensive paper such as newsprint and is utilized in accordance with the invention as a means for testing the printing quality of the apparatus prior to the printing of the check or deposit slip sheets, as a means for cleaning the printing plates and the blanket, and as a means for making a record of the accounts which have been run on the machine. After the supply roll 130 of test and recording paper is loaded in the impression cylinder 40, the bell crank lever is adjusted with relation to the scale 147 so that the feed rolls 132,133 will feed a given length of the paper strip W in each cycle of the machine during the intervals when the impression segment of the continuously rotating cylinder 40 is not in coactive printing relation with the blanket cylinder 35. The feed of the paper strip W may be selected so that the fed lengths thereof will be at least as great as the length of the impression cylinder so that while the paper strip feed is in operation there will be provided on the segment 44 a new length of paper each time such segment comes into cooperative relation with the blanket cylinder in the cycling operations of the apparatus. It will of course, be understood that the adjustment may be such that lengths of the paper strip greater or less than the length of the segment 44 may be advanced to the segment 44 during such operations. Prior to the use of the apparatus for printing checks, the number attachment 125 is set to provide on the check sheets S being printed the desired sequence of numbers.

Assuming now that it is desired to print checks and deposit slips for the six particular depositors set up on the check imprint plate 16, such plate and the check format plate 17 and the deposit slip format plate 20 for the parent bank at which such depositors have accounts may be set up on the plate cylinder 25 in the manner indicated in FIG. 5 of the drawings. Assuming that the checks are to be printed first, a stack 71 of sheets of check safety paper of the prescribed color will be deposited on the stack support 70. The valve 74 associated with such stack however, would be kept closed so that the sheet feeder 72 could not operate to remove sheets from the stack 71. The release levers 31 for the dampening unit 26 and the inking

units

27 and 28 may then be released to enable the dampening unit 26 to wet the plate portions 16, 17' and 20', and the inking

units

28 and 27 to ink the check format image area of the plate 18, and the depositor identification image area of the plate 16, respectively. The ink in fountain 27 will vary from that in fountain 28 in that it is magnetically detectable ink while that of fountain 28 is a suitable non-magnetic printing ink. This difference also exists with respect to the ink in the fountain 29. The release lever 31 for the inking unit 29 for the deposit slip plate 20 will be maintained latched so that such unit is retained in an inoperative condition. The release lever 128 will also be left in a position in which the numbering attachment 125 is rendered inoperative.

The machine is placed in operation by starting the motor 45. As the

cylinders

25,35 and 40 start their cycling movements, the check format images and the depositor identification images are impressed by the

plates

17 and 16, respectively, upon the blanket 36 of the blanket cylinder 35, and transferred from such blanket 36 to the strip of paper being intermittently advanced over the impression segment 44 from the supply roll 130 thereof. The operator will observe the quality of the printed material that is being applied to the paper strip and when he is of the opinion that the machine is providing the proper machine of printed material, he operates valve 74 to start the feed of the check sheets from the stack 71, adjusts the position of the bell crank lever 140 to zero position on the scale 147 to render the strip feeding means inoperative to feed the paper strip, and actuates the release lever 128 to enable the consecutive numbering head 125 to print. As previously indicated the sheets from the stack 71 are each wide enough to have applied thereto the six complete check format images that are provided on the blanket 36 in each cycle of the machine. When the desired number of checks have been printed the sheet feed is stopped by actuation of the valve 74 to disconnect the vacuum from the pick-up head of the lifter 72. It is estimated that the machine will print approximately 150 complete check formats in about 1 minutes. The release lever 128 is also actuated to render the consecutive number head inoperative to print. Simultaneously also the crank lever 140 is adjusted to start the feed of the paper strip from the supply roll 130, the ink unit 28 is latched back from contact with the image area of the plate 17, and the release lever 31 associated with ink fountain 29 is released to enable such fountain to apply ink to the image area of the plate 20. As the machine continues to operate the paper strip W will be removing the images that are being applied to the blanket 36 during these operations. This will have the effect of removing the ink from the image area of the plate 17 and building up the printing impression obtained from the image area of the deposit plate 20. The impression provided on the blanket 36 by the image area of the identification plate 16 will, of course, remain of constant intensity since no change has been made with respect to its associated inking unit 27. Thus, in a relatively few revolutions, the check format plate 17 will be cleaned, the quality of printing by the plate 20 for the check deposit slips will have been built up to a proper level, and a record will have been provided on the paper strip W of both the checks that were printed and the deposit slips to be printed.

During the aforesaid preparation for printing the deposit slips, the blanket cylinder 35 is rendered inoperative to pick up the magnetically detectable bank and clearing house code number 15 provided on the identification plate 16, since deposit slips usually do not have such code number (not FIG. 4). The manner in which this is accomplished is illustrated in FIG. 7 of the drawing which shows in association with the blanket cylinder 35 a printed deposit slip sheet. It will be noted that the blanket cylinder 35 is mounted for limited slidable movement on its shaft 55 through a locking pin 171 which is detachably connected to one end hub 170 of the cylinder and the inner end of which is received in a longitudinally extending slot 172 of limited length provided in the shaft 55. The other end hub 173 is provided with a circular slot which is engaged by the forked end 174 of an arm 175 adjustably secured to the inner end of a shifter rod 176 that is slidably supported on and extends through the associated casing wall 54. A hand grip 177 is provided on the outer end of the rod 176. It will be understood that as the parts are shown in FIG. 7 of the drawings, the blanket cylinder 35 is positioned at one end of its predetermined range of movement relative to the shaft 55. The blanket cylinder 35 can be shifted to the other end of its predetermined range of movement relative to the shaft 55 by grasping the hand grip 177 and pulling outwardly to shift the rod 176 and consequently the forked arm 175, the cylinder hub 173 and the cylinder outwardly. The blanket 36 is provided with a series of six cut-outs 178 which, when the cylinder 35 is positioned relative to its shaft 55 as shown in FIG. 7 of the drawings, will exactly register with the six code numbers 15 provided on the identification plate 16. Consequently, the inked code numbers 15 will not be transferred to the blanket 36, or printed on deposit slip sheets. The associated printed deposit slip sheet shows in dotted outline where the code number 15 would have been printed thereon if the blanket cylinder 35 had not been positioned to eliminate the same. When printing checks however, the blanket cylinder will be shifted to the other end of its range of movement, in position to receive all of the

items

11, 12, 13, 14 and 15 on the printing plate 16. It will also be understood that by providing the blanket 36 with the proper cutouts, any other of the items of information which are provided on either of the

plates

16, 17 or 20 can be eliminated from the printed checks or deposit slips in the manner described with respect to the code number 15.

Also, as the aforesaid preparation for printing the deposit slips is being accomplished, the check sheet stack may be replaced by a stack of sheets S of deposit slip paper. Since there are no sequential numbers to be applied to the deposit slips the numbering attachment is maintained inoperative. When good quality printing for the deposit slips is observed on the paper strip W, the valve 74 is actuated to initiate the feed of the deposit slip sheets S, and the bell crank lever is adjusted to zero position on the scale 147 to stop the feed of the paper strip. These conditions are maintained until the desired number of deposit slips have been printed. When that has been accomplished, the valve 74 is actuated to stop the feed of the deposit slip sheets S, the dampening unit 26 and the

ink units

27 and 29 are latched back to prevent them from applying further dampening fluid and ink to the printing plates, and the bell crank lever 140 is actuated to start the feed of paper strip portions of the desired length. As the machine continues operating, the fed portions of the paper strip W will remove the ink from the printing plates and blanket and clear the press. This will be done relatively quickly and when it has been done the machine is stopped by stopping the motor 45. The identification plate 16 may then be changed if the same parent bank has an additional six depositors reordering the same check and deposit slip formats, or all the plates may be changed to take care of a new set of forms for the accounts in a different parent bank.

It will be observed from the foregoing that since all check and deposit slip formats and printing and encoding is accomplished from the same set of plates and delivered together into the receiving hopper 120 of the machine, there is virtually no chance for mix-ups of the checks and deposit slips made for one group of six depositors of a particular branch bank with the checks and/or deposit slips of other depositors doing business with other banks. This possibility is rendered more unlikely by having the operator remove the checks from the hopper while the machine is being readied for the printing of the deposit slips and binding them together, and then removing the printed deposit slips while the machine is being prepared for a new group of depositors. The bound check books and related deposit slips can then be cut simultaneously by a guillotine cutting operation. The completed bank check books and deposit slips for each depositor together with the photographic reorder transport negative are all then packaged together into a single package which is forwarded to such depositor.

It will be observed from the foregoing description of the system of this invention that it is readily adaptable to the testing on an inexpensive paper of the quality of printing that the press is accomplishing before it is employed in printing the final product on expensive paper. This is especially advantageous in connection with the printing of labels on expensive label stock. In employing the machine for this purpose, the plates required for printing the labels are set up on the plate cylinder 25 while the machine is in a wholly inoperative condition. Then depending on whether the labels are to be printed on expensive stock in sheet form, or in strip form, the various components are manipulated to effect the desired printing operation. If the labels are to be printed on paper sheets of expensive stock, the machine will be operated in the manner described with respect to the check and deposit slip forms. That is,the inking units associated with the plates are rendered operative, the machine started by actuating the motor 45, and the strip feed started by actuating the bell crank 140 to bring it to the proper position relative to the scale 147. When the machine provides acceptable printing on the inexpensive paper strip, the feed of the latteris stopped and the sheet feed started by actuating the valve 74. On the other hand, if the labels are to be printed on a continuous strip of expensive stock, the sheet stock 71 is filled with sheets of inexpensive paper and the order of operation of the sheet feed and strip feed reversed so that the initial preparatory testing is made on the inexpensive sheet stock before starting the feed of the roll of expensive paper stock.

The system herein disclosed may also be practiced using check and deposit slip format plates on which are provided only the general formats of a check and deposit slip, respectively, with no reference to the bank as in the check format plate 17 and the deposit slip format plate 20 hereinabove described. Thus, as is shown in FIG. 8 of the drawings, such a check format plate 19 may include a series of check formats bearing only the date, the customary form of order for payment of money, and a place for the payers signature. In the same manner, the deposit slip format plate would include only the general deposit slip form items shown in FIG. 4 of the drawings, and not the name of the bank as shown in such figure. These eliminated items would be included in the transport negative 10 and in the depositor identification plate 16. The advantage of this practice is that instead of employing wet offset plates to print the check and deposit slip formats, dry offset plates may be used for this purpose. Dry offset plates are much more lasting than wet offset plates and can be employed to print four or five million impressions. Thus, the dry offset plates may be left on the plate cylinder for a long period to print checks and deposit slips for the depositors of a number of unrelated banks.

The printing machine disclosed herein is readily adaptable to the use of both wet and dry offset plates on the same plate cylinder at the same time and without change in the operations previously described. Since wet offset plates are usually about 0.006 inch thick, whereas, a dry offset plate usually has a thickness of the order of 0.030 inch, it will be necessary to compensate for this difference in thickness of the two plates. This can be done either by providing a backing material under the wet plate when it is mounted on a plate cylinder having a diameter to suit the dry relief plate, or, as is shown in FIG. 9 of the drawings, by machining the surface of a plate cylinder having a diameter to suit the wet offset plate, to accommodate both the wet and dry offset plates. Also,as is shown in FIG. 9, the dampening roll lifting cam 30 in the regions of the relief plates should be extended to prevent the dampening roll coming into contact with the blank portion 19' of each of such relief plates (note also FIG. 8). It is also contemplated using for this purpose dampening cams having adjustable segments of the type shown in pending application Ser. No. 133,273 filed by Edwin K. Wolfi on Apr. 12, 1971 for Inking and Dampening Apparatus for Printing Press.

While there have been hereinabove described and illustrated in the drawings, preferred embodiments of the invention by way of example, it will be understood that it is intended to cover all forms thereof coming within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. The method of printing which comprises starting the application of ink to a plurality of image areas on a plate cylinder, making a composite impression of some of said image areas on a blanket cylinder located at a printing station in a single revolution of the plate cylinder and plural revolutions of said blanket in each printing cycle, and transferring such composite impressions to two types of paper, at least one of which is a continuous strip of paper, starting the feed of one of said types of paper from a first source to and past the printing station when the application of ink to the image areas is started and continuing such feed during a series of such printing cycles, and transferring the composite impression on the blanket to the paper by a single operation in each printing cycle, the feed of the paper and said transferring operations continuing until the impressions printed on the paper have been built up to printed impressions of acceptable quality, progressively collecting the printed paper for storage as it is being printed, and then without interrupting the application of ink to the image areas, the cyclic operation of the plate cylinder or blanket or the transfer of such composite impressions by the blanket, stopping the feed of the paper from the first source and starting the feed of the second type of paper from a second source separate from said first source and to and past the printing station, continuing the uninterrupted printing of the impressions on the paper from the second source and progressively collecting such printed paper as it is being printed until the desired quantity has been printed while maintaining inoperative the feed of paper from the first source, and then stopping the application of ink to the image areas and the feed of paper from the second source.

2. The method of printing which comprises applying ink to a plurality of image areas on a plate cylinder, making a composite impression of such image areas on a blanket located at a printing station in a single revolution of the plate cylinder in each printing cycle, feeding one type of paper from a first source to and past the printing station during a series of such printing cycles, and transferring the composite impression on the blanket to the paper by a single operation in each printing cycle, said transferring operations including initially making successive of such transfers in successive printing cycles for a short period and until the impressions printed on the paper have been built up to proper printed impressions, and then without interrupting the cyclic operation of the plate cylinder and blanket and the transfer of such composite impressions by the blanket, stopping the feed of the paper from the first source and starting the feed of a second type of paper from a second source separate from said first source and to and past the printing station, and continuing the printing of the impressions on the paper from the second source until the desired quantity has been printed while maintaining inoperative the feed of paper from the first source, one of such papers being in the form of a continuous strip that is cyclically translated and while so translated is fed intermittently to move a strip portion of given length in each printing cycle during the intervals between transference of the composite impressions to such strip portions of given length, and the other of such papers being in the form of sheets and are fed successively to such printing station along a first path of feed different from that of the strip and into overlapping relation to said strip portions of given length, each sheet and associated overlapped strip portion moving along a common path in stationary relation relative to each other, but both moving at the same linear velocity relative to the blanket, during their movement through the printing station and the transfer of an impression to such sheet, and the sheet after the transference of such impression being separated from its associated strip portion and continuing its movement along a second path differing from said first path and from the path of movement of such associated strip portion following such separation.

3. The method of printing defined in claim 2, in which a backing support is afforded each overlapping sheet and associated strip portion of given length as they are moving along such common path through the printing station, and such backing support is maintained for the sheet beyond the printing station, and then at a place beyond the printing station and while the sheets are still being backed up by the backing support, consecutively impressing successive numbers on backed up portions of such sheets.

4. The method of printing defined in claim 2, in which each sheet while moving along said first path and prior to its entry upon said common path, is adjusted to exact registry with relation to such common path and is then initially gripped in such adjusted condition and while so gripped is drawn along said first path toward such common path, and then as the sheet enters said common path said initial grip on the sheet is released and simultaneously the sheet is regripped without disturbing such adjusted condition to hold it fixed relative to its associated strip portion as it moves along said common path, such regripped condition being maintained on the sheet until it moves beyond the point at which it enters said second path.

5. The method of printing defined in claim 2, in which each sheet is positively gripped to hold it fixed to said common path as it moves therealong, then transferring the sheet to the second path by simultaneously releasing it from such grip, and regripping and drawing such sheet into such second path, and then at a station along such second path releasing the sheet from its regripped condition and depositing it in a receiving receptacle.

6. The method of printing which comprises applying ink to a plurality of image areas on a plate cylinder, making a composite impression of such image areas on a blanket located at a printing station in a single revolution of the plate cylinder in each printing cycle, feeding one type of paper from a first source to and past the printing station during a series of such printing cycles, and transferring the composite impression on the blanket to the paper by a single operation in each printing cycle, said transferring operations including initially making successive of such transfers in successive printing cycles for a short period and until the impressions printed on the paper have been built up to proper printed impressions, and then without interrupting the cyclic operation of the plate cylinder and blanket and the transfer of such composite impressions by the blanket, stopping the feed of the paper from the first source and starting the feed of a second type of paper from a second source separate from said first source and to and past the printing station,and continuing the printing of the impressions on the paper from the second source until the desired quantity has been printed while maintaining inoperative the feed of paper from the first source, two of the image areas on the plate cylinder being constituted of two different formats and a third image area thereon being provided with peculiar information common to both formats, inking only one of said format image areas and said third image area and making impressions on paper from one of said sources until they have been built up to proper printed impressions, then without interrupting the printing operation stopping the feed of the paper from said one source and starting the feed of paper from the other of said sources for such one format, continuing the feed of such paper from the other source until the desired quantity has been printed and then simultaneously stopping the feed thereof, restarting the feed of paper from said one source, and discontinuing the inking of said one format image area and starting the inking of the other format image area without interrupting the inking of said third image area, and then after said one format image area has been cleaned and said other image area has been built up to the desired printing quality, stopping the feed of the paper from said one source and starting the feed of paper from the other source suitable for said other format.

7. The method of printing which comprises applying ink to a plurality of image areas on a plate cylinder, making a composite impression of such image areas on a blanket located at a printing station in a single revolution of the plate cylinder in each printing cycle, feeding one type of paper from a first source to and past the printing station during a series of such printing cycles, and transferring the composite impression on the blanket to the paper by a single operation in each printing cycle, said transferring operations including initially making successive of such transfers in successive printing cycles for a short period and until the impressions printed on the paper have been built up to proper printed impressions, and then without interrupting the cyclic operation of the plate cylinder and blanket and the transfer of such composite impressions by the blanket, stopping the feed of the paper from the first source and starting the feed of a second type of paper from a second source separate from said first source and to and past the printing station, and continuing the printing of the impressions on the paper from the second source until the desired quantity has been printed while maintaining inoperative the feed of paper from the first source, there being three image areas on the plate cylinder, two of said image areas being associated but containing different information, and the third image area being produced from a reorder vehicle containing peculiar information common to said two image areas, utilizing paper from one of said sources to build up alternately proper printed impressions of a combination of one of said two image areas and said third image area, and in between said alternate buildups producing the two built up combinations on two runs of paper from the other source, and then packaging said reorder vehicle with the completed order of the two runs of printed paper.

8. The method of printing which comprises taking an item containing peculiar information common to two different but associated formats, and preparing a first image area provided with information as to one of said formats, a second image area provided with information as to the other of said formats, and a third image area provided with the peculiar information on the item common to both formats, mounting the three image areas on a plate cylinder, and using such three image areas in a continuous printing operation, a first given number of cycles in said operation being carried on using only said first and third image areas, a second given number of cycles in said peration being utilized to clean ink from said first image area and to build up ink in said second image area, while continuing the inking of said third image area, and a third given number of cycles in said operation being carried on using only said second and third image areas.

9. The method of printing defined in claim 8, in which composite impressions of said first and third images in said first given number of cycles are printed on a suitable paper, the composite impressions of said first, second and third images during said second given number of cycles are printed on a different paper, and the composite impressions of said second and third images during said third given number of cycles are printed on a suitable paper.

10. The method of printing defined in claim 9, including packaging said item with the completed order of suitable paper printed during the first and third given number of cycles, and retaining the composite impressions printed on the different paper during the second given number of cycles for recording purposes.

11. In a printing machine, a cylinder for printing an inked impression on its peripheral surface on paper stock at a printing station, means for revolving said cylinder to move its peripheral surface at a continuous constant velocity, means providing an impression surface coactable with the peripheral surface of said cylinder at said printing station during each application of an impression to the paper stock, first means for intermittently feeding a continuous strip of paper stock along a given path in the intervals between such coactable relation of such surface and cylinder to advance successive portions of such strip into position on such surface, a first means for controlling the operation of said first feeding means without disturbing the cyclic coactable relation of said surface and cylinder, second means for feeding sheets of paper stock toward said printing station along a first path different from that of said strip, second means for controlling the operation of said second sheet feeding means and operatable alternately with relation to said first control means so that one only of said first and second feeding means is operable at the same time, means for consecutively clamping successive sheets to said impression surface in overlapping relation to portions of said strip on such surface during the coactable relation of said surface and cylinder, means operable after each such coactable relation of said surface and cylinder for releasing said clamping means, first gripping means simultaneously operable with said releasing means for consecutively gripping the successively released sheets and drawing the gripped sheets along a second path differing from said first path and from said given path of feed of said strip, and means associated with said second path for collecting sheets discharged therefrom.

12. In a printing machine as defined in claim 11, including second sheet gripping means associated with said second feeding means, and constructed and arranged to cooperate with the latter to adjust a sheet fed thereby into registry with said impression surface and then to grip the adjusted sheet and advance it without disturbing such registered relation over said impression surface into overlapping relation with the strip portion overlying the same, said second sheet gripping means being operative to release such sheet when said clamping means secures the same to said impression surface.

13. In a printing machine as defined in claim 11, including means for consecutively impressing successive numbers on successive sheets clamped to said impression surface, said number impressing means being operable to impress a number on each sheet following the printing of an impression thereon and prior to the operation of said clamp releasing means.

14. In a printing machine as defined in claim 11, including a second cylinder associated with said printing cylinder and adapted to carry on the peripheral surface thereof three image areas, an inking unit for each of said three image areas associated with said second cylinder, means controlling the inking of each of said image areas by one of said inking units, and means selectively operable at will to render said controlling means for any one of said units inoperative to operate such unit, whereby composite images of the other two image areas only are impressed on said printing cylinder.

15. In a printing machine, a plate cylinder adapted to carry on the peripheral surface thereof three image areas, an inking unit for each of said three image areas associated with said plate cylinder, means controlling the inking of each of said image areas by one of said inking units during the operation of said plate cylinder, means selectively operable at will during the operation of said plate cylinder to render said controlling means for either one of two of said units inoperative to operate such unit, whereby composite images of each of said two units and said third unit may be alternately printed at will without interrupting the operation of said plate cylinder, a blanket cylinder having a blanket cooperative with said plate cylinder, means providing an impression surface coactable with the blanket on said blanket cylinder at a printing station during each printing cycle, a first means for feeding one type of paper stock to and past the printing station during a series of said printing cycles, a first means for controlling at will the operation of said first feeding means without disturbing the cyclic coactable relation of said impression surface and blanket; a second means for feeding another type of paper stock to and past the printing station during another series of said printing cycles, and second means for controlling at will the operation of said second feeding means without disturbing the cyclic coactable relation of said impression surface and blanket, said first and second control means being operable at will alternately without disturbing the operation of said printing machine so that one only of said first and second feeding means is operable at the same time.

16. ln a printing machine as defined in claim 15, including means operable at will to render said blanket cylinder inoperative to transfer a selected item from an image area on said plate cylinder to paper stock at the printing station.

17. In a printing machine as defined in claim 15, in which said blanket cylinder is mounted for slidable movement axially thereof, means operable at will to shift said blanket cylinder axially from one position to another, said blanket having a cutout registerable with a selected item on an image area on said plate cylinder in one position of said cylinder to prevent the transfer of such selected item, and offset with relation to such selected item in another position of said cylinder to enable said blanket to transfer such selected item.

18. In a printing machine as defined in claim 15, in which said plate cylinder is constructed to carry on the peripheral surface thereof at least one dry offset plate and at least one wet offset plate with the exterior ink receptive surface portions of all of said plates being at the same radial distance from the axis of said plate cylinder, and means associated with said plate cylinder for preventing dampener being applied to said dry offset plate.

19. The method of printing defined in claim 8, including initially applying ink to the first and third image areas and making a composite impression of such image areas on a blanket located at a printing station in a single revolution of the plate cylinder in each printing cycle, feeding a suitable paper to and past the printing station during a series of such printing cycles, and transferring the composite impression on the blanket to the paper by a single operation in each printing cycle, said transferring operations including making successive of such transfers in successive printing cycles until the desired quantity' of such composite impressions have been printed on the paper, and then without interrupting the cyclic operation of the plate cylinder or blanket or the transfer of such composite impressions by the blanket, stopping the feed of the suitable paper and the inking of said first image area, and starting the application of ink to said second image area and the feed of a difierent paper to and past the printing station, and continuing the printing with composite impressions of said second and third image areas on the different paper for a selected period, and then discontinuing the feed of the different paper and continuing the printing of composite impressions of the second and third image areas on a suitable paper.

g gg (UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CERTIFICATE OF CORRECTION Patent No. 3.774.535 Dated Kgygmhg; 21, 19:3

Inventofls) Robert J. Cris 5y It is certifid that error appears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent are hereby corrected as shown below:

Col. 3 line 24, after "in" --a known manner there is faithfullyhas been omitted.

Col. L, line 22, "itmes" should read --items--. Col. 5 line 2 after "spaced" "the +3 or 25," should read --side walls 4-3 of the--. Col. 5-, lines. 26 and 2], after "'42" --with 25,35 in mesh-- should be deleted. 7 l

Col. 5 line 3 "21th" should read --with---.

Col. 12, line 10', "(not FigJt)" should read --(note Fig. t).--.

Col. 17, line 62, (Claim 8) "peration" should read operation.

Signed and settled this hth day of Juno 197 b (SEAL) Attest: I K EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. c. MARSHALL mum Attesting Officer Commissioner of Patents

Claims

16. In a printing machine as defined in claim 15, including means operable at will to render said blanket cylinder inoperative to transfer a selected item from an image area on said plate cylinder to paper stock at the printing station.

19. The method of printing defined in claim 8, including initially applying ink to the first and third image areas and making a composite impression of such image areas on a blanket located at a printing station in a single revolution of the plate cylinder in each printing cycle, feeding a suitable paper to and past the printing station during a series of such printing cycles, and transferring the composite impression on the blanket to the paper by a single operation in each printing cycle, said transferring operations including making successive of such transfers in successive printing cycles until the desired quantity of such composite impressions have been printed on the paper, and then without interrupting the cyclic operation of the plate cylinder or blanket or the transfer of such composite impressions by the blanket, stopping the feed of the suitable paper and the inking of said first image area, and starting the application of ink to said second image area and the feed of a different paper to and past the printing station, and continuing the printing with composite impressions of said second and third image areas on the different paper for a selected period, and then discontinuing the feed of the different paper and continuing the printing of composite impressions of the second and third image areas on a suitable paper.