Illinois Tool Works Inc.

Christopher J Sobaszek

Marc C Piscitello

Gregory B Olejniczak

Graham P Vlcek

Sean M O'Neil

Peter P Dell'Aquila

Steve Waszkowiak

Christopher Thomas Schaafsma

Samuel Peterson

Peter P DELL'AQUILA

Sean M O'NEIL

Samuel Petersen

A digital clich&#xe9; pad printing system includes a conveyor for conveying a substantially non-elastic support medium, a material deposition jetting device for depositing a curable material onto the support in a desired pattern, the desired pattern having at least one void space, means for curing the material in the desired pattern, the cured material defining a clich&#xe9; having a top surface, an ink delivery system for depositing ink in the at least one void space and for wiping ink from the top surface and a pad configured to contact the clich&#xe9; to transfer ink from the void space to the pad the pad also configured to move into contact with an object to which the ink is transferred. A digital clich&#xe9; media and method are also disclosed.

Digital cliche pad printing system and method

A printing system includes carriage assemblies, a preparation station, a printing station, and a selection station. The carriage assemblies receive flexible bodies and are coupled to a conveyance assembly that moves the carriage assemblies along a direction of travel. The preparation station receives the flexible bodies from the loading station and manipulates the flexible bodies to at least partially flatten printing surfaces of the flexible bodies. The printing station prints images on the flexible bodies. The selection station examines the images on the flexible bodies and selects one or more of the flexible bodies based on the images. The selection station also individually grips and removes selected flexible bodies from the carriage assemblies and conveys the selected flexible bodies to a first collection location while the other flexible bodies remain on the carriage assemblies and are conveyed to a different, second collection location.

System and method for printing on a flexible body

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Carol Stream, IL, United States of America

Christopher J Sobaszek