Gretag Aktiengesellschaft

Rene Luscher

A crank pin is eccentrically located on a motor driven crank plate. The pin engages a radial slot of a two-arm intermediate pivot lever in the manner of a Geneva drive. A bearing socket is located on the arm of the intermediate pivot lever opposite the slot, and is rotatable about an axis parallel to the pivot axis of the lever. The bearing socket axially guides a connecting rod that is perpendicular to a transport lever to be pivoted and is joined with it fixedly in rotation. By the rotation of the crank plate in the one or the other direction, the transport lever is pivoted back and forth. Its two terminal positions are defined by stops. The distance between the axis of the intermediate pivot lever and the bearing socket is dimensioned so that a slight overtravel is obtained and the connecting rod is stressed lightly upon reaching each of the terminal positions, so that the transport lever is held elastically against the stop. This device assures a harmonic motional process without jolts and impacts as well as precise positioning of the transport lever.

Pivoting device

Flat objects, such as disk shaped print masters, that are stacked in a magazine are pressured by an ejector against the ejection orifice of the magazine. A support surface for the ejected object is located under the ejection orifice. The ejector is actuated by an ejector drive, which stresses the ejector until an object is ejected onto the support surface and the counter pressure generated by the ejected object attains a certain limiting value. The ejector is subsequently relieved. The apparatus makes it possible to eject the objects individually from the magazine in a reliable and precise manner with a relatively small effort.

Unloading device

Disk shaped print masters are guided by means of a carrousel in step wise rotation through a series of processing stations. Support elements for the print masters are arranged on the periphery of the carrousel. A displaceable radially locking pin is associated with each support element in the carrousel in its outer normal position, the pin engages a peripheral notch of the master disk (D) located on the support element (TR), thereby defining its rotational position. The locking pins may be displaced radially inward in selected processing stations by common mechanical means thereby disengaging them from the master disks. The device makes it possible in a mechanically simple and inexpensive manner to immobilize the print masters during their transportation and to release them in certain processing stations.

Transport device for disk shaped print masters

A printing apparatus equipped for disk shaped print masters is provided with a magazine carrousel for four standardized double magazines and a disk carrousel to transport the print masters through individual processing stations. Different transport means effect the transport of the individual print masters from an active delivery magazine to the disk carrousel and from this back to an active receiving magazine. When a delivery magazine is empty, the magazine carrousel is advanced one step so that new magazines are automatically inserted in the place of the formerly active magazines. Follower transport means are provided to place the masters remaining on the disk carrousel into the formerly active receiving magazine after the stepping movement of the magazines. A printing apparatus designed in this manner renders possible a practically uninterrupted printing operation.

Process and apparatus for the production of photographic prints from

A cassette for feeding unexposed photographic film to or receiving exposed film for an automatic printer. The cassette having a light tight casing in which is a hub for receiving either a spool of unexposed film or taking up exposed film fed to it through the opening in the casing. The hub is mounted on a shaft which extends from the casing and carries a brake disc engageable with a brake band mounted inside the casing and a slider which is disposed outside the casing. The shaft is rotatably mounted in a plate movable within the casing to disengage the brake disc from the brake band when the slider on the shaft engages guide bars on the delivery side of the printer. Flaps are provided inside the casing which pivot to a position about the hub by thrust rods operated by means on the take-up side of the printer to guide exposed film on to the hub which is driven by a drive on the printer engaging a pulley mounted on the shaft adjacent the slider and external to the casing.

Cassette for strip material

A device for sensing notches in an edge of a longitudinally transported film strip has a two-armed lever pivoted at a point to one side of the film path to deflect in the film plane. One arm carries at its end a spring biased roller which rotates freely against the moving unnotched film edge but which is biased into engagement with a notch to deflect the lever. The other lever arm is contacted by the actuating button of a microswitch the internal spring of which biases the lever to a quiescent position. A preselected deflection of the lever from this position actuates the microswitch to indicate the presence of a notch. Stops limit the deflection of the lever which is essentially normal to the direction of film movement, deflecting from a just obtuse to a just acute angle when entrained by a notch. The microswitch may be replaced by a photoelectric switching arrangement.

Growing community of inventors

Regensdorf, Switzerland

Rene Luscher