Baldwin Web Controls

Ronald Callan

Michael Lee Gregory

Steven Drensky

Gifford Neill

Tat Luk

A system and method for preventing a broken printing web from wrapping about or otherwise fouling the blanket cylinders of printing press units. The system and method includes a web tensioning device located downstream of the printing press units for maintaining tension upon a broken web and pulling the web from the printing press units. The device includes a plurality of web disturbance detectors for detecting a wave, ripple or other disturbance indicative of a web break. A pair of anti-wrap rollers located above and below the web are engaged upon detection of a web break to engage the web between them to exert tension onto the web and pull it from the printing units. The anti-wrap rollers are rotated at a surface speed nominally greater than the surface speed of the printing rolls. The anti-wrap rollers include a plurality of opposed peak and valley portions which enable them to interlock and grip the web along a line of contact. The system and method also includes a flow bar system to reduce false detections of a web break. A blow-down bar is also used to force air, or some other fluid, downward on a broken web so as to harmlessly force the broken web to the ground as it exits the web tensioning device. A series of sensors which project two beams in the form of a crossing pattern are utilized to more rapidly and accurately detect a web break.

Anti-wrap device for a web press

An apparatus for detecting breakage of a web of material traversing a machine for feeding the web, and a method for the same. The apparatus includes a housing for mounting three transducers, a first transducer adapted to periodically emit a burst of energy for a period of time, the burst of energy being reflected off an object and producing an echo signal. A second transducer adjacent to the first transducer receives a portion of the echo signal, and a third transducer also adjacent to the first transducer receives another portion of the echo signal. The strongest portion of the echo signal is used to detect whether the web is broken.

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Lemont, IL, United States of America

Ronald Callan