Sequa Corporation

Sequa Can Machinery, Inc.

Stolle Machinery Company, LLC

Russell Didonato

Enn Sirvet

Chester Chrobocinski

An automated can decorating apparatus including a mechanical mandrel trip mechanism. The mechanical mandrel trip mechanism includes a trip lever mechanism having a trip cam follower disposed on an end of a trip arm which causes the movement of an associated mandrel away from a printing position, and a reset cam follower disposed on a reset arm which causes the mandrel to return to a printing position. Trip cam follower and reset cam follower engage cam surfaces on a trip cam plate and a reset cam plate, respectively, to cause the movement of their associated mandrel.

Automated can decorating apparatus having mechanical mandrel trip

A continuous motion decorator for cylindrical containers is provided with a direct printing unit for printing an auxiliary image on the cylindrical surface of a container that has been imprinted with a main image by an offset blanket segment of the decorator. The direct printing unit includes a plurality of direct printing plates disposed in tandem on a closed loop belt means with each of these plates bearing a different auxiliary image. The offset blanket segments are mounted on the periphery of a continuously rotating blanket wheel. An individual direct printing unit, mounted to the blanket wheel, is provided for each blanket segment and includes an anvil disposed at the upstream end of the blanket segment to support one printing plate at a time in its printing position. For each revolution of the blanket wheel the belt means is advanced by an incremental length to bring a new printing plate to printing position. The direct printing unit is mounted on a pivot support and is adjustably positionable as a unit to adjust direct printing pressure. The direct printing unit may be positioned so that its plates do not contact containers to which main images are applied. In addition, the direct printing unit may be deactivated so that the belt means is not stepped as the blanket wheel rotates.

Apparatus and method for decorating cylindrical containers

A continuous motion decorator of the type in which cans are supported on freely rotatable mandrels during decorating is provided with a plurality of equally spaced mandrel actuator subassemblies mounted along the periphery of a rotating carrier. Each subassembly is mounted for radial movement toward and away from the carrier's rotational axis with the radial position of the subassembly being controlled by a stationary closed loop cam track on which a follower roller of the subassembly is disposed. The subassembly also includes a rotary operator having a rotor that supports the mandrel and is on a pivot axis that is parallel to the axis of the carrier as well as being parallel to and laterally offset from the rotational axis of the mandrel. Sensors detect unloaded and misloaded mandrels, and upon doing so cause the rotary operator that is unloaded or misloaded to be actuated to withdraw the rotor from its normal decorating path so that it will not engage the printing blanket of a decorating unit.

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Maplewood, NJ, United States of America

Russell Didonato