Printing machine milling roller drive system

Abstract

To provide a compact drive arrangement for a plurality of axially oscillating or reciprocating milling rollers (11, 12, 13) used in inkers and/or dampers of rotary printing machines, a central gear (16) is provided, driven from the plate cylinder (5) of the printing system, and wide enough to permit axial excursion of meshing gears (11', 12', 13') coupled to the respective milling rollers, and engaged with the central gear. To provide for axial excursion, the shaft (20) on which the central gear is located is connected with a right-angle drive to a transverse shaft (20) which is coupled to eccenters (35, 36, 37) which, in turn, are coupled by connecting rods (41, 42, 43) to a slider coupling (25, 26, 27; 28, 29, 30; 46, 47, 48) with the connecting rods, to thereby change rotary movement of the transverse shaft, driven in synchronism with the plate cylinder to longitudinal movement, while permitting adjustment of the phasing of the respective longitudinal drives by placing the relative position of the eccenters on the transverse shaft such that no oscillating or reciprocating roller will reach terminal dead center (TDC) position simultaneously with another milling roller, for example, for three rollers, by offsetting the eccenters 120.degree. with respect to each other.