Apparatus for accurately positioning a printing plate stand

Abstract

A printing plate stand and an apparatus for positioning the printing plate stand are provided. The printing plate stand is movable and supplies printing plates to a printing plate transfer apparatus. The positioning apparatus includes, at a bottom surface of the printing plate stand, a pair of fixed wheels, movable only forward and backward, free wheels, movable in multi-directions, and leg portions which are located at vicinities of the free wheels and which can project downward further than the free wheels. The positioning apparatus has a raising and lowering device for moving the printing plate stand in vertical directions, blocks and ball casters which use the raising and lowering device and position the printing plate stand at a predetermined position when a first printing plate loading portion is opposed to and adjacent to the transfer apparatus, and blocks and ball casters which use the raising and lowering device and position the printing plate stand at the predetermined position when the printing plate stand is reversed and a second printing plate loading portion is opposed to and set adjacent to the transfer apparatus. Therefore a plurality of printing plates can be efficiently loaded, printing plate stand handling can be improved, and printing plate stand positioning with respect to the transfer apparatus becomes easy.