The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jan. 11, 2011
Filed:
Sep. 08, 2007
Lloyd Douglas Clark, San Francisco, CA (US);
Brian A. Brown, San Francisco, CA (US);
Lloyd Douglas Clark, San Francisco, CA (US);
Brian A. Brown, San Francisco, CA (US);
Other;
Abstract
A rotary pad for pad printing comprises a cylinder (') or a belt (). The pad can be either flat or crowned in its relaxed condition. An ink applicator (, etc.) applies an ink image () to the pad for subsequent transfer to a receiving object (, etc.). If not initially flat, the pad can be flattened during application of the ink image, then forced to bulge for transfer to a receiving object. The pad can be flattened or caused to bulge by rollers (, etc.) or by vacuum or pneumatic pressure. In one embodiment, an ink image is temporarily applied to the outer surface () of a flat cylindrical pad, then as the pad rotates, the sides of the pad are squeezed by rollers (), forcing the pad to bulge during transfer of the ink image to a receiving object (). In another embodiment, a crowned pad (′) is flattened while accepting an ink image, then allowed to resume its original crowned shape for transfer to a receiving object ().