Rotary Pad Roll-Off - Patent Pending:
Orbiter™ Device Extends Orion's Range

AN INNOVATIVE accessory can now be fitted to the Orion 130 pad printer to enable decorating products with large, bold images up to 10 inches long and 3.5 inches wide. The device, named Orbiter™, uses a rotary silicone rubber padroll to transfer an ink image to a flat or cylindrical part from a steel foil cliché plate.

The Orbiter concept (patent pending), allows pad printing of a thicker layer of ink than would normally be applied with conventional pad transfer methods. The result is a more opaque and consistently even image with a single hit.

By working in tandem with the standard Trans Tech cupslide accessory fitted with a 130mm RedStar MultiCup ink cup, the Orbiter picks up the image from a magnetically mounted 150 x 810mm foil plate, then moves forward to the printing position. The padroll, measuring 100mm in diameter by 100mm wide, is pneumatically actuated to rotate to its home position before transferring the image to the part.

Advantages & Benefits:

Additional benefits of the technique are the smooth rotary laydown which eliminates issues associated with pad tip placement, allowing a usable image area of up to 3.5 inches width on a 4-inch padroll. The rolling transfer action also eliminates any ink being pushed outside the intended image area caused by compressing a large, conventional pad

Another plus: with such a wide image, using a conventional pad would require a much larger, oversized pad to compensate for distortion. The associated higher cost of a large pad is avoided by using the less expensive rotary padroll.



 

The 100mm diameter Orbiter device allows printing on either flat parts, or cylindrical products with less than 3.5 inches diameter. A manual part shuttle is recommended for loading and unloading parts into the printing area. Cylindrical parts would also require a suitable, rotating mandrel fixture to allow the part to roll while accepting the image from the padroll.



 

Left: Detail view of Orion printing area showing Orbiter at rear left with part and fixture beneath the padroll; a pad blower is focused on the ink image on the surface of the padroll. At right is the reciprocating cupslide unit with 130mm RedStar MultiCup.

For more information, please contact your Trans Tech representative.