US2331983A - Decoration of rods - Google Patents

Description

Oct 19 ECORATIQN OF'RODS lled Dec. 27 1940 M ummm( mnumr WUHHTEULM' M'TORNEYs Patentecl Oct. 19, 1943 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DEOORATEN 0F RODS Charles Kaiser, Jr., New York, N. Y., assigner to Eagle Pencil Company, New York, N. Y., a corporation of Delaware 2 Claims.

The present invention is concerned with the art of decorating rods such as lead pencils.

An object of the invention isV to provide a simple, reliable and inexpensive procedure and equipment for applying longitudinal stripes of uniform small width, in uniformly spaced relation about a rod of any cross-section.

The invention .is applicable to applying such stripes to rods that are of circular or polygonal cross-section. It affords an especially attractive decoration for the conventional hexagonal rods or pencils, and more especially for the'application of such stripes along the middles of the respective panels thereof, and this preferably in association with a base color for the rest of the panel other than that of the areas immediately along the longitudinal edges of the rod or pencil, which desirably are of a third color.

For applying the uniformly spaced color stripes upon the circular rod or spaced from the various panel edges of the polygonal rod, the invention involves the use of a rubber or squeegee die having an aperture of regular polygonal cross-section and of original diameter so much smaller than that of the rod or pencil that when the latter is passed therethrough, clearance will exist only at narrow portions adjacent the various vertices when applied to a round rod, and in the case of the polygonal rod, the die aperture would have sides in number twice those of the rod so that alternate vertices of the die aperture snugly embrace the edges of the rod and the intervening vertices are slightly cleared therefrom. In the wiping action, accordingly, the wet color will be wiped oi except at the cleared regions and the width of the stripe is determined by the size of the die aperture and, therefore, the amount of stretching to which the die is subjected while the rod or pencil passes therethrough.

In the accompanying drawing in which are shown one or more of various possible embodiments of the several features of the invention:

ig. l is a view in longitudinal cross-section showing the equipment used in the iirst step in the decoration of a pencil or other rod,

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. l, showing the die there used,

Fig. 3 is a view similar to Fig. 1 showing the equipment for the second step,

Figs. 4, 5 and 6 are views in transverse crosssection taken respectively along the lines @-5, 5-5 and 6 6, showing the elements making up the squeegee die used at that stage,

Fig. 7 is a perspective view of a fragment of showing the application of the invention to a rod or pencil, circular in cross-section.

In a specific embodiment for producing the pencil shown in Fig. 1l, the procedure involves the drawing of the pencil or rod through successive color carrying vessels, diagrammatically indicated in Figs. 1, 3 and 8 respectively, each of which has at the outlet side thereof, a squeegee washer or die desirably made of rubber and controlling the removal of wet coloring matter from the completely covered rod, all in accordance with the design desired. The entire pencil is first covered with the color a appearing at the edges, which color in the form of a lacquer is in the vessel of Fig. l. The washer thereof simply wipes off excess color and leaves the pencil solidly covered with that color. After drying of the pencil or rod, it is passed through the second color vessel of Fig. 3, which has in it color forming the body` b of the panels. The rubber squeegee die at the outlet is so conformed as to wipe oi clean the color at the corners or edges of the rod,so that the pencil or rod delivered as a result of the second operation, will have the appearance illustrated in Fig. 7. After the rod thus treated has dried, it is passed through the third color vessel shown in Fig. 8 in which is the lacquer for producing the median longitudinal stripes. The rubber or squeegee die for that purpose is so conformed as to wipe ofi clean all of the color applied in the vessel of Fig. 8 save only that left for the median stripes c.

Proceeding now to the details of the structures or steps involved, each of the color Vessels of Figs. l, 3 and 8 may have caps i5 and l5 thereon, cap I5 having a resilient washer Il shown at the right, with anaperture snugly to t about the pencil or rod r which pencils or rods are fed through in a continuous line to be completely coated with color from the vessel, the excess color being wiped off at the resilient outlet through which the rod passes from the vessel V. Referring to Fig. 1 the outlet Washer I8 is of reiatively thin rubber stock, clamped peripherally by the cap i 6 against the end of the vessel V and has an aperture I9 corresponding to that of the cross-section of the rod, illustratively hexagonal, but with suilcient clearance to leave upon the rod a coating of lacquer in the order of .001inch thick.

After the rod has dried, it is passed through the color vessel of Fig. 3, in which the die 2i) at the outlet side has a circular aperture 2l of diameter such as snugly to embrace the edges 22 of the polygonal rod and thereby to wipe off the wet color from the vessel that completely covers the rod, and thus to expose at said edges they color stripe a that had been applied from the first vessel.

Depending on the diameter of -die aperture 21| the same will be spread to greater or lesser extent in passing the rod therethrough, which ci? course determines the Width of the corner stripes a.

Were thedfe 2i) used alone, therewould-of course be an excessive thicknessofc,clorl at the segmental spaces 23,betweenthe pQlygonal rod and the crculardiehc-le 2G. Thatcolol might spread non-uniformly and spoil the. design. Therefore, a thin. hexagonal rubber Washer. 24 similar to the washer-J3 used in the rst step is disposed adjacent diel. Washer 24y Wipes off the excess color leftonkiy die 20. Immediately adjacent die 2d is adie 25 which is substantially a duplicateof the die2 and through which the redis also passed, eiectively to wipe from the edge stripes a,.thereof any` color that might have spread laterally thereto from. the

panel area d. The decoration resulting .from 4the operation thus far described has theappearance indicated in Fig. 7.

The intermediate.longitudinal stripes c along the respective panels of the rod are. now applied. For this purpose the third color vesselof Fig. 8 is equippedwith asqueegee rubber die 2l that has an apertureof regular polygonal cross-section, of twice the number of sides of that of the rod `and the diameter of said aperture is smaller than that of the rod. As best shown in Fig. 9, s

when the rod is passed through said die, its edges automatically come into engagement with the alternate vertices 28 of the die aperture and spread the rubber at such regions, thereby causing the sides 29sof; the die aperture to engage the rod at the region of'. said vertices, thedie being spaced from the rod only at the inter vening regions of the intermediate vertices 3Q.

Thus, as best shownrin Fig. 9, the. sides of the rubber squcegee die engage thercd with maxif mum pressure at the ,edges of the latter and with progressively reduced pressure laterally of said edges, to complete clearance at the region of the stripes, the clearance being a maximum at the intermediate vertices Se which determine the center lines of the stripes, From another point of View, the pressure as exerted by the die increases progressively from the median stripe outwardly to a maximum at the edges o f the rod. When the rod is passedlthlough the third color vessel i. e. that shownin Fig. 8, the die 2 Wipes off all of the third application of color, except at the region of clearance 3,9 of4 the intermediate vertices, thereby leaving the intermediate stripe c as set forth. Depending upon the diameter of the polygonal die aperture and aCCOldDgly upon the degree of stretching to which it is subjected in passing the rod therethrough, the stripe c may be made wider or narrower as desired.

For clean and uniform application of the intermediate stripe, the die 2l is preferably contacted by a thick rubber plate 3i with a circular aperture 32 which snugly engages the edges only of the rod and wipes oi any color from the vessel of Fig. 8, that may have passed one of the die vertices 28.

In actual'practice, it will be understood that each color vessel has an associated hopper (not shown) from which the pencils or rods are fed and propelled forward in a continuous line into and out of the respective color vessels so that the rubberrwashers at both ends of the color vessel remain snugly gripped about the successive rods as indicatedvat r and r in Fig. 1. In practice, color4 Wouldbe laid down in a plurality of layers when required, each layer being dried before the nextisapplied. The lacquer used is preferably ofthefast drying type, so that each coloring step may be applied without much delay after the drying ofthe preceding color application.

Desirably` a coatofplear lacquer is appliedv to coat theentire rod before it is striped by the equipment of Fig. 8. The clear lacquer nlm. acts as a-.protective coat to prevent smearingby the wetting of the seconder body color by the third or striping color. The protective coat of clear lacquerisapplied from a vessel similar to, those shown, equipped with a single exible washer such as shown in Figs. 1. and 2. The center stripe applied ,atthe vessel shown in Fig. 8 .is desirably followed by another protective coat of clear lacquer applied inA manner similar. to the aforementioned clear lacquer coating.

It-Will be understood that according to the invention, the intermediate stripes c. could be applied directly upon a rod provided with avbase color, the edge stripes applied in the vessel of Fig. 3 being in that c ase omitted. It will also beunderstood thattheinvention lends itself 'for application to pencils or other rod like. articles not only ofthe conventional hexagonal cross-section, but of square, octagonal or other crossrsections, regular-lorirregular.

A round rod maybe provided with azseries cf narrow uniformly spaced longitudinal stripes by passing the same through a die with a regular polygonal aperture similar to that shown in Fig. 9 and .of any desired number of sides, the inscribed diameter of which is smaller than that of the circular rod. AccordinglyJ as shown inFig. 12 theY die 35 becomes bowed by the rod, snugly to engage the rod at various sides 36 of its polygonal aperture and leaving clearance merely at the regions of the vertices 31 thereof and thereby applying stripes, the same in number as the number oi' sides of the die. v

As many changes could be made in the above method and apparatus and many apparently widely different embodiments of this invention could be made without department from the scope of the claims, it is intended that all matter contained in the above .description or shown in the accompanying drawing shall be interpreted. as illustrative and: not in a limiting sense.

Having thusdescribed my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. Apparatus for decorating with longitudinal color stripes, the middle portions solelyl ofthe flat panels 0f poli/@wmode Said-apparatus. Cambria ing a colorvessel through which the rods are passed, the outlet. wall of the color vesselhaving a squeegee type rubberv die. presentinganl aperture in the form ofa regular polygon of. twice the number of sides of the rod to be colored, the circumscribed circle of which is of diameter smaller than that of the rod, whereby the die will be stretched by the rod passing therethrough, snugly to engage the rod at the alternate vertices of the die and along the sides of the rod panels, save only the region immediately adjacent the intermediate vertices at which the coloring in the form of longitudinal stripes will be left on the rod.

2. Apparatus for decorating a polygonal rod, comprising a plurality of color vessels, each having a distinct lacquer color therein, each vessel having a squeegee type die at the outer Wall thereof for wiping off excess color and leaving on the color at the areas desired, the die of the nal vessel having an aperture in the form of a regular polygon of twice the number of sides of said rod the circumscribed circle of which is of diameter smaller than that of the rod, thereby to be distended by said rod to leave clearance only at alternate vertices thereof, which are disposed at 10 the middles of the panels of the rod.

CHARLES KAISER, JR.

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