EP1038674A1 — Blast cleaning apparatus for printing machines

USPTO Abstract

The present invention discloses a cleaning apparatus for cleaning of graphic equipment, in particular removing ink residues and the like from the surfaces of anilox rolls, inking rolls or the like, comprising blast cleaning means including an injector (1) for continuous supplying a portion of blast powder material into a pressurised carrier airflow, said injector comprising an inlet (6) with means for connecting the injector to a pneumatic air supply (2) providing the pressurised carrier airflow, a nozzle head for dispensing the blast powder material towards a surface of an item (12) to be cleaned, and a flow channel (7) connecting the inlet to the nozzle outlet (8), and into said flow channel blast powder material can be inserted into the pressurised airflow of the passage, wherein a sliding member (22) having an air flow passage (7b) is provided in the flow channel creating at the downstream end of the sliding member a gap (26) between a thereby created vacuum chamber (24) into which blast powder material is to be fed from a preferably unpressurised blast powder material supply (9), said sliding member being shiftable in a first part of the flow channel whereby the size of the gap can be regulated according to a predetermined dosage of blast powder material into the air flow of through the injector. By the present invention, an apparatus for cleaning of graphic equipment is provided where the proportionality between the amount of blast powder material in the carrier airflow can be altered irrespective of the pressure of the pneumatic air supplied into the injector of the blast cleaning means. This in turn means that the blast pressure can be reduced offering a significantly more gentle or softer cleaning of the surface making the apparatus suitable for cleaning fragile surfaces of rolls in the printing industry, such as inking rolls, anilox rolls and the like.