ADJUSTABLE TENSION SILK SCREEN FRAME

D E S C R I P T I O N

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Technical Field. This invention generally relates to screen printing apparatus, commonly known as silk screen¬ ing apparatus, and more particularly, this invention relates to an adjustable and retensionable screen frame for industrial use. Background Art. One of the more common and most versatile of the printing processes is that of screen printing, or more commonly known as silk screen printing. Screen printing can be used to print on paper products, wood, plastics, textiles, etc. One of the most versatile industrial uses of screen printing is the printing of designs on textiles used in clothing, home decorating and the like. Because of the extreme versatility associated with the screen printing process, screen printing is the method of choice for a wide variety of mediums. Also, the screen printing process is well suited for printing de¬ signs on textile articles after they have been assembled, e.g., shirts, uniforms, hats and the like. This is the primary concern of the instant invention.

When printing detailed designs and/or multi-colored designs on a textile product, it is imperative that the printing screen be held extremely taut to insure accurate registration of the fine detail and/or various colors.

The prior art solutions to this problem can be classified into three general categories. The first prior art solu¬ tion, which is only a partial solution, has the screen material, typically nylon or polyester, glued under ten- sion to a wooden perimeter frame. It is fairly common to have the screen pretensioned under the specific factory requirements during the gluing process. Unfortunately, screens tend to relax over time and consequently even less workable tension is left in the fabric. Sometimes this occurs even before the screen is used on the production line.

A second prior art solution involves an adjustable tension frame which uses tension rollers along the frame sides to tension the screen material. This frame is commonly known as the Newman Roller Frame available from Stretch Devices, Inc. of Philadelphia, PA. While these devices work well, they are extremely expensive.

A third prior art solution represents a compromise between the first two and consists of a floating bar type frame. Floating bars are suspended around the inner perimeter of the frame by traveler screws and wing nuts. Once the screen material has been attached to the floating bars, the wing nuts are tightened drawing the floating bars closer to the frame away from the center of the screen material, thus tightening the screen. Unfortunate¬ ly, the floating bars occupy a significant amount of space within the interior of the frame and therefore limit the design space area. Additionally, the double frame con¬ figuration is quite heavy. In order to print a larger design, the printer must use the next available larger frame size and consequently an excessive amount of screen material, which is quite expensive.

What is needed is an adjustable tension screen print¬ ing frame which is inexpensive to construct and which does not require an excessive amount of screen material to implement a particular design and which can be retensioned after use to maintain original factory tension specifica¬ tions. It is therefore an object of the instant invention to provide an adjustable tension screen printing frame which is of a simple and inexpensive construction and which optimizes the amount of available screen area to accommodate large designs.

DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION These and other objects are accomplished by the use of floating screen attachment members of specific cross section in connection with a standard screen printing frame. Here the floating screen attachment members are manufactured from a strong light-weight material such as aluminum and have a minimum cross section, such as an "L" shape. Additionally, the instant invention can utilize a U-shaped cross section and a modified U-shaped cross section as will be explained hereinafter.

The L-shaped screen attachment members are attached in overlapping fashion along the inner perimeter sides of the frame such that a vertical face of the screen attachment member is disposed essentially parallel and in closely spaced relation to the inner sides of the perimeter frame such that only a very small amount of screen printing space is occupied by the screen attachment members. A perpendicular screen attachment surface overlaps the top surface of the* perimeter frame and is substantially paral¬ lel to the top surface. The L-shaped screen attachment

members float on traveler screws which are adjustable via a hex or wing nuts to tension an attached screen member.

Similarly, screen attachment members having a U-shaped cross section can be utilized providing that the width of the U-shaped cross section is only slightly wider than the width of the frame members. Here, the screen attachment members are attached with the parallel sides of the U- shaped cross section disposed parallel to the top and bottom surfaces and the interconnecting vertical side of the U-shaped cross section is disposed parallel to the inner side surfaces of the perimeter frame. Again the screen attachment members float on traveler screws allow¬ ing an attached screen member to be tensioned by tighten¬ ing the traveler screws wing or hex nuts. This particular embodiment of the invention allows a screen to be attached on either side of the perimeter frame. This can be advan¬ tageous in that when a screen attached to one side wears out, it can be cut away and a new screen installed on the other side without having to replace or refinish the screen attachment members.

Yet another embodiment of the instant invention uses a modified U-shaped cross section attachment member which is essentially lopsided, i.e., one of the sides of the U- shaped cross section is much shorter in length than the other. Additionally, the width of the U-shaped cross sectional area does not need to be wider than the width of the perimeter being. In fact, for compactness, it is desireable that the width of the screen attachment member be between two-thirds to equal of that of the perimeter frame. Here, the shorter side of the U-shaped cross section is fulcrumed against the interior side of the perimeter frame such that it acts as a cantilevered point

for the traveler screw, against which an attached screen member is tensioned by tightening the hex or wing nut on the traveler screw.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of a prior art floating bar screen printing frame;

Fig. 2 is a side cross sectional view of the prior art screen printing frame of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a three-quarter view of a first embodiment of the instant invention, showing the new screen attach¬ ment members in use;

Fig. 4 is a side cross section of the screen printing frame of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is an assembly drawing of the screen printing frame of Figs. 3 and 4;

Fig. 6 is an enlarged cross sectional side view of a second embodiment of the instant invention;

Fig. 7 is an enlarged cross sectional side view of a third embodiment of the instant invention; and

Fig. 8 is an enlarged cross sectional side view of a fourth embodiment of the instant invention.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT INVENTION Referring now to Figs. 3, 4 and 5, a first embodiment of the retensionable stretch and glue screen printing frame 10 is shown. Adjustable tension screen frame 10 includes a four-sided rigid frame 11 constructed from elongated side members 14. Elongated side members 14 are generally manufactured from a rigid material such as wood or the like. Screen attachment members 13 of specific

cross section are "floatably" attached along the inner perimeter face 17 of rigid frame 11.

In this first embodiment of the figures, screen attachment members 13 are elongated segments of U-shaped aluminum channel 13a. U-shaped screen attachment members 13a have two parallel sides separated by a vertical side which is disposed parallel to inside perimeter face 17 of elongated side members 14. The vertical side of U-shaped screen attachment member 13a is of sufficient length such that the entire channel member can straddle the adjacent elongated side member 14 without the parallel sides of the channel member being engaged by the side members 14. A plurality of traveler screw holes 21 are provided in both the U-shaped cross section screen attachment members 13 and the adjacent elongated side members 14 for receiving traveler screws or bolts 19. The bolt heads of traveler screws 19 are engaged against the inward facing vertical surface of screen attachment members 13a. A cooperating hex or wing nut 20 is engaged on the threaded end of traveler screws 19 and purchased against the outside facing vertical face 18 of elongated side members 14, such that tightening adjustment nut 20 causes screen attachment members 13a to move in a direction away from the frame center. A screen member 12 is glued or otherwise attached along the top faces of the side member on each screen attachment member 13a. These faces are disposed generally parallel to the top face 15 of elongated side members 14. Top faces 15 lie in a first coordinate plane as a conse- quence of the construction of four-sided rigid frame 11. Screen member 12 is attached to screen attachment members 13a to define a second coordinate plane which lies paral-

lei to the first coordinate plane. Identically, screen attachment members 13a provide a plurality of screen attachment surfaces which are parallel to bottom faces 16 such that screen member 12 could be attached to either side of rigid frame 11.

Referring now to Figs. 6 and 7, a second and third embodiment of the present invention are shown. The second and third embodiments are identical in all respects to that of the first embodiment with the exception of the shape of the cross section of screen attachment members

13. Fig. 6 shows an L-shaped cross section screen attach¬ ment member 13b whose operation is the same as that of the first embodiment with the exception of there only being one attachment surface instead of two. Fig. 7 shows a screen attachment member 13c having a modified or lopsided U-shaped cross section. It should also be pointed out that the length of the vertical face connecting the parallel side members of the U-shaped screen attachment member 13c is substantially less than that of the first embodiment. This positions the shorter of the two parallel sides against the inner face 17 to provide a fulcrum point against which traveler screw 19 cantilevers screen attachment member 13c. This particular configuration tends to counteract the reactionary moment produced by the screen on the screen attachment members and is particularly useful for printing on a large flat surface on which it is important that the frame and frame attachment members do not contact the printing surface and prevent the screen from actually touching the surface. Fig. 8 shows a fourth embodiment of the instant inven¬ tion which uses the same basic frame and screen attachment configuration as that of the first embodiment with the

exception of the traveler screw. Here, a binding screw 22 is used in place of the bolt and wingnut assembly to tension the printing screen.

While the foregoing detailed descriptions have the screen attachment members attached along the inside perim¬ eter of the frame, they could equally well be attached along the outside perimeter having the traveler screws push instead of pull the attachment members to tension the screen. While there is shown and described the present pre¬ ferred embodiment of the invention, it is to be distinctly understood that this invention is not limited thereto but may be variously embodied to practice within the scope of the following claims. I claim: