Keyless inking methods, apparatus, and systems with chamber blade system spanning anilox roll and form roll for digital offset printing

摘要

A variable lithographic inking system includes a chamber blade system configured to supply ink to an anilox member of an inking system. The inking system includes a soft ink transfer roll and a hard form roll. Ink is transferred from the anilox roll to the form roll by way of the transfer roll, and from the form roll to a reimageable surface layer of an imaging member of a variable data lithographic system. An ink layer free of ink history is uniformly applied onto a surface of the form roll, and subsequently transferred to the reimageable surface layer while avoiding or substantially eliminating image ghosting related to inking non-uniformities.

主权项

1. A variable lithographic keyless inking method, comprising:
metering a uniform layer of ink onto a hard form roll from a transfer roll, the transfer roll having a conformable surface; transferring the ink of the uniform layer directly from the hard form roll to a reimageable surface layer for variable data lithographic printing; cleaning a surface of the hard form roll, the cleaning comprising removing ink from the surface of the hard form roll; and removing dampening fluid from the surface of the hard form roll, the dampening fluid being transferred from the reimageable surface layer to the hard form roll, wherein the removing dampening fluid includes contacting the surface of the hard form roll with a chamber blade, the chamber blade comprising a material configured to chemically wick away dampening fluid from the surface of the hard form roll before removing ink from the surface of the hard form roll.