Pad printing machines, hereafter also shortened to “printing machines”, illustratively are known from the patent documents U.S. Pat. No. 5,622,041; 6,393,981 B1; EP 0 379 447 A1 and DE 10 2005 060 550. Illustratively as regards the printing machine of DE 2005 060 550, a printing unit carrier receives several printing units. This plurality of printing units allows printing an object in several stages on a single machine, where, besides the feasibility of polychrome printing, for instance red in a first printing stage and black in a second, it is possible also to print in several stages using a single printing ink/color.
Printing objects in multiple stages is fairly time-consuming due to precisely arranging the various printing stages in a manner that they are in register relative to each other in these individual stages and be commensurately applied to the object. The relative register of printing of one stage with respect to the object respectively the position of printing of the further stages to this date generally has been set manually by the operator of the particular printing machine. In such a procedure the position of a printing plate zone, which typically encompasses a printing plate support holding a printing plate, is shifted respectively varied in each printing stage until the desired print positions on the objects have reached the desired positions of the individual stages. The adjustment per se is complex and requires skilled operators.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds