Deformation of the ink roller of an offset press based on a simplified model of ink-rubber viscoelasticity.

Ink transfer is achieved by the squeezing and rotation of two rollers, one of which is a roller coated with a viscoelastic rubber layer. In this study, the force caused by ink hydrodynamic pressure on the rubber roller during the rotation is considered, the viscoelasticity of ink and rubber is equivalently substituted by spring-damping unit, and a rolling squeezing theoretical model of two rollers is established to study the node deformation of the rubber roller. The validity of the theoretical model is verified by experiments. Results show that the deformation of the rubber roller is greatly affected by the roller rotational speed, rubber layer thickness, and nip width. The rotational speed and nip width have a significant influence on the stiffness-damping of the ink layer and the ink force, and the rubber layer thickness has a remarkable effect on the squeezing deformation between the rollers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]