Mechanisation

In 1834 a machine that automatically performed all the actions of block printing was invented by Perrot (it became known as the Perrotine), and achieved some success. It was limited to three colours and a maximum repeat of only 15 cm and its operation could not be truly continuous, but the three colours were printed simultaneously.

 Storey gives an illustrated account of this machine, and of hand block printing . Much earlier, attempts had been made to obtain continuous surface printing using wooden rollers, but the difficulty of uniform application of the colour to the roller was the common problem. In about 1805, however, a rotating woollen fabric ‘sieve’ was introduced in Accrington, and used successfully thereafter. The other essential step was the preparation of a raised pattern on the roller by inserting copper outline strips and felt, just as in hand block printing. This technique was used until recently for printing furnishing fabrics and for wallpaper, but was never as important as the copper roller method. It had the advantages of requiring low pressure and avoiding the colour contamination that occurs on engraved roller machines, because no contact was made with previously printed colour, but the cost of roller making was high. Wallpaper printers found that inexpensive rollers could be cast from epoxy polymers and the nonprinting areas were easily cut away, but they did not carry enough colour to print most fabrics. Essentially the same method has been used for printing polymer film, other packaging materials and transfer paper, but is then usually known as flexographic printing. As described in section 3.2.2, the design is built up on wooden rollers by the application of rubber mouldings and the colour is applied by uniformly engraved metering rollers.