Machines for making sleeves unitarily formed by additive manufacturing for mounting on rotating shafts of commercial printing machinery

Abstract

A sleeve for mounting on a mandrel of a commercial printing machine can include distinct annular regions that are integrallyformed simultaneously as a unitary structure without a forming mandrel and without any need to be adhered to one another in manufacturing steps separate from the manufacture of each annular region of the completed sleeve. A 3D printing machine and method suitable for one or more of the flexible packaging industry, the offset printing industry, the publication printing industry, the décor printing industry, and the corrugated printing industry, employs a build plate that descends from a horizontal printing plane where each of multiple printing heads extrudes a road cycle of thermoplastic material onto the immediately underlying road cycle of the sleeve.