Unusual German Press

[Dave Hughes]

These photos were posted on Facebook by an organisation based in Mexico City, Mexico.

The machine was made in Berlin, Germany by D Grauel & Co. K.G.

Then, just when you thought this machine was incredible enough, someone replied to the post with a picture of a 4-colour version!

[printsmurf]

WOW! What an amazing bit of kit.

I can understand the principle and the thought behind each machine, but my concern would be this - when a pull is taken for the first colour, the inking rollers deposit ink on all three, or four, of the blocks.

When the platen is moved along for the second and subsequent pulls, the rollers deposit more ink on all the blocks. When the final colour is pulled the block has been inked three or four times.

That means overinking unless there is such a small amount of ink on the ink disc that more than one application is needed. You would have to gauge the amount of ink on each ink disc accordingly.

Alternatively, and more likely when I think about it,  you would leave the blocks out of the machine and mount them when needed to be printed.

I wonder how popular these machines were and how many were produced