EP2933687A1 - Workflow for web to print printers - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for processing print jobs in a printing machine (1) with at least one digitally controllable printing unit (8) and a computer (5), wherein a print job comprises at least the data for at least one printed image and process data or commercial data. The invention is characterized in that the computer (5) creates the image content for an accompanying printed product (6) from the process data or the commercial data for the print job, and that this image content is printed on a printing machine (1) during the processing of the print job Printing material (7) is applied.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for processing print jobs in a printing press with at least one digitally controllable printing unit and a computer, wherein a print job comprises at least the data for at least one printed image as well as process data or commercial data.

Such methods for processing print jobs are used in particular in digital printing machines according to the inkjet principle or electrophotography principle. Meanwhile, there are also offset printing machines, which in addition to the offset printing units additionally a digitally controllable printing unit such. B. include an inkjet imprinting. By means of the inkjet imprinting system, it is possible to personalize prints by z. B. a customer address is printed. Otherwise, the printed image is essentially produced by the offset printing units. The inkjet imprinting makes it possible to personalize the high-quality offset prints.

Furthermore, it is known to collect a large number of print jobs, in particular with a smaller number of copies, via web-to-print communication on a computer in a print shop and then to produce them inexpensively on a common large print form in a large-format offset printing press. By collecting several small print jobs, it is possible to produce print jobs with small runs on offset printing machines cost-effectively. After printing, however, these various print jobs must be separated again and delivered to the respective customer. Likewise, customers must be provided with the right bills.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method for processing print jobs in a printing machine and a corresponding control software for controlling such a method, which ensures the correct delivery and billing of multiple print jobs.

This object is achieved by the claims 1 and 10, advantageous embodiments of the invention will become apparent from the dependent claims, the drawings and the description.

The present method is suitable for controlling printing presses, which have at least one digitally controllable printing unit and are equipped with a control computer. Furthermore, it is assumed that the data for at least one print job to be reproduced and corresponding process data or commercial data are given for at least one print job. By process data is meant data for processing the print job such as cutting marks or codes for identifying a customer as well as the number of prints to be produced or the like. For the purposes of the present application, commercial data encompasses all data which are required for calculating the price of the print job and which are mostly reflected in the invoice accompanying the print job. The data for the print image and the process data or commercial data are preferably in digital form, eg. B. in JDF format, delivered to the computer of the printing and processed according to the present invention. It is provided according to the invention that the computer, which may be housed in the printing press, but which may also be a separate computer, in particular a server for capturing and collecting multiple print jobs, from the process data or the commercial data for the print job image content created an accompanying print product. This means that in addition to the data for the print image and the resulting print products at least one other accompanying print product is created, which is then printed on the press. This accompanying print product contains process data and / or commercial data, in particular billing data. This image content created in this way is then also applied to a printing material in the printing press during the processing of the actual print job and printed. In this way, invoices can be automatically generated from the data of the print job. The corresponding commercial data, the computer z. B. take a print job in the form of the JDF format. In this way, a corresponding invoice for each print job can be automatically printed simultaneously. This is especially true Web-to-print process is important because it ensures that the right invoice is printed and assigned for each print job at the same time.

In a first advantageous embodiment of the present invention, it is provided that the printing press is a sheet-fed printing press and that the image content for the accompanying printed product is applied to a sheet-shaped printing material. In principle, the inventive method can also be used to control web-fed rotary printing presses, but it can be particularly advantageous for controlling sheetfed presses, since the accompanying printed product can be printed on a separate sheet-shaped substrate and not cut out of the printed web as in a web-fed rotary printing press must become. In the present invention, therefore, the image content for the accompanying printed product, in particular the invoice, printed on a separate sheet-shaped substrate, so that the bill is made directly with the associated print job together. It is particularly advantageous if the image content of the accompanying printed product is printed immediately before or after the printing of the edition of the at least one print image of the print job. In this way, it is ensured that the accompanying printed product is arranged directly together with the printing materials of the print image of the print job in the delivery of the printing press. In this case, the accompanying print product is either on top of the respective print job or it is just below the print job. In this way, the individual print jobs are simultaneously separated from each other by the accompanying print product.

In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention it is provided that the substrates are arcuate and that the printing press has a boom with a delivery stack, wherein the sheet-shaped substrates with the edition of at least one print image of the print job together with the immediately before or after printed accompanying printed product in Boom stack of substrates of a previous or next print job by markers, in particular enclosed strips are separated. By this type of marking, the print jobs can also be visually delimited from each other and the printer can this Separate visually delimited print jobs in the delivery pile of the press easily. For this purpose, in particular a so-called strip inserter, which in most cases is already present, can be used, which is able to insert marking strips into the delivery pile in an arc-shaped manner. Typically, the strip puncher are used to separate good sheets from bad sheets or to mark particular sample sheets. In accordance with the present invention, the strip pusher is used to optically separate print jobs from each other on top of or just below accompanying print products. Instead of the strip Einschießers it is of course also possible to mark the accompanying printed products, for example, laterally, so that the print jobs are also visually separated from each other by a colored marking of the accompanying printed products and can be easily separated in the delivery stack.

Advantageously, it is also provided that, when printing the accompanying printed product, a reduced printed image of the at least one printed image of the print job is printed on the printing material of the accompanying printed product in the printing press. In this case, the computer calculates from the print image of the print job to be printed a reduced print image, which z. B. is also printed on the accompanying printed product with the commercial data. In this way, it is possible to accommodate an invoice and a reduced printed image in the accompanying printed product, so that the customer and the printer already based on the z. B. on top of the bill can see which print job it is. The application of a reduced printed image facilitates identification and avoids errors in the assignment of the print job. This reduced print image, the calculator can calculate directly from the digital data of the print image of the print job by reducing or reducing the resolution.

Furthermore, it is provided that both the at least one printed image and the image content of the accompanying printed product are printed on the printing substrate by means of digital printing methods, in particular inkjet printing methods or electrophotography methods. In this case, the print jobs are processed on a pure digital printing machine, which either by the inkjet printing process or Electrophotography process work, whereby a mixture of inkjet and electrophotography is possible by using appropriate printing units with different technology. Since such a digital printing machine is able to print a different printed image on each printing material, the printing of the accompanying printed product here is not a printing-technical problem. In this respect, basically any digital printing press can be significantly improved with the method according to the invention and a corresponding control software.

But it is also possible that the at least one printed image is applied to the substrate by means of a non-digital printing process, in particular offset printing process, flexographic printing or gravure printing method, that the image content of the accompanying printed product is applied to the substrate in the digital printing process and that the two different printing processes are carried out in the same printing press. In this case, an offset printing machine, flexo printing machine or a gravure printing machine is additionally equipped with a digital printing unit which operates by the inkjet or electrophotography method. This digital printing unit then produces the accompanying printed product, while the print image of the actual print job is produced by the offset printing method, flexographic printing method or gravure printing method. The advantage of such a printing machine with combined printing method is that the actual printed image in the offset printing process, flexo printing process or gravure printing process can usually be produced more cost-effectively, faster and in better quality than on a pure digital printing machine. Since the accompanying print product is usually a single invoice, speed, quality and price are irrelevant here. In this way, the best of several printing methods can be combined with one another by the combined use of a plurality of printing methods in a printing press, thus performing the method according to the invention particularly efficiently.

Since the method according to the invention essentially consists of a control software which processes the digital data of a print job and activates the printing press or the pre-press accordingly, the method according to the invention can also be used in existing printing machines, provided that these machines have at least one digital printing unit for the production of the accompanying printed product.

Figur 1

eine schematische Übersicht über eine erfindungsgemäß ausgerüstete Druckmaschine und

Figur 2

einen nach dem erfindungsgemäßen Verfahren produzierten Stapel im Ausleger einer Bogendruckmaschine.

The present invention will be described and explained in more detail below with reference to two figures. Show it:

FIG. 1

a schematic overview of an inventively equipped printing machine and

FIG. 2

a stack produced by the process according to the invention in the boom of a sheet-fed press.

In FIG. 1 is a sheet-fed printing machine 1 shown, which has four offset printing units 2, which produce the actual print image of a print job in the print run in four-color printing. In addition, the printing machine 1 has a digital printing unit 8, which works with inkjet technology or after the electrophotography principle. With the digital printing unit 8, it is possible to produce individual substrates 7 individually. In the boom 3 of the printing machine 1, both the substrates 7 of the edition with the actual print image of each print job and the accompanying printed products produced in the digital printing unit 8 are then stored on their substrates 7 on a delivery stack 4. The print jobs for the printing press 1 are preferably received via the Internet by one or more computers 5. The computers 5 can also be used to control the printing machine 1, but it can also be separate computer 5, which are connected via a network such as LAN with the control of the printing press 1. In particular, the computers 5 can be equipped with software which collects print jobs via an Internet portal. In this way, it is possible to automatically produce print jobs in the web-to-print process on the printing press 1. In this case, a plurality of print jobs are collected on the computers 5 in order to then combine these print jobs into a printing form. The digital printing form thus produced is then transferred to a plate setter, not shown sent, where the corresponding real printing plates for the offset printing units 2 are produced. In parallel, the computer 5 creates from the process data or the commercial data which are contained in the data of the respective print job, a so-called accompanying printed product, which in particular comprises an invoice sheet 6. This accompanying printed product is produced by means of the digital printing unit 8 of the printing machine 1, wherein the corresponding data for the accompanying printed product are transmitted from the computer 5 via the network to the printing machine 1. If the print job including print image and accompanying process data or commercial data is in JDF format, the accompanying print product can be created particularly easily in the computer 5 and generate a corresponding invoice sheet 6 in the digital printing unit 8.

Of the FIG. 2 can be seen how the delivery pile 4 looks after the processing of the print jobs. It can be seen that in the delivery stack 4 is always on the substrates 7 of the edition with the actual print image of the print job on top of each an invoice sheet 6. This invoice sheet 6 thus belongs to the underlying printing materials 7 of the respective print job. At the same time separate the invoice sheet 6, the substrates 7 multiple print jobs visually.

If several print jobs are collected on a printing form on the printing machine 1 according to the web-to-print printing method, the printing substrates 7 and the sheet 6 contain not only the image content of a single print job and the corresponding invoice, but a printing substrate 7 and a Invoice sheet 6 contains the print images of several print jobs or several invoices. In the calculation of the print data for the invoice sheets 6, the computer 5 ensures that the invoice sheet 6 with the invoices of several print jobs is designed so that the respective invoice in the invoice sheet 6 lies exactly above the print / print image of the associated print job of the print media 7 , This arrangement is in FIG. 2 indicated by the dashed lines in the top sheet 6 invoice. Here it can be seen that four print jobs are printed on a printing substrate 7, wherein on the invoice sheet 6 each of the matching four invoices are printed. Each invoice of the invoice sheet 6 is exactly above the respective use of the print image of the associated print job, as indicated by the lateral dashed lines of the printing materials 7 of the first print job on the stack 4. The produced delivery pile 4 can then be easily processed by the stack is cut along the dashed lines and so the bills of the invoice sheet 6 and the benefits on the substrates 7 are separated. In this way, then arise from the delivery pile 4 in FIG. 2 four separate stacks, which only contain an overhead invoice and the associated benefits of each print job. In this way, it is ensured that the printing of a print job is always assigned the appropriate invoice, even if the print images of several print jobs or the invoices of multiple print jobs are arranged on a substrate 7 and an invoice sheet 6. Thus, in particular, the present invention substantially improves and facilitates web-to-print printing.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

press

2

Offset printing

3

boom

4

delivery pile

5

computer

6

bill bow

7

substrates

8th

Digital printing

Claims (10)

Method for processing print jobs in a printing machine (1) with at least one digitally controllable printing unit (8) and a computer (5), wherein a print job comprises at least the data for at least one print image as well as process data or commercial data,
characterized,
in that the computer (5) generates the image content for an accompanying printed product (6) from the process data or the commercial data for the print job, and that this image content is applied to a printing material (7) on the printing press (1) during the processing of the print job. Method according to claim 1,
characterized,
that the printing press (1) is a sheet-fed printing press and that the image content for the accompanying printed product (6) is applied to an arcuate printing material (7). Method according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized,
that the data of the print job contains cut marks or codes to identify a customer. Method according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized,
that the commercial data includes the content of an invoice to a customer. Method according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized,
that the image content of the concomitantly forming printed product (6) is printed at least one print image of the print job immediately before or after printing of the support. Method according to claim 5,
characterized,
in that the printing materials (7) are arcuate and that the printing press (1) has a delivery arm (3) with a delivery stack (4), wherein the sheet-shaped substrates (7) of the support with the at least one printed image of the print job together with the immediately before or printed subsequently accompanying print product (6) in the delivery stack (4) of substrates (7) of a previous or next print job by markings, in particular shot strips are separated. Method according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized,
in that, on printing the accompanying printed product (6), a reduced printed image of the at least one printed image of the print job is printed on the printing material (7) of the accompanying printed product (6) in the printing press (1). Method according to one of the preceding claims,
characterized,
in that both the at least one printed image and the image content of the accompanying printed product (6) are printed on the printing substrate (7) by means of digital printing processes, in particular inkjet printing processes or electrophotography processes. Method according to one of claims 1 to 7,
characterized,
in that the at least one printed image is applied to the printing substrate (7) by means of a non-digital printing process, in particular offset printing process, flexographic printing process or gravure printing process, that the image content of the accompanying printed product (6) is applied to the printing material (7) in the digital printing process and that the two different printing processes in the same printing machine (1) are performed. Computer program product for controlling a method according to one of the preceding claims.

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