EP0169489B1 - Device for folding and processing prints - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a device for folding and further processing of printed copies which are fed to one or more folding units via cutting devices by means of belt transport systems, after which the folded products are collected and / or laid out.

From the specialist book "Atlas of Newspaper and Illustration Printing", Polygraph-Verlag, by Alexander Braun, it is already known to fold, collate and process printing substrate webs printed in printing machines by means of rotating elements, such as folding knife cylinders, folding jaw cylinders and collecting cylinders, after previous cutting, to be laid out, for example, via paddle wheels (see for example pages 78 ff.) From page 85 of the same technical book it is also known to push sheets or sheet packs between a pair of rollers to produce a fold. All these known devices have the disadvantage that the folding units have to be operated at machine speed. As the print output increases, i.e. the machine speed increases, problems arise with a proportional increase in the speed of the folding units.

• Fig. 1 eine Gesamtdarstellung der erfindungsgemäßen Vorrichtung zum Falzen und Weiterverarbeiten,
• Fig. 2 detailliertere Ansichten der Falz- und Sammeltische gemäß Fig. 1,
• Fig. 3 eine Anordnung zum Falzen und Zusammentragen von Produkten zur Erzeugung von Zeitschriften oder Büchern,
• Fig. 4 eine in Fig. 1 verwendete vorteilhafte Verzögerungsstufe und
• Fig. 5 bis 7 vorteilhafte Weinchenausbildungen, die in der Vorrichtung gemäß Fig. 1 verwendet werden.

The object of the invention is to provide a device for folding and further processing of printed copies, in which, despite the increasing speed of printing presses, folding can be carried out at a relatively low speed, and also an individual merging of the print carrier webs to be processed, possibly with the insertion of brochures and the like, and a simple further processing adapted to the individual requirements should be possible with the folded products. This object is achieved by applying the features of the characterizing part of claim 1. Further developments of the invention result from the subclaims and from the description in conjunction with the drawings. Each of these shows schematically:

• 1 is an overall view of the device according to the invention for folding and further processing,
• 2 detailed views of the folding and collecting tables according to FIG. 1,
• 3 shows an arrangement for folding and collating products for producing magazines or books,
• Fig. 4 shows an advantageous delay stage used in Fig. 1 and
• 5 to 7 advantageous Weinchenausbildung that are used in the device of FIG. 1.

As already mentioned at the beginning, the generally known folders for rotary printing presses work at full machine speed. In order to be able to lay out the folded products, they had to be slowed down. The operations to be performed frequently in the folder, such as gathering and stapling, also had to be done at full machine speed, i.e. at the speed of the web out of the printing press. With the increasing running speed of modern printing machines, it was necessary to increase the speeds of the folders proportionally, which was increasingly difficult to control. In addition, the shingled streams formed in the folders or at their outlets were not ideal for further processing into magazines or books. For example, only limited page numbers could be processed, for which mainly physical reasons are responsible for the folding process. For this reason, the folded products that have been laid out have previously been bundled and stored in order to be processed later with other folded products manufactured in the same or a similar manner, possibly with the addition of supplements or envelopes, to the finished copy. It goes without saying that this further processing operation was very complex and time-consuming. The folded products had to be opened and gathered, stapled and trimmed. The units that achieved this worked at a much lower speed than the printing press and the folder downstream of it, so that a large number of similar devices had to be used in order to avoid bottlenecks. The device described in the following offers the advantage of a so-called "inline production", that is to say the production from the printed paper roll to the end product, that is to say a finished magazine or a book.

According to FIG. 1, print carrier webs 1a, 1b are each fed to one of the cutting cylinder pairs 5a, 5b via pulling roller pairs 2a to 4a, in which the printing carrier webs 1a, 1b are cross-cut, after which they pass through so-called tear-off roller pairs 6a, 6b. The cut folding products, referred to in the following sheet 7a, 8a or 7b, 8b, preferably experience a certain amount of advance so that they are spaced apart. For this purpose, the downstream unit, including pairs of cutting cylinders 5a, 5b, is preferably provided with an individually controllable individual drive, so that it always runs with a slight advance, based on the print carrier webs 1a, 1b. The speed of the print carrier webs 1a, 1 is determined by the peripheral speeds of the preceding forme cylinders (not shown here) in the printing units. Since the pair of cutting cylinders 5 the sheets in time cuts, the lead must be kept as low as possible. When using a pair of circumferentially variable cutting cylinders, the cutting bars 9a, 9b and the associated grooved bars 10a, 10b can each be changed radially towards the center of the cylinders. It is understood that in this case the circumference and the center-to-center distance of the cylinders must be changed accordingly.

The sheets 8a, 7a, 8b, 7b are deflected by rollers 11a, 11b and then fed to a first sheet switch 12 which separates the sheets so that sheet 7a always goes up, sheet 8a down, for example. Since the distance between the arches now doubles, the first braking can take place in braking stages 13 or 14. An embodiment of such a braking stage will be described in more detail later. The sheet travel now continues separately, 7a above, 8a below, via rollers 15 and 16, switches 17 and 18 and finally rollers 19 and 20 or 21 and 22 again to switches 23 and 24, where a repeated splitting, connected with a further increase in distance followed by braking in stages 25 to 28. The same process is repeated after passing rollers 29 to 32 in switches 33 to 36 and braking stages 37a to 37h until the sheets finally reach folding tables 38a to 38h, which are followed by collecting tables 39a to 39h.

Envelopes or inserts can be fed from a roller 40, the tracks of which are separated by a pair of cutting cylinders 41 and accelerated as a sheet in the tear-off rollers 42, and likewise from a roller 44 via a pair of cutting cylinders 45, tear-off rollers 46 and a switch 47 the addition of supplements.

In the following, a collecting and folding process will now be described, in which the sheets 7a to 8b are collected and provided with an envelope and an insert. In the case of the roller 11a, for example, sheets 7a and 7b are folded together and separated by the switches 12 from sheets 8a with 8b so that sheets 7a, 7b go up, sheets 8a, 8b down. The switch 17 is switched so that 4 sheet packs 7a, 7b successively reach the folding tables 38a to 38d, while four packets 8a, 8b are also brought to the folding tables 38e to 38h via the switch 18. At the same time, envelopes can be fed to the package from sheets 7a, 7b from roll 40 via switches 43 and 18 on roller 19 and supplements from roll 44 via switch 48 on roller 20. The entire package, consisting of the envelope, the sheets 7a, 7b and the insert, is now folded onto the folding tables 38a to 38d and immediately afterwards fed to the collecting tables 39a to 39d in the open state. The packages 8a, 8b have meanwhile also been folded on the folding tables 38e to 38h and come on the collecting tables 39e to 39h. If necessary, the collecting tables 39e to 39h staple the entire package immediately after taking over the sheets 8a, 8b and deliver them one after the other. Now the switches 17 and 18 are switched so that the sheets 7a, 7b are fed down to the roller 22 and the sheets 8a, 8b are fed up to the roller 20. The switch 43 then also guides the envelopes to the roller 22 and the switch 48 feeds the inserts to the roller 22. The entire package, consisting of envelope, sheets 7a, 7b and insert, now goes to folding tables 38e to 38h and from there, after folding, to the now empty collecting tables 39e to 39h. Likewise, the sheets 8a, 8b have reached the folding tables 38a to 38d, from where they are transported after folding to the collecting tables 39a to 39d, on which the folded package of envelope, sheet 7a, 7b and insert is already open. Now staple with subsequent delivery.

Fig. 2 shows an enlarged plan view of the folding and collecting tables along the line I-I. As described in connection with FIG. 1, a sheet package 49 reaches the folding table 38 and is immediately aligned here by adjustable and controlled stops 50.

For example, the gripper-shaped stops 50a and 50d take over the product in a controlled upward and downward movement, while the stops 50b and 50c hold the specimen lying on the folding table. Before the stops 50a and 50d press the sheet firmly onto the folding table 38, gripper-like pushes also take place Stops 51a to 51d in a likewise mutually controlled movement arc to the stops 50a to 50d, the stops 52a to 52d also taking over the lateral guidance in a controlled movement parallel to the fold center. Since the copy consists of individual sheets, which may have to be aligned with one another, the stops 50, 51 move slightly against one another and warp upwards away from the folding table 38. A folding knife 53 then takes over part of the alignment work during the folding process. The folding table can support this process by vibrating. Only as many sheets can be collected on the folding table 38 as a flawless folding process allows. When folding, the gripper-shaped stops 50a to 50d hold the sheets in place, while the folding knife 53 pushes the specimen 49 in a controlled downward movement into the folding flap 54, which forms a folding pin due to a short, rapid closing movement. The copy thus remains open during the folding process. After the folding flap and folding knife have released it, it is taken over by the gripper arm 55 in the position shown in dashed lines and pulled onto the collecting table 39, with gripper-like stops 56a to 56d, 57a to 57d and 58a to 58d in the same Take over and align as described for the folding table 38. In the device shown in FIG. 2, the gripper arm 55 can also pull a pre-folded copy 60 from the folding table 38 over the collecting table 39 during the backward movement into the dashed position. The collecting table 39 takes over as many pre-folded copies 49, 60 as are required to produce the finished copy. After completing this process, the collected specimen can be stapled by stapling heads 61a and 61b and stapler 62a and 62b. For this purpose, the stapling heads 61 a and 61 b move into the center of the fold in order to swivel away again after stapling has taken place. Immediately afterwards, a folding knife 63 pushes the specimen into pick-up tongues 64a to 64c. If, for example, the pick-up tongues have four chambers, as shown in FIG. 2, up to four finished copies can be taken over by advancing the tongues 64 in the direction of the arrow. They are then pulled out laterally together by the gripper 65, as shown in section along the line 11-11 in FIG. 2, and fed to further transport systems of a known type, not shown here.

Each of the four chambers of the receiving tongues 64a to 64c shown in FIG. 2 can contain a folded product 66 provided with a corresponding number of pages. If stapling is dispensed with, the sum of all four chambers results in a collected copy 67, which has grown to the size of the book. It is also completely taken over by the gripper 65 and, as shown later, fed to further processing stations up to the finished book. For the purpose of book production, the pair of cutting cylinders 5a of FIG. 1 can be provided on the circumference with two cutting bars 9a and grooved bars 10a in order to obtain smaller section lengths for the smaller book formats. For this purpose, all stops 50a to 50d, 51a to 51d, 52a to 52d, 56a to 56d, 57a to 57d, and 58a to 58d on the folding and collecting tables can also be adjusted to the respective format size.

Fig. 3 shows a top view of a complete book and magazine production system. Four printed print carrier webs 74 to 77, for example, come from four rows of printing units 68a to 68d, each of which is processed in the same way as described with reference to FIG. 1. A total of four complete units according to FIG. 1 are located in the areas from the web 74 to the collecting table 39, from the path 75 to the collecting table 71, from the path 76 to the collecting table 69 and from the path 77 to the collecting table 72 on both machine walls 78 and 79 suspended on one side and thus accessible at any time from catwalks 80 and 81. As further shown in FIG. 3, envelopes or inserts can be introduced from web storage rolls 82 to 85 onto the folding tables 38, 59, 70, 73 on the paths indicated by directional arrows. Alternatively, copies that have already been folded could be fed in from stacks 86 to 89. Of course, instead of the printing units 68a to 68d, storage rolls could also be used, e.g. B. previously printed and stored on the rolls of print carrier webs. As already indicated on the rollers 40 and 44 in FIG. 1, each storage roller 82 to 85 receives an associated pair of cutting cylinders and an associated pair of tear-off rollers which bring the cut sheets to the respective insertion speed. 3 could be used to produce both magazines and books. The folded and, if necessary, stapled copies either leave the collecting tables 39, 69, 71 and 72 directly in the arrow directions 90, 91, 92 and 93 or they are passed on from collecting table to collecting table as shown by the arrow directions in FIG. 3. For example, the pre-folded copies can still reach the collecting tables 71 to 39 and from 72 to 69 in the still open state, then the ones collected on the table 69 to the table 39, where they can be received in the receiving tongues 64a to in the manner shown in FIG 64c. With larger page numbers, however, this sheet transport is also possible in the closed state directly on the plane of the receiving tongues 64 (FIG. 2). Each of the collecting tables 39, 69, 71 and 72 has receiving tongues below the table level, from which the closed specimens with a gripper, similar to the gripper 65 in FIG. 2, can go from 71 to 39 and from 72 to 69. The specimen packages below tables 39 and 69 are then brought by grippers 65, FIG. 2, in the direction of arrow transport 90 and 92, respectively, the specimens being brought from 92 to 90 and being summarized here. Basically, depending on requirements, sheet transport is possible in the open state within the collecting table level or in the closed state within the receiving tongue level.

As further shown in FIG. 3, the copy packages arrive in the direction of arrow 90 via a milling station into a glue station 95, where they can be processed with envelopes 96 into finished books.

The performance of a system according to FIG. 1 or can be seen only from the number of folding and collecting tables. It can be expanded as required. In the case of a number of eight folding and collecting tables according to FIG. 1, the sheet speed directly in front of the folding tables can be reduced to 1/8 of the web speed of the infeed strand. The folding, gathering and stapling movements therefore take place at much lower speeds.

FIG. 4 shows a section along line 111-111 through one of the numerous braking stations within the strip line, for example station 13 of FIG. 1. The strip line with speed V consists of ten strips 97 in the upper part and ten bands 98 in the lower part, likewise the band line with the speed V ₂ from ten bands 99 in the upper part and ten bands 100 in the lower part. Between these two ribbon cables is a ribbon cable with variable speed, consisting, for. B. from ten bands 101 in the upper and ten bands 102 in the lower part. The ribbon cables are supported in the support arms 103 to 110, which receive the roller bearings 111 of the spindles 112 to 115. Each of the two spindles 112 and 113 alternately carries a roller 116 fixedly connected to it and a roller 118 mounted thereon via the roller bearing 117, while each of the two spindles 114 and 115 also alternately carries a roller 119 firmly connected to it and one on a freewheel 120 mounted roller 121 carries. The intermediate band line, consisting of the bands 101 and 102, can now assume any speed that lies between V and V ₂ . If it has dropped to V ₂ , it is driven via freewheels 120 by shafts 115 and 114, which in turn are driven by the belts 99 and 100 with V ₂ via the roller 115. On the other hand, the roller bearings 117 do not allow driving at the speed V, the belts 97 and 98. If a sheet is transported in the belts 97 and 98 at the speed V, and reaches the area of the disks 116 and 118, the belts 101 and 102 are accelerated by the frictional engagement of the paper on the circumference of the roller 118. The sheet is only transported at the speed V until the end has passed the rollers 116 and 118. Then the speed gradually decreases due to friction and air resistance. If it has dropped to V ₂ , the belts 101 and 102 are driven via the freewheels 120. This is at the latest when the rollers 119 and 121 are reached, where the frictional engagement on the circumference of the rollers 121 adjusts the speed to that of the firmly driven belts 99 and 100. Due to the constant acceleration and deceleration of the intermediate belt line, this should have the lowest possible degree of inertia and should have a smooth-running bearing. The roles 118 and 121 are therefore advantageous z. B. in plastic. This type of sheet braking ensures that the sheet is clamped anywhere between the tapes and is not transported in a floating manner between tape lines of different speeds in the previous manner. 5 to 7 are some advantageous, z. T. new types of turnouts shown. In Fig. 5 the coming from the ribbon line 122 z. B. in a known manner by controlled deflection of the tongue 123 in one or the other position in the ribbon line 124 or 125. In Fig. 6 this deflection is done in a new way by air nozzles 126 and 127, which press the sheet alternately by their air jet to the opposite tape line, ie the nozzles 126 against the tape line 128 or the nozzles 127 against the tape line 129, so that they for Further transport into which the following belt jaw 130 or 131 arrives. The nozzles 126 and 127, which are provided with openings in the form of tubes, are seated, for example, on fixed rollers 132 or 133. The former are rotating in the direction of the arrow in a clockwise manner to the arc, and they cover the openings 134 and 135 in the air supply tubes 136 and 137, and thus controlled release of the air outlet.

In FIG. 7, the beginning of the curve is also introduced alternately in a new manner by cams 140 and 141, firmly connected with toothed belts 138 and 139, into the gap between the belts 142 or 143 on the one hand and the fixed guide tongue 144 on the other hand, and together with the belts 142 and 143 transported into the ligament mouth 145 or 146.

Claims (7)

1. Device for folding and processing printed copies, which are conveyed over cutting devices by means of conveyor belt systems to one or several folding units, after which the folded products are gathered up and/or laid out, characterised in that behind the cutting units (5a, 5b, 41, 45) diverters (12, 17, 18, 43, 48, 23, 24, 33, 34, 35, 36) are arranged, between and behind which braking stages (13, 14, 25 to 28; 37a to 37h) are inserted, in that the delayed copies (7a, 7b, 8a, 8b) guided over diverters and still to be folded can be transported to one of several folding tables (38a to 38h), on which they are aligned and fixed by devices (50a to 50d) and can be pushed respectively by one folding blade (53) arranged above the folding table (e.g. 38a) into a folding jaw arranged below the folding table (38a) and which can be closed for a short time, to produce the fold, after which the folded copies (e.g. 49) are drawn by means of further transport devices (55) respectively to a collecting table (e.g. 39a) onto which several prefolded copies (e.g. 60) from other folding tables (e.g. 49) are conveyed with the same fold, in that the folded copies (49, 60) are pushed by a folding blade (63) arranged above the collecting table (39) into movable receiving containers (64a to 64c) arranged below the collecting table (39).

2. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the movable receiving containers (64a to 64c) can be moved below the collecting tables (39) to receive further collected folded copies (49, 60).

3. Device according to claim 1 or 2, characterised in that below the collecting tables (39) stitching heads (61 a, 61 b) are arranged, and above the collecting tables (39) stitch sealers (62a, 62b) are arranged, and in that the stitching heads (61 a, 61 b) can be moved for a short time into the folding direction.

4. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that several collecting tables (39) are arranged one behind the other and next to each other, to which respectively folded copies (49, 60) can be conveyed over one side of adjacent folding tables (38, 59), which copies can be conveyed below the collecting tables (39) in a straight line or at right angles thereto to further collecting tables (39) or to a stitching- and/or gluing point (94 to 96).

5. Device according to one of the preceding claims, characterised in that the braking stages (e.g. 13) incorporate a lower and an upper belt system (101, 102) with variable speed, which is arranged between a belt system (97, 98) running at a higher speed in V₁ and a belt system (99, 100) running at a lower speed (V₂) whereby the belt system (101, 102) running with variable speed is guided respectively over free-wheels (120, 117, 118) on shafts (112, 115), to which the belt systems (97, 98; 99, 100) running at higher speed (V₁) and lower speed (V₂) are also conveyed without slipping.

6. Device according to one of the preceding claims characterised in that the diverters (e.g. 12) are divided respectively by means of fixed tongues (144) by deflecting devices (140, 141) secured on circulating belt systems (138, 139) arranged on both sides of the transport path.

7. Device according to one of the preceding claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the diverters (Fig. 6) incorporate blast nozzles (134, 135) arranged on both sides of the folded product path, which nozzles deflect these into one of two belt lines (130, 131) and which respectively comprise a fixed inner tube (136, 137) on which blast apertures (134, 135) can be cyclically covered by a rotating outer tube (133, 132) with apertures (126, 127).

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