EP1654120A1

EP1654120A1 - Offset rotary press comprising a plurality of printing units that contain form and transfer cylinders for first printing and perfecting

Info

Publication number: EP1654120A1
Application number: EP04731942A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Günther Oskar ECKERT; Ulrich Christian Wicke
Original assignee: Koenig and Bauer AG
Current assignee: Koenig and Bauer AG
Priority date: 2003-08-11
Filing date: 2004-05-10
Publication date: 2006-05-10
Also published as: DE10336723A1; WO2005016646A1

Abstract

The invention relates to an offset rotary press comprising a plurality of printing units that contain form (11) and transfer cylinders (9) for first printing and perfecting, said printing units having a respective defined running direction. In each of said printing units, the circumference of the plate cylinder (11) corresponds to a page to be printed. At least five of said printing units are provided one above the other in a printing tower (02, 03, 04), which comprises guide elements (12) for simultaneously guiding a first web of printing material (19.1 to 19.8) through a first group and a second web of printing material (19.1 to 19.8) through a second group of said printing units.

Description

2004-05-10

description

Web offset printing machine with a plurality of printing units with form and transfer cylinders for perfecting

The present invention relates to a web offset printing press with a plurality of printing units with form and transfer cylinders for face and reverse printing according to the preamble of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4.

For many print jobs, four colors are not required on all sides of the product to be printed. Only those webs that actually receive four-color pages must be fed through these printing units corresponding to four colors; for other webs with less color, the number of printing units passed through may be smaller. This fact is used to guide additional webs through the printing units that remain free and to simultaneously print as large a number of webs as possible, depending on the print job and the required colors of the individual webs.

Different color distributions from one print job to another make it necessary to be able to guide the webs in a variety of different ways through variable numbers of printing units. A very high degree of variability is achieved with reversible printing units in satellite design, that is to say with printing units in which a plurality of printing nips are arranged on an impression cylinder and the direction of passage of the webs to be printed on can be switched through the printing nips. Such satellite printing units offer the possibility of printing several webs at the same time by guiding them through different printing nips on the same impression cylinder. The reversibility required for this, however, places special demands on dampening and inking units, which bring the same performance in both possible directions of rotation of a plate cylinder on which they act 2004-05-10

have to. In addition, the satellite design for generating predetermined colors on several webs may require a complicated web guide, which makes the preparation of a print job lengthy and prone to errors.

EP 0933200 A1 shows an offset printing unit, the plate cylinder of which has one side on the circumference.

From US 13 10658 A a printing press with five printing units arranged one above the other is known.

EP 0878299 A1 describes a web offset printing press with a plurality of printing towers, each printing tower having five bridge printing units arranged one above the other. The fifth printing unit can be operated alternately with the printing unit underneath for the flying plate change.

The invention has for its object to provide a web offset printing press with a plurality of printing units with form and transfer cylinders for perfecting.

The object is achieved by the features of claims 1, 2, 3 or 4.

The combination of at least five printing units in a tower creates the possibilities of printing a first web in four colors and at least a second web in one color in this tower. By swapping the printing units through which the first and second webs are guided, it is very easy to swap the colors in a stack of webs fed to a folder at the same time between adjacent webs. However, swaps of colors between non-immediately adjacent paths are also possible, such as the following ones 2004-05-10

Embodiments will show.

The circumference of the plate cylinders in the printing units is preferably selected to be equal to the height of an individual printing plate, such a printing plate being able to accommodate a single upright printing page (in broadsheet production) or two pages lying side by side (in tabloid production). Such a plate cylinder is, on the one hand, less expensive to produce than common plate cylinders with twice the circumference, and furthermore they minimize the running costs for operating the system, since the same printing plate is never required twice to carry out a print job.

In adaptation to the small size of the plate cylinder, preferably no collective operating mode is provided in a folder of the web offset printing press according to the invention. Such a mode only makes sense if two different printing plates are mounted one behind the other in the circumferential direction on the plate cylinder. The omission of the collective mode of operation simplifies the construction of the folder and thereby reduces its costs; secondly, it makes it necessary to operate the folder at much higher speeds, since complicated and discontinuous movements in the folder associated with the collector are eliminated.

To stabilize the operation, the circumference of the transfer cylinder should be a multiple of the circumference of the plate cylinder.

In order to accommodate the offset printing system in existing premises, the height of the printing unit tower should not be too large. Therefore, the tower preferably contains exactly five printing units.

At least two printing units of the tower are preferably one known per se 2004-05-10

H-printing unit summarized, in which two rubber-against-rubber printing units are approximately mirror-symmetrically opposite one another. The other printing units of the tower are preferably designed as bridge printing units

The plate cylinders of the printing units should be able to be set down by the transfer cylinder assigned to them, so that they do not have to run when this is not necessary, for example due to different colors of different sides of a printing material web

The printing system preferably comprises eight unrolling devices for printing material, in order to be able to produce up to 128 pages in tabloid production or up to 64 pages in broadsheet production. These eight unrolling devices are preferably opposed to three to four printing towers

The guide elements of the printing system can preferably also be used to guide a web of printing material through all five printing units of a tower. The fifth printing unit can thus be used for an Impπnter functionality or for a flying plate change

Exemplary embodiments of the invention are shown in the drawings and are described below

Show it

1 shows a schematic section through a printing system according to the invention with a first example of a web guide that can be implemented therein,

2 shows the distribution of the colors on the individual webs or sides of the printed product resulting from the web guide shown in FIG. 1, 2004-05-10

Fig. 3 in a schematic section analogous to that of Figure 1, a second example of a web guide.

4 shows the color distribution resulting from the second web guide;

5 shows a third example of a web guide;

6 shows the color distribution resulting from the web guide of FIG. 5; and

Fig. 7 shows a detail of an alternative embodiment of a printing tower.

Fig. 1 shows a schematic section through a printing system according to the invention. On a pedestal 01 there are three printing towers 02; 03; 04 and a single H-printing unit 06 set up side by side. As indicated by a dashed outline, the individual H-printing unit 06 can optionally be supplemented to form a fourth printing tower by adding a second H-printing unit and a bridge printing unit. The structure of all printing towers 02; 03; 04 the same, with two H-printing units 07 stacked on top of each other and as the upper end of a bridge printing unit 08. As shown in a detail in FIG. 7, however, a printing tower 02 could also be constructed exclusively from bridge printing units 08. The H printing units 06, 07 are each formed by two bridge printing units for double-sided monochrome printing of a web to be printed, the bridge printing unit 08 forms a single printing unit.

Each bridge printing unit 08, rotatably suspended between frame plates, comprises two blanket or transfer cylinders 09 which rotate in contact with one another and form a printing nip through which a web to be printed can be guided. Each transfer cylinder 09 is assigned a forme cylinder 11, in particular a plate cylinder 11, which is in contact with the transfer cylinder 09 between an active position 2004-05-10

and an inactive position, in which there is no contact with the transfer cylinder 09, is adjustable. The circumference of the plate cylinder 11 corresponds to the length of a single printing plate; the circumference of the transfer cylinder 09 is twice as large. The transfer cylinders 09 can only be rotated in a direction that corresponds to a direction of passage of a printing material web through the printing nip from bottom to top. Dyeing and dampening units which act on the plate cylinder 11 are not shown for the sake of clarity.

The H-printing units 06, 07 each have two pairs of transfer cylinders 09 or plate cylinders 11, which are connected to the corresponding cylinders 09; 11 of the bridge printing units are identical and also only allow one pass of the printing material web from bottom to top.

Between the printing units 07; 08 of a printing tower and between the two printing columns of an H printing unit 06; 07, various deflecting rollers 12 are arranged, which are not specifically shown in the figure, but only in the form of a change in direction of a printing material web 19 guided through the printing unit in question, until 19 ₈ at the location of such a deflecting roller 12.

Under the pedestal 01, eight roll changers 13 to 13 ₈ are arranged, which the printing towers 02; 03; 04 feed with the substrate 19, to 19 ₈ .

Above or laterally from the printing towers 02; 03; 04 printed webs 19 to 19 ₈ are brought together in a superstructure of the printing system and cut lengthwise into two partial webs. The superimposed partial webs are each fed to one of two formers 16. The superstructure can be equipped in a manner known per se with turning decks 17 for mixing the webs 19 to 19 ₈ or the partial webs produced from them. The function of the turning decks 17, as is known, is not discussed further here. Instead, for the sake of simplicity, in the further 2004-05-10

Description assumed that the printed products to be produced do not require turning or mixing of the partial webs, knowing that this would result in a further multiplication of the production possibilities.

The in one of the former 16 longitudinally folded partial webs, for the sake of simplicity in each case just like the printing substrate webs 19ι to 19 ₈ , from which they are cut, with 19, to 19 _β , reach a folder 18 in which they are separated and folded to form signatures ,

In the web guiding example shown in FIG. 1, the outermost sheet of each signature is generated from the web 19 supplied by the reel changer 13 ₅ . This web 19 enters the lower H-printing unit 07 of the printing tower 04 from below and passes through four printing nips of these units 07 one after the other. The left-hand plate cylinders 11 of these two H-printing units 07 are set against their transfer cylinders 09, so that the web 19, on its left side, which will form the outside of the finished signature, printed in four colors leaves the printing tower 04. The right-hand plate cylinders 11 of the upper H printing unit 07 are turned off, so that the right side of the web 19 is printed in only two colors, as symbolized by the number of triangle symbols at different locations on the web 19.

The second sheet of the signature is generated from the web 19 _{2 of} the reel changer 13 ₆ ; this is first carried up in a riser channel 21 parallel to the printing tower 04 and finally directed through the bridge printing unit 08, where it is printed on both sides in one color. The next two webs 19 ₃ , 19 are each guided through a printing nip of the isolated H printing unit 06, where they are printed in one color on both sides. The fifth web 19 ₅ runs through four printing nips of the two H printing units 07 of the printing tower 02 and is printed in four colors on both sides, a sixth web 19 ₆ in the bridge printing unit 08 of the printing tower 02 is single-color on both sides, a seventh web 19 _? in the bridge printing unit 08 of the printing tower 03 monochrome on both sides and an eighth web 19 ₈ in the H printing units 2004-05-10

07 of the printing tower 03 four-color on both sides. The color distribution shown schematically in FIG. 2 results for the webs 19 1 to 19 ₈ which are each longitudinally divided in the superstructure and fed to the two formers 16. In broadsheet production, each section of a partial web fed to the former 16 produces four sides of a finished product. With the web guide shown, a sixty-four-page product with twenty four-color, four two-color and forty one-color pages is thus obtained. In tabloid production, the page numbers are doubled.

A second example of a possible guidance of the webs 19 to 19 ₈ in the printing system is shown in FIG. 3. The guidance of the tracks 19 to 19 is identical to that of FIG. 1 and is not dealt with again. The two webs 19 ₅ , 19 ₆ are first raised in a riser 21 to the left of the pressure tower 02 at the level of the bridge pressure units 08. Then the web 19 _{6 is} deflected into the bridge printing unit 08 of the printing tower 02 and the web 19 ₈ into that of the printing tower 03. Thus, instead of the webs 19 ₅ , 19 ₈ , as shown in FIG. 1, the webs 19 ₇ , 19 ₈ are printed in four colors on both sides, which results in the color distribution shown schematically in FIG. 4.

In the third web guide example shown in FIG. 5, it is the webs 19 ₅ , 19 ₆ which are printed in four colors on both sides in the H printing units of the printing towers 02, 03. After passing through the H-printing unit 07 of the printing tower 02 or 03, they are deflected into the riser channel 21 to the left of the tower 02 in order to create space so that the two webs 19 ₇ , 19 ₈ , which are in a riser channel to the right of the printing tower 02 have been brought up to the bridge printing units 08 of the two printing towers 02; 03 distributed and there can be printed in one color. The resulting color distribution on the individual webs is shown in FIG. 6.

As you can easily see, there are numerous other variants of the web guide that allow other colors. For example, B. an H-printing unit of a printing tower for two-tone on both sides or two-tone on one side and on the other 2004-05-10

single-color printing of one web can be used, while the second H-printing unit and the bridge printing unit 08 above it can be used for up to three-color printing on another web. It is also possible to print three or more webs in a printing tower with a correspondingly reduced color.

On the other hand, it is also conceivable to guide a single web through all five printing columns of a printing tower, with the help of two printing columns printing the same color, an imprinter functionality can be implemented or a flying plate change can be carried out.

2004-05-10 10

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

01 podium

02 pressure tower

03 pressure tower

04 pressure tower

05 -

06 Printing unit, H printing unit

07 printing unit, H printing unit

08 printing unit, bridge printing unit

09 cylinders, blanket cylinders, transfer cylinders

10 -

11 cylinders, forme cylinders, plate cylinders

12 guide element, deflection roller

13 unwinding device, reel changer

14 -

15 -

16 folding former, longitudinal folding former

17 reversible deck

18 folder

19 web, printing material web

20 -

21 riser

Claims

2004-05-10 11 Claims

1. web offset printing machine with a plurality of printing units with forme cylinders (11) and transfer cylinders (09) for perfecting, with at least one printing tower (02; 03; 04) four printing units are arranged one above the other, with two printing units one web simultaneously on both Printing sides, characterized in that two printing units only print this web on one side and two transfer cylinders of these printing units only act as impression cylinders (09) and the associated forme cylinders (11) are not in contact with these transfer cylinders.

2. Web offset printing press with a plurality of printing units with forme cylinders (11) and transfer cylinders (09) for perfecting, with at least one printing tower (02; 03; 04) five printing units being arranged one above the other, characterized in that the circumference of the transfer cylinder (09) is a multiple of the circumference of the plate cylinder (11).

3. Web offset printing press with a plurality of printing units with forme cylinders (11) and transfer cylinders (09) for perfecting, with at least one printing tower (02; 03; 04) four printing units being arranged one above the other, characterized in that two directly adjacent unrolling devices (13 ₄ ; 13 ₅ ) are arranged and that the printing material web (19 ₈ ) of the one unrolling device (13 ₄ ) on the longitudinal folding former (16) is the lowest printing material web (19 ₈ ) and that the printing material web (19ι) of the other unrolling device (13 ₅ ) on the longitudinal folding former (16) is the uppermost printing material web (19,).

4. Web offset printing press with a plurality of printing units with forme cylinders (11) and transfer cylinders (09) for perfecting, with at least one printing tower (02; 03; 04) having four printing units arranged one above the other, 2004-05-10 12 characterized in that a printing tower (04) has a printing material web (19.1) arranged on one side in four colors and on the other side in two colors.

5. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the printing tower (02; 03; 04) guide elements (12) for simultaneously guiding a first printing material web (19, to 19 ₈ ) by a first group and a second Printing substrate web (19, to 19 ₈ ) by a second group of these printing units.

6. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the plate cylinder (11) has a width of four pages.

7. Web offset printing machine according to claim 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the plate cylinder (11) has four plates in the axial direction and one plate in the circumferential direction.

8. Web offset printing machine according to claim 7, characterized in that a plate has the size of a newspaper page.

9. web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 3 or 4, characterized in that the circumference of the transfer cylinder (09) is a multiple of the circumference of the plate cylinder (11).

10. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that at least two of the five printing units of the printing tower (02; 03; 04) are combined to form an H printing unit (06; 07).

11. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in 2004-05-10 13 that the lower four printing units are designed as two H printing units (06; 07).

12. Web offset printing press according to claim 1, characterized in that the printing units which are not combined to form an H printing unit (06, 07) are bridge printing units (08).

13. Web offset printing machine according to claim 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that at least one plate cylinder (11) of the printing units (06; 07; 08) can be switched off from the transfer cylinder (09), the associated transfer cylinder (09) being connected to the running web ( 19 until 19 ₈ ) is employed.

14. Web offset printing machine according to claim 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the web offset printing machine has eight unrolling devices (13) for printing material (19, to 19 ₈ ).

15. Web offset printing press according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the web offset printing press comprises at least three printing towers (02; A3; 04) with five printing units each.

16. Web offset printing machine according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the web offset printing press comprises guide elements (12) for guiding a single printing material web (19) through all printing units of the at least one printing tower (02, 03, 04).

17. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that at least two printing towers (02; 03; 04) are arranged and that a folding device (16; 18) is arranged between the two printing towers (02; 03; 04) is. 2004-05-10 14

18. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that a printing tower (04) a printing material web (19.1) is arranged on one side in four colors and on the other side printing in two colors.

19. Web offset printing machine according to claim 18, characterized in that this printing material web (19.1) lies on top of a longitudinal folding former (16).

20. Web offset printing machine according to claim 1, 2 or 4, characterized in that two directly adjacent Abrollinrichtungeπ (13 ₄ ; 13 ₅ ) are arranged and that the printing material web (19 ₈ ) of a roll-off device (13) on the longitudinal folding former (16) is the lowest Printing material web (19 ₈ ) and that the printing material web (19,) of the other unrolling device (13 ₆ ) on the longitudinal folding former (16) is the top printing material web (19,).

21. Web offset printing machine according to claim 11, characterized in that a web in the two H printing units (06; 07) is printed on four sides in four colors.

22. Web offset printing machine according to claim 21, characterized in that in the upper bridge printing unit another web is printed on two sides in one color.