EP1777078B2 - Method of processing printed products into batches of printed products successively arranged according to different production requirements - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a method for processing printed products into printed products in batches of the following different production orders in a production plant in parallel connected production lines, consisting of conveyor-linked processing machines and / or devices that are equipped for a production order change and / or retrofit.

Some of the production systems used in print finishing are very complex and are made up of individual parts of the plant, respectively. Processing machines assembled. The order in which the processing machines are arranged is given by the processing to be performed on the products. The available processing machines can have very different service offers. In the case of large differences in performance, the economic efficiency can under certain circumstances be substantially increased if the product flow in the area of slower processing machines is divided into several parallel production lines and if necessary, respectively. if necessary, be brought together again. For example, manufacturing facilities are known, which consist of a bookbinding line and several downstream in production lines arranged parallel trimmers, stackers, Foliermaechinen etc. It is also conceivable to combine two parallel collation lines on a binding line. In manufacturing plants, according to the prior art, a conversion from a product to the subsequent product takes place at the earliest after the last copy of a current production order has left a first processing section, and the production commencement with the subsequent production order does not begin until all parts of the system on this subsequent Production order have been converted. As a rule, several people are available for a production change so that several processing machines of a production line can be converted at the same time. However, these individuals are not fully trained so that each person is only able to convert a particular manufacturing machine or group of machines. The duration of the entire changeover process is therefore determined by the plant components with the largest changeover time. In most cases, this is the changeover time of multiple processing machines present in the plant because, for example, only a single person is trained to convert several processing machines.

The pre-published US Pat. No. 6,572,702 B1 relates to a method and an apparatus for producing carriers, in particular printed circuit boards with printed circuits, which are produced on several parallel production lines. In this production system, individual machines of one production line can be moved to another production line.

The publication " Investing with regard to digital niche products ", Deutscher Drucker No. 35 dated 17.09.1998 describes a "digital printing system with flexible finishing - mixed production on a Fertigungsstreake that can be designed or changed according to the different produce printed products with processing machines of various kinds.

It is the object of the invention to shorten the downtime of a manufacturing plant during the conversion process and to improve the efficiency of the manufacturing facility significantly.

The object is solved by the characterizing part of patent claim 1.

Fig.1

eine Fertigungsanlage in stark vereinfachter schematischer Darstellung,

Fig. 2

die Fertigungsanlage nach Fig. 1 in einer anderen Darstellungsart,

Fig. 3...7

die Fertigungsanlage nach Fig. 2 in verschied- nen Betriebszuständen und

Fig. 8

ein Zeitdiagramm eines erfindungsgemässen Um- rüstprozesses verglichen mit einem Umrüstpro- zess nach dem Stand der Technik.

The invention will be explained below with reference to the drawing, to which reference is made with respect to all unspecified details in the description, using an exemplary embodiment. In the drawing show:

Fig.1

a production plant in a highly simplified schematic representation,

Fig. 2

the manufacturing plant after Fig. 1 in another way of presentation,

Fig. 3 ... 7

the manufacturing plant after Fig. 2 in different operating states and

Fig. 8

a time chart of a conversion process according to the invention compared with a conversion process according to the prior art.

The in the Fig. 1 Production plant 1 shown has an input 2 for the supply of printed products and an output 3 for the removal of printed products to be processed in the production plant 1. In the production plant 1, the printed products are processed into printed products via several production stages. The flow of products takes place in the direction of the arrows from left to right. Each manufacturing stage a ... l is assigned at least one processing machine A ... L. Since the maximum output of the manufacturing plant 1 is determined by the maximum output of the manufacturing stage a... 1 with the lowest maximum output, its maximum output can be increased by processing machines A... L arranged in parallel in a production stage a. In a production plant 1 balanced in terms of performance, each production stage would therefore have approximately the same maximum output. Of the Influence of a single processing machine A ... L on the performance of the entire production line 1 is the smaller, the more such processing machines A ... L are connected in parallel in a manufacturing stage a ... l. For example, if a processing machine A, D, E, F, L has to be stopped, the power is 0 since these processing machines are present only once. A failure of a processing machine I, K, however, reduces the performance of the manufacturing plant 1 by 25%, provided that the performance of the manufacturing plant 1 is limited by the processing machines I, K. However, if three remaining processing machines I, K still have sufficient power reserve, production can continue to produce without loss of performance.

In Fig. 2 the production plant 1 is shown as an in a line serially linked production lines 1st ranking 4.1 ... 4.5. The production lines 1 ruling 4.1... 4.5 extend over the production sections u... Y and consist either of processing machines A, D, E, F, L arranged in the production plant 1 or of production lines arranged in parallel 2. Ranking 5.1. .5.3, wherein the directly following processing machines D, E, F are summarized as a single production line 1. Ranking 4.3. A production line 1. Ranking parallel existing groups of processing machines form production lines 2nd Ranking 5.1 ... 5.3. This concerns the production sections v, x.

The production lines 2 ruling 5.2,5.3 in the manufacturing section x are formed by the parallel processing machines G ₁ , H ₁ and G ₂ , H ₂ and parallel production lines 3rd ranking 6. Each branch within a production line leads to higher-level production lines and each merge 8 to lower-level production lines. The number of branches of a branch 7 or combination 8 of lines of different ranking can assume any values. Likewise, the method is not limited to production lines 1 with production lines of the highest rank order number 3, but the rank order number can have any values.

In contrast to the conversion process according to the prior art, where before the start of a subsequent production order P ₂ , the current production order P _{1 is first completed} at full speed, the retrofitting process according to the inventive method already begins when the production order P _{1 is} still running. In the Fig. 3 to Fig. 7 different phases of a conversion process are shown, wherein still on the production order P ₁ set processing machines A ... L colorless and already on the subsequent production order P2 converted processing machines A ... L are shown dark. In an in Fig. 8 Phase 1, which lasts t ₁ , first parallel production lines of the highest ranking, for example 3rd order on at least one production line of the highest ranking of the subsequent manufacturing order P ₂ converted, as shown in the Fig. 3 is shown. First, the processing machines I ₁ , K ₁ and I ₄ , K _{4 are converted} to the production order P ₂ and the processing machines I ₂ , K ₂ and I ₃ , K ₃ , which continue to be involved in the production order P ₁ , now each form a production line 2 5.3. From the beginning of phase 1, the performance of the production plant 1 will generally decline slightly. In the Fig. 4 the phase 2 is shown with the duration t ₂ . The parallel production lines 2nd order 5.1 ... 5.3 are converted to the next production order P ₂ except for one production line 2nd order. This concerns the processing machines B ₁ , C ₁ and G ₂ , H ₂ . As a result, the still busy with the production order P ₁ production lines to production lines 1 ranking. From each type of processing machine A ... L is now only one ever busy with the production order P ₁ . From the beginning of Phase 2 in Fig. 8 For example, the maximum production output of the manufacturing plant 1 is determined by the processing machine A ... L having the lowest maximum output. After completion of the production order P ₁ are after the Fig. 5 in phase 3 during t _3, the production lines A, D, E, F, L converted to the production order P ₂ . During phase 3 no production is possible. After completion of phase 3, the production plant 1 is ready for the subsequent production order P ₂ . The maximum production capacity is in turn determined by the processing machine A ... L with the smallest maximum power in the chain. In phase 4 according to Fig. 6 During the time t _4, the processing machines B ₂ , C ₂ and G ₁ , H _{1 are converted} to the production order P ₂ . This in turn results in production lines 2nd order 5.1 ... 5.3 and the maximum possible output of the production plant increases accordingly. In phase 5, during the time t _5, the processing machines I ₂ , K ₂ and I ₃ , K _{3 converted} to the subsequent production order P ₂ and the manufacturing plant 1 can then produce at the maximum possible speed, as shown in Fig. 7 is apparent. In order for the method described to be able to provide the greatest possible benefit, the beginning of the individual phases must be calculated in advance. In the Fig. 8 the time sequences according to the inventive method (solid lines) and the method of the prior art (dashed lines) are shown. The abscissa corresponds to the time axis and on the ordinate, the production levels of the production orders P ₁ , P _{2 are} plotted. The current production order P ₁ has an edition of 5000 copies in the example. According to the known method, the current production order P ₁ is first finished at full output at 5,000 copies, then the entire production line 1 is completely converted during the time t _k before the subsequent production order P _{2 is started} at full power. According to the inventive method, the conversion process begins before completion the current production order P ₁ , in the example at a production level of 3500 copies. From Phase 1 onwards, production will be slightly reduced. At a production level of about 4700 copies, phase 2 begins, with performance again reduced. In phase 3, the production plant 1 is completely silent. With the beginning of phase 4, the beginning of the production order P ₂ with reduced power takes place. After the completion of Phase 4, the performance is increased and at the end of Phase 5 can be produced with the maximum possible power.

With the available parameters, such as production orders P ₁ , P ₂ , retooling and maximum power per machine A ... L, present staff and its training, the duration t ₁ ... t ₅ , the beginning and end of the phases and the calculable dates. The calculation is preferably carried out by a control system 9 controlling the production plant 1. If the copy number of the production order P _{1 is} reached at which the conversion is to begin, and at the beginning of each further phase, the machine operators are informed by appropriate signals.

The benefit of the method according to the invention is determined by the time saving t _G. Although the total changeover time t _N is greater than the conventional conversion time t _K according to the prior art. However, since it is produced during the conversion, there is a time saving t _G.

Claims (8)

1. Method of processing printed material into printed products in batches belonging to different successive production jobs (P₁, P₂) on a production system (1) having production lines, connected in parallel, comprising processing machines (A...L) and/or processing means connected to act to feed one another which have to be equipped and/or changed over for a change of production job, characterised in that the production system (1) has at least two production lines (5, 6) formed by processing machines and/or processing means, of which production lines (5, 6) at least one is taken out of operation early before the completion of a processing process called for by a production job (P₁) and is equipped or changed over for a succeeding production job (P₂) for the production system (1), whereby the start of the individual phases is calculated in advance.
2. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the production system (1) has production lines which are equal in precedence.
3. Method according to claim 1, characterised in that the production system (1) has production lines which are different in precedence.
4. Method according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the production lines have one or more processing machines and/or processing means (A...L) which are connected one behind the other.
5. Method according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that, on each occasion, production lines which are highest in precedence are taken out of operation and changed over first.
6. Method according to one of claims 2 to 5, characterised in that production lines which are equal in precedence form a production line which is lower in precedence.
7. Method according to one of claims 2 to 6, characterised in that production lines which are higher in precedence are connected upstream or downstream of production lines which are lower in precedence.
8. Method according to one of claims 1 to 7, characterised in that the conversion of production lines having begun before the completion of the processing process called for by a production job (P₁), being for the purposes of a processing process for a subsequent production job (P₂), is continued on completion of the preceding processing process.

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