EP2008801B1 - Production system for producing folding boxes and method for feeding spoilage-free blanks to a folder-gluer - Google Patents

Abstract

The system (100) has an image data storage unit (13) in which image data with reference values and tolerance ranges are stored. A printing machine (2) has an evaluation device (11) with a camera system to control a printed image and a goods usage counter (14). The counter is coupled with a controller of the machine, where the controller stops the machine when a predefined number of goods usage is reached. The evaluation device and an evaluation module (12) are connected with the storage unit such that the data of the storage unit is accessed and worked with consistent evaluation logic. An independent claim is also included for a method for supplying a wastepaper-free good to folding and bonding stations of a folded box bonding machine, by a production system.

Description

The invention relates to a manufacturing system for the production of folding cartons according to the preamble of claim 1 and a method for supplying benefits to the folding and gluing stations of a folding box gluing machine according to the preamble of claim 1.

According to the state of the art, packaging materials made of paper, cardboard, cardboard, corrugated cardboard and the like, for example for packaging for cosmetics, cigarettes, pharmacy, food are manufactured in three stages. In a first stage sheets of paper, cardboard and the like are printed in multi-color sheetfed presses. An arc is usually printed with several benefits, which will later form a carton, and why this is spoken of useful pressure. In a second stage, the sheets are punched in a flatbed sheet punching machine. The benefits are isolated and score lines for later folds introduced. In a third stage, the benefits are folded and glued in a folder gluer to cartons. Between the various stages of production, the intermediate products are usually stacked on pallets and temporarily stored.

With regard to the quality of folding cartons, there are high requirements. In particular folding cartons, which are used in the field of pharmacy, must correspond exactly to the specifications. Ie. they must not contain any mistakes, also called waste. During the manufacture of cartons, however, various types of waste may arise: Einrichtemakulatur, which arises when setting up the printing and punching machines, Abschaltmakulatur that arises when switching off and shutdown of the machine, slugs, ie defects in the printed image, which are caused by deposits on the blanket Damage caused by the non-stop operation and the use of non-stop investors, etc. During set-up and shutdown in the printing press are usually colorimetric errors that affect the entire arc. Slugs and damage caused by nonstop operation in the press are usually geometric Mistakes concerning individual benefits of a bow. Faulty benefits, so-called macula, should not be further processed into cartons and the macular wastes should therefore be sorted out prior to further processing. (Otherwise, the faulty cartons must be sorted out prior to their filling.) First sorting occurs in the prior art often in the boom area of the printing press with the aid of a Makulaturweiche. The disadvantage of this approach is that whole sheets are considered as waste, even if only a single use of the sheet has errors.

In addition, in the investor area, i. before the actual folding and gluing, by folding box gluing machines measuring systems are used. However, these are relatively inaccurate according to the prior art and erroneous benefits can be processed. Measuring systems are generally designed as sensors which read bar codes printed on tabs of the folding boxes. This ensures that only benefits that belong to the batch being processed are processed further and sub-mixtures are sorted out.

The DE 2005 054 122 A1 shows a quality control system in a printing press. The quality control system has an inspection system with a camera for taking a printed image of a multi-use sheet. The recorded data of the printed image are processed by use of an image processing device and for error detection, the data is compared with a reference data set. A marking device is activated and the erroneous benefits are marked during the machine run. These markers can be used by subsequent finishing machines, such. As sheet punching or Faltschachtelklebemaschinen, read out and the erroneous benefits are removed from the production process. A disadvantage of this solution is that the use of additional labeling or marking devices is necessary. The procedure "detecting an error", "applying an error code", "reading the error code" is cumbersome and complicated.

The DE 10 2005 026 127 A1 shows a printing machine with a tester for testing the printed image. By means of a CCD line camera, registration and color characteristics of the printed image of a printed sheet are checked. Defective sheets can be discharged via a sorting device. The disadvantage of this solution is that sheets are considered as missing sheets even if only individual benefits are flawed.

The DE 44 32 371 A1 describes a method for detecting erroneous individual benefits. In an image recording device, image signals of individual use are generated and forwarded to a control or regulating device. In the control device, the image signals are processed in a further step and compared with a plurality of reference quantities. If the comparison values are exceeded, the location of the faulty individual benefit is saved.

The US-A-2004/0251176 discloses a manufacturing system for the production of folding cartons with a printing machine of a punching machine, an ejection module and a Faltschachtelklebemaschine, wherein the printing machine and the Ausschleusemodul each comprise an evaluation device with camera system.

A disadvantage of all known from the prior art measuring systems, which follow the printing process, is that the number of actual Gutnutzen the printer remains unknown. To ensure that sufficient benefits are available for further processing in the punching and folding box gluing machine and that the number of required folding boxes is reached, more benefits must be printed. The number of additional printed benefits can be up to 20% of the target number of benefits. However, as these additional printed benefits are not paid by the carton customers, printers are keen to minimize the number of additional uses to be printed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an optimized production system and to describe an optimized method in which the folding and gluing stations of a folding box gluing machine are supplied with utility and waste-containing folding boxes are removed.

This object is achieved by a manufacturing system having the characterizing features of claim 1 and by a method having the characterizing features of claim 9.

An inventive manufacturing system for the production of folding cartons has a printing machine for printing sheets of paper, cardboard and the like, a punching machine for punching out the printed benefits from a respective sheet, a discharge module for discharging misuse, a Faltschachtelklebemaschine for folding and gluing the benefits to cartons and an image data memory. The image data memory contains user-related image data with setpoints and tolerance ranges. The printing press has an evaluation device with camera system, z. B. with color, black and white or spectral cameras, for use-related control of the printed image. Next, the printing press has a good meter, which is coupled to the control of the printing press. As soon as a predefined number of good benefits has been reached by the machine operator or the machine control, the good counter sends a signal to the printing machine, for example, the controller then stops the printing press. The rejection module has an evaluation device with camera system and a reject diverter. The reject diverter is used for rejecting erroneous benefits. The evaluation device of the printing machine and ejection module of the manufacturing system according to the invention are both connected to the image data memory and can access the data of the image data memory. To determine whether a benefit is faulty, both evaluation devices work with a matching evaluation logic.

In an advantageous and therefore preferred embodiment of the production system, the discharge module is part of the folding box gluing machine.

In an advantageous embodiment, the camera systems are formed by RGB cameras and / or CCD cameras, which detect the errors of the color guide, geometric errors, registration, slugs and sub-blends (ie similar looking benefits, which differ marginally in the printed text) and / or absolute dimensions of characters, patterns, fonts and the like.

In an alternative embodiment, the machines of the manufacturing system are linked together by a transport system. The transport system can have linearly driven transport means, and e.g. have electrical linear motors or electric AC motors as drives.

In an advantageous embodiment of the manufacturing system, the image data of a benefit in PDF format are stored in the image data memory. This enables effective use of image data for prepress, printing and postpress.

In an advantageous embodiment of the production system, the folding box gluing machine has in its delivery area a counting device for counting the folding boxes. This allows the number of good cartons currently produced to be determined. Once the target number of cartons to be produced has been reached, the production process can be aborted. If all printed benefits are further processed into folding boxes, then the difference between the number of well-printed benefits (determined by the good meter of the printing press) and the number of good folding boxes (determined by the counting device of the folding box gluing machine) can be deduced from the number of errors which occurred during the Punching and in the folding box gluing machine are created.

In an advantageous embodiment of the production system, the evaluation device of the printing machine is connected via a data line with the control of the printing press. The settings of the printing press can be changed by the evaluation device and errors during the printing process can be corrected.

For the production of labels, a similar manufacturing system can be used, which does not have folding and gluing stations. The quality control of the labels takes place in an analogous manner by means of evaluation with camera system.

A part of the invention is also a method for delivering waste-free benefits to the folding and gluing stations of a folding box gluing machine. In a first step, sheets are printed in a printing press. The printed sheets will be on a measuring system located in the printing press transported past. The measuring system measures the respective benefits of a sheet individually. The actual image data thus generated are compared with reference values stored in an image data memory and associated tolerance ranges. If the comparison results in a benefit of the sheet exceeding a tolerance that exceeds the tolerance range, then a utility-related signal is sent to the interface of the printing press controller. Based on this information, the press operator can correct the press settings. If the comparison does not give a deviation exceeding the tolerance range for a benefit of the arc, a benefit-related signal is sent to a goodness meter. In a next step, the sheets are transported on to a punching machine. There, the sheets are punched, grooving introduced and the benefits separated. The benefits will be transported to a reject module in a next step. In the discharge module, the benefits are transported past a measuring system located in the discharge module. The benefits are measured by the measuring system. The areas of use, in which later folding edges of the cartons come to lie, are masked out, ie recessed in the survey. To prepare the folded edges, grooves were introduced into the die in the punching machine, which is why a measurement of this area would falsify the measurement results. The measurement results are compared with setpoint values stored in the image data memory and associated tolerance ranges. If the comparison gives a deviation that exceeds the tolerance range, a signal is sent to a rejection diverter. As soon as the erroneous benefit is in the area of the rejection diverter of the reject module, it is rejected. The non-defective benefits are transported to a folding box gluer and fed to this.

In an advantageous development of the method, a good signal is sent to the controller of the printing press by the good meter if the good meter of the printing machine has determined a predefined number of good benefits and the printing machine is switched off automatically, for example. This ensures that only as many benefits are printed as are actually needed for postpress.

In an alternative embodiment of the method, the counter of the folding box gluer sends a signal to the control of the printing machine when the counting device has determined a predefined number of good folding boxes and the printing presses are automatically switched off, for example. Similar methods can also be used advantageously in a production system comprising a printing, folding and bookbinding machine.

With regard to further advantageous embodiments of the invention, reference is made to the dependent claims and the description of an embodiment with reference to the accompanying drawings.

embodiment

Fig. 1

ein erfindungsgemäßes Transportsystem

Fig. 2

ein erfindungsgemäßes Transportsystem mit verketteten Maschinen

Fig. 3

ein erfindungsgemäßes Transportsystem mit einer Zähleinrichtung in der Faltschachtelklebemaschine

The invention will be explained in more detail with reference to an embodiment. It show in a schematic representation

Fig. 1

an inventive transport system

Fig. 2

an inventive transport system with linked machines

Fig. 3

an inventive transport system with a counter in the Faltschachtelklebemaschine

Fig. 1 shows a transport system 100 according to the invention with a printing machine 2, a punching machine 3 and a Faltschachtelklebemaschine 4. A stack of sheets 5 is fed in the transport direction T of the printing presses 2. In the printing press 2, the individual sheets are guided past an evaluation unit 11, which serves the purpose of measuring on a sheet. The printing press further has a good count 14 for determining the number of good uses. The Gutnutzenzähler 14 is connected to the controller (not shown) of the printing machine 2. The printed sheets are laid out, transported to a punching machine 3, where the benefits of a sheet are punched out and separated. From the punching machine 3, the benefits are transported to a Faltschachtelklebemaschine 4. The Faltschachtelklebemaschine 4 has a discharge module 12 with an evaluation unit 11. Before the benefits are folded and glued to folding cartons, these pass through the evaluation unit 11 in Discharging module. Faulty benefits are discharged by a bypass lock (not shown) of the discharge module 12 in a waste tray 7. The flawless benefits are further transported in the folder gluer 4 and folded and glued there. The finished cartons are laid out on a stack 6 or packed in boxes (not shown). The evaluation units 11 of the printing press 2 and of the rejection module 12 are connected via data lines to an image data memory 13.

Fig. 2 shows a manufacturing system 100 similar to that Fig. 1 , However, the machines 2, 3, 4 are linked together via a transport system 1. The transport system 1 can be formed for example by rails on which pallet trucks can be moved.

Fig. 3 shows a manufacturing system 100 similar to that Fig. 2 , However, the folding box gluing machine 4 has a counter 15, which is located in the delivery area of the folding box gluing machine 4. The counter 15 serves to detect the number of folding boxes which have been manufactured by the manufacturing system 100.

In one embodiment, not shown, the manufacturing system 100 has a management information system (MIS) for order planning. The signals of good counter 14 and counter 15 can be used by the MIS for order planning: The relative number of missing parts is stored by the MIS order-related. For recurring orders, these empirical values are used to determine the number of sheets to be printed in the press.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

transport system

2

press

3

punching machine

4

gluer

5

Pile of bows

6

Pile of folding boxes

7

Makulaturauslage

11

evaluation

12

removal module

13

Image data storage

14

Gutnutzenzähler

15

counting

100

manufacturing system

T

transport direction

Claims (11)

1. A production system (100) for producing folding boxes using a printing press (2) for printing sheets of paper, cardboard or the like, a die cutter (3) for die cutting the printed blanks on a respective sheet, an ejection module (12), a folding box gluing machine (4) for folding and gluing the blanks to form folding boxes, and an image data storage unit (13), characterized in that blank-related image data with reference values and tolerance ranges are stored in the image data storage unit (13); that the printing press (2) is provided with an evaluation device (11) with camera system for blank-related checking of the printed image and a good blank counter (14), wherein the good blank counter (14) is coupled with the control system of the printing press (2) and the control system stops the printing press (2) as soon as a predefined number of good blanks has been reached; that the ejection module (12) comprises an evaluation device (11) with camera system and an ejector gate, wherein the evaluation devices (11) of the printing press (2) and the ejection module (12) are connected with the image data storage unit (13), can access the data in the image data storage unit (13) and work with a consistent evaluation logic.
2. The production system according to claim 1, characterized in that the ejection module (12) forms part of the folding box gluing machine (4).
3. The production system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the camera systems of the evaluation devices (11) are formed by RGB-cameras and/or CCD-cameras and enable the detection of ink feeding errors, geometrical errors, register accuracy, hickeys, mix-ups and/or absolute dimensions of characters, patterns, fonts and the like.
4. The production system according to one of the claims 1 to 3, characterized in that the machines (2, 3, 4) are connected to one another by a transport system (1).
5. The production system according to claim 4, characterized in that the transport system (1) is provided with linearly driven means of transport.
6. The production system according to one of the claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the image data of a blank is stored in the image data storage unit (13) in PDF format.
7. The production system according to one of the claims 1 to 6, characterized in that the folding box gluing machine (4) has a counting device (15) for counting the folding boxes in its delivery area.
8. The production system according to one of the claims 1 to 7, characterized in that the evaluation device (11) of the printing press (2) is connected to the control system of the printing press (2) via a data line and the settings of the printing press (2) can be changed by means of the evaluation device (11).
9. Method of feeding blanks to the folding and gluing stations of a folding box gluing machine (4), in particular by means of a production system (100) according to claim 1, characterized by the following steps:

   a) Printing sheets in a printing press (2)

   b) Transporting the sheets past a measuring system located in the printing press (2)

   c) Blank-related measuring of the sheet by the measuring system

   d) Comparing the measuring results with reference values and associated tolerance ranges stored in an image data storage unit (13)

   e) Sending a blank-related signal to the interface of the printing press control system, if the comparison results in a deviation for one of the blanks on the sheet which exceeds the tolerance range, and to a good blank counter (14), if the comparison does not show a deviation for a blank on the sheet exceeding the tolerance range

   f) Transporting the sheets further to a die cutter (3)

   g) Die cutting the sheets in the die cutter (3) and subsequently separating the blanks

   h) Transporting the blanks further to an ejection module (12)

   i) Transporting a blank past a measuring system located in the ejection module (12)

   j) Measuring the blank by means of the measuring system

   k) Comparing the measuring results with the reference values and the associated tolerance ranges stored in the image data storage unit

   l) Sending a signal to an ejector gate in the ejection module (12), if the comparison results in a deviation exceeding the tolerance range

   m) Removing the faulty blank using the ejector gate

   n) Transporting the good blanks further within a folding box gluing machine (4)
10. A method according to claim 8 comprising the following additional step:

    e2) Switching off the printing press (2) when a predefined number of good blanks has been reached.
11. The production system according to one of the claims 7 or 8, characterized in that the production system (100) comprises a management information system for job planning, wherein the signals coming from the good blank counter (14) and counting device (15) are used to save the relative number of faulty parts for a specific job.

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