EP2033919B1 - Printing press with electric anti-crush protection - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a device for safe operation of at least two relatively movable and driven by a respective drive motor components in a substrates processing machine, wherein a control computer is provided for detecting the movement of the movable components.

Sheet-fed rotary printing presses have a large number of moving components, which can pose a danger to the operator unprotected. The movable components are as rotatably running components in the form of cylinders in the printing units and as parallel movable components in the feeder or boom of the printing press, where the main and auxiliary stacks are moved parallel to each other. The rotating cylinders and the components that can move in parallel are in danger of causing injuries to the operator caused by crushing limbs. In particular, in the feeder and boom area, which must be freely accessible for changing the stack or for taking test sheets as on the boom, there is an increased risk of injury. It is therefore known a number of approaches to provide investors and investors in sheet-fed rotary printing machines safety devices that limit the risk of injury to a minimum. One possibility is to monitor people's access to dangerous areas, such as in the investor or boom. Such a device is from the DE 197 42 764 C1 known. Here, the entire access area of a hazardous area is monitored for the intrusion of persons. This is done by means of a light barrier, which reliably detects invading persons. As soon as a person enters the area, the press is shut down immediately. However, the approach with the access control of a hazardous area via a light barrier has the fundamental disadvantage that even if the intrusion is not dangerous for the operator, as it is z. B. may be the case during sampling, the entire machine is turned off. However, such a shutdown of the machine leads to operational downtime and thus production losses.

From the DE 10 2004 002 307 A1 is a method for the synchronization of main and auxiliary stack in the feeder or boom of a substrate processing machine known. In this method, the auxiliary stack controller receives from the main stack controller or another higher-level machine controller a start signal for moving the auxiliary stack, which at the same time triggers a movement of the main stack. In this way, a synchronous movement of auxiliary and main stacks in the feeder or boom is achieved. However, this control method does not ensure that dangerous operating conditions do not occur in the event of a malfunction of the control system. B. Limbs of persons squeezed between main and auxiliary pile Another printing processing machine is in the document EP 1 086 917 A1 disclosed.

It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a device which ensures safe operation and at the same time maximum availability of the machine in the case of movable components in printing presses, so that unnecessary standstill can be avoided.

The present object is achieved by claim 1, advantageous embodiments of the invention are described in the dependent claims and the drawings. The device according to the invention can in principle be used in all machines which have relatively movable components which are freely accessible to the operating personnel, so that a corresponding hazard potential is present. In particular, the device according to the invention is suitable for ensuring safe operation of sheet-fed offset rotary printing presses which have a large number of components which are movable relative to one another, in particular in the area of the feeder and jib. In this case, the at least two relatively movable components are each driven by a separate electric drive motor. As a result, between the relatively movable components only an electrical coupling via the control of the drive motors, but no mechanical connection, as z. B. consists of two connected by a gear train movable components. The gear train basically has the advantage that the mutually movable components by the gears against each other in fixed relative position, so that the two components can not move to each other and can squeeze limbs of operators. When only electrically coupled by a control computer relative to each other moving components, this mechanical safety is not given, there is a risk of collision in control errors or failure of the electric drive motors and thus danger to the operator. However, the electrical coupling ensures less mechanical effort and allows for more flexible operation, since the coupling can be easily canceled. The movements of the relatively movable components are additionally detected by a control computer, so that dangerous movements of the machine control are known. According to the invention, the control computer is also set up such that when the distance between movable components is reduced, at least that movable component is stopped, which is responsible for reducing the distance between the movable components. The control computer thus permanently monitors the distance between the movable components and then at least immobilizes that of the movable components which has caused the reduction of the distance. This ensures that the distance between the moving components does not shrink further and thus can lead to bruises on limbs of the operating personnel. Such a reduction in pitch may occur whenever synchronization between the relatively movable components is lost. However, should the mutually relatively movable components move away from each other in the absence of synchronization, the control computer does not intervene because no decreasing distance is detected and thus there is no immediate danger to the operating personnel.

In a first embodiment of the invention, it is provided that the movable components are two largely parallel movable components. These largely parallel movable components can be found both in the boom and in the feeder of a sheet-fed offset rotary printing press. Both in the feeder and in the boom, there is a main stack support plate, which is used in normal operation and carries both the feeder and the boom the main stack. In the feeder, the main stack consists of the sheet-shaped substrates, which are fed to the printing machine during the printing process. In the boom, the main stack support plate carries the other hand finished printed sheet. If the main pile in the feeder has run down or the main pile in the boom has reached its maximum, a new pile must be fed into the feeder and the finished printed pile must be removed from the boom. In order to perform a non-stop stack change, auxiliary pile support plates are present both in the feeder and in the delivery, which are intended to provide additional sheets during the stack change for a short time in the feeder and to accept further produced sheets in the delivery. Below the auxiliary stack carrier can then be made for a limited period of time, the stack change, so that the production of the printing press for stack change does not have to be interrupted. In the boom of the printing press is also a short closable with a flap support plate for sample sheet removal, which allows to separate during operation current sheet instead of on the main stack for the sample sheet removal. From this sample sheet removal then the operator can take a sheet for checking the print quality safely and z. B. perform a colorimeter. Between the parallel plates in the boom and feeder, however, there is a risk that limbs of the operators will be crushed and injured as the depth between the parallel plates decreases. To avoid such a squeezing process, it must therefore be ensured that the distance does not diminish, since otherwise there is a risk of injury. By means of the present inventive device exactly this distance is monitored so that at a reduction in the distance between the parallel plates at least that parallel plate is stopped, which moves with a relative speed to the other parallel plate. On the other hand, should the parallel plates move apart, the device according to the invention need not intervene in the control of the parallel plates. The moving panels need not be additionally monitored by photocells or other sensors to detect intrusion of persons, which would then cause the machine to stop immediately. Instead, only the proper operation of the parallel plates is monitored and, if necessary, the causative plate is shut down in case of deviations.

In one embodiment of the invention it is provided that the movable components are two relatively rotatable components. These rotatable relative to each other Components are present in sheet-fed rotary printing machines in the form of cylinders in and between the printing units. Between the printing units are the transport cylinders, which transfer the sheets from one printing unit to the next. In most sheet-fed offset printing presses, the transfer cylinders and cylinders in the printing units are connected by means of a gear train, so that collisions between the cylinders are mechanically prevented. In the future, however, sheet-fed presses will also be used in which no mechanical connections exist between individual cylinders and the cylinders are instead at least partially driven by their own electric drive motors. The thus driven cylinders are then no longer mechanically secured against each other rotatable, so that it is also z. B. can come to collisions of transfer grippers independently driven adjacent cylinder. During normal operation of the printing press, the cylinders are covered by a guard, so there is no danger to the operator. During maintenance of printing presses, however, this protection is reduced, so that there is a risk of bruising between two independently rotating cylinders. As long as the cylinders rotate slowly in parallel, this danger is low. However, if the synchronization fails due to errors in the drive motors or the control of the cylinder, limbs of the maintenance personnel can also be squeezed in here with the machine open. In order to prevent this, the velocities of the cylinders involved are monitored by the control computer according to the invention and, in the case of impermissible deviations of the speeds from one another, a shutdown of the cylinders is effected. This ensures that even during maintenance operations limbs of the maintenance personnel can not be squeezed between slowly rotating cylinders in the maintenance mode.

Advantageously, it is provided that the drive motors of the movable components are each assigned a signal generator and that the signal generator is connected to the control computer. Via the signal transmitters in the form of tachometers, the control computer can calculate the differential speed between the moving components and, assuming a positive differential speed, can conclude that the distance between the moving components is reduced and there is thus a risk. The Speed sensors may be in the form of tacho sensors which are either integrated into the electric drive motors themselves or attached to the moving components as separate sensors.

In a further embodiment of the invention, it is provided that the control computer has a drive computer and a redundant safety computer. The redundant design of the control computer increases the security in the event of failure of the drive computer. In normal operation, only the drive computer controls the distance between the moving components, so that the redundant safety computer only needs to be monitored and intervene in the event of a failure or malfunction of the drive computer. The control computer can be programmed so that in case of failure of the drive computer, the redundant safety computer causes a safe shutdown of the printing press and further operation is only possible again when the control computer is fully functional again. The control computer consisting of drive computer and safety computer monitors in this case both speed signal transmitter of the mutually movable components and also controls both drive motors.

In an alternative embodiment of the invention, however, it can also be provided that each drive motor of the movable components is assigned in each case a control computer with a drive computer and a security computer, wherein the control computer communicate with each other via a bus line. In this case, each drive motor has its own control computer which is also designed redundantly. The communication of the control computer with each other is via a safety bus system such. B. made a safety CAN bus.

Advantageously, it is further provided that both moving components are stopped. This represents an alternative embodiment to the procedure, except that to put a responsible for the reduction of the distance movable component quiet. In the case of components which are capable of rotating, however, collisions between the movable components at the other end of the components may occur due to the rotational movement in this case, so that a simultaneous stopping of both movable components is expedient here.

Fig. 1:

den Auslegerbereich einer Druckmaschine mit einer beweglichen Probebogenentnahme,

Fig. 1a:

die erfindungsgemäße Sicherheitssteuerung für den Ausleger in Fig. 1,

Fig. 2:

eine Sicherheitssteuerung für den Ausleger in Figur 1 mit zwei redundant ausgelegten Steuerungsrechnern,

Fig. 3

ein Ausleger mit einer beweglichen Probebogenentnahme und einer beweglichen Hilfsstapeltragplatte und

Fig. 4:

den Einsatz der erfindungsgemäßen Sicherheitsvorrichtung bei Übergabezylindern in einer Bogenrotationsdruckmaschine.

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

Fig. 1:

the boom area of a printing machine with a movable sample sheet removal,

Fig. 1a:

the safety control according to the invention for the boom in Fig. 1 .

Fig. 2:

a safety control for the boom in FIG. 1 with two redundantly designed control computers,

Fig. 3

a boom with a movable test sheet removal and a movable auxiliary stack support plate and

4:

the use of the safety device according to the invention in transfer cylinders in a sheet-fed rotary printing press.

In FIG. 1 the boom 1 of a sheet-fed printing machine 16 is shown. The boom 1 adjoins the last printing unit of the sheet-fed printing machine 16 and takes on the finished produced substrates. The boom 1 consists of a frame with housing 5, which receives the movable stack support plate 4 and the movable test sheet removal 2. The test sheet removal has a flap, which allows the removal of sheets by a printer in the open state. For this purpose, the sample sheets are not deposited on the main stack like the other sheets, but on the test sheet net 2. The two components 2, 4 can be moved vertically in parallel. Both components 2, 4 are driven by separate electric drive motors 6, 7. There is thus no mechanical synchronization between the two components 2, 4. Between the two movable components 2, 4 there is a gap 3 which, depending on the movement of the two components 2, 4 to each other either increased, decreased or remains the same in parallel operation , When taking sample sheets, it may happen that the operator with his or her hands or head in the area of the gap 3 between the lower edge of the sample sheet removal unit 2 and the main stack carrier 4. If this gap 3 is reduced, there is a risk that the operating personnel is crushed and injured. It is therefore important that the gap 3 does not shrink to to exclude these injuries. In the upper part of the sample sheet removal 2 is a protective cover 8, which protects this area against interference by the operating personnel and moves with the sample sheet removal 2.

In FIG. 1a is the control device according to the invention for the boom 1 off FIG. 1 shown. The drive motor 6 for the test sheet removal 2 and the drive motor 7 for the stack support plate 4 are monitored by a common control computer 13. The control computer 13 calculates the corresponding control commands for the respective operating state of the boom 1. The control computer 13 is designed redundantly, wherein the drive computer 11 controls the motor 6 during normal operation, while the security computer 12 runs only redundantly as a monitoring computer. The motor 7 for the stack support plate 4 is controlled by a similar, not shown, control computer 13. In the case of malfunctions in the drive computer 11 or in the event of its failure, the safety computer 12 takes over the control of the motor 6 and sets it to stand still, if necessary. This avoids that in the event of failure of the drive computer 11, an uncontrolled and therefore dangerous operating state of the motors 6, 7 and consequently also of the movable components 2, 4 can occur. In order to monitor the distance in the gap 3, two speedometer sensors 9, 10 are also connected to the control computer 13 in each case. The stack carrier plate 4 is assigned to the speed signal generator 10, while the sample sheet removal 2 is associated with the speed signal generator 9. Thus, the speeds of the two stack support plates 2, 4 can be detected independently and supplied to the control computer 13 via communication links 14. Drive computer 11 and safety computer 12 can compare the velocities of the components 2, 4 detected in this way with each other and detect a reduction in the gap 3. As soon as the speed of the test sheet removal 2 in the case of movements of both components in the direction of the arrow becomes greater than the speed of the stack support plate 4, there is a risk that in the diminishing interspace 3 limbs of the operating personnel will be squeezed. This positive speed difference between the components 2, 4 interpreted by the control computer 13 as a danger signal and switches in a movement in the direction of arrow in FIG. 1 the drive motor 6 of the sample sheet removal 2 from. Even if the bottom Pile support plate 4 further moved in the arrow direction, there is no danger to the operating personnel, since then the gap 3 due to the still set upper support plate 2 increases again. By means of this safety control thus the risk of crushing by the two components 2, 4 is avoided.

In Fig. 2 is an alternative embodiment of the controller in Fig. 1 displayed. In this case, not only the two drive motors 6, 7 are each connected to a separate control computer 13, wherein each of the two control computer 13 has a drive computer 11 and a safety computer 12. The two speed sensors 9, 10 are connected in this case only to one control computer 13, so that each of the speed sensors 9, 10 is monitored separately from a control computer 13. The two control computers 13 are connected to one another via a safety bus system 15, via which they can exchange the respective operating states. The exchange of operating conditions happens in FIG. 2 by the security computer 12 of the two control computer 13. The drive computer 11, however, are not directly connected. Since in this case each control computer 13 controls only one drive motor 6, 7 and monitors only one speed signal generator 9, 10, the control computers 13 can be designed correspondingly simpler. It is nevertheless ensured via the safety bus system 15 that the exchange of safety-relevant operating data between the safety computers 12 can take place.

In Fig. 3 a boom 1 is shown which not only has a movable test sheet removal 2 but also a movable auxiliary pile support 18. There are therefore three parallel movable components 2, 4, 18 with three separate drive motors, with two dangerous gaps 3 are present. Analogous to the embodiment in FIG Fig. 1 Therefore, the speeds of all three components 2, 4 18 are monitored by a control computer 13. As soon as one of the interspaces 3 decreases in a downward movement, at least the sample sheet removal 2 or the sample sheet removal 2 and the auxiliary pile carrier 18 are switched off, so that the intermediate spaces 3 can not be further reduced. It should in the embodiment according to Fig. 3 so be prevented that the Sample sheet removal unit 2 is lowered faster than the auxiliary stacking device 18 and the auxiliary stacking device 18 is lowered faster than the main stack support plate 4. Upward movements of the main stack support plate 4 must not be considered here, as these can be initiated in the application mentioned only by manual operations.

In addition to the monitoring of largely parallel moving components such as in the boom 1 and the monitoring of rotatable components in a printing machine 16 is possible. In FIG. 4 For example, the transfer cylinders 17 of a sheet-fed printing machine 16 are shown. Both transfer cylinders 17 are driven by their own drive motor 6, 7, so that there is no mechanical coupling between the transfer cylinders 17. In trouble-free operation, the transfer cylinder 17 driven by the motors 6, 7 rotate synchronously and in parallel according to the black arrows, so that even with the printing machine 16 open in slow maintenance operation no risk of crushing limbs, which get into the gap 3 between the transfer cylinders 17. Should this synchronization but get out of hand, so there is a risk that the gap between the transfer cylinders 17 decreases according to the white arrows. In this case, there is an acute danger of crushing between the transfer cylinders 17, so that a shutdown is required. For this purpose, the speeds of the transfer cylinder 17 are detected to each other, so that the control computer 13 can calculate the relative speeds of the transfer cylinder 17 to each other. If the control computer 13 concludes from these relative speeds to each other, since the gap 3 is reduced, the transfer cylinder 17 is stopped.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

1

boom

2

Lower edge of the sample sheet removal unit

3

gap

4

Main pile carrier plate

5

casing

6

Drive motor first moving component

7

Drive motor second moving component

8th

guard

9

Speed sounder Sample arc sampling plate

10

Speed signaler stack carrier plate

11

drive computer

12

computer security

13

control computer

14

communication link

15

safety bus system

16

press

17

Transfer cylinder

18

Auxiliary pile carrier

Claims (10)

1. Machine for processing printing material including a device for the safe operation of at least two components (2, 4, 17, 18) that are movable relative to one another and are driven by a respective drive motor (6, 7), wherein at least one control unit (13) is provided to monitor the movement of the movable components (2, 4, 17, 18),
   characterized in
   that the control unit (13) is equipped in such a way that upon a decrease of the distance between the movable components (2, 3, 17, 18), the movement of at least that movable component (2, 17, 18) that causes the decrease of the distance between the movable components (2, 4, 17, 18) is stopped.
2. Machine for processing printing material according to claim 1,
   characterized in
   that the movable components (2, 4) are two components (2, 4, 18) that are disposed to be essentially parallel to one another.
3. Machine for processing printing material according to claim 2,
   characterized in
   that the components (2, 4, 18) disposed to be essentially parallel are disposed in the delivery (1) or in the feeder of a printing machine (16).
4. Machine for processing printing material according to claim 3,
   characterized in
   that one movable component is the main stack carrier plate (4) and the other movable component (2) is the sample sheet removal unit or the auxiliary stack carrier (18) in the delivery (1).
5. Machine for processing printing material according to claim 1,
   characterized in
   that the movable components (17) are two components (17) that are capable of being rotated relative to one another.
6. Machine for processing printing material according to any one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in
   that every drive motor (6, 7) of the movable components (2, 4, 17, 18) is assigned a respective speed signal transmitter (9, 10) and that the speed signal transmitters (9, 10) are connected to the control unit (13).
7. Machine for processing printing material according to claim 6,
   characterized in
   that the control unit (13) includes a drive computer (11) and a redundant safety computer (12).
8. Machine for processing printing material according to any one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in
   that every drive motor (6, 7) of the movable components (2, 4, 17, 18) is assigned a respective control unit (13) including a drive computer (11) and a safety computer (12) and that the control units (13) communicate with one another via a bus line (15).
9. Machine for processing printing material according to any one of the preceding claims,
   characterized in
   that the movements of all movable components (2, 4, 17, 18) are stopped.
10. Machine for processing printing material according to claim 5,
    characterized in
    that the rotating movable components are transfer cylinders (17) in a printing machine (16).

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