EP3398891B1 - Device for producing collections of sheet-shaped printed products, and corresponding folding apparatus for folding collections of sheet-shaped printed products - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a device for producing collections from sheet-shaped printed products according to the preamble of claim 1 and a folder according to the preamble of claim 10.

From the CH 132 049 A. a device for collecting and folding printed sheets is known, which combine partial product streams from different sources, such as text sheets, inserts and envelopes for further processing, to form an overall product stream. The text sheets are optionally fed to one of two cutting units with knife cylinders. Each of these cutting units is followed by its own collecting cylinder, which pre-collects the sheets it is fed into partial collections. These collecting cylinders in turn transfer the partial collections to a further common collecting cylinder that unites the partial flows. This common collecting cylinder in turn transfers the collections to a stitching cylinder or a folding cylinder before the printed products are laid out in a stack. The two cutting units and pre-collecting cylinders of the devices are suitable for producing collections of the same format with different compositions. In particular, products with deposits can be created at any point. The DE 31 26 279 A1 proposes a folding device which can produce different products from a fed web. Depending on the changeable configuration, folded sheet stacks or sheet sheets can be produced. For this purpose, the fed web is passed through a cross cutting device with knife cylinders, which cuts off individual sheets. In a first configuration, a subsequent collecting cylinder collects several sheets to form a collection, which is passed on to a flap and transfer cylinder for folding. In a second configuration, the separated sheet is passed to the same flap and transfer cylinder, bypassing the collecting cylinder, which transfers the sheet to a delivery without folding.

From the EP 0 257 390 A1 a folder is known which produces multi-leaf, folded collections from a fed paper web. The folder comprises a first longitudinal folding device, which folds the length of the fed web in the middle and feeds it to a cross-cutting device. This cross cutting device separates correspondingly folded sheets from the folded web. This cross-cutting device has a knife cylinder which extends across the folded paper web and which interacts with a groove cylinder. The knife cylinder contains two knife receptacles offset by 180 °, which can optionally be fitted with a knife. With the appropriate equipment, two different section lengths can be generated, which correspond to the full or half the circumference of the knife cylinder.

Downstream of this cross-cutting device is a cross-folding device, the collecting cylinder of which cooperates with at least one folding jaw cylinder. For this purpose, the collecting cylinder is equipped with two sets of grippers, which are arranged on valve holders that can be adjusted against each other. With these grippers, the collecting cylinder takes over the sheets coming from the cross-cutting device and releases them to the folding cylinder. For this purpose, the grippers are operated via a cam drive. In order to process collections of different thicknesses, the grippers of the collecting cylinder must be adjusted to the product thickness. This leads to a considerable set-up effort. Counteracts this disadvantage DE 101 56 706 A1 a collecting cylinder, which instead of using grippers with punctures as holding members Is provided. The controllable punctures are formed from sets of needles. For transport or collection, the needles are raised relative to the circumference of the collection cylinder, so that the products can be needled. The punctures are withdrawn for folding and transfer. The movement of the punctures is independent of the product thickness, so that the variability of such a folder is significantly improved with regard to the product thickness.

Regardless of the holding system used, these folders have the disadvantage that the length of the sheet is determined by the diameter and trim of the knife cylinder. Changing the trimmings is labor intensive and requires an interruption in production. A digital web printing machine equipped with such a folder is thus restricted to a few formats with regard to the sheet length. The use of servo motors makes it possible to overcome the disadvantage of such a format restriction.

In principle, there is a change from a continuous material transport, which is characterized by a constant web speed, to a cycle-based transport of the separated sheets at a constant cycle speed. The production of very different product lengths therefore requires such a high dynamic of the different cylinder movements that cannot be achieved economically. To counteract this by restricting the possible format range, the variability of the digital printing press is dramatically reduced.

It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a device of the type mentioned at the outset, which is free from the disadvantages listed and enables a high degree of variability in terms of the product formats with little setup effort.

The stated object is achieved according to the invention with the features of the characterizing part of patent claim 1 and, in the case of a generic folder, with the features of the characterizing part of patent claim 10. Advantageous further developments are specified in the dependent claims.

A device for producing collections of sheet-like printed products from a supplied strand of material comprises a first transport device which feeds the strand of material to a cross-cutting device. The material strand is formed from a single printed paper web. However, it can also consist of several superimposed webs or partial webs. The direction of transport corresponds to the longitudinal direction of the strand. The cross cutting device adjoining this first transport device separates sections from the supplied strand by cutting transversely to the transport direction. Depending on the composition of the supplied strand, the cross-cutting device thus forms successive sheets or sheet packs. Depending on the timing of the feeding of the strand by the first transport device and the cutting by the cross cutting device, sheets or sheet packs of different lengths can be formed.

The cross-cutting device advantageously comprises a cutting cylinder oriented transversely to the transport direction. In this way, with a simple and compact design, high production output can be achieved in the production of different formats.

Viewed in the transport direction of the printed products, the cross-cutting device is followed, according to the invention, by a first collecting cylinder and a second collecting cylinder. The conveying path of the printed products either leads them to the first collecting cylinder or to the second collecting cylinder. For this purpose, a controllable switch is provided in front of the collecting cylinders, which defines the conveying path accordingly. It is thus possible, without interrupting production, to individually feed the sheets or sheet packs formed by the cross-cutting device to one of the two collecting cylinders.

The collecting cylinders of the known type each have at least one fixing device on their circumference. These fixing devices serve to hold the supplied sheets or sheet packs on the circumference of the respective collecting cylinder and, by means of its rotation, the one following in the transport direction Feed takeover cylinder. With several revolutions of the collecting cylinder before the transfer to the transfer cylinder, a collecting process takes place. It is irrelevant whether the fixing devices of the cylinders mentioned are equipped with grippers, needles or other holding elements.

Different diameters of the first collecting cylinder and the second collecting cylinder, in cooperation with the switch, allow the respective sheet or the bundle of sheets to be fed to the collecting cylinder whose diameter is best matched to the length of the sheet. The required adaptation of the speed of the collecting cylinder to the arc length is thus significantly reduced. This means that, compared to a device with only one collecting cylinder, which is necessarily matched to the largest format to be processed, a much larger format range is made possible with the same production output. Alternatively, with the same format range compared to the known devices, the production output when processing short sheets can be increased significantly.

The collecting cylinders transfer the sheets or sheet packages to a transfer cylinder arranged downstream. On its circumference, this has fixing devices similar to the collecting cylinders. In this way, the transfer cylinder can be used for further collection processes beyond the mere removal. It is advantageous to feed a common transfer cylinder through both collecting cylinders. On the one hand, a compact construction of the device can be achieved. On the other hand, this arrangement allows different combinations of the individual collection processes carried out by the different cylinders, as a result of which a high variability of the device is achieved.

The variability with regard to the format sequences and collection schemes that can be processed by the device is further increased by the takeover cylinder comprising two sets of fixing devices, each of which is assigned to one of the preceding collection cylinders. Each set consists of one fixing device or several fixing devices distributed evenly over the circumference of the transfer cylinder. The related to the size of the takeover cylinder The spacing between the fixing devices of a set forms its division. The assignment of a set of fixing devices of the take-over cylinder to one of the collecting cylinders permits an optimized design of the set with regard to this collecting cylinder.

A diameter of the respective collecting cylinder, which corresponds to an integral multiple of the associated division of the transfer cylinder, is particularly advantageous, the multiple also being 1. The optimization of the movement sequences of the collecting cylinders and the transfer cylinders with their fixing devices is particularly simple. A particularly large variability of the device is achieved if the division of the first set of fixing devices corresponds to a non-integer multiple of the division of the second set of fixing devices.

A design of the sets of fixing devices of the transfer cylinder is advantageous, in which a common fixing device is assigned to both sets. In this way, the required diameter of the transfer cylinder and the complexity of the device are reduced for the same range of applications.

An opposite direction of rotation of the collecting cylinder allows a particularly compact arrangement of the collecting cylinder and the transfer cylinder to each other. The direction of rotation of the transfer cylinder is always selected so that the collecting cylinder supplying the material and the transfer cylinder take off in opposite directions, so that the products can be transferred safely.

The device is particularly versatile if at least the cross-cutting device is provided with a single drive, so that different length formats can be generated.

The number of collecting cylinders and the associated sets of fixing devices of the transfer cylinder is expressly not limited to two, but can go beyond.

The collecting device described can be part of a folder. This also includes a roll unwind, which unwinds the pressure roll into a web. A longitudinal cutting device cuts this web into several partial webs, which are guided in a downstream manner in a known manner by means of turning bars to form a strand one above the other. This strand is fed to the collecting device with cross cutting device of the type described. A folding device is arranged downstream of the collecting device, which folds the collections supplied by the collecting device in a known manner according to the principle of sword folding.

Fig. 1

Sammelvorrichtung in einer Konstellation für lange Erzeugnisse;

Fig. 2

Sammelvorrichtung in einer Konstellation für kurze Erzeugnisse;

Fig. 3

Sammelvorrichtung;

Fig. 4

Übernahmezylinder in einer Konstellation für lange Erzeugnisse;

Fig. 5

Übernahmezylinder in einer Konstellation für kurze Erzeugnisse und

Fig. 6

Falzapparat.

The invention is subsequently explained by means of exemplary embodiments with reference to the figures, to which reference is made with regard to all the details not mentioned in the description. These examples are not an exhaustive description of the invention. The figures show schematically:

Fig. 1

Long device constellation;

Fig. 2

Collecting device in a constellation for short products;

Fig. 3

Collection device;

Fig. 4

Transfer cylinder in a constellation for long products;

Fig. 5

Transfer cylinder in a constellation for short products and

Fig. 6

Folder.

The collection facility is in Fig. 1 in a long product configuration 10 and in Fig. 2 shown in a short product configuration 10 '. Unless otherwise stated, the explanations apply Fig. 1 in the same way for Fig. 2 ,

An import 1 feeds the web-shaped strand 7, which is combined in a known manner from a plurality of partial webs 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, to the device. This strand 7 is guided by pairs of rollers, which are each formed from an upper roller 11 and a lower roller 12 and guide and transport the strand 7. The import 1 leads the strand 7 to a cross-cutting device 2, which cuts off finite-length bundles 9 from the latter. The cross cutting device 2 consists of an upper cutting cylinder 21 which interacts with a lower cutting cylinder 22. These cutting cylinders 21, 22 extend transversely across the entire width of the strand 7 to be cut each equipped with a linear knife 20. The cutting cylinders 21, 22 are as in Fig. 3 shown connected to a controllable drive 401. By changing their speed relative to the web speed of the supplied strand 7, sections 9 of different lengths can be produced without any setup effort.

As an alternative to the depictions shown, the cross-cutting device 2 can be formed from a knife cylinder interacting with a working cylinder. It is also possible to position the cutting cylinder in relation to the transport direction 100 and to equip it with a helical knife, so that the cut on one edge of the strand 7 proceeds over the width of the strand 7 to the opposite strand edge.

The sheet packs 9 separated from the fed strand 7 are in one in Fig. 1 shown first position of the cross cutting device 2 is fed to a first collecting cylinder 31. This is rotatable about its axis transversely to the transport direction 100 and has a fixing device 30 on its circumference.

This fixing device 30 is designed in a known manner in order to detect the supplied sheet package 9 with an effect on conveyance and to release it when it is transferred to the downstream takeover cylinder 34. As an example, a puncture system is shown in greatly simplified form in the figures as the fixing device 30. This puncture system is designed to be controllable, so that its needles protrude outward beyond the circumference of the first collecting cylinder 31 in an activated state and stand back from the circumference in a passivated state. As long as the fixing device 30 is activated, it collects individually supplied sheet packs 9 per revolution of the first collecting cylinder 31 in a stack growing on the circumference of the first collecting cylinder 31 to form a partial collection 10.

At the pick-up point of the first collecting cylinder 31, a counter roller 33 is arranged which interacts with the fixing device 30 in such a way that the sheet package 9 fed is reliably picked up by the first collecting cylinder 31. When passivating the fixing device 30 in Transfer point to the transfer cylinder 34, the first collecting cylinder 31 transfers this partial collection 10 to the transfer cylinder 34.

In the in Fig. 2 As shown, the alternative position of the cross-cutting device 2 'leads the separated sheet packs 9 to a second collecting cylinder 32 instead of the first collecting cylinder 31. These collecting cylinders 31, 32 are arranged parallel to one another. They are constructed in the same way and differ essentially in their diameter 301, 302 and thus in the maximum processable length of the supplied sheet packs 9. The second collecting cylinder 32 interacts with the same transfer cylinder 34 as the first collecting cylinder 31. While the cross cutting device 2, 2 ' represents a switch and the sheet packs 9 feeds one of several collecting cylinders 31, 32, the transfer cylinder 34 brings these different transport paths together again into a common one.

The transfer cylinder 34 is arranged parallel to the collecting cylinders 31, 32 and has a significantly larger diameter than this. A plurality of fixing devices 30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4 are arranged on its circumference at a distance from one another in the circumferential direction. Their function and structure correspond to the fixing devices 30 of the collecting cylinders. The fixing devices 30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4 of the take-over cylinder can be combined into several sets, each set of fixing devices 30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4 being assigned to each of the collecting cylinders 31, 32 feeding the take-over cylinder 34. A first set here comprises the fixing devices 30.1 and 30.3, which are arranged opposite one another on the circumference of the take-over cylinder 34 and are assigned to the first collecting cylinder 31.

If the first collecting cylinder 31 is operated by the cross cutting device 2, this first set of fixing devices 30.1, 30.3 of the transfer cylinder 34 is activated as it is Figure 4 shows. The remaining fixing devices 30.2, 30.4, which are not assigned to the first collecting cylinder 31, remain passivated. If, on the other hand, the second collecting cylinder 32 is operated by the cross-cutting device 2 ', the assigned second set of fixing devices 30.1, 30.2, 30.4 activated while the fixing device 30.3 not assigned to the second collecting cylinder 32 remains passivated, as in FIG Fig. 5 shown.

The arc length 101, 102 between two adjacent fixing devices 30.1, 302., 30.3, 30.4 of the same set corresponds to the circumference of the associated collecting cylinder 31, 32. The circumferential speeds of the collecting cylinders 31, 32 and the transfer cylinder 34 can thus be kept the same and their drives are mechanically coupled.

In principle, the take-over cylinder 34 on each of its fixing devices 30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4 is also suitable for collecting printed products in the manner explained with reference to the first collecting cylinder 31. The interplay of a collecting process optionally on one of several collecting cylinders 31, 32 for partial collections 10, 10 'and then an additional collecting process on the transfer cylinder 34 for collections 16 enables a very large variety of collecting schemes. Thus, the collecting device can be used in a very versatile manner with respect to a given sequence of the printed images on the supplied strand 7.

In one in Fig. 3 shown alternative embodiment, the stationary cross-cutting device 2 is followed by a switch 5. This switch 5 conveys the respective sheet package 9 to one of the collecting cylinders 31, 32 with the aid of an adjustable guide element 15. To control the adjustment of the guide element 15, the switch 5 is connected to the controller 400 of the device. Both the cross-cutting device 2 and the collecting cylinders 31, 32 and the transfer cylinder 34 each have a single drive, which are connected to the same control 400. Compared to that in the 1 and 2 Embodiment shown, the directions of rotation of the collecting cylinders 31, 32 and the transfer cylinder 34 are in opposite directions.

The schematic representation of the Fig. 6 shows variable-volume folder with a collecting device, such as Fig. 3 equivalent. A paper roll 14 is separated immediately after unwinding from a longitudinal cutting device 36 by means of a pair of circular knives 13 into two partial webs 6.1, 6.2 running parallel to one another. With the help of several guide rods 38 and turning rods 39 one Guide means 37, these partial webs 6.1, 6.2 are merged one above the other and to form a strand 7.

The strand 7 formed in this way is separated into a bundle of sheets 9 by a cross-cutting device 2 and then collected by the collecting device 3 arranged below into collections 16 in the manner already described. The collections 16 are fed from a further transport device, not shown, to the folding device 40 arranged downstream of the collecting device 3. This works in a known manner according to the sword fold principle. The folding sword 41 extends in the transport direction 100 of the supplied collection 16 and is arranged above the feed plane. The folding rollers 42 cooperating with the folding blade 41 are arranged below the feed plane, so that there is a change in the transport direction 100 of the printed products from a horizontal to a vertical direction. The folded collections 16 are fed to other devices of known type, not shown.

Claims (10)

1. A device for producing collections (16) of sheet-shaped printed products, comprising at least

   • a first transport device (1) for supplying a strand (7) that is formed of one individual web (6) or multiple combined webs (6) and/or partial webs (6.1, 6.2, 6.3),

   • a cross-cutting device (2, 2') that is arranged downstream of the first transport device (1) referred to the transport direction (100) and extends at least over the width of the supplied strand (7), wherein said cross-cutting device serves for separating successive sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') from the supplied strand (7),

   • a first collecting cylinder (31) that is rotatable about a first rotational axis (201) and has a first diameter (301), wherein said first collecting cylinder has at least one fixing device (30) that is arranged on its circumference and serves for holding a sheet and/or sheet packet (9, 9') supplied from the cross-cutting device (2, 2') on the outer surface of the first collecting cylinder (31), and

   • a receiving cylinder (34) that is rotatable about a second rotational axis (200) and has multiple fixing devices (30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4) distributed over the circumference of the receiving cylinder (34), wherein the second rotational axis (200) of the receiving cylinder (34) is arranged essentially parallel to the first rotational axis (201) of the first collecting cylinder (31) such that sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') are transferred from the first collecting cylinder (31) to the receiving cylinder (34),
   characterized by

   • at least one second collecting cylinder (32) that is rotatable about a third rotational axis (202) and has a second diameter (302), wherein said second collecting cylinder has at least one fixing device (30) that is arranged on its circumference and serves for holding a sheet and/or sheet packet (9, 9') supplied from the cross-cutting device (2, 2') on the outer surface of the second collecting cylinder (32), and wherein the third rotational axis (202) of the second collecting cylinder (32) is arranged essentially parallel to the second rotational axis (200) of the receiving cylinder (34) such that sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') are transferred from the second collecting cylinder (32) to the receiving cylinder (34), and

   • a controllable diverter (5) that is arranged between the first transport device (1) on the one hand and the first collecting cylinder (31) and the second collecting cylinder (32) on the other hand and selectively supplies the sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') to the first collecting cylinder (31) or the second collecting cylinder (32).
2. The device according to claim 1, characterized in that the receiving cylinder (34) has at least two sets of fixing devices (30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4) that respectively are uniformly distributed over the circumference of the receiving cylinder (34), wherein the distance between the fixing devices (30.1, 30.3) of the first set referred to the circumference of the receiving cylinder (34) forms a first pitch (101) and the distance between the fixing devices (30.1, 30.2, 30.4) of the second set referred to the circumference of the receiving cylinder (34) forms a second pitch (101).
3. The device according to claim 2, characterized in that the first pitch (101) corresponds to a non-integral multiple of the second pitch (102).
4. The device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least one fixing device (30.1) of the receiving cylinder (34) is assigned to at least two sets of fixing devices (30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4) that respectively are uniformly distributed over the circumference of the receiving cylinder (34).
5. The device according to one of claims 2 or 3, characterized in that the first diameter (301) of the first collecting cylinder (31) corresponds to an integral multiple of the first pitch (101) and the second diameter of the second collecting cylinder (32) corresponds to an integral multiple of the second pitch (102) of the receiving cylinder (34).
6. The device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by an opposite rotating direction of the first collecting cylinder (31) and the second collecting cylinder (32), as well as a controllable rotating direction of the receiving cylinder (34).
7. The device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that at least the cross-cutting device (2, 2') is connected to and driven by a controllable individual drive (401) in order to successively separate sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') of different lengths from the supplied strand (7).
8. The device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the cross-cutting device (2, 2') has at least one cutting cylinder (21, 21', 22, 22'), wherein the at least one cutting cylinder (21, 21', 22, 22') extends at least over the width of the supplied strand (7).
9. The device according to one of the preceding claims, characterized by a control (400), wherein the control (400) is connected at least to the controllable diverter (5) and to the controllable individual drive (401) of the cross-cutting device (2, 2') in order to transmit data.
10. A folding apparatus for folding collections (16) formed of printed products, comprising at least

    • a roll unwinder for unwinding at least one roll (16) of printed products in the form of a web (6),

    • a longitudinal cutting device (36) that is arranged downstream of the roll unwinder referred to the transport direction (100) and has at least one knife (13) for separating the web (6) supplied from the roll unwinder into multiple partial webs (6.1, 6.2, 6.3),

    • a guiding device (37) that is arranged downstream of the longitudinal cutting device (36) referred to the transport direction (100) and has guiding bars (38) and turning bars (39), wherein said guiding device combines the multiple webs (6.1, 6.2, 6.3) into a multilayered strand (7),

    • a cross-cutting device (2, 2') that is arranged downstream of the guiding device (37) referred to the transport direction (100) and extends at least over the width of the strand (7) supplied by this infeed device (1), wherein said cross-cutting device serves for separating successive sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') from the supplied strand (7),

    • a first collecting cylinder (31) with a first diameter (301), which is arranged downstream of the cross-cutting device (2, 2') referred to the transport direction (100) and rotatable about a first rotational axis (201), wherein said first collecting cylinder has at least one fixing device (30) that is arranged on its circumference and serves for holding a sheet and/or sheet packet (9, 9') supplied from the cross-cutting device (2, 2') on the outer surface of the first collecting cylinder (31),

    • a receiving cylinder (34) that is arranged downstream of the first collecting cylinder (31) referred to the transport direction (100) and rotatable about a second rotational axis (200), wherein said receiving cylinder has multiple fixing devices (30.1, 30.2, 30.3, 30.4) that are distributed on the circumference of the receiving cylinder (34), and wherein the second rotational axis (200) of the receiving cylinder (34) is arranged essentially parallel to the first rotational axis (201) of the first collecting cylinder (31) such that sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') are transferred from the first collecting cylinder (31) to the receiving cylinder (34), and

    • a folding device (40) that is arranged downstream of the devices for producing collections (16) referred to the transport direction (100) and has at least one folding knife (41) and a pair of folding rollers (42) arranged downstream of the folding knife (41) referred to the transport direction (100),
    characterized by

    • at least one second collecting cylinder (32) that is rotatable about a third rotational axis (202) and has a second diameter (302), wherein said second collecting cylinder has at least one fixing device (30) that is arranged on its circumference and serves for holding a sheet and/or sheet packet (9, 9') supplied from the cross-cutting device (2, 2') on the outer surface of the second collecting cylinder (32), and wherein the third rotational axis (202) of the second collecting cylinder (32) is arranged essentially parallel to the second rotational axis (200) of the receiving cylinder (34) such that sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') are transferred from the second collecting cylinder (32) to the receiving cylinder (34), and

    • a controllable diverter (5) that is arranged upstream of the first collecting cylinder (31) and the second collecting cylinder (32) referred to the transport direction (100) and selectively supplies the sheets and/or sheet packets (9, 9') to the first collecting cylinder (31) or the second collecting cylinder (32).

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