NL2007214C2

NL2007214C2 - Method for producing a printed article.

Info

Publication number: NL2007214C2
Application number: NL2007214A
Authority: NL
Inventors: Martinus Evernardus Ee; Tjakko Klaas Staal
Original assignee: Konink Bdu Holding B V
Priority date: 2011-08-03
Filing date: 2011-08-03
Publication date: 2013-02-05
Also published as: NL2007702C2

Description

P100026NL00

Method for producing a printed article 5 Field of the invention

The invention relates to a method for producing a printed article, for instance a newspaper or a magazine. The invention further relates to a printed article. The invention further relates to a printing device, and to a computer software product.

10 Background of the invention

Usually, a rotary offset printing process is used to produce for instance ordinary newspapers and magazines at high speed. Usually, these newspapers are printed at high speeds and large quantities. Using modem printing processes, it is possible to produce more than 50.000 newspapers per hour.

15 In these rotary offset printing processes, over the years the format of the newspapers changed from “broadsheet” format to “Berliner” and finally to “Tabloid”, in order to meet customers demands from an easier to handle newspaper format.

Smaller formats allow reading in small spaces, for instance in trains. An apparatus and method for printing is for instance disclosed in US5176371, disclosing a rotary printing 20 machine and paper handling combination, which is especially suitable for printing webs which will be cut and bound into books, calendars, or other assemblies in which precise relative positioning of the folded, subsequently cut subject matter is important to permit application of index markers and the like at predetermined position. To ensure accurately aligned handling of a plurality of superposed webs forming a composite 25 web, which is to be folded longitudinally twice, particularly to maintain alignment of the individual folded web portions for subsequent application of indices, month, or other date identification and the like, particularly for book and calendar printing, two longitudinally located folding triangle or formers are located, one immediately behind the other, in the path or stream of flow of the webs, in which the first one receives the 30 webs, after lateral alignment and the like, from the printing machine, and the second one is rotated 90° with respect to the incoming web to the first folding former, and applies a second fold. This ensures that the web is always processed in a linear path without twist or lateral offset, thus ensuring alignment of the individual elements of the 2 composite folded web. Preferably, the first one, in the flow of the web, of the folding formers is height-adjustable to accommodate different formats of receiving paper and ensuring that the folded edge will always be in a predetermined plane, which will be the plane of arrival of the folded products to the second folding former, and provide a 5 reference edge for subsequent handling apparatus, such as perforators or punches, a cutter and belt transport systems. According to the disclosure, this type of printing apparatus is more suitable for printing books and does not seem capable of obtaining high printing speeds that are needed in for instance newspaper printing.

Another mayor change in the printing process was colour printing at these high 10 printing speeds. This allowed newspaper to keep up with modem media developments like colour televisions and later on the Internet. These new media provide colour pictures of news items almost immediately.

Nowadays, new devices like PDA’s and tablets make it possible to read the news in electronic form on the go and in full colour.

15

Summary of the invention

The newspaper industry is therefore looking for new ways to present news and articles and other information in a physical way on a printed article.

To that end, the invention provides method for producing a tabulated printed 20 article, comprising the steps of providing at least two webs of paper in a rotary offset printing device, said webs of paper each having a longitudinal axis of symmetry, printing said webs of paper, aligning said webs of paper one on top of the other, folding said aligned webs of paper at least once along a longitudinal folding line, cutting said folded webs of paper across said folding line into printed articles, wherein said webs of 25 paper are aligned on top of one another with their longitudinal axes of symmetry offset with respect to one another.

The current invention thus provides a printed article that can be produced at high printing speeds and in large quantities, and provide new and attractive ways of presenting the information to the reader.

30 In particular, the invention provides a printed article that has some aspects that appeal to users of modem electronic devices. In particular, it provides a new way of presenting articles and information in a printed form in an tabulated way, and organised 3 and accessible in a way that appeals to and resembles the information presentation on an electronic device.

5 The method allows the production of a printed article that in a folded condition allows a user to see an indication of the information it holds. Furthermore, it allows the user to easily find information he or she is interested in.

By providing the webs of paper with their longitudinal axes of symmetry offset with respect to one another, a newspaper can be produced that has a tabulated 10 presentation of the information. This printed article is also referred to as “tablet newspaper” of “tablet paper”.

In an embodiment, said webs are folded along a first folding line that is offset with respect to axis of symmetry.

In an embodiment, a next web is offset with respect to the previous, under laying 15 web, and all the webs are offset in the same direction.

In an embodiment, the webs are folded along a first folding line that is offset in transverse direction. In an embodiment, the webs are offset half of the offset of the webs of paper. In an embodiment, the offset of the webs is the same for each web of paper. In an embodiment, the offset of the webs is 1-3 cm.

20 In an embodiment, 2-6 webs of paper are provided, in a particular embodiment, 2-4 webs of paper are provided. In particular, when using 2-3 webs of paper, 3-5 tabs can be created. When each tab is about 1-3 cm, this still results in enough printing space for information.

In an embodiment, the webs of paper are cut along a first cutting line that is 25 transverse with respect to the longitudinal direction of the webs of paper, and in an embodiment are then folded again along a second folding line, in an embodiment said second folding line is a transverse folding line.

In an embodiment, the webs of paper are printed using a cold-set printing ink. The so called cold-set ink is most commonly used in printing newspaper and results in 30 high production speed, often more than 50.000 newspapers per hour.

In an embodiment, the longitudinal axis of each subsequent web of paper is shifted in transverse direction over 1-5 cm with respect to the previous web of paper. In an embodiment the webs are shifted 1.5-3 cm. In an embodiment, all the webs are 4 shifted in the same direction. In practise, it was found that such a shift presented a good trade off between a clear tabulated newspaper and enough remaining space for information.

In an embodiment, the aligned webs of paper are folded along a first or 5 longitudinal folding line that is offset with respect to the longitudinal axes of symmetry of the webs.

In an embodiment, the cut sheets of paper are adhered to one another along a folding line.

The invention further pertains to a printing device arranged for applying the 10 method according to any one of the preceding claims, said printing device comprising an alignment device for aligning the webs of paper, in particular aligning the webs with their longitudinal axes of symmetry offset with respect to one another in transverse direction, said alignment device comprising an alignment detector, a controller that is operationally coupled to said alignment detector for comparing the alignment detect 15 position with a set alignment position, and a paper web guiding device that is operationally coupled to the controller arranged for aligning the webs of paper based upon controlling signals from the controller, wherein the alignment detector is offset and/or the guiding device is offset and/or the set value of the alignment device is offset with respect to a centring alignment.

20 The invention further pertains to a printed paper article of newspaper print paper and provided with cold-set printing, wherein said printed paper article having at least two substantially rectangular sheets of paper having substantially the same size along one side, said sheets are offset 1-3 cm with respect to one another in at least one direction along an axis perpendicular to said side. This results in that a strip of each 25 previous sheet being visible, in a tabulated way. Furthermore, said sheets may have been folded along a first folding line that is offset in said shifting direction, thus resulting in tabulated sheets.

The invention further pertains to a computer program product which when running on a computer controlling a rotary offset printing device to allows said printing 30 device to perform the subsequent steps of providing at least two webs of paper in the rotary offset printing device, said webs of paper each having a longitudinal axis of symmetry, printing said webs of paper, aligning said webs of paper one on top of the other, folding said aligned webs of paper at least once along a longitudinal folding line, 5 cutting said folded webs of paper across said folding line into printed articles, wherein said webs of paper are aligned on top of one another with their longitudinal axes of symmetry offset with respect to one another.

A web of paper of the current invention in particular is a band of paper that 5 results from unwinding a roll of paper used in newspaper printing. Such a roll can easily hold many kilometres of paper.

The terms “upstream” and “downstream” relate to an arrangement of items or features relative the printing process, ending “downstream” in a printed article.

The term “substantially” herein, such as in “substantially square” or in 10 “substantially consists of’, will be understood by the person skilled in the art. The term “substantially” may also include embodiments with “entirely”, “completely”, “all”, etc. Hence, in embodiments the adjective substantially may also be removed. Where applicable, the term “substantially” may also relate to 90% or higher, such as 95% or higher, especially 99% or higher, even more especially 99.5% or higher, including 15 100%. The term “comprise” includes also embodiments wherein the term “comprises” means “consists of’.

Furthermore, the terms first, second, third and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the terms so 20 used are interchangeable under appropriate circumstances and that the embodiments of the invention described herein are capable of operation in other sequences than described or illustrated herein.

The devices or apparatus herein are amongst others described during operation. As will be clear to the person skilled in the art, the invention is not limited to methods 25 of operation or devices in operation.

It should be noted that the above-mentioned embodiments illustrate rather than limit the invention, and that those skilled in the art will be able to design many alternative embodiments without departing from the scope of the appended claims. In the claims, any reference signs placed between parentheses shall not be construed as 30 limiting the claim. Use of the verb "to comprise" and its conjugations does not exclude the presence of elements or steps other than those stated in a claim. The article "a" or "an" preceding an element does not exclude the presence of a plurality of such elements. The invention may be implemented by means of hardware comprising 6 several distinct elements, and by means of a suitably programmed computer. In the device or apparatus claims enumerating several means, several of these means may be embodied by one and the same item of hardware. The mere fact that certain measures are recited in mutually different dependent claims does not indicate that a combination 5 of these measures cannot be used to advantage.

The invention further applies to an apparatus or device comprising one or more of the characterising features described in the description and/or shown in the attached drawings. The invention further pertains to a method or process comprising one or more of the characterising features described in the description and/or shown in the 10 attached drawings.

The various aspects discussed in this patent can be combined in order to provide additional advantages. Furthermore, some of the features can form the basis for one or more divisional applications.

15

Brief description of the drawings

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying schematic drawings in which corresponding reference symbols indicate corresponding parts, and in which: 20 Figure 1 schematically depicts a top view of several webs of paper on top of one another, not yet folded;

Figure 2 shows a cross section of figure 1;

Figure 3 the webs of paper of figure 1 folded over a longitudinal folding line FI; Figure 4 a cross section of figure 3; 25 Figure 5 a cut printed article, and

Figure 6 the printed article of figure 5, folded over a second folding line F2.

Description of preferred embodiments

Figure 1 schematically depicts a top view of three webs of paper 1, 2 and 3 on top 30 of one another, with web 1 the top web. Figure 2 shows a front view of the three webs of figure 1. The webs have a longitudinal direction, indicated with L. Each of the webs of paper has a longitudinal axis of symmetry, for web 1 it is indicated with dotted line SI. The webs are subsequently shifted each time further in transverse direction T. In 7 this embodiment, each sheet is shifted in transverse direction with respect to the previous sheet in the same transverse direction. Furthermore, in this embodiment the sheets are shifted in transverse direction over the same amount dl.

Usually, the webs of paper are unrolled from large rolls of printing paper. They 5 usually have a width W of between 50 cm and 200 cm. In those cases, the shift amount dl will be about 1-5 cm. It was found that in order to get a clear tabulated view in the end product, the shift amount dl is to be about 1.5-3 cm. In newspaper printing, usually paper is applied that is indicated as “news print”. This news print paper comes in some qualities that all can be used in the current invention.

10 After printing, the webs of paper are folded along folding line FI. Usually, this folding line is parallel to the longitudinal axis of symmetry SI. In this embodiment, in order to produce a clear tabulated printed article that for three sheets has 5 tabs (in general, 2n-l for n sheets), The first folding line FI is shifted in transverse direction and away from the axis of symmetry SI in a transverse shift direction of the web of 15 paper. In order to obtain an even tabulation, the first folding line shift amount d2 is half the paper web shift dl. Depending on the effect that one wants to obtain, the folding line shift can vary 50 %. Thus, if paper web shift is between 1-5 cm, the first folding line shift d2 will be between 0.5-2.5 cm.

Figure 3 shows the webs of paper in folded condition folded over first folding 20 line FI. Figure 4 shows the same in front view. In figure 4, it is evident that the paper thickness is exaggerated for clarity reasons. Width W’ in this situation is U W - d2 -2dl. The webs of paper now are tabulated. In an embodiment, a topic like for instance “sports” “international” “stocks” can be printed on the tab areas 5. In this way, a reader can find the items of his interest fast.

25 Next, the folded webs of paper of figures 3 and 4 can be cut into printed articles 4 as shown in figure 5. Such a printed article 4 can be the end product, in an embodiment. Thus, a tabulated newspaper can be produced. A reader can “swipe” through the pages like for instance swiping through pages on the internet on a device like the IPAD from APPLE. The numbers 1, 2 and 3 connected to the tabs indicate from which sheet each 30 tab results. In this embodiment, first folding line FI is the back of the printed article. In an embodiment, the various sheets can be attached to one another at his folding line F. The sheets can be attached to one another using glue, staples or an equivalent way. Alternatively, the printed article of figure 5 can be cut at the folding line FI.

8

Alternatively, in order to detach the sheets from one another, a strip 6 (indicated hatched) can be cut off of the printed article 4 along a cutting line 7. In figure 5, on each tab a text “ITEM” is printed in order to show a possible use of the tabs.

In a next step, that can for instance be independent of and/or in combination with 5 the steps of the description of figure 4, the printed article can be folded along a second or transverse folding line F2. In general, this second folding line is parallel to the axis of symmetry S2. The second folding line F2 can be shifted with respect to the axis of symmetry S2. In figure 6, a result of such folding along a second folding line F2 is shown. When a (longitudinal) shift of the second folding line F2 over a shift distance 10 d3 is provided, a further tab can be created. Thus, that further tab will have a width d4 that is twice the shift distance d3. On that tab, in figure 6 a further text “HEADER” is printed. The original tabs can also be provided with text (Dl, D2, D3, D4, D5 in figure 6).

The resulting printed article of figure 6 can be combined with the cut along first 15 folding line FI or the cut strip 6 described above. Thus, a reader can easily brows through the printed article, much like browsing on an electronic device or computer on the Internet. In an embodiment, the sheets of the printed article 4 can be attached to one another in second folding line F2. This can be done using an adhesive in a well-known manner, using staples, or in another way known to a skilled person.

20 In order to produce the printed article at a high speed, a printing apparatus is used that allows production of printed articles at a large printing speed. Usually, this printing apparatus is of the type “rotary offset printing device”. In these printing apparatus, several webs of paper can be printed and combined into one printed article, usually a newspaper. These printed articles are produced at a high speed, usually more than 25 50.000 printed articles per hour, but modem presses may even allow production of more than 90.000 printed articles per hour.

For producing printed articles like newspapers at such a high speed, usually a printing process called “cold-set” is used. In this process, a printing ink is applied that sets very quickly. In this process, some of the ink is absorbed into the paper onto which 30 the ink is applied. This printing process in general allows high-speed production of printed articles. Alternative types of printing inks that are available are for instance of the heat-set type, or for instance UV-set inks are available.

9

In the method o the current invention, a printing device of the type “Man Roland Regioman” can be used. Another suitable printing device is the KSA Journal. These rotary offset printing devices allow high production speeds. The printing devices have an automated web alignment system. In such an automated web alignment system, 5 webs of paper are applied onto one another and aligned with their longitudinal axes of symmetry onto one another. The alignment system often has a set of optical detectors of detecting the position of the webs of paper. Usually, cameras are used that that detect markers on the webs. The information from the cameras is processed into control signals that control guidance parts that position the webs. In the current invention, each 10 web is shifted a little with respect to a previous web in the transverse direction. This, instead of the usual perfect alignment, in an embodiment of the invention the alignment system is set to apply each next web shifted in transverse direction with respect to a previous or lower web. One way of accomplishing this is by shifting the cameras a little. In another embodiment, the control system is offset. Alternatively, the markers 15 used on the printed webs can be shifted.

After alignment, the webs are usually folded in a folding lane, in which a stack of webs is folded along a longitudinal axis of the webs. Normally, they are folded along the longitudinal axes of symmetry of the aligned webs. In the current invention, the webs are folded asymmetrically. Using known an existing printing device, this 20 asymmetric folding can be established in different ways. In an embodiment, the webs are aligned in such a way that they are shifted in transverse direction when entering the folding lane. In another embodiment, the position of the folding lane is shifted a little in transverse direction.

It will also be clear that the above description and drawings are included to 25 illustrate some embodiments of the invention, and not to limit the scope of protection. Starting from this disclosure, many more embodiments will be evident to a skilled person and which are within the scope of protection and the essence of this invention, and which are obvious combinations of prior art techniques and the disclosure of this patent.

30

Claims

A method for producing tabbed printing, comprising the steps of: 5. providing at least two webs of paper in a rotary offset printing device, wherein the webs of paper each have a longitudinal axis of symmetry; - printing on the paper webs; - align the webs of paper with each other; folding the aligned webs of paper at least once along a longitudinal folding line; - cutting the folded webs of paper transversely to the fold line into printed matter, the webs of paper with their longitudinal axes of symmetry being aligned with respect to each other.

The method of claim 1, wherein the paper webs are folded along a first fold line that is offset from the axis of symmetry.

3. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the webs are folded along a first fold line that is shifted in transversal direction, in one embodiment the fold line is shifted half the shift of the webs of paper, in one embodiment the shift is of the paper webs the same for each paper web, in an embodiment 1-3 cm.

4. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein 2-6 webs of paper are provided, in particular 2-4 webs of paper.

5. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the webs of paper are cut along a first cutting line that is transversal to the longitudinal direction of the webs of paper, and in one embodiment subsequently folded along a second fold line, in a In the embodiment, the second fold line is a transverse fold line.

The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the paper webs are printed with a so-called cold-set printing ink.

7. The method as claimed in one or more of the foregoing claims, wherein the longitudinal axis of each subsequent web of paper is shifted 1 - 5 cm in transversal direction relative to the previous web of paper, in an embodiment shifted 1.5-3 cm, in In one embodiment, all paper webs are shifted in the same direction.

The method of any one of the preceding claims, wherein the aligned webs of paper are folded along a first or longitudinal fold line that is offset from the longitudinal axes of symmetry of the webs of paper.

9. The method according to one or more of the preceding claims, wherein the cut sheets of paper are bonded together along a folding line.

10. A printing device for applying the method as claimed in one or more of the foregoing claims, wherein the printing device comprises an alignment device for aligning the webs of paper, in particular aligning the webs of paper with their longitudinal axes of symmetry offset in relation to each other in transversal direction, wherein the alignment device is provided with an alignment detector, a control device operatively coupled to the alignment device for comparing the alignment detection position with a set alignment position, and a paper web assist device which is operatively coupled to the control device for aligning the paper-based webs of control signals from the control device, wherein the alignment detector is offset and / or the guide device is offset and / or the set value of the alignment device is offset relative to a centered alignment.

11. A printed matter of newspaper and provided with so-called cold-set printing, wherein the printed matter comprises at least two substantially rectangular sheets of paper with substantially the same dimension along one side, the sheets being displaced 1-3 cm relative to each other in at least one direction along the axis transverse to that side, wherein at least one strip of each preceding sheet is visible to provide tabs, and wherein the sheets are folded along a first fold line shifted in a shift direction, resulting in tabs.

A computer program product that when operating on a computer for controlling a rotary printing press allows the printing press to perform the successive steps of at least one of the preceding claims 1-9. -o-o-o-o-o- 10