EP1762525B1 - Device for collating or gathering of printed products - Google Patents

Description

The invention relates to a device for collating or collecting printed products and / or inserts, with a forming a conveyor line working strand of a rotating, with it at regular intervals fastened drivers formed traction means of a conveyor and arranged along the conveyor line isochronously driven feeders, at least differ by supplying different printed products and are connected by a respective drive device to the conveyor, wherein the conveyor device and at least one feeding device are driven separately, and that for detecting the position of a conveyed on a conveying section of the conveyor line printed product, a first measuring device, and for determining the position of a the delivery conveyor located further printed product, a second measuring device are provided, which are connected to a computationally controllable control device.

Collecting devices of the type mentioned are used in print finishing for collecting printed products, such as printed sheets, cards, CD / DVD-ROM or other sheet products to loose material compositions. Under collecting means are Züsammentragmaschinen, saddle stitchers and insertion machines to understand. Along a horizontal conveyor line feeding devices are arranged, which are each loaded with a variety of printed products to be collected. The transport of the material compositions within the conveyor line is carried out by means of attached to a circumferentially driven traction means drivers. Depending on the design, the conveying direction of the collecting device can be longitudinal or transverse to the direction of the back. The design of the support means along the conveyor line depends on the particular application.

At a gathering machine, the support means is L-shaped and consists of an approximately vertical guide wall, against which the printed products abut with their backs and an inclined towards the guide wall bottom part. In the back longitudinal direction drivers or stops are provided, according to which the printed products are aligned. As a result, the sheet compositions are aligned on the back and in the back longitudinal direction. A device according to the prior art is for example in the CH 446 269 disclosed. At a circumferentially driven traction means fixed at equal intervals driver together form a conveyor which pushes the material compositions through the conveyor channel. The material combinations are aligned in the conveying direction exactly after the driver pushing them. Before every driver gets on his way through the delivery channel of each Feeding each supplied a printed product, so that at the end of the collection each catch a completely assembled, loose book block is assigned. It is also known to design the conveyor so that the printed products are collected in the direction across the back, respectively conveyed.

Print products for saddle stitching are collected on a roof-shaped support astride resting and must be opened individually centrally before depositing on the conveyor. Its position transversely to the conveying device is defined by the tip of the roof-shaped support and a stop or catch in the back longitudinal direction.

In collecting devices for insertion along a conveyor line supply devices for supplying printed products are arranged. In this case, the so-called main sheet is first fed and opened in the middle, so that a kind of pocket is created, in which the einzusteckenden printed products can be inserted by the subsequent feeders. The drive of the conveyor takes place isochronous to the subsequent processing machine in the conveying direction, for example, an adhesive binder or saddle stitcher.

This can be done by a synchronized with the subsequent processing machine running, controlled electric motor or mechanically by coupling to the central drive of the subsequent processing machine. The feeders are driven individually, in groups or centrally. In order for the supplied printed products to be deposited on the material compilations at the correct location, the drives of the feed devices to the conveyor device must run synchronized. Depending on the drive type of the feeders this is done by a mechanical coupling or motor drive by a drive control.

A disadvantage of devices according to the prior art is that the drives of the feeders and the conveyor are rigidly coupled together. This has the consequence that due to pitch errors of the conveyor of the sum error of a driver for sheet feeding increases with increasing distance to the drive of the conveyor.

Since the traction means of the conveyor is usually a chain, the tolerances by wear of the chain are constantly increasing. Also not taken into account are deformations in the drive members due to the torques and forces to be transmitted, which in addition contribute to a deterioration of the synchronization accuracy. When processing standard print products of the same format, operational reliability may already be impaired in the case of longer collection devices. A tailor-made supply of z. B. on the top sheet of material composition to be glued supplements such as cards, CD / DVD-ROM or other sheet products can not be achieved because all existing inaccuracies of the conveyor and drive relative to each other are too large.

The pre-published US 5 031 891 describes a method and an apparatus for selectively collecting different printed products, wherein the printed products respectively by controllable sampling devices resp. Suppliers individual conveyor sections are fed to a conveyor. The investors are controlled by a computer which has a memory with reader addresses as well as the delivery sequence and the parts to be selected from a print product for certain readers.

The pre-published EP-A-1 065 074 provides a method and a device for improving the timing between the withdrawal of printed products by investors and the driving fingers of a conveyor chain on a collecting line. In each case, a sensor is provided at the ends of the collection section of a Einstechmaschine for determining the passage of the driver fingers, with which the delay of the conveyor chain is detected by late arrival of the driver fingers on each investor, so that the right time between removal and driver finger can be corrected.

The prepublished EP-A-1 357 069 is concerned with an automatic cash dispenser having a first conveyor belt which transports a stack of sheets along a conveying path, and which has a second conveying section which opens at a feed point into the first conveying path at which a sheet-aligning device is provided.

The invention has for its object to promote the last supplied printed product in the conveying direction precisely aligned with the uppermost printed product of the underlying material composition.

The object is achieved according to the invention in that the measuring device, viewed in the conveying direction of the printed products, is arranged in each case in front of a merge point on the conveying path, and the feeding device is connected to the control device by a variable speed control drive.

Fig.1

eine vereinfachte räumliche Darstellung einer erfindungsgemässen Sammeleinrichtung,

Fig.2

einen Ausschnitt aus der Fig. 1,

Fig.3

eine Zuführvorrichtung für Beilagen in vereinfachter Darstellung,

Fig.4

eine vereinfachte räumliche Darstellung einer alternativen erfindungsgemässen Sammeleinrichtung.

The invention will be explained below with reference to the drawing, to which reference is made with respect to all unspecified details in the description, based on embodiments. In the drawing show:

Fig.1

a simplified spatial representation of a collecting device according to the invention,

Fig.2

a section of the Fig. 1 .

Figure 3

a feeder for supplements in a simplified representation,

Figure 4

a simplified spatial representation of an alternative collecting device according to the invention.

The in the Fig. 1 and Fig. 4 The collecting devices 1 shown essentially consist of a conveying path 27 and feed devices 26, which are arranged along the conveying path 27. The conveyor line 27 has support means 39 (in Fig. 1 not shown) on which material compilations 23 of printed products 3 and supplements 33 are produced and displaced in the conveying direction F, and a working belt 37 of a conveying device 6 circulating traction means 4, which are fixed at regular intervals driver 5, the receiving points 25 for the material compositions 23 form , At conveying sections 35 of the conveying path 27, printing products 3 or inserts 33 are supplied by feeding devices 26, wherein each conveying section 35 is assigned at least one feeding device 26. The collecting device 1 after the Fig. 1 for example, for collecting material compilations 23 for an adhesive binder and the collecting device 1 after the Fig. 4 be used for a saddle stitcher. In the collecting process for the adhesive binding, the various printed products 3 are stacked on one another in a channel by the feed devices 26 arranged along the conveying path 27, so that complete material combinations 23 are available at the end of the conveying path 27. During the collection process for the saddle stitching according to Fig. 4 the printed products 3 in the open state are astride collected on a roof-shaped support formed by support means 39. The traction means 4 is driven by means of a drive device 7, for example a motor.

The feed devices 26 are formed by feeders 2, which singulate the printed products 3 from stacks and deliver them to feed conveyors 28, by means of which the printed products 3 are placed with exact position on the forming material assemblies 23. Feeder 2 are known in the art in various embodiments. In the figures, the investors 2 are shown as a drum feeder. The lowest printed product 3 resp. The bottom shim 33 of a stack are thereby partially separated from the stack by means of suction means and subsequently detected by grippers arranged on the drums 32, transported away from the stack and delivered to a feed line 43 designed as a feed conveyor 28. For example, a circulating upper belt 30 and a lower belt 31 cooperating therewith, between which the printed products 3 are conveyed in a force-fit manner, are suitable as feed conveyors 28. Also conceivable would be a revolving chain, with a plurality of attached to this grippers that promote the printed products 3 from the feeder 2 to the merger point 36 and the top print product 3 of the underlying material composition 23 would drop. Usually, the printed products are 3 on the material assembly 23 sliding driver 5 and are thus aligned and referenced on this page exactly. Format-smaller printed products 3, as well as, for example, smaller-format inserts 33, however, usually have to be supplied to the top printed product 3 of a material combination 23 on the conveyor line with a desired position value a equal to or greater than 0. So that these supplements 33 or printed products 3 retain their position relative to the underlying printed product 3 after being merged, they are mutually connected by gluing. For this purpose, a glue application head 18 is provided, which applies glue to each adherend 33 to be glued. Alternatively, the glue could also be applied to the uppermost printed product 3 of the material combination 23 with which the insert 33 is to be glued prior to merging. Instead of a gluing can be positioned against each other inserts 33 and

Printed products 3 with different polarity electrostatically charged, resulting in an at least temporary connection between them. Each feeder 26 has its own variable speed drive 29, which drives at least the feed conveyor 28 and in a preferred embodiment also the feeder 2. The variable speed drive 29 is formed by a motor 8 with position sensor 10 and a servo control 9, which are connected to each other via a return 11 and a power supply 12. Alternatively, the variable speed drive 29 could also be formed by a stepper motor and a stepper motor controller, in which case the position sensor 10 and the feedback 11 could be dispensed with. Drive systems are also known in which the position of the rotor can be determined directly by the servo control 9, with which the Position sensor 10 may also be omitted. Another conceivable solution is to use a linear motor as motor 8. The servo control 9 is connected to a control device 13, from which it continuously receives at least the desired values 14 of the position of the drive and returns the actual values 15 to the control device 13. To determine the position of the drive device 7 for the driver 5, the control device 13 is connected via the signal line Feintakt 19 at least one Feintakt sensor 17 of a position measuring system 16. As is known, the functions of the control device 13 and the servo control 9 can be combined in a single device. However, this does not change the previously described procedures and functions.

In the area in front of the merging point 36 of a printed product 3 or an insert 33 with the underlying printed product 3 are position sensors 22 for the measurement of the position, at least of the uppermost printed product 3 of a material composition 23 and position sensors 24 for the measurement of the position of the supplied printed product 3 or Supplement 33 provided. On the basis of the two measured values of the sensors 22, 24, the control device 13 calculates the expected relative position (actual position value a) of the printed product 3 or insert 33 to the uppermost printed product 3 of the material combination 23. Alternatively to the measurement of the position of the uppermost printed product 3 of a material combination 23 can be measured with a position sensor 21, the position of the driver 5, to which the uppermost printed product 3 of a material composition 23 is applied. The control drives 29 thus run as a slave position-controlled according to the drive device 7 of the conveying device 6, which forms the master. Such systems are known by the term "electrical wave". By measuring the effectively expected position a of a supplied printed product 3 or a supplement 33 to the top printed product 3 of the material composition 23 and

Comparison with the position setpoint a, it is possible to correct the target value 15 of the variable speed drive 29 accordingly and thus to compensate for the previously determined deviation from actual position value a to position setpoint a. Geometric errors of the conveying device 6 as a result of deformations, manufacturing tolerances and wear are thus continuously detected and compensated so that the supplements 33 and printed products 3 to be supplied are deposited in the conveying direction F exactly on the topmost printed product 3 of a material composition 23. The position sensors 21, 22, 24 are positioned as close as possible in front of the merging point 36, but at least to the extent that the regulating drive 29 can reach a newly calculated setpoint value even at maximum production speed. If the machine is switched off, inevitably the whole control system becomes inactive. If changes are now made by manual intervention on the machine, the control device 13 will not be able to recognize this. In this way, the control drives 29 may lose their reference, which can only be recovered again by the promotion of printed products 3 and supplements 33 and recording derer position using the previously described sensors and control devices 13. To avoid this, reference clocks can be generated at the feed devices 26 and the conveyor device 6 and transmitted by the signal line 20 of the reference clock of the conveying device 6 and the signal line 42 of the reference clock of the feeder 26 to the control device 13. The reference clocks are each once per machine cycle by the reference clock sensor 40 of the conveyor 6 and reference clock sensors 41 of the feeders 26 generates. The timing within a machine cycle is defined by mechanical settings. Thus, it is possible to approximately synchronize control drives 29 without conveying printed products 3 or supplements 33 to the conveying device 6. The achievable accuracy corresponds to that of devices according to the prior art. Furthermore, it is conceivable to determine the position a by means of the position sensor 22 of the material combinations and the reference clock sensor 41 of the feeding device. In this mode of operation, the possible accuracy is not quite achieved, but significantly exceeded that of prior art devices.

During the merging of the inserts 33 or the printed products 3 with the underlying printed product 3, this does not necessarily have to rest on the material composition 23, but can initially slide on a support 34, which is arranged above the support means 39. The promotion can still be done by the driver 5, as in Fig. 3 is shown.

Furthermore, it is conceivable to detect the position of a supplement 33 or of a printed product 3 relative to the underlying printed product 3 with the aid of image recognition systems arranged downstream of the merging point 36. This makes it possible to detect in the conveying direction F and / or transversely offset or incorrectly supplied supplements 33 and auszuschleusen when exceeding an allowable limit.

In the Fig. 4 an alternative collecting device 1 is shown, as used for example for feeding a stapling machine 38 of a saddle stitcher. The functioning The drives are identical to those in a gathering machine for an adhesive binder. The main difference is that the printed products 3 in the saddle stitching in the open state on a roof-shaped conveying path 27 are placed astride and collected in this way.

Claims (8)

1. Device for gathering or collecting printed products (3) and/or inserts (33), comprising a conveying track (27) formed by the tight side (37) of a circulating traction mechanism (4) of a conveying device (6) with pushers (5) fixed thereto at regular intervals, and synchronously driven feeding devices (26) arranged along the conveying track (27), said feeding devices differing from one another at least in that they supply different printed products (3) and each being connected to the conveying device (6) by a respective drive device (7), wherein the conveying device (6) and at least one feeding device (26) are driven separately, a first measuring device (21, 22) is provided for detecting the position of a printed product (3) transported on a conveying section (35) of the conveying track (27) and a second measuring device (24) is provided for determining the position of another printed product (3) situated on the feed conveyor (28), said measuring devices being connected to a control device (13) with a calculating function, characterised in that the measuring device (21, 22) is arranged upstream of an assembly point (36) on the conveying track (27) as viewed in the conveying direction (F) of the printed products (3), the feeding device (26) is connected to the control device (13) by a torque-controllable variable-speed drive (29), and a feeding section (43) between the feeding device (26) and the assembly point (36) is formed by a feed conveyor (28) connected to the torque-controllable variable-speed drive (29).
2. Device according to claim 1, characterised in that the torque-controllable variable-speed drive (29) is designed as a servo drive.
3. Device according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that the feeding section (43) between a feeding device (26) and the assembly point (36) is formed by a feed conveyor (28) connected to the control device (13) via a separate variable-speed drive (29).
4. Device according to one of claims 1 to 3, characterised in that the feeding section (43) or the feeding device (26) has a sensor (24) for measuring the position of a printed product (3) supplied.
5. Device according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterised in that the sensor (24) is connected to the control device (13).
6. Device according to one of claims 1 to 5, characterised in that the control device (13) has a computer which calculates the actual position value (a) after detecting the position of the printed products (3) situated on the conveying section (35) and/or the feeding section (43), compares it with a setpoint position (a) for the printed products (3) and controls the feed conveyor (28) on the basis of the differential value.
7. Device according to one of claims 1 to 6, characterised by a sensor (21, 22, 24) directed towards the front or rear edge of a printed product (3) for measuring the position of the printed product (3) on the conveying track (27) and/or feeding section (43).
8. Use of the device according to one of claims 1 to 7 in a gathering machine or a collecting device of a gang-stitcher.

Images