CA1319160C - Method and means for the further processing of printing products - Google Patents
Method and means for the further processing of printing productsInfo
- Publication number
- CA1319160C CA1319160C CA000609384A CA609384A CA1319160C CA 1319160 C CA1319160 C CA 1319160C CA 000609384 A CA000609384 A CA 000609384A CA 609384 A CA609384 A CA 609384A CA 1319160 C CA1319160 C CA 1319160C
- Authority
- CA
- Canada
- Prior art keywords
- products
- cluster
- clusters
- processing
- conveying
- Prior art date
- Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
- Expired - Lifetime
Links
Classifications
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B65—CONVEYING; PACKING; STORING; HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL
- B65H—HANDLING THIN OR FILAMENTARY MATERIAL, e.g. SHEETS, WEBS, CABLES
- B65H33/00—Forming counted batches in delivery pile or stream of articles
- B65H33/16—Forming counted batches in delivery pile or stream of articles by depositing articles in batches on moving supports
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B42—BOOKBINDING; ALBUMS; FILES; SPECIAL PRINTED MATTER
- B42C—BOOKBINDING
- B42C19/00—Multi-step processes for making books
- B42C19/02—Multi-step processes for making books starting with single sheets
-
- B—PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING
- B42—BOOKBINDING; ALBUMS; FILES; SPECIAL PRINTED MATTER
- B42C—BOOKBINDING
- B42C19/00—Multi-step processes for making books
- B42C19/08—Conveying between operating stations in machines
Abstract
ABSTRACT
The further processing and conveying of printing products with a high capacity takes place in such a way that the printing products are organized into clusters (2, 2'). A print m g product cluster is a group of at least two individual printing products, which axe jointly processed in cluster flows at least over a partial segment or process. Such a cluster flow can be split up or reduced to a lower order cluster flow (decreasing number of printing products per cluster). It is also possible to mix or combine cluster flows. This makes it possible within an overall system to create an upwardly open processing capacity at the desired points or stations.
The method simultaneously permits increased flexibility by specific buffering possibilities, redundancy, etc., with a relatively low material and cost expenditure.
The further processing and conveying of printing products with a high capacity takes place in such a way that the printing products are organized into clusters (2, 2'). A print m g product cluster is a group of at least two individual printing products, which axe jointly processed in cluster flows at least over a partial segment or process. Such a cluster flow can be split up or reduced to a lower order cluster flow (decreasing number of printing products per cluster). It is also possible to mix or combine cluster flows. This makes it possible within an overall system to create an upwardly open processing capacity at the desired points or stations.
The method simultaneously permits increased flexibility by specific buffering possibilities, redundancy, etc., with a relatively low material and cost expenditure.
Description
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METHOD AND MEANS FOR THE FURT~IER_OC~ES$ING OF
PRINTING PRODU~TS
The invention is in the field of printing technology and relates to a method and a means for forming printed products into clusters and processing the clusters.
In modern printworks ever higher processing speeds and capacities are required in connection with the further processing of printing products from rotary presses.This is inter alia due to the fact that modern rotary presses permit, apart frommulti-colour printing, a high quality offset printing and consequently there is an increase in the number of brochures, magazines and other printworks products which can be produced. Simultaneously processing must have great flexibility, sothat the maximum number of final formats of the printing products must be obtainable using the same plant. Significance is also attached to costs, because in the case of flexible plants identical components must be usable for different functions, whilst perrnitting the very satisfactory use of high capacity partialplants. However, flexibility is also required in connection with the extendability of plants, because often at a later time an existing plant must be usable for larger numbers or for new printing products. There is also a desire for a maximum utilization and loading of systems, particularly in view of the relatively high costs for printing presses and conveying systems.
Conventional conveying and processing plants in printworks are all based on serial processing concepts. Printing products or partial products are usually conveyed by means of conveyor belts, conveyors, etc. in a conveying line, often as a scale or stream flow and supplied to processing plants. Since, as a result of their operating principle, rotary presses generally print paper webs in serial form, it is obvious to further process the printing products in serial manner. Serial processing is often also necessary due to the working steps during further processing requiring a serial sequence. Therefore up to now conventional conveying and processing plants have had to adhere to this serial principle.
'3~7 la For special applications, particularly when high processing capacities are desired, serial processing plants are adapted and precautions taken leading to a certain processing capacity increase. However, these precautions have only related to specific bottlenecks in processing and 13191~
no solution has been provided to the fundamental problem, i.e.
increasing the processing capacity and in particular making the overall plant or at least certain working steps therein more flexible. Thus, e.g. buffer plants or means have been provided, or by using sorting gates the printing product flow has been subdivided into several partial flows. Such an apparatus is e.g. described in European application 87115227.8, filed October 17, 1987, published June 29, 1988, and granted May 8, 1991 as patent No. 0272398. This invention discloses a method and an apparatus in which one or more continuous flows of printwork products is subdivided onto the feed segments of at least two processing stations without using buffer means. Another method according to Swiss patent 649 063 shows how a conveyor is subdivided into several paths, "so as to be able to make it possible to use the known and proven conveying technology". The problem to be solved is to maintain the feeder capacity, whilst retaining the aforementioned conveying technology.
However, it has been found that the "known and proven" serial conveying concepts suffer from significant disadvantages, which are particularly prominent in the case of large conveying capacitiesO As in all serial processes bottlenecks necessarily occux at points having a larger passage time or a slower clock cycle, which is also due to inadequate flexibility. As stated hereinbefore, the problems of such a bottleneck can be partly solved with a buffer. However, on passing through a bottleneck for a long period or even permanently without any interruption, necessarily a fundamentally unlimited buffer capacity must be provided.
Therefore all the following plants can only be operated with the bottleneck capacity. Ob~iously in such cases the conventionally used buffering constitutes on inadequate solution, if a high overall system capacity is sought.
Therefore other known solutions, similar to the apparatus according to Swiss patent 649,063, have attempted to get round the bottleneck to a limited extent, in that the requisite 1 3 ~ 0 2a processing capacity is divided up over several conveying or processing paths. Several fundamentally independent processing paths are created, which in turn use serial conveying. If e.g. a following processing is to be carried out with a work station which has a very high capacity, the separate following paths must be rejoined, which requires the use of complicated means. However, the subdivision of the conveying paths also suffers from the disadvantage that, apart ,.~
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large space requirement for the separated paths, each of said paths has its own control system, own processing means, etc. Thuis, in actual fact the mechanical and organizational expenditure is increased. As a rule when subdividing the main conveying path the following paths are alter-nately fed thLough the sorting gates. Thus, for a sh~rt time, i.e. during the loading time from the main conveying path, each of the following paths must be able to assume the high conveying capacity of the main conveying path. Therefore the individual following paths must be designed for an equally high capacity, although this is only required for a short time, or buffers must b0 additionally used. With very high capacities, i.e.
when processing 80,000 or more items per hour, conventional plants with serial conveying, which solve capacity problems with following paths, are confronted with fundamental problems, because the physical prccessing limiits are reached.
The problem of the invention is therefore to provide a method and meanspermitting in a relatively small space a further pr~cessing of printing products with a very high, fundamentally upwardly open processing capacity without additional buffers and which can be readily integrated into an overall system with conventional conveying, said problem also being solved for extensive printing products.
A further problem of the invention is to provide a method and means, per-mitting greater flexibility by means of capacities displaceable in the system, which allows sirple and inexpensive extensions to be made wi~h regards to the processing capacity in a highly efficient manner and with little machine expenditure and permitting active or passive redundancy of the work stations in a simple way.
The invention le~ds to a flexibility with m the overall system, which is displaceable or usable at a random point in place of buffers, wbose capacity is by defiaition poorly utilized. Thuis, with a relatively sm211 mechanical expenditure, a very large processing capacity is obtained, which can be readily adapted to fluctuating productivity raquirements.
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~articular aspects of this invention are as follows:
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products and wherein, in the step of grouping, a plurality of products are arranged parallel to each other in substantially the same plane and aligned transversely with respect to the direction of conveying, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster insluding at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and mixing or combining the stream of clusters with the products of a serial stream of printed products.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and reducing the number of printed products in each cluster.
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4a A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters, and wherein the step of conveying includes regulating the advance of each cluster in accordance with a cluster clock cycle.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters in synchronism with a cluster clock cycle.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters at a work station, and subjecting at least one of the produ~ts within a cluster to a working step at the woxk station at a time displaced from 131~
4b the working step performed on the remaining products in the same cluster.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the stleps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and providing a supply or printed products separate from the products being processed in the system, and periodically exchanging a printed product in the system with one from the separate supply.
A system for processing printed products received serially from the output of a rotary press comprising a cluster processing segment including means for grouping printed products into clusters, a plurality of work stations for processing printed products in clusters of products, and means for conveying said clusters to said work stations, said means for conveying including first and second conveyor sections located respectively upstream and downstream of said means for grouping, in the direction of conveyance, a common drive means connected for synchronously driving said first and second conveyor sections, a third conveyor section for delivering serially arranged printed products, and a conversion station for combining printed products delivered by said third conveyor section with printed products delivered by at least one of said first and second sections.
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4c A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and converting the stream of products into clusters of different orders, having different numbers of products therein, whereby a buffering effect is achieved by the formation of high order clusters.
The invention is described in greater detail hereinafter relative to embodiments of the inventive method and means and relative to the attached drawings, wherein show:
Fig. 1 A diagrammatic view of a cluster flow with clusters of in each case four printing products.
Fig. 2 A block diagram with a survey of an example of a process sequence according to the invention.
Fig. 3 The combining of two cluster flows of different order to a fifth order cluster flow.
Fig. 4 An embodiment of an overall system using the inventive method.
Fig. 5 An embodiment of a conveyor for a fourth order cluster flow.
ig. 6a Three possible arrangements of the printing produ~ts in a cluster.
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4d Fig. 7 An example of a removal of printing products from a stream flow for forming three parallel cluster flows.
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In general, modern m tary presses have very high capacities, so that atthe outlet from the rotary press the conveying of the printing prcducts also requires high capacities, in order to be able to absorb said capacity.
It is also possible that higher processing capacities may only be required in subsequent working stages, because e.g. several material flcws are combine frcm several feeders or from a store or buffer. It may also be necessary to maintain the necessary capacity for a specific working stage, which takes place slowly. In order to achieve these objectives, the inventive methcd and means can therefore be used at one or more random points in an overall system, or also over the entire processing path from the rotary press to the dispatch or Eor~arding station.
The invention makes use of the idea that the further processing of printing products should take place in parallel, i.e. the serial principle of conventional plants is abandoned. However, the information inherent in serial conveying and processing is to be retained in the p æ allel concept, so that it is called quasi-parallel. Under this standpoint, in particular the conveying stroke or timing (synchronization) must be taken into account. The novel conveying and processing concept permits the inte-gration into an existing plant with serial conveying, whilst retaining the synchronization of the processing and conveying and at all times permits the conversion of the quasi-parallel conveying back to serial conveying.
The invention aims at a parallel processing in the sense that not only are parallel, functional (ti~e and material) and independent conveying segments provided, but a functional parallel processing of the printing products is achieved. According to the invention the printing products are prncessing and conveyed in functional clusters. A printing product cluster is here understo~d to mean a group of at least two individual printing products processed in parallel at least over a partial segment or partial process. A cluster is a "group" with a functional relationship in the sense of a family. The reciprocal arrangement of the printing products of a cluster can vary and the individual printing product can have a certain Ereedom within the cluster. A functional parallel proces-sing occurs if the printing products of a cluste,r are procesa~,d simul-taneously, i.e. within the same time cycle, the printing products of a - 6 - ~ 3~
cluster either being subject to identical working steps, or the working steps at least have a reciprocal reference. In addition, the printing products of a cluster have a clearly defined reciprocal arrange~ent, i.e.
they are located in a reciprocally spatially defined position. In that a printing product cluster forms a logic group, at any time the clusters can be combined in simple manner with other clusters, recombined to form a serial conveying arrangement or can be brought together within a cluster.
The fonmation of clusters can be understoocl as the organization of the printing products in functional groups. It is very important that the arranyement of the printing pmducts within a cluster penmits the proces-sing of the individual printing products in a simple way. The printing products are for this purpose so reciprocally spaced or separated, that they are accessible in all areas (i.e. at all edges and lateral faces).
Therefore the invention differs fundamentally from conventional printworks conveying principles which, as stated, all carry out a subdivision of the main conveying segment into two or more parallel following paths, where no significance is attached to the functionally si~ultaneous processing of a cluster. On the basis of an ordered, serial conveying fm m the rotary press, e.g. in the form of a stream flaw, on subdividing the main conveying segment the existing order is stepped dcwn, i.e. this subdivision can only be reversed again with very considerable mechanical and financial expenditure. This is due to the fact that the following paths are functionally independent or decoupled, so that a bringing together of these paths in-to a serial, unitary flcw can only be achieved by again transferring into a unitary, reciprocal arrangement with unitary phase and the like. However, in the method according to the invention, due to the cluster processing principle, the order of serial conveying is not destroyed, i.e. the internal interrelation is maintained. As will be explained hereinafter, it is readily possible to successively pr~cess or remove printing products over short distances, e.g. for a specific working step, without breaking up th~ clusters from the organizational or functional standpoint. The possibilities of serial conveying are fully retained in the inventive processing principle.
The inventive idea is based on a conversion of the conventionally serially supplied printing products, e.g. as a stream flow, into a cluster flow.
This conversion can fundamentally take place at a random point in an overall system. The invention also makes it possible to transfer the ~3~ ~6~
cluster flow at a random point into a conventional conveying process, possibly for a single working operation. The method possibllities claimed in the claims shcw the corresponding inventive arr.angement possibilities.
The design of the individual systems can take place with conventional means or with conveying and processing means specifically intended for cluster conveying.
Fig.l diagrammatically shows such a cluster Plow 7. The prmting products for the cluster are supplied by a not shown supply system 1, which can be e.g. constituted by one or more clamp or bracket conveyors, several feeders or randcm other printing product conveying means. Fram the supply system 1 printing products are simultaneously or successively removed e.g. with a clamp gripper and a first printing product cluster 2 is fo~ned. The printing products 4 of a cluster must be arranged in such a way that each individual product is accessible for following processing. It is obvious that the reciprocal spatial arrangement can vary widely and must be matched to the desired working processes. In the represented embodiment four printing products are juxtaposed in a plane and are reciprocally oriented in parallel. The printing products combined into a cluster in this way remain in this reciprocal arrangement throughout -the processing path, i.e. from work stations 6A to 6H and often up to the despatch point 6J.
Each cluster 2 is subject to various work stages on the processing paths 6A to 6H. Obviously the printing products can be briefly taken out of the cluster, e.g. for a specific working stage. However, it is necessary that such printing products are reintegrated into the corresponding cluster immediately after the said process, so that there is no loss of the functional homogeneousness within the cluster. At a working station 6E, e.g. the printing products 41 of a cluster 2r are successively removed from the arrangement of cluster 2' and processed in station 6E. In the oonveying area 16e immediately following working station 6E the printing products 4' are once again in their functional arrangement within the cluster.
The term "end product" is understood to mean all printworks products such as exist after perfonning the inventive method, i.e. at the outlet from an inventive means, where generally a state suitable for despatch is reached. The term ~starting product" is understood to m~an all printing products, such as are supplied to a means according to the invention to be converted into end products. Starting products with different fonmats or sizes can be used for perfonming the inventive method.
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Fig. 2 shows an example of an inventive process sequence illustrating the inventive principle. Fran a supply system 1 starting products are supplied in conventional, serial conveying order. At least part of the supply product flcw is converted in a conversion means 31 into a cluster flcw.
In many cases all the starting products are converted into a cluster flGw.
This cluster flow now undergoes several working stages 11 and subsequently the processed end products are stored, packed, despatched, etc. The flexibility of the method is apparent from the further possibilities of which some are indicated by the additional paths in the drawing. It is e.g. possible to use certain working steps 12 on the as yet unconverted, serially conveyed product flow. This is e.g. desired if the inventive method is to be used within an overall system Eor the final processing only, i.e. at the end of the overall process. It is also possible to temporarily convert back into a serial system all or part of the cluster flcw (indicated by path Pl-P2-P3) or for this to take place ultimately (indicated by path P6-p5). It is obviously also possible to apply additional working stages 11, 13 to these serially conveyed printing products. The drawing makes it clear that it is also possible for special applications to subdivide the product flcw into a cluster flow (P6-p7) and a serially conveyed partial flow (P1-P2-P4~- It is therefore readily possible to process part of the printing products in a high capacity cluster flow and another part in a conventional way, so as to achieve optimuzation of the machine expenditure. It is obvious that further combination possibilities can be realized within the scope of the invention and without leaving the inventive concept, i.e. providing cluster pro-cessing in parts of the overall process requiring flexible conveying and processing with a high efficiency. It is obviously possible to guide several cluster flcws in parallel, to mux cluster flcws with conventionally conveyed products (e.g. inserts) or to canbine cluster flows fran different rot~ry presses or from a rotary press and store.
A survey of the most important fundamental possibilities is provided inthe following table:
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Mixing Combining Splitting up Reducing ~ixing different Combining different Splitting up a Reduction of cluster flcws to cluster flows to cluster flow into a cluster form a new cluster form a new one or more flow into one flow. cluster flow. cluster flows havmg a and/or a conven- lower order tionally conveyed (cf. below) prcduct flow.
Mixing a cluster Combining a Splitting up a Reduction of flow with a cluster flow with a conventionally a cluster conventionally serially conveyed conveyed product flow into a conveyed product flow. flow and conver- serial flow prcduct flow. sion into at with mdivid-least one cluster ual products flow. (cf. below) A combining of clusters or individual printing products occurs when these are brought together and the size of the cluster grows in such a way that the number of functional units therein rises. Mixing occurs if a first cluster is brought together with at least one second cluster and/or one or more serial printing product flows, but the number of elements in the cluster does not rise, but the size or bulk of the individual elements of the cluster does. Obviously splitting up of a cluster occurs if a cluster flow or its clusters are split up, i.e. there are at least two cluster flows within in each case a smaller number of elements per cluster. Thus~
the splitting up of a cluster flcw can be looked upon as the reversing of combining. Obviously the individual functions need not occur in pure fonm.
Thus, e.g there can be a bringing together of several cluster flows with simultaneous mixing/combining.
In view of the fact that the elements of a printing product cluster need not be individual printing sheets, simple tabloids, etc., but instead during the process said elements can grow to more ccmprehensive printing products, the size of a cluster can grow in -two fundamentally different ways. On the one hand the number of elements can rise, or the buIk of the individual elements can rise. To illustrate this fact, for a growth in the first sense, i.e. a rise in the number of elements within the cluster, reference is made to an increase in the order of the cluster. A second order cluster e.g. contains two printing products and a fourth order - lo - 1 3 ~
cluster four printing products. Hcwever, this makes no mention of the bulk of the printing products or the number of the components thereof.
Therefore the combining of cluster flows can be understood as a conversion of e.g. -two clusters into a higher order cluster, whereas mlxing does not change the order of the cluster, but increases the bulk of the individual printing products contained in the cluster. Purely theoretically, it is possible to operate with the concept of one cluster or a first order cluster flow, which would correspond to a serial product flow. However, this would not constitute a printing product cluster in the sense of the invention, because the conceptual features of the cluster do not occur in an individual printing product, so that this expression is not used here.
Fig. 3 illustrates the combining of a first cluster flow 7' (second order) with a second cluster Elow 71' ~third order) to a cluster main flow 7 (fifth order). The two cluster flows 71~ 7~ are superimposed in this example. Such an arrangement can be used if the printing products of the cluster flow 71 can be p~ocessed more slowly than those of cluster flcw 7n.
Generally the printing products within a cluster are identical, i.e. they have the same scope and are always located in the same processing stage.
As a function of requirements the infonnation conce m ing the arrangement of the clusters in the flows 71 and 7" can be retained after combining.
However, in general the inforlnation conce m ing the coupled 'super' cluster 7 is used as a new output quantity, if a retu m to cluster flows corres-ponding to 7', 7~ is subsequently no longer necessary or desired.
It may also be desirable for special uses to combine different printingproducts in a cluster. Then e.g. different printing products would be combined in a cluster main flow 7 frcn cluster flow 71~ 7~ . An example of this is a fourth order cluster flow with four different printiny products per cluster. This can be processed and subse~uently reduced to a serial flcw with individual products. The aforementioned reduction of a cluster can e.g. take place in such a way that the constituents of an end prcduct, which are in fact conveyed and processed in such fcurth onder clusters, are stuck in one another in a final working stage.
Another important advantage of the inventive idea of cluster processing 3~$~
is the possibility oE integrating it into a conventional overall system with serial conveying and processing. An important alvantage compared with known measures Eor increasing the capacity or speed is that cluster processing permits a timed operation. It is important that cluster processing takes place with a time cycle linked with the system time cycle or clock.
Fig. 4 diagrammatically shows the integration oE two cluster processingsegments 33', 33" into an overall syste~. Printing products are conveyed from a rotary press 60 in conventional serial conveying form with a system clock cycle T (i.e. time between two supplied prm ting products, the unit being seconds). The passage value Al (number of prmting products per second) at a random point Xl of this first serial supply system 3 is calculated as Al = 1/T. In order to avoid additional buffering measures during the conversion into a cluster Elow, it is necessary for this passage value to be maintained in the follcwing cluster processing segment.
Therefore at a point X2 of the cluster processing segment the clock of the cluster conveying must be max TlmaX = n/Al. In this n is the order of the cluster conveyed in the vicinity of segment 33' or the number of printing products thereof. It is clear that the cluster clock T1 is linked via the cluster order with the system clock T. As buffering can be avoided i Tl is smaller than TlmaX, the ratio between the system clock T and the cluster clock Tl is generally expressed as follows:
Tl - n / Y.A1 = (n/Y) T ~Y: Parameter) Through a suitable choice of the cluster order nl and the p æameter Y
(higher than 1), it is possible to so choose the conveymg or processing speed along the cluster prccessing se~ment 33', that the cluster clock T
required by the working stages perfonmed in this area is reached. An increase in the cluster order makes it possible to increase the working clock cycle and therefore the perfornance of slower working stages, without having to lower the passage value. If Y = 1, the cluster clock = n T
and therefore the passage value A2 is twice as large as the passage value A1.
Moreover, f mm a sto.re 61 and via a supply system 3', starting products 12 - ~3~ 6~
are conveyed preferably with the system clock T, so that the corresponding passage value A3 at a randcm point X3 is equal to A1. If the cluster flcw and the supply system 3' are now to be coupled to forn a unitary cluster flcw, then at a point X4 it must have a passage value A4 = Al +
A3 = 2 A1. The corresponding cluster clock T2 on the cluster processing segment 33" is max n2 / (2-Al). So as to leave the two cluster clocks Tl and T2 the SamR in this example, consequently the n2 or1er of the cluster in area 33" must be at least twice as large as n1.
In order to be able to process the clusters in se~uence within the cluster clock Tl, T2, the individual work stations 6A-6H must have a corresponding construction along segments 33', 33". This means that -these stations must have a capacity corresponding to the passage value, if in each station all the printing prcducts of a cluster have to be processed. As cluster processing is organized for slcw working stages, in certain circumstances it may be necessary within a working station to simultaneously perform a working stage of several printing products of a cluster. This can e.g.
take place by using several identical, synchronously controlled processing means. If e.g. on segment 33' fourth order clusters are conveyed and within a cycle Tlin work station 6D all four printing products of a cluster are to be bonded, then four bonding means can be arranged in parallel.
According to the desired function, the specific design of the work stations can vary considerably. If e.g. a working step in work station 6B only requires a very short work cycle, then the printing products of a cluster can be processed by means of one device, which serially processes the printing prcdl~cts. For this purpose the device is e.g. moved at right angles to the cluster conveying direction and one printing product after the other is processed.
Therefore the size of a cluster is preferably also chosen as a functionof the clock cycle or conveying speed T1, T2 desired for cluster processing.
If relatively slcw processing steps are to be perfonmed for the prxessing of the printing products follcwing conversion into a cluster flow, then the cycle T1, T2 can be increased, or the conveying speed of the printing product clusters decreased, so that the following steps can be perfonmed within the scope of the necessary work cycles. It is a major advantage - 13 ~
of the m ventive method, that the mdividual working steps, as a function of the choice of the size of the clusters and the cluster clock, can take place rela-tively slowly. This makes it possible to use inexpensive, slowly operating components within very fast overall processes. In addition, interface problems such as occur due to diEferent processing speeds of the individual components are largely avoided.
If parameter Y is made relatively large, i.e. Y >> 1 (e.g. 5), assumingthat this is allowed by the work cycles oE work stations 6F-6H, then it is possible to achieve a relatively short cluster clock T2 and therefore a certain buffering at conversion point 62. Subsequently this leads to gaps in the cluster flow (empty clusters) in nonnal operation, so that this buffering posslbility can only be used to a limited ext2nt.
However, a true buffering is preferably achieved in that the cluster prccessing segments allow a variable, large cluster size. If e.g. such a segment is designed for conveying and possibly also processing twelfth order clusters, in normal operation only fourth order clusters are conveyed and processing, so that buffering up to three tines the capacity is possible. Such a solution is advantageous if an active or passive redundancy is to be created within a system for certain work stations.
It is therefore simply possible to provide a redundancy of the work stations, in that all or part of the cluster~processing segnent is designed for conveying relatively high order clusters (e.g. fifth order and higher).
~uring nonnal operation with lower order clusters, there can either be a buffering, or work stations can be made redundant. Buffering is realized in that clusters of variable size are fonmed following a conversion point 62 by means of a monitoring/control unit, e.g. a SPS or computer control unit, so that buffering is made possible by varying the cluster size.
It is obvious that in nonmal operation conventional clusters of identical order are fonmed and the cluster size is only varied for buffering.
The cluster flow in the example of fig. 4 is reduced to a lower order cluster flow. If e.g. via the cluster processing segment 33' partial - 14 - ~ 3 ~ 9 ~ 6 ~
products were supplied (e.g. the content of a brochure) and via the supply system 3' wrappers, then following the conversion point 62 partial products and wrappers are simultaneously arranged in a cluster. At reduction point 63 the partial products are inserted in the wrappers and supplied as a lower order cluster flow to despatch point 64 or to further storage or conveying syste~s.
The l;nking of the cluster clock cycles w:ith the system clock cycle makes it possible at any time to reconvert a cluster flow into a serial conveying flcw. It is therefore possible to use cluster processing for a limited area within an overall system, e.g. only for labour intensive operations.
This provides a significant diEference compared with conventional systems, which subdivide a printing product flow into several time-decoupled and therefore also cycle-decoupled following paths for increasing capacity, so that flexibility is lost in other areas. An adaptation of the system clock and cluster clock is an important element with regards to the return to a serial conveying arrangement with the same input parameters (clock, phase, etc., as occurred prior to the cluster processing segment).
It is also possible and preferred for specific applications, to convey the cluster flows continuously or alternatively continuously/cyclicly. If working steps are to be used on a continuously conveyed cluster flow, the corresponding work stations must penmit a continuous operation. This can take place by means of work mg devices carried after or along with the flow in rotary manner.
The conveying means are designed for conveying nth order clusters. Fig. 5 diagrzmmatically shows an e~bodiment for conveying a fourth order cluster flow. The printing product clusters 2 contain in each case four printing products. By means of a diagrammatically represented feeder 5, the printing products are supplied and individualized. It must be bom e in mind that to ~acilitate understanding, feeder 5 has been shown much smaller.
The printing products are supplied thereto via not sho~n conveying means, e.g. a clamp conveyor, or as a stream flow. Such a feeder 5 and the manner in which separation takes place can be perfonmed conventionally. The printing prcducts separated or individualized in this way are supplied by 1S - ~ 3 ~
means of a supply system 1, e.g. a clamp conveyor in the direction of arrow A to a removal point. In this embodiment the clusters 2, which are brought together in removal station 19, are conveyed with several chain strands 36 and conveyed to the work stations. The chain strands are indicated by dot-dash lines.
A common drive shaft 39 is driven by means of a first motor 37. The revolving chain strands 36 are guided by means of guide wheels to the drive shaft and a second shaft 40. These chain strands 36 are preferably driven with a clock cycle T'. At regular intervals conveying cams 41 are arranged on the chain strands 36 (only two cams 41 shown in the drawing).
As can be seen eight such chain strands 36 are provided for conveying a cluster with in each case four printing products. Each individual product is conveyed by two conveying cams 41 in the direction of arrow B. As the chain strands 36 are jointly driven, the printing products are always synchronously conveyed in this embcdiment. The printing prcducts are preferably locate~ on conveying plates, which can have a conventional construction. The conveying cams 41 ensure a parallel orientation of the printing products in the conveying direction. The reciprocal lateral orientation of the printing prcducts is diagrammatically shown for a first work station 6. By means of a lift cylinder 42 vertical guide plates 43 are moved backward and forwards at rignt angles to the conveying direction in the direction of arrow C. Therefore the individual printing products of a cluster are moved against guide rails or plates 44 and therefore laterally correctly positioned. Moreover, at the individual work stations there are countercams 45 for positioning the clusters in the conveying direction. The timed conveying and processing of the clusters makes it possible for the individual printing products of a cluster to only be finally oriented at the individual work stations~ At a tran~ition point or station the clusters are taken up e.g. by a gripper chain 50 with a plurality of grippers 51 driven by a second motor 38 and conveyed on in the direction of arr~w D.
Fbr realizing a conveyor for higher order clusters, it is e.g. possibleto increase the number of chain strands 36. If in normal operation only fourth order clusters are processed, the then unused chain strands can be - 16 - ~ 3 ~
used in the sense of a passive redundancy in the case of faults. Simply switching over the active conveying means to the passive makes it possible to ~get round" the failure of certain working means.
The conveying means for the clusters can all have a ~mitary construction, e.g. a connon conveyor belt optionally provided with grippers is used with which the printing products of the clusters are conveyed. This makes it possible to reduce the material and conveying expenditure for conveying the clusters. It is obvious that the conveying and processing of the clusters on common conveying means can take place in a much smaller area as compared with the conventional subdivision of product flows over following paths.
The spatial arrangement of the printing products within a cluster, as well as the actual clusters can undergo wide variations within the scope of the invention. Figs. 6a to 6c show cluster conveying exanples. The printing products are arranged in parallel in fourth order clustersD Obviously the parallel orientation is not essential to the invention, but these arrangenents constitute preferred use examples. In that of fig, 6a the printing products are superimposed and conveyed substantially horizontally.
Fig. 6b shows a fourth order cluster with parallel, juxtaposed printing productsD Such an arrangement is e.g. suitable for conveying with a cl3np conveyor. The conveying direction is preferably that of arrow F. In this reciprocal arrangenent of the printing products they are readily access-ible for following working stqps and the regul æ parallel orientation permits easy conversion into conventional conveying and back again. In order to make the printing products better accessible for certain work stations, the conveying direction F or the arrangemen-t of the printing prcducts within the cluster on a cluster processing segment can be varied For example, an arrangement accoDding to figD 6b can be achieved by a spatial 90 rotation of clusters accor~ing to fig. 6a.
It must also be borne in mind that there can be a change to the fonmat of the individual printing products during processing. The foJding of starting products supplied in tabloid form leads to the fact that smaller-format two-folds are obtained in the clusters. Hcwever, this format change has no influence of the functional organization of the printing ~ 3 ~
products in the cluster.
Particular attention should be paid to the arrangement of fig. 6c, in which the printing prcducts are organized parallel to one another in one plane in a line -~. Particularly the conveying direction towards arrow F' could be looked upon as serial conveying on the basis o the drawing.
However, as the represented printing products are functionally combined in a cluster, despite the conveying on a line the quasi-parallel conveying character is retained. However, it is possible to serially process the printing products within such a cluster in individual work stations by conveying in a line. A modification to the conveying direction of such clusters between directions F and F' can therefore lead to important advantages, if certain working processes to be applied to the printing products require special accessibility due to the construction of the corresponding processing means. Since, as a function of the conveying direction, the conveying means can have widely differing constructions (e.g. parallel chain strands for conveying direction F or an individual gripper chain for conveying direction F'), the conveying directions have considerable importance.
In the method according to the invention each individual printing product is processed quasi-parallel in a cluster, but each starting product is processed indi~idually, in functional association with the other printing products of the cluster. Despite the functional association of the printing products within a cluster, it is possible to release the printing products in te~porary manner from their generally constant, reciprocal association. It is important within the framework of the invention, that the information concerning the association of the printing products of a cluster or family is retaine~. The arrangements e.g. shown in figs. 6a to 6c can consequently be temporarily spatially completely separated without "destroying" a cluster. It is merely necessary that the cluster can be regenerated by a control or monitoring means.
~owever, a regeneration is also possible by interchanging individual printing products with identical replacenent products. A cluster, in which eOg. a printing product has to be re~oved through being detective, - 18 - ~3~
can be replaced by an identical printing product. It is also possible to mutate a cluster flcw by systematic addition or replacement of individual or several printing products within the cluster. Such a mutation can e.g.
be desired if, within the scope of the production of a newspaper a regional section is only to be added to part of the overall production run. Regener-ation or a temporary breaking up of the cluster is possible in conjunction with an automated computer control, because the latter can monitor the position and organization of the cluster and/or the individual printing products.
It is an important advantage that the invention also offers flexible possibilities with respect to the organization within the cluster. In an important application the clusters in each case contain identical printing products. In addition, it is possible to provide within a cluster the different partial products (ccrponents) of an end product, to process the same and e.g. compile them to the end product by reduction. By mixing a cluster with a lower order cluster e.g. parts of a large run can be given individual supplements or partial products.
However, flexibility is also ensured regarding the working processes applied to the clusters. Thus, e.g. in one work station a first working step can be applied to part of the printing products of the cluster and which differs from that which is applied to the remaining products of the cluster. Thus, immediately following this work station, there are differ-ently processed printing products within the cluster.
It is obviously also possible to forn several cluster flows fr~m a unitary, se~ially conveyed product flaw~ Fig. 7 shows the fonmation of three parallel cluster fl~ws 7~, 7n~ 7n~ at three removal stations 19', 19n~
l9n~ The individual printing products are e.g. rem~ved from a product flcw 17 conveyed by means of a timel conveyor using a product clip or clamp according to Swiss patent application 1 756/86-8. Thus, every thir~
copy is removed at each removal station from the left conveyed stream flow.
Different hatching is used in the drawing to show the printing products intended for the different cluster flows.
The cluster flows 71, 7n~ 7n'can at any time be recombined into a unitary 1 31916~
stream flow. The clusters are physically broken up, but the functional association of the printing products of a cluster can be stored. Even in the case oE such a temporary bringing together to a stream flow, the infornation regarding the cluster association of the individual printing products can be retained and at a later time the original cluster can be regenerated from the printing products belonging to a fam~ly.
METHOD AND MEANS FOR THE FURT~IER_OC~ES$ING OF
PRINTING PRODU~TS
The invention is in the field of printing technology and relates to a method and a means for forming printed products into clusters and processing the clusters.
In modern printworks ever higher processing speeds and capacities are required in connection with the further processing of printing products from rotary presses.This is inter alia due to the fact that modern rotary presses permit, apart frommulti-colour printing, a high quality offset printing and consequently there is an increase in the number of brochures, magazines and other printworks products which can be produced. Simultaneously processing must have great flexibility, sothat the maximum number of final formats of the printing products must be obtainable using the same plant. Significance is also attached to costs, because in the case of flexible plants identical components must be usable for different functions, whilst perrnitting the very satisfactory use of high capacity partialplants. However, flexibility is also required in connection with the extendability of plants, because often at a later time an existing plant must be usable for larger numbers or for new printing products. There is also a desire for a maximum utilization and loading of systems, particularly in view of the relatively high costs for printing presses and conveying systems.
Conventional conveying and processing plants in printworks are all based on serial processing concepts. Printing products or partial products are usually conveyed by means of conveyor belts, conveyors, etc. in a conveying line, often as a scale or stream flow and supplied to processing plants. Since, as a result of their operating principle, rotary presses generally print paper webs in serial form, it is obvious to further process the printing products in serial manner. Serial processing is often also necessary due to the working steps during further processing requiring a serial sequence. Therefore up to now conventional conveying and processing plants have had to adhere to this serial principle.
'3~7 la For special applications, particularly when high processing capacities are desired, serial processing plants are adapted and precautions taken leading to a certain processing capacity increase. However, these precautions have only related to specific bottlenecks in processing and 13191~
no solution has been provided to the fundamental problem, i.e.
increasing the processing capacity and in particular making the overall plant or at least certain working steps therein more flexible. Thus, e.g. buffer plants or means have been provided, or by using sorting gates the printing product flow has been subdivided into several partial flows. Such an apparatus is e.g. described in European application 87115227.8, filed October 17, 1987, published June 29, 1988, and granted May 8, 1991 as patent No. 0272398. This invention discloses a method and an apparatus in which one or more continuous flows of printwork products is subdivided onto the feed segments of at least two processing stations without using buffer means. Another method according to Swiss patent 649 063 shows how a conveyor is subdivided into several paths, "so as to be able to make it possible to use the known and proven conveying technology". The problem to be solved is to maintain the feeder capacity, whilst retaining the aforementioned conveying technology.
However, it has been found that the "known and proven" serial conveying concepts suffer from significant disadvantages, which are particularly prominent in the case of large conveying capacitiesO As in all serial processes bottlenecks necessarily occux at points having a larger passage time or a slower clock cycle, which is also due to inadequate flexibility. As stated hereinbefore, the problems of such a bottleneck can be partly solved with a buffer. However, on passing through a bottleneck for a long period or even permanently without any interruption, necessarily a fundamentally unlimited buffer capacity must be provided.
Therefore all the following plants can only be operated with the bottleneck capacity. Ob~iously in such cases the conventionally used buffering constitutes on inadequate solution, if a high overall system capacity is sought.
Therefore other known solutions, similar to the apparatus according to Swiss patent 649,063, have attempted to get round the bottleneck to a limited extent, in that the requisite 1 3 ~ 0 2a processing capacity is divided up over several conveying or processing paths. Several fundamentally independent processing paths are created, which in turn use serial conveying. If e.g. a following processing is to be carried out with a work station which has a very high capacity, the separate following paths must be rejoined, which requires the use of complicated means. However, the subdivision of the conveying paths also suffers from the disadvantage that, apart ,.~
~ 3 ~
large space requirement for the separated paths, each of said paths has its own control system, own processing means, etc. Thuis, in actual fact the mechanical and organizational expenditure is increased. As a rule when subdividing the main conveying path the following paths are alter-nately fed thLough the sorting gates. Thus, for a sh~rt time, i.e. during the loading time from the main conveying path, each of the following paths must be able to assume the high conveying capacity of the main conveying path. Therefore the individual following paths must be designed for an equally high capacity, although this is only required for a short time, or buffers must b0 additionally used. With very high capacities, i.e.
when processing 80,000 or more items per hour, conventional plants with serial conveying, which solve capacity problems with following paths, are confronted with fundamental problems, because the physical prccessing limiits are reached.
The problem of the invention is therefore to provide a method and meanspermitting in a relatively small space a further pr~cessing of printing products with a very high, fundamentally upwardly open processing capacity without additional buffers and which can be readily integrated into an overall system with conventional conveying, said problem also being solved for extensive printing products.
A further problem of the invention is to provide a method and means, per-mitting greater flexibility by means of capacities displaceable in the system, which allows sirple and inexpensive extensions to be made wi~h regards to the processing capacity in a highly efficient manner and with little machine expenditure and permitting active or passive redundancy of the work stations in a simple way.
The invention le~ds to a flexibility with m the overall system, which is displaceable or usable at a random point in place of buffers, wbose capacity is by defiaition poorly utilized. Thuis, with a relatively sm211 mechanical expenditure, a very large processing capacity is obtained, which can be readily adapted to fluctuating productivity raquirements.
4 ~3~91~
~articular aspects of this invention are as follows:
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products and wherein, in the step of grouping, a plurality of products are arranged parallel to each other in substantially the same plane and aligned transversely with respect to the direction of conveying, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster insluding at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and mixing or combining the stream of clusters with the products of a serial stream of printed products.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and reducing the number of printed products in each cluster.
13~ 9~
4a A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters, and wherein the step of conveying includes regulating the advance of each cluster in accordance with a cluster clock cycle.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters in synchronism with a cluster clock cycle.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters at a work station, and subjecting at least one of the produ~ts within a cluster to a working step at the woxk station at a time displaced from 131~
4b the working step performed on the remaining products in the same cluster.
A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the stleps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and providing a supply or printed products separate from the products being processed in the system, and periodically exchanging a printed product in the system with one from the separate supply.
A system for processing printed products received serially from the output of a rotary press comprising a cluster processing segment including means for grouping printed products into clusters, a plurality of work stations for processing printed products in clusters of products, and means for conveying said clusters to said work stations, said means for conveying including first and second conveyor sections located respectively upstream and downstream of said means for grouping, in the direction of conveyance, a common drive means connected for synchronously driving said first and second conveyor sections, a third conveyor section for delivering serially arranged printed products, and a conversion station for combining printed products delivered by said third conveyor section with printed products delivered by at least one of said first and second sections.
~31~
4c A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and converting the stream of products into clusters of different orders, having different numbers of products therein, whereby a buffering effect is achieved by the formation of high order clusters.
The invention is described in greater detail hereinafter relative to embodiments of the inventive method and means and relative to the attached drawings, wherein show:
Fig. 1 A diagrammatic view of a cluster flow with clusters of in each case four printing products.
Fig. 2 A block diagram with a survey of an example of a process sequence according to the invention.
Fig. 3 The combining of two cluster flows of different order to a fifth order cluster flow.
Fig. 4 An embodiment of an overall system using the inventive method.
Fig. 5 An embodiment of a conveyor for a fourth order cluster flow.
ig. 6a Three possible arrangements of the printing produ~ts in a cluster.
~L3~916~
4d Fig. 7 An example of a removal of printing products from a stream flow for forming three parallel cluster flows.
~3~9~ ~
In general, modern m tary presses have very high capacities, so that atthe outlet from the rotary press the conveying of the printing prcducts also requires high capacities, in order to be able to absorb said capacity.
It is also possible that higher processing capacities may only be required in subsequent working stages, because e.g. several material flcws are combine frcm several feeders or from a store or buffer. It may also be necessary to maintain the necessary capacity for a specific working stage, which takes place slowly. In order to achieve these objectives, the inventive methcd and means can therefore be used at one or more random points in an overall system, or also over the entire processing path from the rotary press to the dispatch or Eor~arding station.
The invention makes use of the idea that the further processing of printing products should take place in parallel, i.e. the serial principle of conventional plants is abandoned. However, the information inherent in serial conveying and processing is to be retained in the p æ allel concept, so that it is called quasi-parallel. Under this standpoint, in particular the conveying stroke or timing (synchronization) must be taken into account. The novel conveying and processing concept permits the inte-gration into an existing plant with serial conveying, whilst retaining the synchronization of the processing and conveying and at all times permits the conversion of the quasi-parallel conveying back to serial conveying.
The invention aims at a parallel processing in the sense that not only are parallel, functional (ti~e and material) and independent conveying segments provided, but a functional parallel processing of the printing products is achieved. According to the invention the printing products are prncessing and conveyed in functional clusters. A printing product cluster is here understo~d to mean a group of at least two individual printing products processed in parallel at least over a partial segment or partial process. A cluster is a "group" with a functional relationship in the sense of a family. The reciprocal arrangement of the printing products of a cluster can vary and the individual printing product can have a certain Ereedom within the cluster. A functional parallel proces-sing occurs if the printing products of a cluste,r are procesa~,d simul-taneously, i.e. within the same time cycle, the printing products of a - 6 - ~ 3~
cluster either being subject to identical working steps, or the working steps at least have a reciprocal reference. In addition, the printing products of a cluster have a clearly defined reciprocal arrange~ent, i.e.
they are located in a reciprocally spatially defined position. In that a printing product cluster forms a logic group, at any time the clusters can be combined in simple manner with other clusters, recombined to form a serial conveying arrangement or can be brought together within a cluster.
The fonmation of clusters can be understoocl as the organization of the printing products in functional groups. It is very important that the arranyement of the printing pmducts within a cluster penmits the proces-sing of the individual printing products in a simple way. The printing products are for this purpose so reciprocally spaced or separated, that they are accessible in all areas (i.e. at all edges and lateral faces).
Therefore the invention differs fundamentally from conventional printworks conveying principles which, as stated, all carry out a subdivision of the main conveying segment into two or more parallel following paths, where no significance is attached to the functionally si~ultaneous processing of a cluster. On the basis of an ordered, serial conveying fm m the rotary press, e.g. in the form of a stream flaw, on subdividing the main conveying segment the existing order is stepped dcwn, i.e. this subdivision can only be reversed again with very considerable mechanical and financial expenditure. This is due to the fact that the following paths are functionally independent or decoupled, so that a bringing together of these paths in-to a serial, unitary flcw can only be achieved by again transferring into a unitary, reciprocal arrangement with unitary phase and the like. However, in the method according to the invention, due to the cluster processing principle, the order of serial conveying is not destroyed, i.e. the internal interrelation is maintained. As will be explained hereinafter, it is readily possible to successively pr~cess or remove printing products over short distances, e.g. for a specific working step, without breaking up th~ clusters from the organizational or functional standpoint. The possibilities of serial conveying are fully retained in the inventive processing principle.
The inventive idea is based on a conversion of the conventionally serially supplied printing products, e.g. as a stream flow, into a cluster flow.
This conversion can fundamentally take place at a random point in an overall system. The invention also makes it possible to transfer the ~3~ ~6~
cluster flow at a random point into a conventional conveying process, possibly for a single working operation. The method possibllities claimed in the claims shcw the corresponding inventive arr.angement possibilities.
The design of the individual systems can take place with conventional means or with conveying and processing means specifically intended for cluster conveying.
Fig.l diagrammatically shows such a cluster Plow 7. The prmting products for the cluster are supplied by a not shown supply system 1, which can be e.g. constituted by one or more clamp or bracket conveyors, several feeders or randcm other printing product conveying means. Fram the supply system 1 printing products are simultaneously or successively removed e.g. with a clamp gripper and a first printing product cluster 2 is fo~ned. The printing products 4 of a cluster must be arranged in such a way that each individual product is accessible for following processing. It is obvious that the reciprocal spatial arrangement can vary widely and must be matched to the desired working processes. In the represented embodiment four printing products are juxtaposed in a plane and are reciprocally oriented in parallel. The printing products combined into a cluster in this way remain in this reciprocal arrangement throughout -the processing path, i.e. from work stations 6A to 6H and often up to the despatch point 6J.
Each cluster 2 is subject to various work stages on the processing paths 6A to 6H. Obviously the printing products can be briefly taken out of the cluster, e.g. for a specific working stage. However, it is necessary that such printing products are reintegrated into the corresponding cluster immediately after the said process, so that there is no loss of the functional homogeneousness within the cluster. At a working station 6E, e.g. the printing products 41 of a cluster 2r are successively removed from the arrangement of cluster 2' and processed in station 6E. In the oonveying area 16e immediately following working station 6E the printing products 4' are once again in their functional arrangement within the cluster.
The term "end product" is understood to mean all printworks products such as exist after perfonning the inventive method, i.e. at the outlet from an inventive means, where generally a state suitable for despatch is reached. The term ~starting product" is understood to m~an all printing products, such as are supplied to a means according to the invention to be converted into end products. Starting products with different fonmats or sizes can be used for perfonming the inventive method.
- 8 - ~3~6~
Fig. 2 shows an example of an inventive process sequence illustrating the inventive principle. Fran a supply system 1 starting products are supplied in conventional, serial conveying order. At least part of the supply product flcw is converted in a conversion means 31 into a cluster flcw.
In many cases all the starting products are converted into a cluster flGw.
This cluster flow now undergoes several working stages 11 and subsequently the processed end products are stored, packed, despatched, etc. The flexibility of the method is apparent from the further possibilities of which some are indicated by the additional paths in the drawing. It is e.g. possible to use certain working steps 12 on the as yet unconverted, serially conveyed product flow. This is e.g. desired if the inventive method is to be used within an overall system Eor the final processing only, i.e. at the end of the overall process. It is also possible to temporarily convert back into a serial system all or part of the cluster flcw (indicated by path Pl-P2-P3) or for this to take place ultimately (indicated by path P6-p5). It is obviously also possible to apply additional working stages 11, 13 to these serially conveyed printing products. The drawing makes it clear that it is also possible for special applications to subdivide the product flcw into a cluster flow (P6-p7) and a serially conveyed partial flow (P1-P2-P4~- It is therefore readily possible to process part of the printing products in a high capacity cluster flow and another part in a conventional way, so as to achieve optimuzation of the machine expenditure. It is obvious that further combination possibilities can be realized within the scope of the invention and without leaving the inventive concept, i.e. providing cluster pro-cessing in parts of the overall process requiring flexible conveying and processing with a high efficiency. It is obviously possible to guide several cluster flcws in parallel, to mux cluster flcws with conventionally conveyed products (e.g. inserts) or to canbine cluster flows fran different rot~ry presses or from a rotary press and store.
A survey of the most important fundamental possibilities is provided inthe following table:
9 ~3~6~
Mixing Combining Splitting up Reducing ~ixing different Combining different Splitting up a Reduction of cluster flcws to cluster flows to cluster flow into a cluster form a new cluster form a new one or more flow into one flow. cluster flow. cluster flows havmg a and/or a conven- lower order tionally conveyed (cf. below) prcduct flow.
Mixing a cluster Combining a Splitting up a Reduction of flow with a cluster flow with a conventionally a cluster conventionally serially conveyed conveyed product flow into a conveyed product flow. flow and conver- serial flow prcduct flow. sion into at with mdivid-least one cluster ual products flow. (cf. below) A combining of clusters or individual printing products occurs when these are brought together and the size of the cluster grows in such a way that the number of functional units therein rises. Mixing occurs if a first cluster is brought together with at least one second cluster and/or one or more serial printing product flows, but the number of elements in the cluster does not rise, but the size or bulk of the individual elements of the cluster does. Obviously splitting up of a cluster occurs if a cluster flow or its clusters are split up, i.e. there are at least two cluster flows within in each case a smaller number of elements per cluster. Thus~
the splitting up of a cluster flcw can be looked upon as the reversing of combining. Obviously the individual functions need not occur in pure fonm.
Thus, e.g there can be a bringing together of several cluster flows with simultaneous mixing/combining.
In view of the fact that the elements of a printing product cluster need not be individual printing sheets, simple tabloids, etc., but instead during the process said elements can grow to more ccmprehensive printing products, the size of a cluster can grow in -two fundamentally different ways. On the one hand the number of elements can rise, or the buIk of the individual elements can rise. To illustrate this fact, for a growth in the first sense, i.e. a rise in the number of elements within the cluster, reference is made to an increase in the order of the cluster. A second order cluster e.g. contains two printing products and a fourth order - lo - 1 3 ~
cluster four printing products. Hcwever, this makes no mention of the bulk of the printing products or the number of the components thereof.
Therefore the combining of cluster flows can be understood as a conversion of e.g. -two clusters into a higher order cluster, whereas mlxing does not change the order of the cluster, but increases the bulk of the individual printing products contained in the cluster. Purely theoretically, it is possible to operate with the concept of one cluster or a first order cluster flow, which would correspond to a serial product flow. However, this would not constitute a printing product cluster in the sense of the invention, because the conceptual features of the cluster do not occur in an individual printing product, so that this expression is not used here.
Fig. 3 illustrates the combining of a first cluster flow 7' (second order) with a second cluster Elow 71' ~third order) to a cluster main flow 7 (fifth order). The two cluster flows 71~ 7~ are superimposed in this example. Such an arrangement can be used if the printing products of the cluster flow 71 can be p~ocessed more slowly than those of cluster flcw 7n.
Generally the printing products within a cluster are identical, i.e. they have the same scope and are always located in the same processing stage.
As a function of requirements the infonnation conce m ing the arrangement of the clusters in the flows 71 and 7" can be retained after combining.
However, in general the inforlnation conce m ing the coupled 'super' cluster 7 is used as a new output quantity, if a retu m to cluster flows corres-ponding to 7', 7~ is subsequently no longer necessary or desired.
It may also be desirable for special uses to combine different printingproducts in a cluster. Then e.g. different printing products would be combined in a cluster main flow 7 frcn cluster flow 71~ 7~ . An example of this is a fourth order cluster flow with four different printiny products per cluster. This can be processed and subse~uently reduced to a serial flcw with individual products. The aforementioned reduction of a cluster can e.g. take place in such a way that the constituents of an end prcduct, which are in fact conveyed and processed in such fcurth onder clusters, are stuck in one another in a final working stage.
Another important advantage of the inventive idea of cluster processing 3~$~
is the possibility oE integrating it into a conventional overall system with serial conveying and processing. An important alvantage compared with known measures Eor increasing the capacity or speed is that cluster processing permits a timed operation. It is important that cluster processing takes place with a time cycle linked with the system time cycle or clock.
Fig. 4 diagrammatically shows the integration oE two cluster processingsegments 33', 33" into an overall syste~. Printing products are conveyed from a rotary press 60 in conventional serial conveying form with a system clock cycle T (i.e. time between two supplied prm ting products, the unit being seconds). The passage value Al (number of prmting products per second) at a random point Xl of this first serial supply system 3 is calculated as Al = 1/T. In order to avoid additional buffering measures during the conversion into a cluster Elow, it is necessary for this passage value to be maintained in the follcwing cluster processing segment.
Therefore at a point X2 of the cluster processing segment the clock of the cluster conveying must be max TlmaX = n/Al. In this n is the order of the cluster conveyed in the vicinity of segment 33' or the number of printing products thereof. It is clear that the cluster clock T1 is linked via the cluster order with the system clock T. As buffering can be avoided i Tl is smaller than TlmaX, the ratio between the system clock T and the cluster clock Tl is generally expressed as follows:
Tl - n / Y.A1 = (n/Y) T ~Y: Parameter) Through a suitable choice of the cluster order nl and the p æameter Y
(higher than 1), it is possible to so choose the conveymg or processing speed along the cluster prccessing se~ment 33', that the cluster clock T
required by the working stages perfonmed in this area is reached. An increase in the cluster order makes it possible to increase the working clock cycle and therefore the perfornance of slower working stages, without having to lower the passage value. If Y = 1, the cluster clock = n T
and therefore the passage value A2 is twice as large as the passage value A1.
Moreover, f mm a sto.re 61 and via a supply system 3', starting products 12 - ~3~ 6~
are conveyed preferably with the system clock T, so that the corresponding passage value A3 at a randcm point X3 is equal to A1. If the cluster flcw and the supply system 3' are now to be coupled to forn a unitary cluster flcw, then at a point X4 it must have a passage value A4 = Al +
A3 = 2 A1. The corresponding cluster clock T2 on the cluster processing segment 33" is max n2 / (2-Al). So as to leave the two cluster clocks Tl and T2 the SamR in this example, consequently the n2 or1er of the cluster in area 33" must be at least twice as large as n1.
In order to be able to process the clusters in se~uence within the cluster clock Tl, T2, the individual work stations 6A-6H must have a corresponding construction along segments 33', 33". This means that -these stations must have a capacity corresponding to the passage value, if in each station all the printing prcducts of a cluster have to be processed. As cluster processing is organized for slcw working stages, in certain circumstances it may be necessary within a working station to simultaneously perform a working stage of several printing products of a cluster. This can e.g.
take place by using several identical, synchronously controlled processing means. If e.g. on segment 33' fourth order clusters are conveyed and within a cycle Tlin work station 6D all four printing products of a cluster are to be bonded, then four bonding means can be arranged in parallel.
According to the desired function, the specific design of the work stations can vary considerably. If e.g. a working step in work station 6B only requires a very short work cycle, then the printing products of a cluster can be processed by means of one device, which serially processes the printing prcdl~cts. For this purpose the device is e.g. moved at right angles to the cluster conveying direction and one printing product after the other is processed.
Therefore the size of a cluster is preferably also chosen as a functionof the clock cycle or conveying speed T1, T2 desired for cluster processing.
If relatively slcw processing steps are to be perfonmed for the prxessing of the printing products follcwing conversion into a cluster flow, then the cycle T1, T2 can be increased, or the conveying speed of the printing product clusters decreased, so that the following steps can be perfonmed within the scope of the necessary work cycles. It is a major advantage - 13 ~
of the m ventive method, that the mdividual working steps, as a function of the choice of the size of the clusters and the cluster clock, can take place rela-tively slowly. This makes it possible to use inexpensive, slowly operating components within very fast overall processes. In addition, interface problems such as occur due to diEferent processing speeds of the individual components are largely avoided.
If parameter Y is made relatively large, i.e. Y >> 1 (e.g. 5), assumingthat this is allowed by the work cycles oE work stations 6F-6H, then it is possible to achieve a relatively short cluster clock T2 and therefore a certain buffering at conversion point 62. Subsequently this leads to gaps in the cluster flow (empty clusters) in nonnal operation, so that this buffering posslbility can only be used to a limited ext2nt.
However, a true buffering is preferably achieved in that the cluster prccessing segments allow a variable, large cluster size. If e.g. such a segment is designed for conveying and possibly also processing twelfth order clusters, in normal operation only fourth order clusters are conveyed and processing, so that buffering up to three tines the capacity is possible. Such a solution is advantageous if an active or passive redundancy is to be created within a system for certain work stations.
It is therefore simply possible to provide a redundancy of the work stations, in that all or part of the cluster~processing segnent is designed for conveying relatively high order clusters (e.g. fifth order and higher).
~uring nonnal operation with lower order clusters, there can either be a buffering, or work stations can be made redundant. Buffering is realized in that clusters of variable size are fonmed following a conversion point 62 by means of a monitoring/control unit, e.g. a SPS or computer control unit, so that buffering is made possible by varying the cluster size.
It is obvious that in nonmal operation conventional clusters of identical order are fonmed and the cluster size is only varied for buffering.
The cluster flow in the example of fig. 4 is reduced to a lower order cluster flow. If e.g. via the cluster processing segment 33' partial - 14 - ~ 3 ~ 9 ~ 6 ~
products were supplied (e.g. the content of a brochure) and via the supply system 3' wrappers, then following the conversion point 62 partial products and wrappers are simultaneously arranged in a cluster. At reduction point 63 the partial products are inserted in the wrappers and supplied as a lower order cluster flow to despatch point 64 or to further storage or conveying syste~s.
The l;nking of the cluster clock cycles w:ith the system clock cycle makes it possible at any time to reconvert a cluster flow into a serial conveying flcw. It is therefore possible to use cluster processing for a limited area within an overall system, e.g. only for labour intensive operations.
This provides a significant diEference compared with conventional systems, which subdivide a printing product flow into several time-decoupled and therefore also cycle-decoupled following paths for increasing capacity, so that flexibility is lost in other areas. An adaptation of the system clock and cluster clock is an important element with regards to the return to a serial conveying arrangement with the same input parameters (clock, phase, etc., as occurred prior to the cluster processing segment).
It is also possible and preferred for specific applications, to convey the cluster flows continuously or alternatively continuously/cyclicly. If working steps are to be used on a continuously conveyed cluster flow, the corresponding work stations must penmit a continuous operation. This can take place by means of work mg devices carried after or along with the flow in rotary manner.
The conveying means are designed for conveying nth order clusters. Fig. 5 diagrzmmatically shows an e~bodiment for conveying a fourth order cluster flow. The printing product clusters 2 contain in each case four printing products. By means of a diagrammatically represented feeder 5, the printing products are supplied and individualized. It must be bom e in mind that to ~acilitate understanding, feeder 5 has been shown much smaller.
The printing products are supplied thereto via not sho~n conveying means, e.g. a clamp conveyor, or as a stream flow. Such a feeder 5 and the manner in which separation takes place can be perfonmed conventionally. The printing prcducts separated or individualized in this way are supplied by 1S - ~ 3 ~
means of a supply system 1, e.g. a clamp conveyor in the direction of arrow A to a removal point. In this embodiment the clusters 2, which are brought together in removal station 19, are conveyed with several chain strands 36 and conveyed to the work stations. The chain strands are indicated by dot-dash lines.
A common drive shaft 39 is driven by means of a first motor 37. The revolving chain strands 36 are guided by means of guide wheels to the drive shaft and a second shaft 40. These chain strands 36 are preferably driven with a clock cycle T'. At regular intervals conveying cams 41 are arranged on the chain strands 36 (only two cams 41 shown in the drawing).
As can be seen eight such chain strands 36 are provided for conveying a cluster with in each case four printing products. Each individual product is conveyed by two conveying cams 41 in the direction of arrow B. As the chain strands 36 are jointly driven, the printing products are always synchronously conveyed in this embcdiment. The printing prcducts are preferably locate~ on conveying plates, which can have a conventional construction. The conveying cams 41 ensure a parallel orientation of the printing products in the conveying direction. The reciprocal lateral orientation of the printing prcducts is diagrammatically shown for a first work station 6. By means of a lift cylinder 42 vertical guide plates 43 are moved backward and forwards at rignt angles to the conveying direction in the direction of arrow C. Therefore the individual printing products of a cluster are moved against guide rails or plates 44 and therefore laterally correctly positioned. Moreover, at the individual work stations there are countercams 45 for positioning the clusters in the conveying direction. The timed conveying and processing of the clusters makes it possible for the individual printing products of a cluster to only be finally oriented at the individual work stations~ At a tran~ition point or station the clusters are taken up e.g. by a gripper chain 50 with a plurality of grippers 51 driven by a second motor 38 and conveyed on in the direction of arr~w D.
Fbr realizing a conveyor for higher order clusters, it is e.g. possibleto increase the number of chain strands 36. If in normal operation only fourth order clusters are processed, the then unused chain strands can be - 16 - ~ 3 ~
used in the sense of a passive redundancy in the case of faults. Simply switching over the active conveying means to the passive makes it possible to ~get round" the failure of certain working means.
The conveying means for the clusters can all have a ~mitary construction, e.g. a connon conveyor belt optionally provided with grippers is used with which the printing products of the clusters are conveyed. This makes it possible to reduce the material and conveying expenditure for conveying the clusters. It is obvious that the conveying and processing of the clusters on common conveying means can take place in a much smaller area as compared with the conventional subdivision of product flows over following paths.
The spatial arrangement of the printing products within a cluster, as well as the actual clusters can undergo wide variations within the scope of the invention. Figs. 6a to 6c show cluster conveying exanples. The printing products are arranged in parallel in fourth order clustersD Obviously the parallel orientation is not essential to the invention, but these arrangenents constitute preferred use examples. In that of fig, 6a the printing products are superimposed and conveyed substantially horizontally.
Fig. 6b shows a fourth order cluster with parallel, juxtaposed printing productsD Such an arrangement is e.g. suitable for conveying with a cl3np conveyor. The conveying direction is preferably that of arrow F. In this reciprocal arrangenent of the printing products they are readily access-ible for following working stqps and the regul æ parallel orientation permits easy conversion into conventional conveying and back again. In order to make the printing products better accessible for certain work stations, the conveying direction F or the arrangemen-t of the printing prcducts within the cluster on a cluster processing segment can be varied For example, an arrangement accoDding to figD 6b can be achieved by a spatial 90 rotation of clusters accor~ing to fig. 6a.
It must also be borne in mind that there can be a change to the fonmat of the individual printing products during processing. The foJding of starting products supplied in tabloid form leads to the fact that smaller-format two-folds are obtained in the clusters. Hcwever, this format change has no influence of the functional organization of the printing ~ 3 ~
products in the cluster.
Particular attention should be paid to the arrangement of fig. 6c, in which the printing prcducts are organized parallel to one another in one plane in a line -~. Particularly the conveying direction towards arrow F' could be looked upon as serial conveying on the basis o the drawing.
However, as the represented printing products are functionally combined in a cluster, despite the conveying on a line the quasi-parallel conveying character is retained. However, it is possible to serially process the printing products within such a cluster in individual work stations by conveying in a line. A modification to the conveying direction of such clusters between directions F and F' can therefore lead to important advantages, if certain working processes to be applied to the printing products require special accessibility due to the construction of the corresponding processing means. Since, as a function of the conveying direction, the conveying means can have widely differing constructions (e.g. parallel chain strands for conveying direction F or an individual gripper chain for conveying direction F'), the conveying directions have considerable importance.
In the method according to the invention each individual printing product is processed quasi-parallel in a cluster, but each starting product is processed indi~idually, in functional association with the other printing products of the cluster. Despite the functional association of the printing products within a cluster, it is possible to release the printing products in te~porary manner from their generally constant, reciprocal association. It is important within the framework of the invention, that the information concerning the association of the printing products of a cluster or family is retaine~. The arrangements e.g. shown in figs. 6a to 6c can consequently be temporarily spatially completely separated without "destroying" a cluster. It is merely necessary that the cluster can be regenerated by a control or monitoring means.
~owever, a regeneration is also possible by interchanging individual printing products with identical replacenent products. A cluster, in which eOg. a printing product has to be re~oved through being detective, - 18 - ~3~
can be replaced by an identical printing product. It is also possible to mutate a cluster flcw by systematic addition or replacement of individual or several printing products within the cluster. Such a mutation can e.g.
be desired if, within the scope of the production of a newspaper a regional section is only to be added to part of the overall production run. Regener-ation or a temporary breaking up of the cluster is possible in conjunction with an automated computer control, because the latter can monitor the position and organization of the cluster and/or the individual printing products.
It is an important advantage that the invention also offers flexible possibilities with respect to the organization within the cluster. In an important application the clusters in each case contain identical printing products. In addition, it is possible to provide within a cluster the different partial products (ccrponents) of an end product, to process the same and e.g. compile them to the end product by reduction. By mixing a cluster with a lower order cluster e.g. parts of a large run can be given individual supplements or partial products.
However, flexibility is also ensured regarding the working processes applied to the clusters. Thus, e.g. in one work station a first working step can be applied to part of the printing products of the cluster and which differs from that which is applied to the remaining products of the cluster. Thus, immediately following this work station, there are differ-ently processed printing products within the cluster.
It is obviously also possible to forn several cluster flows fr~m a unitary, se~ially conveyed product flaw~ Fig. 7 shows the fonmation of three parallel cluster fl~ws 7~, 7n~ 7n~ at three removal stations 19', 19n~
l9n~ The individual printing products are e.g. rem~ved from a product flcw 17 conveyed by means of a timel conveyor using a product clip or clamp according to Swiss patent application 1 756/86-8. Thus, every thir~
copy is removed at each removal station from the left conveyed stream flow.
Different hatching is used in the drawing to show the printing products intended for the different cluster flows.
The cluster flows 71, 7n~ 7n'can at any time be recombined into a unitary 1 31916~
stream flow. The clusters are physically broken up, but the functional association of the printing products of a cluster can be stored. Even in the case oE such a temporary bringing together to a stream flow, the infornation regarding the cluster association of the individual printing products can be retained and at a later time the original cluster can be regenerated from the printing products belonging to a fam~ly.
Claims (14)
1. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products and wherein, in the step of grouping, a plurality of products are arranged parallel to each other in substantially the same plane and aligned transversely with respect to the direction of conveying, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters.
2. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and mixing or combining the stream of clusters with the products of a serial stream of printed products.
3. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and reducing the number of printed products in each cluster.
4. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters, and wherein the step of conveying includes regulating the advance of each cluster in accordance with a cluster clock cycle.
5. A method according to claim 4 wherein the processing is performed in synchronism with a cluster clock cycle.
6. A method according to claim 5 wherein the processing system is operated in accordance with an overall system clock cycle T and wherein the clusters are conveyed and processed in accordance with a cluster clock cycle T1 linked with the system clock cycle T in accordance with the relationship T1=(n/Y)T wherein Y is a real number greater than 1 and n is the number of printed products in each cluster.
7. A method according to claim 5 wherein the processing system is operated in accordance with an overall system clock cycle T, wherein the clusters are conveyed and processed in accordance with a cluster clock cycle T1, and wherein T is substantially equal to T1, whereby a buffering effect is achieved following conversion from serial to cluster flow.
8. A method according to claim 7 and further including converting a stream of products into clusters of different orders, having different numbers of products therein, whereby a buffering effect is achieved by the formation of high order clusters.
9. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and processing the products in the clusters in synchronism with a cluster clock cycle.
10. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a seria1 sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters at a work station, and subjecting at least one of the products within a cluster to a working step at the work station at a time displaced from the working step performed on the remaining products in the same cluster.
11. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and providing a supply or printed products separate from the products being processed in the system, and periodically exchanging a printed product in the system with one from the separate supply.
12. A system for processing printed products received serially from the output of a rotary press comprising a cluster processing segment including means for grouping printed products into clusters, a plurality of work stations for processing printed products in clusters of products, and means for conveying said clusters to said work stations, said means for conveying including first and second conveyor sections located respectively upstream and downstream of said means for grouping, in the direction of conveyance, a common drive means connected for synchronously driving said first and second conveyor sections, a third conveyor section for delivering serially arranged printed products, and a conversion station for combining printed products delivered by said third conveyor section with printed products delivered by at least one of said first and second sections.
13. A system according to claim 12 wherein each of said work stations includes a plurality of product processing means corresponding to the number of products in each cluster, whereby each product in a cluster is processed at each work station in a predetermined interval.
14. A method of conveying and processing printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of delivering printed products in a serial sequence from the output of a press, grouping printed products from the serial sequence into clusters, each cluster including at least two printed products, conveying a stream of clusters of products to a processing location, processing the products in the clusters, and converting the stream of products into clusters of different orders, having different numbers of products therein, whereby a buffering effect is achieved by the formation of high order clusters.
Applications Claiming Priority (2)
| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| CH03380/88 | 1988-09-09 | ||
| CH338088 | 1988-09-09 |
Publications (1)
| Publication Number | Publication Date |
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| CA1319160C true CA1319160C (en) | 1993-06-15 |
Family
ID=4254705
Family Applications (1)
| Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| CA000609384A Expired - Lifetime CA1319160C (en) | 1988-09-09 | 1989-08-25 | Method and means for the further processing of printing products |
Country Status (8)
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|---|---|
| US (1) | US5106068A (en) |
| EP (1) | EP0358066B1 (en) |
| JP (1) | JP2938477B2 (en) |
| AT (1) | ATE100063T1 (en) |
| AU (1) | AU628368B2 (en) |
| CA (1) | CA1319160C (en) |
| DE (1) | DE58906688D1 (en) |
| FI (1) | FI98452C (en) |
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| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US5139597A (en) * | 1990-10-26 | 1992-08-18 | Moore Business Forms, Inc. | Detacher to folder or pressure sealer shingle conveyor |
| DE4223524A1 (en) * | 1992-07-17 | 1994-01-20 | Roland Man Druckmasch | Folder |
| US5346196A (en) * | 1993-03-05 | 1994-09-13 | U.S. News & World Report, L.P. | Cycle binding line with signature replacement indicator means |
| CH687872A5 (en) * | 1994-08-17 | 1997-03-14 | Ferag Ag | A process for the continuous production of various types of printed products from different printed printing product parts. |
| US5551766A (en) * | 1994-10-11 | 1996-09-03 | Ellcon National, Inc. | Empty/load sensor mechanism for controlled vehicle braking |
| US5819663A (en) * | 1995-09-06 | 1998-10-13 | Quad/Tech, Inc. | Gripper conveyor with preliminary ink jet |
| US5758873A (en) * | 1995-11-27 | 1998-06-02 | Ferag Ag | Method and device for processing printed products supplied in a high-performance product stream |
| JP4621148B2 (en) * | 2006-01-30 | 2011-01-26 | キヤノン株式会社 | Bookbinding apparatus, bookbinding method and printing apparatus |
| DE102016215517A1 (en) * | 2016-08-18 | 2018-02-22 | Bundesdruckerei Gmbh | Plant and method for producing value and security documents from material pieces |
Family Cites Families (16)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| US2577568A (en) * | 1948-05-01 | 1951-12-04 | Florez Company Inc De | Plastic binding of hard cased books |
| CH584153A5 (en) * | 1973-10-10 | 1977-01-31 | Ferag Ag | |
| US3982453A (en) * | 1974-07-15 | 1976-09-28 | American Bank Note Company | Method of assembling numbered documents in order |
| US4179107A (en) * | 1975-10-20 | 1979-12-18 | Amprint Corp. | Printing and collating method |
| DE2741332A1 (en) * | 1977-09-14 | 1979-03-22 | Mohn Gmbh Reinhard | METHOD FOR MANUFACTURING A BOOK BLOCK AND DEVICE FOR CARRYING OUT THE METHOD |
| DE2846191C3 (en) * | 1978-10-24 | 1981-08-13 | Koenig & Bauer AG, 8700 Würzburg | Folder for web-fed rotary printing machines |
| EP0016260A1 (en) * | 1979-02-13 | 1980-10-01 | Reinhard Mohn GmbH | Process and device for the production of inner books |
| CH645073A5 (en) * | 1980-03-11 | 1984-09-14 | Ferag Ag | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR GATHERING LEAVES OR BOW TO MULTI-LEAF PRINTED PRODUCTS, IN PARTICULAR NEWSPAPERS AND MAGAZINES. |
| DE3018987C2 (en) * | 1980-05-17 | 1983-10-27 | Bielomatik Leuze Gmbh + Co, 7442 Neuffen | Device for producing stacks of sheets |
| CH663750A5 (en) * | 1982-04-08 | 1988-01-15 | De La Rue Giori Sa | METHOD AND DEVICE FOR PRODUCING PRINT-FRESH, NUMBERED AND VALUABLES CUT TO FORMAT. |
| DE3323842A1 (en) * | 1983-07-01 | 1985-01-03 | Georgios 5000 Köln Milonas | Method and device for collating, stitching and folding newspapers, booklets, magazines or the like |
| GB8318465D0 (en) * | 1983-07-07 | 1983-08-10 | Drg Uk Ltd | Book making apparatus |
| US4519599A (en) * | 1984-05-11 | 1985-05-28 | R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company | Method and apparatus for tandem stitching of books in a bindery line |
| DE3433497A1 (en) * | 1984-09-12 | 1986-03-20 | Bell & Howell Gmbh, 6360 Friedberg | DEVICE FOR THE ASSEMBLY OF FORM PAPER BLOCKS FROM FORM LEAFS |
| CH668245A5 (en) * | 1985-09-27 | 1988-12-15 | Ferag Ag | DEVICE FOR COMPILING DIFFERENT PRINTED PRODUCTS. |
| DE8713282U1 (en) * | 1987-10-02 | 1987-11-26 | Stahl Gmbh & Co Maschinenfabrik, 7140 Ludwigsburg, De |
-
1989
- 1989-08-16 AU AU39973/89A patent/AU628368B2/en not_active Expired
- 1989-08-25 CA CA000609384A patent/CA1319160C/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1989-08-26 DE DE89115751T patent/DE58906688D1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1989-08-26 AT AT89115751T patent/ATE100063T1/en not_active IP Right Cessation
- 1989-08-26 EP EP89115751A patent/EP0358066B1/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
- 1989-09-01 FI FI894117A patent/FI98452C/en active IP Right Grant
- 1989-09-08 JP JP1234524A patent/JP2938477B2/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
-
1991
- 1991-05-10 US US07/700,874 patent/US5106068A/en not_active Expired - Lifetime
Also Published As
| Publication number | Publication date |
|---|---|
| EP0358066B1 (en) | 1994-01-12 |
| JPH02110048A (en) | 1990-04-23 |
| US5106068A (en) | 1992-04-21 |
| JP2938477B2 (en) | 1999-08-23 |
| AU628368B2 (en) | 1992-09-17 |
| FI894117A0 (en) | 1989-09-01 |
| AU3997389A (en) | 1990-03-15 |
| FI98452B (en) | 1997-03-14 |
| FI894117A (en) | 1990-03-10 |
| ATE100063T1 (en) | 1994-01-15 |
| EP0358066A1 (en) | 1990-03-14 |
| DE58906688D1 (en) | 1994-02-24 |
| FI98452C (en) | 1997-06-25 |
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