Sleeve exchange system

A system for exchanging sleeves associated with arbors of ink transfer rollers of a printing machine, as the system transitions from a printing job to a subsequent printing job, said systems comprising:

• a storage device, in which the sleeves, if not used in a current ink transfer, are stored;
• a transport device, with which a plurality of the sleeves are individually transported from the storage device to the printing machine;
• a device for exchanging the sleeves to and from the arbors, the device for exchanging the sleeves including
• a support element for receiving the sleeve, and
• a movable slider for displacing the sleeve longitudinally along a sleeve axis relative to the support element, with the slider being adapted to contact the sleeve from an interior or an exterior thereof;
• and
• a computing and control unit configured
• (i) to know, based parameters of a printing form associated with the printing job and parameters of a printing form associated with the subsequent printing job, a position of each of the arbors of each of the ink transfer rollers, in which a replacement of the sleeve is to be effected, and a respective target position and current position of each of the sleeves in the printing machine, in the transport device, and in the storage device, and
• (ii) to automatically equip the printing machine, based on said parameters of the printing form associated with the printing job and parameters of the printing form associated with the subsequent printing job, and based on said known positions of the arbors, rollers and sleeves, with the sleeves associated with a respective one of the printing forms so as to effect the transition from the printing job to the subsequent printing job.