Bookbinding machine with stop of transport elements at a processing station while transport elements are disengaged at other processing stations

A bookbinding machine comprising a plurality of processing stations for processing book blocks, the processing stations comprising a plurality of stationary processing stations for processing the book blocks while stationary therein, the stationary processing stations comprising at least one engagement processing station and one or more disengagement processing stations, a plurality of transport elements for transporting the book blocks individually, a driving system for driving the transport elements in succession across the processing stations selectively, each of the transport elements being driven by the driving system when engaged therewith and remaining stationary when disengaged therefrom, wherein the bookbinding machine comprises control means configured to stop the driving system automatically for a number of stop periods equal to a number of the transport elements in each working cycle of the bookbinding machine during operations thereof, in each of the stop periods:

• corresponding at least one of the transport elements being at the engagement processing station engaged with the driving system, and
• corresponding one or more of the transport elements being at the disengagement processing stations disengaged from the driving system.