Sheet guiding apparatus, production system for printed products having a sheet guiding apparatus and method for producing printed products
AssigneeHeidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
InventorsHEIKO FEYERABEND, UDO GANTER, MARTIN HAUPT-TERLAU
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A sheet guiding apparatus with a sheet diverter function, a production system with a printer and a folding machine for printed products, in which such a sheet guiding apparatus is used, and a method for producing printed products with the production system, permit productivity to be raised without increasing the operating speed of the folding machine.
Claims20
A production system for flat printed products to be transported in an uninterrupted material flow through the production system in a transport direction, the production system comprising:
- a printing press;
- an intermediate processing and transfer station disposed downstream of said printing press in the transport direction;
- at least one folding station disposed downstream of said intermediate processing and transfer station in the transport direction;
- a plurality of transport tracks;
- and
- at least one sheet guiding apparatus disposed between said intermediate processing and transfer station and said at least one folding station, said at least one sheet guiding apparatus having a switchable sheet diverter for transferring the printed products to said plurality of transport tracks.
A sheet guiding apparatus for a production system or a sheet folding machine, the sheet guiding apparatus comprising:
- a sheet diverter for dividing a stream of sheets being transported in a sheet transport direction to a plurality of transport tracks including at least one first and at least one second transport track;
- said sheet diverter being divided centrally into right and left diverter parts relative to the sheet transport direction, said right and left diverter parts being mutually independently movable into first and second positions for dividing a double stream of sheets, or
- said sheet diverter being multiply divided and formed of a plurality of diverter parts, said diverter parts being mutually independently movable into one of a plurality of switching positions for dividing a multiple stream of sheets;
- said sheet diverter being switchable at least between said first and second positions;
- and
- said sheet diverter being switched into said first position for guiding a sheet onto the at least one first transport track and into said second position for guiding a sheet onto the at least one second transport track.
A method for producing printed products of n different types in a production system, the method comprising the following steps:
- providing the production system with a digital printing press, a sheet folding machine and a sheet guiding apparatus with a switchable sheet diverter having n switching positions for transferring to one of n following transport tracks;
- a) printing a printing material with an nth printing content;
- b) optionally dividing a printing material web into printing material sheets;
- c) folding the printing material sheets to form signatures;
- d) optionally dividing the signature with one or more dividing cuts;
- e) forwarding the signatures with the sheet guiding apparatus onto an nth transport track;
- f) repeating steps a) through e);
- g) gathering the signatures to form a printed product of nth type;
- and
- h) repeating the above steps to produce further n−1 types of printed products.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.