Folding apparatus for reel or web-fed rotary printing machines

Folding machine in web-fed rotary printing machines for longitudinally folding a paper web, for cross-cutting the thus longitudinally folded paper web and for collecting separated copies on a collecting cylinder cooperating with a knife cylinder, the cylinders having respectively parallel axes disposed in a common plane and being disposed substantially tangentially to one another, the collecting cylinder having an odd number of puncture rows on the periphery thereof for securing the paper web to the collecting cylinder and the knife cylinder having an even number of cutting rows spaced about the periphery thereof for securing the paper web to the collecting cylinder and the knife cylinder having an even number of cutting rows spaced about the periphery thereof for cutting the paper web into page-length segments, the cylinders being rotatable in opposite rotary directions, the improvement therein comprising means defining the puncture rows firmly built into the collecting cylinder, said cutting rows formed alternatingly of a single knife for making a single cut in said web at one end of a page-length segment and a double knife for making two substantially simultaneous cuts in said web at an opposite end of said page-length segment, said single knife being disposed at a location whereat it leads the respective puncture row on the collecting cylinder cooperating therewith and a device for removing from the puncture rows trimmed strips separated from the copies by said double knife on both sides of the puncture rows.