Apparatus for printing books of signatures and method for same

A signature printing system for collating and printing signatures to form books of signatures having customized information printed on the inside thereof, said books having a plurality of inside pages and two cover pages, said signatures each having two centerfold pages and two outside pages, said signature printing system comprising:

• (a) a collating conveyor for receiving said signatures so as to progressively build up books of said signatures, said conveyor conveying said signatures in a downstream direction;
• (b) a plurality of feeders at stations spaced longitudinally along said collating conveyor for delivering said signatures to said conveyor in superpositioned relationship;
• (c) means located adjacent said conveyor for selecting a signature from one of said feeders, said means extending downstream along said collating conveyor from said one feeder station;
• (d) means located adjacent said conveyor downstream of said spaced stations and said selection means and operatively interconnected to said selection means to cooperate with said collating conveyor to move a page of said selected signature out of superpositioned relationship with a signature delivered to the conveyor just prior to the delivery of said selected signature and thereby open each book of signatures at said selected signature to expose an inside page of said book of signatures;
• and
• (e) signature printer means located adjacent said opening means including a first dot matrix printer positioned adjacent said opening means for selectively printing dots in a matrix to form characters on an inside page of each book of signatures as said collating conveyor conveys each book of signatures past said first dot matrix printer and a second dot matrix printer positioned adjacent said collating conveyor for selectively printing dots in a matrix to form characters on a cover page of each book of signatures as said collating conveyor conveys each book of signatures past said second dot matrix printer, whereby said cover page and said inside page of each book of signatures are printed substantially simultaneously as each book of signatures is conveyed past said first and second dot matrix printers.

A signature printing method for collating and printing signatures to form books of signatures having customized information printed on the inside thereof, said books having a plurality of inside pages and two cover pages, said signatures each having two centerfold pages and two outside pages, comprising the steps of:

• (a) delivering said signatures onto a collating conveyor from a plurality of feeders at stations spaced longitudinally along said collating conveyor;
• (b) conveying said signatures in a downstream direction past said feeders so as to progressively build up books of said signatures as said signatures are delivered onto said collating conveyor in superpositioned relationship;
• (c) selecting a signature from one of said feeders;
• (d) moving a page of said selected signature out of superpositioned relationship with a signature delivered to the conveyor just prior to the delivery of said selected signature thereby opening each book of signatures at said selected signature at a location downstream from said spaced stations to expose an inside page of said book of signatures;
• and
• (e) printing information on an inside page of each said book of signatures when opened.