Method and means for tabloid further processing
AssigneeFerag AG
InventorWerner Honegger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The invention permits an inexpensive, flexible further processing of tabloids to smaller format double and multiple folds. In at least one conveying conversion means with in each case at least one removal station (19', 19", 19'"), preferably simultaneously several starting products are removed, which are then further processed in parallel as clusters. The clusters are jointly conveyed by conveying means (36-46, 50, 51) and in each case all the printing products of a cluster (2) are simultaneously processed. The method and means have a fundamentally upwardly open processing capacity, even in the case of large printing products.
Claims19
A method of conveying and processing tabloids and other folded printed products in a processing system which includes a plurality of spaced conversion stations, the method comprising the steps of
- delivering a serial sequence of folded printed products to a conversion station,
- at the conversion stations, extracting a plurality of starting products from spaced stations along the sequence and combining the products to form clusters including the extracted products, each cluster including at least two printed products, the step of extracting further including removing the products from the sequence with a gripper for forming each cluster,
- conveying the clusters away from the conversion stations,
- repeating the step of extracting, forming and conveying the clusters to thereby create a plurality of streams of products being conveyed in parallel,
- conveying the streams of clusters of products to a processing location, and
- processing the products while they are in the clusters.
A method of conveying and processing tabloids and other folded printed products in a processing system of the type including a plurality of processing stations comprising the steps of
- delivering a serial sequence of folded printed products to a conversion station,
- at the conversion station, extracting a plurality of starting products from the sequence and forming a cluster including the extracted products, each cluster including at least two printed products,
- conveying the cluster away from the conversion station,
- repeating the step of extracting, forming and conveying the clusters to thereby create a plurality of streams of products being conveyed in parallel,
- conveying the stream of clusters of products to a processing location,
- processing the products while they are in the clusters, and
- returning the products from the clusters to serial conveying.
A method of conveying and processing tabloids and other folded printed products in a processing system comprising the steps of
- delivering a serial sequence of folded printed products to a conversion station at a system clock rate T,
- at the conversion station, extracting a plurality of starting products from the sequence and forming a cluster including the extracted products, each cluster including at least two printed products,
- conveying the cluster away from the conversion station,
- repeating the step of extracting, forming and conveying the clusters to thereby create a plurality of streams of products being conveyed in parallel at a cluster clock rate T' wherein the cluster clock rate T' is equal to or smaller than the system clock rate T multiplied by the number of products per cluster,
- conveying the stream of clusters of products to a processing location, and
- processing the products while they are in the clusters.
An apparatus for handling and processing tabloids and other folded printed products comprising the combination of
- first conveying means for supplying starting printed products in a serial stream;
- at least two conversion means arranged successively along said first conveying means, each said conversion means including means for extracting selected ones of said starting products and combining the extracted products to form printed product clusters, each said cluster including at least two printed products;
- second conveying means for conveying a stream of said clusters from said conversion means;
- and
- means for processing the products in each cluster as a group.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.