Buckle folding machine with adjustable folding gap widths

A buckle folding machine, comprising:

• a plurality of pivot levers;
• a plurality of folding rollers, each of said folding rollers being mounted on a respective one of said pivot levers, mounted in pairs to define a plurality of folding gaps each having a respective folding gap width;
• a restoring force mechanism acting on said pivot levers, said pivot levers being pivotable against a restoring force of said restoring force mechanism;
• electrically controllable adjusting members for acting on said pivot levers to automatically set said folding rollers to different folding gap widths as a function of the measured or calculated thickness of a sheet of paper or stack which is to pass through the respective folding gap, said adjusting members each comprising a plurality of pneumatic working cylinders each having a working stroke, said cylinders being capable of actuation at a frequency up to a frequency of sheets being processed by said machine, each working stroke of said plurality of pneumatic working cylinders of each respective one of said adjusting members contributing to an adjusting member output, of each respective one of said adjusting members, acting on the respective one of said pivot levers;
• a folding gap width input providing a folding gap input signal;
• an electronic process computer for calculating a folding gap width for each of said plurality of folding gaps based on said folding gap input signal and based on a preset working program and for selectively actuating said plurality of pneumatic working cylinders of each of said electrically controllable adjusting members at a frequency up to a frequency of sheets being processed by said machine, to set each adjusting member output to provide a desired folding gap width at the respective folding gaps.

A buckle folding machine, comprising:

• a first pivot lever;
• a second pivot lever;
• a first folding roller mounted to said first pivot lever;
• a second folding roller mounted to said second pivot lever;
• another folding roller, said first folding roller and said another folding roller forming a first folding gap with a first folding gap width, said second folding roller and said first folding roller forming a second folding gap with a second folding gap width;
• a first restoring force mechanism acting on said first pivot lever, said first pivot lever being pivotable against a restoring force of said first restoring force mechanism;
• a second restoring force mechanism acting on said second pivot lever, said second pivot lever being pivotable against a restoring force of said second restoring force mechanism;
• a first electrically controllable adjusting member acting on said first pivot lever to set a position of said first folding roller relative to said another folding roller and to set said first folding gap width, said first adjusting member comprising a first adjusting member pneumatic working cylinder having a first adjusting member working stroke and another first adjusting member pneumatic working cylinder having another first adjusting member working stroke, said first adjusting member working stroke and said another first adjusting member working stroke being additive providing to provide a first adjusting member output acting on said first pivot lever;
• a second electrically controllable adjusting member acting on said second pivot lever to set a position of said second folding roller relative to said first folding roller and to set said second folding gap width, said second adjusting member comprising a second adjusting member pneumatic working cylinder having a second adjusting member working stroke and another second adjusting member pneumatic working cylinder having another second adjusting member working stroke, said second adjusting member working stroke and said another second adjusting member working stroke being additive providing to provide a second adjusting member output acting on said second pivot lever;
• a folding gap width input providing a folding gap input signal;
• an electronic process computer for calculating a first folding gap width and for calculating a second folding gap width as a function of a measured or known thickness of a sheet or a stack of sheets which is to pass through the folding gaps and for actuating said first electrically controllable adjusting member and said second electrically controllable adjusting member to set said first folding gap width and said second folding gap width.