Device for cutting to length and feeding spine strips for a case maker

#The present invention pertains to a device for cutting to length and feeding strips for a book case maker.

#In a case maker that operates in accordance with the horizontal processing principle [Liebau, Heinze; “Industrielle Buchbinderei;” Beruf and Schule Publishing, 1997; p. 399 ff.], cover boards and a spine strip of pasteboard or cardboard are joined with the blanks to be covered that are provided with glue in a roll-down device, in an accurately registered fashion. A case maker of this type is also illustrated and described in DE 100 57 599 A1. The cover boards are removed from a board magazine and fed to the roll-down device after they are laterally aligned on guide rails together with the spine strip. The spine strip used may consist of a flexible center strip roll that is cut to the appropriate length and width in the machine or a pre-cut board strip that is introduced into the feed plane of the cover boards immediately before the roll-down process. The blank to be covered is moved into the roll-down plane by means of a blank cylinder synchronous to the board feed. The protruding edges of the book case are subsequently turned in successively arranged work stations, either in a throughfeed mode or a while the respective book case is at a standstill, wherein the edges protruding on the head and the foot are usually turned in first and the edges on the sides are then turned in after turning in the corners. The book cases are ultimately guided between pressing rollers of a rub-down device in order to rub the board pieces down onto the blank to be covered. In a delivery section, the finished book cases are transported to a manual removal station in the form of stacks by means of a roller conveyor.

#In known case makers of this type, the flexible center strip roll is unwound from a supply roll adjacent to the board feed and cut to width by means of rotary knives. The center strip reaches a center strip conveying device arranged between the board magazine and the roll-down device after several deflections with a dancer roll, wherein the center strip conveying device features a pull-off roller system for advancing the material web by a length equal to the spine height in a cyclic fashion. A section is cut to length by means of a cutter and introduced into the board feed plane in the form of a spine strip with other means.

#FIG. 1 shows a schematic side view of a case maker;

#FIG. 2 shows a top view of the case maker;

#FIG. 3 shows a transverse view of a center strip conveying device with assigned sheet magazine;

#FIG. 1 shows a section of a case maker 1, in which book cases 10 are manufactured by joining cover boards 2 and spine strips 3 on blanks to be covered 4. One respective blank to be covered 4 is fed to a blank cylinder 12 by a not-shown conventional blank feed 11, wherein said blank cylinder takes hold of the blank to be covered 4 with grippers 12a, guides it past an application roller 14 of a gluing station 13 and subsequently rolls it down on the two synchronously supplied, laterally spaced cover boards 2 and the one spine board strip 3 between the cover boards in the joining point. Pressing rollers 15 press the boards 2, 3 against the blank to be covered 4 in the joining point while a suction bar 16 that carries out a reciprocating motion receives the book case 10 from the roll-down device consisting of the blank cylinder 12 and the pressing rollers 15 in order to feed the book case to a turn-in and rub-down station.

#The cover boards 2 are situated in a board magazine 24. The respective bottom cover boards 2.1 are pushed out by a first board pusher 21.1 of a board feed 20 and guided into an intermediate position 27, from where they are fed to the joining point by a second board pusher 21.2 while they are aligned on outer board guides 25. The board pushers 21.1, 21.2 are coupled to one another at a fixed distance and carry out a cyclic reciprocating motion with a constant feed stroke 23 in the machine work cycle direction that is identical to this distance. In the exemplary embodiment, the leading edge of the boards 2, 3 is defined as fixed reference edge. Consequently, format adjustments VRH in accordance with the spine height of the book cases 10 are effective on the rear edge such that the stroke position of the feed stroke 23 is also adjusted in this respect.

#The spine strips 3 are advanced in a guide channel 26 that can be adjusted to the spine strip width BS by center strip pushers 22.1 to 22.4 that are coupled to the board pushers 21.1, 21.2, wherein the spine strips 3 are introduced into the guide channel 26 that is extended through the board magazine 24 behind the board magazine 24.