This application claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. § 119, of German application DE 10 2007 023 415.7, filed May 18, 2007; the prior application is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The present invention relates to a device for correcting the lateral position of a printing substrate held by a gripper bar, a printing substrate-processing machine with the device, and also to a method of correcting the lateral position of a printing substrate as it is being conveyed in a given transport direction.
In the field of the graphic arts industry, it is known from the prior art to convey and process a printing substrate in machines that process a printing substrate, such as printing presses, in a way to ensure register accuracy. Even as it is being fed to the machine, a printing substrate may be aligned to be in register. In addition, register corrections during transport through the machine are possible. Register correction may refer to the register in the direction of travel, also known as the circumferential register, to the register in the lateral direction (lateral relative to the direction of travel), also known as the lateral register, and to the register of a skewed printing substrate, also known as the diagonal register. For the purpose of register alignment and register correction, pulling marks and lateral stops are provided in the region of printing substrate feeders. It is also known from the prior art to provide cylinders for guiding printing substrates that are adjustable or at least include adjustable components.
Moreover, it has become known heretofore in the graphic arts industry to use electric linear drives that usually have a primary part and respective secondary parts (carriages) associated with the respective primary part on each side of the printing substrate to transport a printing substrate through the machine instead of using cylinders for guiding the printing substrate through the machine. In such a linear drive system, a crossbar or gripper bar is usually provided between two opposing carriages to grip the printing substrate and transport it through the processing machine. A device of that type for a printing press is described in commonly assigned German patent DE 197 48 870 C2 (see, U.S. Pat. No. 6,044,760). German published patent application DE 100 20 324 A1 (see, U.S. Pat. No. 6,876,896 B1) describes the use of a linear drive in a packaging machine.
Commonly assigned German published patent application DE 10 2006 057 506 (see, US 2007/0145667 A1) also describes a linear drive for transporting printing substrates. Register correction is initiated by a relative movement of two carriages. The two carriages are arranged laterally and are located on different sides of the printing substrate. Simultaneous adjustment (with or without closed-loop control) of lateral register and diagonal register is not possible. Furthermore, JP 2003-159679 A describes a double-axle robot that has a first linear drive and a second linear drive and a crossbar. The first linear drive is arranged laterally and is used to advance the crossbar, whereas the second linear drive, which is arranged laterally and opposite the first lateral linear drive, is used to advance an adjustment element, which is connected via a link to an element that is movable on the crossbar. Thus the position of the crossbar in the direction of transport can be adjusted by means of the first linear drive, and the lateral position of the element received on the crossbar can be adjusted by means of the second linear drive. However, the use of the described robot for transporting a printing substrate through machines that process a printing substrate is not disclosed.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a device that allows a correction of the position of a printing substrate in the lateral direction and which overcomes the above-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices and methods of this general type.
It is a further or alternative object of the present invention to provide a device that allows such a correction and at the same time provides an improved way of transporting a printing substrate through the machine for processing a printing substrate in comparison to the known ways of the prior art.
It is a further or alternative object of the present invention to provide an improved device that allows simultaneous corrections of different registers (circumferential register, lateral register, and/or diagonal register). It is a further or alternative object of the present invention to provide a device that is improved over the prior art and does not require much installation space.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a device for correcting a lateral position of a printing substrate held by a gripper bar and conveyed in a transport direction, the device comprising:
an electric linear drive having a primary part, a first secondary part configured as a first carriage and associated with the primary part, and a second secondary part configured as a second carriage;
the first carriage and the second carriage being commonly disposed on a same side of the printing substrate in a lateral direction; and
the first carriage and the second carriage being movable relative to one another in the transport direction to correct a position of the printing substrate in the lateral direction.
It is likewise an object of the present invention to provide a method of correcting the position of a printing substrate in the lateral direction and in particular of transporting the printing substrate through a machine for processing a printing substrate in a way that is improved over the prior art.
It is a further or alternative object of the present invention to provide an improved method of simultaneously correcting different registers (circumferential register, lateral register, and/or diagonal register).
In accordance with the invention, a device for correcting the lateral position of a printing substrate that is held by a gripper bar and conveyed in a direction of transport (in other words: for correcting the position in the lateral direction), comprises an electric linear drive that includes a first primary part and a first secondary part associated with the first primary part and designed as a first carriage and a second secondary part designed as a second carriage, the first carriage and the second carriage being arranged on the same side of the printing substrate in the lateral direction and being movable relative to each other in the direction of transport to correct the position of the printing substrate in the lateral direction.
Thus in accordance with the invention, such a device includes two carriages that are on the same side of the printing substrate in the lateral direction rather than, as it is known from the prior art, on different sides of the printing substrate. Moreover, in accordance with the invention, the two carriages are movable relative to each other in the direction of transport, and a relative movement of the carriages causes a correction of the position of the printing substrate in the lateral direction, that is to say that the movement of the two carriages relative to each other is translated into or causes a lateral correcting movement of the printing substrate. Thus in contrast to the prior art, both for advancing the gripper bar and thus the printing substrate and for correcting the lateral position of the gripper bar and thus of the printing substrate, two carriages are available that are arranged on the same side of the printing substrate in the lateral direction. These two carriages may be supplemented by two more carriages that are likewise movable relative to each other and are located on the other side of the printing substrate and can likewise be used for advancing the printing substrate as well as for lateral position correction. By providing two carriages on one side of the printing substrate in accordance with the invention, both the correction of the lateral position of the printing substrate and the advancement of the printing substrate can be carried out by respectively just one of the carriages or jointly by both of the carriages. This feature results in a plurality of possible ways of controlling the advancement and the positioning of a printing substrate. A relative movement of the two carriages with respect to each other may initiate a lateral movement of the gripper bar without impairing the advancement of the printing substrate.
A further advantage of the present invention is that a simultaneous correction of different registers (circumferential register, lateral register, and/or diagonal register) is made possible. A relative movement between the two carriages can be carried out to adjust the lateral register (with or without closed-loop control), and at the same time a joint movement of the two carriages or carriage pairs in or against the direction of transport can be carried out to adjust the circumferential register (with or without closed-loop control). In addition, a relative movement of the two carriage pairs with respect to each other can be carried out to adjust the diagonal register (with or without closed-loop control).
In accordance with a further development of the invention that is advantageous in terms of its simple mechanical implementation and is consequently preferred, the first carriage and the second carriage may be mechanically coupled to each other by a link. The two carriages (on one and the same side of the printing substrate) thus form a mechanical unit, a fact that means that, at least in sections, advantageously only one carriage may be driven, whereas the other one of the two carriages may, likewise at least in sections, not be driven and still entrained or dragged along. The mechanical link between the two carriages may preferably be a pair of parallel rockers. If they are provided, the two carriages on the other side of the printing substrate may likewise be mechanically coupled to each other, preferably likewise by a pair of parallel rockers.
To be able to make use of the advantages that the two carriages can be moved relative to each other and that any one of the two carriages may not be driven, the first and the second carriage may be designed to be controllable or actuatable separately from each other. A common control or two separate controls may be provided for separately controlling the two carriages of the linear drive and thus for separately moving the carriages, i.e. for moving the carriages relative to each other—if a mechanical link is provided, within the limits defined by the link.
In accordance with a further preferred feature of the invention, the device has a first mode of operation in which the first carriage and the second carriage jointly effect the advancement of the gripper bar and thus the transport of the printing substrate. In accordance with another preferred feature of the invention, the device has a second mode of operation, in particular a supplementary mode of operation, in which only the first carriage or only the second carriage effects the advancement of the gripper bar and thus the transport of the printing substrate. This second mode of operation will be referred to as the “drag mode” in the following. In this context, a distinction is to be drawn between the passive drag mode and the active drag mode. In the passive drag mode, the two carriages are essentially not accelerated or decelerated, so that one carriage is dragged along by another carriage without being driven itself. The relative position of the two carriages does not change. In the active drag mode, the two carriages are accelerated or decelerated and thus actively participate in the driving dynamics (for example in the region of a sheet feeder in which the gripper bar initially needs to be decelerated and then accelerated to receive a sheet). Again, the relative position of the carriages does not change. A simplified way of providing regions along the transport path in which only the passive drag mode occurs may advantageously consist of not providing powered windings and inverters (on a primary part). A carriage that is being dragged may be secured and protected against falling down due to the magnetic attraction between its permanent magnet and the iron cores of the associated primary part.
In accordance with a further preferred feature of the invention the electric linear drive comprises a second primary part in addition to the first primary part, and the second carriage is associated with the second primary part, whereas the first carriage remains associated with the first primary part as described above. The electric linear drive (on one side of the printing substrate) thus includes two primary parts and two secondary parts or carriages. In addition, a further electric linear drive (on the other side of the printing substrate) may likewise include two primary parts and two secondary parts or carriages. In the following, the term “linear drive system” (short: system) is to be understood to jointly refer to the linear drive on the one side and to the linear drive on the other side of the printing substrate.
The scope of the invention also encompasses a machine for processing printing substrates, in particular a printing press—preferably a sheet-fed rotary printing press for lithographic offset printing—or a machine for the further processing of printed products—preferably a diecutting machine—that is distinguished by at least one device as described above with reference to the invention or by a device or system for correcting the lateral position of the printing substrate.
With the above and other objects in view there is also provided, in accordance with the invention, a method of correcting a lateral position of a printing substrate being conveyed in a transport direction, which comprises:
providing an electric linear drive with two carriages commonly arranged on a common side of the printing substrate in a lateral direction relative to the transport direction; and
carrying out a relative movement between the two carriages of the electric linear drive for correcting the lateral position of the printing substrate.
In other words, in accordance with the invention, a method of correcting the lateral position of a printing substrate (in other words: correcting the position in the lateral direction) that is being transported in a direction of transport comprises the step of implementing a relative movement between two carriages of an electric linear drive, the two carriages being arranged on the same side of the printing substrate in the lateral direction. The advantages of an implementation of the method of the invention are the same as those described above in terms of the device of the invention.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in device for correcting the lateral position of a printing substrate, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.
Referring now to the figures of the drawing in detail and first, particularly, to
On the other side of the printing substrate, the linear drive system illustrated in
The two carriages A1 and A2 of the first electric linear drive A form a carriage pair 4, which, together with a carriage pair 5 of the second electric linear drive B, effects the advancement of the gripper bar 6 and thus of the printing substrate 1 held and transported by the gripper bar 6. The further carriages of the linear drives A, B likewise form carriage pairs that are coupled to each other mechanically by a gripper bar and effect the advancement of a printing substrate.
As further illustrated in
The diagrammatic representation of
The functioning of the linear drive system according to the invention will be explained below and is illustrated in
The stops 21 to 24 of the parallel rockers 13a, 13b and 15a, 15b show that in
For reasons of clarity, the maximum lateral adjustment was shown in
At the center of
At the bottom of
The three situations shown in
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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10 2007 023 415.7 | May 2007 | DE | national |