PILE BOARD FOR A PRINTING PRESS

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to Japanese application number 2007-135397, filed on May 22, 2007, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a printing media pile board on which the printing media such as printing paper fed to a sheetfed type printing press are piled up; particularly relates to a pile board for a printing press suitable for a nonstop-type feeder feeding printing media nonstop to a sheetfed type printing press.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In a sheetfed type printing press which prints on each of printing media such as printing paper, ledger paper and films, it is required to feed one sheet each of printing media sequentially to the printing press. Normally, the printing media fed to the sheetfed type printing press are piled up on a piling platform called a pile board, and fed to the printing press by a feeder one sheet each (e.g. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication H6-135578).

The board used for piling up printing media in the nonstop-type feeder is in general a platform formed in a flat plate shape with forming grooves, to insert a comb-like supporting portion of a fork for supporting the printing media, on a surface for piling printing media, for example.

Incidentally, in a feeder feeding large-sized printing media nonstop to a large-scale sheetfed type printing press, it is desired to increase the number of printing media piled up on the board, and as a result, a weight of the printing media are fairly large. In other words, fairly heavy printing media are desired to be piled up on the board for feeding to the sheetfed type printing press. The board is formed with wood such as plywood to endure the weight of the printing media piled thereon.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, since the conventional pile board is formed with wood, the comb-like supporting portion, or a wheeled platform and a conveyer delivering the pile board repeatedly contact, slide or collide against the pile board, resulting in wood waste from the wood, a base material of the pile board. If the wood waste is delivered to the inside of the printing press via the printing media piled up on the pile board, it may enter a transferring portion wherein an ink is transferred to the printing media, and cause a defect in printing. In this case, a problem arises that productivity is reduced due to cleaning the printing press to remove this wood waste.

For example, the above problem may be overcome by forming the entire pile board with metal, but it is impractical since the metallic pile board is fairly heavy, which results in difficulties in handling by an operator or processing in a feeder of a sheetfed type printing press.

The present invention, reflecting this situation, has a purpose to provide a pile board for a printing press, waste-free and easy to handle.

To attain the above purpose, the pile board for a printing press according to the present invention is a board on which printing media such as sheets fed to the printing press are piled up, comprising

a base formed with a resin having a piling face on which said printing media are piled up, and grooves formed on said piling face and insertable of a supporting member to support said printing media and

a metallic reinforcing member provided in said base.

Preferably, said metallic reinforcing member is two or more metallic rod-shaped members.

Also preferably, said metallic rod-shaped members are arranged so as to set its longitudinal direction in the direction perpendicular to the grooves formed on said base.

Also, as a specific preferable example, said metallic rod-shaped members are bearing bars formed to have a hollow shape.

Also preferably, said metallic reinforcing member is fixed in an opposite face to the piling face in which said printing media are piled up.

Also, the printing press according to the present invention is a printing press using a pile board for a printing press comprising

a base formed with a resin having a piling face on which printing media fed to the printing press is piled up, and grooves formed on said piling face and insertable of a supporting member to support said printing media, and

a metallic reinforcing member provided in said base.

According to the present invention, there is provided a pile board for a printing press, not generating waste from the pile board and easy to handle.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A better understanding of the invention can be obtained when the detailed description of exemplary embodiments set forth below is reviewed in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sheet pile board of an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2A is a side view of the sheet pile board shown in FIG. 1 from a direction A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 2B is a side view of the sheet pile board shown in FIG. 1 from a direction B of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view obtained by enlarging a portion C of FIG. 2B;

FIG. 4 is a first figure showing a modified example of the sheet pile board in FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a second figure showing a modified example of the sheet pile board in FIG. 1; and

FIG. 6 is a view showing a frame format of the constitution of a printing press using the pile board according to the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

First, an embodiment of the pile board for a printing press according to the present invention will be described based on FIG. 1 to FIG. 3.

A sheet pile board, the pile board for a printing press of the present embodiment, is a member on which printing media such as large-sized paper and films fed to a large-scale sheetfed type printing press are piled up. Particularly, this is a sheet pile board suitable for a nonstop-type feeder providing the printing media sequentially and continuously to the printing press without interrupting printing due to a lack of printing media.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a sheet pile board 1 of the present embodiment; FIG. 2A is a side view of the sheet pile board 1 from a direction A of FIG. 1 and FIG. 2B is a side view of the sheet pile board 1 from a direction B of FIG. 1; and FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view of the sheet pile board 1 obtained by enlarging a portion C of FIG. 2B.

The sheet pile board 1 comprises a base 10 and metallic pipes 20.

The base 10 is, as shown in FIG. 1, a rectangle in plane shape, and a flat plate-shaped platform as a whole, on which printing media are piled up to be fed. The plane shape and plane size of the base 10 may depend on the size of the printing media specification of a transfer system of a sheet feeder of the sheetfed type printing press; and normally, the shape is often rectangular as shown in FIG. 1.

On the upper face 12 (a piling face for a printing media) of the base 10, a plurality of grooves 11 are provided with a predetermined interval. The grooves 11 are grooves for inserting a comb-like (rod-like) supporting portion (specifically, for example, an iron-core such as a square pipe) of a fork to support printing media piled up on the base 10 (sheet pile board 1) when decreasing the printing media piled up on the base 10 to a predetermined quantity.

Namely, when decreasing the printing media piled up on the base 10 (sheet pile board 1) to a predetermined quantity, the comb-like supporting portion of the fork is inserted into the grooves 11 of the base 10. Following to this, by moving downward of the base 10 or moving upward of the comb-like supporting portion of the fork, the printing media piled up on the base 10 are supported by the comb-like supporting portion of the fork. Then, the base 10 is removed from the sheet feeder, and a new base 10 with a full of printing media is placed below the comb-like supporting portion of the fork which supports the printing media. When this new base 10 is raised, and the upper face of the printing media thereon contacts the comb-like supporting portion of the fork, the comb-like supporting portion of the fork is extracted to put the printing media supported by the comb-like supporting portion of the fork on the printing media of the new base 10. The repetition of the procedures can result in nonstop-feeding of printing media to the printing press.

The arrangement and shape of the grooves 11 formed on the upper face 12 of the base 10 may be determined based on those of the comb-like supporting portion (concretely, an iron core) of an apparatus such as the above mentioned fork for piling up the printing media and taking the printing media out.

The base 10 is formed with a norbornene-based resin and has a smooth surface, which does not cause waste even when the comb-like supporting portion of the fork, a wheeled platform and conveyer delivering the board, and the like repeatedly contact, slide or collide against the board. Therefore, no waste is carried into the printing press by the printing media, so that productivity is improved without failure in printing. Also, due to forming the base 10 with resin, the base itself can be reduced in weight and in production cost.

In the rear face, an opposite face of the piling face 12 of the sheet pile board 1, four metallic (e.g. stainless-steel) pipes (hollow pipes) 20 (bearing bars) having a circular cross section are fixed as the metallic reinforcing member. Four metallic circular pipes 20 are respectively placed at approximately even intervals with its axial direction facing to a direction perpendicular to that of the grooves 11. In the rear face of the base 10, a concave portion 13, with an approximate size able to contain at least the metallic circular pipes 20, are formed as shown in FIG. 2A and FIG. 2B. Four metallic circular pipes 20 are contained in the concave portion, and fixed to the rear face of the sheet pile board 1 at both ends by a screw 30 as shown in FIG. 3.

Therefore, in a fixed spot of the metallic pipe 20 to the base 10 and an opposite side of the fixed spot, a first hole 21 and a second hole 22 are formed respectively. The first hole 21 is a large opening that the screw 30 can pass through in whole including its head, and the second hole 22 is a small opening enough for only the thread portion (axial portion) of the screw 30 to pass through. These first hole 21 and second hole 22 are formed in a same direction in several spots of the metallic pipe 20.

In such a constitution, as shown in FIG. 3, the screw 30 is moved from the first hole 21 to the inside of the metallic pipe 20; the thread portion of the screw 30 is projected from the second hole 22 to screw into the rear face of the base 10 to fix; and the metallic pipe 20 is pressed to fix to the rear face of the base 10 by the head of the screw 30, so that the metallic pipe 20 can be fixed in the rear face of the base 10.

When applying the sheet pile board 1 having such a constitution to a nonstop-type sheet feeder of a sheetfed type printing press for printing on one sheet each of large-sized printing media, the sheet pile board 1 is required to sequentially support a large quantity of, i.e. heavy, printing media. In the sheet pile board 1 of the present embodiment, the base 10 is lowered in its own strength compared with a wooden base, since the base 10 is formed with resin. The sheet pile board 1 is, however, significantly strengthened, since four metallic pipes 20 are buried in the rear face. Therefore, even when feeding a large quantity of heavy printing media, the sheet pile board 1 is properly piled with the printing media and supports them without bending.

The sheet pile board 1 on which the printing media are piled up is put in a printing system including the printing press, by a transfer system such as a conveyer of the sheet feeder of the sheetfed type printing press. In this step, rigidity of the sheet pile board 1 is properly maintained as well, so that the printing media are properly piled up on the sheet pile board 1 and fed to the printing press with a suitable posture without bending or heaving.

When the printing media piled up on the base 10 (on the sheet pile board 1) is decreased to a predetermined quantity, the comb-like supporting portion of the fork is inserted into the grooves 11 of the base 10, and by moving downward of the base 10 or moving upward of the comb-like supporting portion of the fork, the printing media piled up on the base 10 are supported by the comb-like supporting portion of the fork. Then, the base 10 is removed from the sheet feeder, and a new base 10 with a full of another printing media is placed below the comb-like supporting portion of the fork supporting the printing media. Further, when this new base 10 is raised, and the upper face of the printing media thereon contacts the comb-like supporting portion of the fork, the comb-like supporting portion of the fork is extracted to put the printing media supported by the comb-like supporting portion of the fork on the new printing media on the new base 10. The repetition of these procedures can result in nonstop feeding printing media to the printing press.

In this way, in the sheet pile board 1 of the present embodiment, although the base 10 is formed with resin, the strength is significantly increased due to four metallic pipes 20 buried in the rear face of the base 10, and even if fairly heavy printing media are piled up on the sheet pile board 1, the sheet pile board 1 can always and precisely feed the printing media without bending to the printing system. The use of the hollow metallic pipe 20 can result in not only increasing strength of the sheet pile board 1 but also reducing the weight of the sheet pile board 1, so that the sheet pile board 1 becomes easy to handle.

Also, by forming the base 10 of the sheet pile board 1 with resin, it is possible to prevent a generation of waste, etc., from the sheet pile board 1. Consequently, it is possible to prevent a generation of defect in printing caused by such a waste, etc., so that the sheet pile board 1 can be used with high performance for a long time.

The pile board for a printing press of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and may be variously modified within the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the metallic pipe is arranged with its axial direction facing to a direction perpendicular to the grooves of the sheet pile board, but any arrangement may be fine. For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the axial direction of the metallic pipe 20b may be arranged in parallel with the grooves 11 of the sheet pile board 1b.

Also, the metallic pipe placed in the rear face of the sheet pile board is not necessarily a circular pipe, and may be a square pipe 40 as shown in FIG. 5.

Further, either circular pipe or square pipe is not limited to a hollow pipe, and a solid-core rod may be used in either case.

Also, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the metallic rod-shaped member is shown as a non-limited example of the metallic reinforcing member, and a metallic plate-like member may be fixed to the rear face of the base 10.

Further, the constitution is exemplified that the metallic reinforcing member is fixed to the rear face of the base 10, but the resin base 10 may be molded to embed or to integrate the metallic reinforcing member therein.

Also, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the number of the metallic pipes placed to the rear face of the sheet pile board is four in the example shown in FIG. 1 and two in the example shown in FIG. 4, but it is not limited to those in the examples and may be three, or five or more.

Also, in any case including those wherein the number of the pipes is two, or three or more, the arrangement (direction and position) of the plurality of pipes may be arbitrary. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 1 or FIG. 4, each pipe may be arranged in parallel, or some or all of the pipes may be arranged at angle to each other. The position in the rear face of the base wherein the pipes are placed may be arbitrary as well.

Next, as for a printing press using such a pile board for a printing press according to the present invention, the general constitution will be described based on FIG. 6.

FIG. 6 is an entire external view showing a frame format of the constitution of a sheetfed type printing press using the pile board for a printing press according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 6, the sheetfed type printing press 100 is generally comprised of a sheet feeding portion 102, a printing portion 103 and a sheet ejection portion 104.

In the sheet feeding portion 102, the sheet pile board 1 according to the present invention on which the sheets 6 are piled up as printing media, is arranged. The sheet pile board 1 is mounted on a sheet stacking platform (not shown in the figure) which is hung by a hoisting chain (not shown in the figure) and automatically elevated as the sheets 6 are fed to the printing portion 103 to decrease the quantity of the sheets 6 on the sheet pile board 1, so that it has a constitution to maintain the upper face of the piled sheets at a certain height.

In a rack 113 of the sheet feeding portion 102, a guide rail 114 is horizontally built, and a fork platform 115 is movable in a horizontal direction in the figure, i.e. in the direction that it approaches or leaves the sheet pile board 1, on the guide rail 114 by a motor not shown in the figure as a drive source. In the fork platform 115, a plurality of forks 116 are provided in a protruding condition as a supporting member with an identical pitch to those of the grooves 11 on the upper face of the sheet pile board 1.

In the exterior of the rack 113, a successive sheet pile board (spare sheet pile board) 2 according to the present invention, on which sheets 7 to be fed next as printing media are piled up, is arranged movably by a lorry 119.

In the sheet feeding portion 102 having such a constitution, when the sheet pile board 1 is elevated to a specific height as the sheets 6 are fed, the fork platform 115 is moved leftward in FIG. 6 to insert the fork 116 into the grooves 11 of the sheet pile board 1. After that, the sheet pile board 1 is lowered to support the sheets 6 in the upper face of the fork 116. Next, the spare sheet pile board 2 is moved by the lorry 119 so that the spare sheets 7 are positioned below the sheets 6, and the spare sheet pile board 2 is elevated so as to put the upper face of the spare sheets 7 toward the undersurface of the fork 116. Then, the fork 116 is extracted to put the sheets 6 on the spare sheets 7, which enables continuous sheet feeding without stopping the press. In this case, on the top of the spare sheets 7, a colored sheet 8, which is an easy-to detect sheet with a different color from that of the sheets 7, is piled.

One sheet each from top of thus-fed sheets 6 is suctioned by a sucking device not shown in the figure; sent onto a feeder board 122; then sent to a register device 124 of a register portion 123 to adjust a width direction register and a vertical register; and sent to the printing portion 103. The printing portion 103 has four printing units 125a to 125d to four-color print on the sheet 6. The sheet after completing printing at the printing unit 125d is held by a gripper member not shown in the figure which is suspended with a certain interval in a delivery chain 127 overhang between sprockets 126. The held sheet 6 is released to be put on a pile 129 by engaging the gripper member with a sheet releasing cam 128.

130 is a tape inserter to insert a tape between the piled sheets of sheets 6, which is designed to be operated by the later-described control signal. 131 is a buzzer, an alarm means, sounding due to the above-mentioned control signal. 132 is a counter to count printing operations of the printing press 100, which counts printing operations in any one of printing units 125, in the printing unit 125d in the present example.

The sheet pile board according to the present invention is preferably used in the printing press 100 having such a constitution, which greatly contributes to the prevention of generating defect in printing in the printing press.

Note that in the sheet feeding portion 102 of the printing press 1 of the present embodiment, the motor not shown in the figure, the fork platform 115 and the like are used as a transportation means of the fork 116 for automatically supplying the piled sheets. However, the constitution of the sheet feeding portion 102 is not limited to this. For example, it may be a hand-operated nonstop-type sheet feeder wherein one each of a plurality of forks 116 is inserted in the grooves 11 by an operator. The pile board for a printing press according to the present invention may be used in a printing press 1 with a sheet feeding portion 102 having such a constitution.

PILE BOARD FOR A PRINTING PRESS

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