Patent Application
20140102321
This application claims the priority, under 35 U.S.C. ยง119, of German Patent Application DE 10 2012 019 992.9, filed Oct. 12, 2012; the prior application is herewith incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The invention relates to a device for inserting a web of printing material, in particular made of paper or board, into a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine, including a compensator converting a continuous movement of the web of printing material into an iterative movement. The invention further relates to a manufacturing system for the production of packages, in particular made of paper or board, in particular for the production of folding boxes from a web of printing material, including a web-fed printing press, an inserting device and a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing device. The invention additionally relates to a method for feeding a web of printing material in a manufacturing system for producing packages from a web-fed printing press to a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine using an inserting device while the web-fed printing press is in operation.
Die-cutting refers to cutting with closed geometric cutting shapes, which may be circular, oval, polygonal, or any desired shape. The cutting takes place against a cutting pad or die. In some cases, it may be a shearing process. What is cut is mainly sheet-shaped, sometimes web-shaped packaging material made of plastic, foil material, paper, board, cardboard, or corrugated board. A die-cutting process may additionally create crease lines or blind embossments in the blank. Since the final products are packages that are highly sophisticated in terms of their technical and graphic features (special packages for cosmetics, cigarettes, pharmaceuticals, food, etc.), for optimum results, the materials themselves must meet special requirements, the die-cutting tools must operate within narrow tolerances, and the die-cutting machine needs to function with a high degree of accuracy and reliability. The process that best meets those requirements is flat-bed die-cutting. If the material to be processed is sheet-shaped, printed sheets that are stacked on a pallet are fed to the die-cutting machine. If the material to be processed is web-shaped, the web of material is fed to the die-cutting machine by inserting or feed rollers. In order to be able to process the web of printing material while it is stationary, the web of printing material is iteratively stopped by buffering the following section in a web buffer including a dancer roller.
European Patent Application EP 2 080 600 A1, corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 8,408,110, discloses a flat-bed die-cutting module for die-cutting a printing substrate. The module includes an upper platen and a lower platen. In order to cut a printing substrate passing between the upper platen and the lower platen, a drive is provided to drive a cutting stroke of the lower platen relative to the upper platen, which is stationary and fixed to the machine frame. That causes the lower platen to be engaged with the upper platen and the printing material to be treated by at least one die-cutting tool. A printing substrate transport device for guiding the printing substrate is fixedly received on the lower platen of the flat-bed die-cutting module. The flat-bed die-cutting module may be used in a flat-bed die-cutting machine for processing a web of printing material and may contribute to stabilizing web travel.
For environmental reasons and for reasons of cost efficiency, it is desirable to create as little waste as possible in the manufacturing of the aforementioned packaging materials in the printing press and in the flat-bed die-cutting machine.
When printing presses and die-cutting machines that are disposed in-line relative to each other are started up, the web of material is initially moved out of the machine by a wind-up device or by hand before the web of material is fed to the flat-bed die-cutting machine. That is done to meet stringent quality requirements, in particular to remove any bulges in the web that may be created by guide rollers, for example, when the press is at a standstill, before the die-cutting process starts in the flat-bed die-cutting machine, and thus to prevent the material from jamming. When that process is completed, prior art machines need to be stopped again by an operator, who then needs to cut the web of material at a location upstream of the wind-up device by a cross cut, and subsequently to feed it to the flat-bed die-cutting machine by hand. The repeated stopping of the printing press to feed the web of material to the flat-bed die-cutting machine creates flawed blanks, which means that the first blanks that leave the flat-bed die-cutting machine cannot be used.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a web insertion device for a flat-bed die-cutting machine, a manufacturing system for packages and a method for feeding a web of printing material, which overcome the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices, systems and methods of this general type, which significantly reduce the amount of waste that is created when a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine and/or a production system including a web-fed printing press and a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine is started up and which simplify handling thereof during start-up.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a device for inserting a web of printing material, in particular of paper or board, into a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine. The device comprises a compensator that converts a continuous movement of the web of printing material into an iterative movement. In accordance with the invention, the inserting device includes a clamping unit for clamping the web of printing material, a cutting unit for carrying out a cross-cut through the web of printing material, creating a cross cut edge, and an inserting unit for transporting the web of printing material, cross cut edge first, into the flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine. Thus, the device advantageously allows automatic clamping, cutting and feeding of the web of printing material into the flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine, dispensing with further stops of the upstream printing press and reducing waste. A further advantage results from the fact that the feeding of the web of printing material does not require operator invention. Furthermore, the insertion of the web of printing material into the flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine may be accelerated.
In accordance with another advantageous feature of the device of the invention, for inserting a web of printing material, the inserting unit includes a gripper unit for gripping the web of printing material, at least one guide path and a drive associated with the gripper device. The gripper unit is displaceable on the at least one guide path and is moved by the drive.
In accordance with a further feature of the device of the invention, the clamping unit and the gripper unit may be a single subassembly, resulting in a compact and cost-efficient structure.
In accordance with an added preferred feature of the device of the invention for inserting a web of printing material, the device includes an auxiliary wind-up device disposed downstream of the compensator and used to wind-up the web of printing material.
In accordance with an additional particularly advantageous and thus preferred feature of the device of the invention, the clamping unit, the cutting unit and the inserting unit are disposed between the compensator and the flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine. This allows the cutting unit to make the cross cut when the web of printing material is stationary.
In accordance with yet another advantageous feature of the device of the invention, the cutting unit includes at least one knife and at least one counter-element cooperating with the knife, which extend across the width of the web of printing material.
With the objects of the invention in view, there is also provided a manufacturing system for producing packages, in particular made of paper or board, in particular folding boxes, from a web of printing material. The system includes a web-fed printing press, a downstream inserting device according to the invention, and a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine disposed even further downstream.
With the objects of the invention in view, there is furthermore provided a method for feeding a web of printing material in a manufacturing system for producing packages, in particular as described above, from a web-fed printing press to a flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine using an inserting device according to the invention as described above while the web-fed printing press is in operation. For this purpose, in a first step, the web of printing material is wound onto an auxiliary wind-up device. In a second step, a compensatory movement of a web-guiding element is generated for a temporary standstill of the web, for example by a compensator including a dancer roller. Then, the web of printing material is clamped by a clamping unit and a cross cut is made through the web of printing material, creating a cross cut edge. In a subsequent step, the web of printing material is automatically inserted, cross cut edge first, into the flat-bed die-cutting and/or embossing machine.
The method of the invention likewise offers the aforementioned advantages of little waste and simple feeding of the web of printing material.
Any desired combination of the invention described above and the advantageous embodiments of the invention described above likewise forms an advantageous embodiment 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 a web insertion device for a flat-bed die-cutting machine, a manufacturing system for packages and a method for feeding a web of printing material, 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 in detail to the figures of the drawings, in which like elements and components bear like reference symbols, and first, particularly, to
The web 24 of printing material comes from a web-fed printing press 8, passes over various rollers, a pulling group 40, and a compensator 31 functioning as a web buffer to enter the flat-bed die-cutting machine 10. When a new processing job is set up or when the upstream web-fed printing press 8 is stopped and is creating waste, the web 24 of printing material is not guided directly into the flat-bed die-cutting machine 10 but is initially wound onto an auxiliary wind-up device 35. As soon as all sections of the web 24 of printing material that contain waste have been wound onto the auxiliary wind-up device 35, the web 24 of printing material may be introduced into the flat-bed die-cutting machine 10. This is achieved with the aid of the inserting device 30 of the invention. For this purpose, the web 24 of printing material is clamped and thus held in a defined way in a clamping unit 32. Then a cutting unit 33 may carry out a cross cut through the web 24 of printing material as a severing cut. While the auxiliary wind-up device 35 may continue to wind-up the flawed end of the web 24 of printing material, the flawless web 24 of printing material coming from the web-fed printing press 8 is guided, cross cut edge first, into the flat-bed die-cutting machine 10 by using an inserting unit 34 and a gripper unit 34.1 thereof. The gripper unit 34.1 is moved on a guide path 34.2 in the direction B of web travel by a drive 34.3 and transfers the web 24 of printing material, cross cut edge first, to inserting rollers 36 of the flat-bed die-cutting machine 10. Once the transfer has been completed, the gripper unit 34.1 returns on the guide path 34.2 to its original position in the immediate vicinity of the clamping unit 32 and of the cutting unit 33, where the web 24 of printing material is transferred from the clamping unit 32 to the gripper unit 34.1 of the inserting unit 34.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 2012 019 992.9 | Oct 2012 | DE | national |
