Sheet feeding or delivering – Feeding – By means to convey sheet
Reexamination Certificate
1999-02-25
2001-05-29
Walsh, Donald P. (Department: 3653)
Sheet feeding or delivering
Feeding
By means to convey sheet
C271S270000, C271S202000, C271S182000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06237912
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND RELATED ART STATEMENT
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signature-conveying apparatus of a folding machine of a rotary press.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional commercial rotary presses, such as the one shown in
FIGS. 11 and 12
, includes a folding machine which has a chopper-folding unit.
A folding machine of a type having the above mentioned chopper-folding unit causes continuous paper W printed in a printing portion of a rotary press to be introduced into a parallel folding portion
1
which incorporates a serration cylinder
2
, a folding cylinder
3
and a gripping cylinder
4
. The continuous paper W is cut into sheets each having a predetermined size at a position between the serration cylinder
2
and the folding cylinder
3
. Then, the sheet is, between the folding cylinder
3
and the gripping cylinder
4
, folded in parallel with the cutting line so that the size of the sheet is halved. Thus, signatures S
1
are formed.
As shown in
FIG. 11
, the signatures S
1
are held between an upper conveying belt
7
a
and a lower conveying belt
7
b
arranged to move at the same peripheral speed of each cylinder disposed in the parallel folding portion
1
. Thus, the signatures S
1
are conveyed toward a chopper-folding unit
9
. The signature S
1
moved by the upper and lower conveying belts
7
a
and
7
b
is brought into contact with a stopper
15
of the chopper-folding unit
9
so as to be stopped. In synchronization with the stoppage timing, a chopper blade is pressed against the central portion of the signature S
1
so that a signature S
2
folded half in a direction perpendicular to the cutting line of the signature S
1
is formed.
A folding machine structured as shown in
FIG. 12
is employed by a rotary press of a type which usually processes printed matter which is chopper-folded. As shown in
FIG. 12
, the foregoing folding machine incorporates a speed-reduction cylinder
5
disposed between a parallel folding portion
1
and chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B and arranged to be rotated at a peripheral speed lower than that of each cylinder disposed in the parallel folding portion
1
. Moreover, the folding machine shown in
FIG. 12
incorporates a delivery cylinder
6
which is in contact with the speed-reduction cylinder
5
and arranged to be rotated at the same peripheral speed as that of the speed-reduction cylinder.
The cylinders
5
and
6
are connected to corresponding chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B which are two units disposed vertically. The signature S
1
discharged from the gripping cylinder
4
is delivered from the gripping cylinder
4
to the speed-reduction cylinder
5
along the surfaces of the two cylinders
4
and
5
. The signatures S
1
are alternately delivered to a passage formed from the speed-reduction cylinder
5
to the lower chopper-folding unit
9
A and another passage formed from the speed-reduction cylinder
5
to the upper chopper-folding unit
9
B through the delivery cylinder
6
.
The signature S
1
allowed to pass through the lower conveying belts
7
a
and
7
b
and the delivery cylinder
6
and alternately placed on the upper conveying belts
8
a
and
8
b
are held between the conveying belts
7
a
and
7
b
and the conveying belts
8
a
and
8
b
so as to be conveyed. Then, the is leading end of the signature S
1
is brought into contact with each stopper
15
of the chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B. At this time, the chopper blade is pressed against the central portion of the signature S
1
so that a signature S
2
folded into two perpendicular to the cutting line of the signature S
1
is formed.
In the folding machine incorporating the speed-reduction cylinder
5
, the two chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B are alternately operated as described above. The speed, at which the signature S
1
is conveyed to the chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B, can be reduced. As a result, even if the printing speed of the rotary press is raised, repulsion, which is produced when the signature S
1
is brought into contact with the stopper
15
of each of the chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B, can be reduced. Therefore, the folding accuracy can be stabilized and, thus, the chopper-folding operation can be performed at high speed.
OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The conventional folding machines incorporating the chopper-folding units have the following problems.
The usual folding machine structured as shown in
FIG. 11
is not provided with the speed-reduction cylinder. In this case, the signature S
1
discharged from the gripping cylinder
4
is held between the upper and lower conveying
7
a
and
7
b
which are moved at the same speed as that of each cylinder disposed in the parallel folding portion so as to be conveyed. Therefore, if the speed of the rotary press is raised, repulsion is intensified excessively which is produced when the signature S
1
is brought into contact with the stopper
15
of the chopper-folding unit. Thus, the signature S
1
is rebounded, causing the folding accuracy to deteriorate. What is worse, the paper is torn and/or wrinkles occur in the folding line portion. Therefore, when the chopper-folding operation is performed, the speed of the rotary press must be reduced, that is, a low-speed operation is required.
The folding machine structured as shown in FIG.
12
and provided with the speed-reduction cylinder
5
is arranged to alternately use the two chopper-folding units
9
A and
9
B. Therefore, the speed at which the signature S
1
is conveyed to the chopper-folding units can be reduced. As a result, repulsion which is produced when the signature S
1
is brought into contact with the stopper
15
of the chopper-folding unit can be reduced. As a result, the chopper-folding operation can be performed at high speed.
As described above, the gripping mechanism delivers, along the surfaces of the cylinders, the signature S
1
from the gripping cylinder
4
, which is rotated at the high peripheral speed, to the speed-reduction cylinder
5
which is rotated at the low peripheral speed. Therefore, the gripping mechanism must have a claw unit of the speed-reduction cylinder
5
which corresponds to the opening/closing operation of the gripping plate of the gripping cylinder
4
. Therefore, a complicated mechanism is required. To raise the operating speed, disorder of the signature S
1
occurring when the delivery is performed must be prevented and time required for the gripping mechanism to be opened/closed must be shortened. The foregoing requirements are considerably difficult to be achieved. Therefore, the operation speed of the rotary press cannot furthermore be raised.
An object of the present invention is to provide a signature-conveying apparatus which is capable of overcoming the above mentioned problems and conveying signatures to a chopper-folding unit with a simple structure so that a high-speed chopper-folding operation is performed.
To achieve the above mentioned object, according to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a signature-conveying apparatus for a folding machine structured to convey signatures formed in a parallel folding portion of the folding machine having a speed-reduction portion incorporating a speed-reduction cylinder and/or a delivery cylinder which is rotated slower than the peripheral speed of a gripping cylinder and discharged from the speed-reduction portion, the signature-conveying unit for a folding machine comprising: high-speed conveying means for conveying signatures received from the speed-reduction portion at the same peripheral speed as that of the speed-reduction portion; low-speed conveying means for conveying the signatures at a low speed; and speed-change conveying means incorporating a plurality of speed-change drive rollers for receiving the signatures conveyed from the high-speed conveying means and forcibly changing the speed so as to deliver the signatures to the low-speed conveying means such that the speed is gradually reduced, wherein each of end portions of
Mitamura Isamu
Motooka Mikio
Alston & Bird LLP
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.
Schlak Daniel K
Walsh Donald P.
LandOfFree
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