A sheet-fed printing unit has a first impression cylinder and a second impression cylinder, which are arranged directly and interactingly in contact and which each have an axis of rotation. An axial plane contains the axes of rotation. A reference plane is a plane which contains an axis of rotation of a cylinder of this type and has a horizontal surface normal. These two cylinders are arranged such that an intersection angle between the axial plane and the reference plane is a maximum of 15. A transport path is provided for a transportation of sheets, which transport path has a region for the respective impression cylinder in which there is contact between sheets and a casing surface. This region of the transport path for the respective impression cylinder extends over an angular range of at least 270. A sheet-fed printing machine has a sheet-fed printing unit of this type.

A sheet-fed printing machine comprises two sheet-fed printing units; of which a first is configured as a sheet-fed simultaneous printing unit and has two collector cylinders, which interact with one another and each have an axis of rotation. An axial plane contains the axes of rotation of the collector cylinders. A reference plane contains an axis of rotation of this type and has a horizontal surface normal. An intersection angle between the axial plane and the reference plane is, at a maximum, 45 degrees. A first one of the sheet-fed simultaneous printing units has exactly four plate cylinders, of which exactly two are arranged such that they directly interact with the first collector cylinder and has exactly two others which are arranged such that they directly interact with the second collector cylinder. A second sheet-fed printing unit has at least one impression cylinder and at least one plate cylinder, which is arranged such that it directly interacts with the impression cylinder and which is configured a screen printing plate cylinder, or as a flexo plate cylinder or as a numbering plate cylinder. The two collector cylinders of the first printing unit and the impression cylinder of the second printing unit have the same circumference.

In order to provide a numbering and imprinting machine capable of minimizing the amount of wasted paper produced, the numbering and imprinting machine is provided with: a first-number inspection camera (124B) that is arranged downstream of the position of contact between an impression cylinder (112) and a first-number cylinder (113) of a first-number printing unit (111) in the direction of rotation of the impression cylinder (112), and images a first number printed on paper (W) held on the impression cylinder (112); a second number inspection camera (124C) that is arranged downstream of the position of contact between an impression cylinder (117) and a second-number cylinder (118) of a second-number printing unit (116) in the direction of rotation of the impression cylinder (117), and images a second number printed on paper (W) held on the impression cylinder (117); and a printing-press control device (10) that controls first- and second-number-cylinder throw-on and throw-off devices (38, 39) based on signals from the first- and second-number inspection cameras (124B, 124C) to cause the first-number cylinder (113) and the second-number cylinder (118) to make separating movements.

An apparatus for inspecting the characters/numbers of a negotiable instrument, the apparatus being provided with: cameras (124) for imaging the character/number sequence (1b) printed on each design on large-size printed matter (1) on which a plurality of designs of the negotiable instrument are printed; and a character/number inspection device (10) for determining the suitability of the characters/numbers printed on each negotiable instrument on the basis of the image data imaged by the cameras (124), wherein the character/number inspection device (10) determines the suitability of the character/number sequence (1b) in a cut segment (1a) on the basis of a plurality of determination standards set in accordance with the position of the cut segment (1a) on the large-size printed matter (1).

A numbering unit (1, 101, 102), comprising an upper part (2, 211, 212) and a lower part (3), comprises a universal lower part (3) which is configured to receive both an upper part (212) of a vertical numbering unit (102) and an upper part (211) of a horizontal numbering unit (101). Further objects of the invention are a universal lower part (3) for a numbering unit (1, 101, 102), an upper part (212) for a vertical numbering unit (102), an upper part (211) for a horizontal numbering unit (101), a set comprising a universal lower part (3), at least one vertical upper part (212), and at least one horizontal upper part (211), and a numbering machine comprising a numbering unit (1, 101, 102) according to the invention, or comprising a set according to the invention.

In order to provide a numbering and imprinting machine capable of minimizing the amount of wasted paper produced, the numbering and imprinting machine is provided with: a first-number inspection camera (124B) that is arranged downstream of the position of contact between an impression cylinder (112) and a first-number cylinder (113) of a first-number printing unit (111) in the direction of rotation of the impression cylinder (112), and images a first number printed on paper (W) held on the impression cylinder (112); a second number inspection camera (124C) that is arranged downstream of the position of contact between an impression cylinder (117) and a second-number cylinder (118) of a second-number printing unit (116) in the direction of rotation of the impression cylinder (117), and images a second number printed on paper (W) held on the impression cylinder (117); and a printing-press control device (10) that controls first- and second-number-cylinder throw-on and throw-off devices (38, 39) based on signals from the first- and second-number inspection cameras (124B, 124C) to cause the first-number cylinder (113) and the second-number cylinder (118) to make separating movements.

The invention relates to a numbering unit (10) with type wheels (16) for applying a character string to a document, wherein the type wheels (16) are mounted rotatably about an axis of rotation (162), and wherein a catch (20) is assigned to a type wheel (16) in order to prevent undesired rotation of the type wheel (16), wherein the catch (16) is displaceable along the axis of rotation (162) of the type wheels (16). Furthermore, the invention relates to a catch (20) for such a numbering unit (10), and to a numbering machine with such a numbering unit (10). The present invention thus provides a numbering unit (10) with a variable type wheel width, since the catches (20) can be adjusted both to a different width and to a different number of type wheels (16).