Device for producing printed products

Abstract

The present invention pertains to a device for producing printed products comprising an arrangement of cooperating rollers that are arranged parallel to one another, wherein at least the gap width between the rollers of one roller pair is adjustable. For this purpose, one roller of the pair is pivotably mounted by means of a pivot arm, wherein a driver arranged on the pivot arm displaces a linearly movable reference element by means of a sliding block guide such that the position of this reference element corresponds to the adjusted gap width. The sliding block guide is preferably realized in such a way that the gap width and the position of the reference element are proportionally correlated.

Claims

1. A device for producing printed products, comprising: at least two cooperating rollers (2, 3) that extend parallel to one another and form a roller pair (1), between which a gap (5) is formed; wherein at least a first roller (2) of the roller pair (1) can be pivoted about an axis (7) extending parallel to the rollers (2, 3) in such a way that the gap (5) between the rollers (2, 3) of the pair (1) has a variable width (6); and wherein the gap width (6) is defined by the pivoting position of the pivotable first roller (2), as pivoted with at least one pivot arm (8), in which the pivotable first roller (2) is mounted; at least one reference element (12) cooperating with a linear guide (13) for displacement along a linear motion direction (34), and which position of the reference element along said linear moving direction corresponds to the gap width of the roller pair; a driver surface (18) that is arranged on the pivot arm (8) and displaces the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34); at least one adjustable first stop (10) that limits the pivoting motion (33) of the pivot arm (8) with the first roller (2); and wherein the reference element (12) and the driver surface (18) are operatively connected to one another with a sliding block guide (16), and the sliding block guide (16) defines a curved surface that displaces the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34) proportionally to the gap width (6) of the roller pair (1).

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein a first drive (9) is connected to and drives the pivot arm (8) in such a way that it generates the pivoting motion (33) of the first roller (2).

3. The device according to claim 2, wherein the first drive (9) is responsive to a control unit (22) of the device.

4. The device according to claim 1, including a second drive (11) that is connected to and drives the adjustable first stop (10) in such a way that it adjusts the end position of the pivoting motion (33) of the pivot arm (8) with the first roller (2).

5. The device according to claim 1, wherein the pivotable first roller (2) has an extension that defines said driver surface (18) that displaces the reference element (12).

6. The device according to claim 1, wherein at least one measuring device (19) is provided for measuring the position of the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34).

7. The device according to claim 6, wherein the measuring device (19) is connected to a control unit (22) of the device in such a way that the control unit (22) receives information on the position of the reference element (12).

8. The device according to claim 7, wherein a first drive (9) is connected to and drives the pivot arm (8) in such a way that it generates the pivoting motion (33) of the first roller (2) and the measuring device (19) is connected to the first drive (9) for actuating the pivot arm (8) in the form of a control loop, under the control of the control unit (22).

9. The device according to claim 1, wherein the pivot arm (8) for pivoting the first roller (2) is formed by an eccentric shaft.

10. The device according to claim 2, including a driver (18) that is arranged on the pivot arm (8) and displaces the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34).

11. The device according to claim 2, wherein at least one measuring device (19) is provided for measuring the position of the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34).

12. The device according to claim 11, wherein the measuring device (19) is connected to a control unit (22) of the device in such a way that the control unit (22) receives information on the position of the reference element (12).

13. The device according to claim 2, wherein the pivot arm (8) for pivoting the first roller (2) is formed by an eccentric shaft.

14. A printing unit comprising a device according to claim 1.

15. A sheet feeder comprising a device according to claim 1.

16. A device for producing printed products, comprising: at least two cooperating rollers (2, 3) that extend parallel to one another and form a roller pair (1), between which a gap (5) is formed, wherein at least a first roller (2) of the roller pair (1) can be pivoted about an axis (7) extending parallel to the rollers (2, 3) in such a way that the gap (5) between the rollers (2, 3) of the pair (1) has a variable width (6) and wherein the gap width (6) is defined by the pivoting position of the pivotable first roller (2), as pivoted with at least one pivot arm (8), in which the pivotable first roller (2) is mounted; at least one reference element (12) cooperating with a linear guide (13) for displacement along a linear motion direction (34), and which position of the reference element along said linear moving direction corresponds to the gap width of the roller pair; at least one measuring device (19) for measuring the position of the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34), wherein the measuring device (19) is connected to a control unit (22) of the device in such a way that the control unit (22) receives information on the position of the reference element (12); a first drive (9) connected to the pivot arm (8) in such a way that it generates the pivoting motion (33) of the first roller (2); at least one adjustable first stop (10) that limits the pivoting motion (33) of the pivot arm (8) with the first roller (2); a second drive (11) connected to the adjustable first stop (10) in such a way that it adjusts the end position of the pivoting motion (33) of the pivot arm (8) with the first roller (2); and the measuring device (19) is connected to the second drive (11) for adjusting the first stop (10) in the form of a control loop, under the control of the control unit (22).

17. The device according to claim 16, wherein the reference element (12) and the driver (18) are operatively connected to one another with a sliding block guise (16), and the sliding block guide (16) defines a curved surface that displaces the reference element (12) along its linear motion direction (34) proportionally to the gap width (6) of the roller pair (1).

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING

(1) An exemplary embodiment of the inventive device is described in greater detail below with reference to the drawing. In this drawing:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a schematic representation of a roller pair with an apparatus for adjusting the gap width.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(3) The roller pair 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 comprises a rotatable first roller 2 and a rotatable second roller 3 extending parallel thereto, wherein said rollers jointly form a gap 5 with a gap width 6. Both rollers 2, 3 are conventionally driven by electric motors, wherein the rotating direction 31 of the first roller 2 extends opposite to the rotating direction 32 of the second roller 3, which is only partially illustrated in this FIGURE. The second roller 3 is stationarily mounted in a not-shown machine frame.

(4) The first roller 2 is mounted movably relative to the second roller 3 such that the gap width 6 can be varied. For this purpose, an apparatus comprising a pivot arm 8 on the end of the first roller 2 is provided, wherein said pivot arm is mounted in the not-shown machine frame such that it can be pivoted about a pivoting axis 7 extending parallel to the rollers 2, 3. The first roller 2 is mounted in this pivot arm 8 and can be pivoted about the pivoting axis 7, which is stationary referred to the frame, together with the pivot arm 8 such that the gap width 6 between the first roller and the second roller is defined by the pivoting motion 33.

(5) A drive 9 acting upon the pivot arm 8 is provided. A particularly simple drive can be realized with a pneumatic cylinder 9 that selectively pivots the pivot arm 8 with the first roller 2 into a first end position or into a second end position. The drive 9 is connected to and can be controlled by the control unit 22 of the machine in order to automate the pivoting motion 33.

(6) The upper end position according to FIG. 1 is defined by a first stop 10 that is stationary referred to the frame. This first stop 10 is realized adjustably in the form of a cam, the axes of which extend parallel to the pivoting axis 7 of the pivot arm 8. The upper end position of the pivot arm 8 and therefore the gap width 6 of the roller pair 1 in this upper end position is defined by turning the cam 10. A second drive 11 is provided for realizing the pivoting motion 35 of the cam 10 and actuated by a control unit 22 of the machine.

(7) Such an adjusting device is provided to both sides of the first roller 2 in order to ensure the parallelism of the rollers 2, 3 to one another at all times.

(8) A reference element 12 is assigned to one of the pivot levers 8 and arranged such that it can be linearly displaced relative to the machine frame. For this purpose, it features a linear guide 13 consisting of a guide rail 15, which is arranged perpendicular to the pivoting axis 7, and a guide carriage 14 of conventional design. The position of the reference element 12 along this linear motion path 34 is defined by, in this case, a cylindrical driver shaft extension defining shoulder surface 18 that engages into a guideway 17 of the reference element 12 and is arranged on the pivot arm 8 such that the reference element 12 is linearly moved along by the pivot arm 8 due to the sliding block guide 16 formed by the guideway 17 and the driver 18.

(9) The curved guideway 17 of the sliding block guide 16 is realized in such a way that the gap width 6 on the one hand and the position of the reference element 12 along its linear motion path 34 on the other hand are proportionally correlated.

(10) For small pivoting angles of the pivot arm 8, the curved guideway 17 can be approximated with sufficient accuracy with a linear path. However, a distinctly curved guideway 17, which clearly deviates from a straight line, results for greater pivoting angles.

(11) Even the influence of the axial offset within the roller pair 1 perpendicular to the gap width 6 on the correlation between the pivoting angle of the pivot arm 8 on the one hand and the gap width 6 on the other hand is taken into consideration in the curved guideway 17 such that the described proportional correlation between the position of the reference element 12 along its linear motion path 34 and the gap width 6 is ensured.

(12) The device comprises a measuring apparatus 19 that measures the position of the reference element 12 along its linear motion path 34 and therefore indirectly the gap width 6. This measuring apparatus 19 is connected to the control unit 22 of the machine in such a way that this control unit 22 receives information, which it can interpret in the form of the position of the reference element 12 along its linear motion path 34 and, due to the described proportional correlation, in the form of the gap width 6.

(13) For this purpose, the measuring apparatus 19 comprises a contactless position measuring system consisting of a magnetic strip 21, which is arranged on and moves together with the reference element 12, and a magnetic sensor 20, which is stationary referred to the frame and scans the magnetic strip 21 along an air gap, so as to transmit the data obtained thereof to the control unit 22. In order to increase the degree of automation, the control unit 22 connects the second drive 11 for adjusting the cam in the form of the first limit stop 10 and the position sensor 20 of the measuring apparatus 19 into a control loop, in which the control unit 22 serves as the controller.

(14) A shaft shoulder of the pivotable first roller 2, which is equipped with a cam roller, serves as the driver 18 that engages into the curved guideway 17 of the sliding block guide 16 such that the axis of the driver 18 and the axis 4 of the first roller 2 are identical.