Patent Publication Number: US-2007101881-A1

Title: Printing press and method for the production of newspapers

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      The invention pertains to a printing press in which at least one web can be printed with coldset inks and processed into longitudinally and transversely folded signatures and to a process for the production of newspapers.  
      In the field of printing presses, it is known that a web can be printed on both sides with coldset inks by the use of printing couples in a printing tower, i.e., a so-called eight-couple printing tower. In another printing tower, a different web is printed on both sides with heatset inks by the use of printing couples. After being folded longitudinally by means of formers, the two webs are brought together and processed by means of a folder into longitudinally and transversely folded newspapers. In most cases, these printing presses are two pages wide. Newspapers having magazines inserted in them, however, are not produced in this way.  
      Newspapers having magazines inserted in them are produced in that a first printing press is used to produce the newspaper. At a different time, i.e., during the so-called “preproduction” phase, a signature is printed on a different printing press, usually on a publication printing press. The magazine to be inserted into the newspaper is produced from this signature in a processing device. The magazine is usually added weekly or monthly to the newspaper and printed over the course of the week or month preceding the insertion. The disadvantage of this production method is that several expensive printing presses are required.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      It is an object of the invention to create a printing press and a method by means of which the technical effort required to produce newspapers with inserted magazines can be reduced.  
      By the simultaneous printing of at least one web with heatset inks for the production of magazines in parallel with the printing of one or more webs with coldset inks for the production of newspaper signatures, the printing for the production of newspapers with inserted magazine and the printing of the magazines can in principle take place simultaneously on a printing press for the printing of newspapers while lowering the cost of machinery. The printing press and the method create the possibility of having magazines appear daily in newspapers.  
      Additional features and advantages can be derived from the dependent claims in conjunction with the description.  
      Other objects and features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. It is to be understood, however, that the drawings are designed solely for purposes of illustration and not as a definition of the limits of the invention, for which reference should be made to the appended claims. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to conceptually illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.  
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The invention is explained in greater detail below on the basis of several exemplary embodiments.  
       FIG. 1  is a schematic diagram of a portion of an embodiment of a printing press according to the invention;  
       FIG. 2  is a schematic cross sectional view along the line II-II in  FIG. 1  showing formers and folders of the printing press together with an adjacent processing device;  
       FIG. 3  is an enlarged schematic cross sectional view of formers and folders of another embodiment of the printing press showing the feed of partial webs to the formers;  
       FIG. 4  is an enlarged schematic cross sectional view of formers and folders of another embodiment of the printing press showing the feed of strands leaving one former to strands leaving another former;  
       FIG. 5  is an enlarged schematic cross sectional view of angle bars and formers of yet another embodiment of the printing press showing the transfer of one strand of a web to a different strand of the web;  
       FIG. 6  is a top view showing a printed web in direction VI according to  FIG. 1 ;  
       FIG. 7 , as an alternative to  FIG. 6 , is a top view showing a web printed with broadsheet pages; and  
       FIG. 8  is a perspective view of a newspaper consisting of two signatures and two magazines in pulled-apart form.  
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENTLY PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
      The printing press shown in  FIG. 1  contains three unwinders  1 ,  2 ,  3 , from each of which a web  4 ,  5 ,  6  can be pulled and sent to a printing tower  7 ,  8 ,  9 . Each printing tower  7 ,  8 ,  9  contains eight printing couples  10 , which process coldset inks.  
      Another web  12  can be pulled from another unwinder  11  and sent to a printing tower  13 , which contains eight heatset ink-processing printing couples  14 . Each of the printing towers  7 ,  8 ,  9 , and  13  can also contain fewer than eight printing couples  10 ,  14 .  
      The printing press also has a first and a second folder  15 ,  16 , wherein, with respect to the direction of web travel, two formers  17 ,  18  are installed upstream of the first folder  15 , and two formers  19 ,  20  are installed upstream of the second folder  16 . The formers  19 ,  20  of the second folder  16  are advantageously arranged as so-called balloon formers above the formers  17 ,  18  of the first folder  15 . The formers  17 ,  18  could also be assigned to the second folder  16 , and the formers  19 ,  20  could be assigned to the first folder  15 . The number of formers per folder  15 ,  16  has been selected merely as an example here, too. Fewer or more formers per folder can be provided, and they can be positioned on additional levels. The printing press also has a dryer  21  and the additional devices normally used for heatset printing such as a chiller and a silicone unit (not shown).  
      The printing couples  10  of the printing towers  7 ,  8 ,  9  work together in pairs according to, for example, the blanket-to-blanket principle for offset printing, and they thus print both sides of the web  4 ,  5 ,  6  conducted between them. The printing couples  14  of the printing tower  13  also work together in pairs.  
      Coldset inks are printing inks which dry by penetration into the printing material and by evaporation of their solvent. Heatset inks are printing inks which dry by the action of heat.  
      The web  4  unrolled from the unwinder  1  is printed in four colors on both sides in the printing tower  7 . The printing press in this case is a rotary press with a width equal to four vertical newspaper pages. In a corresponding manner, the form cylinders of the printing couples  10  can be equipped with four adjacent printing forms, each of which carrying the print image of a vertical broadsheet page or two horizontal tabloid pages, one above the other. The latter option is realized in the case of the printing tower  7 , in the case of the printing towers  8  and  9 , and also in the case of the printing couples  14  of the printing tower  13 . Correspondingly, the web  4  is printed in the printing tower  7  with tabloid pages  43  oriented horizontally with respect to the direction  45  of web travel, as shown in  FIG. 6 . Similarly, the web  5  is printed in printing tower  8 , and the web  6  is printed in the printing tower  9 .  
      All three webs  4 ,  5 ,  6  are laid on top of each other and sent to the formers  17 ,  18  of the first folder  15  ( FIG. 2 ). The webs  4 ,  5 ,  6  are cut longitudinally at the points marked “x” in  FIG. 2  by means of longitudinal cutters and then folded longitudinally as they pass over the formers  17 ,  18 . Thus two strands  22 ,  23  are obtained, each of which contains signatures with 24 tabloid pages. The number of tabloid pages in the signatures is indicated by the small numbers in  FIG. 2  and also in the other  FIGS. 3-5  described below.  
      The strands  22 ,  23  are first stapled by means of stapling arrangements  24 ,  25  (stapling is indicated by dots in  FIG. 2 ), then laid on top of each other, and sent next to the first folder  15 . The latter cuts the strands  22 ,  23  into copies and cross-folds them, so that first and second longitudinally and transversely folded signatures  26 ,  27 , each with 24 tabloid pages, are obtained (the longitudinal fold is cut open), wherein the second signature  27  lies inside the first signature  26 . The first and second signatures  26 ,  27  are delivered via a paddlewheel to a conveyor belt  28  or a transport device. If no stapling is done, a common signature  26 + 27  is obtained. As generally known, the first folder  15  contains a cutting cylinder, a pin-tucker blade cylinder, and a jaw cylinder. The first and second signatures  26 ,  27  represent production, rather than preproduction. They are transported by the conveyor belt  28  to a processing device  29 .  
      The printing couples  14  of the printing tower  13  are equipped in the same way as the printing couples  10  with four adjacent printing forms, each of which contains two horizontal tabloid pages, one above the other. The additional web  12  is therefore printed with heatset inks to form tabloid pages as it passes through the printing tower  13 , as shown in  FIG. 6 . The additional web  12  is dried as it passes through the dryer  21  and then guided over the formers  19 ,  20  of the second folder  16 . Before it arrives at the formers, cutting arrangements are used to make longitudinal cuts in the web at the points marked “x”. The strands  30 ,  31  leaving the formers  19 ,  20  are first stapled by stapling arrangements (not shown) and then laid on top of each other and sent to the second folder  16 . Each contains one additional signature with eight tabloid pages. In the second folder  16 , the strands  30  and  31  are cut into signatures, which are provided with a transverse fold. The additional signatures  32 ,  33  thus obtained, one inserted in the other, are delivered by paddlewheel onto a conveyor belt  34  or a transport device and sent to the processing device  29 . If no stapling is done, a common signature  32 + 33  is obtained.  
      The additional signatures  32  and  33  are separated in the processing device  29  and processed into magazines  35 ,  36 . Specifically, the additional signatures  32 ,  33  are subjected to a three-side trimming operation. During this operation, cuts are made on three sides all the way to the print image to remove the white margins. During printing, the white margins are already minimized to achieve a large print area and to reduce waste. The positive overlap is also kept to a minimum. The goal here is to obtain the largest possible product in which the ratio of height to width is as close as possible to the so-called “golden section” (1:1,618) and which thus corresponds to a newspaper product with a ratio of height to width which is also preferably close to the golden section. High print quality and accurate folding will also help to produce a good visual magazine impression.  
      It is advantageous for one of the additional signatures  32 ,  33  to be produced as production and one as preproduction. The printing tower  13  is for this purpose operated simultaneously in parallel with the printing towers  7 ,  8 , and  9 , but at the same or a different speed. To achieve high print quality, the printing tower  13  can be operated at a lower speed. In all embodiments of the invention, the printing couples which are printing with heatset inks can be operated either independently of or dependent on the printing couples which are printing with the coldset inks. The magazines  35 ,  36  obtained are inserted into the first signature  26 . Previously, the first and second signatures  26 ,  27  can be subjected to a one-side cut in the processing device  29 . This is a smoothing cut, about 3 mm deep, into the page carrying the positive overlap, the sawtooth-like cut originating from the cutting cylinder thus being removed. The finished newspapers  37  are delivered from the processing device  29  in the form of, for example, stacks  38 .  
      A finished newspaper  37  is shown in  FIG. 8 , where the copies inserted into the signature  26 , namely, the signature  27  and the magazines  35  and  36 , are shown pulled apart from each other. The copies printed with coldset inks are designated “CS”, those printed with heatset inks “HS”. Production is designated “P”, and preproduction “VP”. It is easy to see that all the products  27 ,  35 ,  36  lie independently (not inserted into each other) next to each other in the outer signature  26 .  
       FIGS. 3, 4 , and  5  show variants for the preparation of first and second signatures  26 ,  27  with different numbers of pages. According to  FIG. 3 , webs and partial webs are sent to the formers  17  and  18  of the first folder  15 . Specifically, the two webs  4  and  5  are printed with tabloid pages in the same way as that shown in  FIG. 2 , and after longitudinal cutting they are guided over the formers  17  and  18 . Instead of the web  6 , however, only a two-page-wide web  6 . 1 , printed with tabloid pages, is guided over the former  17 . The strands  22 . 1  and  23 . 1  obtained after longitudinal folding contain signatures with 24 and 16 tabloid pages, respectively. The stapling of the strands  22 . 1  and  23 . 1  by means of the stapling arrangements  24  and  25  and the further processing in the folder  15  proceed in the same way as described on the basis of  FIG. 2 . The additional web  12  is also guided over the formers  19  and  20 , and further processing also takes place in the second folder  16  as described previously.  
      According to  FIG. 4 , in exactly the same way as in  FIG. 2 , webs  4 ,  5 , and  6  printed with tabloid pages are sent to the two formers  17 ,  18 . A partial strand  23 . 2  derived from the strand  23  leaving the former  18  is sent to the strand  22  leaving the former  17 . The strands now contain signatures with 20 and 28 tabloid pages and are stapled by the stapling arrangements  24 , and  25  and subjected to further processing as described on the basis of  FIG. 2 . As already described there, the additional web  12  is guided over the formers  19  and  20  and subjected to further processing in the second folder  16 .  
      According to  FIG. 5 , the web  4 , which has been printed on both sides with tabloid pages, is cut by a longitudinal cutting device into the web strands  39  and  40 . The web strand  40  is then sent to the angle bars  41  and  42  (parallel angle bars) and laid on the web strand  39 . As a result, the number of tabloid pages in the signatures of the strand  22 . 2  leaving the former  17  is increased by eight, and the signatures contained in strand  22 . 2  have 16 tabloid pages.  
      Of course, it is also possible to produce magazines  35 ,  36  having a different number of pages, similarly to the production of first and second signatures  26 ,  27  having a different number of pages according to  FIGS. 3-5 .  
      Instead of being printed with tabloid pages  40  which are oriented horizontally (with respect to the direction of web travel  45 ), as shown in  FIG. 6 , the webs  4 ,  5 , and  6  can be printed on both sides with broadsheet pages  44  which are oriented vertically with respect to the direction of web travel  45 , as indicated in  FIG. 7 . In this case, the stapling arrangements  24  and  25  shown in  FIGS. 2-4  are omitted. In addition, the longitudinal cuts of the webs  4 ,  5 , and  6  in the middle of the formers  17  and  18  are also omitted. The first and second signatures  26  and  27  produced according to  FIG. 2  each then have 12 broadsheet pages. The form cylinders of the printing couples  10  printing the webs  4 ,  5 , and  6  are equipped for this purpose with four adjacent printing forms, each of which has one vertical broadsheet page.  
      The invention has been explained on the basis of an example of a printing press with four vertical newspaper pages. The invention can also be applied to printing presses with a width of two or six vertical newspaper pages.  
      The magazines  35 ,  36  produced do not need to be inserted simultaneously into the newspapers printed in parallel. They can also be sent on for a different purpose; for example, they can be distributed. “Magazines” are also to be understood as magazine-like products, which do not reach the high level of print quality normally enjoyed by magazines.  
      Thus, while there have shown and described and pointed out fundamental novel features of the invention as applied to a preferred embodiment thereof, it will be understood that various omissions and substitutions and changes in the form and details of the devices illustrated, and in their operation, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, it is expressly intended that all combinations of those elements and/or method steps which perform substantially the same function in substantially the same way to achieve the same results are within the scope of the invention. Moreover, it should be recognized that structures and/or elements and/or method steps shown and/or described in connection with any disclosed form or embodiment of the invention may be incorporated in any other disclosed or described or suggested form or embodiment as a general matter of design choice. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims appended hereto.