Patent ID: 7569010

Claim:
A folding machine for a web-fed printing press, having a cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ), a folding blade cylinder ( 12 ) and a folding jaw cylinder ( 13 ), wherein exemplars ( 34 ) are cut off from a web of a substrate ( 14 ) by the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ), the cut exemplars ( 34 ) held by the folding blade cylinder ( 12 ) and conveyed further in a direction of the folding jaw cylinder ( 13 ), and in a collecting mode of the folding machine, several exemplars ( 34 ) are collectable on the folding blade cylinder ( 12 ) such that at least two exemplars ( 34 ) of different sheet lengths cut off by the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) are superimposed one above the other on the folding blade cylinder ( 12 ) and sent to the folding jaw cylinder ( 13 ) as collected exemplars ( 34 ), wherein the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) has at least one cutting blade ( 18 ), and wherein: a) a separate drive ( 19 ) is assigned to the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ); and b) a control unit assigned to the drive ( 19 ) of the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) controls the drive ( 19 ) at a non-uniform or a uniform setpoint angular velocity as a function of whether the folding machine is being operated in the collecting mode or a non-collecting mode, such that: b1) the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) is operated with uniform angular velocity in the non-collecting mode of the folding machine; and b2) an angular velocity (ω K ) of the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) is increased in the collecting mode before executing a cut for cutting off an exemplar having a shortened sheet length, and wherein for cutting off an exemplar with a longer sheet length an angular velocity (ω L ) of the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) is reduced before execution of a cut, and wherein for executing a particular cut, an angular velocity (ω S ) of the cutting blade cylinder ( 11 ) is constant and a circumferential angular velocity is equal to a web velocity.