Patent ID: 8613581

Claim:
A perfect binder machine for manufacturing printed products from book blocks, comprising: a book block conveyor ( 10 ) with an endless loop ( 11 ) that continuously revolves around deflection pulleys ( 12 , 13 ) at a conveying speed and defines straight conveying sections between the pulleys, and a plurality of clamps ( 14 ) of length (L) that are respectively arranged on the endless loop at the same pitch spacing (T) from one another for clamping the book blocks ( 3 , 3 . 1 . . . 3 . 8 ); and at least one processing station that is arranged along a straight conveying section and is adjustable by a motor drive, wherein said processing station is selected from the group including a book block infeed station ( 25 ), a spine processing station ( 18 ), a glue application station ( 19 ), a cover feeder ( 20 ), a pressing station ( 21 , 22 ) and a delivery station ( 30 ); a cycle time (t 0 ) of the processing station is defined by the conveyance of a clamp ( 14 ) by at least one pitch spacing (T) through the processing station ( 25 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 30 ); and the cycle time (t 0 ) of the processing station is divided into an adjusting time segment (t V1 , t V2 ) for resetting the processing station ( 25 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 30 ) in accordance with changing printed product characteristics of an upstream book block and a processing time segment (t B1 , t B2 ) for processing said upstream book block ( 3 , 3 . 1 . . . 3 . 8 , 4 , 4 . 1 . . . 4 . 4 ); wherein at a given moment during operation of the machine a book block is processed while held by a processing clamp; and the cycle time (to) selectively extends over at least two assigned clamps ( 14 ) conveyed through said processing station, whereby at least one assigned clamp is situated upstream of the processing clamp that holds the book block, and said at least one assigned clamp does not contain a book block.