Abstract: A rubber cylinder sleeve for an offset printing press includes an inner carrier sleeve that has a circumferential and an axial direction. The carrier is expandable outwardly by an application of compressed air from the interior. The rubber cylinder sleeve also includes a single rubber layer having an inner surface disposed on the inner carrier sleeve and an outer surface for contacting the printing plate. The single rubber layer includes a plurality of compressible elements for increasing the compressibility of the single rubber layer and a plurality of filaments for increasing the stiffness of the single rubber layer. The compressible elements and the filaments are disposed distal from the outer surface.

Abstract: In order to provide a rotary printing machine for direct printing, in which the printing-assembly cylinders are arranged in a space-saving way, there is arranged in side walls at least one double printing assembly containing two form cylinders which are located one above the other, each having its own drive motor and between which at least one impression cylinder is arranged, a web being printable between a form cylinder and an impression cylinder. Each form cylinder and the impression cylinder cooperating with the latter are mounted, adjustably in terms of their mutual spacing, in side walls of the printing unit. For this purpose, the adjustable cylinders are mounted on both sides in slides which are moveable on guide elements fastened to the side walls.

Abstract: A first structural unit includes a laser image-setting head, and a second structural unit includes a loading compartment to accommodate a cassette housing having a thermal transfer ribbon on spools having hubs. After a cassette is inserted in the loading compartment, the compartment is closed so that drive rollers engage the hubs without play. To produce a printing plate, the second structural unit is then brought over the first structural unit in the manner of a telescope by a moving device, and the thermal transfer ribbon is brought to the laser image-setting head. The thermal transfer ribbon inserted into the loading compartment is guided by self-centering means so that it does not contact the cassette housing, and is positioned with respect to the plate cylinder by guide rollers. Wear-free and therefore fast ribbon guidance can be performed, and automation of the movement sequences of the thermal transfer ribbon can be achieved.

Abstract: In a rotary printing machine, in particular a web-fed rotary printing machine, having at least one printing unit including a plurality of printing-unit cylinders, of which at least one can be brought into and out of operative connection with at least one functional unit which is associated with a function needed to operate the printing unit, is provided with a drive device and is fitted on a linear guide device, a high level of operating convenience and working accuracy being achieved by the functional unit being assigned a positioning device, which has a controller which can be fed with at least one position-dependent signal which can be generated by means of a sensor arrangement associated with the functional unit and by which the drive device can be controlled.

Abstract: In a web-fed rotary offset printing machine, operating preferably with variable-format cylinders, both sides of the printing machine are covered, during the operation and resetting of the machine, so that no access, in particular no access to the printing units, is possible. For this purpose, an access module is used between the printing-units, which module is equipped laterally with covers which resemble window roller blinds and cannot be opened while the machine is in operation.

Abstract: A web-fed offset printing machine includes printing units having at least one form cylinder and one transfer cylinder; and at least one folder unit; and wherein, for each printing unit, at least one of the form and transfer cylinders has a drive connection to a separate electric motor, the at least one cylinder has either no mechanical drive connection to a further one of the cylinders in case the further cylinder is driven directly or indirectly by a further separate electric motor, or a mechanical drive connection to one of the further cylinders in case the further cylinder is non-driven; the printing machine further includes a motor control system for the at least one electric motor for adjusting a printing group and for presetting the printing units for adaptation to either a different web path or production configuration, the motor control system has an input side; and a computing and memory unit for storing a plurality of cylinder positions connected to the input side of the motor control system.

Abstract: The most uniform possible temperature variation along the circumference of a transfer cylinder in a rotary printing machine is achieved by arranging a highly thermally layer made of a material having a thermal conductivity significantly higher than steel under a rubber blanket on the transfer cylinder for distributing heat from the rubber blanket along the direction of the surface of the transfer cylinder. The highly conductive layer is arranged on a support of the rubber blanket.

Abstract: A thermal transfer film or a thermal transfer ribbon includes a substrate layer and a donor layer applied thereto. The substrate layer consists of at least one polymer composition which has mechanical stability at a temperature >150° C. and transmission >70% for light having a wavelength of from 700 to 1600 nm. The donor layer comprises at least the following components: a substance which is able to convert the radiation energy of the incident laser light into heat energy, a polymer which contains acidic groups and/or unsubstituted or substituted amide groups thereof, and optionally a wetting aid. The polymer composition also includes a reactive polymer.

Abstract: The surface of a structural component of a printing machine from which ink or oil-based contamination can be cleaned easily has a hydrophilic character.

Abstract: A printing machine that has a plurality of form cylinders and in which an imaging device images at least two of the form cylinders. The imaging device is arranged in stationary fashion. Laser pulses are deflected onto the form cylinders by light diversion components.

Abstract: A process and apparatus for gravure printing of an image using an erasable and reusable gravure form including a gravure blank form having a base screen which is designed for accommodating a maximum amount of ink to be transferred. The depressions of the base screen of the gravure blank form are uniformly filled with a liquefiable substance using an applicator device and material is then removed from the depressions in conformity with the intended image using thermal energy applied by an image-point transfer device. The printing form is then linked using an inking system and, finally, is regenerated after the printing process to produce a gravure blank form, wherein the depressions of the base screen are again filled in a uniform manner.

Abstract: A method of cross-cutting a moving web uses a cutting knife operably mounted on a knife cylinder having a circumferential distance LZ where LZ is smaller than a cut length, LA. The knife cylinder for revolving in a first and a second opposite direction is powered by a drive motor in either direction. The method includes revolving the knife cylinder in a first direction, cutting the web with the cutting knife, and completing a first cut. The knife cylinder is then reversed to retard progress in the first direction and then accelerated to the speed of the moving web until starting the second cut.

Abstract: At specific time intervals register commands are fed to a plate cylinder in a printing machine in the circumferential direction and/or the lateral direction and adjust the cylinder by a small amount. All the remaining plate cylinders can be readjusted with the aid of the register control. Alternatively, the same control commands may also be fed to all the plate cylinders involved in printing, in order to carry out a desired continuous or stepwise adjustment of the cylinders in the lateral direction and/or the circumferential direction.

Abstract: In order to maintain printing machinery in a monitored operating state during line voltage interference and outages, the rotary printing machine is supplied by an interruption-free power supply (USV) having an input side which is connected to the customer mains and an output connected to the printing machine.

Abstract: A rotary offset printing machine having printing units each with a dampening unit and an inking unit with a metering device for setting an inking profile zone can reach the continuous printing state quickly and with little accumulation of rejects. First an inking profile is set on the metering device that is the inverse of the inking profile for continuous printing with the applicator rolls set off the printing plate and the machine operating at a first rotational speed. A defined quantity of ink is supplied to the inking unit, the inking profile for continuous printing then being set on the metering device. The rubber blankets are pre-dampened and, when a third rotational speed is reached, the print is set on. Finally, the printing machine is run up to a fourth speed for continuous printing when the separation of rejects is concluded.

Abstract: A printing machine having an inking unit which prevents overinking of the printing cylinder upon increases in printing speed, such as during start-up of a printing operation. The inking unit includes an ink supply, two roll trains each comprising a plurality of inking rolls for communicating ink from the ink supply to a plurality of ink applicator rolls associated with the printing cylinder, with at least one inking roll in each roll train being displaceable in phase with an increase in printing speed for interrupting the respective roll train and preventing excessive ink application to the printing cylinder.

Abstract: Apparatus for splitting a stream of products coming from a folding group making any desired fold and feeding it to either of two further folding groups making a respective further fold includes a stripper assembly guiding the products away from a folding cylinder of the folding group making the desired fold, a diverter element, and tape guide systems that transport the products from the latter to the further folding groups. The stripper assembly includes a tape guide module that can be pivoted towards the folding cylinder, and at least one stripper tongue; the tape guide systems and the diverter element being integrated into a splitter module.

Abstract: An automatically controlled cleaning system has a cleaning fluid reservoir with a feed of the cleaning fluid to the rotating bodies to be cleaned via a cleaning element for each body. Its serviceability can be monitored, in particular erroneously exceeding the critical quantity of cleaning agent per unit time during the cleaning of the rotating bodies of the press can be detected and countermeasures can be initiated, by constructing the cleaning reservoir as a pressure container which can be pressurized from a compressed-air source via an electronically drivable changeover valve V1, and by implementing each feed of the cleaning fluid to the rotating body by means of a fluid feed line in which there are installed at least one electronically driveable changeover valve V4 that controls the flow, and at least one further electronically driveable changeover valve V5 which controls the expulsion quantities and expulsion times of the cleaning fluid.

Abstract: A method of producing a thermal transfer print, including the steps of controlled imagewise heating of a surface layer of the print by means of a laser beam from a laser writing head; applying selected area elements to a substrate using a tape-like transfer film with a width which is small in relation to a width of the substrate, transporting the transfer film continuously between the substrate and the laser beam, close to the substrate surface during imaging moving the transfer film over the substrate width simultaneously and in synchronism with movement of the laser writing head the width of the transfer film being sufficiently large for a number of imaging tracks to be used alongside one another, and selecting an as yet unused track for each imaging operation.

Abstract: In order to reliably tension the legs of the carrier plate by means of tongues fastened to spindles, one spindle is designed as a hollow spindle which is mounted in a bore of the cylinder gap of the printing-unit cylinder, and the other spindle is mounted in the hollow spindle.