Patents by Inventor Norbert Thunker

Norbert Thunker has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 6877430
    Abstract: A gripper device in a sheet-processing machine includes a gripper, a gripper pad associated with the gripper and a first drive for moving the gripper out of an opened position thereof into a closed position thereof. The gripper is cooperatively engageable with the gripper pad for producing a clamping force for holding sheets being processed. A second drive is separately operable from the first drive during a production printing operation of the sheet-processing machine. The first and second drives are operable for positioning the gripper and/or the gripper pad so that clamping faces of one of the gripper and/or the gripper pad are movable by the second drive perpendicularly to clamping faces of the other of the gripper and/or the gripper pad.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 8, 2003
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2005
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Volker Müller, Hendrik Frank, Manfred Gross, Karl-Heinz Helmstädter, Hans-Peter Hiltwein, Michael Krüger, Siegfried Kurtzer, Jürgen Maass, Thomas Schaeffer, Rolf Spilger, Norbert Thünker
  • Publication number: 20040089178
    Abstract: A gripper device in a sheet-processing machine includes a gripper, a gripper pad associated with the gripper and a first drive for moving the gripper out of an opened position thereof into a closed position thereof. The gripper is cooperatively engageable with the gripper pad for producing a clamping force for holding sheets being processed. A second drive is separately operable from the first drive during a production printing operation of the sheet-processing machine. The first and second drives are operable for positioning the gripper and/or the gripper pad so that clamping faces of one of the gripper and/or the gripper pad are movable by the second drive perpendicularly to clamping faces of the other of the gripper and/or the gripper pad.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 8, 2003
    Publication date: May 13, 2004
    Inventors: Volker Muller, Hendrik Frank, Manfred Gross, Karl-Heinz Helmstadter, Hans-Peter Hiltwein, Michael Kruger, Siegfried Kurtzer, Jurgen Maass, Thomas Schaeffer, Rolf Spilger, Norbert Thunker
  • Patent number: 6676125
    Abstract: A pre-gripper driving device for a pre-gripper cyclically driven oscillatingly and serving for transporting individual sheets in a sheet-processing machine, includes sheet grippers disposed at a free end of a rocking lever pivotable about a pivot pin fixed to a frame, the sheet grippers being movable relative to a gripper support about a gripper shaft aligned parallel to the pivot pin, for closing and opening the sheet grippers, and an activatable and regulatable drive for producing the movement of the grippers, the drive, on one hand, being connected to the sheet grippers and, on the other hand, being supported on one of the rocking lever and the frame; and a printing unit, a digital printing unit, a rotary printing machine and a multicolor rotary printing machine, respectively including the pre-gripper driving device.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 5, 2001
    Date of Patent: January 13, 2004
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Norbert Thünker, Jürgen Maass, Volker Müller, Thomas Schaeffer
  • Patent number: 6659453
    Abstract: A delivery for a machine processing flat printing materials includes a suction belt conveyer having conveying runs forming a support surface. To remove rejects or proof sheets as required, the delivery transports the materials along a transport path over a stack that is otherwise built up and transfers the sheets to the support surface. The physical position of the support surface can be varied while maintaining its generatrix. Therefore, the support surface can be adjusted in each print job to a working position in which secured transfer of removed printing materials to the suction belt conveyer is ensured. In a particular configuration, a latching device is provided that permits the conveying runs to escape from their working position in the event of a jam. Preferably, the latching device has a latching pin and a latching recess.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2003
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Carsten Kelm, Udo Lautenklos, Roland Angert, Peter Wilhelm Gögele, Norbert Thünker
  • Patent number: 6659008
    Abstract: A device includes a cylinder having a gripper system for holding a sheet of printable material, the gripper system having at least one gripper mounted so as to be pivotable relative to at least one gripper support and being capable of performing a dipping movement into a channel formed in the cylinder below an outer jacket contour thereof, and having a control cam for controlling the pivoting of the gripper relative to the gripper support, the control cam also serving to control the dipping movement of the gripper system into the channel.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 20, 2002
    Date of Patent: December 9, 2003
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Stefan Mutschall, Norbert Thünker
  • Publication number: 20020140166
    Abstract: A delivery for a machine processing flat printing materials includes a suction belt conveyer having conveying runs forming a support surface. To remove rejects or proof sheets as required, the delivery transports the materials along a transport path over a stack that is otherwise built up and transfers the sheets to the support surface. The physical position of the support surface can be varied while maintaining its generatrix. Therefore, the support surface can be adjusted in each print job to a working position in which secured transfer of removed printing materials to the suction belt conveyer is ensured. In a particular configuration, a latching device is provided that permits the conveying runs to escape from their working position in the event of a jam. Preferably, the latching device has a latching pin and a latching recess.
    Type: Application
    Filed: March 28, 2002
    Publication date: October 3, 2002
    Inventors: Carsten Kelm, Udo Lautenklos, Roland Angert, Peter Wilhelm Gogele, Norbert Thunker
  • Publication number: 20020112627
    Abstract: A device includes a cylinder having a gripper system for holding a sheet of printable material, the gripper system having at least one gripper mounted so as to be pivotable relative to at least one gripper support and being capable of performing a dipping movement into a channel formed in the cylinder below an outer jacket contour thereof, and having a control cam for controlling the pivoting of the gripper relative to the gripper support, the control cam also serving to control the dipping movement of the gripper system into the channel.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 20, 2002
    Publication date: August 22, 2002
    Inventors: Stefan Mutschall, Norbert Thunker
  • Publication number: 20020063383
    Abstract: A pre-gripper driving device for a pre-gripper cyclically driven oscillatingly and serving for transporting individual sheets in a sheet-processing machine, includes sheet grippers disposed at a free end of a rocking lever pivotable about a pivot pin fixed to a frame, the sheet grippers being movable relative to a gripper support about a gripper shaft aligned parallel to the pivot pin, for closing and opening the sheet grippers, and an activatable and regulatable drive for producing the movement of the grippers, the drive, on one hand, being connected to the sheet grippers and, on the other hand, being supported on one of the rocking lever and the frame; and a printing unit, a digital printing unit, a rotary printing machine and a multicolor rotary printing machine, respectively including the pre-gripper driving device.
    Type: Application
    Filed: November 5, 2001
    Publication date: May 30, 2002
    Inventors: Norbert Thunker, Jurgen Maass, Volker Muller, Thomas Schaeffer
  • Patent number: 5996490
    Abstract: A positioning device for a printing press, having at least one guard adjustable within an adjustment range relative to an instantaneous pole axis in a first adjusting direction counter to gravity and in an opposed second adjusting direction, and having an energy storage for setting a variable support moment in opposition to a moment of weight resulting from the gravity and engaging with the guard, includes a control cam having a predetermined contour, a cam follower contacting the control cam for controlling the support moment by motion of the cam follower relative to the control cam, the contour of the control cam being such that the guard is in equilibrium at every location within the adjustment range under the influence of the support moment and a manual force of predetermined magnitude and direction which is associated with the respective location, the manual force, upon being adjusted in the first adjusting direction, counteracting the moment of weight in an initial section of the adjustment range.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 1998
    Date of Patent: December 7, 1999
    Inventors: Martin Baureis, Michael Rehberg, Norbert Thunker, Lothar Stadler, Volker Weindel
  • Patent number: 5884561
    Abstract: A method of releasing a sheet from a blanket cylinder of a printing machine, wherein the sheet is guided by an impression cylinder and held by grippers thereof, includes moving, with respect to the impression cylinder, elements of the impression cylinder holding the sheet, in a direction relatively counter to the direction of rotation of the impression cylinder, so as to produce an enlarged pull-off angle after a leading edge of the sheet has passed a printing nip between the blanket and the impression cylinders; and a device for performing the foregoing method. The background to the invention is the knowledge that higher tensile forces on a sheet are disadvantageous, and the object was therefore set of making available a method and a device in which the tensile force is reduced. This is achieved by means of a method in which, in order to produce an enlarged pull-off angle (.gamma.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 9, 1997
    Date of Patent: March 23, 1999
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Norbert Thunker, Axel Hauck
  • Patent number: 5842416
    Abstract: An inking unit for a printing machine, including an ink duct with a scoop cylinder partly dipping into ink received in the ink duct, further includes zonally acting metering elements for setting on a provided cylinder selected from a group thereof consisting of the scoop cylinder and another cylinder, an ink distribution corresponding to a printing image, the metering elements being individually convertible between two metering states, at least one transfer cylinder for transferring ink, which has been set on the provided cylinder by the metering elements, onto a printing form, a drive for rotating the scoop cylinder and further cylinders, and a control device connected to the drive and the metering elements, the metering elements being arranged above the level of the ink in the ink duct, so that two ink layer thicknesses differing from one another are producible in circumferential direction, over the width of a metering element, by the metering elements, respectively, in the two metering states, on the provi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 5, 1997
    Date of Patent: December 1, 1998
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Klaus Olawsky, Norbert Thunker
  • Patent number: 5758576
    Abstract: Gripper bar for a delivery of a printing press, the gripper bar being carried at respective ends thereof by transport chains and having a multiplicity of grippers with gripper fingers for transporting sheets includes a hollow profiled member having a boxlike profile wherein a gripper shaft is receivable, the boxlike profiled member being formed with lateral openings through which the gripper fingers of the grippers extend.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 1996
    Date of Patent: June 2, 1998
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Richard Mack, Martin Mayer, Michael Voge, Norbert Thunker, Roland Hirth, Bernd Maul
  • Patent number: 5727465
    Abstract: A side wall of a printing unit of a sheet-fed rotary printing press is composed of a plurality of in-line printing units in accordance with unit construction principles. The side wall has a torsionally rigid side-wall body formed with a boxlike cross-sectional profile open on one side thereof and has a frame extending somewhat transversely to a plane wherein the side wall is disposed. The frame is formed with at least one recess through which gear wheels of a gear-wheel drive train are at least engageable or possess a kinking and back-springing course, respectively, between an upper structural region and a lower structural region of the side wall, including a removable lid ribbed on an inner side thereof and being disposed on the frame in the lower structural region wherein bearings for printing cylinders are received and at an open side of the boxlike cross-sectional profile for stiffening the frame. The frame is formed with recesses in the lower structural region thereof.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 1996
    Date of Patent: March 17, 1998
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Carsten Kelm, Oliver Koch, Norbert Thunker, Michael Voge
  • Patent number: 5701817
    Abstract: A method and an apparatus for displacing at least one roller of an offset rotary printing press. An arrangement is provided for affording the displaceability of at least one roller in a highly versatile and adaptable manner. Displacement of the at least one roller in question can be undertaken in such a manner as to markedly facilitate the operation of a printing press.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 6, 1995
    Date of Patent: December 30, 1997
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Aktiengesellschaft
    Inventors: Norbert Thunker, Rudi Junghans
  • Patent number: 5697296
    Abstract: A positioning device for a rubber-blanket cylinder which is supported in double-excentric bearing rings allows a positional adjustment of the rubber-blanket cylinder relative to a plate cylinder and a printing substrate supported on an impression cylinder. The plate cylinder and the impression cylinder have stationary axes of rotation relative to the frame of the printing unit. A printing gap is adjusted by the positioning device to varying printing substrate thickness, and in one terminal position, the rubber-blanket cylinder is fully disengaged from the other cylinders. The rubber-blanket cylinder is shifted along a positioning path with one segment following an arc of a circle which is concentric with the plate cylinder. The parameters of the bearing and the adjusting devices are defined such that the positioning path is traversed while the respective inner and outer bearing rings rotate continuously.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 29, 1996
    Date of Patent: December 16, 1997
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Norbert Thunker, Martin Mayer, Werner Weber
  • Patent number: 5613671
    Abstract: Device for skewed sheet correction in a feeder of a sheet-fed printing press having at least one sucker which is adjustable in height and is disposed on a driven movable sucker carrier for horizontally transporting and simultaneously aligning a sheet lifted from a sheet pile, a rocker arm mounted in a frame of the printing press, the sucker carrier being articulatingly connected to the rocker arm so as to be movable in a feeding direction of the sheet and swingably driven, and a cam guide which is adjustable in height, the sucker carrier being braced against the cam guide, includes another rocker arm adjustably supported in the press frame, the sucker carrier being spaced apart from the first-mentioned rocker arm in a direction transverse to the sheet feeding direction and being articulatingly connected to the other rocker arm.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 27, 1995
    Date of Patent: March 25, 1997
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Andreas Fricke, Jochen Renner, Norbert Thunker
  • Patent number: 5456128
    Abstract: Cam-oscillating drive which operates to compensate for the cyclically occurring variations in the course of the drive moment by means of at least one cam disc mounted on the drive shaft and a rolling cam follower in engagement with the cam disc, wherein the cam follower has an oscillating part with an oscillating mass driven by the cam follower, and wherein the oscillating part has a curved section that cooperates with a curve roller and a potential energy storage such that the kinetic energy of the oscillating part is stored in the potential energy storage during the deceleration phase, while during the acceleration phase the energy is again drawn from the potential energy storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 31, 1994
    Date of Patent: October 10, 1995
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Norbert Thunker
  • Patent number: 5390600
    Abstract: Sheet gripper device on a paper-guiding cylinder of a sheet-fed printing press includes a sheet gripper formed of a leaf spring and having a gripper tip located at an end thereof, a gripper pad engageable by the gripper tip, a control shaft for the gripper tip, the control shaft being actuatable so as to swivel about a longitudinal axis thereof, the leaf spring having another end opposite the end thereof whereon the gripper tip is located and being fastened by the other end thereof on the cylinder, an adjustable thrust member and means for holding the thrust member, the holding means being mounted on the control shaft so as to be fixed against rotation relative thereto, the thrust member being effective against the leaf spring during a swiveling movement of the control shaft in a closing direction of the sheet gripper; and the sheet gripper per se.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1995
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Norbert Thunker
  • Patent number: 5390601
    Abstract: Gripper control for sheet grippers on a sheet-guiding cylinder or the like in a printing press, wherein a stationary pressure generator for a pressure medium is connected by means of a coupling, through the intermediary of a motor-actuated servo-valve, to a sheet-gripper actuating system disposed on the cylinder or the like and, through a control system, being acted upon by the pressure medium in time with an operating cycle of the printing press, includes a piston-cylinder unit forming part of the actuating system, a displacement-measuring system connected to the piston-cylinder unit, respective elements for pivotally connecting the piston-cylinder unit, at one end thereof, to the sheet-guiding cylinder or the like and, at the other end thereof, to a lever connected to the sheet gripper, the control system including a programmable control computer connected by measuring lines to the displacement-measuring system and, via a position-control loop, being capable of controlling a motor-actuated positioning of th
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 6, 1993
    Date of Patent: February 21, 1995
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventors: Andreas Fricke, Norbert Thunker
  • Patent number: 5297788
    Abstract: Gripper control device in a chain delivery of a sheet-fed printing press, wherein a cam segment has a control cam for a control roller provided on a gripper system and is adjustably disposed for opening a gripper of the gripper system as a sheet is delivered, the control cam being formed with a rectilinear on-running region aligned for rectilinear movement of the control roller in a given direction, includes an adjusting element operatively engageable with the cam segment for effecting a phase displacement of the gripper between a closed and an open condition thereof, the control cam of the cam segment, in an inactive basic position thereof, being aligned, with the on-running region thereof parallel to the given direction of rectilinear movement of the control roller for the gripper system, in an imaginary plane tangent to the control roller at a location on the circumference thereof most distal from the gripper of the gripper system, and a cam roller rotatably mounted on the cam segment, the adjusting elemen
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 22, 1993
    Date of Patent: March 29, 1994
    Assignee: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG
    Inventor: Norbert Thunker