Security printing press and a method for producing security products or security intermediates

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10144209-B2
Application number	US-201615554299-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 18, 2016
Priority date	Mar 20, 2015
Publication date	Dec 4, 2018
Grant date	Dec 4, 2018

Abstract

A security paper printing machine has a printing unit comprising at least one imaging cylinder, at the printing point of which, the printing point, in sections, of passing printing material, in a cycle of a fixed printing length with respect to the printing material feed to the printing point, can be printed with print images of a same print image length. A dryer device has a dryer comprising one or a multi-part drying unit that, in the printing material path, is downstream of the printing point. Printing materials passing through the dryer can be subjected to radiation for the purpose of drying the same. A control unit is provided for controlling the drying unit of the dryer with respect to activating and deactivating the same, which control unit is in signal connection with a transmitter providing signals representing one of the machine phase and the progress of the printing material, and which, per cycle, effectuates a switching on and off of or, at least part of, the drying unit after a sequence comprising at least one active and at least one inactive phase, in correlation with the position of one of the machine and the printing material phase.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A security printing press comprising:
at least one printing unit comprising an imaging cylinder having a printing point, at which printing point, print images having a same print image length can be printed, in sections, onto a printing substrate passing through the printing point along a printing substrate path, said at least one printing unit having a cycle having a fixed cycle length with respect to a feed rate of the printing substrate at the printing point;
a dryer device having a dryer arranged downstream of the printing point along the printing substrate path and comprising one of an integral radiation source and a plural-part radiation source, said printing substrate passing through the dryer device being exposed to radiation from the radiation source for drying said printing substrate,
a control device for controlling said radiation source;
an encoder connected to the control device in terms of signal transmission, said encoder sending out signals that represent one of a press phase and an advancement of the printing substrate;
wherein said control device causes a switching on and off of one of the radiation sources and a portion of the radiation source, during each cycle of the printing unit, in accordance with a sequence comprising at least one active phase and at least one inactive phase, in correlation with one of a press phase position and a printing substrate phase position;
wherein said radiation source is formed by an arrangement, extending at least across a maximum printing substrate width, of a plurality of at least 50 individual radiation sources arranged side by side across the maximum printing substrate width,
a number of spaced apart groups of said individual radiation sources being formable using said plurality of at least 50 individual radiation sources, said number of spaced apart groups of said individual radiation sources being variable with respect to at least one of their width, their number, and their position and representing spaced apart radiation sources;
wherein the control device is connected to at least one of a user interface and a data interface, via which said individual radiation sources, which represent the number of spaced apart groups of said individual radiation sources, can be designated and changed with respect to at least one of said position, width and number by one of grouping and re-grouping the individual radiation sources; and
wherein the individual radiation sources of each of said number of spaced apart groups of said radiation sources can be activated and deactivated collectively and simultaneously using the same control logic.

2. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that the control device has control means, which comprise an electronic cam control mechanism.

3. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that the dryer is embodied as an LED array, and having a plurality of rows, extending one behind the other as viewed along the transport path, across at least the maximum printing substrate width, each row having a plurality of UV LEDs.

4. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that said plurality of radiation sources, are operatively connected to the same switching element, via which they, as a fixed subgroup, one of form a smallest possible increment in a transverse direction and can be switched on and off only as a group.

5. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that a sequence that forms the basis for the control of the radiation source comprises at least three, active phases of the same first phase length, equidistant from one another and spaced by one inactive phase each, and one inactive phase having a second phase length that is greater than, the first phase length.

6. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that the at least one printing unit is embodied as one of a rotary screen printing unit and a letterpress printing unit ( 19 ′; 23 ′).

7. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that the imaging cylinder has a plurality of imaging printing elements on its periphery, which are arranged one of in a plurality of columns spaced equidistant from one another over a circumferential length that corresponds to the print image length, and in a plurality of rows spaced equidistant from one another over a cylinder width that corresponds to the print image width, and in that the printing elements arranged in columns and rows are constituted by subjects of one of the same motif and by printing forms of the same format, and in that a sequence that forms the basis for the control of the radiation source comprises a series of a number of active phases, corresponding to the number of rows of one of imaging printing elements and groups lying one behind the other in the circumferential direction over a print image length, said active phases having the same first phase length and being spaced equidistant from one another, by one inactive phase, and one inactive phase having a second phase length, which second phase length is greater than the first phase length.

8. The security printing press according to claim 1 , characterized in that the at least one printing unit is embodied as one of a screen printing unit, and the imaging cylinder has motifs that are constituted by one of ink-permeable areas of a screen printing form as imaging printing elements and or groups of printing elements, and a numbering printing unit, and the imaging cylinder has numbering modules as imaging printing elements.

9. A method for producing one of security products and security intermediates including;
providing at least one printing unit comprising an imaging cylinder having a printing point;
printing print images, having a same print length, at said printing point onto sections of a printing substrate passing through said printing point and having a fixed cycle length with respect to a feed rate of the printing substrate at the printing point;
providing a dryer device having a dryer arranged downstream of the printing point along the printing substrate path and comprising one of an integral radiation source and a plural-part radiation source;
exposing said printing substrate passing through the dryer device to radiation from the radiation source for drying said printing substrate;
exposing the printing substrate to the radiation from the radiation source in a clocked manner having a cycle, in a plurality of tracks that are spaced from one another transversely to the direction of transport;
switching on and off at least a part of the radiation source, in at least one active phase and at least one inactive phase in each cycle, in correlation with one of the press phase position and the printing substrate phase position; and
carrying out the irradiation in the plurality of tracks using a plurality of individual radiation sources of one of variable width and position, spaced apart from one another and which are formed in sections by groups of said individual radiation sources spaced from one another and being activated and deactivated collectively.

10. The method according to claim 9 , further including variably forming the groups of radiation sources for different production runs, from a plurality of ones of individual beam sources and radiation sources of the drying means, wherein during operation, the one of beam sources and radiation sources that are assigned to a group are always activated and deactivated collectively during the same production run, and carrying out the switching on and off in the tracks in according to the same sequence, which comprises at least one active phase and at least

Assignees

• Koenig & Bauer Ag

Inventors

• Franz Sebastian
• Scheller Michael

Classifications

• B41F33/00 Primary

  Indicating, counting, warning, control or safety devices (arrangements of counting devices in platen presses B41F1/00 {, B41F1/58; arrangements of counting devices} in cylinder presses B41F3/84; ink supply or metering devices B41F31/02) · CPC title

• B41F23/0409 Primary

  Ultraviolet dryers · CPC title

• B41F23/0453

  by ultraviolet dryers · CPC title

• B41F11/02 Primary

  for securities (security printing B41M3/14) · CPC title

• B41F33/16

  Programming systems for automatic control of sequence of operations · CPC title