Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Ag

Martin Grieve

Alexander Knabe

Christian Görbing

Markus Wolf

Markus Stark

An apparatus and a method for changing printing plates in sheet-fed rotary printing presses include a plurality of printing units and plate cylinders being coupled to one another mechanically in the printing units during a printing operation. At the beginning of a plate change, the plate cylinders are coupled to one another mechanically and are driven jointly by a main drive motor. After an old printing plate has been conveyed out, each plate cylinder is decoupled from the common mechanical connection and is driven by a separate drive motor.

Method for improved plate change and sheet-fed offset printing press having a plate change apparatus

A device for singly separating stacked sheet-like elements, includes at least one sucker for applying vacuum, the sucker being deformable for varying the volume thereof, and a vertically and rotatably displaceable holder formed with an inner air duct and having a lower end at which the sucker is disposed. Further included are a closure device controllable in accordance with a given operating cycle for opening and closing the air duct, a drive device for vertically and rotatingly displacing the holder, a support operatively coupled with the drive device and having a guide device for guiding the displaceable holder substantially perpendicularly to a suction surface of the sucker and between respective stops at spaced-apart locations of the guide device, and a resilient device for biasing the holder in a direction towards a lower end position thereof. Moreover, the holder is formed with a sensing surface at the lower end thereof and within the deformable sucker for cooperating with an upper surface of a respective uppermost sheet-like element of a stack of sheet-like elements.

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Schriesheim, Germany

Martin Grieve