Printed book production plant with digital technologies with one or more book block forming stations and one or more cover binding machines and related method

Abstract

A production plant () for books () printed with digital technologies, comprising one or more forming stations () of book blocks (), one or more cover binding machines () for assembling the book blocks with respective covers (), an electronic center () and a plurality of spiral towers () for accommodating the book blocks of the forming stations and transfer them to the binding machines. The book blocks and the covers have respective book codes () and cover codes () uniquely associated with the respective books of a given working order. Each tower () includes a conveyor belt () that can be moved along a spiral path, a belt motorization group and an electronic control unit (). The towers serve as a temporary storage for the blocks and capacity of movement between loading areas () adjacent to the forming station and unloading areas () adjacent to the binding machines. The electronic control units () pre-set the towers to store in an optimized way along the conveyor belt the book blocks from the forming stations, to supply the binding machines with the stored book blocks and to form and memorize databases identifying the stored book blocks. The electronic center () of the plant is interfaced with the electronic control units () of the towers and with the binding machines for a survey of the loading data and for a functional coupling of the loaded towers with the binding machines.