Video-monitored printing press

Abstract

Method for displaying processes in printing material processing machines (2), wherein the processes are recorded by means of at least one camera (12, 13, 14) and the recorded processes are stored in a computer (15), wherein sensors (18) for detecting machine states are present in the printing material processing machine (2), and wherein, depending on the detected machine states, recordings of the processes recorded by the camera (12, 13, 14) are electronically marked as a video sequence (19), characterized by that the marked video sequences (19) are played back at a slow speed after actuation of an operating element (11) and that during the slow speed playback of the video sequences (19) on a display device (10, 11) at least parts of the video sequences (19) are skipped.

Description

The present invention relates to a printing press and a method for displaying processes in machines processing printing material, wherein the processes are recorded by means of at least one camera and the recorded processes are stored in the computer and displayed on a screen.A method for illustrating processes in printing presses is disclosed in the published patent application DE 10 2004 015 333 A1. This method is intended to monitor processing operations within a printing press. For this purpose, the printing press has a monitoring device for visualizing processing procedures, which consists of a plurality of modules. In order to monitor the processes in the printing press, a plurality of video cameras are arranged, which record an image at the respective location and transmit it to a monitor in the control station of the printing press. Thus, within the printing press, the sheet guidance in the printing units and in the delivery region is monitored by means of video cameras. The modular construction of the monitoring technique makes it possible to easily compile different configurations on printing units, so that a flexible design of different printing press configurations is possible. The published patent application DE 10 2004 015 333 A1 is therefore concerned with the construction of a monitoring system with video cameras in a printing press, without giving any instructions to an effective method for recording and displaying processes in a printing press.The published patent application DE 198 10 239 A1 discloses a method for monitoring the sheet travel of a sheet-processing printing press, in which the sheet travel of the sheet to be processed is detected with a camera. In this case, a video camera for monitoring the sheet travel on pre-grippers and a video camera for detecting the sheet travel between the transfer cylinder and impression cylinder in the printing press are connected to an evaluation device which is suitable for evaluating video images. The evaluation device is connected to a machine control which in turn has a computing unit which controls the printing process by evaluating signals supplied by sensors and generating control signals for actuating elements.The published patent application DE 103 12 162 A1 discloses a method for regulating the sheet position in a sheet-fed printing press, wherein the sheet position is detected with a monitoring device which registers the sheet position at specific rotational angle positions of sheet-carrying cylinders and transmits the sheet position data to an image evaluation unit. The sheet position data is stored together with the associated setting values for the manipulated variables of the sheet guide, printing machine parameters and the rotational angle positions. In an image evaluation unit, the sheet position data are compared with storage data and from this comparison desired values for the manipulated variables for sheet guiding means are calculated. Sheet layers and associated boundary layers can be visualized together on monitors of the printing press.It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a printing press and a method for displaying processes in printing material processing machines which can be easily operated by the operating personnel of a printing press and which makes the desired data available to the operating personnel at any time.The present object is achieved according to the invention by claims 1, 11 and 16. Advantageous embodiments of the invention can be taken from the dependent claims and the drawings. The method according to the invention can be used in printing machines and in machines for further printing processing. For this purpose, a machine according to the invention for processing printing materials has one or more cameras which monitor the regions to be monitored by the operating personnel. In particular, video cameras are suitable for this purpose, which can permanently record the sequences at a desired location in the machine. The processes recorded by the cameras in this way are then transmitted to a control computer via lines, which can also be embodied as bus lines or as networks such as Ethernet, and stored there. This computer expediently has a large hard disk memory, so that the monitoring images permanently recorded as video data can be stored in a large quantity. According to the invention, sensors are present in the machine processing the printing material, which sensors detect the machine states of the machine. In printing machines, these machine states include, for example, the set sheet format, the printing inks used, the setting for registers and registers or operating modes such as perfecting and nonprinting operation. Depending on the machine states reported by the sensors to a control computer, processes recorded as video sequences in the machine are then electronically marked by the cameras. In this way, the video images captured by the cameras are unambiguously assigned in time to the machine states in the printing machine. Thus, the current image stream of the cameras is electronically linked to the machine states in the printing machine, so that a machine state can be assigned at any time to the video images stored on the control computer. This is of great advantage in particular when the operating personnel check the recorded images, since the operating personnel are automatically also presented with the machine states associated therewith during the reproduction of the images. This makes it possible to facilitate fault analysis and to remedy faults in the machine.According to the invention, it is provided that the marked video sequences are reproduced in a slowed manner after actuation of an operating element and that at least parts of the video sequences are skipped during the slowed reproduction of video sequences on a display device. In the case of fast processes in the machine, such as the transfer of sheets in a sheet-fed printing press, the operator's eye cannot correctly grasp the transfer processes when reproducing in real time. In order to enable perception by the operating personnel, a slowed-down reproduction of video sequences is provided. However, in order not to extend the playback time overall, it is provided here that during the slowed playback parts of the video sequences are skipped, so that the playback time does not have to extend in proportion to the slowing of the speed during the playback. Thus, it may be sufficient if, for example, every tenth sheet is displayed in slow motion during the slow reproduction, while the new sheets lying therebetween are skipped. This also allows a slowed reproduction in which, owing to the omitted images, at least the beginning of the reproduction of every tenth sheet is displayed again in real time, whereas in normal slow motion only a glance in the past is possible and the reproduction is more and more retarded from the real-time processes in the machine the longer the slowed reproduction takes. Such a playback of individual video sequences in slowed playback can take place at predetermined time intervals. In this case, the operating personnel can select a corresponding time interval, so that then unimportant video sequences are skipped in the predetermined time intervals and only parts of the video are reproduced in a slowed manner.In a further embodiment of the invention, it is provided that production steps in the machine processing the printing material are selected via an operating element and that the recorded video sequences belonging to the selected production steps are reproduced on the screen. In particular, if a plurality of cameras are present in the machine, the operating personnel are exposed to a large data flood when all the image streams are recorded permanently. In order to restrict these, the operating personnel can first select specific production steps, which keep them particularly critical and prone to errors, which are automatically displayed on the screen. In this way, only the selected production steps are represented as video sequences, which the operating personnel themselves have judged to be critical. The images of non-critical production steps are not reproduced at all or, in a further embodiment, are not recorded at all, and the flooding of the reproduction data is thus restricted. The selectable production steps include, for example, starting up a printing machine until stable continuous printing is achieved. Furthermore, it is possible that the images from the cameras are continuously recorded and associated with machine states selected accordingly in advance. These machine states can be, for example, the exceeding of certain control limits, such as in the sheet arrival control of a sheet-fed printing press, the detection of double sheets or inclined sheets or of sheet stoppers. These machine states, which are designated as malfunction, can then be defined as playback points and / or stop the recording after the storage of the video sequence with the detected malfunction, in order to save storage space, so that only these faulty machine states and the video sequences connected thereto are displayed to the operating personnel. In this way, the operating personnel can navigate quickly and rapidly to the desired machine states with malfunctions in the data flow of video images and thus analyze the listed errors. The selected machine states are then displayed slowed down if desired, so that the operating personnel can carry out an intensive visual fault analysis. If the recording is automatically stopped after the malfunction is detected, it is particularly easily found because it is the last recorded machine state, so that time-consuming search operations such as rewinding video sequences are not required.Furthermore, it is provided that the printing material processing machine is a sheet processing machine and that the video sequences are recorded and / or stored by the cameras depending on the sheet format used or the processes running in the sheet processing machine. In addition to the critical processes already described, which trigger the recording of video sequences or are linked as information to the data stream of the video sequences in the case of continuous recording, the recording by the video cameras can also be dependent on the sheet format used. As soon as a changed sheet format is selected, the cameras adjust to the corresponding sheet format by changing the focal length or optionally carrying out rotational and pivoting movements of the camera by electric motors or by moving the camera with the adjusting elements of the sheet processing machine responsible for the format setting, so that the sheet format currently being used is always detected in an optimum manner. This is necessary in particular for the sheet-detecting cameras in the feeder, the printing units and in the delivery of a printing press.Furthermore, it is provided that an operating element is present with which the reproduction of video sequences recorded on the computer can be selected in a desired manner. The aforementioned display options, such as slowed display at the desired display speed, can be carried out via operator control elements such as a touchscreen, a mouse or similar operator control elements controlling a computer. For this purpose, the selectable display options are preferably displayed on a screen and selected there with the operating element. For example, the playback speed can be regulated by the operating personnel. Furthermore, in this way the video sequences of the desired cameras can be selected and deselected.In addition to recording the video sequences as a continuous picture stream, it is also possible to record video sequences only at predetermined time intervals. Whereas in the first case, with a slowed reproduction, either the reproduction time is correspondingly extended or individual images are skipped with a slowed reproduction of the video sequence, correspondingly fewer images are recorded at greater time intervals from the outset in this embodiment of the invention.It is furthermore possible that after a predetermined recording duration or storage quantity of data, the memory for recording the video sequences is gradually overwritten in the computer starting with the video sequence recorded first in time. In particular, in the continuous recording of video sequences, a large amount of data results which, after a certain time, also places very large hard disk memories on their boundaries. However, since the operating personnel are usually only interested in the data of the print orders that have been run last, in this case memory space for new video sequences can be created by successively overwriting the old video sequences. This ensures that the monitored images are always stored for the last print jobs. However, it is also possible to make overwriting of old video sequences dependent on other criteria. This can take place, for example, depending on the selected machine states in which the operating personnel are interested. If the operating personnel are interested in the machine states "inclined sheet" and "sheet stoppers", for example, all video sequences which have not been marked with the desired machine states during the recording can be deleted even after a relatively short time and thus be rewritten. In this case, only the machine states selected by the operating personnel remain on the hard disk memory.The selected machine states are either written as information into the recorded video sequences or references of the selected machine states to the video sequences are recorded on the control computer. In both cases, the machine states are linked to the recorded video sequences such that images and machine states correlate with each other at all times. In this way, it is also possible that, when reproducing video sequences, the information regarding the machine states can be displayed on a display device. As soon as the association with a machine state with the played-back video sequences is determined by the computer, the corresponding machine state can be displayed so that machine state as well as the matching video sequence can be displayed simultaneously to the operating personnel.In a particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, it is provided that when machine states occur, in particular errors, the video sequences logging the machine states are not overwritten. This ensures that the operating personnel can access video sequences of selected machine states, in particular of faults, at any time and analyze these. It is also possible that this overwriting protection can be changed only by means of password, e.g. by the printing shop owner, so that the operating personnel of the printing press cannot overwrite the selected machine states. The errors thus logged and the video sequences connected thereto can also be transmitted via a network connection to a further computer for evaluation. This computer can be located in the printing shop, but it can also be set up during the maintenance and service service of the respective machine. In this way, the maintenance and service service can analyze errors at any time, if this is desired by the operator of the respective machine.If a plurality of video cameras are present in the machine, a plurality of video sequences can be recorded simultaneously, which can then also be displayed on a screen in parallel and synchronously during the reproduction. In this way, the operating personnel can also simultaneously display machine states taking place at the same time and the associated video sequences, for example on a large screen. In particular, the operating personnel can thus view the images of the cameras of the feeder, boom and printing units, for example, side by side on a screen. The operator can select the corresponding camera positions whose recordings are to be displayed simultaneously, so that the video sequences can be displayed entirely according to the wishes of the operator. Thus, the reproduction of video sequences in certain machine states selected by the operator can also be automatically switched to the foreground on the screen, so that the reproduction is not hidden by screen menus.However, with such a video recording, not only can quickly occurring errors be analyzed in machines processing printing material, but the video recording can also be used for documentation of the print quality in printing machines. Thus, for example, the customer of a printing shop can select important machine states for him during the printing process, which machine states are then recorded as video sequences during the current print job. After the print job has been executed, the customer then receives not only the printing materials produced, but also a data carrier or via the Internet a file with the machine states and video sequences previously selected by the customer for quality documentation. In this way, the customer can check himself whether the machine states which he or she has deemed critical and which occur in the printing process have been handled satisfactorily in the printing shop. Thus, an effective quality documentation is possible.The present invention is described and explained in more detail below with reference to several figures. The following are shown: FIG. 1 shows a sheet-fed printing press having a plurality of cameras and a connected control station, FIG. 2 shows a first slow motion reproduction mode with omitted images; and FIG. 3 shows a second slow motion reproduction mode for illustrating the movement of sheets.FIG. 1 shows a sheet-fed printing press 2 having two printing units 4. The printing press 2 is supplied by a feeder 6 with printed sheets 9, which are removed from a feeder stack 7. The sheets 9 are conveyed from the feeder 6 to the printing units 4 and are printed there with ink. In the last printing unit 4, the sheets 9 pass to the delivery 5, where they are deposited on a delivery stack 8. In the printing press 2, the sheets 9 are transported from the feeder 6 to the delivery 5 by means of cylinders 16. The printing press 2 can be controlled from an operator station 1 which has a control computer 15. The control computer 15 is connected to the electric drives in the printing press 2 via a communication connection 3 which is designed as a network connection such as a CAN bus or an Ethernet connection. The operator station 1 also has a touchscreen 11 and a large screen 10, which are likewise connected to the control computer 15. Both on the touchscreen 11 and on the large screen 10 graphical user interfaces (GUI) can be displayed, via which the printing press 2 can be operated. Control commands can also be input on the touchscreen 11 in order to change the settings of the printing press 12 and to control the reproduction of video images. Furthermore, the printing press 2 has a camera on the feeder 12, a camera on the delivery arm 14 and a camera 13 between the printing units 4. cameras are also conceivable at further positions of the printing press, for example additionally on the drive side or operator side of a printing press 2 in one or more printing units 4. The cameras 12, 13, 14 are likewise connected to the communication link 3 and can in this way send image data to the control computer 15. The image data are stored in a memory of the control computer 15 and can then be viewed by the operating personnel on the touchscreen 11 and the large screen 10.In addition, the printing machine 2 has further screens 17 on the feeder 6 and on the delivery 5, on which the image data of the cameras 12, 13, 14 can likewise be displayed. The operating personnel can thus also view the image data of the camera 12 at the feeder on the boom 5, just as conversely the image data of the boom 5 can be viewed at the feeder 6. Furthermore, a further computer 20 is connected via a communication connection 3, which can be located outside the printing area and to which the image data stored on the control computer 15 can likewise be transmitted in the form of video sequences 19. This further computer 20 can also be located at a service or maintenance service provider, which is responsible for the maintenance of the printing press 2. If errors occur at the printing press 2, this service provider, after being released by the operating personnel, can send the video sequences 19 of the cameras 12, 13, 14 stored in the control computer 15 to his computer 20 and analyze them there. On the basis of this analysis, the service personnel can then again send assistance via the communication link 3 to the control computer 15 and thus to the operating personnel of the printing press 2, which is then displayed on the screens 10, 11.In addition, sensors 18 are present in the printing press 2, with which the machine states of the printing press 2 can be detected. The signals detected by the sensors 18 are likewise transmitted to the control computer 15 via the communication link 3. The control computer 15 can then connect the machine states detected by the sensors 18 in time with the video sequences detected by the video cameras 12, 13, 14 or produce corresponding references on the basis of time stamps, which each contain the real time. In this way, the machine states can be linked in time with the video sequences 19, so that the corresponding machine states can likewise be displayed when the video sequences 19 are displayed. Furthermore, the operator can select desired machine states by means of the touchscreen 11, wherein the recorded video sequences 19 are then searched for the desired machine states and only the selected video sequences 19 are played back on the touchscreen 11 or the large screen 10. Thus, when video sequences 19 are continuously recorded by cameras 12, 13, 14, the operator can select machine states such as "sheet stoppers", which are then displayed on pressing a button. Thus, the operating personnel do not have to search all video sequences 19 for the desired machine state "sheet stoppers", but rather can concentrate on the desired state and carry out an analysis with which such sheet stoppers can be avoided in the future in the printing press 2.The images of the cameras 12, 13, 14 can be recorded on the control computer 15 either as continuous video streams which permit a liquid reproduction in real time, or images can be recorded at specific time intervals t. If complete video streams are recorded, these can be reproduced in slow motion by the operating personnel on the touchscreen 11 and the large screen 10 for fault analysis. Such a slowed reproduction of video sequences 19 is shown in Fig. 2. Here, all images are continuously captured by the video cameras 12, 13, 14 and stored on the control computer 15. The recorded images are displayed in a slowed manner in accordance with the selected slow speed of the slow motion, so that, for example, the complete sheet transport becomes visible. In this case, depending on the selected playback speed, for example, only every tenth image is played back, so that the playback time is not extended too much overall.In FIG. 3, however, a special reproduction is shown in which individual images are reproduced in order to represent the movement of a sheet, which is achieved by skipping images corresponding to the selected slow motion reproduction at specific time intervals t. If the cameras capture, for example, 25 images per second, only every 26th image is reproduced here, so that every time a different sheet 9 is reproduced captured by the same camera in a different position. The observer then has the impression of the same sheet 9 moving slowly, so that the impression of a sheet 9 travelling through the machine is produced. In this type of display, however, a stable machine speed is necessary, since speed changes in the printing machine 2 lead to the distorted display of the images on the screens 10, 11, or sensors must be present in the machine 2 or image processing software on the computer 15, with which the point of display of the next image can be determined in order to avoid distortions.With the arrangement in FIG. 1, not only can errors be recorded and analyzed in the printing press 2 during sheet travel, but a quality control can also take place, in which specific processes in the printing press 2 are selected by the operating personnel as quality-decisive, and video sequences 19 are recorded by means of the cameras 12, 13, 14 as a function of the selected processes. These video sequences 19 can then be transferred as a file for quality assurance to the customer of the respective print job, so that the latter can check the printing process itself.List of reference characters1 Operator station 2 Printing press 3 Communication connection 4 Printing couple 5 Delivery 6 Feeder 7 Feeder stack 8 Delivery stack 9 Print sheet 10 Large screen 11 Touchscreen 12 Camera at feeder 13 Camera in printing press 14 Camera in delivery 15 Control computer 16 Cylinder 17 Further screen 18 Sensor 19 Video sequence 20 Further computer t Time interval

Claims

Method for displaying processes in machines (2) processing printing material, wherein the processes are recorded by means of at least one camera (12, 13, 14) and the recorded processes are stored in a computer (15), wherein sensors (18) for recording machine states are present in the machine (2) processing printing material and wherein recordings of the processes recorded by means of the camera (12, 13, 14) are electronically marked as a video sequence (19) as a function of the recorded machine states, characterized in that the marked video sequences (19) are reproduced in a slowed manner after actuation of an operating element (11) and in that at least parts of the video sequences (19) are skipped during the slowed reproduction of the video sequences (19) on a display device (10, 11).Method according to Claim 2, characterized in that parts of individual video sequences (19) are skipped at predetermined time intervals (t).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that production steps in the machine (2) processing printing material are selected via an operating element (11), and in that the recorded video sequences (19) belonging to the selected production steps are reproduced on the screen (10, 11).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the printing material processing machine (2) is a sheet processing machine, and in that sheets (9) are detected at a plurality of points in the sheet processing machine (2) by means of one or more cameras (12, 13, 14) and are provided with electronic identification data and are stored as video sequences (19) on the computer (15).Method according to Claim 4, characterized in that the computer (15) selects images of the same sheet (9) at different positions in the sheet-processing machine (2) from the video sequences (19) recorded by the cameras (12, 13, 14) and displays them on the screen (10, 11) as a new video sequence (19).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the printing material processing machine (2) is a sheet processing machine, and in that the video sequences (19) are recorded and / or stored by the cameras (12, 13, 14) as a function of the sheet format used or the processes running in the sheet processing machine (2).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that an operating element (11) is provided, with which the reproduction of video sequences (19) recorded on the computer (15) can be selected in a desired manner.Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that a continuous picture stream is recorded as a video sequence (19), and in that, with slow reproduction, pictures of the video sequence (19) are skipped.Method according to one of Claims 1 to 7, characterized in that, during the recording of the video sequences (19), images are recorded only at predetermined time intervals (t).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that after a predetermined recording duration or storage quantity of data, the memory for recording the video sequences (19) in the computer (15) is overwritten gradually beginning with the video sequence (19) recorded first in time.Method for displaying processes in machines (2) processing printing material, wherein the processes are recorded by means of at least one camera (12, 13, 14) and the recorded processes are stored in a computer (15), wherein sensors (18) for recording machine states are present in the machine (2) processing printing material and wherein recordings of the processes recorded by means of the camera (12, 13, 14) are electronically marked as a video sequence (19) as a function of the recorded machine states, wherein the data of the recorded video sequences (19) contain information relating to the machine states or wherein references of the machine states to the video sequences (19) are present, characterized in that, during the reproduction of video sequences (19), the information relating to machine states are blended in on the display device (10, 11).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that, when certain machine states occur, the video sequences (19) logging the machine states are not overwritten on the computer (15) and / or the further recording of video sequences (19) is stopped.Method according to Claim 12, characterized in that the video sequences (19) logging the error are transmitted via a network connection (3) to a further computer (20) for evaluation.Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that the machine (2) has a plurality of cameras (12, 13, 14), in that video sequences (19) of each camera (12, 13, 14) are stored on the computer (15), and in that, when the video sequences (19) are reproduced, video sequences (19) recorded at the same time are displayed in parallel.Method according to one of Claims 12 to 14, characterized in that machine states which lead to the recording of a video sequence (19) can be selected or input via an operator control element (11).Method according to one of the preceding claims, characterized in that, depending on machine states, the reproduction of video sequences (19) of specific cameras (12, 13, 14) is automatically switched to the foreground of the screen (10, 11) and displayed.Printing machine (2) for carrying out one of the methods according to one of Claims 1 to 16.

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