Method and apparatus for trimming and transporting printed products in a trimmer

1. A method for trimming a book comprising:

trimming an edge of a book at a trim location; and

reciprocating a downstream conveyor to approach the trim location to receive the book and move away from the trim location;

wherein the conveyor includes a plurality of movable pulleys that are reciprocated during the reciprocating step and a plurality of stationary pulleys that are not reciprocated during the reciprocating step.

2. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the trimming step includes trimming the front edge of the book with a front knife and the reciprocating step includes reciprocating a carriage that is coupled to both the front knife and the conveyor.

3. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the trimming step includes trimming the front edge of the book with a front knife.

4. The method recited in claim 1 wherein the conveyor includes an upper conveying belt interacting with some of the movable pulleys and some of the stationary pulleys and a lower conveying belt interacting with others of the movable pulleys and others of the stationary pulleys, the upper and lowering conveying belts contacting the book to receive the book.

5. The method recited in claim 1 further comprising delivering the book to the trim location with an upper input belt and a lower input belt, the conveyor receiving a leading edge of the book before a trailing edge of the book is released by the upper input belt and the lower input belt, the trailing edge of the book being the edge trimmed at the trim location.

6. A book trimmer comprising:

an edge trimming knife movable back and forth in a book travel direction; and

a conveyor downstream of the edge trimming knife, the conveyor including a reciprocating section movable back and forth in the book travel direction to receive books trimmed by the edge trimming knife;

wherein the conveyor includes a belt having a first belt span of a variable first length defined by a first pulley and a second pulley and a second belt span of a variable second length defined by a third pulley and a fourth pulley, the belt traveling over the first pulley, the second pulley, the third pulley and the fourth pulley, wherein the variable first length and the variable second length vary as reciprocating section moves back and forth in the book travel direction.

7. A book trimmer comprising:

an edge trimming knife movable back and forth in a book travel direction; and

a conveyor downstream of the edge trimming knife, the conveyor including a reciprocating section movable back and forth in the book travel direction to receive books trimmed by the edge trimming knife, wherein the conveyor is comprised of:

a plurality of first pulleys;

a first belt of a first constant length traveling over the plurality of first pulleys;

a plurality of second pulleys; and

a second belt of a second constant length traveling over the plurality of second pulleys;

wherein the reciprocating section of the conveyor includes at least two first pulleys and at least two second pulleys, the at least two first pulleys movable to maintain the first constant length of the first belt and the at least two second pulleys movable to maintain the second constant length of the second belt as the reciprocating section moves back and forth in the book travel direction.

8. The book trimmer recited in claim 6 further comprising an upper input belt and a lower input belt upstream of the edge trimming knife, the conveyor receiving a leading edge of the book before the trailing edge of the book is released by the upper input belt and the lower input belt, the edge trimming knife trimming the trailing edge of the book after the trailing edge of the book is released by the upper input belt and the lower input belt.

9. The book trimmer recited in claim 6 wherein the reciprocating section moves back and forth in the book travel direction with the edge trimming knife.

10. The book trimmer recited in claim 6 further comprising a knife carriage, the edge trimming knife being supporting by the knife carriage, the reciprocating section being mounted on the knife carriage.

11. The book trimmer recited in claim 10 wherein the knife carriage reciprocates back and forth in the book travel direction and the reciprocating section reciprocates back and forth in the book travel direction with the knife carriage.

12. The book trimmer recited in claim 6 wherein the reciprocating section includes the first pulley.

13. The book trimmer recited in claim 12 wherein the first pulley moves back and forth with the edge trimming knife.

14. The book trimmer recited in claim 12 wherein the conveyor further includes a second belt, a fifth pulley and a sixth pulley, the second belt traveling over the fifth pulley and the sixth pulley and the reciprocating section including the fifth pulley.

15. The book trimmer recited in claim 12 wherein the reciprocating section includes the third pulley.

16. The book trimmer recited in claim 6 wherein as the reciprocating section moves back and forth in the book travel direction the first length increases as the second length decreases and the first length decreases as the second length increases.

17. The book trimmer recited in claim 16 wherein the first length increases by an amount equal to an amount the second length decreases and the first length decreases by an amount the second length increases.

18. The book trimmer recited in claim 6 wherein a belt length of the belt remains constant as reciprocating section moves back and forth in the book travel direction.