PRINTING MACHINE CONTROL DEVICE

The printing cylinders or other functional units of a printing machine are engaged and disengaged by positioning units. When a positioning unit receives an activating signal, its response thereto includes a dead time or delay time. Because the activation of the positioning units proceeds in dependence upon the angular position of a rotary reference component of the printing machine, and all operations are synchronized in terms of angular positions and angular spans, the dead time of the positioning units, when expressed in angular units, is a function of the operating speed of the printing machine. If the operating speed is variable, proper angular synchronization tends to be lost. The invention includes a clocked control unit clocked in angular synchronism with machine operation and determining when positioning units are to be activated and time-delay stages which introduce compensatory time delays into the application of activating signals to the positioning units. The compensatory time delays are automatically varied as a function of machine operating speed.