END-TO-END PRINT inspection has advanced greatly in the past few years, bringing cost, productivity and quality benefits for packaging, label and commercial print converters.

‘With dramatically rising prices for consumables such as inks, oil-based substrates, equipment, energy and even logistics, the return on investment of an inspection system improves directly proportional to the said price increase,’ says Guy Yogev, Esko AVT’s senior director of Product Marketing. ‘Every inch of printed substrate that ends up in the waste bin is an inch too many.’

‘Print inspection solutions are playing an increasingly important role, both as more businesses continue their digital transformation journey – providing advanced process control, quality assurance and press control – and perhaps more importantly by helping reduce the contents of the waste bin at label converters,’ continues Guy. ‘This means they not only improve overall print efficiency, but also positively impact the bottom line of a print operation.’

To help achieve this, the Esko AVT Helios line 100% automatically inspects printed labels or narrow web packs for defects and imperfections, delivering quality results and eliminating customer rejections via rigorous process control, Guy maintains.

‘Installable on any press or rewinder, Helios instantly identifies defects on labels as they occur, reducing waste, boosting performance and delivering 100% quality assurance,’ he adds

Seamless removal of defective material

tilising remote access to the PrintFlow data of the inspection system, AVT WorkFlow Link allows the virtual inspected roll to be edited prior to the finishing stage. Using PrintFlow data from the on-press inspection system, WorkFlow Link automatically stops the rewinder at the precise location of a defect, so the faulty material can be removed – boosting quality, efficiency and productivity.

WorkFlow Link provides a reliable connection between printing and finishing, delivering end-to-end automation and optimisation of the print production process. ‘It helps speed up overall print production via seamless transfer of quality data from press to rewinder to efficiently remove defective material downstream. This early detection of defects enables immediate corrective actions and prevents waste,’ explains Guy.

‘Not only does WorkFlow Link deliver consistent quality through roll editing by designated QA personnel, but there is a reduction of as much as 50% in the time taken to remove waste, and the system ensures full traceability and high-quality results,’ he asserts. Additionally, all printing faults, including random defects, are recorded for downstream process and analysis.

Guy explains that, together with the edited roll data, WorkFlow Link increases finishing machine speed by eliminating the need to stop operation for every suspected defect. ‘Operators can allow finishing machines to run at full capacity as they are automatically slowed down only for real defects as previously defined during the editing process.’

Automated inspection set-up

Manual set-up takes valuable time on press, it is exposed to errors and can have inherent inconsistency and quality results between different operators and shifts. ‘But with AutoSet providing automatic job set-up and job verification, set-up time is reduced to zero and the need for manual intervention is eliminated,’ he maintains. Powered by Esko Automation Engine, AutoSet eliminates multiple tasks and quality risks by connecting prepress to the inspection system in the press room. It increases press utilisation by reducing set-up time by five minutes per job, enabling 30 to 60 additional minutes of press uptime per shift, Guy reports.

‘AutoSet automatically identifies barcodes, text, inspection limits and die lines for print defect detection and trend analysis. With AutoSet, data is automatically sent from Esko’s Automation Engine to the AVT inspection systems, where even very short runs and multi-design jobs can be automatically inspected, resulting in exceptional print quality,’ he concludes.

Ed’s note: Esko AVT is represented in southern Africa by Beswick Machinery.

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