The implementation of Artificial Intelligence offers unique benefits and facilitates autonomous and navigated printing with Push to Stop throughout the entire printing process. The intelligent assistance systems Intellistart 3, Wash Assistant, Powder Assistant and Color Assistant Pro reduce manual operator intervention to a minimum and increase the competitiveness of the print shop.
Today, the operator decides which washup program to use and how long it should last. Since it is not always possible in daily production to consistently run the right washup program at every job change, in most cases, it is the longest washup program that is selected. This costs money and resources in the form of detergent and cloth consumption, but also valuable production time, which can add up enormously during a year.
Alexander Girzig, managing director of the print shop Girzig+Gottschalk GmbH.
Thanks to the integrated software application Wash Assistant, it is now possible to make an intelligent and automatic selection of the appropriate washing program based on artificial intelligence (AI) - without any manual intervention from the operator. This applies to blanket and impression cylinders as well as to inking unit washing systems. During the entire production process, the degree of soiling left in the printing units by the previous printing conditions is continuously analyzed, and the appropriate washing program is automatically defined and selected. In the background, Wash Assistant records all the information from the workflow and the press in an AI model. Based on the data provided regarding the degree of soiling of the blanket, the counterpressure and the inking unit, the press then independently selects the correct washup program either during the makeready process or while production is running.
Based in Bremen, Germany, Girzig+Gottschalk GmbH, which has been in business for over 50 years, is one of the first print shops to rely on the new AI features of its Speedmaster CD 102-5+L. One of them is the new Wash Assistant, which provides optimum support in selecting washup programs - a feature particularly useful to this print shop since it processes many different substrates and produces catalogs, books, brochures, posters, letterheads, displays and calendars, among other things. Indeed, this wide range of jobs requires frequent changes to the washup programs, such as "shorter or longer, with or without prewash." Without Wash Assistant, the operator would always have to make a manual adjustment at every makeready change or during production.
Operator Marcel Becker at the Prinect Press Center XL 3 of the Speedmaster CD 102-5+L.
"In the past, we would always preselect a washup program and usually stick to it. After all, everything got clean, so why should we change it?" explains Production Manager Ronny Strobusch. "Most of the time, the longest washup program was activated, which means we squandered valuable time and an unnecessary amount of detergent and washup cloth. Fortunately, this is now a thing of the past."
In addition to Wash Assistant, the print shop relies on the technology of another the intelligent Assistant from Heidelberg: Powder Assistant. Similar in function to Wash Assistant, Powder Assistant is also a great support for the operator: job data such as inking and printing stock are automatically analyzed, and a suitable powder setting is suggested and selected. This means that active intervention is no longer necessary here as well, and the operator has a powder adjustment for each print job. In the past, the powder setting had to be assessed based on the amount of ink required on the respective substrate and adjusted accordingly. In practice, one powder setting was usually used for almost all jobs. This led to increased powder consumption and a heavy powder load in the pressroom.
Managing Director Alexander Girzig summarizes all these advantages with satisfaction: "The Speedmaster CD 102-5+L is exactly the right machine for our changing jobs. Thanks to the even simpler operator interface, the jobs are processed even more efficiently and quickly. The Wash Assistant helps immensely to save costs and it is a reasonable investment. Especially nowadays, when the prices of consumer goods only know one way – and that is up. The Powder Assistant also helps the printer to always find the right setting, which is also a plus for avoiding costs and customer complaints."
