No customer excuses defects – and certainly not in the demanding world of packaging printing. Especially pharmaceutical and consumer goods giants keep a very close eye on brand presentation to make sure it is exactly the same whether in Miami, Moscow, or Mumbai. But how do you keep quality high without also increasing costs?
Heidelberg has a zero defect packaging solution with tools along the entire production workflow. Our intelligent systems automatically help avoid imperfections before they occur, they detect any defects and eject waste sheets as well as single blanks, either inline in the printing press or offline. The target is always the same: packaging that looks immaculate and meets all the legal requirements of the food and pharmaceutical industries.
The higher the degree of automation and the more integrated the inspection measures, the closer the print shop gets to the target of zero defects. Prinect provides the necessary digital tools for this. Companies can use this workflow and assistance systems such as Intellistart to link their presses and color measuring/inspection systems into intelligent control loops and share data between all production steps. The objective is an intelligently networked production environment that automatically checks target values for each process step.
When performing offset production on Speedmaster presses, color measurement and control systems ensure precise, even coloring throughout the run. If Prinect Image Control 3 is used, the operator can even check the values throughout the entire print image on the monitor of the Prinect Press Center XL 3. This ensures that each and every repeat meets requirements, especially in the case of narrow tolerances.
And what to do in the event of imperfect sheets or repeats? Should they be removed immediately or marked by inserting an identifying strip? Or, in the case of an imperfect single repeat of expensive material, should it be safely removed since the high-quality folding carton can still be used outside the point of sale?
Inspection systems in postpress have an incredibly sharp eye – inline and offline - that spots defects reliably even on coated surfaces, films, and holograms.
