Labelexpo Europe 2011 review: Inspection

Among the trends in inspection technology on display at Labelexpo Europe were increased integration into digital workflows, the addition of Braille inspection capabilities, and remote monitoring from outside the plant. James Quirk rounds up some of the technology on display at the show

AVT reported enjoying one of its best Labelexpo events for many years, securing numerous sales for its inspection technology and making inroads into new market areas. 

‘We welcomed hundreds of printers to the AVT stand during the four-day expo, and were delighted with the positive feedback we received on the company’s new solutions and wide range of vision- and color-based products,’ said Amir Dekel, AVT’s corporate VP of marketing. ‘We negotiated sales of 25 systems during the show, which equates to some $2m worth of business, and have received a welter of enquiries since the doors closed, which we intend to convert into more business.’

AVT presented its full range of quality assurance, process control and color control systems for presses and rewinders at the event, with additional exhibits on working demonstration around the exhibition on the stands of business partners including Prati, Rotocontrol, HP, Smag, Nilpeter, Iwasaki, Spilker and Smooth Machinery.

The company demonstrated its PrintVision/Helios II 100 percent inspection platform with a complete workflow. The latest developments included Braille automatic inline detection, which works in parallel with print inspection, detecting every fault in the Braille dots on pharmaceutical labels.

Color measurement and control systems were demonstrated with the Microcolor/Mercury remote ink control for narrow web offset and the IΔeal inline DeltaE color measurement ensuring color consistency throughout the print run. Other highlights included job verification to the original PDF, and 100 percent verification of barcodes and variable data codes and numbers.

Capitalizing on the growing use of personal pocket communications, AVT showed ProMIS communication to MIS systems and iPrint connectivity to iPhone/iPad mobile devices, both of which have recently been added as connectivity options to AVT inspection systems.

BST International ran live demonstrations of its quality assurance systems for the web processing industry during Labelexpo Europe at its Quality Competence Center stand.

‘We saw a strong demand especially for web guiding and inspection systems,’ said Kristian Jünke, BST’s sales director, ‘but there was also a large interest for color measurement and register control systems. Customers came from all over the world, with a focus on Eastern Europe and Turkey.’

The company showed its ranges of quality insurance systems for the web processing industry, running live demonstrations of products like Shark4000 LEX and Shark1000LEX (100 percent print defect detection), CompactGuide, CLSPro600 (web guiding), PowerScope4000, SuperHandyScan4000 (video web inspection), AR 4000 (register control) and IDM4000 (color measurement).

Drello showed its Drelloscop V5000 video-web inspection system, alongside Drelloscop 5118, a universally applicable stroboscope suited to visualizing fast mechanical processes on production and printing machines. Also on display will be the Drelloscop 5125 compact stroboscope for homogeneous light sensitive illumination, designed for label inspection slitter rewinders.

Erhardt + Leimer showed its improved TubeLight illumination system which can operate on web widths of up to 1.5m. Due to the new LED light, homogenous illumination is possible even in the wide web sector. TubeLight features have been improved for better inspection of difficult printing and web conditions like embossing, screen printing, metalized materials and holograms.

The company also showed its Nyscan range of inspection systems. During pre-press the Image:Inspector checks the press proof from a production process against the customer’s PDF file to make sure there are no deviations. During the printing process the 100 percent inspection system Web:Inspector detects defects, and the Roll:Scheduler allows accurate positioning of the detected defects on the finishing machine.

The company’s Elscan range features a new dual flash system for packaging applications using metallic films.

Eye-C showed its ProofRunner and Proofiler systems. ProofRunner, an inline system, was demonstrated on a rewinder from Ashe Converting Equipment. It uses a high speed line camera to continuously acquire a high resolution image of the entire web. A computer system then identifies all printed items on the web and tracks them through the entire print or converting run. The same computer performs an intelligent comparison of each printed item against the customer proof. The advanced pattern analysis of the ProofRunner can distinguish between the different types of defects, so every significant deviation will get caught and displayed while permissable fluctuations caused by the printing process itself – such as minor registration errors of small squeeze marks around the individual letters – can be automatically passed. The system also allows inspection of hot and cold stamping elements.

Proofiler is an offline system which digitally compares the first samples from the printing machine or the samples of incoming materials against the signed-off proof. Every item printed across the web or sheet is processed in one pass. An integrated scanner accommodates all print formats up to 60in x 43in (1600mm x 1100mm).

Isra Vision introduced the new ProofStar inspection system. Everything that matters in packaging printing can be inspected – the print, hot foil or varnish, matt or glossy or combined. The customer´s PDF file from the pre-press stage is used as master for the comparison to the first printed sheets. At the same time immediate feedback and visualization of damage to the printing plate or cylinder is provided. The company also showed the PrintStar inspection system for premium printing products, which offers 100 percent monitoring and documentation of the print quality, in-line or off-line, for each repeat, for the entire web or for a production batch. PrintStar may be installed directly on a narrow web press and used in conjunction with the Rewind Manager system to remove the waste at the slitter. For off-line inspection, PrintStar can be installed on the slitter or doctor machine.

Lake Image Systems showed its Discovery PQ inspection system. Featuring high resolution line scan cameras, Discovery PQ can acquire large format images of a continuous web for multiple, simultaneous print quality and integrity inspection. The system can be used on all narrow web presses and rewinders.

Discovery Multiscan was also displayed, which pulls together the images and data from a wide variety of camera and scanner based technologies of any number of Discovery software tools to read, control, inspect, verify, log and report – providing 100 percent quality inspection and print data integrity.

Nikka Research showed its product line for print quality control, pre-press verification, process automation, variable and security printing and data collection.

A new member of the Alis automatic label inspection family is the compact L1 model. This wedge shaped camera is designed for inspection on printing presses and rewinders.

The established Alis L2 line of print quality inspection now covers all popular web widths: 330, 420, 520, 600 and 760 mm. Many combinations of camera resolutions, B/W or color cameras are available to match any application.

PDF-to-Print verification technology has become even more accessible and easy to use, says the company. The ODRI offline scanner inspection system adds support for A1 scanners, thin leaflet paper and reflective surfaces. Other options are ISO-conform barcode grading, color measurement as well as multiple artwork inspection.

For all products, Nikka Research introduced its new ‘applet’ concept. Applets are modular functions, which can be easily added to existing systems in order to extend their functionality. Applets for barcodes, Datamatrix, Delta E color monitoring, in-image measurement, OCR and variable data are ready to mix into a system exactly matching customer requirements.

In addition to inspection products for pre-press, press and finishing, Nikka presented its integrated products for inter-process optimization, including electronic job tickets, ‘inspect on press then repair on rewinder’ workflow, offline review and edit capability for roll maps and a job tracking and analysis reporting system.

PC Industries showed the Guardian PQV 100 percent print defect detection system and the Guardian OLP offline PDF proofing system. The combination of Guardian technologies provides complete print quality process control from conceptualization to shipment. Graphic-Vision RX Series web viewers were also on display, now standard with ultra high-resolution digital cameras and flat panel LCD monitors. Additionally, ANSI/ISO 1D and 2D barcode verification, register controls, repeat length monitors and strobe lights were shown.

Tectonic launched the K3digital, which expands its flexible print inspection system range. K3digital has an icon-based, intuitive menu system and touch screen navigation which facilitates quick set up including one-touch camera controls and repeat length position control. The color monitoring tool found on the K2colour-check system is expanded on K3digital and provides an even higher level of color monitoring of regions of interest – analysis based on CIELab color model – and includes alarms for color monitor error notification. K2’s image transfer feature is enhanced, providing the print manager with immediate live access to current activity on the press. K1, K2colour-check, Jaguar and the Flexico V5 range of plate mounting machines were also on show. along with register control systems for the company's OEM customers.

Unilux showed its range of LED stroboscopic surface inspection lights, which complements its established family of xenon lights to provide an inspection system for any application. Products range from handheld units for spot or narrow web inspection to fixed units capable of inspecting surfaces up to three meters wide.

Pictured: AVT reported one of its best ever Labelexpo shows

This article was published in L&L issue 5, 2011