Sibress presents new measurement tools

Sibress, a manufacturer of measurement and analysis systems for quality assurance in flexographic and package printing, has introduced its new SibScope microscope and SibView measurement software.

The SibScope microscope undertakes the task of examining objects such as anilox rolls, and gravure and flexo plates

The SibScope microscope undertakes the task of examining objects such as anilox rolls, and gravure and flexo plates, with the highest image quality and precision. At maximum magnification, objects are displayed full screen with a size of 97µm via an 80x lenses (relative to 60cm screen diagonal). SibScope can be used both on round or cylindrical surfaces from 6cm diameter, as well as on flat surfaces.

The microscope is equipped with five planachromatic lenses, and the desired magnification is selected by simply rotating the nosepiece. SibScope comes with the following lenses: 5x, 10x, 20x, 40x, 80x, as well as optional 4x and 100x. A variety of available mechanical filters makes it possible to display surfaces in sharp detail and with rich contrast.

For object viewing, users can switch between the 10x binocular supplied, and the built-in, high-resolution microscope camera. The image can then be examined on a PC monitor. The optical microscope can be moved in X, Y and Z directions. For height/depth determination, a digital dial gauge with a 1µm resolution is integrated into SibScope. The manual height adjustment allows accuracies of significantly below 1 µm, so that even the finest surface structures can be brought into focus, and thereby examined in razor sharp detail.

During measurement, the height measurement values are immediately transmitted to the newly developed SibView software via an interface which has been specially designed for the microscope.

SibView also fully automatically displays the currently selected planachromatic lenses. Thus, the calibration parameters stored in the software are automatically selected for each lens, and measurements displayed correctly.

SibView is delivered calibrated in the X, Y and Z axes, and the software offers various measuring tools, such as distance measurement, angular position, angular positions comparison, width distance measurement with angular position, circle, circumference and area. Additional comments may be added to the image.

When capturing with a height measurement, image and height measurements are stored together, and can also be reloaded as such. A quick save function allows users to save images, with corresponding depth/height information, in a fraction of a second by pressing any key. The image and height/depth information is stored in a freely selectable folder, without having to assign the image a special name. On this basis, the captures can be used to create a 3D image using third-party software.

The SibScope microscope can also be used to evaluate flexographic printing plates, with the optionally available Sibress Versatile@flex software. The flexo software fully automatically analyses parameters such as dot percentage, dot size, screen ruling, and many more. At the same time, the precise stencil depth of flexo plates can also be determined. Dots can ultimately be examined at the highest resolution, and viewed in real terms. This is specially designed for high-interest HD flexo applications. The exact height difference between individual dots also allows us to determine the actual circumference of a point at each location.

As such, the combination of both software packages makes SibScope an ideal option for flexographic printing operations with their own repro and who want to analyse both their anilox rolls and their flexo plates, Sibress said.

Further, due to optical filter, SibScope can be used by engraving operations or for inspecting printed circuit board structures.