Nuova Gidue demonstrates on-the-fly cylinder change
Automated, on the fly exchange of print cylinders was demonstrated by Nuova Gidue as the company introduced the next generation of its ‘Digital Flexo’ press system at Labelexpo Europe, writes Andy Thomas.
On the new Combat M5 ‘Excellence’ press the operator places the plate cylinder for the next job behind the running plate cylinder on each print station. On job changeover the press slows and the print cylinder is ejected from each print station sequentially and the next cylinder automatically loaded. As each plate starts printing it is automatically adjusted for register and print pressure using the Print Tutor camera system, after which the press ramps back to full speed.
Journalists watched a job changeover involving eight print cylinders and a magnetic die in 60 seconds with around 10 meters of waste.
The press was using Esko’s 7-color Equinox process color set, which can hit nearly the whole range of pantone colors, meaning there is no need for wash-ups between jobs. There are dual die stations which can also be reloaded on the fly. Nuova Gidue has developed a system for automatically removing and loading flexible dies, although this was not shown on the Labelexpo machine.
The press was fitted with a new AVT camera which uses the PDF directly as a reference.
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