Easy, Efficient, Sustainable—Essential Pillars of Flexographic Press Design

Fast, efficient, powerful and simple to operate—in engineering terms, intelligent, intuitive, robust and integrated—is what customers expect when specifying a wide web press.

High speeds with exceptional print quality, along with intelligent and fast changeovers, maximize productivity and will set the standard in our industry going forward.

Everyone in flexible packaging is constantly searching for ways to perform better and faster, with less-experienced press operators and a lack of personnel in general. At Windmöller & Hölscher (W&H), our R&D team has long been focused on developing technologies that make operation and production easy, efficient and sustainable. Much goes into making that happen:

• Automation and quick changeover assistance systems
• Fast speeds
• Excellent print quality
• Data interconnectivity
• Service and support that stands behind it all

Fast Speeds

With well over 100 presses sold every year, W&H has an exceptionally large base of installed machines, which has allowed us to become experienced in the challenges that printers face every day.

Knowledge and experience have enabled us to find solutions which are unique and available in our entire machine portfolio, from the MIRAFLEX to the NOVOFLEX and VISTAFLEX. This allows us to cover all market needs in the most effective ways.

W&H builds presses that can cover a wide range of applications and sizes, including:

• Eight or 10 colors, with or without downstream inline flexographic or gravure stations
• Press speeds from 1,300 to 2,650 fpm
• Print web widths from 41-in. to 88-in., with repeats up to 49-in.
• Ability to handle thin gauge, low-tension materials to paper/unsupported foil
• Solvent- or water-based inks
• Inline slitting, inspection systems and a variety of other options

Assistance Systems

It all started in 2006 with the EASY product family, which at the time was the first of its kind. It was a revolutionary development where the press would set impression on its own using cameras. Since then, continued focus has been placed on expanding and enhancing the systems. Today, the latest generation of EASY systems cover impression, register and color management.

When it comes to automated impression and register setting, everyone is striving for a fast setup, accuracy and minimal waste.

• EASY-SET S and EASY-REG S can set impression and register with zero waste
• EASY-SET HD and EASY-REG M/EASY-REG D set impression and register using a camera-based system to find the optimal impression, independent of plate and substrate, and other variables

Register is set with an easy-to-use drag-and-drop system, or even fully automatically by using a W&H register mark. Among the most advanced systems in the industry, it gets jobs into production with the least amount of waste faster, and with the least amount of energy.

Like EASY-SET, EASY-COL is an integrated color management system. It is designed for quick, reliable and reproducible color matching during job changeovers. Standardized color matching on the press, shorter changeover times and higher productivity are the result.

EASY-COL does not replace the ink kitchen, but is a powerful assistant located right next to the press. Key features of the color scale system integrated in EASY-COL are continuous color consumption overview and the integrated alarm system, which will prevent an operator from running out of ink and will tell production management how much ink is required to finish a particular job. It uses information from the anilox rollers and the ink volume in the machine to calculate accurate recipes for color corrections.

The R&D team is constantly working on new methods and systems that are intelligent, avoid handling mistakes, and make life easy for printers and operators.

Web Monitoring

VISION is the first fully integrated inspection system by W&H. It includes the PROCONTROL user interface. Typically, components come from several different suppliers, and all have their own control units. With the VISION system, all components are controllable from a common user interface. This makes setup and monitoring production much simpler, and increases efficiency of the press.

Value-added packages include distinct types of web monitoring and inspection systems:

• VISION ZOOM monitors the web with matrix cameras
• VISION FULL incorporates state-of-the-art, high-resolution line cameras to detect printing defects. These line cameras help manage job changeovers as part of the EASY-SET and EASY-REG automation systems
• VISION CHECK helps determine the causes of print defects and provides troubleshooting advice, such as targeted cleaning processes and machine parameter adjustments

Having just one package on the press with one sole source of responsibility makes life easier for printers and converters.

RUBY IoT

The RUBY IoT platform was introduced during K 2019 in Düsseldorf, Germany. It collects all machine data from printing presses, extrusion lines and converting machines. Various RUBY extensions can create additional value for customers.

RUBY was designed to provide information through production monitoring that leads to better production and print quality. It is an intelligent, interconnected system that gives printers the power to look at the treasure in their production data and use it to improve processes and products throughout the value chain.

RUBY Check is an add-on extension that checks and evaluates all print inspection data easily from the office, i.e., remotely so the operator does not need to be in front of the press. Any areas with insufficient quality can be marked and cut out—automatically—by a downstream slitter or other machines. Scan the QR code in this article to see RUBY Check in action.

Having both machine and inspection data in one platform enables the user to visualize correlations more easily between print defects and machine parameters during production. In this way, it is possible to see whether a series of defects is caused by changes in the ink, such as viscosity and temperature, or whether web tension has been correctly adjusted on a roll that has wrinkles.

Understanding where the defects originate in the printing process is a necessary step toward consistent quality improvements, but with more intelligent detection analysis and automated print corrections, the VISION system, in combination with RUBY, is laying that foundation.

Service & Support

If there is a machine issue, W&H’s IDC (Information and Diagnostic Center) is reachable 24/7/365. That means customers talk to an experienced engineer who specializes in presses. We resolve 85 percent of machine problems remotely, saving precious time and money. When that is not possible, we send a field service engineer to assess and resolve the issue on site.

The North American spare parts warehouse, located in Rhode Island, stocks the most common wear and breakdown parts for machines operating in Canada and the US. For approximately 70 percent of orders, W&H can get parts in customers’ hands within 24 hours.

What is not available in Rhode Island is sent out from the central warehouse at company headquarters in Germany, taking 48 hours (about two days) to arrive at the customer.