Requirements for superbly printed packaging jobs have continued their change of course.
More, lower-volume products are being produced and packaging printed. If there is anything that defines the requirements of the modern flexographic press, it is the need for preset, programmed systems that can deliver quickness and flexibility: automation and agility.
But there are ways that presses have responded to these needs. Among them: Adding intelligence to plate mounting and inserting sleeves into the press.
All photos courtesy of SOMA Engineering
Although not a piece of the press by itself, the mounter plays an important role in print quality and the speed of changeovers.
When plate mounting is automatic, it accelerates the ability to make a plate available to go to press. With automatic precision, they assure exceptional registration.
Power Play
What really makes automatic plate mounters special is that some mounters and presses also share an automated register and impression setting system. This allows presses to quickly get to register and set the press for exceptional print quality.
For example, the newly developed SOMA S-Mount automatic plate mounter, combined with the IRIS intelligent register and impression setting system, offers printers a powerful solution for short runs.
- During the process of mounting a flexographic plate, data for registration and topography/impression settings are stored in RFID chips in a sleeve
- When the sleeve is inserted into a SOMA Optima flexographic press, this data is read and prepared for fully automatic operation, assuring very quick—and accurate—settings
- There is no longer a burden on the press operator to tell the press where to set register and impression
- It helps assure that every job is automatically in perfect registration. This reduces makeready time and affords faster completion of jobs, along with almost zero-meter setup waste—a flexible and agile solution
How important is this? Printers (88 percent) in a recent FLEXO Magazine Flash Poll said it was vital to maximize efficiencies. When it comes to efficiency, 84 percent vowed to trim waste and 82 percent expect to enhance productivity—relating not only to speed, but to fast changeovers. They are quoted as saying “Expect fast changes!” and “New innovations and equipment are allowing for much better process control.”
No Guesswork!
This brings us to unskilled press operation. Any job changeover requires a number of steps that need to be taken in proper order. With an automated self-directed system, even inexperienced operators may run the press and perform efficient changeovers. Each step is done properly and in the correct order.
With the automated SOMA Changeover Wizard system—a 2022 FTA Technical Innovation Award recipient—a flexographic press operator can take advantage of the speedy transfer of all job information. (See FLEXO May 2022, page 26). It’s what SOMA likes to call the recipe, required to set a flexographic press correctly. Because this prepared and verified data is pulled from SOMA’s cloud-based S-Cloud system, there cannot be human error caused by re-typing information.
The SOMA Changeover Wizard user interface guides the press operator through all the steps involved from one job to the next. In doing so, it reduces the number of tasks or may shorten required tasks, defines their optimal order, and automates as many steps as possible, minimizing operator error.
The Changeover Wizard system, in an automated and agile way, analyzes differences between the job just printed and the job that follows. It advises what steps go first and last, because from job to job they don’t always work in the same order.
It is very intuitive—for example, providing tension or drying temperature settings based on the chosen substrate. If the system can do certain things by itself—for example, opening a unit so a sleeve can be changed—it does so automatically, and reports that the task has been completed. It also lets experienced operators overrule any suggestion at any time. The Changeover Wizard process will continue, making agile adjustments based on the operator’s input.
Beyond maximizing efficiencies and trimming costs (52 percent), 70 percent acknowledged the importance of manpower management and the adoption of best practices and process controls. An agile, automated Changeover Wizard does not rely on the manpower to do the work, yet it does ensure that the best processes are adopted.
Printers said, “Adding automation in as many of the day-to-day tasks—software to machinery—will greatly reduce errors and miscommunication,” “Digitalization will help steer future production runs by eliminating waste, reducing makeready times and increasing press uptime,” and “Automation will be a large focus as labor is limited.”
Tune-Up Time!
The intelligence of drive mechanisms already analyzes performance. During job setup, taking less than one minute, we can automatically tune the press with specially designed algorithms that minimize the bouncing effect and ensure accurate registration for each particular design.
SOMA’s technology, Job Tuning, takes into consideration the dynamic effects of each bridge, the sleeve, the tape and the plate itself. It delivers control of printing stability to exceptional levels of precision.
By diminishing the majority of concerns for bounce with the help of built-in SOMA Advanced Bounce Control technology—of which Job Tuning is a part—exceptional quality at extremely fast speeds is assured. Maintaining overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) was important to 63 percent of those involved in the Flash Poll.
Sustainable & Safe
Cost efficiencies pertain not only to the press (and our ability to control costs on press by saving on labor and film costs), but to the packaging systems downstream. Packagers, and more importantly brand owners, are always looking for new materials that are easier to work with, and substrates and inks that are safe—for food products, for example.
One of the same dynamics that has driven the interest in new substrates and ink systems is the trend toward sustainable packaging. In addition to research into new inks and substrates is the construction of packaging—particularly as it relates to the use of sustainable laminates. These requirements are driving innovations in presses, to print effectively on a new generation of materials.
The SOMA Optima press can handle a variety of inks—solvent- and water-based inks—as well as UV, UV LED or EB inks. In fact, presses are capable of handling materials as thin as diaper substrates and as thick as paper board, opening up a wide world of flexible (including food) packaging and labels; particularly cups and beverages. While allowing for more flexibility of substrates and work, it also holds color for printers and converters (noted by 21 percent of the survey).
Necessity Now!
More than half of those surveyed in the Flash Poll admitted they’re considering a purchase of equipment to optimize production. In fact, 76 percent think that it is a necessity to optimize production now and into the future.
We see that ourselves. It’s driving the press market in a big way. Companies are replacing their 15-year-old presses with newer ones to keep up. They admit, as one printer acknowledged, that “Staying focused on new technology will improve OEE.”
While few (8 percent) considered the application of Industry 4.0 as a primary objective, indeed everything we’re addressing meets this goal. The press has become the agile and automated computer—required to stay efficient.
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