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IPAMA BULLETIN KNOWLEDGE BANK MAY-JUNE 2009 16 Intelligent Sheetfeds Editor's Note: Brains built into the next generation offset presses may outsmart even the best operators. Here's why: As printing presses gain in capability, they also become more complex to operate. Longer, faster and more automated, presses today are smarter. Seated in the console is an active intellect that can coordinate smarts from all over the plant. By Roger Ynostroza Software developers and process analysts make up sheetfed printers' newest support team. Today their programming expertise is blended with the engineering skills of product developers, linking pressroom and prepress, to be sure, but expanding a network that extends all the way to the business office, sometimes even as far as a sales person's Blackberry. Its impact is especially powerful when viewed from the vantage of the pressroom. Here smarter presses not only take digital directives, but as they learn on the job, even give orders to operators. "Just when conventional wisdom says we've all taken sheetfed development to the end of the road, along comes this new way of thinking and new wave of artificial intelligence that open unimagined paths, way beyond what we thought was a fixed horizon," says Doug Schardt, sheetfed product manager of Komori America. "The new benefits aren't incremental, but dramatic: first-pull accuracy and minimal waste, regardless of stock, ink, or press environment. This new technology gets jobs underway very quickly, plus it keeps the press in 'like new' condition over time." In leapfrogging the usual step-wise approach to press development—say, sharpening mechanical routines to take 100 makeready sheets down to 85 or 80—technologists were key to development of a new generation of sheetfeds that lead in print efficiency and quality. The end game: closing the press gap on recent dramatic advances in prepress, page workflow and platemaking. Presets advance to smart software Since job changeover and press makeready are the most important targets, new control systems are designed to be selflearning—intelligent—so that they can recall consolecontrolled press presets, i.e., preferred operator settings, as a starting point for specific repeat or successive jobs. Self-learning systems compress job startup, receiving data from MIS systems in JDF format to ensure matching of CIP3/4 files from prepress, reading plate codes to confirm correct sequence, and presetting feeder and ink-key curve settings. These advances minimize the delays and operator efforts of walking back and forth from the console to each press station to check settings. During the run, intelligent systems ensure repeatable printing to a target sample. Some systems use cameras to scan printed sheets at speed to ensure that color values comply with target densities set up in advance. Software modules can encompass estimating and planning, as well as automation of work sequences. Some advanced systems link up press and peripheral equipment with sales and procurement departments, while other approaches can be set up to track parts replacement, diagnostics, and maintenance schedules. Industry technologist groups have recognized intelligent systems. Still, manufacturers confide that intelligent press systems are so new and innovative that actual user feedback is scarce thus far. Printers around the country who've adopted these systems are only now exploring the benefits of using self-learning software systems on an everyday basis. "But in a few years," says one press manufacturer's Product Manager, "printers will wonder how they ever ran without smart software." One example is Intellistart, debuted by Heidelberg at drupa 2008 for all its Speedmasters equipped with the Prinect Press Center console. It features automation software designed to reduce job changeover time and cut errors by telling operators the shortest sequence to start-up. For operators, the new, standard feature means that starting up a new job saves shoe soles, with fewer walks around the press—methodically moving from console to delivery with sequential stops at all units along the way to the feeder—instead of the customary four or more round-trips. The savings: up to 70% fewer steps and trips between the control console and the press. The reduction in walking translates to 8% more out put, and commensurate gain in capacity. "The Intellistart wizard analyzes settings from the current job, evaluates the next job to determine if those settings need to be changed," says an executive of Heidelberg USA. "At all times, the operator can accept or reject the software recommendations." Intellistart then works through five setup stages—job, printing material, paper run, ink unit settings, and color allocation—before com-
IPAMA BULLETIN KNOWLEDGE BANK mencing a given job and completing it. If the next job requires only a change of plates, the software directs that operation. "Intellistart never takes over control of the press from the operator. "But it does slash job setup steps, typically from 16 to just five." Speedmasters are often ordered with automation boosting Prinect Inpress Control, an inline spectrophotometric color measuring system. Quite a number of printers in the U.S. have combined Intellistart and Prinect Inpress to cut makeready to 250 to 300 sheets, and in some cases even to less than 200 sheets. Intellistart can incorporate Heidelberg's ColorAssistant option. Its self-learning feature quickly accumulates value, getting better as it's used. "The software remembers an operator's actions, say, six pulls of 150 sheets each to reach a certain density," says an actual user. "For the next similar job, it compresses the number of pulls so that the job is nearly dead-on much more quickly." Millennium Press, Agawam, Massachusetts, became the first U.S. Intellistart user when it installed a 6-color plus coater beta version of an advanced CD74 press that evolved into Heidelberg's XL75 unveiled at drupa 2008. "We have a full MIS-connected, JDF-based Prinect workflow. So when we pull up a job number on the XL75 console, there's automatic loading of material plus entry of size, thickness, and all settings," the owner of Millennium Press says. "We also have Prinect Inpress so selecting 'gloss,' 'matte,' or 'uncoated' stock automatically adjusts densities and color, along with heater settings if necessary. Inpress collects settings for reprints, updating any revises for an exact job match later." First press of its type In the U.S. since late 2008, Unimac Graphics has been operating first new-generation, fast-makeready 6-color 41? KBA Rapida 106 perfector in its Carlstadt, NJ plant, printing commercial and carton work on special substrates (foil, Mylar, vinyl) at up to 18,000 sph straight, 15,000 sph perfecting. "This fully automated press is completely JDF-based, so all jobs are read for operator presets, which means that makeready takes 10 minutes, maybe 15, including mounting plates and making all adjustments," says Unimac spokesman. "Our crews love the automation features, the predictability from job to job, and the versatility of perfecting up to 28-pt. paper and up to 40-pt. board [single side] on the same machine, with full sheet control." KBA Inline Color Control is configured to set up target densities of print images, which the press then adopts to as a standard to match. During the run, the control system reads every sheet at full speed, then controls the color units of the press to hold to that target, ensuring sheets comply to tight, predetermined tolerances. KBA's on-press Qualitronic unit, performs image inspection to a reference sheet, then to the entire run, even across a 100,000sheet run. Qualitronic can be programmed to a minimal defect range or standard; if printing results fall outside these parameters, a signal alerts or beckons the press operator. An off-press module, KBA's Logotronic Professional system, evaluates the prepress to press interface to match CIP3/4 files from prepress, throughout platemaking, to match the file to the job. The outcome is sent to the press to open and set ink keys as required. Another KBA capability Travis points out is the Pile Identifier. It keeps track of the height of the delivery pile; when the stack of sheets reaches the full height, the unit is programmed to print out a sheet showing the job ticket and the pile number, which is placed atop the stack. This simple inventory control system tracks skids on long runs. Self-learning sheetfeds Komori's latest Lithrones, equipped with KHS-AI (Advanced Integration) programs, come equipped with console-controlled presets and softwarebased self-learning. Programming the press system to modify its inking tables based on changi n g c o n d itions—accounting for r o l l e r w e a r , etc.—keeps inking accuracy in "like-new" condition for first pulls. Likewise, air system presets are generalized, based on actual stock being used—bypassing limits of simply saving one job's settings. Every time that stock is specified for any job, the press knows how to preset for it. Meanwhile, console-controlled presets for lateral and circumferential register, plus sheet cocking and fanout, minimize the need for manual adjustments. Thus, notes Schardt, before feeding sheets, operators can get the press up to 12,000 sph to achieve ink and water balance for stable color, then print to stable color in about 20 total sheets, dramatically less than the 100 to 200 norm. Self-learning also permits "smart feedback," intelligent adjustment at the console of all inking variables for a color change, and "smart sequence," the time-saving ability—for up to 10 jobs—to pre-programme tasks in sequence to minimize changeover delays. Along with tracking daily job setup, notes Schardt, programs can track parts replacement and do maintenance self-diagnostics. Power networking QuickChange Color from manroland is another example of an 17 MAY-JUNE 2009
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