Industrial Inkjet for Packaging, from Development to Production
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Industrial Inkjet for Packaging, from Development to Production
- 1. March 2022 JW Out of the Box: Industrial Inkjet for Packaging, from Development to Production “Normal people believe that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Engineers believe that if it ain’t broke, it doesn’t have enough features yet.” - Scott Adams
- 2. The End!
- 3. Corporate Structure . . . . RIP and workflow software for flexo and digital printing industrial inkjet electronics softwar e, tools and services prepress software for flexo and digital printers workflow software for printing organisations colour profiling and conversion software Real time visualisation software for packaging
- 4. Getting out of the box: Corrugated Process stages Pre- flight Creativ e design Electronics Softwar e Heads Ink / ink Deliver y System s Press prepress Printing Ripping/ screening Design MIS/ER P Softwar e Colour Manage ment Curing / Drying
- 5. Design Layout • Size, shape and intended use Branding /colours • Use of brand specific colours/imagery of the right resolution, specific fonts Content • Placement for barcodes/control marks/ • Die lines
- 6. Folding carton with artwork
- 7. Folding carton with imagery, bar codes and marks
- 8. Pre-press Pre-flight • Font embedded, QR creation, Images of the correct resolution, trapping of overlapping images Branding /colours • Spot colour mapping, special inks Nesting • Nesting – replicating the image across the web to maximise usage and throughput
- 9. Nested folding carton Spot colours mapped Fonts embedded Carton nested across the web
- 10. Sign off before printing Job ticket information and settings logged in MIS, ready for printing
- 11. Press – a complex array of technologies Heads • Head type – size, position, firing frequency • Drop size – large to small • Greyscale – creating tonal range Fluids • Ink Formulation • Waveform Media Control • Motion control • Inspection / validation systems
- 12. Choosing the right ink UV Aqueous
- 13. Ink Delivery Systems Fluid Control • Recirculation • Temperature control • Flow control Pressure • Degassing • Damping Materials compatibility • Ensuring the ink doesn’t melt the delivery system
- 14. Print Heads
- 15. Meteor – Printhead Drive Electronics • PDS – Print Driver Stack • PDC – Print Driver Card • PCC – Print Controller Card • HDC – Head Driver Card HDC’s are specific for each printhead model. A combination of PCC-E and HDC cards are required in this type of system. A PCC- E can drive any Meteor HDC but all attached HDC must be of the same type. Some HDC’s can drive two printheads such as the HDC-2H2001 for the Xaar 2001 while others can only drive one printhead. Multiple PCC-E’s can be linked to drive hundreds of printheads within one system. Like HDC’s, PDC’s are specific for each printhead model. Some PDC’s can drive up to six printheads. Multiple PDC’s can be linked to drive hundreds of printheads in one system. A PDS combines the PCC-E and HDC functions into a single packaged dual board solution. Each PDS is configured for a specific printhead model such as the Xaar 1201 PDS-2H1201Y. Most PDS’s are configured to drive up to two printheads. Multiple PDS’s can be linked to drive hundreds of printheads in one system. All Meteor print controller or print driver cards is installed between the PC/Switch and the printhead. The PCC-E for example connects with up to 8x driver cards (HDC) and maintains the data and signal timing to and from the digital printhead.
- 16. Scanning / Single Pass software
- 17. Print Controller Motion Controller Scanning printers require swathe creations Motion control (X,Y, Single Pass)
- 18. Creating an optimised waveform for the chosen Fluid Optimised waveform: control of drop formation achieved at each grey level Small velocity variation between grey levels: 4.0m/s +/- 0.2m/s @ 3mm Linear volume response: 8,16,24pl Elimination of satellite drops Performance improvements triggered immediate purchase of DW system for continued development
- 19. new Creating an optimised waveform
- 20. printing Ripping • Ripping of the file Screening • Screening of the images (text/graphics) Colour Management • Colour correct • ICC Profile creation/application
- 21. Ripping, Screening, Colour Management A complete solution, including sophisticated color management and halftone screening BenRG and cmglee ICC Profile Calibration curve ICC Profile ICC Profile ICC Profile(s) Emulation, ink-limiting, output device, etc Harlequin OEM partners can also integrate their own CMM and screening, if required Rendered Ignored Vector export Spot colors Knockouts only Binary and multi-level screens, some designed specifically for inkjet Emulated
- 22. Getting out of the box: Pre- flight Creativ e design Electronics Softwar e Heads Ink / ink Deliver y System s Press prepress Printing Ripping/ screening Design MIS/ER P Softwar e Colour Manage ment Curing / Drying
Editor's Notes
- Most presentations start at the beginning, in this one I am going to start at the end, the box in this case, working back from here to look at what it takes to get an inkjet press printing packages. Why am I starting at the end? The journey from the end to the beginning requires complex technologies, inks and
- Most presentations start at the beginning, in this one I am going to start at the end, the box in this case, working back from here to look at what it takes to get an inkjet press printing packages.
- OK, so this is a high level view of the process that are involved with producing a corrugated package, not taking into account the construction of the corrugate itself but everything after an associated with it.
- Depending upon the type of product you are creating the design my be simple, a company logo, a QR code etc, if it is more complicated, a graphic designer is most likely being used. Whatever type of design you use its likely that the end result will be a PDF file format that will be passed onto the pre-press department readying it for printing.
- The design of packaging involves complex layout and creating applications and graphic designers, the artwork that is created needs to take into account the varying sides, folds and uses of the packaging. Simple coding and marking requires less work.
- Artwork (the final job) is usually supplied to the printer in a standardised file format, PDF, the PDF should contain all the information needed to produce the job. This is still only the first step, before it can be printed a few other key steps are required.
- We have our designed file ready to be set up for printing, at this stage complex and powerful pre-press software comes into use. Pre-press software like Hybrid’s Cloudflow or PackZ is used to prepare the job for printing This includes pre-flight assessment of the PDF, checking the fonts are embedded, the colour space / spot colours are mapped and carrying out any variable data assembly (adding barcodes) and then nesting or imposing the Job across the web to maximise substrate usage by placing as many copies of the image it can.
- Now we see the nested or imposed Folding carton, now we are ready for printing.
- The digital age means MIS systems can process and track jobs through the varying stages of production, creating a job ticket with all the parameters that will be used, this gives and audit trail and sign off procedures before the printing process.
- So, we have arrived at the press stage, let’s consider the technologies needed to build a press. The press contains the efforts of the OEM to master and unify multiple technologies, from Ink Delivery systems, Inks, electronics and software, motion control to complex waveforms not forgetting the mechanics of building a transport system, media handling etc. The end users of a press will not necessarily be aware of the complexity of building one of these devices.
- Lets start with the Fluid, it is a fundamental step in building a press, knowing and understanding the fluid you are aiming to jet, this gives us two choices UV or Aqueous, depending upon your application you will need a fluid delivery system that
- You can ask why I did not start with the head, often understanding the type of fluid, UV/Aqueous, the viscosity, jetting temperature whether it requires recirculation or not act as a qualification process for the heads you can use This narrowing of choice is then further narrowed by the resolution required for the printing process, further again by the size and shape of the print head. For scanning systems, there are significantly fewer heads, cost (is not so much of an issue, neither is size and shape), heads can be mounted side my side, swathe masks created and multi-pass modes created to achieve quality Single pass systems are more complex, require more heads, head stitching, size of head and geometric shape all play a part.
- So, you have chosen the heads, perhaps even two different head types, now you need to the right electronics, Having the right hardware structure is as important as choosing the right software. Meteor offers three distinct types of hardware platforms. Each one has its merits. The choice is determined by the size, type and performance of the machine being built.
- We have the heads, the inks, the curing and the electronics, now we need the software to make it all work, this means choosing the right type of software, scanning or single pass Either getting off the shelf turnkey Digital Front Ends or taking the development route and creating your own branded frond ends with the power of SDK’s If you have little software development skill a predefined digital front end is idea, go from 0 to working in days, if however you want to create a user experience,k
- After the printhead, fluid, software and hardware have been chosen, we can now move onto the final phase: creating strong foundations.
- The process of optimising a waveform is undertaken by Meteor. We typically require the fluid to be jetted and an understanding of the speed of printing, the number of grey levels and the temperature ranges the machine will work in. From there, we work on tuning the waveform for the desired speeds and drop volumes. This process usually takes around a week to be completed for one fluid. The process is an iterative one that uses tools like the Meteor DropWatcher.
- Your customers will demand correct color, emulation of conventional presses, ink limiting etc. And they’ll expect you to deliver that in the highest quality possible, without artefacts
- OK, so this is a high level view of the process that are involved with producing a corrugated package, not taking into account the construction of the corrugate itself but everything after an associated with it.