Heidelberg, Gallus work towards zero-defect packaging

“Heidelberg is the leading provider in the industry that can guarantee digitised and industrial packaging production with a defect-free, standardised end-result. Our intention is to continue to expand our offering in this growth market,” Stephan Plenz, member of the management board responsible for equipment at Heidelberg, said.

At Interpack, Heidelberg and Gallus will focus on the question of a colour management system that can span different sites and production methods; and the reduction of complexity, and therefore susceptibility, to defects as well as the means to safely and reliably identify incorrectly printed products without delay and remove them directly from the press or post-press process while production is underway. As part of this process, Heidelberg will show how a zero-defect principle can be implemented across the entire production process, from pre-press through press to post-press.

The integrated Prinect Packaging workflow developed by Heidelberg plays a central role here, by laying the foundations for industrialised production. It enables automation of the workflows – from order acceptance, through structural design, pre-press, and press through to post-press – and facilitates intelligent communication between the areas in order to prevent defects.

Using Prinect as a central business intelligence platform, all the management and production processes in a print shop, including customers and suppliers, can be intelligently integrated and centrally controlled. Prinect integrates Heidelberg’s offset and digital printing systems into one continuous workflow, and offers comprehensive functions for quality assurance and documentation as well as standardization and production of repeat jobs. This also includes the latest versions of the PrinectInpress Control colour measurement system and Prinect Image Control control system as well as the Prinect Inspection Control printed sheet inspection system, which are crucial for defect-free production. The end result is a fully automated and industrialised printing process where manual interventions are reduced to a minimum.

Navigated printing is made possible by Heidelberg’s patented Intellistart 2 software. Automatic processes are autonomously completed in parallel and in a logical sequence insofar as possible. Intellistart 2 automatically calculates the quickest sequence for the job change and reliably and safely navigates the operator through the makeready process.

Plenz said Heidelberg is responding to the demand for serial or even customised packaging and labels with the Primefire 106, the first digital printing system in B1 format for industrialised printing applications, presented at Drupa as well as the Gallus Labelfire 340 for digital label production.

The Primefire 106 features Perfect Stack technology for automatically removing incorrectly printed sheets from the process and immediately and correctly reprinting them. Integrated barcodes and QR codes or even serial numbers can also be added to all sheets for complete traceability.

The Gallus Labelfire label printing system also provides the option of individually identifying entire packages or even the individual label. Inspection systems can be used to register locations in packages with missing labels as well as incorrectly printed or damaged labels so they can be corrected in downstream systems by removing or reprinting them.

Gallus will also be presenting its new process, ‘Metallic Doming’. It can be used to produce raised textures with metallic luster on plastic substrates using rotary screen printing. The result is a haptic sensation that could previously only be produced using hot-foil embossing on paper substrates. Effects of this type are now also possible on tube laminates as well as PP and PE substrates thanks to Metallic Doming.

The Diana Eye offline inspection system uses a reading device or camera to measure the image and contour as well as finishing effects – including coated surfaces, foils, and holograms – in each individual folding carton blank and compares everything against a reference image. Tolerances can be set and deviating results are automatically removed.