QuadTech unveils touch register press control

Press control technology specialist QuadTech has introduced a new touch register module for use with its web viewing system.

The company says its system enables fast and accurate register setting for CI flexo presses. The TouchRegister module, available as an option, brings up to 12 colours into register automatically. Quadtech says that this saves time and waste as, typically, bringing a CI press into register manually can take 15 minutes with hundreds of metres of substrate wasted.

The Web Viewing System can capture a predetermined register mark (or other suitable image) for each colour and display them on the monitor while the press is stopped. The operator then adjusts the positions of the dots on the monitor. When the press restarts, TouchRegister automatically brings the press into register, to a tolerance of 50 microns. The company says this ability to make adjustments, with the press stopped, dramatically reduces start-up waste.

It adds that, once in register, CI presses tend not to drift out of register, and the Web Viewing System can detect print faults before they can be seen by the human eye, up to an optical magnification of 16x. Register can also be adjusted at any time during the print run.

Randy Freeman, general manager of packaging at QuadTech, says, “For converters, addressing the issues of make-ready time and waste directly impacts profit margins and the bottom line. By adding TouchRegister to the Web Viewing System production, efficiency, and profitability are immediately addressed—and many companies can find they have more press time available for additional jobs.”

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