Apparatus for carrying out the comprehensive quality control of printed sheets
First Claim
1. A system for deriving quality control information from printed sheets produced on a printing press, the press having zonal control devices including zonal ink metering means for controlling the print quality of corresponding zones of the printed image, the system comprising, in combination:
- a console having a table for supporting a printed image, display means, and a zonal control panel interfaced to the zonal control means;
a video scanner associated with the console for scanning the printed image and creating an electronic representation thereof;
processor means including means for receiving the electronic representation of the scanned image from the scanner for processing as a scanned image;
a reference image memory interfaced to the processor means, the reference image memory storing reference image data for correlating with the scanned image, the reference image memory also including means for associating selected quality control points, which include control zones and measurement points, with the reference image;
the processor including means for correlating the reference image to the scanned image so as to transfer said quality control points to correlated points on the scanned image;
the processor including means for driving the display means to identify correlated points on the image printed on the scanned sheet.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A quality control system for a printing plant adapted to efficiently and accurately correlate information needed for printing quality control, which information had required at least an element of human mental correlation in the past. A printing console has a video camera aimed at a printed sheet on the console, a light source having a position related to that of the video camera, measuring devices such as scanners for measuring particular areas of the printed sheet, and control keys for zonal press controls such as control of zonal ink supply. A processor is associated with an image memory adapted to create an electronic image of the printed sheet on the table. The processor also has access to a reference memory in which is stored a further representation of the image along with coordinates for quality control zones. The processor correlates the image created by the video camera with the reference image in order to associate the quality control zones from the reference image with the actual sample on the table. The processor then operates a display device with respect to the actual sample on the table.
81 Citations
18 Claims
-
1. A system for deriving quality control information from printed sheets produced on a printing press, the press having zonal control devices including zonal ink metering means for controlling the print quality of corresponding zones of the printed image, the system comprising, in combination:
-
a console having a table for supporting a printed image, display means, and a zonal control panel interfaced to the zonal control means;
a video scanner associated with the console for scanning the printed image and creating an electronic representation thereof;processor means including means for receiving the electronic representation of the scanned image from the scanner for processing as a scanned image; a reference image memory interfaced to the processor means, the reference image memory storing reference image data for correlating with the scanned image, the reference image memory also including means for associating selected quality control points, which include control zones and measurement points, with the reference image; the processor including means for correlating the reference image to the scanned image so as to transfer said quality control points to correlated points on the scanned image; the processor including means for driving the display means to identify correlated points on the image printed on the scanned sheet. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
-
-
18. A method for deriving quality control information from printed sheets produced on a printing press, the press having zonal control devices including zonal ink metering means for controlling the print quality of corresponding zones of the printed image, the method comprising the steps of:
-
creating a reference image in a reference image memory which includes reference image data for matching to a scanned image, associating selected quality control points, including control zones and measurement points, with the reference image; disposing a sheet containing a printed image in a predetermined location with respect to a video scanner and creating a scanned image which is an electronic representation of the printed image scanned by the video scanner; comparing the scanned image with the reference image to correlate said images and transfer the quality control points for the reference image to the scanned image; and displaying to a press operator the quality control pints on the printed image after translation of said quality control points from the reference image to the scanned image.
-
Specification