Integrated and computer controlled printing press, inspection rewinder and die cutter system
First Claim
1. A system for tracking errors during manufacture of a plurality of printed products printed on a web of material, comprising:
- at least one rotary die cutter;
first and second cameras for producing viewed images of spaced segments of the web including print and cut registration symbols on the web;
a plurality of networked computers respectively electrically connected to said cameras to receive and store images produced by the cameras, with at least one of said images including print and cut registrations symbols located on the web,one of said plurality of networked computers inspecting the images of the web to compare print and cut registrations to determine whether a printed product is defective, said one networked computer including a software data file for storing and updating information of a defective status of printed products, and including software using the software data file to cause the rejection of defective printed products and enable visual verification that defective printed products are rejected; and
at least one monitor electrically connected to one of the plurality of networked computers for displaying at least one of the viewed images.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An integrated and computer controlled printing press, inspection rewinder and die cutter system for manufacturing printed products from a web of material is provided, which generally comprises at least one rotary die cutter, a plurality of cameras, a plurality of networked computers electrically connected to the cameras for inspecting the print registers and the print to cut register of each product, and at least one monitor connected to the networked computers. The system uses an identification code for each product to precisely detect, track and record in a permanent format the defective and non-defective printed products at every stage of the manufacturing process and can also automatically adjust the die cutters to correct the cut to print registration in real time.
74 Citations
16 Claims
-
1. A system for tracking errors during manufacture of a plurality of printed products printed on a web of material, comprising:
-
at least one rotary die cutter; first and second cameras for producing viewed images of spaced segments of the web including print and cut registration symbols on the web; a plurality of networked computers respectively electrically connected to said cameras to receive and store images produced by the cameras, with at least one of said images including print and cut registrations symbols located on the web, one of said plurality of networked computers inspecting the images of the web to compare print and cut registrations to determine whether a printed product is defective, said one networked computer including a software data file for storing and updating information of a defective status of printed products, and including software using the software data file to cause the rejection of defective printed products and enable visual verification that defective printed products are rejected; and at least one monitor electrically connected to one of the plurality of networked computers for displaying at least one of the viewed images. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5)
-
-
6. A printing and rotary die cutting system for manufacturing a plurality of printed products contained on a web, comprising:
-
a printing press for printing a plurality of colors and for placing a print register mark on the web for each printed color to denote registration between the printed colors; four rotary die cutters respectively positioned to cut a printed product from the web and for placing a cut register mark on the web, each cut register mark having an associated print register mark; five cameras for producing viewed images of the web at locations that are associated with respective rotary die cutters, said printing press having a camera positioned to produce an image of the printed colors; a plurality of networked computers including a server computer, said networked computers electrically connected to said cameras to receive viewed images therefrom and including software for inspecting the viewed images of the web to measure an accuracy of the print register of the printed colors with respect to each other and to measure an accuracy of the cut register mark with respect to the associated print register mark on the web and determine whether a printed product is defective, software including a software data file located in a said networked computer for containing a list of unique printed product identification codes, and verifying and updating the software data file that defective printed products have been rejected; and at least one monitor electrically connected to the plurality of networked computers for displaying the status of defective printed products. - View Dependent Claims (7, 8)
-
-
9. A method for manufacturing printed products contained on a web using a printing press and a rotary die cutting system having a plurality of rotary die cutters, the steps comprising:
-
placing a print register mark on the web for every color printed by a printing press to denote a print register of the printed colors; placing a cut register mark on the web to denote a cut register of a rotary die cutter; creating a first viewed image of the web after it passes through the printing press using a first camera electrically connected to a networked computer; measuring an accuracy of a print register of each color with respect to each other color for each product by using at least one of the plurality of networked computers to compare from the first viewed image each print register mark with respect to the each other print register mark for each product; determining if each product is defective by the accuracy of each print register mark with respect to each other print register marks; creating a second viewed image of the web after it passes through the rotary die cutter using a second camera electrically connected to a said networked computer; measuring an accuracy of a print to cut register for each product by using at least one of the plurality of networked computers to compare the print register and the cut register from the second viewed image; determining if each product is defective by the accuracy of the cut to print register; rejecting each defective product; and verifying that each defective product was removed by using one of the networked computers. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
-
-
14. A method for manufacturing printed products contained on a web using a rotary die cutting system having a plurality of rotary die cutters, the steps comprising:
-
creating a unique identification code for each product; creating a viewed image of the product after it passes through the die cutting system using at least one camera electrically connected to a plurality of networked computers; inspecting the viewed image of the product for a defect using at least one of the plurality of networked computers; creating a software data file containing a list of defective products and their unique identification codes; rejecting the defective products; and verifying that the defective products were removed by using one of the networked computers to review the software data file. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16)
-
Specification