In the context of investing in a new 10-color gravure press from Worldly, packaging producer Shrinkflex (Thailand) Co., Ltd. decided to equip it with a high-end register control system and high-performance inspection technology from BST eltromat. Both for Shrinkflex and for Worldly, their cooperation with the German manufacturer was a premiere – and the start of a new partnership at the same time.

Oishi, Cosmos, CP Meiji, Kao, Mistine, BiO Manufacturing, and numerous other names familiar in Thailand and the whole of Southeast Asia – the client list of Shrinkflex (Thailand) Co., Ltd., based in Bang Pakong near Bangkok, is like the Who's Who of the region's branded goods industry. Established in 2007 and specializing in gravure printing, the company currently has a staff of roughly 250 employees and is the leading local manufacturer of shrink labels for branded goods.

"We can only proactively cover the constantly growing quality demands of our clients if we fully exploit today's technical capabilities in quality assurance as well," says Michael Tsoi, founder and owner of Shrinkflex. "That's why we asked Worldly to equip our new WRP-MV gravure press with the latest technology from BST eltromat for register control, video web inspection and 100% print inspection." That was a premiere for Shrinkflex – after all, the company had previously used quality assurance systems from other manufacturers.

Shrinkflex took PackPrint 2013 in Bangkok as an opportunity to carefully examine the offers of the various suppliers of corresponding technologies. "The decision came out clearly in favor of 100% inspection with iPQ-Check and video web inspection with iPQ-View from BST eltromat," reports Michael Tsoi. The same applied to regi_star 20, once the responsible decision-makers at Shrinkflex had seen a presentation of this register control system's capabilities – achieving rapid registration and maintaining register during production with a high degree of automation.

"What impressed us most about regi_star 20 was the performance of the intelligent RGB sensor and the information content of the real-time, live production images displayed on the machine operator's monitor," says Klive Lai, junior boss of Worldly Industrial Co., Ltd. from Taichung City in Taiwan, recalling a visit by the experts from BST eltromat to his company. The cooperation with this manufacturer is a premiere for Worldly, too.

Like no other register control system, the regi_star 20 sensor detects even the faintest contrasts on printed film packagings, such as are particularly encountered when dealing with cold seal and lacquers. The 1-pixel color camera of regi_star 20 also reliably "sees" very low-contrast marks, displaying them on the operator's monitor in the form of live color images. Consequently, even these print marks can be unequivocally assigned, and the settings precisely adjusted without interrupting production. So, the days are gone when machine operators occasionally found it hard to ascertain whether they had selected the right print marks for register control.

"In turn, it was the high error-detection performance of iPQ-Check and the unique image quality of iPQ-View that convinced us," says Klive Lai. On top of which, the systems of the modular, network-based iPQ-Center solution for quality assurance in web printing feature a standard, intuitive multi-touch user interface and thus offer great operating convenience. For instance, the highly convenient gesture control familiar from smartphones gives the machine operators central access to all functions – all the way from zooming to the selection of any desired image areas.

"With the solutions from BST eltromat, we give our customers better opportunities than ever for reliably meeting the quality targets of their clients – and for easily and completely documenting the fact," says his father and CEO Fu-Lai Lai, summing up how Worldly benefits from the partnership with the German full-line supplier. He says Worldly also welcomes the establishment of BST eltromat South East Asia Co. Ltd. in Bangkok in the fall of 2015. It is very useful to have a local point of contact with competent partners to handle joint customer projects.

The new gravure press, including the innovative quality assurance systems, was delivered to the ultra-modern Shrinkflex facility in mid-February 2015. "With regi_star 20, it now only takes about half a minute to set up the register control system, including presetting of the register rollers, the lateral cylinder position and the mark positions. At the same time, we have about 200 meters less start-up waste per job in comparison with other register control systems," says Mucharin Buahorm, pointing out decisive improvements. As QA/QC Manager at Shrinkflex, she is ultimately responsible for the satisfaction of the ISO-certified company's clients.

She says Shrinkflex partly owes this to the fact that the automatic scanning technology of the regi_star 20 register mark sensor perfectly supports BST eltromat's single-head measuring procedure. This unique technology permits not only sequential control for a rapid production start, but also key color control for optimum production quality. If the machine operators select sequential control during setup, i.e. use of the respectively preceding mark as the reference, the register control system automatically switches to fixed and sequential measurement at the start of production. That means convenient setup and guaranteed quality in packaging production.

"At the same time, the rapid error detection and great operating convenience of the iPQ systems enable the machine operators to react very quickly," says Mucharin Buahorm, adding two further aspects. She says the significant reduction in waste is a key factor for profitability, especially in the case of tightly costed jobs.

The way to the new gravure press leads through a shop where postpress systems are installed. Even there, everything already looks very clean and tidy. We quickly pass through this shop and then enter the generously dimensioned, brightly lit pressroom, where the WRP-MV has been operating since spring 2015. The first thing that catches our eye is the machine's rewind unit. A few steps farther, and we can see the multi-touch monitor of the video web inspection system. And then also the traverse of this quality assurance system, which is integrated in the material path, driven by an electric motor and bears a high-resolution digital camera, whose high-performance flash optimally and uniformly illuminates the entire printing area. On the printing units, in turn, we are struck by the register mark sensors and the professionally installed fiber optic leads of the register control system.

The machine is just being set up for a job where shrink labels for a fruit juice are to be produced. The machine operators have an impressively fast, established routine for setting up the BST eltromat register control system and the quality assurance systems integrated into a single solution. The entire machine is ready to go in next to no time, and production begins. The WRP-MV reaches its maximum printing speed of 230 m/min just a few moments later. That kind of performance is no real challenge, either for regi_star 20 or for iPQ-View or iPQ-Check – all these systems would work just as reliably at four times the speed.

The monitor of the video web inspection system displays real-time, live images of the shrink labels just being produced. The split-screen display of iPQ-View compares the current, live production images with a reference image. The machine operators repeatedly switch back and forth between the full printing format and detail views. They have previously programmed the individual camera positions in the control system and can now simply retrieve them at the push of a button. Moreover, there are various optical zoom functions that enable the machine operators to vary the field of view without any loss of display quality.

The iPQ-Check monitor likewise displays live images. The high-performance 4K RGB line scan cameras of this inspection system provide very high-resolution visualization of the quality of the printing on the shrink labels just being produced – and they do so completely, over the entire printing format. As with iPQ-View, the machine operators compare the live images with a reference image of the fruit juice shrink label. They can intervene in the process to correct even the slightest deviations before they cause waste. Intelligent error classification enables them to distinguish between process-related and sporadic errors. And, of course, all deviations from the reference values are also displayed in diagrams and in the form of statistics.

The high performance of these quality control systems is partly due to the special camera link, which permits extremely rapid data transport in image processing. At the same time, the information is visualized on the monitors at a very high pixel rate. Also very convenient for Shrinkflex are the options for completely documenting the stability of the quality achieved during production and exporting the results in XML format. All detected errors are recorded. For instance, iPQ-Check documents the first and last image of every error, as well as the image of the greatest error – that facilitates communication with the customer.

The innovative technology from BST eltromat was also received very well in the pressroom. "We've got a better grip on the quality demands of our customers than ever before. At the same time, our printing staff have far less stress," says automation expert Michael Tsoi, summing up the progress achieved. And not only does Shrinkflex produce on Worldly machines, but Michael Tsoi is also the representative of the Taiwanese press manufacturer in Thailand. Consequently, many potential users from the region will get the opportunity to see the BST eltromat technologies for register control, digital web inspection and 100% print inspection that have now been installed on a gravure press from Worldly for the first time – live and working under real production conditions in practical operation.