Print Inspection System Spots Defects If there is one piece of equipment that is sure to provide an immediate return on investment, it is a print inspection system.

However, the company believes that until now there has been a gap in the market between the basic video web inspection systems and the mid range 'active' area scan inspection systems.

The latter monitor colour, detect defects 100 per cent in the area a camera is looking at before moving on to the next viewing area and verifying bar and pharmaceutical codes.

Above all, a print inspection system is a quality control tool that should provide the operator with perfect picture quality and features, which will make it substantially easier for him to produce the highest quality print, with as little waste as possible and with the minimum of setting up and down time.

To date, the two technologies used in the manufacture of 'active' inspection systems are 'line-scan', which should provide true 100 per cent print error detection and 'area-scan' that it is said allows the detection of errors on part of the web.

Both types of technology and the systems they produce are useful but prohibitively expensive for many printing companies, said Tectonic.

Many companies are under strong pressure to achieve a more predictable result and ensure the colour output is maintained on-line, through the run and matches the brand image.

Launched in 2005, Tectonic International said that it has used TI DSP image processing technology in the development of the printing industry's first, low-cost, high resolution, 'active' inspection system K2colour.

Using the colour monitoring algorithms based on the industry standard CIE Lab colour space model developed for Tectonics' Jaguar print inspection system, Tectonic said that K2colour is a simple to use system capable of monitoring and displaying the colour stability of the print process.

For little more than the cost of many entry level systems the 'active' K2colour system checks for colour drift within the operators pre-set tolerances and 'alarms' violation as soon as the colour starts to drift.

That way adjustment can be made before colour drift is apparent to the human eye.

As well as colour monitoring, K2colour is said to provide job store and wireless or networked image transfer so that nominated personnel can check the print quality from any installed K2 by grabbing live images from their personal PC inside the factory.

When received by the PC the date and time of transfer is shown on the image along with other useful information and the live image can be stored, shared with others for discussion or emailed to a customer as a proof.

Data can be tailored to suit our customer's requirement.

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