WHAT IS PRINT 4.0?
Briefly PRINT 4.0 (Industry 4.0) results higher level of automation, greater efficiency and of course, better quality in your production and business processes.
WHAT DOES THIS MEAN IN PRACTICE?
We have networked our products and solved the perfect flow of information between our systems. Then, as a next step, we solved that our systems could connect to the systems of our customers. To do this, we have created a new universal interface (gateway) so that the machines can communicate with your enterprise management systems (ERP). Not only data, but also processed production information can be transmitted to other systems and we can also receive the data.
Once the connection is established, we provide the information processed from the large amount of data collected by our machines to your systems and flexibly customize it to your needs and processes to optimize the flow of information. We find that even this step results in a significant increase in efficiency throughout production.
We achieve a higher degree of automation and a significant leap in quality assurance, and our machines can thus be integrated into the corporate management systems and ERP systems of others. You can plan and manage your production processes more easily and quickly, get information faster, and even build a customer information system based on those systems.
WHAT MAKES THESE SYSTEMS EASIER TO OPERATE?
In the printing industry, it's all about the optimal human-machine interactions. With this approach, we designed new, more efficient user interfaces with large multitouch displays and a much greater work comfort. Everything is simplified on the operating side. Easy to learn, practically minimal learning time on the software side.
We have multiplatform operator software, which can operate flexibly on several different displays, and it also opened up a wide range of options for remote control and display of processed information on several devices. For example, if you want to track production data on a mobile phone, PRINT 4.0 is a solution, or if you want to remotely control certain functions or settings from another system or send information centrally to our printing machines via your own system, PRINT 4.0. Simplicity and flexibility are the main guiding principles.
WHAT CHANGE DOES IT ALL MAKE IN SERVICE AND SUPPORT?
We have been using remote monitoring and remote service for more than 10 years, which we have extended to all our machines. With the help of this, we provide continuous and fast technical and on-demand technological support to our customers. PRINT 4.0 in this area means that we are using more and more sensors and collecting large amounts of data about our machines. With this, we get a better view of the condition of our machines and with predictive maintenance and many years of experience, we can recognize potential failures well before they occur. Relying on state-of-the-art German technology for machine drives, we can predict warnings and faults, which makes maintenance more predictable and significantly reduces downtime due to technical problems.
IN WHICH DIRECTION IS PRINT 4.0 DEVELOPING?
Primarily, data collection provides the basis for developments and improvements are taking place in three main areas:
1. Collection of production data for quality assurance purposes. Our machines are equipped with the most advanced print control and inspection system, which not only signals errors to the operator, but the collected data is used to continuously ensure and verify the quality of the production process. Data from the print inspection system provides information about the errors. This is the vision of the machine, this is its “eye”.
“It’s not good enough to print in good quality. Quality must also be constantly measured and guaranteed to customers.”
2. Operators work on the software that represents the soul of the machine, who corrects the errors noticed by the machine's print monitoring system. We also collect data in this area in order to further adapt our software to the needs and work style of the operators. When we observe the interventions that operators solve for printing problems detected by a machine, these two pieces of information are the basis for machine learning.
3. Machine learning is used to help our machines learn the relationships between printing errors and operator solutions. We see that in the near future, our machines will be able to not only detect the most common printing errors, but also intervene and resolve them, but even prevent them where appropriate. All this, of course, with human authorization, but later also in a fully automatic way.
SINERGY EFFECT
The most important effect of PRINT 4.0 is that increasing the efficiency of our machines also has a positive effect on the efficiency of the related environment. They also make it possible for a company's existing processes to improve and accelerate. Overall, it results in a higher efficiency and better manufacturing process. Our systems can not only provide data, but better and better information, which increases the efficiency of our customers at the system level. Another related synergy effect that we are already experiencing is that nowadays the design and quality of services as well as the user and customer experience are becoming increasingly important in the printing industry as well. Our customers expect ever better quality and faster information. The information and flexibility provided by PRINT 4.0 also helps to better serve them with an up-to-date customer information system.
Contact us and get an insight into the specific customized practical benefits and opportunities we offer through our innovative award-winning technologies.
