As we all know, metal flake printing has the following characteristics: expensive raw materials; strict quality standards for printing and coating; short processing and circulation time for each production process through which the flakes flow. This requires fast and efficient online quality inspection of the coating and printing of each sheet to ensure that the products flowing to the next process are defect-free and minimize material waste.
According to two press releases issued by ISRA VISION, a world-renowned supplier of metal sheet printing and coating surface inspection systems in the past few months, its two well-proven metal sheet coating and printing online inspection solutions CoatSTAR and DecoSTAR Two important functions have been added each, which are said to further optimize the quality control of in-line inspection of coating and printing, and significantly improve production efficiency.
New features of CoatSTAR, an online inspection system for metal sheet coating
CoatSTAR is used for in-line inspection of coating defects in metal sheets, and two new functions include the detection of sheets that have accidentally turned over and the elimination of false defects caused by the movement of sheets.
Detecting Accidentally Overturned Sheets During the coating process, if the metal sheet is accidentally overturned, the non-coated side (also the printed side) will face up, which can lead to defects later in the production process.
With the new function, the inspection system can detect such potential defects early, preventing the problematic sheet from entering the subsequent process and further processing, thus avoiding the waste of material.
Eliminate spurious defects due to sheet position movement Changes in conveyor speed can sometimes cause slight bends in the metal sheet to detect false positives (ie spurious defects). Since material movement exists objectively in the production process, if the influence of material movement can be ignored, it will be very beneficial to the detection effect.
The newly added “Advanced Sheet Shift Compensation” is a brand new algorithm that eliminates the aforementioned false defects caused by material position shifts, significantly improving production efficiency.
New Features of DecoSTAR Inline Inspection System for Metal Sheet Printing
DecoSTAR is used for online detection of metal flake printing defects, adding automatic detection of color block bars and PDF comparison for printing highly similar patterns.
Auto Detect Patch Bar The new Auto Detect Patch Bar feature is said to automatically locate the measurement point, ensuring reliable color monitoring from the first sheet print, improving color fidelity across the batch Spend. In addition, this special function can also be applied to the set-up process before printing, so that the printing time is greatly reduced.
PDF comparison function for printing highly similar patterns When printing highly similar patterns, such as the same image with different serial numbers, logos, or the same pattern with different service contacts in a specific region, it may fail due to incorrect plate replacement. produce defects.
This feature compares printed images with standard PDF documents, thereby significantly reducing content errors in the printing process of metal sheets.
Latest use case: Decostar helps Turkish can maker improve sheet metal printing efficiency and quality, reducing material waste.
Turkish can maker ARKIN METAL’s products include oil cans, food cans, and various other metal packaging. Its customers are bottling plants, which place extremely high demands on the printing quality of metal cans.
Key Benefits of DecoSTAR In addition to the aforementioned additions, DecoSTAR is said to have the following key benefits.
First, perfect printing quality is ensured through high-precision measurement and motion compensation of the metal flakes.
Second, continuous defects can be classified and eliminated.
Third, the 8K color camera ensures comprehensive inspection of up to 10,000 metal sheets per hour, enabling reliable detection of defects as small as 0.03 mm2. These defects include missing printing, flying ink, pasting, and color deviation.
Fourth, DecoSTAR can systematically analyze the collected data to provide a basis for manufacturers to optimize production. In addition, it records the size of various defects in printed metal flakes, which simplifies documentation and helps manufacturers communicate with their customers.
All in all, this inspection solution is able to distinguish all possible defects in the printing process, resulting in reproducible quality at high production speeds.
