FULL STORY
Sibress, a leading manufacturer of measuring systems and analysers for quality assurance in flexo and packaging printing, recently upgraded its latest instrument generation to create an impressive product family. The newest family member, christened Flexo Control Universal, is convenient, portable, and can be used virtually anywhere - just like Flexo Control, the flexo analyser launched by Sibress at the beginning of the year.
This incredible versatility is one of the key features of Flexo Control Universal. The new analyser is not much bigger than a computer mouse and amazingly easy to use. It is designed for quality control of screen areas, individual printing dots, lines, and barcodes on finished flexo plates, imaged LAMS flexo plates, steel-backed letterpress plates, offset plates, and elastomer flexo plates.
Flexo Control Universal measures AM screens from 23 to 85/cm on flexo and offset plates as well as FM screens with at least 20 µm dots. The system achieves less than ±0.5 per cent repeatability in all modes.
The new Sibress product additionally measures the dots and coverage values of colour prints with AM, FM, or hybrid screens on paper, carton, and film. A newly developed algorithm carries out a precise analysis of the screen coverage values for overprint colours (blends) or critical colours like yellow.
Flexo Control Universal weighs almost nothing and is connected to the PC or notebook with a 2 metre long USB cable. It is this flexibility that also allows areas in the middle of large plates or prints to be measured and analysed without any problems.
Fully automated analyses with unbeatable precision
Flexo Control Universal captures the surfaces using an RGB colour camera equipped with a 1.3 megapixel sensor. The instrument has energy-saving LED lighting that can be activated on demand via the Versatile@flex software for capturing prints and non-translucent plates. This software, which runs under Windows 7, Vista, or XP, has been enhanced by Sibress with a redesigned and more elegant user interface. And that's not all: Versatile@flex has been systematically optimised, so that all dots in the active image area (>3 mm2) are now detected and analysed fully automatically. The values recorded for parameters such as dot per centage, linescreen, dot diameter, dot perimeter, and angle are displayed in a matter of seconds.
The auto-calibration feature, typical of the whole family, is an important advantage of Flexo Control Universal. Together with the laser-etched calibration target, included with the instrument and comprised of nine ultra-precise screen patches, this automated function guarantees accurate and reproducible analyses over a very long period of time. Flexo Control Universal is supplied with its own light box with an integrated power supply, making it much easier to measure translucent polymer plates.
Pictured above: Its incredible versatility is Flexo Control Universal's outstanding advantage. This novel instrument from the Sibress stable is designed for quality control of imaged LAMS flexo plates, finished flexo plates, letterpress plates, offset plates, elastomer flexo plates, and screened colour prints.
For more information about the Flexo Control family and all other Sibress products, see: www.sibress.com.
© Graphic Repro On-line, 23 July 2010.
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