Inline Density System - IDS

The technological improvement of operations is essential in the market and measuring is an integral part of modern industrial production processes. That is why, with the IDS (inline density system), Grapho Metronic is taking a further step towards process automation in offset printing. The acquisition of process parameters directly during production ensures rapid compensation of fluctuations of the printing process and hence high printing quality and less waste paper.

With the IDS, a print control strip with 4 mm (2 mm in future) field height is measured inline highly dynamically and the printer is relieved completely. Besides regular measurement fields for up to eight colours, the print control strip can also contain special measurement fields for grey balance, trapping, printing contrast and doubling.

The measurement speed is adapted to the speed of modern illustration machines, i.e. an entire BCMY measured value record is measured in less than a second at a maximum of 15 m/sec (20 m/sec in the future). With this high information density, the IDS quickly achieves very dynamic control for the generation of ideal printing results for press proof, production printing and also for starting up again after washing.

This high measurement speed is achieved across the entire width of the paper due to the parallel alignment of the densitometer. All format widths can be measured due to the modular design. Besides the high measurement speed, the modular alignment has further advantages compared to traversing system. Due to its stable design without moving parts, the system is not subjected to the usual wear due to high mechanical loads and is therefore trouble-free. Ease of maintenance is achieved by the system due to the remote control and the replaceability of the measurement modules by the printing staff.

Densitometric measurements can be taken in compliance with standards with the IDS due to an appropriate measurement geometry and lighting or filters, i.e. absolute measurements are possible, which means also the adoption of specifications from the preliminary stage (CIP), for the control on the basis of real density values and the difference in density between wet and dry ink is eliminated by measuring with polarization filters.

High-performance LEDs in blue, green and red are used for lighting. The LEDs are highly efficient in terms of light output and almost entirely wear-free. A special CCD chip, which meets the conditions in terms of measurement precision, dynamics and temperature range, is used as receiver.

With the IDS a large step has been made towards process automation in printing due to process-conformant and high frequency density measurements, from the rotation (from Dico up to Lithoman) up to sheet printing (Roland 900 XXL).