Do you know the volume of your Anilox rollers? You may think you do, but are you correct?
Adrian Buratta
Saving companies thousands by reducing waste ink and substrate as well as increasing productivity and profitability.
Do you know the volume of your anilox rollers?
Knowing the current characteristics of each anilox roll used in your company would have many advantages and would probably save many problems in the course of production. In addition, the precise knowledge of their status can lead to high savings potential in the area of time required for set-up and adjustment as well as to a noticeable reduction in the waste rate.?All this taken together directly increases the profitability of production.
The volume variance as a problem
But it is not enough just to know the average cell volume of the rollers.?The variance, i.e., the volume differences along the roll barrel, is at least as important.?Such deviations can arise for two reasons: insufficient cleaning or wear and tear due to long use or excessive squeegee pressure on certain positions.?In practice, variance is one of the biggest obstacles to productivity in setup processes.?If these are too high, even repeated and complex adjustment measures cannot counteract this, which inevitably has a negative effect on the print quality.
The Anilox Roll Management System
In order to have all important roller parameters under control, a corresponding anilox roller management system is required.?With our AMS Software, Troika Systems offers such a solution.?With a click of the mouse, the software takes over the measurement of the anilox rollers with the 3D scanning microscope system AniCAM HD? from Troika Systems for measuring and monitoring the cell volume and enters this into the individual roller histories.?A continuous overview of the wear and the volume variance of each roll in the company is achieved in the form of a report list with all parameters and as a graphic representation.
Regular measurement of all anilox rolls with AniCAM HD? and the AMS anilox roll management system enables immediate identification of rolls that require complex colour adjustments or are even defective.?Knowing the individual properties also enables a pre-selection of roller sets with suitable parameters for each print job.
The three-dimensional measurement with AniCAM HD?
With the AniCAM HD?, Troika Systems has presented the latest generation of the AniCAM system with many thousands of devices already in use worldwide.?The system is used to determine volumes, depths, web widths, distances, angles and screen widths and enables the measurements to be managed using specially developed management software for anilox rolls.
Due to the noticeable savings in waste that can be achieved and the resulting improved sustainability in production, which can be achieved with the use of the AniCAM HD? and the AMS anilox roller management software, Troika Systems has already received the Stationers Innovation Award 2021.
The AMS Anilox Management System
After each individual roll measurement, the corresponding results are transferred to the AMS (Anilox Management System) with a mouse click.?This is a database that provides a roll and volume/wear history based on the measured values.?The AMS application can be ideally used to monitor all roles in the company.?The following example of an anilox roller, which was measured at three positions, serves to illustrate the performance of this application.
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Individual roller history
The results of the first measurements along the bale (reference measurements) are displayed in the top pane.?All subsequent measurements are displayed in reverse order below the reference measurement - this means that the last measurement is always directly below the first measurement for direct comparison.
Wear graphic
The graphical display of volume and depth measurements in Figure 3 shows user-definable limits for good, pass, and bad.?It therefore gives clear indications as to the usability of the respective rollers in the printing press.
Overview of all rollers used
The report views of the anilox roll management system provide detailed information about the current status of every roll in the company.?These are listed with their unique roll ID, grid width, delivery date, manufacturer name, current volume, variance and current capacity in percentage comparison to the first (reference) measurement.?The report lists can be sorted and filtered according to a wide variety of criteria.
The report views of the anilox roll management system provide detailed information about the current status of each roll.
The Magnetic option
A magnet option allows the positioning of the AniCAM HD? in any position, even on hard-to-reach anilox rollers, which is the case, for example, with many older corrugated printing machines.?It is based on magnetic feet and special internal drive couplings, which enable the AniCAM to be positioned on steel cylinders or steel rollers that are otherwise inaccessible in the machine.
Savings through systematic measurement
Troika Systems Limited is one of the leading manufacturers of scanning microscopes for the 2D and 3D measurement of anilox rollers, Flexo printing plates, gravure cylinders as well as coating, embossing and decorating rollers.?There are now many thousands of AniCAM and SurfaceCAM 3D systems in use worldwide, including over 200 in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.?
The typical savings potential associated with the use of such systems in print shops is up to 55% in the area of reducing ink rejects, 15% in reducing waste and 5% in increasing productivity.