drupa Preview: QuadTech
Quadtech to provide an amazing array of solutions for packaging, publishing, commercial
Founded in 1979, QuadTech sells its automated auxiliary control systems in 85 countries to the web offset newspaper and commercial markets and the gravure packaging and publication markets. Headquartered in Sussex, Wisconsin, USA, QuadTech maintains a worldwide network of sales and service operations, including facilities strategically located throughout Europe, in Japan, China, North and South America, Singapore, India, and Italy. QuadTech, Inc. is a subsidiary of QuadGraphics.
QuadTech® is migrating the successful QuadTech Color Control System™ (CCS), for commercial web offset printing, onto its new ICON™ platform. This platform allows multiple QuadTech products to integrate seamlessly, and be controlled from a single operator console.
The ICON-based CCS system will be shown for the first time at drupa 2004, with shipments available immediately. The new QuadTech Color Control System will maintain compatibility with ``Process AviatorÔ`` and ``Instrument FlightÒ`` from system Brunner and will be compatible with the company`s new QuadTech Data Central System which supports the market need for ``print factory`` operation.
The migration not only delivers enhanced efficiencies and cost savings, but also provides a modular and upgradeable solution to future-proof current customer investments. In addition, the modularity provides the potential for CCS to move into other markets, such as newspapers and publications gravure.
The QuadTech Color Control System was originally designed to eliminate the need for subjective judgment of colour during press runs. It uses video-based technology to automatically search for and track micro colour bars. Reading these, at full press speed, CCS provides real-time information to control colour accuracy, such as CMYK ink densities, while displaying important print attributes such as print contrast, trap and dot gain. CCS with Instrument FlightÒ, (CCS/I.F.) developed through a strategic partnership with colour specialists System Brunner, provides automated 3-color and midtone gray balance control.
More than 30 attributes of colour are measured and analyzed by CCS/I.F., before appropriate ink key adjustments are made to deliver perfect colour. QuadTEch believes that this level of analysis makes the QuadTech Color Control System the most accurate and reliable system on the market. It also allows for the most comprehensive press optimization, a key component to fully realize a true colour managed process.
``The new CCS is another completed step towards our `Lights out pressroom` concept,`` confirms Sharon Quint, Director of Marketing. ``We are striving towards complete integration of ancillary press systems to eliminate errors and minimize variations in the printing processes. We are looking forward to spreading the benefits of CCS colour control to other users.
Following its acquisition of PressTech, and with a key focus on the delivery of products for improved control and greater profitability, QuadTech® has enhanced the PressTech Autotron 2600 register system for packaging applications. To achieve this objective, the new QuadTech Autotron Packaging 2600™ has a number of new miniature scanning head options. Each MiniCam 625 head is suitable for different printing environments.
Already proven as the complete register control system for large-scale packaging printers, with thousands of installations worldwide, the latest version of the Autotron 2600 has been developed to provide the same benefits for a wider market. The excellent accuracy of registration, for which Autotron is renowned, is now augmented by additional benefits of modularity, flexibility and cost-effectiveness, making it suitable for use across the widest range of a gravure packaging applications.
``The new QuadTech Autotron Packaging 2600 has been perfected for the diversity of today`s packaging print jobs, on all varieties of specialist press equipment`` states Soma Patel, Technical Manager at QuadTech. ``Transparent and reflective substrates, `invisible` coatings such as glues and varnishes, and inline die-cutting or embossing are now becoming the norm; they all require the same high level of registration accuracy as the full packaging print run. At the same time, production margins are under pressure, so we have evolved the product to deliver higher performance for all applications at lower cost.``
With nine different QuadTech MiniCam, heads the need to use expensive `universal` scanning head technology has been minimized. Many customers will need only one or two of the new head types to cover their range of work. At a significantly lower price compared with the top-of-the-range alternative, this gives dramatic cost savings and ROI. The modular configuration and price structure of the new Autotron 2600 also means that customers are future-proofed for unknown business opportunities.
``The Autotron has proved itself worldwide thousands of times, but up until recently the sophistication of this system has made it cost-prohibitive for many small and medium-sized packaging printers. We have been working hard to address this problem, and the resulting micro-scanning heads open up a whole new market,`` concludes Patel.
``Providing quality and efficiency, the new micro-scanning heads can be used on any size press, with mechanical or shaftless drives or any non-print inline equipment, including die-cutters, sheeters, embossers, varnish, lacquer or coldseal applicators. The low price for most applications and the modular structure also make the QuadTech Autotron Packaging 2600™ suitable for the new breed of smaller packaging presses using narrow webs, while providing an easy and affordable growth path for those looking to expand their services into the future.``
QuadTech® also announced the launch of Data Central™, a sophisticated software product, designed specifically to enhance press productivity for commercial web offset and newspaper printers. It overlays the control provided by current QuadTech press controls, providing automatic configuration as well as sophisticated statistics and reports on press performance and optimization.
According to Sharon Quint, Director of Marketing, ``QuadTech Data Central is the next stage in our passion to turn printing into a process in which there are no bottlenecks, ambiguities, inconsistencies or unknowns. This approach will give dramatic workflow benefits and waste savings.``
