UK's Systems Labelling installs five CHECKpress inspectors

-- Converting Magazine, 5/13/2008

Wales-based Systems Labelling (www.systemslabelling.co.uk) invests in five CHECKpress web-inspection systems from Surfscan Technologies (www.surfscantech.com) on four Mark Andy (www.markandy.com) 8-color 4150 presses and one Comco flexographic press. The units, configured using 200 hours of programming time by Surfscan’s development team to meet the label converter’s precise requirements, are expected to be fully operational this month.

“Quality lies at the heart of everything we do here,” explains Systems Labelling sales director Tony Exford. “When I explain to our customers and potential customers the sophistication of the Surfscan system, they are rightly impressed. By offering 100% validated inspection, it takes the issue of poor quality out of the equation and underpins our own quality claims.”

Systems Labelling once owed 70% of its turnover to the milk-label production business but then decided to diversify and invested in a Dixon coater, a management information system (MIS) and Kodak platesetters. Now, milk labels account for 35% of its current US$20 million turnover while other business has boomed until the company now produces around two billion labels/yr covering in-mould, “no label look,” 36-40 micron wrap, board printing and compostable.

Part of the reason for selecting the CHECKpress system was its ability to dovetail with the MIS even to the point of producing roll maps on the presses and then conducting final checks on a series of Arpeco and Scantech rewinders via an Ethernet connection. One of the many spin-off benefits of the CHECKpress, according to Systems Labelling, is waste reduction. The CHECKpress has been programmed to measure ink density using its greyscale value, and this enables advance warning of ink run-out to be given, which in turn saves operator time.