Integrated and computer controlled printing press, inspection rewinder and die cutter system

A printing and rotary die cutting system for manufacturing a plurality of printed products contained on a web, comprising:

• a printing press for printing a plurality of colors and for placing a print register mark on the web for each printed color to denote registration between the printed colors;
• four rotary die cutters respectively positioned to cut a printed product from the web and for placing a cut register mark on the web, each cut register mark having an associated print register mark;
• five cameras for producing viewed images of the web at locations that are associated with respective rotary die cutters, said printing press having a camera positioned to produce an image of the printed colors;
• a plurality of networked computers including a server computer, said networked computers electrically connected to said cameras to receive viewed images therefrom and including software for inspecting the viewed images of the web to measure an accuracy of the print register of the printed colors with respect to each other and to measure an accuracy of the cut register mark with respect to the associated print register mark on the web and determine whether a printed product is defective, software including a software data file located in a said networked computer for containing a list of unique printed product identification codes, and verifying and updating the software data file that defective printed products have been rejected;
• and
• at least one monitor electrically connected to the plurality of networked computers for displaying the status of defective printed products.

A method for manufacturing printed products contained on a web using a printing press and a rotary die cutting system having a plurality of rotary die cutters, the steps comprising:

• placing a print register mark on the web for every color printed by a printing press to denote a print register of the printed colors;
• placing a cut register mark on the web to denote a cut register of a rotary die cutter;
• creating a first viewed image of the web after it passes through the printing press using a first camera electrically connected to a networked computer;
• measuring an accuracy of a print register of each color with respect to each other color for each product by using at least one of the plurality of networked computers to compare from the first viewed image each print register mark with respect to the each other print register mark for each product;
• determining if each product is defective by the accuracy of each print register mark with respect to each other print register marks;
• creating a second viewed image of the web after it passes through the rotary die cutter using a second camera electrically connected to a said networked computer;
• measuring an accuracy of a print to cut register for each product by using at least one of the plurality of networked computers to compare the print register and the cut register from the second viewed image;
• determining if each product is defective by the accuracy of the cut to print register;
• rejecting each defective product;
• and
• verifying that each defective product was removed by using one of the networked computers.

A method for manufacturing printed products contained on a web using a rotary die cutting system having a plurality of rotary die cutters, the steps comprising:

• creating a unique identification code for each product;
• creating a viewed image of the product after it passes through the die cutting system using at least one camera electrically connected to a plurality of networked computers;
• inspecting the viewed image of the product for a defect using at least one of the plurality of networked computers;
• creating a software data file containing a list of defective products and their unique identification codes;
• rejecting the defective products;
• and
• verifying that the defective products were removed by using one of the networked computers to review the software data file.