Method and machine for aligning flexographic printing plates on printing cylinders
AssigneeSys-Tec, Inc.
InventorFranco Caliari
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method for aligning at least two flexographic printing plates on at least one printing cylinder, which provides acquiring an image of a part of a first plate, memorising the acquired image, framing a part of a second plate, at the same time displaying the memorised image and the image relating to the part of the second framed plate in real time; and aligning the image framed in real time with the memorised image.
Claims25
A method for aligning at least two flexographic printing plates on respective printing cylinders, wherein each printing plate has raised parts for creating corresponding parts of a graphical motif to be printed with a particular color, said method comprising the steps of:
- placing a first plate on a respective first cylinder and placing the first cylinder on a bench under at least one image acquisition device;
- acquiring a first image of the raised part of the first plate by means of said at least one image acquisition device;
- memorizing the first image;
- memorizing at least one electronic, mechanical or optical parameter with which said first image was acquired;
- memorizing the position of said at least one image acquisition device at which said first image was acquired;
- associating a memorized parameter with said memorized position;
- removing said first cylinder from said bench;
- placing a second plate on a respective second cylinder and placing the second cylinder on the bench under said at least one image acquisition device;
- positioning said at least one image acquisition device at said memorized position and configuring said image acquisition device to the memorized parameter;
- contemporaneously displaying the memorized first image having the raised part of the first printing plate with a second image having the raised part of the second plate that is acquired in real time by the image acquisition device at the memorized position with the memorized parameter;
- and
- visually aligning the second image with the first image by moving the second plate on the second cylinder so that the image of the raised part of the second plate is drawn together with the image of the raised part of the first plate, thereby aligning the second plate with the first plate.
A machine for mounting and aligning at least two flexographic printing plates on respective printing cylinders, wherein each printing plate has raised parts for creating corresponding parts of a graphical motif to be printed with a particular color, said machine comprising:
- a bench for sequentially mounting at least a first cylinder carrying a first printing plate, and a second cylinder carrying a second printing plate;
- at least one image acquisition device for acquiring images of at least one first image of said first plate, the first image having a raised part of the first plate, when said first cylinder carrying said first plate is mounted on the bench;
- an image memorizing device for memorizing the first image having the raised part of the first plate;
- a position memorizing device for memorizing the position of said at least one image acquisition device at which said first image was acquired;
- a parameter memorizing device for memorizing at least one electronic, mechanical or optical parameter with which said first image was acquired;
- a control device for associating a memorized parameter with said memorized position such that the control device returns said at least one image acquisition device to said memorized position and configures said image acquisition device to the memorized parameter when the bench receives the second cylinder carrying the second plate;
- a display device controlled by a display controller that retrieves the memorized first image having the raised part of the first printing plate from the image memorizing device and a second image-having the raised part of the second plate that is acquired in real time by the image acquisition device at the memorized position with the memorized parameter and causes the display device to contemporaneously display the retrieved images;
- whereby the second plate is moved on the second cylinder to align the second image with the first image so that the image of the raised part of the second plate is drawn together with the image of the raised part of the first plate, thereby aligning the second plate with the first plate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.