With the advances in technology and the rapidly evolving nature of the printing industry, printers are continually evaluating and purchasing products, as well as services, in order to gain a competitive advantage. One of the most popular forms of technology that is being used across multiple industries is 100% vision inspection systems.
The vision inspection systems were first introduced in the 1980s, which was about the same time that the automatic robotic assembly and artificial intelligence begun attracting attention. The earliest systems suffered from a number of complicated programming requirements, poor performance and challenging installations. Some of the improvements in the technology allowed the printing industry the ability to begin using the vision inspection systems in order to improve their quality and accuracy.
The earliest adopters of this technology were gravure, narrow web and flexographic printers that were seeking a way to check the printed material from roll to roll. As the technology continued to develop, the printers who were conscious of quality, began to adopt the vision inspection systems for their quality control in a number of different ways.
There are five different components used by vision inspection systems for receiving, analyzing and interpreting the image of the real scene: data transfer technology, software, hardware, frame grabber and camera. As the components are continually improved, vision inspection systems have become much more powerful and sophisticated. It allows printers to control a much wider range of concerns regarding quality control, such as verification, barcode recognition, variable data and color consistency.
As the features and upgrades of the equipment have continued to improve, businesses have to evaluate if they should invest in the technology in order to improve the profitability and performance of their company. In the past 20 years, the dramatic changes that have occurred have forced the printing industry businesses to decide which of the technologies are necessary for their survival. The primary reasons that printing companies invest in vision inspection systems include improved efficiency and quality, an opportunity in new markets and customer demand.
Modern vision inspection equipment offers superior results with 100 percent accuracy. This allows those in the printing industry to provide their customers with the quality products they desire in an efficient and timely manner. These satisfied customers lead to more business and referrals, which eventually lead to more profits for the printing business.
