The Graphic Positioning System, or smartGPS, developed for central impression (CI) flexographic presses, is one of BOBST’s major pioneering innovations in the development of digitalized automation for the packaging industry.
Launched in 2007, it caused a sensation when it was shown in demonstration at drupa the following year. In 2010, it won the prestigious FTA Technical Innovation Award.
To briefly recap its capabilities, let’s look at how it revolutionized flexographic printing:
- All registration and impression settings are set automatically offline at the plate mounting stage, unlike conventional systems performing the setup in the press through a manual or automatic optical process of trial and error
- smartGPS completes setup in less than six minutes, generating a substrate waste that averages 45 feet—the overall length of the press—instead of 30 minutes to 40 minutes for an 8-color press
- smartGPS virtually eliminates waste of substrate, ink, solvent, energy, machine time and labor costs, while significantly accelerating changeover times and increasing press availability for production—all by avoiding the need to set up impression and register while the substrate is running in the press
In 2010, smartGPS, became available as a retrofit on installed presses and to this day, it has continued to be incrementally updated in terms of both synchronizing the workflow with the new-generation CI flexographic presses, and enhancing the system’s performance for even faster setup and lower maintenance.
Integrated Controls
Since 2015, BOBST’s own plate mounter—with a measuring bar and measuring head integrated in—is delivered together with smartGPS. Systematizing and standardizing the printing process ensures decisive quality improvements in terms of accuracy and stability.
Another improvement that helps the operator achieve higher mounting quality is the HD camera system with integrated register quality control. It recognizes different dots and shows deviations from the dots to the “0” position in micron range, showing the exact needed position of plates in a traffic light system. Since every print job is scanned and a topography is created, the operator at mounting stage can identify other faults like the formation of bubbles under the plates—visible on the topography as high and low spots on a micron range.
Quality check also can be performed by scanning the complete circumference of the converter’s printing tools, like sleeves, adapters and anilox rolls. By documenting their topography, converters can detect any damage and track the tools’ lifecycles.
To date, there are more than 350 smartGPS systems installed worldwide. It is currently available for the BOBST range of printing presses for flexible materials—from the fully automated MASTER CI through to the EXPERT CI and VISION CI models—as well as the MASTER CI 90SIX for high-end applications in the preprinted linerboard market.
“Quality check also can be performed by scanning the complete circumference of the converter’s printing tools, like sleeves, adapters and anilox rolls. By documenting their topography, converters can detect any damage and track the tools’ lifecycles.”
Still, BOBST continues to make the smart GPS more efficient in many ways. For instance, since RFID chips need cleaning and maintenance over time to be able to read the data, the new-generation smartGPS II, which will be commercially available in 2023, permits printing parameters from the mounter to be digitally communicated to the printing press to support the automation features in the setup. That means no more RFID chips are needed in the sleeves, leading to a reduction of cost for sleeves for converters and easier management of the system by the press operators.