What Can Sheet-Fed Press Automation Do? 4 Quick Videos

Some sheet-fed presses have lots of talents, so what can you expect from yours? Take a few minutes to watch these videos to see four ways sheet-fed press automation can save time and improve quality.

Video 1: How to produce full-bleed booklets on a digital press

How do you get a crisp, full-page bleed for booklet making? Take this end-to-end virtual tour to see into the workings of a press automation in action. In a little over three minutes, you’ll be introduced to how automation supports this profitable, popular application.

Watch a job that uses:

• Both heavier cover stocks and text-weight body pages
• A single print-ready file
• Pre-printed inserts at any time

Watch a job end-to-end as it’s submitted to the DFE hold queue. Follow the screen as the operator goes through easy steps to impose, choose sheet size, set orientation, make media choices, and add folding and trimming. Preprinted covers can be loaded through the inserter, while flexible workflow brings them in earlier in the workflow. This modularity gives you more control and flexibility over the finishing chain. Finishing options for inline booklets have kept pace with digital presses, so there are fewer slowdowns and interruptions.

Video 2: How automation improves image transfer results on a digital press

How much time has your team spent manually examining work and putting production on hold to catch mistakes and make sure jobs turn out okay? This used to be the only option, but now automation has caught up with the problem.

Automation makes it easier to work with heavy or specialty media. Watch the video to learn what it takes to print these stocks correctly, as built-in capabilities chip away at the manual workload, and press automation eliminates operator subjectivity in image quality decisions. The image transfer tool scans and reads patches of variant charges and automatically decides which offer the best quality. It just takes a few pages and a few minutes to do this. The video walks you through this simple but powerful tool in about two and a half minutes

Video 3: How to use automation tools to manage a press stock library

Setting up new stocks and managing a stock library can be an ongoing burden. The more clients and work you had, the harder it can be to keep up. Press automation again comes to the rescue. Automation tools let operators set up the library, then just dial up a stock, and the press will be optimized correctly for that stock every time it’s used. The guesswork goes away.

It will only take a few minutes to watch the video and see how easy it is to add custom stocks to your media list. Follow along as the operator takes you through an example. New stock set up covers attributes by size, weight, coating and others. The paper catalog at the DFE automatically updates.

After operators correctly enter stocks the first time they’re used, it minimizes set up on future runs. An operator can call out a stock by name without having to redefine all the attributes. Stock conditions and updates are automatically communicated between the DFE and the stock library manager. This contributes to consistent uptime.

Video 4: How to automate image to media alignment

This video explains how to automate adjustment of image-to-media alignment with full width array. It’s a prime example of notable automation built into a sheet-fed digital press. This tool helps take time out of set up and gives it back to production. The image-to-media alignment tool and full width array take time-consuming manual guesswork out of registration. Business cards, multi-up jobs and booklets with crossovers print perfectly aligned and ready for finishing. Watch an actual walk-through of the tool to really appreciate how simple this task can now be.

• See how to create new alignment profiles through the DFE
• Get tips for naming profiles for better management and easier reference
• Watch the real-time progress of auto-alignment, including test sheet printing.

All this and more in a video that less than three and a half minutes. In fact, you can watch all four press automation videos in less than 12 minutes. Who doesn’t have time for that? And if you want to continue learning, download this guide: “The automation of craft. The craft of automation” to learn how craft and automation coexist in digital printing.