Eye On Inspection

• John Woolley, VP sales and marketing, PC Industries: The typical package printer can inspect either on-press or on an inspection rewinder. Inspection systems installed on an inspection rewinder usually provide 100 percent inspection of the web 100 percent of the time. Digital area scan cameras are superior in these applications because the accuracy of the vision system isn’t affected by speed changes or web guiding issues. Inspection systems installed on a printing press can be one of three types: 1) Basic web viewer without defect detection; 2) 100 percent repeat inspection (or sampling inspection), which uses one camera that will automatically move across the web and provide defect detection; and 3) 100 percent web inspection which uses multiple cameras to provide defect detection on 100 percent of the web.