No Wasted Efforts (Web Inspection)

Radant says there are applications where both approaches are acceptable. Wide-web printers tend to rely on sampling because they are usually looking for repeat defects. One hundred percent inspection systems are critical in applications requiring perfection, such as in the printing of pharmaceutical labels and lottery tickets. "If a patient purchases a bottle of medicine and a critical element of the directions is missing, the situation could quickly go from bad to worse," Radant says. "These systems are especially crucial when the FDA is monitoring a printer and they are audited; that printer must be able to account for every single foot of the web."