Quality Control: Measure it, Control it!

Ouch! Not the rubber ruler!

Goldberg believes it has taken years for printers to understand the need for quality control tools. In fact, he maintains, the idea that flexo plates can be measured at all has not yet sunk in, although he acknowledges that the offset industry has been aware of the need for plate measuring systems “a little longer.” With flexography in particular, he says, the difficulty stemmed from the perception that flexo platemaking “(had) no dot gain, no variability in the front and back exposing devices, completely uniform and non-varying washout process, and was immune to human error.” To the extent this attitude persists, Goldberg says, the results of inattention to plate process control can be dire in terms of both quality and productivity.