North American Manufacturing

The Web Handling Research Center studies the science and technology that drive web handling. WEB HANDLING IS a science every packaging printer or converter should understand. It's applied physics that carries a continuous-roll substrate through printing and/or converting machines with the goal being a defect-free end product. The Web Handling Research Center (WHRC), based at Oklahoma State University in Stillwater, Okla., has spent the last 20 years studying this science. The WHRC was initiated in 1986 as a National Science Foundation center with a mission "to advance the knowledge base in technologies applicable to the transport and control of continuous-strip materials through processes and

A look at today's cost-cutting web-handling technologies. TODAY'S PRESS OPERATORS don't have to be the fiddling wizards of yesteryear's press rooms. As technology continues to improve, operators have less tinkering to do in order to keep the web in register and maintain the appropriate tension control than compared to even a few years ago. Automatically adjusting edge detectors and rolls designed to mitigate web-troubling deflection, to name just a couple, make an operator's job that much easier. But even with the most advanced technology available, do all printers and converters need top-of-the-line web handling equipment? "If you define top-of-the-line equipment as expensive or

Proper web guiding, tension, and register control are basic ingredients needed for good print quality results. PRINT REGISTRATION IS one of the first things packagePRINTING's Excellence Awards judges inspect when assessing the print quality of contest entries. For our expert panel, it's an easy variable to assess, and is used as an initial culling point to "separate the men from the boys." Entries will not contend for a first-place finish if they are not produced with good print registration. This is clearly understood in the industry, but not everyone pays enough attention to some of the web-handling issues that directly impact registration, says Henry

WITH WINTER WEATHER firmly in place, warmth is something that is on everyone's mind. Here's something that is sure to add some heat to 2004. packagePrinting has put together a collection of the hot products of 2004. In categories including prepress, presses, press accessories, substrates, and inks/adhesives, converters can get a glimpse of the latest package-printing products. Prepress Creo Creo's HyperFlex™ screening is new technology aiding in the formation of smaller dots on a photopolymer flexo plate. It provides a thicker foundation of photopolymer material that allows a smaller minimum dot size to be formed and held throughout the print process. DuPont

Are electronics the major factor in keeping webs in line? Or are other, more conventional options the answer? By Chris Bauer THE WORLD HAS gone digital. That statement has been beat to death, pushed down your throat, and probably gone in one ear and out the other countless numbers of times in the past few years, especially when it comes to printing equipment. Isn't there anything left that can be done without bits, bytes, or megs? Makes you wonder how we ever got anything accomplished before the "digital revolution." Simpler equipment designs still have a strong appeal. Many printing companies report experiencing difficulty in