Chocolate Packaging Printing Register Problem Solving Example

Astor Chocolate Company of New Jersey specializes in producing delicious Belgian chocolate and chocolate candy. These chocolates are sweet, tasteful and sweet, and can be used in hotels and catering services, as well as small gifts. However, Tom Rouze, print director at Astor, pointed out: "It's not enough to have a good product. Packaging first determines whether the product will sell well."

Equipment lags behind production requirements

Five years ago, the 55-year-old family-owned company purchased an eight-color flexo press. They wanted to produce new packaging that could be printed with offset labels, wrappers, and bags from other printers. Comparable. In the past few years, the printing department of Astor has improved its printing technology. For most packaging products with a simple pattern, color printing and UV coating technology are used. The packaging box also uses a hot stamping process. “As our company's packaging production capacity has increased, new packaging needs have emerged,” said Rouse. “When design patterns become more complicated, we do everything possible to be accurate.”

In 2004, when Astor tried to duplicate the production of gravure film packaging on its existing presses, it faced challenges in registering, which led the chocolate manufacturer to consider upgrading its existing presses. Finally, they bought MAGPOWR's Cygnus tension control system. The roll-paper force control solution easily completed the transformation of Astor's existing presses, enabling the chocolate manufacturer to finally obtain high-quality color printing packages.

Since Astor's internal printing department was founded more than 20 years ago, it has been gradually developing both in terms of scale and production capacity. For many years, the printing business of this department was limited to monochromatic flexographic printing, and color printing was sent out to the public. New Jersey and New York printers complete the process.

The role of the ultrasonic sensor is to monitor the change of the unrolled roll and its diameter. As the diameter gets smaller and smaller, the monitor sends out different tension control signals so that the operator can adjust the speed of the production line by unwinding the clamp of the floating roller system.

About registration

In the summer of 2000, Astor purchased a second-hand Mark Andy 4120 flexo printing machine with an eight-color width of 10 inches. It also hired Rouze, who has worked in the printing industry for 22 years, to manage the printing department. Rouze recalled: “In the interview, the interviewer showed me some chocolate wrappers produced by offset printing, and asked me if Astor can use Mark Andy to print out similar products or do better. I’m not simple Answering 'yes', I explained that, among all the factors that determine the quality of printing, the most important thing is whether the machine can accurately register."
In the printing industry, the term "register" refers to the exact alignment of two or two printed images with each other. "Unprinted" images will appear blurred.

Rouze said that once the printing department finally determines the offline elements that need to be used, such as ink, plate, prepress, plate setup and printing materials, it is possible to set register parameters on the press. “Once I get the parameters, I tell the designer what we can do and need to avoid using what design elements,” he said. “But, this doesn't stop us from trying more complicated patterns. Sometimes, to be precise Registration requires two people to do the job."

The closed-loop controller sends the signal to the gripper, which is mounted on the rewinding coiling system.

(to be continued)