EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW Software & Controls The future of control systems
Ensuring your printing press is running effectively can simply be done by observing the quality of the output product, but Xeikon believes operators should be using exact feedback data correctly in order to create the most efficient machine possible
Xeikon is a global specialist in the digital printing technology market, developing digital colour presses for label and
packaging applications, document and commercial printing. In offering specific software solutions, the company works with each of its customers to ensure its systems are harnessing the full potential of each machine or of a particular process in order for productivity to be measured. Xeikon Colour Services is a colour management and certification software programme offered to all Xeikon users, including four modules: Colour Discovery & Gap Analysis – a full audit of the customer’s colour workflows; Xeikon Colour Control – a cloud-based service determining the best matching colours with Xeikon presses; G7 Compliance Certification – designed to help printing operations achieve and maintain accurate and repeatable colour; Xeikon Custom Colour Services – matching Xeikon digital print output to that produced by other processes (such as flexo or offset). Earlier this year, Xeikon teamed up with France-based Alwan Colour Expertise to incorporate its colour calibration products into the Xeikon Colour Services consulting and software offering. The Service will now include G7 certification and other colour matching services that leverage Alwan’s PrintStandardiser and PrintVerifier software. “Print buyers who are procuring a variety of materials, such as mailings, signage, packaging and catalogues, want a similar visual appearance across different printing processes,” says Jeroen Van Bauwel, director product management at Xeikon.
“By taking advantage of Xeikon Colour Services, Xeikon press owners can refine their colour workflows and put in place standard operating procedures that will ensure colour consistency across shifts, operators, presses and locations. We are pleased to complement our Colour Services with the G7 matching from Alwan, which underlines our commitment to help digital press users achieve high quality output.” Here, Van Bauwel talks exclusively to Converter about Xeikon’s next steps in helping its customers integrate software and control systems and, more importantly, using feedback data to highlight the strong and weak points of the production process. Through the partnership, Xeikon can offer a calibration and measurement system to the USA market, and Van Bauwel says that there is more value in doing it this way. “Whenever you print a job – today or
tomorrow, on the same or on a different press – you need to have stable output. In the US market, a lot of commercial printers use the G7 calibration methods, and they are now looking for the same solution for their digital press. We talked to Alwan and they generated the system to use on our engine. “We are not trying to reinvent the wheel.
We have developed a workflow but for our MIS (management information system) we work with third parties. Our MIS in print takes care of the complete production process from quotation and order entry, to scheduling, planning, production follow-up and invoicing and warehousing. It keeps track of everything that happens in the process, for example, it will say ‘this operator is now printing this job’ or ‘this operator is
now changing paper’ and all this information can be used as analytical data coming directly from the engine.” At the Labelexpo Europe exhibition in Belgium a few months ago, Xeikon demonstrated its new dashboard application, which is not available to customers yet, but will be launched by Q1 next year. The software has been developed to help production managers access analytical feedback data from their presses and understand the exact workings to see how efficient they are or whether things need changing. Xeikon says this will help companies make important decisions about the need to invest in a second press, or to set up a second shift on an existing press in order to increase the highest earning jobs. Van Bauwel says that this information is
readily available on Xeikon machines, but it is time to be able to see it and use it in a user-friendly way. “We are offering this as a service, giving customers the tools to see this information but they need to be trained to use it effectively together with their customers,” he explains. “We make sure their customers know how to use these tools as well. “Last year we invested a lot in Xeikon
premium services, by not just delivering colour management application software, but with training advisors to help companies work with the information they receive. Last year we started with our first service called Xeikon Colour Services and next year our dashboard product will also be offered with training, to help companies get access to the exact data they need.”
T: +31 117 375020 /
www.xeikon.com 30 November 2015
www.convertermag.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40