By Cassandra Balentine
Part one of two
Print a automation is essential to profitability and productivity in the digital print space, where there is reduced room for error and turnaround times are faster. From prepress to finishing, these tools help print providers automate the entire production workflow.
ACCO Brands
ACCO Brands offers automated finishing solutions that integrate directly inline with digital print devices or provide nearline automated finishing.
BW Converting
BW Converting offers a proprietary solution called Accelerate Monitoring, which empowers manufacturers with real-time access to production data. This tool leverages internet of thing technology and cloud-based storage to provide valuable insights into production totals, downtime, faults, and more.
Key features include customized real-time data dashboards, historical comparisons, and expert insights from trained Accelerate technicians who work closely with print providers to interpret data and offer actionable recommendations for adjustments and troubleshooting. This system turns data into actionable insights, allowing operators to resolve issues quickly, reduce downtime, and increase overall machine performance.
BW Converting offers a comprehensive range of automation tools designed to enhance production workflows and deliver measurable improvements in efficiency and quality. One of the flagship offerings is its 100 percent inspection systems with defect management workflows.
According to the company, these systems automate print inspection, providing operators with real-time insights to identify and address issues during production. They also integrate seamlessly with digital workflows, allowing for automatic job changes and easy access to prepress files for proofing new jobs. This level of automation helps streamline processes and minimize errors that could lead to costly rework or waste.
In addition to inspection systems, BW Converting provides advanced tools for defect identification and location. These solutions empower businesses to make tactical decisions by pinpointing exactly which areas of a product need removal while ensuring the remainder of the production run meets quality standards and can be shipped. This capability not only improves operational efficiency but also enhances customer satisfaction by maintaining consistent product quality.
BW Converting’s automated register controls for web offset and gravure print processes ensure maximum yield by continuously maintaining precise color-to-color alignment throughout the production run. These controls reduce manual intervention and help maintain optimal production speeds while delivering consistent results. Complementing this is BW Converting’s automated color control for web offset printing, which ensures color fidelity is maintained throughout the run. By reducing color drift and ensuring uniformity, this feature minimizes waste and maximizes the overall quality of the final product.
Crawford Technologies
Crawford Technologies has developed a number of solutions designed to consolidate and optimize production workflows across both print and digital environments. For example, PRO Conductor, Operations Express, and SmartSetup automate document handling, standardize processes and streamline even the most complex workflows.
PRO Conductor is the central hub, orchestrating workflows and automating processes from start to finish, whether it’s print, digital or multichannel communications. It ensures seamless integration across systems, allowing jobs to flow efficiently and reducing bottlenecks.
SmartSetup is an essential AI-powered tool for organizations that need to streamline their application onboarding process. It automates the extraction of key text elements, reducing the onboarding time from hours or days to just minutes.
Operations Express is an advanced post composition solution for re-engineering and enhancing existing print streams, eliminating having to make expensive and time-consuming application changes upstream.
Together, these solutions allow print providers to improve efficiency, reduce costs and scale operations effectively. This level of automation helps businesses deliver higher-quality output while remaining competitive in a fast-changing landscape.
Fiery
Advanced workflow software like Fiery JobFlow is built around automation—performing the complex tasks of synergizing between different hardware capabilities, operator skills, and end-result quality demands.
This is fundamental to helping with one of the most pressing issues in the print industry—a growing shortage of skilled operators.
Good automation software tools help even new operators navigate increasingly complex machines with ever-growing quality expectations from customers.
Four Pees
Four Pees is an international software integrator providing automated solutions for operational challenges in the print industry. Be it training, advice, or a seamlessly integrated solution that provides connectivity, automation, and insight across the entire print manufacturing workflow, Four Pees provides services and technologies for web to print, job onboarding, packaging creation, approval flows, prepress automation, color management, and more. Products available through Four Pees include Enfocus Switch, Callas, Durst, Enfocus, Insoft, Atomyx, among others.
Launched by the Four Pees team in 2024, Atomyx is a cloud-based software as a service print production management platform that connects print service providers and their technology stacks with print buyers and online print platforms.
Atomyx offers three products on one platform—Atomyx Manage, Atomyx Prepare, and Atomyx Layout.
Harris & Bruno
Harris & Bruno’s ZRX is an automated digital embellishment machine that flood coats, spot coats, and foil stamps in a single pass. This removes the need to laminate, or send the sheets to a secondary machine, prior to embellishing.
Harris & Bruno’s ZRW is an automated, high-speed web coater that runs inline with a web-press. Press speeds typically increase with this coating automation, as they do not need to slow down due to high ink coverages.
Kodak
The KODAK PRINERGY Platform is the printing industry’s only single, smart and secure end-to-end software solution. PRINERGY is backed by Microsoft Azure, making it arguably the safest, most reliable platform in the world.
There are two portfolios of products. One is PRINERGY production workflow. This portfolio includes workflow, color quality and consistency software and services, as well as creative software tools.
The second is Kodak’s Business Solutions portfolio which includes MIS/ERP and Business applications, collaboration tools and ecommerce applications. Our professional services is what optimizes and personalizes all the benefits of PRINERGY. PRINERGY workflow, Business Solutions and Professional Services give you powerful, industry-first end-to-end automation efficiency.
PRINERGY is an open platform software and can be applied to nearly all print segments and applications.
Komori
Komori offers an extensive feature set of automation on our presses themselves. It brands its on-press software automation workflow as KHS-AI, which includes AI learning capability. Additionally, Komori’s on-press Inline Quality Inspection System, PQA-S, controls register, color and defect detection all in one system. From a facility level and the Smart Factory concept, Komori offers KP Connect and KP Connect Pro, with the capability to connect Komori and third-party production systems within an organization. We believe the future print industry business model will look less artful and more like a manufacturing company with multiple technologies connected and working in unison.
Automation includes changing an old process that has many individual manual steps and hand touches to one that preforms all steps without human touches in the same line. For Komori that means presses that include embellishment, multiple coating units, foiling, extra print units or perfecting methods. In post press it means making a production line that includes cutting, trimming, folding, tabbing, labeling, diecutting and coating for a one step process. Automated machine elements and settings will likely be included in the new equipment.
Konica Minolta
Konica Minolta offers both proprietary and partnered solutions. The key to what the company does is to look at the customer’s needs and existing workflow, then identify the best workflow solution to fit their needs. This will vary depending on many factors, including but not limited to, the size of the company, type of jobs, their specific requirements, existing equipment and software, security concerns and more.
Muller Martini
Muller Martini offers its complete Connex Workflow Solution System that is broken down into Connect LineConrol, ImpoWhiz, and Info Cloud.
Connex LineControl connects production plants with higher-level systems via standard interfaces. This allows processed data to be taken directly and automatically from the MES and sent to production on the basis of digital job tickets. It optimizes the production sequence and automates job distribution to further processing. Thanks to the modular system, it is also possible directly to control the digital press and the postpress system.
Connex ImpoWhiz allows users to create print-ready PDF due to seamlessly integrated prepress. With Connex ImpoWhiz, the entire prepress process is seamlessly integrated into the production process. The software prepares the data for printing, places the jobs and covers on the sheet or roll to be processed and inserts identification marks fully automated in line with the individual workflow.
Connex Info Cloud is a flexible data analysis module for evaluation and quality optimization.nConnex Info Cloud collects the production data from connected systems, both from Müller Martini and from third-party aggregates, and processes it into a variety of meaningful key figures. It collects and visualizes machine statuses, production output, job progress and forwards essential information to the management information system via standard interfaces. Access to the data evaluations is provided online to the current key figures or as a report directly into the e-mail inbox. Every user sees the relevant data at a glance and can be accessed via different devices like PC, tablet or smartphone
Ricoh
Ricoh has core offerings, which are developed and managed by Ricoh but they also have many third-party relationships to help solve end-to-end challenges for customers. With Ricoh’s solutions and partners combined, they provide management information systems, data and piece-level management, mail efficiency, queue management and assessment services to name a few.
PressWise by Smartsoft
PressWise provides automated order entry from a range of storefronts—internal as well as third party—with tools to standardize and translate the incoming orders into terms that can be used with all of the internal automation, including messaging going back to those storefronts once the order has been completed and shipped.
PressWise provides a storefront that uses the same calculation engines as the production system, allowing storefront pricing to match what would be calculated on the back end. Seamless entry of that order into the production system reduces the need for staff to touch the order, verify pricing, create the imposition, etc., saving time and money. Standard products, with PressWise automation, can flow through the system and have their first ‘touch’ when the press operator is ready to print. Each point of any manual workflow that can be automated reduces time and errors and improves the bottom line.
Quadient
Quadient Inspire is a customer communications solution designed to handle a variety of production environments, including high-volume batch processing, real-time and on demand. It can be deployed as SaaS, hosted managed service or on premise, as well as popular cloud environments like Azure, AWS, Google and Oracle Clouds.
It has an orchestration layer that connects all the components together to scale your production to deal with peaks and valleys. Quadient Inspire also simplifies the approval/sign off process for communications and enables changes to be made to communications quickly without requiring IT skills.
Significans Automation
Significans’ team knows virtually every workflow software tool on the market today, understands how each one works, and is familiar their strengths and weaknesses. This allows them to mix and match to deploy the most efficient solutions specific to each client’s unique production environment, while also fulfilling their short-term and long-term goals.
Its Turbo Switch Packs have been successful for printers looking to accelerate their business to never-before-realized levels of speed, accuracy, efficiency and profitability. Realizing immediate capacity gains and fast return on investment, it created this unique solution a few years ago. Optimized to work in three specific markets—labels and tags, digital printing, and wide-format printing, Turbo Switch
Standard Finishing
Most Standard Horizon solutions, including perfect binders, folders, die cutters, and saddlestitchers, are compatible with iCE LiNK, a cloud-based platform from Horizon that can provide real-time device monitoring, KPI analysis, preventative maintenance schedule/alerts, JDF/JMF workflow support, scheduling, job creation, editing and more. iCE LiNK can also work with most MIS operating systems and interface with off-brand finishing systems.
Standard also partners with Ultimate Technologies to offer Ultimate Bindery and Ultimate Impostrip. Ultimate Bindery is an open JDF server that validates jobs and delivers finishing job tickets to automate make-ready on bindery equipment. It operates as an agent between pre-press and post-press equipment to eliminate manual setup on the finishing device. Ultimate Bindery takes a JDF imposed job and completes it with all the necessary parameters needed to automatically set up finishing equipment. Ultimate Impostrip is prepress software that optimizes and automates imposition workflow, with scalable options for high-volume production environments. An extremely easy-to-use yet versatile tool, it is a useful solution for short turn-around delivery on marketing campaigns, transactional applications, and books.
Over the past several years, finishing manufacturers have been adding more and more automation at the machine level to speed up production and reduce the labor burden in the bindery.
For example, on the latest generation of Horizon AFV Series folders, setup is fully automated, requiring only a few presses of a button to switch between folding jobs. This helps to eliminate production constraints in the bindery and frees up highly skilled operators for other jobs.
Xerox
Xerox offers several production workflow tools to address automation needs in production print environments, including prepress and workflow tools, on-press quality controls, in-line finishing, and fleet monitoring and management tools.
These include On-Press Automation, PredictPrint Media Management, Xerox FreeFlow Core, FreeFlow Makeready, FreeFlow VI Suite, XMPie, and FreeFlow Vision Connect.
Read part two of this web-exclusive series.
Apr2024, DPS Magazine
