Ease of Use: Inkjet Printing Part Changeover Video

Transcribed Ease of Use: Inkjet Printing Part Changeover Video:

Today we’re going to talk about the Helix® part setup and changeover process. The Helix® can print on a large variety of vessels including stainless steel tumblers, water bottles, sport bottles, stadium cups, shot glasses, cosmetic bottles and many more. Whether you’re working in a print-on-demand environment where there are multiple vessels and short runs or a long-run production environment it’s very important to have a quick and simple changeover process to minimize any non-printing time during the production day. The Helix® offers a very intelligent process for setting up a part and specifying all of the dimensional and mechanical information that’s needed by the printer to produce an optimal print. We start with our recipe generation process. When first introducing a new vessel to the Helix® a recipe is generated. The operator enters dimensional information about the part, mechanical information, and processing actions that are needed for that part. One of the things that the Helix® needs to do is to properly position the fixture so that the part is positioned in the correct position for optimal printing. The intelligent teach function of the Helix® automatically determines the tilt angle and the height of the printing fixture so that the part is positioned perfectly for the best image quality. Once the recipe is saved the changeover process is simple, you simply go to the Helix® hmi specify your recipe and the system will automatically position the fixture at the right level at the right head height for printing. That’s it, it takes less than five minutes. Helix® recipe storage with the automated tilt mechanism provides consistent print results, fast change over times independent of the skill level of the operator.