Printco – Custom Printer Addition
COMPANY PROFILE:
Printco Industries is a leader in the design and manufacture of custom printing, coating and ancillary products for the flexographic, gravure and offset printing markets. Since 1983 they’ve been designing innovative solutions to end users and OEM’s worldwide. Located in Pulaski, WI, Printco provides a wealth of experienced technical sales, engineering, manufacturing and service staff. Does not have electrical staff.
SITUATION:
A customer of Printco Industries required two single color in-line flexographic print units for a board-stock die cutting line. Each piece of equipment in the line, from multiple manufacturers, was required to be tightly integrated together.
SOLUTION:
Although multiple brands of PLC’s were utilized by the various OEM’s for this production line, standardized use of the PROFINET protocol allowed for coordinated operation of the equipment. Implementation of Siemens PN/PN couplers allowed for ease of integration while maintaining segregation between individual machine networks.
Use of a Siemens S7-1500 Fail-Safe Technology CPU and S120 servo drives allowed Sure Controls to provide a solution that met the end users’ performance and safety specifications. Enhanced safety operations such as Safe Stop 2 (SS2) and Safe Limited Speed (SLS) over PROFISafe allowed for ease of machine operation while maintaining a high level of safety.
To follow an absolute position reference from the die-cutting section of the machine, a Siemens TMPosInput (Position Input Technology Module) was added to the S7-1500 Technology CPU to allow for synchronous, absolute positioning between the web-fed material and flexographic plate cylinders.
RESULTS:
Printco’s customer has since requested additional quotes for more equipment for the line
