Nikelman sausage casing printer
The Nikelman Gearless 330 is designed for high quality printing using both, UV technology and solvent and water based inks on a variety of up to 350mm wide materials (films, casings, shrink materials, paper). The CI Flexo printing press prints up to 8 colours perfectly matching front- to backside of the entire width of the material. According to the principles of flexographic printing, synchronization of the printing units is extremely important, especially when printing synchronized on front and backside.
Highest movement precision with servo motors
The printing process is based on eight printing units that successively apply ink to the material. The highest precision of movement is required in each unit, therefore synchronous servo motors with appropriate feedback, accurate sin/cos encoders and gears with very low backlash are installed. Thanks to the use of independent drives for the plate and anilox cylinder, it is very easy, and time (cost) efficient, to change the printing report length. The remote access applied to the machine, by means of the Lenze X4 Remote, allows not only remote diagnostics, but also the collection of data during operation of the machine, making it possible to avoid errors and enables predictive maintenance.
Precise synchronization
Lenze 3200 C controller is used to control the machine and is responsible for the logic of the entire machine. However, synchronization takes place directly on the i950 and i700 servo drives and is implemented via EtherCAT. The position of the main cylinder is transmitted and the 8 printing units are precisely synchronized in relation to it. Lenze FAST function blocks are used to program the positioning, unwinding and rewinding processes, enabling the print rollers to be positioned quickly and very precisely. The control program for the machine was prepared as repeatable software modules, which allowed us to considerably shorten the engineering work and enable a quick adjustment when a similar machine is needed, but with a different number of modules.
Machine visualization
The machine visualization is designed based on a modern software tool - VisiWin 7, which made it possible to create an extensive and at the same time intuitive program. The visualization includes diagnostics of all errors along with a detailed description of the error and recommendations for its elimination. There is also implemented an extensive "HELP" section for individual components and also a manual for the entire machine. The visualization has an integrated system of recipes, which helps quickly restore the machine settings according to a recipe. The applied web visualization gives a possibility to set the most important printing parameters directly at the machine using a smartphone or a tablet.