Towards a fully digital computer-to-screen workflow for an improved product quality and quality assurance in screen printing

摘要

This paper investigates how to use the Esko prepress workflow automation engine to support the Etiketa printing house recent investment in new Computer-To-Screen (CTS) technology. Esko software is primarily applicable to packaging industry. Our main motivations are the improved product quality, the reduced response time, and the faster overall design time. In order to address these issues we analyzed the obsolete workflow using films and considered it as the baseline for further comparisons. The to date analyzed Esko setups were: (i) the default software settings, (ii) the modified Esko SmartMarks, and (iii) the inclusion of JDF technology. We measured the average durations of each individual process in workflows. Our motivation was to efficiently exploit the Esko SmartMarks. This was one of the reasons why Esko software has not been optimally applied to the stencil production. The next research issue was to investigate the possible use of SQL language to collect the data from our MIS system. We investigated ways to use the modern JDF technology that requires efforts in standardization of data and represent the reference point for the ROI analysis of our CTS investment. Since there are many ways to obtain the improved results we assessed numerous workflow efficiencies.