A method for registering a printing press, said printing press including a plurality of printing stations each for printing a respective color-image on a web, each said printing stations being associated with a respective different color, at least two pairs of said printing stations being un-registered, the method includes the procedures of identifying at least two regions-of-interest in the image to be printed, each including a respective different pair of two partially overlapping color-images, acquiring an image of the common area on the web, for each region-of-interest, chromatically separating the acquired image to determine two monochrome images respective of each region-of-interest, for each region-of-interest registering the two monochrome images respective thereof, registering a monochrome image respective of one region-of-interest with a monochrome image respective of another region-of-interest and determining a registration correction for each printing station according to the registration between the monochrome images.

A method for checking the maintenance of register of printing images to be printed on two opposite sides of a printing material, in which the first side of the printing material is printed in a rotary printing press by a first printing unit cylinder, and in which the second side of the printing material, which lies opposite to first cite, is printed in the printing press by a second printing unit cylinder which interacts with the first printing unit cylinder. A printed image is printed by the first printing unit cylinder under the second printing unit cylinder. Afterwards, the printing material is printed in contact with the two interacting printing unit cylinders with the printing image, which is printed under the second printing unit cylinder, being printed onto the same side of the printing material together with an identical or a different printing image which is to be printed by the second printing unit cylinder during continuous printing of the rotary printing press. The printed images, which are printed together onto the same side of the printing material, are subsequently checked, with regard to their maintenance of register.

The invention relates to a method of aligning a plurality of printed motifs on a sheet (3) in a converting machine (10). An actual position (Pa_1) at a first sensor is defined as an initial reference position (P_ref1) for the sheet, and at least one displacement error (?d2) is calculated and compared to a first threshold (T1). If the displacement error is lower than the first threshold, then the angular position (?) of a printing cylinder (42) in the second flexographic printing unit (16b) is adjusted. However, if the error is higher than the first threshold, then at least part of the of the displacement error (?d_2) is corrected by modifying the speed (V) of a vacuum transfer unit located between the first printing unit and the second printing unit.

In a register error detection device, an image capturing unit captures an image of two first register marks of a first color printed on a substrate by a first plate cylinder of a rotary printing press and a second register mark of a second color printed on the substrate by a second plate cylinder of the rotary printing press. A calculation unit calculates a register error based on the number of pixels between a reference position located between the two first register marks and a comparison position that is based on the second register mark in the image captured by the image capturing unit.

A method for printing on an article can include selecting a shape model. The shape model is generated from a first image and includes a fiducial, a reference location, and a graphic marker, the fiducial is located in the first image. The reference location is based on a location of the fiducial in the first image, and the graphic marker is positioned at a pre-selected location relative to the reference location. The method can also include locating the fiducial in a second image of an article, by a computing device, establishing the reference location in the second image of the article, positioning the graphic marker within the second image of the article at the pre-selected location, and printing a graphic on the article at a graphic location, the graphic location on the article corresponds to the pre-selected location of the graphic marker on the second image of the article.

Screen printer 10 is for screen printing solder paste 13 loaded on an upper surface of stencil 12 onto board S using one of first and second squeegees 71 and 72. Screen printer 10 is provided with a stencil frame holding rail that holds stencil frame 12a of stencil 12, pair of board holding members 36 and 38 that hold board S, raising and lowering table 16 that raises and lowers board holding members 36 and 38, and pair of stencil supporting members 50 and 52 that support stencil 12 from below at a portion outside a printing region of stencil 12 used for screen printing. Stencil supporting members 50 and 52 are provided independently from raising and lowering table 16. Therefore, the load applied to raising and lowering table 16 is reduced. Also, there is increased design freedom with respect to members and the like loaded on raising and lowering table 16.

A method for checking the maintenance of register of printing images to be printed on two opposite sides of a printing material, in which the first side of the printing material is printed in a rotary printing press by a first printing unit cylinder, and in which the second side of the printing material, which lies opposite to first cite, is printed in the printing press by a second printing unit cylinder which interacts with the first printing unit cylinder. A printed image is printed by the first printing unit cylinder under the second printing unit cylinder. Afterwards, the printing material is printed in contact with the two interacting printing unit cylinders with the printing image, which is printed under the second printing unit cylinder, being printed onto the same side of the printing material together with an identical or a different printing image which is to be printed by the second printing unit cylinder during continuous printing of the rotary printing press. The printed images, which are printed together onto the same side of the printing material, are subsequently checked, with regard to their maintenance of register.

A printing machine for printing on a printing substrate web includes a plurality of inline flexographic printing units which are disposed in a plane accessible to an operator of the machine. Each one of the two flexographic printing units of a respective duplex printing station includes a respective impression cylinder and a dryer disposed between the two impression cylinders along a path of web travel of the web of printing substrate. A method of operating the printing machine is also provided.

A method for mounting one or more printing plate segments on a carrier sheet. The method comprises importing a file into a computer associated with a mounting unit. For each printing plate segment, the file includes a printing plate segment identifier, information regarding alignment of registration marks relative to the carrier sheet; and image data corresponding to a characteristic pattern associated with each printing plate segment. A composite image depicting the image data corresponding to the characteristic patterns is then displayed on a display in the predetermined arrangement of one or more printing plate segment locations and orientations. A mounting unit and a printing system and computer readable media programmed with instructions for performing the method are also described.

A register error amount detection apparatus obtains the register error amounts between the colors of patterns printed on a printing product based on the positions of register marks in a captured image of the printing product. The register marks have different colors including a reference color and are printed in a line at intervals a in the vertical direction. The register marks all have the reference color and are printed in a line at the intervals a in the vertical direction at positions translated from the positions of the register marks by a distance b in the horizontal direction.