The interest in the automatic flexo plate mounters is growing, this is a fact.
So far, some player in the market is going on declaring that there’s no need to invest in automatic mounters, considering the higher cost of the machines and the fast cycle of the standard optical mounters.
It's true that the customers are all different, and they have different needs, so the awareness of investing in automation may change a lot from a company to another.
Nevertheless, the automation brings many objective advantages, that we can list hereby:
High mounting precision
The precision of the plate positioning is granted by the electronics and high-quality mechanics. In our machines, the error is +/- 0.005 mm, because the mechanics have zero-backlash and the resolution of the encoders is very high.
The control on in axis is managed by the electronics, with total digital precision.
Elimination of the human error while mounting the plates
This topic is strictly related to the previous one.
in the standard optical mounters, the precision of the positioning of a plate is depending on the skill of the operator.
Theoretically, a skilled operator will always mount in the perfect position, but the real-life is a different story, so it may happen that the precision of the mounting can be affected by the day time, the tiredness, the attention level, etc.
the automatic plate mounters eliminate the human variable indeed.
Reduction of the time needed to mount the plates
The logical consequence of the first two topics is stating the higher precision results in a time-saving.
If we take the time of a skilled operator, probably he is as fast as an automatic mounter, or maybe more. But... how long can he perform always at the top? Instead, the automatic mounter gives always the same digital performance, 24/7, 365 days.
Jobs repeatability
this is another logical advantage: digital control of the machine and plate positioning allow repeatable results and performance in the time.
So, a chunky question: how to calculate the ROI for an automatic plate mounter?
maybe not calculating how much time are you saving, but how much time (and material) are you currently wasting.
So, a chunky question: how to calculate the ROI for an automatic plate mounter?
maybe not calculating how much time are you saving, but how much time (and material) are you currently wasting.
Definitely, we can say that the automatic plate mounters bring the technology from the analog to the digital level.
Author: Massimo Caliari