Roll-fed printing assembly automatic job re-nesting

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Solution Overview

Problem

Roll-fed printing assemblies face inefficiencies and resource wastage due to paused print jobs, requiring manual intervention and resource re-evaluation, which can lead to time and material losses.

Innovation Solution

A method for controlling roll-fed printing assemblies that detects pause states, stops the first print job, determines successfully printed and unprinted jobs, and creates a second print job through automatic re-nesting based on specific criteria to optimize resource use, ensuring all jobs are printed successfully with minimal waste.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If manual intervention is required to solve problems during printing, then printing reliability can be maintained, but productivity decreases due to停机 and time loss

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveprinting reliabilityVSAvoidproductivity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system automatically detects pause states, determines which individual jobs were successfully printed versus unprinted, creates a second print job with re-nested unprinted jobs, and executes it without manual intervention. This self-service capability resolves the contradiction by maintaining reliability through automatic problem handling while preserving productivity by eliminating停机 time for manual intervention

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system continuously monitors the printing process, detects pause states, and uses this feedback to automatically adjust by creating and executing a second print job. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures reliability while maintaining productivity by rapidly responding to and resolving printing issues without human intervention

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If the entire first print job is re-printed after a pause, then all jobs are guaranteed to be printed, but recording medium and marking material are wasted

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvejob completion guaranteeVSAvoidrecording medium and marking material waste
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments the first print job into successfully printed individual jobs and unprinted individual jobs. By identifying and separating the unprinted portion, the system creates a second print job containing only the unprinted jobs, thereby guaranteeing job completion while minimizing waste of recording medium and marking material

Inventive Principle:
Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The system extracts the unprinted individual jobs from the original first print job to create a separate second print job. This extraction ensures that only the necessary unprinted content is re-printed, guaranteeing job completion while eliminating the waste that would occur if the entire first print job were re-printed

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

3Productivity

If automatic re-nesting is implemented to optimize resource use, then productivity increases, but device complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
ImproveproductivityVSAvoidcontrol system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary actions by pre-defining nesting criteria and automatically applying them when creating the second print job. This preliminary preparation enables efficient automatic re-nesting that optimizes resource use and maintains productivity while managing complexity through structured, pre-planned approaches

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentEP3416104B1Roll-fed printing assembly, software medium, and method for controlling a roll-fed printing assembly
Publication Date: 2019.12.25 CANON PRODN PRINTING HLDG BV
  • EP3416104B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3416104B1 patent drawingFigure 2~3
  • EP3416104B1 patent drawingFigure 4~5

AI summary

The invention provides a roll-fed printing assembly, a software medium, and a method of controlling a roll-fed printing assembly. The method comprises the steps: controlling the printing to execute a first print job (PJ1) containing a batch of nested individual jobs (81-i, 82-i, 83-i); detecting a pause state during the executing of the first print job (PJ1); stopping the executing of the first print job (PJ1) in response to the detecting of the pause state; determining, for each individual job (81-i, 82-i, 83-i) of the first print job, whether that individual job (81-i, 82-i, 83-i) belongs to either: - a first group (81-i) of individual jobs that have already been printed successfully, or to - a second group (82-i, 83-i) of individual jobs that have not yet been printed successfully; creating a second print job (PJ2) by automatic re-nesting of the jobs of the second group (82-i, 83-i) based on a nesting criterion; and controlling the printing assembly to execute the second print job.