How Process Control Feedback Can Save you Money

A Philadelphia, Pa.-based printer received a large project with a tight deadline for a bank chain that was changing their brand. The project consisted of more than 15,000 wide-format posters encapsulated using a 10mil gloss thermal laminate front and back. The print shop used the AGL 6400 from Advanced Greig Laminators (Both 11159) to perform this project.

Problem

The large scope of this project and tight deadline posed several challenges to the print shop:

The shop would have to run round the clock for six days a week, meaning multiple employees operating the same laminator at potentially different settings. Inconsistent settings lead to inconsistent output, including waves and image curl.

Due to the inconsistencies with how they were operating their laminator, there was a lot of material waste, which in turn increased not only their material cost, but also labor costs and lead time.

The thick 10-over-10 mil thermal laminate that was used required a laminator powerful enough to consistently process the film day and night without heat loss or high temperatures.

Solution

The AGL 6400 laminator is designed to provide repeatable process control feedback for temperature, speed, pressure, and film tension. The easy-to-read gauges and displays of the 6400 allow a user to identify and communicate the ideal settings for a specific project requirement.

The project manager took it upon himself to program the 6400 with the ideal settings. The 6400’s proprietary roller and heater design ensured a consistent temperature profile, allowing the unit to run, day and night, without the need to overheat the material beyond its tolerances to compensate for anticipated heat loss. This heater design also means the 6400 will maintain desired operating temperature without the need to interrupt the process so the laminator can come back up to temperature. Next, pressure was set to achieve maximum bond, and speed was set to allow the adhesive to activate. Finally, film tension was set to a specific psi for both top and bottom films to prevent excess tension, which was the cause of image curl.

Once the project manager identified the ideal laminator settings, he recorded his settings by taking a picture of the laminator controls with his smartphone. He then printed the picture, and taped it to the side of the 6400 with a note, “These are the settings for the bank project. Any changes see me first!” With all the operators now on the same page, the project was completed in time, and waste was minimal.

Summary

Whether you’re a large organization with multiple operators, or a single owner/operator, having a laminator with easy to use, identifiable, and repeatable process control feedback is vital. Having repeatable process control feedback can mean the difference between handing a project to your client and making money, or handing a project to your dumpster and losing money.

In the case above, having process control feedback resolved output issues due to one operator’s preference vs another. Production increased, and waste decreased significantly.