Regulars / The Mike Fairley column | 35The Mike Fairley column The future of print quality and compliance monitoringThe label industry workfow of tomorrow will certainly be very different from todayhe past twenty-odd years have seen the label industry “The challenge for label and undergo a number of signifcant developments and changes Tin the way that labels are produced, and in the way packaging converters is that converters work with their brand owner customer specifcation and compliance guidelines covering print quality and performance, there are relatively few national barcode readability, RFID and NFC compliance, VR and AR usage – or international guidelines and increasingly, as they start to look more and more at monitoring and compliance requirements in terms of sustainability, waste, or standards”recycling, CO2 and energy.The challenge for label and packaging converters is that, while there are a lot of similarities in content between the different More recently there have been innovations in the on-press customer specifcation and compliance requirements for print monitoring of UV output to ensure that it is within the expected quality, label performance, traceability and environmental defned range and that under-cured labels, sleeves or fexible performance, there are relatively few national or international packaging do not reach the customer, as well as technology for guidelines or standards. This means that converters may often have the automatic set-up of a job for in-line color measurement to implement a different set of specifcations, compliance and rules and the generation of color scorecard reporting on color quality for each customer. performance after printing. This integration delivers better visibility Major advances in pre-press, origination and color management into color performance based on measurable, objective results for – combined with the latest fexo and offset press technology in increased color consistency. terms of precision manufacturing, servo systems, automation and The rapid evolution of digital printing has also had a major even moves into artifcial intelligence for automated job set-up by impact on the label printing industry and the quality and services it streamlining pre-press to pressroom connectivity, plus initial press can provide to brand owners and retailers. Smart digital front-ends set-up and job repeatability – have done much to take traditional (DFEs) for digital labels and packaging have transformed the role label printing technology to new levels of output and printability, of the digital press in a new generation of smart factories. Again, making it somewhat easier to meet different customer print 100 percent automatic inspection systems complement what can specifcation and compliance requirements. be produced on digital toner or inkjet presses by addressing issues such as ink drips, missing nozzles or other specifc challenges – all in Automatic monitoring and correction real-time. Combine that precision with ever-more sophisticated on-press As label presses, whether analog or digital, continue to integrate inspection and camera systems that can detect color print and AI learning, the future label plant will undoubtedly experience more die-cut register problems, offer in-line color measurement, provide presses with closed loop controls that not only learn about print FOGRA color certifcation, monitor fne print detail, misprints, quality, code readability or compliance problems as they occur, missing labels, text defects, spots and splashes, as well as provide but are also able to provide intelligent guidance to the operator on barcode, RFID and NFC compliance and variable data checking. how to correct them – or even correct or adjust any print faults or Many things that were manually corrected by a press operator in problems automatically, without any operator intervention. the past are now being automatically monitored, identifed and corrected in-line on the press. Integration in the supply chainCertainly, with barcode errors being the number one cause of Put all this sophisticated press, inspection and monitoring vendor compliance violations and chargeback penalties, barcode technology together with current and forecast developments in AI, compliance is critical. The barcode – or RFID, NFC or AR – label automation, and MIS and we can begin to envisage how the label needs to be 100 percent readable with the right symbology and in plant of tomorrow will likely increasingly integrate its automated the right placement on the label, carton or pallet. Anything less may workfow with label and packaging designers, substrate, ink, slow down packaging line, distribution and retail operations and equipment and ancillary suppliers, with shipping and distribution cost money. suppliers, and with labeling systems technology at packers, Jan - Mar 2022