Convenient, precise and incredibly versatile: Flexo Control Universal measures flexo and letterpress plates, offset plates, and prints

Sibress, a leading manufacturer of measuring systems and analyzers for quality assurance in flexo and packaging printing, recently upgraded its latest instrument generation to create an impressive product family. The newest family member, christened Flexo Control Universal, is convenient, portable, and can be used virtually anywhere - just like Flexo Control, the flexo analyzer launched by Sibress at the beginning of the year.

This incredible versatility is one of the key features of Flexo Control Universal. The new analyzer is not much bigger than a computer mouse and amazingly easy to use. It is designed for quality control of screen areas, individual printing dots, lines, and barcodes on finished flexo plates, imaged LAMS flexo plates, steelbacked letterpress plates, offset plates, and elastomer flexo plates.

Flexo Control Universal measures AM screens from 23 to 85/cm on flexo and offset plates as well as FM screens with at least 20 µm dots. The system achieves less than ±0.5% repeatability in all modes.

The new Sibress product additionally measures the dots and coverage values of color prints with AM, FM, or hybrid screens on paper, carton, and film. A newly developed algorithm carries out a precise analysis of the screen coverage values for overprint colors (blends) or critical colors like yellow.

Flexo Control Universal weighs almost nothing and is connected to the PC or notebook with a 2 meter long USB cable. It is this flexibility that also allows areas in the middle of large plates or prints to be measured and analyzed without any problems.

Fully automated analyses with unbeatable precision

Flexo Control Universal captures the surfaces using an RGB color camera equipped with a 1.3 megapixel sensor. The instrument has energysaving LED lighting that can be activated on demand via the Versatile@flex software for capturing prints and nontranslucent plates. This software, which runs under Windows 7, Vista, or XP, has been enhanced by Sibress with a redesigned and more elegant user interface. And that's not all: Versatile@flex has been systematically optimized, so that all dots in the active image area (>3 mm²) are now detected and analyzed fully automatically. The values recorded for parameters such as dot percentage, linescreen, dot diameter, dot perimeter, and angle are displayed in a matter of seconds.

The autocalibration feature, typical of the whole family, is an important advantage of Flexo Control Universal. Together with the laseretched calibration target, included with the instrument and comprised of nine ultraprecise screen patches, this automated function guarantees accurate and reproducible analyses over a very long period of time. Flexo Control Universal is supplied with its own light box with an integrated power supply, making it much easier to measure translucent polymer plates.

For more information about the Flexo Control family and all other Sibress products, see www.sibress.com.