Successful printers in the past few years have survived the consolidation of the graphical arts industry by rapidly transforming from craftsmanship to a highly standardized process industry.

They heavily invested in the newest press technology, sophisticated auxiliaries and software tools to analyze and optimize their production processes. This helps them predict and possibly prevent any disruptions on the fly.

There is a direct relationship between the expense of production-related interruptions and the capacity and complexity of web offset printing equipment. Web breaks have a significant effect on company's bottom lines, with annual costs in the upper six digit financial amounts - and that is per web press!

The ContiwebVision expert system from Contiweb is designed to identify the causes of web breaks more effectively and, above all, predict and prevent repeat occurrences.

The ContiwebVision system can be integrated in any web offset printing press which is equipped with Contiweb splicers and dryers. It collects all of the available data - from sensors in the press, the feedback signals generated by the printer, signals from cameras, rotation design data, statistics and much more – and correlates them in a meaningful manner. The extent to which the data from modules supplied by other vendors, e.g. blanket washing systems, can be interpreted needs to be established on a case-by-case basis.

Ultimately, ContiwebVision is intended to help printers optimize their printing process, avoid web breaks and provide information for recovering the costs from the manufacturer if web breaks occur that are related to paper quality.